throughout international supply chains. it's one of the major causes of the inflation that has been clobbering family budgets in oregon and across the country the last few years. dr. neiman will also have a role to play in dealing with the fallout of russia's brutal and illegal invasion of ukraine. he'll directly address the economic impact of sanctions and the price cap on russian oil. he'll be involved in maybe tang maximum pressure to hold -- in maintaining maximum pressure to hold putin accountable for the horrors of the unprovoked, unjustified war that vladimir putin started. dr. neiman will also work on the critically important issue of currency manipulation by foreign governments, and this is a subject that the finance

committee on a bipartisan basis has long taken very seriously. most importantly, the treasury department urgently needs an expert at the helm, to address these issues and solve complicated policy questions that have everything to do with the global economy. dr. neiman is the right man for the job. his qualifications are undeniable. following an education in economics and mathematics, he served on the staff of the white house counsel of economic advisers, and the federal reserve bank of chicago. he brings very valuable, private-sector experience. let me underline that that our colleagues, real private intern. at the university of chicago booft school of business, his -- booth school of business, he has

contributed with international macroeconomics, finance, and trade. he is an excellent choice for a very challenging job that handles a lot of difficult issues. i strongly support his nomination for this especially important, urgently needed post at the treasury department. he's got support from both sides of the senate finance economy. his -- senate finance committee. his nomination has waited long enough. for that reason, i ask unanimous consent that, as if in executive session, the senate consider the following nomination, calendar 545, brent neiman, to be a deputy under secretary of the treasury, the senate vote on the nomination without intervening action or debate, if confirmed, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, and that the president be immediately notified of the senate's action. the presiding officer: is there an objection?

mr. toomey: mr. president, on behalf of our friend and colleague, senator barrasso, i object. the presiding officer: the objection is heard. mr. wyden: mr. president, i think this is very unfortunate. we very much need to have this post filled, and we're going to stay at it until mr. neiman, a very distinguished individual whose talents are immense and fit nor the job -- fit for the job is approved. at this time, mr. president, i ask unanimous consent the committee on environment and public works be discharged from further consideration of h.r. 1154 and the senate proceed to its immediate consideration. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: h.r. 1154, an act to authorize the secretary of the interior to conduct a study to assess the suitability and feasibility of designating certain land as the great dismal swamp national heritage area, and and for other purposes. the presiding officer: is there

objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection. mr. wyden: i further ask that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. collins madam president. -- ms. collins: madam president. the senate is on the verge of enacting legislation included in the consolidated appropriations act that would remedy the deep structural problems with our system of certifying and counting the electoral votes for president and vice president. these unfortunate flaws are codified in the 1887 electoral count act, which tbiedz the --

guides the implementation of part of the presidential election process included in our constitution. this archaic law vaguely written in the inaccessible language of a different era was intended to restrain congress, but in practice it has had the unintended effect of creating ambiguities that could potentially be used to expand the role of congress and the vice president in ways that are contrary to the constitution. despite its defects, this law was not an issue for more than a century, because of the restraint of the people who exercised the serious but limited constitutional responsibility of counting the electoral votes.

vice presidents and congress sustained the will of the people, even when they did not like the result. it took the violent breach of the capitol on january 6 of 2021 to really shine a spotlight on the urgent need for reforming this law. earlier this year i, along with a dedicated bipartisan group of our colleagues, set out to craft legislation to reform and modernize the electoral count act. our bipartisan group worked day and night over the period of several months to reach a bipartisan consensus on a series of reforms that will prevent this outdated law from being used to undermine future

presidential elections. i'm pleased that our legislation, the electoral count reform and presidential transition improvement act, is included in the bill before us. this bill is the result of count leches hours of deliberations by members -- countless hours of deliberations by members of our working group, cosponsored by 39 senators. our bill enjoys broad bipartisan support and was reported favorably by the senate rules committee, by a vote of 14-1, after an excellent hearing at which the committee members heard from a wide range of constitutional experts. i want to express my gratitude to my friend and partner in this effort, senator joe manchin, and

to all the members of our group for their work to craft this legislation, specifically senators romney, shaheen, portman, sinema, murkowski, warner, tillis, murphy, capito, cardin, young, coons, and sasse dedicated countless hours to this effort. i also want to recognize senators klobuchar and blunt. they are the leaders of the senate rules committee. they provided their advice and counsel throughout this process, and shepherded the bill through their committee. leaders mcconnell and schumer cosponsored our bill and trusted us to undertake this vital task. i want to thank all of the

cosponsors as well as representatives gottheimer and upton who introduced the companion bill in the house of representatives. in developing our bill, we also consulted with several election experts and legal scholars whose analysis helped shape the bill. our bill would replace the ambiguous provisions of this 19th century law with clear procedures that maintain appropriate state and federal roles in selecting the president and vice president as set forth in the constitution. it will also ensure that the electoral votes tallied by congress accurately reflect each state's public vote. there are a number of important reforms included in our bill.

let me take just a moment to highlight a few of them. first, our bill reasserts that the constitutional role of the vice president in counting the electoral votes is strictly and solely ministerial. the idea that any vice president would have the power to unilaterally accept, reject, or change electoral votes, or halt their counting, is antithetical to our constitution and basic democratic principles. second, our bill raises the threshold to lodge an objection to electors to at least one-fifth of the duly chosen and sworn members of the house and the senate. currently, madam president, it takes only a single member in

each body to object to an elector or a slate of electors. i would note that in four of the past six presidential elections, this objection process has been abused, with members of both parties raising frivolous objections to electoral votes. by raising that threshold, from one member in each body to 20% of each body, we can do away with the completely frivolous objections while ensuring that serious concerns are still heard. third, our legislation would ensure that congress can identify a single conclusive slate of electors by clearly identifying a single state

official who is responsible for certifying a state's electors, requiring congress to defer to the slates of electors submitted by a state pursuant to the judgment of state or federal courts, and by providing presidential candidates with an expedited judicial review of federal claims related to a state's cert of electors. now, let me be clear that this does not create a new cause of action. instead, what this provision will do is ensure a prompt adjudication of disputes. to help promote the orderly transfer of power, our bill also includes clear guidelines for when eligible presidential candidates may receive federal resources to support their

transition into office. i particularly want to thank senators portman, coons, and sasse for their hard work on this portion of the bill. madam president, nothing is more essential to the survival of a democracy than an orderly transfer of power. and there is nothing more essential to that orderly transfer of power than clear rules for effecting it. our bill provides those clear rules. i urge my colleagues to support this historic legislation, and i thanks all who are involved to bringing us to this reality. thank you, madam president. i yield the floor.

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

ms. collins -- ms. collins: madam president, i ask unanimous consent that proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. collins: i would like to rise today to thank my dear friend rob portman for his outstanding contributions to our

nation. this is only a part of the story of his remarkable record of public service that extends three decades. under president george h.w. bush, he served as legislative affairs director and associate white house council. he was then ee -- white house counsel. he was then elected to the house of representatives. in 2005, rob left congress to serve in the administration of president george w. bush, first as u.s. trade representative and later as director of the office of management and budget. if each of those roles, rob established a well-deserved reputation as a problem solver focused on practical results rather than political advantage. he is a leader who treats his colleagues with respect and he has the highest regard for the

constituents he serves. in the senate, rob continued to advance many of the issues that he championed in the house. these included ending sex trafficking through the internet, pushing for fair trade policies that support u.s. manufacturers, improving workforce development programs, protecting our national parks, and promoting energy conservation. rob portman has been a remarkably successful legislator. during his senate tenure, he has introduced more than 240 bills, including 200 bipartisan measures. under democratic and republican presidents, more than 150 of his legislative proposals have been signed into law.

one of those laws is transforming the lives of those who are struggling with addiction. the comprehensive addiction and recovery act enacted in 2016 has significantly increased medication-assisted treatment for opioid use and was a monumental leap forward in our ongoing work to boost resources to address this public health crisis and bring hope, recovery and healing to individuals and communities that have been devastated by the opioid epidemic. rob has also led bipartisan efforts for decades to pass historic reforms to strengthen the private retirement system to ensure that americans have the resources that they need to save for retirement.

his efforts have helped retirement savings to increase from $11.3 trillion in 2001 to $29.1 trillion in 2022, and he continues that effort knowing that we still have a troubling gap in the amount of money that people will need for a comfortable retirement versus what they have saved. i am proud to have partnered with rob on many of these initiatives. one in particular that stands out in my memory is our work together to develop and pass the bipartisan infrastructure and investment in jobs act. we were among five republicans, five democrats who were resolved to break through the partisan gridlock and deliver this long

overdue victory to the american people. after months of working night and day, our bipartisan negotiations resulted in a truly transfor transformational investment in our country for i ask unanimouse since the interstate highway system in the 1950's. we would not have been successful without rob's leadership. on top of his many legislative accomplishments, rob has always backed a strong national defense and has been an outspoken champion for freedom around the world. for the past two years he's been a leading voice in supporting the people of ukraine against the unprovoked and brutal russian invasion that began 300

days ago. rob is also a champion of democracy and liberty here at home. he's a strong ally, has been a strong ally in our bipartisan work on the bill i just discussed, and that is the modernization and reform of the electoral count act of 1887. he is also an original cosponsor of the respect for marriage act that would enshrine -- that has enshrined marriage equality for the purposes of federal law and provides additional legal protections to ensure religious liberty as well. when rob announced that he would not seek reelection, he said this, we live in an increasingly polarized country where members of both parties are being pushed

further to the left and further to the right, and that means too few people are actively looking to find common ground. this is not a new phenomenon, of course, but a problem that has gotten worse over the past few decades. i would say to my friend and my colleague rob that one of his most enduring legacies will be the example he has set of bringing our country together, of bringing the members of this body together to address the many challenges we face. it has been an honor to serve with my friend rob portman and i look forward to the many contributions he will continue to make in this next chapter of his life.

i wish him, his wife jane, and all of their wonderful family all the best in the years to come. thank you, madam president. ms. stabenow: madam president. the presiding officer. the senator from michigan. ms. stabenow: i ask unanimous consent that floor privileges be granted for the remainder of this congress from the -- to the following detailees, alexandria gilbert and matthew joseph. the presiding officer: without objection. the clerk will call the roll.

quorum call: mr. portman: are we in a quorum call? i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be dispensed with.

the presiding officer: without objection. promentmr. portman: i heard from senator collins on many of the issues we passed. i would call senator collins the indispensable one through hard work and grit and understanding the issues better than anyone else around the table to find some ways forward on tough issues that face our country. she mentioned infrastructure as an example, but more recently the electoral count act which i think will be broadly supported by our colleagues, but required that kind of deep understanding and knowledge of the issues. second is that there's no one more bipartisan and interested in finding results than senator collins. i appreciate her words, but as they say, right back at you, senator collins. thank you for your friendship and your willingness to put up with me over the years on so many of these important issues.

i yield back my time. quorum call:

quorum call:

the president pro tempore: mr. cardin: madam president. the presiding officer: the

senator from maryland. mr. cardin: i ask that the quorum call be dispensed with hanukkah is the revolt against the mcabees, so we've seen over a long history of the world attacks against the jewish people and the unfortunate anti-semitism that has existed since basically the beginning of time. what is shocking is the current increase in the number of anti-semitic episodes that we've seen in speech and in action here in the united states senate around -- in the united states and around the world. last saturday in montgomery county, maryland, at the walt

whitman high school, senate semitic graffiti was put on their walls. it was not the first time that we have seen this type of activity through graffiti. in mid-november a similar episode occurred. the number of episodes of anti-semitism is shocking. 61% increase between 2021 -- between 2020 and 2021. in speech and attacks against jewish institutions. here and around the world, i have the privilege of being the special representative of the parliamentary assembly for anti-semitism, racism and intolerance. i attended on behalf of the united states the berlin conference on anti-semitism in 2004. and there are many lessons learned from those conferences

that we had. but the most important lesson we learned is that leaders must speak out and act against my form of anti-semitism or any form of hate. it cannot be normalized. we've seen just the opposite from our leaders recently. former president trump in a dinner he had at mar-a-lago with a known anti-semite and a known white supremicist and a photograph then later. this gives oxygen to hate. we need to strengthen our resolve to make sure that we will never allow this to be normalized. and we need to recognize that there is a direct link between the attacks on our democratic institutions and our rule of law and the rise of anti-semitism and other forms of hate.

therefore, we all must speak out about disinformation and election deniers. we need to speak out against the conspiracy theorists who use theories such as the replacement theories, promoting old age anti-semitic. we know where it leads. it leads to violence. i conducted offered the auspices of the helsinki commission a roundtable discussion. i was pleased to be joined by our presiding officer senator rosen and i thank her for her extraordinary leadership with senator lankford in establishing the bipartisan and bicameral caucus in regards to fighting anti-semitism. i was also joined by senator blumenthal and congressman isi. we had representatives from the white house, from the department of homeland security, the department of state, department of justice, the antidefamation league, the american jewish committee, and the u.s.

