vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: on this vote the ayes are 60, the nays are 37, and the nomination is confirmed. under the previous order, the motion to reconsider with respect to the falk and zakheim nominations are considered made and laid upon the table, and the president will be immediately notified of the senate's action.

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♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [applause] good afternoon, everyone. please have a seat. good afternoon. >> good afternoon. >> president biden, president clinton, members of our cabinet, members of congress, and our fellow americans, nearly 30 years ago just outside in the rose garden our nation took a long overdue step to give

working people, and in particular, working mothers, the dignity, respect and support they deserve. before then, many of us will remember, working people faced often impossible choices. impossible choices. the choice either to take care of a loved one, or keep a job. the choice either to protect one's health, or protect one's livelihood. but thanks to the family and medical leave act, millions of americans since then have been spared these false choices. everyone here understands the importance of being able to care for the people we love. on a personal note, when i was district attorney of san francisco, my mother was diagnosed with cancer.

and i spent many hours with her at the hospital, and driving her to and from chemotherapy appointments. fortunately, however, i had the type of job then where i i cod take the time i needed to be with my mother. but far too many of us cannot. and let us be clear, in america in the 21st century every worker should be able to take time off to care for themselves or for the people they love. [applause] and here's the thing we know. when they are able, our entire

nation benefits. consider, for example, women are 40% more likely to need family or medical leave, because they are more likely to take on caregiving responsibility. and studies have shown that when women receive believe they need, they are more likely than to stay in the workforce, which means a stronger economy, raising wages for workers over all. and, by the way, raising profits for companies overall. it also means families are more secure. and our entire nation is more prosperous. over the past half-century, the women's workforce anticipation has increased by 30%. that change alone has strengthened our economy by over

$2 trillion. just imagine. and they're still more work to do. so as we celebrate this important milestone this afternoon, let us continue to fight to build on the family and medical leave act so that every person -- [applause] every worker -- [applause] can take paid family and medical leave. [cheers and applause] and now it is my great honor to introduce a leader who had a vision 30 years ago that has benefited generations of

american families. realizing that vision was one of his central promises when he ran for president in 1992. and the family and medical leave act was the first bill because of his priority, the first bill that president clinton signed into law. and, of course, it was possible thanks to another extraordinary leader who was also named clinton. [laughing] and a partner to the president, hillary clinton. [applause] and the work of president clinton and what he did to inspire his entire administration was the work that then went on to include an administration that created the child tax credit which has

lifted millions of children out of poverty. [applause] and administration that expanded the head start program. [applause] and helped generations of children reach their incredible potential. an administration that sign the violence against women act into law. [cheers and applause] we want to thank joe biden. they have been on this stage together before. and an administration led by president with an unwavering commitment to the workers into the families of our great nation. nation. please join me in welcoming president william jefferson clinton. [cheers and applause] >> thank you.

thank you very much. somewhere i'm supposed to have some notes here. [laughing] these are president biden's and notes. why don't i just give your speech? [laughing] and you can get mine. i found it. [laughing] thank you, madam chair vice president, for that introduction and for your kind remarks about the work we did. i'm very grateful to president biden for many things, but i thank him for asking me back to the white house to celebrate 30 years of the family medical leave act. and as you showed by your

enthusiastic response to the vice presidential remarks what the family and medical leave act should tell us about our common future. the bill was the result of years of passionate advocacy and effort. why so many people. none more than my friend of more years than we would like to admit. [laughing] chris dodd. [cheers and applause] so before i started running for president i was a governor, but i was there interested in this eu and i can't noticing dodd introduces this bill every year.

and he introduced it for six years i think before it passed. so we passed it and it got vetoed. and then he passed it again and it got vetoed again. and by the time i started running for president, i basically made it a part of my stump speech because i thought it both embodied what was wrong then by the polarized politics of washington, and, and embodied the hazards of overlooking the country went its change on the ground. what do i mean by that? the president and i in nancy and chris and all of us who were, there i say it, 75 or older, we grew up in -- [laughing] we grew up in a different time.

my mother always worked, and my grandmother did, but they were atypical. by the time the 1992 election unfolded, there were more and more families where both the mother and the father had to work to make a living, or where there was only one parent in the home with the children. in a situation like that, both the society and its political leaders were utterly hypocritical. if they say all, there's nothing more important than raising children. well, how about a little help to do it? well, we can't do that. and so the rest of us followed

the lead, and senator dodd and the others and the senate, and there were republicans, too, that were for it. that was different time. there were more than 200 women, children, labor and faith organizations led by the national partnership for women and families. there were -- [cheers and applause] >> if you ever feel drifting, just ask her what to do. she will tell you. [laughing] there were all these people in the business community who were

progressive. they implemented their own forms the family because they realized it was good for morale, for productivity, for the long-term health of the business. still it took eight years, two vetoes, and another election before it became law. but today one of the most important things we can do is to remember that the family act, and every other thing it is really funny fun a changey that moved through congress, is an embodiment of what i learned from the world war isa, the great german sociologist max weber who said that politics was a strong and slow boring of -- all these people board the hardboard and where the beneficiaries and we should all be grateful.

