eastern, catch washington today for fast-paced report for stories of the day. listen to c-span anytime just tell your smart speaker "play c-span radio", c-span powered by cable. >> republican governor ron desantis recently spoke about his leadership in florida and how the state can serve as a blueprint for other parts of the country. he spoke from the ronald reagan president deposition library in simi valley, california. watch tonight on c-span2, mobile video app or c-span.org. >> c-span, it's your unfiltered view of government. we're funded by these television companies and more, including midco. ♪♪

>> midco supports c-span pass a public service, along with these other television providers, giving you a front row seat to democracy. >> and the u.s. senate is about to gavel in on this tuesday morning. today lawmakers will consider several of president biden's judicial nominations. the first vote series is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. eastern this morning. you're watching live coverage of the senate here on c-span2. the presiding officer: the senate will come to order. the chaplain dr. barry black will lead the senate in prayer. will lead the senate in prayer.

let us pray. eternal spirit, source of all wisdom, as senators strive to make critical decisions, guide their hearts and minds. give them such courage of conviction that they will ignore the siren calls to deviate from integrity. help them to walk along ethical paths. even when they are miss understood by insiders and outsiders. lord, deliver them from those who question their motives and miss represent their intentions. remind them that you are the one

constituent who ultimately matters and that pleasing you must be their first priority. may they trust you to open doors that no one can shut and shut doors that no one can open. we pray in your salford name amen. join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance to the flag. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> the clerk will read communication to the senate.

>> under the provisions of rule one paragraph three of the stating rules of the senate i hereby appoint the honorable ralph alg warnock a senator from the state of georgia to perform the duties of the chair. >> under the previous order at the leadership time is reserved. morning businesses closed. the senate will proceed to executive session to presume the following nomination which the clerk will report. >> robert stuart blue of virginia to the united district state to the western district of virginia.

they have the majority to

control what comes of the floor. the d.c. home rule act was setting up the current system that gives the autonomous mayor and city council as the vision allows congress to disapprove of the laws within a certain time. especially when it comes to criminal code. they can bring up this vote after a certain amount of time and there is nothing that anybody can do to stop it. it is a simple majority to pass this particular resolution. whether it has the force of law or not. we know because this is more or less the senate rather than a binding resolution. if the city council had not withdrawn the law the majority still would've withheld because there is no filibuster to be. >> right now three democrats set up indicated that they will vote for this. senator's mansion, heinrich and casey. are you expecting that number to

go up? >> i've counted eight or nine democrats that play into boat for this bill on the senate. the highest ranking democrat in the senate. chuck schumer told me she is voting for it. both from nevada voting for it. mark kelly in arizona just won reelection there. the appropriate election of wisconsin who will vote for it. i spoke with senator baldwin about it. right now it is out of state. we are going to vote to overturn it. i think the fact that you have moderates like joe mansion on one side and patty murray more liberal senators on the other side, you will get a good chunk of the democratic caucus. >> any other crime related issues coming before coming anytime soon? >> i think the senator was on fox news yesterday and he is the

sponsor the belt sits on the appropriations committee and said he will use his powers there. shameful hours we have ever seen on cable television. with contempt for the facts, disregard of the risks, and knowing full well he was lying, lying to his audience, fox news host tucker carlson ran a lengthy segment last night arguing the january 6 capitol attack was not a violent insurrection. by diving deep into the waters of conspiracy and cherry-picking from thousands of hours of security footage, mr. carlson told the bold-faced lie that the capitol attack, which we all saw with our own eyes, was somehow not an attack at all. he tried to argue it was nothing more than a peaceful sightseeing

tour. can you imagine? a nonviolent demonstration, a perfectly and appropriate instance of people expressing their opinion. i, so many others who were here in the capitol, and millions and millions of americans are just furious with tucker karl snob and -- tucker carlson and kevin mccarthy today. many of my staff were here at the capitol on january 6. their lives were put in danger, as were the lives of many of my colleagues, as well as police, maintenance staff, reporters, countless others. at one point, i was within 30 feet of the rioters. one of them, i was told understanding shouted out, let's get him, before my detail pulled me away and we ran in the other direction. to say january 6 was not violent is a lie, a lie pure and simple.