holocaust memorial museum. all were present as we talked about what we can do. that was followed up by a hearing at the helsinki commission last week on december 16. actually, it was just a week ago in which we had ambassador debra lipstad, our special enjoy to monitor and combat anti-semitism and rabbi andrew baker who is the special representative of the organization for security and cooperation in europe on anti-semitism. we all met again in a public forum as to what we should do. i want to compliment the biden administration. they had a similar roundtable discussion. we need a whole government approach in fighting the rise of anti-semitism. we need a coordinated strategy. so, madam president, i want to thank president biden for his statement on december 12 where he did set up an interagency

group led by the domestic policy staff in order to develop a unified national strategy to combat anti-semitism and all forms of hate. that came out of the recommendations that our presiding officer help lead all of us together to make that a reality. we need a unified national strategy? it must include education. and i am so proud of this body approving additional funds for holocaust education. it's important. it's an important part. people need to understand their history. so that we're not doomed to repeat the horrors of the past. it includes safety, public safety is very important. it's a reality that we have to provide our communities with the security they need. these nonprofits security grants are critically important. i was glad to see again that we're going to act later today to provide the resources we need to help our religious

institutions protect themselves against the threats that are out there today. we need to engage law enforcement with training and accurate data collection so we understand the problem and we can take steps to combat it. and, yes, we need a coalition of all groups. we need to work together. as president biden when he set up the task force that we need to coordinate u.s. government efforts to counter anti-semitism, islam phobia and related forms of bias and discrimination within the united states. we need to work in coalition. i had a sidebar meeting at one of the parliamentary assembly meetings on anti-semitism. it became loud and clear that if any minority group is in jeopardy, we're all in jeopardy. so we need to work together. i'm going to close by quoting from an op-ed written by howard liptik that ran on december 14

which was entitled stemming the rise of anti-semitism once more. mr. liptik serves as the executive director of the baltimore jewish council. let me quote what he put in that op-ed. these days the media commonly focuses on the normalization of anti-semitism. essentially we're saying so many anti-semitic comments from leaders in cool picks, sports, and social media is casually becoming part of our everyday conversation and debate. immediate and universal condemnation used to be the norm when public figures or public debate crossed the line into anti-semitism. that no longer seems to be the case. whether it's because of the overall coursing of our public debates or the relentless rise of anonymous social media or simply the fact that there is fatigue from so many anti-semitic comments seemingly everywhere. we can never normalize

anti-semitism. the editorial continues. as leaders in our jewish committee, we must commit to fighting anti-semitism from all fronts, from all political points of view no matter how big or how small. the gap between rhetoric inaction has always been frighteningly narrow which is why strong and immediate condemnation from all corners of leadership must again be the norm. the narrow gap between words and violence is why we must shine the brightest light possible on anti-semitism. madam president, i urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle and both sides of the capitol to work with me, work with all of us, the biden administration, our allies, our civil society partners to loudly and decisively call out anti-semitism and work together on the whole society approach to combat and eradicate it from our society. on this hanukkah let us rededicate ourselves that there should be no place for hate in

america and that we'll fight anti-semitism here and lead the international efforts against anti-semitism. with that, madam president, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. whitehouse: madam president, may i ask unanimous consent that the pending quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. whitehouse: thank you, madam president. i am here to express my appreciation to senator tom

cotton and to our colleague, senator bob menendez, chairman menendez, for their persistent tense in -- persistence in achieving a vote here on what is now called a senate amendment number 6560 that would expand the u.s. victims of state-sponsored terrorism funds coverage to the american victims of the beirut bombing. this matters a lot to rhode island. because october 23, 1983, the day when a truck full of explosives drove into the marine barracks in beirut and exploded killing 241 american service men was probably the bloodiest day for rhode island in any war at

any time in our history. there was unusually high deployment of rhode islanders there. nine were killed that day, including two brothers-in-law. so some families took a terrible, terrible blow. and i'm just very grateful that senator cotton put the relentless initiative into making sure that that happened and to chairman menendez for supporting that and allowing it to happen. and i hope in my own way i've also been able to clear some of the obstacles and difficulties to make sure we have this vote. and i strongly urge all of my colleagues, let's get together on this, let's pass this amendment, and let's make sure that the victims of the beirut bombing of the marine barracks are not forgotten. there is a -- two things

happened on this anniversary in rhode island. one is that at the portsmouth historical society, a memorial ceremony is conducted. it's a beautiful building, and we go upstairs where there's a really nice, very old-fashioned auditorium. and there's usually a very impressive speaker, very often from the naval war college, almost inevitably a united states marine, since the marines were the casualties that day. it's an important day for the united states marines, and with my dad having served as a united states marine in world war ii, it means something to me as well to have this take place. and then we've also built a memorial to those rhode islanders along the shore of the providence river. providence is known for its water fire, where they light

lasers along the river. it's right along the riverway where this beautiful memorial is and so we go to that as well. this is a big deal. and i just want to take a moment as we have a chance on on the senate floor to make sure that the names of those rhode islanders are remembered. they were sergeant timothy giblin, corporal ricardel r.crudell, corporal avaveno, injure. corporal thomas a. shipp, corporal edward suarez jr., corporal james f. sylvia, corporal steven e. i as unanimous consent that further reading be dispensed with certificate, -- spencer, and corporal julian. colleagues, i commend to all of

you an aye vote on the cotton-menendez amendment. with that, i yield the floor. actually, i should take one small correction. i should also add a thank you to senator dan sullivan, a marine colonel who serves here as well and has been very supportive of thissest. to dan, to tom, to bob, but mostly to all of the families who remember with such love these lost lives, my appreciation. i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll.

quorum call:

quorum call:

is quorum call:

>> welcome back to washington journal. we are here with the associate director of immigration studies at the cato institute. good morning, david. >> good morning. thanks for having me. >> we will be talking about immigration today. let's dive right in. on monday, supreme court chief justice john roberts moved to halt the end of title 42 restrictions at the southern border which were to expire today. can you tell me what does that decision mean? when and how will the southern border open? or what happens next? >> title 42, the most important thing to understand about title 42, we need to back up to understand the context. title 42 is not an immigration

policy. title 42 is part of the public health code of the united states. and what that law says is it says the centers for disease control can issue an order that blocks the entry of persons or things carrying potentially contagious diseases. so it is not about immigrants, per se. of course, the government is only applying it to non-citizens entering without advanced authorization to travel to this country. but in theory, this law can be applied to u.s. citizens. it can be applied to anyone trying to enter the united states legally or otherwise. and so the public health nature of this law is at the center of this debate and this controversy because what the cdc and what the trump administration and biden administration have said is that they can use this law to suspend any laws, waive any other laws to block the entry of

people with supposedly contagious diseases. as a practical matter, what is actually happening at the border with title 42 is that they are not blocking the introduction or the entry of people. they are expelling people who are already in u.s. soil, already in the united states, and sending them back to mexico or to their home countries and denying them the chance to adjust their status to a legal status like asylum or refugee status here in the united states. in terms of what the supreme court decision means, it just means at least for now, this order will remain in place and be extended for at least a few more days while they consider the issue. >> what are the states involved? why are they involved, and what

is their argument for keeping this policy? >> this is a group led by the state of texas that the main arguments are really about immigration. it is about whether or not we're going to have more immigrants coming into the country and whether that's going to impose some harms or some costs on those states. it's really not a question of public health. and that should be what this law is about. it is supposedly about the public health necessity, which from the very beginning has always been a farce. there's never any public health rationale. the centers for disease control was forced to issue this order by the trump white house. and if you look at it as a practical matter, about preventing contagious diseases from spreading in the united states, title 42 requires these people be arrested, brought into u.s. custody, be transported, in many cases we're flying immigrants from one part of the united states to another, so the

whole public health rationale for the order makes no sense, but the states are arguing that it must be held -- continued because the biden administration did not follow a thorough-enough process for rescinding that order. >> we're talking with david beard of the cato institute on immigration policy. we want to hear your questions for him or your comments on title 42. so start calling in now. republicans, your line is 202-748-8001. democrats, call 202-748-8000. and independents, you call us at 202-748-8002. we'll get to some of your calls in just a moment. now, we've been hearing a lot about the influx of migrants going on now -- ms. duckworth: are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are. with. ms. duckworth: i ask unanimous consent for the quorum call to be dispensed with.

the presiding officer: without objection. ms. duckworth: thank you. madam president, i come to the floor to talk about an important nominee to the equal employment opportunity commission, an agency that plays a critical role in protecting workers and upholding civil rights. the eeoc enforces federal laws that make it illegal to discriminate against a job applicant or an employee because of the person's race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability or genetic information. in short, it is because of the laws that the eeoc enforces that many of us are here today and car low joe bride is an exceptional nominee. she has 15 years of experience to let americans enjoy opportunity under the law including workers who have faced discrimination. as codirector to the access for justice project she won a

unanimous supreme court decision in which she represented a worker in a dispute over whether a taco bell franchise could force arbitration of the workers over time claims. she has also worked to secure workers protection from sexual harassment as well as people with disabilities access to licensing exams, emergency shelters, housing and transportation. her nomination is supported by over 40 organizations including the national women's law center, afl-cio, national employment lawyers association, disability rights advocated and disability rights network. the -- i know misgilbride would continue to help all americans thrive but especially those americans facing adverse working conditions and those left out due to technology. the eeoc has such important work to do and it should do that work with a senate confirmed general

counsel. i hope my colleagues will join me in confirming misgilbride to this critical role so she can get to work. madam president, i ask unanimous consent that as if in executive session the senate consistent the following nomination, calendar number 1203, karla ann gilbride to be general counsel for the equal employment opportunity commission, that the senate vote on the nomination, that if confirmed 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: is there objection? a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the junior senator from indiana. the presiding officer: reserving the right to object, i know firsthand how difficult it is when you navigate through any issues like this. i had a small business for

nearly 17 years with just 15 employees. i can tell you whenever a small business -- and that's defined maybe from 100 employees and fewer -- it is a major issue, and you want to make sure when that occurs you're not overly burdened through the process of whatever you're contending with. the eeoc is charged with enforcing our employment discrimination laws. as general counsel, ms. gilbride would provide overall guidance and management to field office legal units and develop litigation strategies. during the trump administration, the commission saw many changes aimed at what i believe is always beneficial, transparency and accountability. and it was for the purpose of when you get into these discussions with smaller businesses, not big

corporations, they've got their staff of attorneys. you've got to be careful that you're not burdening them with something that could disrupt their business, and who knows, depending on how long it might take, put them out of business. remember, many of these small businesses, whoever the proprietor is, they're making their living out of it, not necessarily gauging a return on investment, so to speak. unfortunately, some have called for the reversal of these changes for more transparency and accountability. for example, the commission could reverse commissioner voting on the approval of litigation and the requirement to post these votes publicly online. if reversed, the general counsel and staff would have the authority to commence litigation against employers instead of the commission, like congress intended it to be.

the chair of the commission has also made clear that she will seek to reinstate the burdensome collection of pay data from employers in an attempt to identify pay discrimination. however, the reality is that this data provides no context for wages such as job experience, education, or skill level. how does that relate to plaza gilbride? when she was asked about some of this, it wasn't clear whether she was going to keep what many of us thought was good with accountability, transparency, or where you were going to go more in the direction of the way it was before. this position has too much impact on potentially many, many small employers, and all i'm asking for is that we don't do it today through unanimous consent, that we put it up for a vote where everyone is on

record and where we can vet it more thoroughly. therefore, i object. the presiding officer: objection is heard. ms. duckworth: madam president. the presiding officer: the junior senator from illinois. ms. duckworth: madam president, i am disappointed that the senate is not able to confirm ms. gilbride today. she is an excellent nominee to fill this role and i look forward to working with my colleagues to move quickly and confirm her when we return in january. thank you. and i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: quorum call:

>> while we wait for a senator to come to the floor to speak, here's what's happening on capitol hill today. ukrainian president zelenskyy

visiting washington, d.c. he will be addressing a joint meeting of congress tonight at 7:30 p.m. eastern time. we're going to have live coverage of his visit and his remarks to congress on the c-span networks. and today in the senate, lawmakers confirmed lynn tracy to be the next u.s. ambassador to russia. she will be the first woman to serve in that role. lawmakers are also working on funding the government through september 30th, 2023, while facing a friday deadline to avert a government shutdown. in the house, lawmakers working on several suspension bills, including posthumously awarding the gold medal to emmitt till who was racially lynched in 55 and his mother and a measure providing equal compensation for athletes representing the u.s. in international amateur athletic competitions regardless of gender. you can watch live coverage of the house on c-span, live coverage of the senate right here on c-span 2. e. mr. king: i'd ask consent that -- mr. cornyn: i'd ask consent that

it be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cornyn: child exploitation is one of the most heinous crimes our country and the world face today. yesterday, the fbi issued a national public safety alert in response to the explosion in financial sextortion cases in which children and teens are coerced into sending explicit images online and extorted for money. last year, more than 3,000 minors have become victims of this crime. i'm proud of everything congress has done, and continues to do, to combat sexual exploitation, particularly of minors in all forms, especially human trafficking. just last night, the senate unanimously passed the abolish human trafficking reauthorization act, which i introduced with -- which i introduced with senator klobuchar. i hope we can pass another bipartisan bill today to

increase the punishment for those who exploit and recruit america's children into the sex trade. a 2018 survey reported that 55% of young sex trafficking survivors in texas were trafficked while at school, or on school activities. 60% of trafficked adults were first groomed or solicited for trafficking on school campuses. senator klobuchar introduced the ntz act to increase the punishment for human trafficking in school zones or school-sponsored events. two of my fellow texans have introduced a companion bill in the house, congresswoman smeela jackson lee and -- sheila jackson lee and michael mccaul. i appreciate their leadership on this legislation. it's my conversations with congresswoman sheila jackson lee which have brought us to this