[applause] i kept saying that all the time when people wondered why when the president took office we didn't have an -- -- bill the chips act, the inflation, at the inflation act and all the climate change stuff in 15 minutes. [laughing] and one of the reasons i was so happy when he got elected president as i watched him spend 15 years if that's what it took to make the changes that we needed to make this country a better place to live. so i think we should remember that. i also think you should know, chris dodd will tell you the same thing, after all these

years i still have more people mention the family leave act to me than any other specific things i do. and no one ever talks about what gets all the press coverage. unit, the political process, how long did it take, who got derailed, what went up, what went down. no, they tell you their story. that's when you know, for good or ill, that we have united the country. and my job is to introduce the storyteller. so i will tell you my story and the point of her story. the first time i ever got on an airplane after i left the oval office, boy, what a bummer. [laughing] somebody said when do you really

know you're not the present anymore? they don't play a song when you walk in a room. [laughing] and you are back on commercial air travel. [laughing] so i'm taking this shuttle from new york to washington, and it's really a compelling flight attendant with a very intense stare. she looked at me it's admit i talk you? i said sure. she said you know my husband loves you. he's a jazz musician and he teaches music in school so he was always for you. she said that i really didn't care about you one way or the other. [laughing] until the family medical leave act. she said i have a sister, and we had the misfortune of both our parents were dying at once. one with cancer and one with advanced alzheimer's. there's no way we could support them with care, except because of the family and medical leave act. and i just wanted to tell you

this. she said, i heard all these politicians give speeches about family value. she said, i know how your parents die is an important family value. it was breathtaking. i i never get on a shuttle after 20 years that it don't think about that woman. and then there's one other story. on it early sunday morning i took that out of the white house, i came back, needed to go up and shower and dress and hillary and i were going to church and i got there and there was a young person at the white house giving a tour to a man and his daughter. she was obviously very ill. and i said, would you excuse me? because i really would like to welcome you properly but i need to go clean up and get dressed. and i had her take into the oval

office. so i wind up, took a shower, came down, went into the oval office. you know, dave a little standard two or three sentences to her, and took a picture. and then i was walking then back out onto the south lawn, and when the daughter walk out with the guide, he grabbed me by the elbow and he turned around, he had big tears in his eyes and he said, you know, my little girl is not going to make it much longer. but he said, because of the family and medical leave act, these months i have spent with her are by far the most important time of my life. and he said, i am telling you this because i've read all this stuff, i know what all the controversies are picky said, it

is so easy for you up here to forget that what you do affects the lives of other people in ways you cannot imagine. i don't know what i would've done if i hadn't been able to share this time with my daughter. now, we are here first to celebrate the fact that now about 400 million times in the last 30 years americans have taken advantage of the family and medical leave act. [applause] and we are here because, in spite of that, and in spite of

the 2020 study that the department of labor did finding that 95% of employers said that the family medical leave act either didn't hurt or actually helped productivity, reduced turnover and increase morale. there still a lot of problems that cannot be solved without some form of paid leave. and i -- [applause] we tried to at least get permission to use surplus unemployment insurance funds by state in the late '90s, and were a lot of opposition to that, people act like one to get the free enterprise system would collapse. we actually gave people a chance to take care of their sick relatives or be there when the baby was born or window with

some other terrible problem. so we need more stories. not process, stories mr. president. mr. president, it's thursday and it's been a while since i've been on the floor here, thursday afternoon, but it's my favorite time of the week because i get to do something that i certainly enjoy. we have a new set of pages. i think they enjoy it. it's -- and i know some in our media enjoy it because it signals the end of the week here, but i get to talk about an alaskan or alaskans plural, i get to talk about somebody who is the alaskan of the week.

we have been doing this quite some time. we've covered a lot of ground. and before i talk about our two alaskans of the week, special alaskans, i usually give an update about what's going on in the great state of alaska. anyone watching on tv. we've got people back in the gallery, so we love that. we always do a plug for alaska. you've got to get up there. take a vacation with your family. you will love it. you will have the vacation add adventure of a lifetime. so i usually give an update of what's been going on. we've had an intense winter. a lot of know, particularly in south central alaska where i love. schools have even been closed. that's very rare for our state to close schools because of winter or really cold weather, but but we've had both, some cold snaps, some warming. much winter fun, as you can imagine. if you love winter sports.