i don't think i've ever seen a primetime cable news anchor manipulate his viewers the way mr. carlson did last night. i don't think i've ever seen an anchor treat the american people and american democracy with such disdain. and he's going to come back tonight with another segment. fox news should tell him not to. fox news, rupert murdoch, tell carlson not to run a second segment of lies. you know it's a lie. you've admitted it's a lie. and speaker is every bit -- speaker mccarthy is every bit as culpable as mr. carlson. speaker mccarthy's decision to share security footage with fox looked like a mistake from the very beginning, but after last night it looks like a disaster. speaker mccarthy has played a

treacherous, a treacherous game by catering to the hard right. he's enabled the big lie and has further eroded away at our precious democracy. when people don't believe elections are on the level, that's the beginning of the end of this bold experiment in democracy that has gone on for more than 200 years. it's all the more shameful because speaker mccarthy knows prees -- precisely what kind of customer mr. carlson is. he's not surprised by this outcome. what a low point for speaker mccarthy. what a low point for fox news. as reporting on the dominion lawsuit shows, mr. carlson had no problem admitted behind the scenes that the big lie is pure garbage. when sidney powell pent on the air to push the stolen -- went on the air to push the stolen

election narrative, mr. carlson told fellow anchor laura ink ram that -- laura laura ingrahame was laying. his own producer texts, quote, i don't any there is evidence of voter fraud that someone the election. they know full well they've been lying. and they're doing it anyway. we all, americans of all types and stripes and corners of this country, democrats, republicans, independents, need to take a stand and call out mr. carlson's conduct for what it is, a dangerous, unforgivable attempt to destabilize our democracy and rewrite the history of the worst attack on our constitution since the civil war. it's an insult to every police officer who was on the scene that terrible, fearful day. it's an insult to the memory of every single person who perished

in connection to the attack, especially to the memory of brian sic siknik. nonviolent? ask his family. it makes me sick to think about what his family must be going through this morning. it's an insult to everyone who cares about our democracy and wishes to preserve the dream of our founders in our day, in our age. i hope every member of this chamber will call out fox and mr. carlson for defending the insurrectionists. and again, i am disappointed and angered in speaker mccarthy's decision to share sensitive security footage with mr. carlson. speaker mccarthy was here that day. he knows what actually happened. his staff and members suffered like everyone else. but he chose cheap political expediency over truth and

preservation of democracy. i condemn mr. carlson for siding with the enemies of democracy. i strongly condemn speaker mccarthy's actions, and fiercely oppose his decision to share this foot and with -- footage with carlson. i urge fox news to order carlson to cease propagating the big lie on the network, and to level with their viewers about the truth, the truth behind the efforts to mislead the public. conduct like theirs is just asking for another january 6. for another january 6 to happen. now, on another subject -- as east palestine continues grappling with the aftermath of last month's development, and after a second derailment in ohio last weekend, norfolk southern announced yesterday a

new six-point plan they claim will, quote, immediately fix the operations. we're asking why weren't these already in place? when norfolk southern ceo alan shaw comes before the senate thursday, this is one of the important questions he must answer. here are a few others -- what steps is norfolk southern taking to prevent future disasters like the one in east palestine? why did norfolk southern spend years lobbying against safety regulations intended to prevent accidents like the one last month? how will norfolk southern ensure communities along train routes, with hazardous materials, get the resources they need to respond to articles, the responses -- resources and information they need? why did norfolk southern launch a $10 billion stock buyback program last year, when that money could have gone to upgrading safety equipment, hiring more workers, or paying their workers better wages?