point. having passed the house, this is our last chance, i believe, for both the senate and the house to have cleared the bill and send it on to the president for his signature. now, the nt zact passed the house -- the ntz act passed the house unanimously in september, and i hope it will pass the senate today to head to the president for his signature. madam president, i ask unanimous consent that the judiciary committee be discharged from further consideration of h.r. 7566, and that the senate proceed to its immediate consideration. if urt that the -- further, that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: is there objection? mr. durbin: madam president, reserving the right to object. madam president -- the presiding officer: the democratic whip. mr. durbin: thank you. madam president, first, let's state clearly for the record, neither the senator from texas nor the senator from minnesota

nor this senator from illinois wants to make it easier for these crimes to be committed. we're all committed to the same goal of reducing the number of crimes and making certain that those that are responsible pay the price for that misconduct, that terrible, disgusting misconduct. i've worked with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for years to help combat the scourge of human trafficking and to keep children safe from sexual exploitation. preventing human trafficking and protecting survivors are issues that really bring us together, republicans and democrats. the goal of this legislation is noble -- to ensure schools are a safe place for children, where traffickers cannot prey on their innocence. i wholeheartedly agree with this goal. we should be doing everything we can to deter traffickers, especially those who prey upon schoolchildren. however, i cannot ignore the

serious concerns about specific wording in this bill that is part of the legislation proposed. in particular, the department of justice, responsible for prosecuting these crimes of child sex trafficking, has identified a number of serious problems with the way that the no trafficking zones act is written. they've sent us a memo. it is a lengthy memo, at least four to six pages of detailed analysis of this bill. i asked them to take it seriously and give us their serious report. they did. in technical assistance provided to the sponsors of this legislation, including to the senator from texas, the department of justice concluded that, quote, this proposed legislation will only create confusion and additional hurdles for sentencing child sex trafficking offenders. listen carefully. the department of justice that has the responsible of prosecuting these crimes

analyzed this proposed change in the law and said it would create confusion and additional hurdles for actually sentencing those guilty of child sex trafficking. i'm sure the senator from texas did not have this intent, nor the senator from minnesota. the department of justice also said the legislation is not, quote, well tailored, closed quote, to address child sex trafficking and, quote, it is unnecessary, since both statutes implicated already allow for a sentence up to life imprisonment. in other words, according to the justice department, this bill in its current form will not lead to stiffer sentences for these horrible offenses, and in fact may make it harder to prosecute child sex traffickers. in light of these concerns, i've repeatedly offered to work with the author of this bill in the house of representatives. my staff has communicated that we could revise this bill and

expedite its passage into law. we could meet the same noble goal of the original legislation, but do it in a way that is consistent with the express concerns of the department of justice. the changes needed are really quite simple. instead of amending the applicable statutes, the amended legislation would ensure that the sentencing guidelines account for child trafficking that was committed in a school zone. this simple revision guarantees that the recommended sentence for a defendant will be higher if the defendant knowingly committed the offenses in a school zone. it also resolves all of the infirm at thises identified by the department of justice that could jeopardize prosecutions of child sex traffickers. i want to make it clear -- i take this matter very seriously, as i'm sure the senator from texas and the senator from minnesota do. we watched carefully as the department of justice set their analysis, we responded to it in a responsible way, and we said

to the house author of the bill, please accept these changes, they achieve your original goal and do it in a way that will not make it more difficult to prosecute those who are guilty. unfortunately, unfortunately so far the author of this bill in the house of representatives has refused to work with us on these changes. their position is that we cannot change a single word of the bill. that is not the approach to take when dealing with legislation of such a serious matter. we should take care that every word achieves the goal we all want to seek -- to lessen the number of crimes of sex trafficking. as a result, we're at an impasse, because i'm unwilling to pass legislation that the prosecutors tell us will make their job more difficult, and i believe that they're right in our own analysis of the bill. madam president, for these reasons, i object to this request. but i reiterate, as i have over and over and over again to the house author that i stand ready

and more than willing to work with our colleagues in the house, along with senator cornyn and senator klobuchar, to ensure that this legislation moves forward. and to express my good faith on this, i'm going to make the following request, as if in legislative session, i ask unanimous consent that the judiciary committee be discharged from further -- i'm sorry. before i ask that the senator modify his request -- let me start over so it's clear on the record. therefore, i object to the original request for unanimous consent, and i therefore ask that the senator from texas modify his request such that the durbin substitute amendment at the desk be considered and agreed to, the bill as amended be considered read a third time and passed and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: does the senator so modify his request? mr. cornyn: madam president, reserving the right to object.

the senator from illinois asks why can't we change this bill. well, first of all, this bill passed unanimously in the house. if we don't pass this bill today, it's dead and the senator's objection to this unanimous consent request will effectively kill this legislation for this congress. as he knows. because we start a new congress and we'll have to start all over from scratch. and i don't know when we started -- decided to start outsourcing as the congress of the united states to the department of justice. the fact of the matter is the changes that the senator is suggesting would basically be just to instruct the u.s. sentencing commission to amend the federal sentencing guidelines to incorporate

specific characteristics or any other offense. essentially he has another way to build a mouse trap that doesn't really change anything except the fact that he will effectively have killed this legislation this congress and we'll have to start all over again. the reason why i'm here today and while congresswoman sheila jackson lee is here on the floor is because this is a problem at schools in her legislative district where school traffickers come and try to recruit teenaged kids, girls mainly, into the sex trade and we think it's appropriate that enhanced penalties to these people who commit terrible crimes against our children and in our schools, unfortunately, by deferring to the department of justice's criticisms, they're

an executive branch, we're a coequal branch of the government. i'm sorry that the senator from illinois believes that the department of justice's ideas should prevail over those of the collective wisdom of both branches of the congress. like i said, this bill passed unanimously in the house of representatives, but because of his objection, it will effectively be dead for this legislative session, and i think it's a missed opportunity and a crying shame. i object to his request to modify my request for unanimous consent. the presiding officer: objection is heard. is there objection to the original request? mr. durbin: i object. the presiding officer: objection is heard. mr. durbin: madam president, i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to executive session to consider the following

nomination, calendar number 1195, richard revesz, administrator of the informs of -- -- i've been instructed to hold this thought. resuming my unanimous consent request, calendar number 1195, richard revesz, that the senate vote on the nomination without intervening action or debate, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, and that the president be immediately notified of the senate's action and the senate resume legislative session. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection, the clerk will report. the clerk: nomination, executive office of the president, richard l. revesz, of new york, to be

administrator of the office of information and regulatory affairs. the presiding officer: the question occurs on the nomination. all those in favor say aye. all those opposed, say no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it.

>> here's what's happening today on capitol hill. the president of ukraine, volodymyr zelenskyy, will be addressing a joint meeting of congress tonight at 7:30 eastern time. we'll have live coverage of his visit and remarks to congress on the c-span networks. today the lawmakers confirmed lynn tracy to be the next u.s. ambassador to russia, the first woman to serve in the role. lawmakers also working on funding the government through superintendent 30th next year while facing this friday's deadline to avert a government shutdown. in the house, posthumously awarding the congressional gold medal to emmett till and his mother. he was lynched in 1955 at 14 years old. the presiding officer: the junior senator from delaware. mr. coons: madam president, i come to the floor for a few moments with a friend and a colleague, senator lindsey graham, of south carolina, but speaking on behalf of a much

broader group of senators, senator amy klobuchar, of minnesota, has been my partner in this. we have ten senators who are cosponsors of an urgent bill. we have to do right by those who fought alongside us for 20 years. madam president, i have two letters with me that i'll briefly reference that sean van diver and the great folks of afghan ee vac. one somebody signed by 44 flag officers and i'll read one sentence. wewe are convinced the afghan adjustment act secures the united states. and another from every former ambassador to afghanistan. it says without the afghan adjustment act, the task of american diplomacy will be much more difficult if we don't

support our allies, if we don't pass it in the future, allies will be much harder to find. i know the story of an afghan family of five in nuclear, delaware -- in newark, delaware. today after having received death threats and fleeing the taliban, he is working day and night to support his family, but without the legal status here that this bill would provide. for those concerned about the alleged lack of vetting of the 70,000 afghans who were brought here, this is the way we get that done, in-person vetting that secures the united states an provides a predictable path forward for these folks. i thank congressman peter mayor who has been a tireless voice of this legislation and i invite my colleague to speak about this

urgent legislation and about its urgency for our country. mr. graham: what we're trying to do is solve a dilemma for a nation. the people we're talking about here almost all came on military aircraft. yesterday the tall taliban denid university education for all women, basically all women in afghanistan under taliban rule can't go to school anywhere any how. the people here we're talking about got on military aircraft, some have come out of the ways and they have fought alongside us. there's a vetting problem. i acknowledge it. we're going to solve the vetting problem. we're going to make sure people go through a vetting system that protects our national security here at home. but 40% of these people were chief emission vetted. these are the people who interpreted for us, that were there when we needed them during this 20-year war and they have to place to go.

as we send them back as a certain death -- it's a certain death sentence. so we fail to get it into the omnibus. we're going to keep trying, and i want to let everybody know that the veterans who served alongside this population, we're not going to let you down. they were there for you and we're going to be there for you and them. this is the right thing to do. there is no other ending that is acceptable to me. the people who were there with us in the fight that are here in america need to stay. this will be their new home. they're willing to die for our military members bd and contracs and civilians. i've been to iraq and afghanistan over 50 times. a lot of the interpreters that i worked with have made it out. i got involved like many senators here, we have a moral obligation to these people. they will make great citizens over time and we're going to vet them to make sure we have right

people here. i promised senator coons and senator klobuchar and senators wicker and moran, that we are going to get this done. to all the veterans groups, key need your voice now more than ever. next year this will be a top priority. we will succeed in giving those who will risk their lives for americans serving abroad a place to call home, america. thank you. mr. coons: i just want to thank my colleagues who have been such great an steadfast support -- and steadfast supporters. senator klobuchar has been tireless and we have been joined by senator blumenthal, senator shaheen and senator leahy. senator shaheen has that fought tirelessly for a legislation in the omnibus. senator moran and senator wicker have joined senator graham as

cosponsors. we have so -- we are so grateful to the veterans who have pressed for this. as my colleague from south carolina has just said, we will not stop fighting for the men and women who served alongside us, who supported our mission, who were a part of our evacuation and who are now here. i cannot imagine a worse moral outcome than to force them back to afghanistan. and this piece of legislation has crafted a solution that allows for in-person vetting for every single afghan in and this country in exchange for which they would have a path for legal status. after the vietnam war, thousands of those who served in the military in south vietnam came to the united states also as refugees and they were given legal status. that is what we're seeking to do here, those here temporarily on humanitarian parole face uncertainty and difficulty. we should resolve this, the

opposition of a very small number of senators has blocked this from moving forward. we want to focus on getting this done. to those veterans, those members of the house, those advocates who have been a part of this effort, we want to thank you. to those who are wondering when and how we are going to get this done, you heard the pledge of my colleague, we're going 0 keep at this for the rest of this congress and, if necessary, into the next. we are grateful for your voice, your service, and your support, and we look forward to working with you on this urgent mission together. thank you, and with that, madam president, i yield the floor.

mr. boozman: madam president. the presiding officer: the senior senator from arkansas. mr. boozman: thank you it madam president. i think rise to honor law enforcement officers and recognize the service and heroism of arkansans who somehow to serve and protect by pursuing a career in law enforcement. these individuals selflessly volunteer for this duty while accepting that the dangers of the job also continually put

them in harm's way. it takes a special person to take on that responsibility, and that fact must never be lost on us. today i want to the recognize several law enforcement officers who recently made the ultimate sacrifice in the line of duty. detective paul newell was he is courting a convoy of vehicles delivering materials for reach across america when he was tragically killed in a motorcycle crash on saturday, december 17. as a 24-year veteran of the benton county sheriff's office, detective newell made a lasting impression on his colleagues, the community, and everyone who knew him. those who served alongside him saw firsthand the impact of his compassion and kindness on friends and strangers alike. these traits served him well in more than two decades on a law enforcement officer. he was happy to engage with

community members, to foster positive relationships, participating in events like shop-with-a-cop to spread christmas cheer to children in need. he launched his career in law enforcement in 1998, worked in many jobs in the benton county sheriff's office including as patrol deputy, patrol sergeant, and training sergeant. his commitment to ensuring others in the sheriff's office learned from his training and experience was evident. detective newell was also a motorcycle enthusiast. he rode with the harley owner's group and let kids sit on his motorcycle at local events. as a veteran of the u.s. army, he continued his mission to serve others into civilian life and faithfully represented what it means to be a true public servant. i join all arkansans as we mourn the death of this hero.