winter sol as it has -- soltace has come and gone and there is no better place to spend christmas than alaska where santa lives. he even ran for congress. he didn't win. a politician in north poll, alaska. now, our two alaskans of the week are frank hughes and lincoln beam, they are both alaska leaders and long-time community leaders and the members of the organized village cake. cake is a village of about 500 people in beautiful, gorgeous southeast alaska. if you are visiting, you have to come to southeast, but we're such a big state, you have to go

everywhere. frank and lincoln know what the holidays are about that we just celebrated. and because of their efforts, they and many others in cake got a very special early christmas gift this year that i want to talk to everybody about. on november 18, both frank and lincoln were on a plane from oregon back home to alaska. in the belly of the plane was a 40-gallon bin locked with zip ties, filled with 25 precious native objects. some estimated to be up to 200 years old, and because of their efforts, these precious, sacred objects and the spirits in them were coming home once again and

now resting in cake where these objects belong. those ietd ems -- items include a replica of a canoe, ceremonial paddles, and there was also a wooden mask which would have been carved into a tree in kake as a territorial marker. frank said the masks would have had to have been cut out of the body of the tree to be removed. these items were painfully and lovingly crafted by the villages villages ancestors generations ago. precious items that didn't belong to others, but taken, in some cases ripped from villages without even a thought of who they belonged to. but, like i said, now they are

home. and according to frank and lincoln, both say that the spirits within these sacred objects are also at home. and at peas. so who -- peace. so who are frank and lincoln and why did they think it was important do bring this back to kake. this was an effort, one of many, being taken across the country since congress passed the native american graves protection and repatriation act in 1990. nagpra is the acronym. this requires any public institution receiving federal money like colleges and museums to return indigenous human remains, yes, these institutions have human remains, and cultural item to tribes and descend ants

throughout america to native communities, wherever possible. since then, many artifacts have been, and are continuing to be, returned to tribes, in alaska and in the lower 48. still, mr. president, it is a slog. many institutions, believe it or not, are not always cooperative. big institutions, famous american institutions. according to the national park service, remains from more than 108,000 -- let me say that number again, 108,000 indigenous people in more than 600,000 artifacts are known to be still held by museums, universities, and federal agencies across the country. think about that.

your ancestors' bones are in a museum somewhere. not acceptable. my wife, julie, is on the board of the smithsonian's national museum of the american indian and serves on the repatriation committee, and the process can be tedious. but it's so important for the communities who have had artifacts removed from their communities, or remains, for goodness sakes, removed from their communities. it's so important for these communities to be able to healed. it's certainly not always easy to identify these objects, for the recipients to request them, and then to get back, to get these objects back to where they belong, and it takes work and determination and literally years, particularly for small

villages like kake, which don't have a museum or a trained curator. but frank and lincoln and others in the community had the will and determination to make this happen. so, a big shout-out to them. that's why they're our alaskans of the week today. they had a letter, and this is a university, by the way, george fox university in newberg, oregon, a private christian college, that reached out to kake, very cooperative, by the way, telling them they thought they had some items that might belong to the village. that is a great example of a university and institution doing the right thing, helping, taking the initiative. it's unclear exactly how the artifacts made their way a thousand miles to george fox university in oregon in the first place. there were quaker missionaries in alaska in 1891, and george

fox university was founded in 1891 by the quakers. so, frank and lincoln think there's probably a pretty good chance of there being some connection between the missionaries and the artifacts. and the process has taken a long time, starting back in 2018 when frank was the coordinator for nagpra and lincoln was a councilmember. as a coordinator, frank had done many indigenous artifact repatriations across the country, but when the community received the letter from george fox university, they both got very excited because this was their home village. some of them, they thought, might be artifacts from members of the eagle and raven chance in kake. these are tlingit, hyda chance

in southeast alaska. now, a little about both of these great alaskans. frank is an army veteran. by the way, alaska natives, both alaska native leaders, serve at higher rates in the u.s. military than any other ethnic group in the country. special patriotism, i refer to this as. and frank is a great example of that. you go to native communities, native villages in alaska, raise your hands for veterans, pretty much every male in the village, in communities i've been to, raise their hand. it is unbelievable. the patriotism and service of guys like frank. he spent his career serving his country. when he got out of the army, he worked as a substance abuse counselor, as an emt served on his village council, and continued serving by being the commander of the veterans of