we need answers to these questions. we need an honest, candid discussion about how we can prevent accidents like this in the future. part of that discussion must acknowledge a plain truth -- republicans have spent years listening to the rail lobby and opposing safety rules in the name of boosting rail company profits. i'm talking about the trump administration loosening brake maintenance and inspection regulations, attempting to deregulate train crew size and nullify a rule to implement safety programs. i'm talking about republicans in this chamber pushing for, quote, the self-regulation of railroads and leaving safety up to the whims of the free market. to allow the transportation of more hazardous materials without proper oversight, to encourage the automation of track inspection at the expense of safety. all of these create dangers. we don't know yet all the details of what exactly happened in east palestine, but we know

these deregulatory actions make things less safe. i hope that we can work together, democrats and republicans, to put a much-needed, long-overdue check on big rail and make sure another east palestine never happens, and i commend the bipartisan legislation, led by the senators from ohio, senator brown, a democrat, senator vance, a republican, to move things forward. budget -- for the last two months, democrats have highlighted the contrast between our vision and the republican vision for our country. úals right. in a few days, president biden will release his budget for the 2024 fiscal year. americans can expect the president to present a bold, optimistic and responsible path for the nation. the president's plan is going to show how we can lower the deficit in a responsible manner. his plan will strengthen social security and keep medicare

solvent for another two decades. and the president's plan will preserve his promise not to raise taxes on anyone making less than $400,000 a year. this isn't just talk, because democrats have already shown we can do these things. we've already lowered the deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars. we've already lowered the cost of prescription drugs, like insulin, and we hope to build on that promise in the near future. the president explained this morning, in an op-ed in "the new york times," that he plans to build on the progress we made last year in the inflation reduction act by making medicare solvent through the year 2050. isn't that great news for the american people? even younger people, who will need it before 2050. he'll expand the list of drugs medicare can negotiate. he'll take profits that used to go to big pharma and put it towards deficit reduction. many americans think it will be a great idea to take the money that normally goes to big pharma and put it towards deficit

reduction and towards extending, keeping medicare solvent longer. this commonsense step will help millions of ordinary americans. now, republicans, to their credit, are being very helpful about erasing any doubt about which party is fighting for the working people and the middle class. while democrats are for keeping taxes low for most americans, republicans tried to push a national sales tax that would have sent taxes surging by 30 pfers for millions -- by 30% for millions, while democrats want to make the wealthy pay their fair share, house republicans pass the their first bill, a proposal to carve out the irs and make it easier to avoid detection. while democrats will protect social security, republicans, like the senior senator from wisconsin, went on the radio the day after the state of the union and called social security a ponsy scheme. can you imagine? -- a panzi scheme. if my republican colleagues have a problem with what i'm saying,

there's an easy solution, speaker mccarthy needs to stop dodging and show us the republican plan. it's now march 7. two months have passed already in this year. the debt ceiling x date is approaching. republicans have said they'll release a plan. they said they want spending cuts in return for just paying our debts, which we've already incurred. where's their plan? what's the holdup? the president will release his budget very soon, and the onus is on speaker mccarthy to respond with a serious plan of his own. that's a budget plan. doesn't deal with deficit reduction, because we think that should occur without hostage-taking, without any brinksmanship, as it's been done three times in the past few years. so, speaker mccarthy, respond with a plan, one that can unite the fractured and chaotic fractions of the republican congress. i'll have more to say on this

later, but i'm very proud that the senate will vote to confirm a highly qualified judicial nominee whom i recommended, awrn awrn. if confirmed, he will -- arun subramanian. southern new york, which has one of the largest south asian populations in the country. he's a great judge. i look forward to him serving on the bench. i will have more to say about that before his vote this afternoon. i yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: quorum call:

quorum call:

mr. mcconnell: mr. president? the presiding officer: the republican leader. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent that further proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: one month ago the biden administration published an official statement opposing republicans s. bill to block -- republicans' bill to block disaster soft on crime bill right here in our nation's capital. the administration was on the record against it. then they overwhelming majority of house democrats voted against our commonsense resolution when it passed the house. the proposition behind our bill

is simple -- it goes like this. the answer to skyrocketing violent crime in the district of columbia is not -- not -- to reduce criminal penalties even further. on what planet should this even need to be said in the first place? the murder rate in washington is 34% higher today than it was at this time last year. auto thefts are up 110% right here in the nation's capital. longtime d.c. residents are locking their car doors at every red light. tourists visiting their own capital are worried about what walking the streets -- about walking streets. just yesterday the chief of police lamented that the average homicide suspect has already