detective newell demonstrated what it means to protect and serve every day when he put on his badge and uniform and his final act was in honor of others who have served our country. i ask my colleagues to lift up detective newell's family in prayer. we are forever grateful for his sacrifice. i'm honored to be here with my colleague from arkansas, senator cotton, to show our appreciation for fallen but not forgotten law enforcement officials. mr. cotton: i join one of law enforcement's finest friends, senator boozman, in honoring and mourning benton county detective paul newell. detective newell was also an army veteran and a law enforcement officer who had served with the benton county sheriff's office for 24 years. he began his career in the office's detention division, thanks to his hard work, he rose

through the ranks to be a patrol deputy, a sergeant, and finally a detective in the criminal investigative division. in short, he was a patriot who served his community and his country with great devotion and even in his final moments, that's exactly what he was doing. last weekend detective newell gave up his saturday mourning to escort the wreaths across america procession. they were delivering wreaths to our fallen veterans at the seem stair. detective newell was on a police motorcycle. his motorcycle struck a curb during the procession. he crashed into a semi-truck and was pronounced dead at the scene. his passing is a tragedy and a reminder that the men and women of law enforcement risk their lives every day, not just in shootouts foot chases but in so many other unsung acts a of service they perform day in and

day out. detective newell deserves our gratitude, as does every american who puts on on the uniform. i'm proud to report the community of northwest arkansas came together to show their gratitude for detective newell's service. the morning after that crash, officers and citizens alike came out to honor detective newell as law enforcement transported his remain to arkansas state crime lab. he gave his life during a procession honoring our fallen heroes, so it's only fitting that detective newell should have received a procession honoring him in return. detective new ell's watch has end e. understanded but his spirit lives on. may god comfortst comfort his wife, charlene, his daughters and all who knew him this life. may god bless and keep paul newell. madam president, i also sadly join senator boozman today in

mourning the death of another patriot, a veteran and great arkansan. last week stuttgart police sergeant donald scoby was shot and killed in the line of duty while pursuing a dangerous criminal. officer scoby lived a life of self-service. he was described by friends as the type of person who would give you the shirt off his back. he joined the u.s. army and was deployed to both iraq and bosnia where he fought to keep peace halfway around the world. he proudly and honorably served in our armed forces, but he wasn't done there. back in arkansas he joined the stuttgart fire department and then in 2018 joined the stuttgart police department. he was named officer of the year in 23019. after a life of running toward danger to protect others, officer scoby was in hot pursuit of a violent criminal, a man

named jacob barns, last week. barns abandoned it his car and fled on foot. officer scoby pursued him. as scoby chased down this menace to our society, barns opened fire on the officers, shooting and killing officer scoby. he was killed by arkansas swat officers but this justice is insufficient to repair the far deeper injustice that he had inflicted on our state and on officer scoby's comrades in arms, his family, and his friends. arkansas lost a hero last week. donald scoby served in war zones, charged towards raging fires and fought criminals in our streets. protected our country, our state, and our neighborhoods. he lived a noble life and lived nobly, serving the community he

loved and swore to protect. he leaves a legacy and an example from which all arkansans can draw inspiration. we grieve his death, but we are grateful for sergeant scoby's life of sacrifice. our prayers are with his wife, amanda, and his four children, and all those who knew him and loved him. may god bless and keep donald scoby and may god console his family and friends in this time of grief. mr. boozman: madam president, i also want to recognize the service and sacrifice of stuttgart police department's sergeant donald scoby, who as we've heard was deeply passionate about public service. for four years he protected his community as an officer of the law. sergeant scoby was fatally shot while attempting to apprehend a suspect who fled a traffic stop last week and was laid to rest last monday.

even before joining the police force, he demonstrated his willingness to give back. in fact, helping others and meeting needs bigger than his own has been a cornerston of his life. he served in the osselet and deployed during the iraq war, in addition to being part of a peacekeeping group in bosnia. he also stepped up to the plate back home working at the local fire department, first as a volunteer before joining full-time. his colleagues at the fire department recall his friendly manner and enthusiasm for helping others. his positive attitude and determination were apparent to those who served with or encountered him. the stuttgart mayor called sergeant scoby a fierce advocate for the community and others close to him fondly remember his humor and selflessness, describing him as the type of person who would give you, quote, the shirt off his back.

it's clear he meant a great deal to so many, and his legacy as a protector who servinged to inspire others and comfort his family, friends, and all those he impacted throughout his life. sergeant scoby's death is a tragic reminder of the risk law enforcement officers face each day when they put on their uniform and start their shift, knowing their duty to serve and protect could place their safety and very lives in jeopardy. that's exactly the choice they make each day, just as sergeant scoby did only a few short days ago. tragically, he made the ultimate sacrifice. my thoughts and prayers are with his loved ones, including amanda, his wife of 16 years, his children and colleagues at the stuttgart police department as well as the citizens of this very close community, as they mourn the loss of a hero in

sergeant donald scoby. finally, we join together to recognize the service and sacrifice of jonesboro police officer vincent parks, vinny as his family and friends called him, as one of those brave americans willing to answer the call and play an integral -- integral role in the safety of his friends and even strangers. he was just weeks in his law enforcement career learning about how to be a force for good and the responsibilities that come with wearing a badge. while continuing his police training at the central arkansas law enforcement training academy in north little rock, his life was tragically cut short. though he did not survive the medical episode he experienced, we know he was prepared to sacrifice his own safety and well-being for the good of others. we are blessed to have brave men

and women like patrolman parks who are willing to wear the uniform and take the risk. his death is not in vain and his community has already demonstrated an outpouring of support to show how grateful they are for his service. honoring his life is also a tribute to his family, whom we know are the most important thing to him. he surrounded himself with the love of his mother, jacqueline, his wife, christina, and his brother. his son, husband, dad, friend, and colleague is gone too soon. he will live in the hearts and minds of those he cared for. our thoughts and prayers remain with the jonesboro community, those who served alongside officer parks, and all those that loved him. may he rest in peace and may his

may he rest in peace and may his example inspire future service and sacrifice. i yield the floor to senator cotton and thank him for his constant efforts to champion our law enforcement community. mr. cotton: i join senator boozman again. this july jonesboro policeman vincent parks died at the central law enforcement training academy. he was on the force for 32 days. parks was a native arkansan and dedicated family man survived by his loving wife christina and his daughter. he is remembered as a kind and joyful man with an infectious smile and positive attitude that could fill a room. for 14 years he had a good, stable job. but he felt a calling to do more and to serve the community where he was born. so in june of this year he answered that calling, and at the age of 38 he joined the jonesboro police department.

tragically, only a month into this noble new chapter of his life, officer parks started showing signs of medical distress during training. he suffered a severe heart attack on the way to the hospital and was pronounced dead later that day. all of arkansas was saddened by the news of this good and dedicated man that was taken from his family and community so young and too early, but his memory, spirit and example endure. may god bless and keep vinny parks and may god bless and keep all of our heroic fallen officers. madam president, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senior senator from connecticut. mr. blumenthal: thank you, madam president. madam president, i ask that there be unanimous consent that the judiciary committee be discharged from further consideration of h.r. 680, and

the senate proceed to its immediate consideration. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: h.r. 680, an act for the relief of kadar, barish kadar and verdana kadar. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection, the committee is discharged and the mr. blumenthal: madam 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. blumenthal: thank you, madam president. this measure provides relief through h.r. 680 for arpita kadakar and her parents, karish and vena dana.

arpita came from india in 2014 to pursue higher education. like so many students before her, she was drawn to the strength of our universities. she started her master's degree at the university of buffalo. heartbreakingly and tragically in september of 2016, in a freak accident she was struck by a falling tree and suffered a severe spinal injury that caused her to be paralyzed from the neck down. but her parents came to this country from india to be at her side, to be her aide. and remarkably she's not only survived, but she has thrived. in fact, she's found the strength of will and character to overcome that paralysis. she's now a resident of connecticut as she pursues a phd in structural engineering at the

university of connecticut while working as a graduate research fellow and research assistant. her research is on the cutting edge, exploring how technologies, including virtual reality, can enhance learning opportunities in engineering and arts. it is a miraculous story. here she has access to the physical therapy to other resources that she needs and services, and of course her parents are essential to her performance and indeed her thriving as she has done. if she's forced to return to india, she would have drastically reduced opportunities for her and also for this country which is benefiting enormously from her work. and she would have needed access to physical care and therapy

that was unavailable there. she would have effectively been homebound due to the lack of accessibility for the disabled. in all kinds of ways, her life will now be productive and rewarding to her and to this country. that's why in recognition of those very difficult circumstances, the kirkador family has been accorded the permanent status to stay here as a result of our passing this bill without objection, in effect unanimously here. and i thank my colleagues for that action. i also want to talk briefly about the afghan adjustment bill, because i've just come from the senate swamp, the lawn outside the capitol, where a group representing the veterans and afghan allies and others who have traveled across the

country, who have been literally on the steps of our capitol to tell us nesk that we have an obligation to the at-risk afghan allies, literally thousands of them who have come here and have only a limited amount of time under their current status, the humanitarian parole, and then could be deported back to afghanistan and to a place where they would have targets on their back, where they would face persecution, torture, death. we need to give them permanent status here. we need to provide these men and women who have risked their lives for our country and put their futures on the line for us the safety and security of staying in this country. we cannot turn our backs on the afghan allies who managed to

escape in those frightful days last summer. nor can we turn our backs to the at-risk afghan allies who remain there. and i have advocated their cause, i've championed their plight for the months since we withdrew from afghanistan. and i will pledge to them, to our veterans who have so bravely advocated this cause, and to the afghan allies who have come to this country, that we will continue this fight. some of these individuals are former afghan special forces, some are female members of the afghan defense force who accompanied our troops and provided vital intelligence that saved countless american lives. overall, these afghan allies now at risk worked with our

troops and diplomats, helped to save their lives and guide them. i know from my son's own experience as a united states marine corps officer, that our men and women in combat were in fact saved and made secure because of their interpreters, their guides, their translators, all who worked with our troops and diplomats. we must honor our commitment to them. they put their lives on the line for us. a failure would be a stain on our national honor, great nations keep their promises, and that is what the afghan adjustment act would enable us to do. we need to pass it next session if we cannot do it this session. i regret that right now it's not part of the omnibus budget bill, but our bipartisan group -- and it is truly

bipartisan, and we have the votes to pass it, even with the 60-vote threshold -- will continue fighting and working for this cause. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. mr. blumenthal: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from connecticut. mr. blumenthal: i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to executive session to consider the following nominations en bloc -- calendar 1171, 1189, 1190, 1191, 1192, 1193, 1200. and the senate vote on the nominations en bloc without intervening action or debate, the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, that the pred be

immediately -- the president be meestled notified of the senate's action and the senate resume legislative session. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. the question occurs on the nominations en bloc. all those in favor say aye. all those in favor say aye. all opposed no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the nominations are confirmed en bloc. mr. blumenthal: thank you, mr. president. i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

>> here's what's happening today on capitol hill. the president of ukraine, volodymyr zelenskyy, is visiting washington, d.c. and will be addressing a joint meeting of congress at 7:30 eastern time. we'll have live coverage of his visit and remarks to congress on the c-span networks. today lawmakers confirmed lynn tracy to be the next u.s. ambassador to russia, the first woman observe in the role. law makers working on funding the government through september 30 next year while facing friday's deadline to avert a government shutdown. in the house, work on several bills including awarding congressional gold medaling to emmett till and his mother who was lynched in 1955. he was 14 years old. also in the house a measure to provide equal compensation for athletes regardless of jend gender when they represent the u.s. many amateur or athletic competitions. you can watch live coverage of the house on c-span and live

coverage of the senate right here on c-span3 -- c-span2. if >> this will be a day to the remember in the history of the united states congress when we welcome president volodymyr zelenskyy of ukraine. this is president zelenskyy's first trip outside ukraine since the beginning of russia's invasion. the president of this young democracy will address members from both claimers in a joint meeting of congress. it's always a high honor to welcome to a foreign head of state to congress, but it's nearly unheard of to hear from a leader who is fighting for his life, fighting for his country's survival and fighting to preserve the very idea of democracy. it shows the importance president zelenskyy places on us

continuing to give him robust help. where winston churchill stood generations ago, so too president zelenskyy stands not just as a president, but also as an ambassador to freedom itself. winston churchill, let me just say that again r: mr. president, i understand we're in a quorum call, and i would ask unanimous consent that that quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. moran: mr. president, thank you very much. we are debating, discussing and hopefully concluding our work on something called an omnibus appropriations bill. i certainly decry the method by which the committee, the senate, and the congress work in regard to appropriations bill. i'm a member of that appropriations committee, but there is no reason, none, that we could not do as we are supposed to do, as we are

intending to do, 12 separate appropriations bills one at a time, opportunity for the committees to have hearings with witnesses, to debate and discuss the content of that appropriations bill, pass it out of the committee, send it to the senate and let other members of the senate who are not on the appropriations committee amend and discuss and debate that section of what today, tonight, this week becomes this large all-encompassing bill. we all would be better off if we broke this down into the 12 separate parts that are now combined into this one large bill. we would know much more about it and the deliberations would be more forthright. and we would have less likelihood of something being contained in the bill that there was objection to it being there. so i hope in the new senate, the new congress beginning in january, we as appropriators, we as members of the senate work

hard to go back to the way things were before i was ever in the senate, in which there is a budget, 12 appropriations bill then fill in the spaces on that budget, and then ultimately every member of the united states senate has input into the outcome. i want to highlight something that's in the appropriations bill that we are discussing and considering at this point in time. before i do that, i want to again indicate that one of the most important components to me in this legislation is the opportunity for us to more fully fund those who serve in our military and better care for our veterans who have served. there is some suggestion that we are rushing to complete this legislation before the new year. the reality is we are, again because of the process that we have failed to follow, we're behind in the system. it's not that we are advancing a

bill that was something to take advantage of in the future. we're three months behind in passing appropriations bill that was due at the end of the fiscal year, september 30, three months ago. and if we wait to pass an appropriations bill into the new year, we're supposed to have our appropriations process completed in march. we'll just be beginning the discussion, debate about the old bill, the bill for this year at the time in which we're supposed to be advancing the conversation, debate, and outcome of a bill to fund the and in the process of doing so, we will have left our military flatline funding and the challenges we face in this country are so significant that no additional dollars to the department of defense, even for a short period testify time, a month, six weeks, three months, a year, that is damaging in