kake, his village, and making sure his alaska native veterans got the care and benefits they have earned. lincoln also spent his career helping his fellow alaskans in his community. he has been a tenacious advocate for self-determination and for health care for alaska natives, particularly alaska native veterans. he did an amazing job, and i saw him in action for many years as chairman of the alaska native health board, which is an extremely important organization for our whole state, where he did a great job leading that, for health care for all alaska natives. so that's a little bit about frank and lincoln's background. as i mentioned, in 2018 they get this letter. wow, we have a great opportunity here to get artifacts from their

village back home. they got involved, undertook the very tedious process of reaching out, writing grants, and by the time they're ready to go covid hit. so of course, that set them back, and everybody back. they had to wait. finally, the two, as we're coming out of covid, reenergized their efforts. they took a plain from kake to juneau, juneau to seattle, seattle to portland, where they went and they went to george fox university. by the way, as mentioned, very, very gracious, very respectful. they actually held a ceremony at the university. the university wanted these items to be returned. they knew it was the right thing to do. it was an emotional experience for all. so, they started to bring back the objects, the artifacts.

this is how frank described it, when he was there, when the box of items that had been in storage at the university for about 100 years was put in front of him. he said, quote, it was like running into an air-conditioned room, and then when they opened the box with the artifacts and objects from our village, it was like the sun hit them. it was like the spirits hitting me in the face. can you feel the spirits, he asked other people gathered in the room? lincoln said, i can feel it, particularly when they opened the boxes of the rattles that belonged to his family. imagine that feeling. and his clan, the eagle clan, with the killer whale house. lincoln said, quote, it was like

looking directly back at my family's heritage. he said he felt a certain wholeness when he saw the items, a piece of his culture and that of his community that had been missing for so long was now back. when they got back to kake, a crowd was there to greet them. they sang greeting songs. they ate traditional food. and then, as per the guidelines, frank filled out the last paperwork -- you always have paperwork when you're dealing with the feds -- and put his hand up and said, i am relieved of duty. i got it done. lincoln's next project is to build a tribal house, along with a wellness center, where these and all the artifacts and art can live in a temperature-controlled room, so the spirits that he was talking about can be there, set free,

back home to pass down the wisdom to the next generation. as lincoln said, quote, it's powerful looking back on people we know that were here before us as a family, as a tribe. it's tangible, we can touch, and now they're back home. because of their efforts, frank and lincoln and the whole community in kake can now experience this power. they can touch it. so, to my friends, frank and lincoln, merry christmas, happy new year to kake. thank you for the great job you've done, the determination, and congratulations, once again, on being our alaskans of the week.

mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from cea. mr. sullivan: -- the senator from -- the presiding officer: the senator from alaska. mr. sullivan: thank you. i ask that my following remarks appear in a record in a separate place. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. sullivan: mr. president, yesterday, as some of my colleagues may know, we received, the federal government issued the final supplemental environmental impact statement on what is called the willow project in alaska. this is a very large oil-and-gas

development in my state. it has been in permitting for about 20 years. 20 years -- that's a whole other topic. we don't need 20 years to do anything in terms of permitting. but i want to first begin by thanking several of my senate colleagues, particularly a number of my democratic senate colleagues who have been reaching out to the biden administration saying, hey, you guys need to move this willow project forward. for reasons i'm going to talk about. by the way, mr. president, i'm going to talk about this a lot in the next 30 days here on the senate floor. so important to my state, my constituents, but to america, but i want to begin by thanking so many of my senate colleagues, a big number of them, i'm not sure they all want to be recognized, so i won't recognize them, but senator manchin put a

statement out on this yesterday. a number of them, especially my democratic colleague friends, reached out over the last several weeks to the biden administration saying hey, it's time. it's time. it's good for alaska, good for america, good for our environment. so i want to talk a little about this, it mr. president, as i mentioned. i'll be talking a lot about this, because it's so darn important to alaska and, i would argue, america. this project, as i mentioned, has been under some kind of regulatory review since conoco phillips got the leases from the federal government during the clinton administration, the late 1990's. again, something that people always forget, this is a lease from the federal government to the private sector. they paid hundreds of millions of dollars for these leases, in a contract with the feds, saying we're going to explore, then develop. it's also in what's called the

national petroleum reserve of alaska, npra. it's not a controversial area, mr. president, unlike anwar, we recognize that, or some of the offshore developments. this is the national petroleum reserve of alaska. this was set aside by congress, this body, i think almost 70 years ago. used to be called the naval petroleum reserve of alaska. for what? for developing oil and gas, which our country needs. still needs. going to need for decades to come. so the review process has been going on for years. every environmental review this project advances with flying colors -- i'll get to that. the trump administration finished the permitting with a record of decision in 2020. they approved five drilling pads. the biden administration, after some court delays and, to be