been arrested -- listen to this -- 11 times before. 11 times. here's what the police chief said. what we've got to do if we really want to see homicides go down is keep bad guys with guns in jail. because when they're in jail, they can't be in communities shooting people. that's the police chief here in the nation's capital. but the radical politicians who úth. the liberal city council cooked on a soft-on-crime overhaul of the criminal code that would have canadian easier for repeat offenders to get back out on the streets. it would have brought the mandatory minimum sentences for crimes like robbery and carjacking down even lower than they already are. and it would have gummed up an already backlogged and

dysfunctional criminal justice system by massively expanding jury trials -- listen to this -- for misdemeanors. it's like these local democrats have never met a single criminal they actually want locked up behind bars. it is truly remarkable. this is exactly why our laws give congress the final say -- the final say -- over how our nation's capital is governed. because we can't have the craziness and disengines function of a -- dysfunction of a new local politicians jeopardizing the basic safety and the houses of our national government. so republicans wrote a resolution to overturn this nonsense. bear in mind, this limited resolution would not even toughen criminal penalties. at this point we're talking about keeping things where they are and stopping either further -- even further back backsliding. the first step is too use this legal tool to stop the unhinged

local politicians from making a the totally unacceptable status quo even worse. but even so, this is a bridge too far for the vast majority of washington democrats. just a month ago, the washington issued an official statement opposing house republicans' commonsense resolution saying, quote, congress should respect the district of columbia's authority to govern its own local afirst, end quote. and listen to this -- 82% of house democrats fell in line behind the biden administration and voted no. but then something amazing happened. i think somebody at the white house may have shown the president his latest poll numbers on this issue. fewer than one in three americans approve of the way he's handling crime. because washington democrats started panicking and reversed themselves on a dime. the president came here last

week, pulled a 180, and told our democratic colleagues he won't veto the resolution after all. now there appears to be a different kind of jailbreak brewing right here in in the senate. a number of democrats may jump ship at the 11th hour trying to act like they've been tough on crime all along. but our colleagues will not be getting off the hook that easily. it's not an act of heroic political courage for democrats to help congress our basic minimum job and stop the d.c. council from making an unacceptable status quo even worse. and none of our colleagues get to erase their entire records with this one vote. remember, just last summer every single senate democrat went on record against a proposal to redirect a portion of their massive taxing and spending spree to fight surging crime. so let the record reflect what actually gets washington democrats' attention and what does not.

it did not get their attention when rates of violent crime in america's major cities were accelerating this time last year. it did not get their attention that compared to prepandemic levels, homicides nationwide are up 34%. it hadn't gotten democrats' attention when the streets of our own federal district where repeated offenders are driving spikes in carjacking and murder. but now that even the mainstream media are beginning to hold them to account for their negligence, now washington democrats are finally trying to change their tune. innocent citizens getting shot in our streets didn't do it, but when democrats take political shots in the press, that finally gets their attention.

so look, mr. president, we'll welcome any of our democratic colleagues who can recognize basic sanity and want to be on the winning side for our republican resolution later this week. but local, state, and national democratic party officials will not be getting off the hot seat as quickly or as easily as they've got convicted felons getting back on the streets. washington, dea, is only -- washington, d.c., is only .2% of our nation's population. what about new york? chicago? san francisco? portland? philadelphia? even louisville? don't these citizens deserve some sanity as well? don't the families and children and elderly people and young women of these communities

deserve to walk their streets with safety and security, too? we cannot only have public safety in this country in exception exceptional cases, when a republican house and a narrowly divided senate can force democrats to do the right thing against their will. i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