significant defense inflation. so it is important for us to complete our work at a timely fashion, and unfortunately for us that timely fashion is already three months ago. in this bill, in a bipartisan fashion, we were successful in adding a number of provisions to the bill that advance the cause of those who served our nation. so my point, first of all is, for those men and women who serve in our military today, they deserve something different than old funding or no funding or continued funding at a flatline level and for our military men and women who served in the past, our veterans, they deserve many of the provisions that are now included in the appropriations package. our military, as we know, is is

comprised from those who chose to serve and they have preserved the gift of freedom that we have in this country and what we should always cherish. in asking brave men and women to serve, generally young, we make, as a nation, a promise to them and their families that their government will assist them in successfully returning to civilian life after their service. specifically i think we promise those who serve help for them in transitioning to civilian life through education, training, and economic assistance to, to prove them medical care for their injuries or diseases incurred during their service and to compensate them financially if those injuries prevent them from meeting their full earning potential. as we consider the fy-2023 appropriation package, there are

a few veterans bills included in this to meet the changing needs of american veterans, the joseph maxwell cleland health care improvement act, honoring two members -- previous members of the united states senate, including my successor in tt seat i -- in the seat i hold in the united states senate, senator bob dole. he, himself, not only a kansan, but a significantly wounded veteran and an individual who never stopped fighting for his fellow veterans, it is an honor to name this legislation with his respect in mind. this legislation, described in that title, this legislation delivers new benefits and improved resources for the v.a., including a specific bill that i

introduced, one we called in short word, gap, guaranteeing health access to personal who served. that act builds upon previous legislation and efforts to continue to lay a groundwork necessary to transform the v.a. into a modernized innovative health care system. it includes protections to safeguard veterans access to care from highly qualified providers in v.a. medical facilities and through the v.a. network to help veterans across the country, including those in rural, a significant component of my state and yours, and remote communities, that those veterans get the need when they need it, where they need it and when they want it. it will allow veterans to schedule their own appointments just like if they were receiving

care elsewhere. there is the strong, strong veterans act, a set of mental health legislation. this would require the veterans administration to conduct outreach on the rollout of 988 as the new suicide and crisis hotline. the strong act includes my 9/11 health care improvement act which would improve access to mental health health care and direct the department to conduct critical research on brain health. lastly this mental health package includes a bill to provide outreach to american indians and alaska native veterans. we need to do all we can do to care for those who borne the

battle. i urge the passage of the provisions in this bill for these veterans, it's included in the entire omnibus spending package. mr. president, i know that you dedicated attention to the veterans you know and care about. i look forward to working with you and my colleagues to continue to make sure that those who served our country receive what they're entitled to. mr. president, this bill, in its entirety, beyond just these provisions related to veterans, is a way to help those who serve our nation today and honor, respect and provide for those who served our nation in the past. mr. president, i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from montana. mr. daines: mr. president, millions of acres in the national forest in montana and across the west are at extreme risk of catastrophic wildfire and throwing money at the

problem is not going to solve it. one of the biggest barriers to responsible force, is the ninth circuit cottonwood decision that dates back to 2015. in a nutshell, the cottonwood proposal imposed a crippling consequence on land management. that's not just what i or leaders of the wood products industry believe. it's exactly what the obama administration feared when they fought against the cottonwood decision in 2016, hoping the united states supreme court would overturn it. well, they didn't overturn it. in fact, they said congress needs to solve this discrepancy between the ninth circuit and tenth circuit court. so for six years we've been working to reverse this

disastrous ninth circuit cottonwood ruling so we would have continuity across the united states instead of just the exception with the ninth circuit states. for six years there's been a good bipartisan effort with strong support from conservation sportsmen groups to do just that. in fact, earlier this year, i added a bipartisan bill ■that would fully and permanently fix this ninth circuit cottonwood decision and it cleared the energy and natural resources committee with a very strong bipartisan vote. in fact, it was all primed to get across the finish line this year in this congress. and, by the way, healthy forest management, what it does is it improves wildlife hab habitat, because catastrophic wildfires destroy habitats, and it restores watersheds, when you have a catastrophic wildfire, it

affects the trout habitat. they provide jobs for the timber industry that are needed badly in many parts of montana. when i was a kid growing up in montana, we he had over 30 active sawmills, today we're down to a handful. somehow this bipartisan, urgently needed reform was left out. let me paint you a picture of the effects of the cottonwood decision. this ruling has stalled hundreds of wildlife, wildfire i met i mt mitigation, it stalled wildfire restoration projects across multiple forests. and, sadly, the conditions in our national forest have deteriorated and too often these catastrophic wildfires have occurred on the same acres where management was stalled due to this cottonwood decision. and sadly it's only going to get

worse. this ninth circuit created a split in the courts, creating two different standards forest management across the united states. all my bill does is it applies a common standard, the same standard across the whole country which that would include montana and the other ninth circuit states. and the time to make this fix is now. in march of 2018, congress passed some partial reforms to respond to the cottonwood decision, but even these fixes expired in march of 2023. a few months ago, the forest service testified that the failure to act by march, as in about three months from now, will have devastating impacts on land management. in fact, according to the forest service in their testimony, if

we don't pass my bipartisan bill now, at least 100 forest plans will need to go through reconsultation and red tape for no justified reason, resulting in years of delays and millions of dollars wasted. not to mention it will also undermine the investments that we made here in congress in the great american outdoors act, probably the greatest conservation win we've seen in 50 years in washington, d.c. mr. president, the failure to pass my cottonwood solution is bad for wildlife, it's bad forest health, it's bad for habitat and it's dangerous for local communities. there's no doubt the summers are getting longer, they're warmer, this is an important mitigation strategy to address the issues of warmer summers and longer summers, longer fire seasons. i can tell you i'm deeply disappointed, after years of

bipartisan work, and the energy and natural resources committee passed this 16-4, in a strong bipartisan vote, sadly this has fallen through the cracks during this very broken process here in d.c. related to budgets, and it will fail to pass when it is so desperately needed. by the way, it doesn't cost anything. there is no need for a pay for. this is a commonsense bipartisan fix, it reflects the obama administration position from six years ago, it's supported by mainstream conservation and sportsman group from the left, center, and right, and i will not stop fighting on this to ensure we pass this commonsense forced management policy, that generates tax revenues because you get more timber harvest going on by improving the land escape and we need to overturn this disastrous cottonwood

decision. this bill should have been and needed to have passed this year, but we're not going to give up the fight. thank you..

the presiding officer: the senator from glare. mr. carper: are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are not. mr. carper: mr. president, i rise today along with my colleague and partner on the environment and public works committee, senator shelley moore capito to celebrate passage of this year's water resources development act and the presiding officer and i have talked about this legislation many times as he's provided input to the bill along with 97 other united states senators. all 100, all 100, all 50 states have provided input to this legislation. as our colleagues may recall, the water resources development act, wrda passed the -- the senate passed the national defense authorization act known as ndaa by a vote of 83-116789 i'll say that again.

the senate passed the national defense authorization act known as ndaa by a vote of 83-11. it's not often we pass legislation with that level of bipartisan support. the committee that senator capito and i lead do that often, often. i'm pleased because this defense bill included the water resources development act of 2022 also known as wrda. our wrda bill became the vehicle through which we advanced the defense bill. that doesn't happen every day. but we're proud of that and delighted that it's worked out this way. water resources bill -- people say what do they do? what does the wrda bill do? it authorizes the activities of the u.s. army corps of engineers. i'm a navy guy but i have huge respect for the army, especially the folks at the army corps of engineers. wrda 2022 continues the two-year cycle for water resources development act. our committee has had a decade,

five wrda bills in a row in the last ten years of completing these reauthorizations on time, on time. this year's wrda is historic. not only is wrda 2022 an ambitious water resources bill but it's also the product of a steadfast commitment to bipartisanship. and senator capito and i have sought inputs from all 100 senators when we started working on wrda last year. the final legislation represents an agreement between the two chambers of congress on our respective army corps reauthorization legislation. before delving into what we accomplished in wrda 2022, let me just say how proud i'm -- i am to coauthored this legislation with senator capito along with chairman defast crow and ranking member graves on the house, transportation, and infrastructure committee. i also want to recognize senators cardin and kramer as well as representatives

napolitano and rouser, the subcommittee chairs and ranking members of the house transportation and infrastructure committees. their leadership was instrumental in helping us develop this legislation. i cannot overstate just how important the corps' work is to our nation's economic growth, mr. president. they're a principal stew water of our country's water infrastructure. the corps' responsibilities include improving our ports and waterways to enable trade with other nations, restoring our systems to support fisheries, to support tourism, support recreation. advancing flood management solutions to make communities more resilient to climate change and to extreme weather. without these wrda bills, our nation's economy would suffer. our future would be diminished. wrda 2022 enables the corps to continue to operate and maintain

america's water highway, a 1200-mile long system of inland waterways with 209 lockes that are vital. each year more than 500 million tongs of commodities move through the system. think about that. over 500 million tons of commodities move through the system, including 60% of our nation's agriculture exports. operating and maintaining the system results in economic benefit to our country of nearly $14 billion each year. wrda 2022 also supports safe and reliable and efficient navigation at our coastal ports. as we've seen over the past two years now, navigable shipping channels are essential to keeping global supply chains moving. more than 99% of u.s. overseas trade volume moves 13,000 miles of coastal channels maintained by the corporation which together -- corps which together

support over 30 million jobs across our country. wrda 2022 recognizes the economic importance of our nation's commercial ports and shipping channels. as a recovering governor, i often say that it's our responsibility as elected officials to help create a nurturing environment for job creation and job preservation. we don't create the jobs. what we do is help create the nurturing environment that leads to job creation. but maintaining our ports and waterways is a cornerstone of that nurturing environment. addressing the impacts of climate change is also essential to the task of building our nation's prosperity, economic prosperity for all of us. climate change is fueling extreme weather which threatens our coastal and inland communities alike. wrda 2022 makes the most significant boost ever made to the army corps' authority to conduct climate resilient work. climate resilience work is urgently needed.

it's not a matter if the next storm is coming but it's a matter of when. with this in mind the water resources development act of 2022 recognizes the critical role that the corps plays in helping communities adapt to climate change. this bill allows the army corps to better design and implement project, by accounting for the direct impacts of climate change. it will make a big difference in states like delaware, like florida, like texas, just to name a few where we continue to see extreme weather like hurricanes and other storms batter our beaches and coastal communities. in addition to overhauling the corps' project design authorities, wrda 2022 -- the corps' abilities to make our shorelines, stream banks more resilient to extreme weather. in addition to better positioning the -- we also work to rectify historical inequities for tribal and disadvantaged

communities. the legislation establishes a new advisory committee to help the corps more effectively deliver projects, programs, and other assistance to historically underserved communities. this bill also reauthorizes the corps' tribal partnership program and makes a series of targeted improvements to increase opportunities for tribal communities partnering with the corps on essential projects in a more cost effective way for the tribe. and finally, wrda 2022 establishes a new workforce development and stem outreach program at the corps with a priority recruit new engineers from underserved and disadvantaged communities. before i yield the floor to senator capito, i just want to take a moment to thank some of the staff members on both sides of the aisle foe their hard work -- for their hard work and determination in drafting the legislation. senator capito and i along with some of my other colleagues have the privilege of the legislation bearing our names. she and i know we're only as

good as the people we have around us. she has just a terrific group of men and women on her staff and our committee and we believe, i believe we have the same on our side. but on senator capito's staff, i especially like to recognize adam thomason, a fellow from west virginia as i am, along with max hyman, hadden miller. i think all three of these people are native west virginians if i'm not mistaken. kim townson, murphy barrett for their steadfast dedication and partnerships. my staff i would especially like to recognize mary francis repko, staff director. tyler hoffman reardon. maylee voice. jeanine barr and especially john cane who works like a demon, like a tiger leading our water team on our committee. i also want to recognize mark mazone and deanna edwards, the

senate legislative counsel and david wetterrington. and nicole and damon, the congressional affairs staff. the folks at the legislative counsel do a lot of the legislative writing and they are invaluable. the corps and the senate legislative counsel are the unsung heroes of making this legislation happen, though. from fueling the need for numerous projects, updates and helping draft the legislation to providing technical assistance and we are grateful, both of us are extremely grateful for the efforts of all of -- of all of you. sometimes i know people watch television, watch the news and they say why don't they ever find -- why don't they ever work together in washington. in the congress. this legislation is about as clear evidence as you'll ever find that we do work together. we do work together. we put this bill together in a

bipartisan way. we debated it in a bipartisan way, reported out in a bipartisan way. debated on the floor, worked with the house and with the administration, working with the administration in a way that i think most any american could be proud of the way -- this is the way the democratic process is supposed to work and right here, especially with our committee and this legislation, we have done that. but in this holiday season and the season of giving, the water resources development act of 2022 reminds me of a saying by winston churchill. churchill used to say never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense. and on this bill, mr. president, i can proudly say that we have acted on both convictions, we have delivered for our colleagues, we've delivered for our country, and we've done so by enacting important commonsense policies. with that i'm delighted to yield the floor to senator capito. mrs. capito: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from west virginia. mrs. capito: thank you, mr. president. i thank my chairman of the