honest, after dwhrais from the biden administration -- after delays from the biden administration, came back finally, with a supplemental final eis and said we're going to go from five pads down to three. all right. that's not what i would have preferred, but these are the career people, and they think that this can be developed with this new plan. we would agree. so, -- but that's a bare minimum, mr. president. there were some indications yesterday that the administration is still looking at maybe less. we have 30 more days to review this. and they're looking at maybe less. we've all stated, the private sector companies stated anything less than this you're essentially killing it because you can't make this an economically viable project. so let me just give a little bit of a background on this, mr. president, because it's so important.

and then i want to make a few points that related to the voices that need to be heard as it relates to the willow project. we could start building this tomorrow. this is clearly a shovel-ready project. we only build in alaska, projects like this in the winter because we have such high environmental standards, the highest in the world. we build ice roads so we don't disrupt the tun did a and only -- tundra and only build january to april. the team is ready. estimates are 2,500 jobs, mr. president. 2,500 jobs. could we use that in america? could we use that in alaska? you're darned right we could. by the ways, estimates 75% of those jobs will be union jobs, building trade jobs. that is why the labor is pretty

much every labor union in the country has viewed this as one of their top priorities not just for alaska. for america. revenues about $17 billion for federal, state, and local government. $17 billion. america, alaska, the north slope burrough, they could all use that. racial equity, racial justice. mr. president, i come down here and speak a lot about why resource development in alaska is so important, because it mostly happens in the rural communities in my state where people, primarily indigenous people don't have the things that the average american takes for granted, like running water, like flush toilets, like gymnasiums, like health clinics, let alone hospitals. so alaska natives in alaska over the last 25 years, they have

had an explosion in life expectancy, increased by almost 13 years, more than any other part of america by far. they're living longer. that's a big indicator of policy success. are your constituents living longer? my constituents are living a lot longer. why? because of projects like this. you get jobs, you get revenues, and you start to get things that the average american thinks that every american citizen has. but in a lot of our rural communities in alaska, we don't. when you want to talk about racial equity and racial justice, this should be number one. number one. and i'm going to get to it. the native communities in my state are 100% behind this project. for that reason, mr. president, let me talk about another benefit, the environment. this will be the lowest

greenhouse gas emitting project of an energy project of this size, of any project like this in the world. in the world. so if we need oil and gas, which the biden administration's energy information agency says we'll need it for decades to come, and the international energy agency in paris says we're going to need oil and gas for decades to come, wouldn't you want to produce it in the place with the highest environmental standards? answer -- yes. wouldn't you want to produce it with those 2,500 american jobs, good jobs, pay a real high wage. answer -- yes. wouldn't you want to do it in a way that really promotes environmental justice and racial equity by helping indigenous people in their communities with jobs, with revenues, with services that most people take for granted? answer? yes. mr. president, this project at

peak production will be about 200,000 barrels a day. that's a lot of oil. but you're going to be able to do it without barely any new infrastructure. as i mentioned, five pads to three pads, and it's right next to the trans-alaska pipeline that's two-thirds empty. you plug it in there, flows down to america. you think we need energy? we need energy. and one thing that i've said to the obama administration which makes no -- to the biden administration which makes no sense at all, what would president go to saudi arabia on bended knee asking for more oil? why would this administration go to venezuela, maduro, a terrorist, lifting sanctions on venezuela who have some of the most dirty polluting energy projects anywhere in the world, so we can import more oil into america from venezuela, from saudi arabia, when we can get it from alaska with our

workers, our high environmental standard, highest in the world, our native people? mr. president, these are all the reasons why this makes sense. these are the reasons why, again, thank you to my colleagues. so many of my democratic colleagues, all of my republican colleagues are of course supportive, but they don't have the sway with the biden administration. this is why everybody here, with the exception of a few, and i'll just name one because i can't help but name him, are for this. and in terms of energy security -- and i know, mr. president, you follow this -- which countries fear american energy dominance more than ?eang you read the intel, it's putin and russia. they're worried about projects like this. it's xi jinping in china, scared to death of american energy dominance. and it's the people in the middle east. i was just there on a codel with

six republican and democrat senators to the middle east. the presiding officer is going to come with us. we really missed him, couldn't make it. but our national security advisor was there. we had breakfast with him. he knows all about this project, by the way. and the biden administration, the national security teams, secretary of defense, secretary of state, national security advisor, they think this is a no-brainer. of course we need more energy. but imagine what we can do if you're going to into a meeting, say, with the saudis or emiratis saying we just approved a project that's going to be 200,000 barrels a day for america. highest standards in the world. that's power. that's still power. we need all of the above. i want all kinds of energy. renewables, wind, solar, but we're still going to need oil and gas. and if we do, let's get it from us, not our enemies. so, mr. president, this announcement came, like i said, three pads, it's not great but we can work with it.