mr. durbin: mr. president. the presiding officer: the majority whip. mr. durbin: are we in a quorum call? prferl we are dissh i ask consent the quorum call be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. durbin: last week the biden administration announced it was opposing magnitsky related law sanctions on several putin thugs involved in the jailing of vladimir car murza. this is the move along with senator shaheen, rubio, tillis had urged. he is an incredible russian patriot who despite being poisoned twice by the kremlin returned to russia last year to continue the peaceful struggle for a more democratic nation and an end to the disastrous war in ukraine. i'll never forget that he came to talk to me just before he returned to russia and reflected on his determination and

optimism for a better future for russia. tragically he was arrested shortly after arriving in moscow on the laughable charge of criticizing mr. putin's war. so many russians who were courageously pursuing a better future for their country deserve our support and they deserve to be released from putin's disgraceful goo logs. i would like to mention another brave person. this gentleman, oswaldo paya, a brave cuban, died under suspicious circumstances 11 years ago. as waldo paya spent years advocating for peaceful

democratic change in cuba, including submitting thousands of signatures calling for greater political freedoms. using a process allowed by the cuban constitution itself. not only did the castro regime cowardly ignore these modest requests, but the -- then changed the constitutional provision that allowed for this political input. after years of harassment and threats in july 2012, as waldo paya's car was run off the road by a government vehicle leading to his death. the cuban government has never provided a credible accounting of the incident or charged anyone with his death. so this week senators rubio, kaine, cassidy, menendez, cruz, cardin, warner and i are again calling on the inter-american commission on human rights to complete this investigation. i hope the commission finally acts to bring paya's case and deter acts of oppression like this in the future. mr. president, i ask consent the

following statement be placed in a separate part in the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. durbin: the residents of east palestine, ohio, were still desperate for answers about the toxic derailment of a norfolk southern train in their town a month ago when a second norfolk southern train derailed in springfield, ohio this past weekend. this morning we learned of even another accident involving norfolk southern, a railroad employee was killed early this morning when a norfolk southern train collided with a dump truck in cleveland, ohio. these three rail accidents in just one month, one of them a catastrophic derailment, have sent a grave and blaring signal that we need to do more to protect american communities from hazardous freight rail shipments. the need for greater rail safety is urgent, especially in my state of illinois. chicago, illinois, is the busiest rail hub in the united

states. about a quarter of all freight rail traffic in our nation passes through the chicago area every year. if we ignore the warnings from east palestine and springfield, ohio, it's only a matter of time until the next deadly derailment. in east palestine, the government has responded quickly. federal agencies were on the ground within hours and are still there today. president biden has instructed workers from federal agencies to even go door to door checking on the residents in the area to see who may need medical attention as a result of exposure to toxic chemicals. these are the right steps to take, but we also need to do more to prevent train derailments and accidents in the first place so that more communities don't find themselves facing the same dangers and uncertainty as east pal steenl. -- palestine. freight rail traffic has increased in recent decades and it continues to grow. at the same time freight companies have moved to larger

and longer trains to increase profits. but federal regulations have not kept pace with the changing rail industry. that's the problem. listen to these figures which tell the story. in 2001, the profit margin of the leading freight carriers was 15%. today the profit margin of those same rail carriers is 41%. from 15% to 41%. and while derailments are down overall since the 1970's, the number of train accidents per mile has actually increased. in addition, over the last seven years, the damage from derailments has grown, particularly from trains carrying hazardous chemicals. instead of investing adequately in safety and their workers, freight rail companies have cut staff dramatically and fought to dismantle safety regulations.

those efforts paid off under the previous president when rail industry regulators dramatically loose:ed a number of safety rules. the result is greater danger, more congestions, and blocked rail crossings in communities across america. the disaster in east palestine appears finally to have produced a bipartisan consensus that change is needed and it is. my colleagues from ohio, senators brown and vance, have introduced a bipartisan bill that will make several important commonsense changes and force freight railroads to improve the safety of their operation. i support these efforts and hope the senate will pass the bill soon. while the exact causes of the recent ohio derailments have not yet been determined, inspectors for the national surface transportation board found that a wheel baring on the train in east palestine heated to more than 250 degrees above average,