environment and public works committee for his great statement but also his great work through the year. he did mention several of the bipartisan wins that we have, many of them have been unanimous through the committee because we all know you can't get -- we know you can't get everything you want. you got to give a little to get a little. so i salute him and our staffs for being able to work that out. but today i want to also briefly talk for a few minutes about the bipartisan water resources development act of 2022. the cha irman described it. it's kind of nice to get up here and talk about something that's already passed so we don't really have to be persuasive. we're just reminding members of how important this is in their districts and across their states. i'm grateful to my colleagues for the support of this legislation and i'm pleased that it's now on the way to the president's desk for his signature. through wrda congress authorizes water resources projects and sets national policies for the civil works program of the u.s. army corps of engineers. i live about half a mile from a river that has a lot of commerce

on it. it's very important that the corps is able to do their work, the work of the corporation facilitates commerce throughout the country and internationally. projects along our inland waterways and at our ports enable the movement of cargo while also bolstering our supply chain. we know that natural disasters such as floods and hurricanes can strike at any time. and have devastating consequences of our -- on our communities but the corps' work to protect the lives and livelihoods of millions of americans is supported by the congressional authorization of flood and coastal storm risk management policies that are contained within this bill. since 2014 as the chairman said, we have enacted wrda every two years. and i'm happy to say we're carrying on that tradition. i want to thank again chairman carper for his leadership and dedication and i'd also like to thank our colleagues in the house, chairman of the tni committee which i served for 12 years, chairman peter defazio

and ranking member sam graves. they did great work here and we were able to work out our differences. we would not be here today without their tireless efforts to reach an agreement that addresses members from both sides of the aisle and capitol. i want to thank senators cardin and kramer. we are the four c's we call ourselves, cardin, cramer, carper and capito. if you can say that you'll be in better shape than we are late other tonight as we vote late, i hope. i want to thank them for their partnership. i want to express my gratitude to the staff of our committee, the staff of tni, the staff of the army corps army corps of enr the technical assistance and to the house and senate legislative counsel for their diligence, professionalism and commitment to many long hours throughout this process. i'm pleased that our final agreement with the house maintain the vast majority of the provisions that were in our senate bill. true to the corps' tradition, this bill moves forward projects

that both benefit both local communities and the entire country. specifically the wrda bill authorizes 25 new projects and six modifications to existing projects around the country, including projects for navigation, flood and coastal storm risk management, and ecosystem restoration. and it authorizes more than 100 feasibility studies that will develop solutions to water resource challenges in our years ahead. so smart i think to look to the future. while this bill is very much oriented towards advancing critical projects and studies in our states, it also contains several policy changes that will help the corps better succeed in its civil works missions. the bill bolsters the agency's technical authorities. specifically the flood plain management services and planning assistance to states' programs. every state is different. and we know that some of these challenges are vast. it authorizes the corps to conduct outreach and the chairman mentioned this to ensure that our communities are

knowledgeable in the ways in which the agency can help them with their water resources needs. the bill makes important improvements to the partnership program and other authorities to assist our tribes. it also expands existing programs and includes new authorities to assist communities that are economically disadvantaged, including those located in rural areas. it requires reporting on timelines -- requires reporting on timelines for the environmental review process for projects. we know that is essential. the bill directs the gao to conduct a review of projects that are over budget and delayed as well as review of the corps' mitigation practices for these projects. it provides flexibility. every state is different to our nonfederal sponsors with respect to accounting and fulfilling cost-share obligations for projects. it also authorizes for the first time a dedicated research and development account for the corps to spur innovation and

provides contracting flexibility in undertaking these activities. the bill rolg science -- reports, science, engineering and math or our stem fields. the input of nonfederal interest is critical to successfully solving water infrastructure challenges now and in the future. sco the bill establishes a new advisory committee for nonfederal interests to voice their opinions on how the corps can better meet their needs and improve project delivery. we also preserve the integral roll of nonproject sponsors by avoiding mandates from washington, d.c. and assuring that the corps continues to evaluate a full array of solutions during the feasibility study phase. in addition to my role as ranking member of the epw, i represent the great state of west virginia where my chairman was born. and i worked to address the

needs of my home state in this bill. i'll give a few highlights that will benefit the lives of west virginians. first, the legislation advances a critical flood control project in the city of milton. authorized in the 1990's, this project is a long time coming, and i am proud to have helped move it forward in these recent years. the bill also works to support dploold studies for the -- flood control studies in the city of huntington, provide environmental assistance for drinking and wastewater for our communities throughout the state. finally the bill will provide additional critical support to river bank stabilization such as those in the canol river in the capitol city. there are a lot of this bill for both sides of the aisle in communities across the country. it is a culmination of true bipartisan, bicameral effort and represents our shared goal of addressing our nation's water resources needs. i'm proud of our epw committee as we continue to be one of the

most active, cooperative and fruitful committees of this congress. i would say as a side note, when people ask me how do we get things done, how do we find the answer to something like permitting reforms, you use the committees. you use the committees like you use our committee or another committee to find the solutions and get the ideas from both sides and hammer out the differences. that's how you get things across the finish line. again, the chairman went through the staff but i'm going to take the liberty of going through the staff too because i want to thank them as well. they worked many long nights on this. from chairman carper's staff, marry francis, john kaine, jordan bal, tyler reardon, mike goodell and jeanine barr. from my staff, kim townsend, katherine scarlet and hayden miller. i would like to thank the senate

leg counsel, deanna edwards and the u.s. corps of engineer, dave webbington and countless other towrns -- attorneys and technical staff. we want them to know how much we appreciate them on behalf of of not just the committee but on behalf of the american people. thank you all, all of you in this chamber for getting wrda2022 across the line. i appreciate my colleagues supporting this important legislation and am looking forward to see the president signing it. with that, i yield back, mr. president. mr. carper: mr. president, how much time do we have remaining? the presiding officer: there is no time agreement at the moment. mr. carper: i ask unanimous consent for another 30 seconds. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. carper: i'm reminded, senator capito, we're both west virginia kids but i'm reminded of something that comes out of

another continent, africa. if you want to go fast, go alone. if you want to go far, go together. we've gone together. we've gone together, not just the two of us, not just our committee, but the entire united states senate had the opportunity to provide input here. we've come up with a great product and are grateful to everyone who's been a part of it. look forward to the president signing it and doing good things for all of our states. with that, i yield the floor, and thank you very much. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from florida. mr. scott: the crisis at the united states southern border is raging out of control. unlike joe biden, i've traveled down to the southern border to hear from local leaders, law enforcement and border patrol agents. i had the opportunity to talk to border patrol in arizona and texas and listened as they told me about how hard their job has become thank to joe biden's radical open border policies. these men and women are absolutely heroes. in places like yuma, border patrol agents encounter illegal migrants every day, some of whom are dangerous criminals and

even terrorists. others are just families victimized by the cartels. i encountered a family from haiti during my last visit. i watched them cross the border through a massive hole in the border wall caused by joe biden's decision not to complete the already paid for wall. these families are victims of the cartels. once in america many live a life of endangered servitude and debilitating debt in which they have to send nearly all their money back to the savage cartels. these people and their families are owned by the cartels and joe biden is letting it happen. many of the children are trafficked. they are put with people they don't even know. we know so many women and children who make this journey are brutally victimized and raped. still the cartels push these families over the border. it's all just money to them. joe biden is making the cartelses richer. that's why our -- cartelled richer. that's what our border patrol agents are up against.

massive supplies to complete the border are already paid for by the american taxpayer and are sitting in piles in the desert going to to waste. the biden administration refuses to use these because they want an open border. secretary mayorkas testified that the border is closed. really? look at el paso. mr. president, i told secretary mayorkas that he might be the only person in america who actually believes the border is secure. he's it. the truth is many of my colleagues and i know, have seen with our eyes that the border is wide open. since joe biden took office more than five million people have illegally crossed our southern border. it is about to get a lot worse since president biden is allowing title 42 to end. thank god the supreme court kept title 42 in place for now. up to 18,000 people a day will be illegally storming across the border every day once title 42 is lifted and joe biden still doesn't have a plan. the biden administration once

said -- the obama-biden administration once said a thousand attempted crossings a day would be a crisis. what does president biden call 18,000 a day? he created a disaster. that's why i'm here with my good friend from iowa, senator joni ernst. we think it's time to end the madness on the southern border and if joe biden won't do his job we should let the states take care of it themselves. i was a governor, so i know i might be -- i think governors know what works best for their individual states way better than the federal government does here in washington, d.c. remember i mentioned the massive piles of wall material the biden administration refuses to use? our bill, the build it act, would force the federal government to transfer any material associated with the construction of the southern border barrier to any state upon request so these states can do what joe biden refuses to do. finish the wall. as senator ernst has noted, since president biden's order in january 2021 to cease construction of the southern border barrier went into

effect, the federal government began paying contractors over $3 million a day to look over unused border material. it is estimate that had roughly one-quarter of $1 billion in taxpayer-funded materials are sitting, just sitting on our southern border. instead of just doing his job, upholding our laws and securing the border, president biden is burning $3 million of your tax dollars each and every day so people can baby-sit wall material that he refuses to use. by passing this good bill today we're giving states the ability to provide what biden has failed to deliver. border security and a fighting chance to get this massive humanitarian and national security crisis under control. in florida we're proud to be an immigration state. we love immigration, but it has to be legal. illegal immigration threatens our safety, undermines our legal process, and hurts those who have been waiting to come through legal channels. president biden's system of open border and illegal immigration, we're seeing dangerous individuals trying to come into

this country and drugs are pouring across the border. more than 100,000 americans have died from fentanyl and opioid overdoses in the last year and more are dying every day. doesn't joe biden care about this? our democratic colleagues do not have the luxury of ignoring this crisis any longer. american families cannot take this loss and heartbreak due to incompetence in washington any longer. we must act to secure the border now. floridians and all americans want to live in safe communities where their families can thrive and prosper all across this great country. unfortunately, joe biden's policies have opened borders and amnesty have been a disaster for our nation. he's laid out the welcome mat for traffickers and cartel members and ignored u.s. laws designed to keep american families safe. we can't let this stand any longer because the american people deserve better. i hope our colleagues will stand with senator ernst and me today to pass this bill, then we can work with the house to start truly addressing this crisis before it's too late. i now would like to recognize my

colleague from iowa, senator joni ernst. ms. ernst: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. ms. ernst: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that evan carroll, a military fellow from my office, be granted floor privileges for the remainder of the congress. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. ernst: thank you, mr. president. i want to thank my friend and my colleague from florida for joining me today on the floor to talk about a very important subject which americans are watching unfold every single day on their television. the biden white house claims we've been doing the work to secure the border. in fact, some in the administration have said the border is secure. with thousands of migrants illegally crossing our southern border every single day and drug cartels funneling fentanyl into our communities, the biden

administration's talking points are actually a bunch of malarkey. with the biden administration attempting to do away with title 42, a policy put in place under the trump administration to turn away illegal immigrants, the u.s.-mexico border is going from crisis to catastrophe. our hardworking border patrol agents are overwhelmed. they are exhausted. and they are hurting. they too want a break for the holidays. but sadly, their christmas will be spent dealing with the drug cartels and processing migrants. without title 42 in place, biden administration officials have estimated that nearly 500 ,000 illegal immigrants,

which is almost 100 times the size of my hometown of red oak, iowa, could cross our southern border each month. that's on top of the over 2.2 million border patrol encounters this year, which is half a million more than the previous year. even more concerning, 98 of those apprehended were on the terrorist watch list. on top of this being a humanitarian and national security disaster, biden's open border policies are intensifying our nation's drug epidemic. illicit fentanyl overdoses are now the number-one cause of death among adults ages 18 to 45. this administration has truly

turned every state into a border state. and to make matters worse, the biden administration is telling states they don't have a right to secure their own borders. just last week the biden justice department sued arizona governor doug ducey in an effort to stop the state from constructing its own border barrier. arizona was simply trying to protect americans from drug smuggling and human trafficking. well, arizona, since president biden won't help you, i do have a solution. instead of blocking states from installing much-needed safety precautions, we need to make use of the border wall materials that are already bought and paid

for by american taxpayers. $350 million worth of concrete, steel, and fencing to build the barrier are just sitting idle. collecting dust and rust, and taxpayers are covering the costs to babysit these unused materials. this is government waste at its finest. so, mr. president, i have a question. why not let states who want to build a wall being a access thee already paid for materials. not only would it save money, it would deter the unprecedented number of border crossings we've seen as a result of biden's bored policies. america is, and always has been, a welcoming nation.