blm put out a statement, pretty good statement. the department of interior put out a statement. they didn't quote anybody, which was very strange. it was a headless department of interior statement that kind of indicated that maybe they're going to kill this project in 30 days. very troubling. very troubling. so our delegation, we've asked for a meeting with the president to finally pitch him on this. i priched president biden on this before -- i pitched president biden on this before. at the time he was supportive so it will be hard to walk it back. a couple of final points. the media coverage, i interview with the media all the time. i talk to anybody who has issues. but it was remarkable. go read the articles yesterday on the willow project. they quote every far-left, radical environmental group in america, none of whom, by the way, live in alaska. the list is very long.

they're calling this this horrible project. it's the highest standards in the world. they're saying apoplectic things about this project. yesterday's press quoted all these voices who are all negative who, by the way, don't want to build anything, who don't want to have one additional energy project in america. they don't. ask them. you don't want energy from alaska? you'd rather get it from venezuela, 18 times more polluting than an american project? when you ask them that question -- trust me, i've asked these guys a lot -- they never have an answer. they don't know what to say. they just say we hate all oil and gas. well, guess what? we need it. we need it, so let's do it here. so here's my point. mr. president, this is a list of just some groups that need to

be heard, that need to be heard. the next time my colleagues, my friends in the media write a story, go ask all the unions, the labor's international biggest construction union in america, viuna led by a great american, terry o'sullivan, he's been writing letters once a month. this is one of our biggest projects for the labors, the building trades, all the unions that build stuff, a giant coalition. sean mcgarvey, another great american, head of the building trades, they put out a huge statement. they have been putting out statements on willow for years. did any of our great media in america quote the unions yesterday? no. they quote the center for biological diversity and all these other far lefties, but the men and women who build

stuff, they weren't quoted at all. this is one of their biggest priorities in america, right now. 100%. but, mr. president, the group that they really did not quote at all -- and this is troubling to me -- is all the alaska native leaders and alaska native tribes and alaska native elected leaders in this part of alaska. there are dozens of them. i was down here, gave a speech a few months ago with all the letters from all these different groups. you know what they do? they love to pick the one person in alaska who is a guest and quote that person. -- who is against it and quote that person. i ask to the media the next time you write about willow and the biden administration, when you're looking for the people who really know how this matters, quote some of these incredible groups.

the city of waynewright, the north slope burrow, the native village of burrow, the voice of the arctic, which is a grouping of different native groups on the arctic. here's what they said. here's a few. the nuclear power -- the nupiat leaders, the biden administration cannot support meaningful environmental justice while at the same time killing a critical resource that supports the nupiat communities of the north slope region. the native people in alaska want this. this is the alaska federation of natives. that's the biggest native group, organization. it represents all natives in alaska. southeast, north slope,

interior. they're huge supporters of this. so every group, my friends in the media, go ask them. quote them. don't quote greenpeace out of new york city or san francisco. quote the alaska native people who live there. so i'll make two final points, mr. president. as you can tell, this is very important to me. we had a couple of members of congress, i forget this one guy's name, arizona, grivalda, he was saying the alaska natives don't want it. he's got a new member on his committee, a congresswoman from alaska, maybe you should ask mary what she thinks on this project as opposed to spouting off on an issue he knows nothing about. one colleague here, i'm not going to say who he is, he

knows who he is. he makes it his life's work to go after alaska. including this one. i'll give a speech later on the hypocrisy of that action. i want to quote the voice of the arctic inupiat. this is a group of native leaders. and here they're kind of summing up what happened yesterday and what the media kind of highlighted while canceling, literally canceling the voice of the people in alaska. here's what they said. outside activist groups opposing willow have drowned out local perspectives. well, that's what happened in the press reports yesterday. and are actively working to supersede the views of the alaska native people. this is not environmental justice or any other kind of justice. and when you put that back to a biden administration official and say you guys care about environmental justice, racial justice, racial equity you talk