250 degrees causing the plastic pellets it was carrying to catch fire. the bipartisan bill from senators brown and vance will increase how frequently the temperature of wheel bearings must be checked and require additional safety features for trains carrying these deadly and dangerous materials. this includes rules for the length of trains and their weight, increased inspections, and a requirement that trains hauling hazardous materials have two crane crew members on board instead of just one. finally, the brown-vance bill would provide funding for hazmat training for first responders and it would invest in both rail research and the development of new tank car safety features. these are important safety steps that will protect rail workers and the communities through which these trains pass. this past december congress approved a labor agreement that gives rail workers the largest

wage increase in 50 years, but most of the railroads balked at providing their workers with even one day of paid sick leave per year so that they can take care of themselves and their families. for too long the railroads have shortchanged their workers and possibly endangered american communities maximizing their corporate profits. it's time for change. working for railroads is a tradition in my family. i grew up in east st. louis, illinois. both of my parents worked for the new york central railroad. my two brothers and i also worked for the same railroad. i know from personal experience that many railroad jobs are physically demanding and they can be dangerous. lucky for me the only scar i have from working on the railroad is a minor one, but others have been injured in more grievous ways. we can't take all the risks out of rail transport, but we must reduce unnecessary risk. the bipartisan brown-vance bill

strikes the right balance. we should pass it without delay. i yield the floor.

test.

mr. thune: mr. president. the presiding officer: the republican whip. mr. thune: is the senate in a quorum call? the presiding officer: it is not. mr. thune: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, at the end of last week, i joined several republican colleagues to travel to our southern border. it was my second visit to the border during the biden

administration, my third overall. my first during the biden administration was almost exactly two years ago, after border numbers started to soar in the wake of the president taking office. unfortunately, little has changed since my last visit. thanks to the fact that president biden spent the first two years of his presidency refusing to even acknowledge this crisis, much less actually address it, we're still facing a disastrous situation at our southern border. i talked to border patrols agents who spent two years dealing with regard number of illegal immigrants, and are looking for support from the administration that never comes. not only do they not feel supported by the biden administration, they feel like the biden administration is actually impeding their abilities to do their jobs. just let us enforce the law. one agent told me. something that was echoed by other law enforcement officers we spoke to. to give you one example, we

heard from an individual in charge of the border for texas, who told us they have a number of panels for the congressly mandated -- congressionally mandated wall ready to go into the ground. the state of texas and law enforcement personnel would like to install these to stem the flood of illegal immigration, at their own expense, the expense of the state of texas. the biden administration has so far refused to grant the permissions needed to do that. i can only imagine how much harder the jobs will get when the biden administration ends title 42 border policies coming up on may 11. i was also stunned to learn that president biden's supposed border czar, vice president harris, has never spoken to the border czar for the state of texas or to the leadership of the border patrol down there. that's right, the person who is supposedly in charge of addressing the chaos at our southern border has never spoken

to the individual in charge of border issues for the state that makes up the the greatest porf our southern border. or to the border patrol leadership in the state. mr. president, from his campaign on, president biden was fixated on distancing himself from the immigration policies of his predecessor, and satisfying the open borders caucus that makes up a huge part of today's democrat party. so much so that in his first week in office or so, he repealed somewhere on the order of 94, 94 executive policies of the previous administration with respect to the border. the moment he took office he set about dismantling those policies of the previous administration without, apparently, taking even a minute to think about what his actions or what effect his actions would have. well, we know now what effect they had. president biden's actions

declared to the world that the united states borders were effectively open. we've seen two years of record-breaking illegal immigration as a result. mr. president, in january president biden finally, and i say finally, began to take steps to address the crisis at our southern border, including reestablishing versions of some of the border security policies he did away with upon taking office. predictably, even the mild steps he's taken garnered criticism from open borders democrats who apparently think border security and enforcement are somehow uncompassionate. well, mr. president, you know what's uncompassionate? the kind of lax border policies we've had over the past two years that encouraged individuals to attempt to illegally cross our borders. that have encouraged individuals to pay huge sums to dangerous