but those seeking a better life here have an obligation to respect our laws, including our immigration laws, and the president has a sworn duty to enforce them and to protect the american people. that's why i'm asking the senate today to pass my borders unused idle and lying dormant inventory transfer or the build it act, which would turn over the unused materials already purchased by taxpayers to construct the southern border barriers to finish the job. this bill won't cost a single cent. in fact it will prevent government waste which washington has in excess. it will help end the catastrophe occurring on our border and help

make communities safer from the threat of violent criminals and lethal drugs. folks, there's no way around it. president biden's policies are fostering illegal immigration, creating a national security nightmare and impacting the the lives of far -- impacting the lives of far too many americans both in iowa and across the country, all while costing taxpayers billions of dollars. here's the simple solution. pass the build it act and allow states to put these materials to use. mr. president -- excuse me. madam president, i ask unanimous consent that the committee on homeland security and governmental affairs be discharged from further consideration of s. 4294 and the senate proceed to its immediate consideration. i further ask that the bill be

considered read a third time and passed and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: is there objection? a senator: add madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from michigan. mr. peters: reserving the right to object. this bill seeks to continue ill-advised efforts to fund and build an ineffective border wall. i agree, certainly, that we need to have strong border security, but we need to have smart and cost-effective security measures, not a wall that experts have repeatedly deemed ineffective. there's no one-size-fits all approach to this very complex issue and a wall is not the most effective way to secure our borders. i've long advocated for technology, personnel to help

secure the border which is cost effective. this is not a state-by-state issue, we need a whole government approach to securing our borders and addressing the problem with our migrants. we need to move forward with smart, bipartisan investments that secure all of our borders instead of wasting more taxpayer dollars on a costly and ineffective wall. i urge my colleagues to oppose this misguided bill and therefore i object. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

thank you. [laughter] >> he your guide. although i like him very much. >> unit started with a question. you have started by stating your assembly is in kyiv without the assistance of the united states this is absolutely true the u.s. leadership and this assistance

is strong and again i would like to remind you that your family will be in danger without the armed forces of ukraine. so it's very important. concerning your question what would you like to hear? just peace peace, i don't know what just peace is. it's a very philosophical description. if there is a just war, i don't know. for all of us it's different. for me as the president there are no compromises as to the sovereignty freedom and territorial integrity of my country.

the payback for all the damages inflicted by a russian aggression, i am talking about children and as a father objection. mr. menendez: madam president, we all know the phrase that justice delayed is justice denied. it's a concept that appears in the magna carta, it can be found in martin luther king's letter from a birmingham jail and i'm appalled how we have treated the latino community. i cannot help but think that justice is being delayed and denied for millions of americans. there's simply no way around it. every year with the last votes before leaving town, congress reveals where its priority lie.

with so many key issues and precious little time to insert them in the omnibus, we negotiate to deliver wins for our constituents wf before the senate adjourns. it is only when the final bill text is revealed that communities learn just how hard we fought for them. and this year on issue after issue, latino communities have learned that some of their top priorities were forgotten or ignored. especially after a congress in which we mustered the political courage to pass once in a generational legislation. it is a slap in the face to latinos across our country to seclude them from this latest must-pass legislation. it's an outrage and i come to the floor today to set the record straight on how this chamber has often stood in the way of meaningful equality for the latino community.

take, for example, an issue that i have been leading for almost three decades, the national museum of the american latino. two years ago, this chamber passed bipartisan legislation to establish this museum, along with the american women's history museum. as part of that historic bill, we gave the smithsonian a deadline of next week to make final designations on where they would be built. it's a deadline they were on schedule to meet after announcing two optimal sites on the national mall just a few months ago. but when the smithsonian board of reagents indicated that they would need a legislative fix to proceed before meeting the deadline, members of this body decided to stall the effort in its traction. -- tracks. let me be clear. the legislative fix qtd by

the -- requested by the smithsonian would have added zero dollars to our federal spending. zero. it would have sir circumvented number of the processes that we follow under regular order. rather, it would simply permit the museums to be built where the smith smithsonian considerse the best location, on the national mall. so, mr. president, i asked my colleagues, why? why are we letting opaque closed-door negotiations get away with telling the story of millions of latinos in this country. why are we telling them they don't deserve to be on the national mall where our most iconic museums are? make no mistake, madam president, we belong on the mall. we belong alongside the museum of the american indian, the national museum of

african american history, and we belong in a place where millions of visitors come to learn about their history and their past. the importance of these museums and their locations cannot be overstated. this is about standing shoulder to shoulder with more than 60 million latinos across this country. it's about standing shoulder to shoulder with the tens of thousands of latinos who wore the uniform of the united states and all puerto rican regiment who fought in the korean war and earned the congressional gold medal, as well as many in business and science and the arts that added greatly to our national success. it's about telling them that no matter their politics, background or station in life, that they deserve to be recognized as part of our american story. and i, for one, simply cannot understand how it is that

congress has jeopardized their museum site selection just days before the deadline. mr. president, -- madam president, another glaring omission of my concern is a lack of equity in this year's omnibus bill for the people of puerto rico. throughout my 30 years in congress, i have fought to address the systemic injustices that puerto ricans face when they try to access federal programs. it is unconscionable that i should have to say it, but residents of puerto rico, 3.5 million are united states citizens. they're american citizens, full stop. and as american citizens, they deserve equality of the same earned benefits of those on the mainland, particularly when it comes to medicaid. i have repeatedly fought for more than the smaller term patches we have typically funded these programs. i'm glad we were able to include

a temporary fix for the next five years in the spending package to be considered by the senate soon, but make no mistake, it is the bare minimum of what we should do. as i've said before, short-term solutions do long-term damage to beneficiaries, especially since federal dollars are what allow the islands to stablize their health care system, a health care system that in addition to inadequate funding has had to endure earthquake, hurricanes and constant power outages, if this body is going to acknowledge the reality that puerto ricans are american citizens, if they believe puerto ricans should be able to retain their health care providers while receiving high-quality care, then they will enact a permanent fix to medicaid. it should not matter whether you live on the island or mainland and i will not rest until we have a permanent commitment for the american citizens of puerto

rico. i implore my colleagues to stand with me when we reconvene in the next congress. who migrated to the united states, the continuous mistreatment of migrants under the southern border. title 42 is a disastrous relic of the racist immigration policies. it is grounded in the ideology that latino refugees don't deserve humanitarian protections under our laws. that my colleagues received, that millions of immigrant families have received for generations.

which we all know was a shoddy excuse by the trump administration to achieve their goal of shutting down our asylum system. under the biden administration it is as callous as it was when it was first enacted in 2020. why? it is an affront to our nation's values. it goes against every word etched on the statue of liberty. as it works its way through the courts, i've been hearing my colleagues, including some on this side of the aisle to defend it. but they're wrong for two reasons. title 42 has made border security an issue that latino communities care deeply about, far worse at our southern border and it has denied access to our asylum system for refugees fleeing persecution and torture.

they're not mexicans, they're cubans venezuelans and nicaragianss. why? because they are fleeing oppression in those countries. the only countries that benefit from extending title 42 are the smuggling networks that exploit migrants, predominately black and brown migrants who we turn away before adjudicating why they chose to migrate. beyond that, title 42 is a failure by the very metric it seeks to effect. it's the favorite talking point of right-wing media pundits who claim that the united states is phasing an invasion of migrants

who want to change our way of life. to back it up, they point to data released by border protection showing there's been an increase on the southwest land border. but what their dog whistles ignore is the reason for this increase. simply put it has become the -- to allow migrants to try and try and try again if they are appear apprehended by immigration authorities because it circumvents our legal asylum process where we should be adding resources and manpower to come to a final determination many yes, you qualify under our law. you're welcome. no, you don't qualify under our law, you're deported. and end the -- so when you see those numbers, it could be the

same person trying ten times. a process that would determine a person is eligible for asylum or not and if not, seek permanent deportation instead of having them return through the revolving door. considering an amendment to prolong the damage of title 42 is the last thing this body should be doing in order to advance the omnibus spending bill. considering an extension of title 42 when we have millions of dreamers, young people who know only the pledge of allegiance and the flag of the united states as their flag who know only the national anthem of the united states as their national anthem and who still cannot become u.s. citizens and the millions of people waiting to legally be reunified with their families in the u.s. who are u.s. citizens is the greatest failure of all. and finally, we come to the issue of latino representation in our leadership offices and on

the senate floor and the lack thereof shows the incredible disregard for our community. these are just a few examples of how the senate has failed the latino community in this last bill of the year. relegating the latino museum as something less than worthy of being on the national mall. failing to deliver equal and permanent parity for the three and a half million united states citizens who call puerto rico their home. seeking to prolong title 42's harmful impact on our country. failing to have us represented in our leadership operations. and i recognize the fact that some of my colleagues may disagree with some of the points i've made, but you cannot ignore them. for 30 years in congress, i've been speaking up for the equal opportunity, equal justice, and equal dignity that latinos deserve. i have no plans of stopping any

time soon. for as long as i'm here, i'll be speaking truth to power for a community that too often has been told to wait your turn, wait your turn. to be thankful for whatever you're given and to not rock the boat. [speaking non-english]. this is not felice and a half dad. it's more like bah humbug. we contribute more than $2 trillion to the gross domestic product of this country. we have wornl the uniform of the united s in incredible numbers disproportionate to our size of the american population and we have shed blood and gave our lives for the country. and we will not be cast aside and ignored by the powers that be. you cannot appeal to us at election time and for sake us the rest of the time, not as

long as i'm in this seat, not as long as i have this desk with this voice and this fierce urgency to what is right to do for latinos and latinos in this country as full citizens of the united states. with that, madam president, i yield the floor.

a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from pennsylvania. mr. casey: thank you, madam president. i would ask consent to speak as if in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. casey: and i'm aware we're not in a quorum call, correct? thank you, ma'am. i rise today almost as we get to the early evening during this week when hanukkah, the festival of lights is being celebrated to speak about the evil of anti-semitism and the trauma and darkness it causes in all of america. this past november the 18th, i visited the site of the

deadliest attack on the jewish community in all of american history, the tree of life synagogue in pittsburgh, pennsylvania, a killer full of rage entered the synagogue during morning services on october 27, 2018, and massacred 11 pennsylvanians from three different jewish congregations and injured six others, including four law enforcement officers who had responded in just minutes to the site. these jewish americans who died ranged in age from the ages of 54 to 97. visiting the site four years later this past november was both moving and disturbing as we walked through a house of worship frozen in time from that

awful day. the venemous hate that motivated the killer to take so many lives in a murderous rampage was unabated when he was arrested. he was making anti-semitic statements even as he was apprehended and was being treated by first responders. the evil, the evil that attacked the jewish worshipers in philadelphia that day is the same evil, the very same evil that targets americans based upon their race and gender or whom they love or how they worship. too often unlike any other nation in the world, this evil, this hate is coupled with the easy availability of powerful weapons which results in the mass shootings we've seen in so many communities in america. just by way of a very small limited set of examples.

mother emanuel amy church in charleston, south carolina, paul's nightclub in orlando, florida, a walmart in el paso, texas, a grocery store in buffalo, new york, and club q in colorado springs, colorado. now, the following data -- and these are numbers but they tell part of the story -- these numbers, this data should alarm any american. in 2022 the antidefamation league that we know as adl published anti-semitic incidents and reported over 2,700 anti-semitic incidents throughout the united states just in 2021. this was a 34% increase from 2020. and the highest number on record since adl began tracking incidents in 1979.

the rise of hate is further documented by congressional testimony from fbi director christopher wray. at a senate judiciary committee hearing in august 2022, director wray stated that the top -- and i'm quoting him -- the top domestic terrorism threat we face continues to be from domestic violent extremists we categorize as racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists, unquote. director wray later highlighted that the number of fbi investigations of suspected domestic violent extremists has more than doubled since the spring of 2020. this continued an upward trend when director wray testified in march of 2021 that investigations had also doubled since 2017 to more than 2,000 investigations and that the number of investigations into white supremacists had tripled.

furthermore, on december 12 of this year, the fbi released its annual hate crime report and reported over 7,200 -- let me say that number again -- 7,200 hate crime incidents just in 2021, the third largest number in the past decade. and of course december 12 is not the end of the year. this number is even more shocking considering the massive undercounting and lack of data used to compile the report which the fbi readily acknowledged. due to the transition to a new reporting system, only about two-thirds of police departments across the nation, a significant drop from last year reported data. some states, for example, florida and california had almost no reporting with only two jurisdictions in florida and 15 in california sending data. unfortunately my home state of pennsylvania was not far behind

with just 41 agencies reporting data to the fbi. several major cities, including new york, las las, miami, and chicago did not provide any statistics or simply reported zero. so while the underreporting is a concern and must be addressed, it is even more concerning that we would have likely seen record high reports of hate crimes across the nation had police departments participated at similar levels as in prior years. this data is further reespecially forced by the lived experience of too many americans across this nation. by way of one example, in a "wall street journal" article from december 15 entitled, quote, anti-semitism on the rise at the colleges, unquote, a student at rutgers university at newark, unanimous, spoke of needing to take indirect routes to class and hiding her star of

david necklace under her shirt to avoid harassment from other students. citing the adl's argument of the anti-semitic arguments, this article note that vandalism, threats, and slurs on college campuses directed at jewish students has more than tripled -- trip released -- from 41 in 2014 to 155 in 2021. every incident, of course, fueled by hate and extremism does not result in death. often, as evidenced by the example in "the wall street journal," hateful acts involve vandalism, destruction of property, bullying, or harassment, just to name a few. but these acts are the manifestation of evil as well. incidents involving such hate, deadly or not, are contrary to american values, including the values inherent in the

inscription on our currency -- e pluribus unum, from many, one -- one country, one nation that is strengthened by our diversity. that's the source of our strength, our diversity. people of different ethnicities, faiths, and points of view have come together over generations to build our democracy and to build the most powerful nation on earth. any american -- any american -- who claims to support american values that our people hold dear while engaging in arrangements that constitute anti-semitism is a hypocrite and a threat to all of us. it's a disgusting perversion of christianity to make anti-semitic or other hateful statements or, worse -- worse -- to act violently against someone because they are jewish, because they are transgender or of a different race.