about all the time, what about for my constituents? what about for my constituents? every time i've asked that question of a biden administration official, they kind of look at me blank. i don't know how to answer that. the indigenous people of my state want this project. undeniably. and our friends in the media won't write that story. it is a direct attack on alaska native self-determination. this is the voice of the arctic inupiat. so, like i said, mr. president, i'm going to be coming down here talking about this, really important for my state, really important for america. a fine am point, some of my democratic colleagues don't like it t on these issues shall the democratic party that used to be for the working man and working

woman of america, the people who build things -- the people who build things, have kind of migrated, kind of left the workingmen and women out. if the far-left environmental groups want something. they almost always go with them, not the workingmen and women of america. this will be a test for the administration. you say you want to support the workingmen and women and the indigenous people of my state? it's an easy answer, easy answer. look at the supporters. so i hope we can get there. 30 days -- it's going to be a battle. but i hope our friends in the media when they're writing about this in the next few weeks don't cancel the voices of alaskans. don't cancel the voices of the alaskan native people, the indigenous people. hear from them. i know you have a bias against a project like this. but listening to the people i represent.

they're great people. and they're very clear that they're supporting the willow project, as am i, as is senator murkowski, as is, by the way, a lot of my colleagues in a bipartisan way. i thank them again. but this is going to be really important, mr. president. and it doesn't just matter to alaska. it matters to america. i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the president pro tempore of the united states senate. mrs. murray: thank you, mr. president. you know, mr. president, it was

30 years ago to this very day that i came here to give one of my first speeches on the senate floor, and i talked about a friend of mine back in washington state -- she was mom. she had just gotten heartbreaking news. her son was dying of leukemia. and then another gut punch -- her employer told her she had to choose between being in the hospital with her son or being at her job, and if she wasn't there, she was going to lose it. to this day, that makes me so angry. in a one should phase -- no one should face such a cruel decision. no one should ever be forced to choose between taking care of themselves and their loved ones and being able to make ends meet. so at the time, 30 years ago, i was on the floor to urge my colleagues to pass the family and medical leave act, which provided job-protected, unpaid leave to workers across the

country. because the bottom line was -- every worker should know if they have a family emergency, they can prioritize their family's health without jeopardizing their family's economic security. and i was so thrilled when just a few days later we won and that bill became law. but even back then it was clear that that bill was just a first step. it was clear we needed to keep fighting for the next one. and i'm still here, mr. president, and i am still fighting. because we are way behind where we should be. we are way behind our peers in the world when it comes to giving working families the support that they need. and it is holding us back. for one, there's still too many loopholes that leave people without the simple promise of unpaid leave. too many workers today in this country are denied the basic protections of the family and medical leave act that we passed

into law 30 years ago. i have been fighting to close those loopholes and expand protections for decades so workers are not left out in the cold during an emergency. just because they work at a small business or they work part time or just because their family might look a little different -- for example, if they are a caregiver for a niece or a nephew or grandchild. no one should somebody punished for that. so it is time we passed legislation to guarantee that those workers get the same protections as everyone else. and, mr. president, let me be clear. passing bills to do this, updating our laws to guarantee unpaid leave for all, that is just making good on the promise we made to workers 30 years ago. in other words, that is just the next step. but it is far from the last one. our families need a lot more. they deserve so much better. ness no excuse for our utter

lack of a national paid leave program. it is bad for families, as any working mom or dad can tell you, or anyone who cares for a family member with a serious health condition. they know this all too well. appeared, by the way, it is bad for our economy because lack of paid leave means that employees lose their wages and businesses lose their workers. we are facing serious workforce shortages in key sectors of our economy today. and let me tell you, lack of a national paid leave program is not helping. it is hurting. we are the only nation among our peers that has not figured that out yet. we are the only one that hasn't gotten this done. and the reality is, it makes our economy less competitive on world stage. but you don't have to look at other countries to see how urgent this is. just listen to people right here. i shared my friend's story all

those years ago. but today across the country, there are still so many families facing unthinkable choices. there are still so many people and working moms in particular sharing their own deeply personal stories about this, stories of the painful recovery after giving birth, after the first weeks of bonding with a newborn child, stories of the grief and the pain of caring for a seriously ill child sitting at a hospital bedside of a seriously ill parent, recovering from surgery or coping with a cancer diagnosis. with the added stress at that hardest time of your life about how you're going to make your next month's rent if you have to take unpaid time off off work. anyone who's been independent those situations knows it hard. you have so much you are worried about. here in congress we should be

working to make that an easier time for families. we should be taking that worry off of parents' shoulders. we should be making sure that no worker has to choose between their family and their job, between their family and their paycheck. so as we mark the anniversary today of the family and medical leave act, i want to urge my colleagues to let's celebrate the legacy of that bill, of course, by i would building on it -- by building on it. let this be this congress that we finally at long last take the much-needed steps families have been waiting for. they've been calling for. let's ensure that the family and medical leave act protects all working families. let's establish a national paid leave program. let's tackle the child care crisis with bold reforms. and let's build an economy that actually works for our families here. i want to end today with the

same words that i actually said 30 years ago right here on the senate floor. if one mother is able to sit with her seriously ill son without fear of losing her life's savings, if one son is able to hold the hand of his dying mother, if one of us -- you or i -- is able to care for someone we love when they need us the most, then the time and the energy spent on these issues has been worth it. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor.