individuals, to cartels and smugglers, for illegal passage. that have exposed uncpped children to the haz -- unaccompanied children to exploitation by sponsors once they arrive in this country. at least 853 people died attempting to cross our southern border illegally in fiscal year 2022. the highest number ever recorded. that's a lot of lives lost, mr. president. there's nothing compassionate about the policies that encourage them to attempt the crossing. mr. president, i think many people think of those attempting to illegally cross our border as economically disadvantaged individuals from mexico or central america. but the truth is that u.s. customs and border protection apprehends individuals at our southern border from all over the world, some from hostile countries. one law enforcement official i spoke with said that the number

of chinese nationals attempting to cross illegally in the rio grande valley sector has increased by 488% year over year. 488%. now, i have no doubt some of those were individuals merely hoping to relocate from communist china to a land of freedom. but it's equally possible that some were hostile agents of the chinese government, and that's a serious security concern. in fiscal year 2022, customs and border protection apprehended 98 individuals on the terrorist watch list attempting to cross our southern border. that's an average of one approximately every three or four days, and that's just the individuals customs and border protection managed to apprehend. there have been at least

1.2 million known got-aways, which are individuals the border patrol saw but was unable to apprehend since president biden took office. that's in addition to the almost 4.7 million, 4.7 million people that they did apprehend trying to come across our southern border, since president biden took office. it's more than possible that terrorists or agents of hostile powers have made their way into our country undetected, while our border patrol agents have been struggling to deal with the record-breaking number of individuals coming across the border illegally. mr. president, the chaos we've been experiencing at our southern border is an invitation to dangerous individuals from terrorists to drug cartels. our nation is currently in the midst of a fentanyl crisis, which is larnlgdly fueled by -- largely fueled by traffic across

the southern border. i'll be surprised if that flow isn't facilitated by the chaos at our border. our current fentanyl crisis is a good reminder that illegal activity at our southern border affects every state in our country. i've talked to sheriffs in south dakota, about as far from our southern border as you can get, who are dealing with fentanyl that has been trafficked across the border from mexico. last year, sheriff mike millstead estimated 90% of fentanyl and methamphetamine in our state, south dakota, comes through mexico. , and across our southern border. 90%. mr. president, every state is a border state, and record breaking floods of illegal immigration at our southern border at just a problem for actual border states like texas and arizona, but for every state in our country. for two years, the biden

administration has been missing in action at our southern border. while i'm glad that president biden is finally, at least half-heartedly, acknowledging we're facing a border crisis, i want to see him follow through on actually enforcing our laws and doing what the border patrol agents are asking, enforce our laws. he has all of the authority he needs to secure our border, and he owes the american people nothing less. mr. president, i yield the floor, and i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

quorum call:

the presiding officer: without objection. the question is on the nomination. is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote:

vote:

vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: the yeas are 59, the nays are 37. the nomination is confirmed. under the previous order, the motion to reconsider is considered made and laid upon the table and the president will

be immediately notified of the senate's action. the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture. the clerk: cloture motion, we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby bring to a close debate on the nomination of executive calendar number 42, andrew g. schopler, of california, to be united unid states being district judge of the southern district of california. signed by 17 senators. the presiding officer: by unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum call has been waived. the question is, is it the sense of the senate that debate on the nomination of andrew g., schopler, of california, to be united states district judge for the district of california shall be brought to a close. the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. the clerk will call the roll. vote:

vote:

vote:

vote:

vote: vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: the yeas are 57, the nays are 39, and

the motion is agreed to. the clerk will report the nomination. the clerk: nomination, the judiciary. andrew g. schopler of california to be united states district judge for the southern district of california. the presiding officer: under the the u.s. senate in recess for the weekly caucus meetings. today lawmakers are considering several nominees to serve as u.s. district court judges. members are expected to vote later on house passed resolution to repeal a d.c. law reducing criminal penalties. if approved president biden has said he would not veto the legislation. they will be considering the president's nominate to be irs commissioner. watch live coverage of the senate when lawmakers return at 2:15 p.m. eastern here on c-span2. >>