from the parable of a good is a samaritan, jesus taughts to love all -- all -- those that we meet on the road of life. anti-semitism, racism, or other hateful ideologies are contrary to our values but also not just contrary to american values but contrary to the values inherent in all religions. each of us as citizens have a moral and civic obligation to speak out against anti-semitism and racism. those who are public officials or public figures have a heightened obligation, a duty to condemn categorically anti-semitism acts, anti-semitic acts, rhetoric, or other conduct whether those conducts, rhetoric , involve a president, a recording artist or an athlete or any other american.

of course, the united states senate must speak with one voice against anti-semitism and racism, both here at home and around the world. the senate did act in 2021 to pass the covid-19 hate crimes act, after the rise of hate crimes against asian americans during the pandemic. but an action like that -- that's why i was proud to support the domestic terrorism prevention act when senate democrats tried to pass it in may after the racially motivated mass shooting in buffalo, and the leader of that effort is our distinguished majority whip, senator durbin, who is with us here on the floor. and i appreciate his worth this trying to pass that -- his work 0en that trying to that is legislation. i was also pleased that the biden administration announced a new interagency task force charged with developing and coordinating a national strategy

to counter anti-semitism and other forms of bias and discrimination in the united states. this announcement was followed in response to a december 5 letter that i joined along with 124 bipartisan colleagues in the house and the senate calling on president biden to, quote, take a whole of government approach to address the, quote, scourge of antisex, unquote, including establishing an interagency task force. so i stand ready to work with colleagues in the new congress to ensure that we're taking steps necessary to combat this growing threat of hate and extremism. but even in these dark times, madam president, it's critical to hold up and recognize those who are lighting the path forward to ending identity-based hate. not merely lighting the path for pits but for the nation -- for

pittsburgh but for the nation and for the world by coming together to establish the remember, rebuild, renew campaign. remember, rebuild, renew. that's their campaign. and the city of bridges, as pittsburgh is known throughout the world, it is fitting that the tree of life community, that -- members of that congregation and synagogue -- is trying to connect communities across the world as a leader in the fight against anti-semitism and other forms of identity-based highlight. rooted in honoring and remembering those who tragically lost their lives on october 27, 2018, the community will repair and preserve the tree of life building as an historic synagogue while establishing a museum, memorial, and educational center to inspire and empower those in that community and around the world to stand up against

anti-semitism. never before have we seen such a transformative, multidisciplinary approach under one roof and on such hallowed ground to bring people together in our fight against hate and anti-semitism. as rabbi meyers shared with me, tree of life is striving to transform the site of a tragedy into one of hope and inspiration for future generations to come. it is striving to fulfill the the the the long-standing jewish concept of repairing the "u.s. news & world report." through remembrance and -- through remembrance and rue newly, tree of life is lighting the way forward for all of us to finally counter the root causes of hate and end once and for all anti-semitism. we owe it to every survivor, family member, and the community members impacted to join them on

this important journey. may the memories of the victims at tree of life be for a blessing. with that, madam president, i would yield the floor. mr. casey: madam president, i ask unanimous consent that the president of the senate be authorized to appoint a committee on the part of the senate to join with a like committee on the part of the house of representatives to escort his excellency, volodymyr zelenskyy, president of ukraine, into the house chamber for the joint meeting on wednesday,

december 21, 2022. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. casey: i would yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

you are in your ukrainian blue and yellow smi and that's appropriate because this will be a day to remember in the history of the united states congress when we welcomed president vladimir galens -- volodymyr zelensky of the crane. this is presence allowed his first trip outside of the crane since the beginning of russia's invasion. the president of this young

democracy will address members from both chambers in a joint meeting of congress. it's always a high honor to welcome a foreign head state of congress but it's nearly unheard of to hear from a leader who is fighting for his life, fighting for his country survival and fighting to preserve the very idea of democracy. it shows the importance president zelensky places on this continued robust cell. when winston churchill stood generations ago, so to president zelensky stands not just as a president but also as an ambassador to freedom itself. winston churchill, let me say that again because it's so important. where winston churchill stood several generations ago so too will president zelensky stand here today not just as a president. an ambassador. lackburn: thank y, madam president.ckburn: thank y, this past weekend when i was

home and whether i was at church or other activities, i would hear from tennesseans. and they were just so focused on what we were hearing about the twitter files. they are very concerned and disturbed about the lengths to which the fbi and other government agencies have gone to to suppress political free speech online. the documents released to date especially give them pause because it shows them what it looks like when the power of big tech and the power of the deep state work together against the american people. now, most people understand that the government and law enforcement sometimes work with private companies, and when it comes to removing things like material depicting child sexual

abuse from their platforms, that's something that tech platforms should be doing. but in this case, they were work working together to -- working together to suppress free speech on behalf of a political narrative, a viewpoint that they held. and words they disagreed with. the existence of the fbi's foreign influence task force is not a secret. the agency created it in 2017 to counteract foreign influence operations targeting the united states. if you don't look too closely, the task force seems like a reasonable response to an emerging threat to our nation's security. but, in reality, the entire scheme is predicated on the notion that a threat is whatever

the task force deems it to be. in a batch of documents in reporting released on sunday, we learned that in the months leading up to the 2020 election, the task force became frustrated after twitter employees indicated they hadn't seen much to suggest that foreign countries like russia were using the platform to spread propaganda. so, what did the fbi do? they went on a fishing expedition and pressured decision-makers within the company to abandon the notion that this was about national security. to that end, twitter decided to let the fbi kick the door off the hinges and widen the scope of their own influence online at the expense of the integrity of the platform. and i say widen this because the

fbi, along with the department of homeland security and the intelligence community, had already engaged in a certain amount of mission creep when it came to investigating threats online. both the fbi and dhs routinely pre-flagged content for moderation and sent the names of accounts directly to the fbi's contacts at twitter. several of the accounts sent for review were suspended or shadow banned, yet most of them weren't foreign propaganda at all. they were relatively low-engagement accounts tweeting satire and jokes, and accounts of citizens. many of them were owned by regular people who were obviously on the conservative side of the political spectrum. partisan fbi responded -- the

fbi responded to this by claiming they often work with private companies to provide information on foreign maligned influence attempts. but as we have seen in black and white, most of the moderation requests made by the government didn't fall into that category. instead they focused on low-follower accounts owned by ordinary americans who tweeted opinions that the government did not agree with. these revelations prompt our next question. how did an allegedly serious investigation into influence campaigns devolve into a censorship free-for-all? to find your answer, you have to look all the way back to the 2016 russian election interference story. these allegations were used as pretext to justify the blatant

censorship covered in the twitter files reporting. in november 2020, the fbi used that pretext to justify flagging so many examples of what they called possible content that twitter ememployees were overwhelmed. the story had steam in 2021 when dhs published a brief, and i'm quoting, russian-maligned influencers probably will increasingly use u.s. social media platforms that offer more permissive operating environments, end quote. as i said, that is there, the dhs quote. and of course it was that pretext that led to the most infamous instance of government-driven censorship in recent memory. when twitter suppressed the "new york post" story coverage of

hunter biden's latop, the platform made it clear they had done so because the story was the product of russian meddling. of course this weekend's reporting revealed that twitter employees had repeatedly informed the fbi that they had no evidence of significant russian meddling. twitter told the fbi repeatedly they had no significant evidence of russian meddling. but under pressure from the government, they chose to buy in to an influence operation that originated much closer to home. the fbi had primed the pump months before the latop story broke by telling tech ceo's to expect hacking operations targeting people associated with political campaigns. they also planted seeds with

elected officials in the media and even hosted a table top exercise that mimicked one of those hacking operations. one person they identified as a potential target -- hunter biden. yes, it was hunter biden. and of course his property had been in fbi custody since december 2019. so when the "post" broke the story, it was easy, easy for twitter to take the easy way out and run with the fbi narrative rather than relying on evidence proving the story was a real scandal and not something cooked up by a russian hacker. at this point in the story, it has become crystal clear that there is a much bigger agenda in play.

when dhs tried to get away with creating an official disinformation governance board, i almost didn't believe what i was seeing. here was an official government agency using national security as a pretext to censor political speech that was at odds with the biden administration's policies. fortunately that effort collapsed under scrutiny, but they didn't need an official panel of bureaucrats to keep up the pressure on these companies. back in july 2021, i sent a letter to the white house after we discovered that their staff was in regular touch with social media platforms to suppress speex regarding the covid-19 pandemic. i figured the american people had a right to know what criteria they were using to ask for that level of censorship and

what the legal basis for this presumed authority was. believe it or not, i never got an answer to the letter. and, madam president, i ask that that letter be printed alongside my remarks in the "congressional record." the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. blackburn: thank you, madam president. the american people aren't going to let this one go. i know tennesseans are not going to let this go. they have hard evidence that big tech and the deep state have repeatedly expressed -- suppressed legal speech to control political discourse in this country. these companies cannot be trusted to do what's right, and we as lawmakers can no longer wait for them to regulate themselves. they have proven over the past decade they will not regulate themselves. this is why i fought so hard to

pass legislation requiring privacy, safety, data security protections for kids and adults. this year the kids online safety act and the open app markets act, a nationwide privacy legislation, have all fallen short of the finish line, which is really disappointing because these are policies that have such strong bipartisan support. and i thank senator blumenthal for his partnership on those policies. but i would remind my colleagues that these issues have not gone away, and they are not going away. the american people are waiting to see what we do next. will we give them a toolbox to protect themselves online, to protect their virtual you? will we give them the ability to control the apps that they choose to put on that i were iphone or their an droid?

will we pass legislation to make certain that our social media platforms have to establish a duty of care for our children online? we all know that if you give big tech the opportunity, they will censor. we know that. they will suppress speech in order to favor a narrative that they can control. and they're going to keep doing it until we put them all in check. i yield the floor. ep

a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. lankford: it's the 21st of december, and we don't have information from the department of homeland security on how many people illegally crossed our border in november. what's interesting about that is is jeh johnson, when he was the

director talked openly and often about how often he got a report of how many people illegally crossed the border. in fact, he said when he was the director of dhs, every single morning he got a report of how many people illegally crossed the border the day before. they knew to the day. i've been to a facility here in washington, d.c. that they can w many people have illegally crossed our border every single hour of the day 365 days of the year. it's the 21st of december and we've requested how many people illegally crossed the border in the month of december, and they said they're still working on it. let me just tell you why that's relevant. because the department of homeland security is in full-on chaos mode trying to be able to figure out how to manage thousands and thousands of people illegally crossing our border not yearly, not monthly.

daily now. daily. jeh johnson, when he was at homeland security under the obama administration, said he knew it was going to be a very bad day when 1,000 people crossed the border illegally the day before. best guess over the last 24 hours, 9,000 people illegally crossed our border in the last 24 hours. i couldn't tell you that exactly, though. the secretary does know because they keep records to the hour, but they won't let congress know that because they don't want the american people to know what's really happening on the border right now. so they're hiding the facts. the hard part is they can't hide the facts because even "the washington post" is down on the border now looking at what's going on on the southern border and saying that's chaos. it's not an accident. it was by design. it was by design over several policy issues, the first of

which in the first days of the comboimed they said we're -- the biden administration they said we're setting aside of the aisled title 42 authority. that was a temporary authority during the pandemic saying individuals requesting asylum can't automatically come to the country. we're turning them away. that was designed to be temporary authority and everyone knew it, and that's the reason i asked for over the year of the secretary what is the plan when title 42 authority goes away. and what i was told was as recently as early this year, we've got a six-point plan. in fact, not only do we have a six-point plan, we've already started that six-point plan. just weeks ago i asked the secretary again what's the plan when title 42 authority goes away, because it will go away the 21st of december, and i got the same response again. we have a six-point plan. but their six-point plan that they're carrying out, they've continued to see the rapid rise of the number of people illegally crossing our border every day.

it used to be 1,000, and then it was 2,000, and then it was 3,000, and then it jumped to 5,000 and then it jumped to 7,000, and now it's up to 8,000 or 9,000 every day. to put it in perspective what's going on at our southern border, even before the quote, unquote title 42 authority goes away, to put this in perspective, the obama administration, the big year of the largest surge that happened on our southern border during the obama administration was just over half a million people illegally cross that year. the best we can tell, we've had half a million people illegally cross our border in the last two months. this is full-on crisis. so what's happening with it? of the two million people that have illegally crossed our border in the last year, somewhere around 700,000 of folks folks were turned around

under title 42 authority. many of them single males that were coming into the country that were turned around. of the approximately two million, approximately 700,000 were turned away. this administration has asked for the courts to take away title 42 authority and to say we're going to ignore that, and we're just going to process everyone under what they call title 428 authority. let me clarify what that means. title 8 authority is the issue of processing people in the normal structure, but what's happening right now with title 8 authority under this administration? well, two things. one is they've said we're putting people under expedited, expedited process. well, that sounds great and it's a great little title in the media to say they're in expedited removal hearings, except when you look at this administration, they've actually removed 7% of the people that they put under expedited removal so they're basically giving them a title of

expedited removal but not actually removing them. of the 1.3 million people that have illegally crossed our border in just the past year that were allowed to be able to come into our country under title 8 authority, 1.3 million people have come into the country, i.c.e., who their budget has been cut and their purpose has been repurposed, they used to be for prosecuting individuals to be able to move out of the country. now i.c.e. has been repurposed and they're actually processing paperwork of individuals in the country illegally. it used to be they were processing out. now they're processing in. so 1.3 million people have crossed our border -- less than 70,000 people have been deported. is that a record low number of people who have actually been deported. the chaos continues on our southern border and for whatever