mr. schumer: madam president. the president pro tempore: the majority leader is recognized. mr. schumer: i move to proceed to legislative session. the question is on the motion. all in favor say aye.

the ayes appear top have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. mr. schumer: i move to proceed to executive session to consider calendar number 3. the presiding officer: without objection, the question is on the motion. all in favor say aye. opposed, no. ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. the clerk will report. the clerk: nomination, the judiciary, deand ri benjamin of south carolina, to be united states district judge. mr. schumer: i send a cloture motion to the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22, do hereby bring to a close debate cloture, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby bring to a close debate on on the nomination of executive calendar number 3, deandrea benjamin, of south carolina, to be united states district judge for the fourth circuit. the presidingmr. schumer:

mr. schumer: schumer i ask that the reading of the names be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: did i send the cloture motion to the desk? the president pro tempore: the cloture motion is at the desk. mr. schumer: i ask consent the reading of the names be waived. the president pro tempore: without objection. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to legislative session to be in a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: madam president, i have two asks for committees to meet during today's session of the senate, they have been approved -- they have the approval of the majority and minority. the president pro tempore: duly noted. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to consider of h. con. res. which was received from the house and is at the desk. the presiding. the president pro tempore:

the clerk: . the clerk: concurrent resolution. the presiding officer: president pro tempore is there objection? mr. schumer: i ask that the concurrent resolution be agreed to and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. the president pro tempore: without objection. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent that the senate now proceed to the en bloc consideration of the following senate resolutions, which were submitted earlier today. senate res. 27, senate res. 28, senate res. 29. the president pro tempore: is there objection to proceeding en bloc? without objection, the senate will proceed en bloc. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent that the resolutions be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table all en bloc. the president pro tempore: witho ut objection. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the en bloc consideration of senate res. 30 and 31 submitted

earlier today. the president pro tempore: the clerk will report the resolutions by title. the clerk: senate resolution 30 to constitute the majority party's membership on certain committees for the 118th congress or until their successors are chosen. s. res. 31 to constitute the minority party's membership on certain committees for the 118th congress or until their successors are chosen. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the resolutions be agreed to en bloc. the president pro tempore: is there objection to proceeding to the measures en bloc? without objection. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent that the resolutions be agreed to en bloc, the motions to reconsider be considered and laid upon the table en bloc with no intervening action or debate. the president pro tempore: witho ut objection. mr. schumer: for the notice of the members of the senate and the country, we have now constituted the membership of the committees and they will be able to proceed to meet as in regular order. now, madam president, i

understand there is a bill at the desk and i ask for its first reading. the president pro tempore: the clerk will read the title of the bill for the first time. the clerk: s. 259, a bill to ensure transparent and competitive transportation fuel markets in order to protect consumers from unwarranted price increases. mr. schumer: i now ask for a second reading and in order to place the bill on the calendar under the provisions of rule 14 i object to my own request. the president pro tempore: objec mr. schumer: madam president -- the president pro tempore: the bill will receive a second reading on the next legislative day. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent that the presiding officer of the senate be authorized to appoint a committee on the part of the senate to join with a like committee on the party of the house of representatives toes court the president of the united states into the chamber, into the house chamber for the joint session to be held at 9:00 p.m. on tuesday, february 7, 2023. the president pro tempore: witho ut objection. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today it stand adjourned until 11:00 a.m.

on friday, february 3, for a pro forma session only with no business conducted. that following the pro forma session the senate stand adjourned until 3:00 p.m. on tuesday, february 7. further, that following the prayer and pledge the morning hour deemed expired, the journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day and morning business be closed. and that following the conclusion of morning business, the senate proceed to executive session and resume consideration of the benjamin nomination. finally, that the cloture motion filed during today's session ripen at 5:30 p.m. on tuesday, february 7. the president pro tempore: witho ut objection. mr. schumer: if there is no further business to come before the senate, i ask it stand adjourned under the previous order. the president pro tempore: the senate stands adjourned until

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