>> the name of america which belongs to you in your national capacity. >> fourscore and seven years ag ago. >> astronaut what your country can do for you. >> to about american history presidents have delivered have been speeches during inaugurations, times of challenge and farewells. on saturday watch our ten part series speeches at the find a presidency on american history tv. you the words of george washington and abraham lincoln through ronald reagan and barack obama. this week will feature ronald reagan's 1981 inaugural address declaring that government to stop the not the solution to our problem. government is a problem. in 1984 on the 40th anniversary 40th anniversary of d-day president reagan spoke from normandy recognizing the veterans of that pivotal day. >> behind the as a memorial that symbolizes the range of daggers that but trusted at the top of these cliffs. and before me the men who put

them there. these are the boys of hope. watch our ten part series speeches that the find a presidency saturdays at 9:30 a.m. and p.m. eastern on american history tv on c-span2. >> the same is coming in to consider more a president biden's executive nominees and includes brent neiman to be deputy undersecretary of the treasury. a photo whether to advance his nomination is coming up at 5:30 p.m. eastern today. now life to the to the floor of the u.s. 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. the chaplain: let us pray. eternal spirit, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever, we are transient creatures who long for a sense of permanence. give us that permanence. as we find in you our fixed and abiding center of faith.

lord, we praise you because you are changeless, without any variableness in your judgment and mercy. strengthen our lawmakers for the challenges of our times. keep them in the shadow of your wings and teach them to show mercy. use your powerful arm to rescue our nation from the hands of all enemies of freedom. let the tran quilt of your -- let the tranquility of your dominion increase before the earth is filled with the knowledge of your love. we pray in your glorious name,

amen. the presiding officer: please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. the presiding officer: the clerk will read a communication to the senate. the clerk: washington d.c, march 14, 2023. to the senate: under the provisions of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable peter welch, a senator from the state of vermont, to perform the duties of the chair. signed: patty murray, president pro tempore.

the presiding officer: under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. morning business is closed. under the previous order, the senate will proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the following nomination, which the clerk will report. the clerk: nomination, department of treasury. brent neiman of illinois to be a deputy under secretary.

>> this is the first day of the week for the senate and as we wait for a synergistic, a look

at what we will see on the floor. senators considering president biden's executive nominations including brent nyman to be under secretary of the treasury. a vote is scheduled at 5:30 eastern today. later they will pick up eric garcetti's nomination to us ambassador to india. senators are expected to start work on a bill to repeal the 1991-2002 your rack war authorizations. punch bowl news reports this will set up a final passage vote on the george w. bush era invasion of iraq which is coming up next week. you are watching live coverage of the senate on c-span2. >> of bloomberg television, correspondent when it comes to regular tory matters to talk about events of the last few

days. >> what was the president trying to a competent what you've seen, did he accomplish it? >> the president and the administration and regulatory officials have been trying to project a sense of calm, they don't want a contagion to spread further in the american financial system. you could argue by market action the pain we are seeing in the share prices, that wasn't necessarily accomplished. the other message he was trying to convey is this is not a bailout for taxpayers to be on the hook for this. is coming from an insurance fund they pay into, and they are still out on that one as well. have a judge market action to see if there's any recovery in banking shares more broadly. the regulatory officials and

federal reserve have taken over the last few days to stop the bleeding. >> you heard the president talking about going to congress for more regulation. do you have a sense the avenues the president could pursue? >> what the president has pointed to is this 2018 rollback and consumer protection act. it did have bipartisan support, a dozen democrats signing on with republicans in that regard and the rollback of the most stringent requirements of dodd-frank especially raising the threshold of the banks in terms of assets that requires the most stringent stress tests from $50 billion-$250 billion and signature banks have assets less the $250 billion, they

didn't have the strongest level of supervision and regulation, raises the question of whether to revisit that issue and when you have republicans controlling the house, in the last 24 hours they acknowledged what happened in silicon valley, stricter regulation is the issue that should be more about enforcing existing regulation. >> back to 2018, between those years and how it could let us -- over the past few days? >> it took a long time to get done even if there's agreement post financial crisis for the american banking system where they get more resilience. stress tests, really

institutions across the board, what happened in 2018 is small and midsized banks said it takes thousands of hours of supervision, manpower that shouldn't be subject to as lending institutions, diversified financials mother same way jpmorgan or morgan stanley are arguing they should be subject to less supervision and that was a battle -- what happened in at 2018 act following the rollback of the most stringent stress test requirements for banks of a certain size. they were subject to supervision just not the highest level of supervision which comes back to how this is being enforced and we know the biden administration and the federal reserve are conducting inquiries how the fed was supervising and regulating banks and the outcome we were expecting, that internal review

to be made public by may 1st. >> host: many people point to the fed itself, what was done on interest rates and how it contributed to what we've seen the last several days. >> the fed has aggressively raised interest rates to the tune of 400 basis points over the course of a year. it has been very dramatic and that does create interest rate risks for banks especially those that have a lot of money and long-duration assets as was the case at silicon valley. the value of those treasuries goes down as the fed hikes interest rates. the way the accounting works is they don't have to realize those losses until they sell the assets. you were heavily concentrated toward tech startups with

clients in a macroeconomic environment that is no longer as friendly to throw off money to pay them back because of the way the banking system works at a steep loss. once news of that loss came, it sparked a traditional bank run were clients worried about getting their money out and everybody tried to get it out at the same time. that led to the failure of the bank. >> the president bringing up the idea of looking at more regulation, has there been response to the possibility of even more regulation than we saw in 2020? >> it comes to enforcement considering biden -- most people realize more stringent regulation will be difficult to get through the divided congress but it is about bank balance sheets.

the last several days, it was -- barney frank was an author of the bill, he said the rollback changes in 2018, really didn't make a difference. the problem has long plagued banks, the duration gap, the asset and liability of different durations, one longer and one shorter. if you look at the filings or balance sheets, it is a question of whether or not that was adequate by regulators or bank management to see the problem brewing before it came crashing in. >> host: you can find your work at bloomberg.com. here to talk about the president's comments from yesterday. thanks for your time.

test.

mr. schumer: mr. president. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. schumer: now, earlier today two russian military aircraft conducted an unsafe intercept with an unmanned u.s. surveillance drone that was operating within international air space over the black sea. this intercept was so dangerous and so brazen that the u.s. air force was forced to crash their drone into international waters. it is another reckless act by president putin and his military, and i want to tell mr. putin stop this behavior before you are the cause of an unintended escalation. we have seen this behavior from the russian military before, and it will not deter the united states from conducting operations over the black sea. these aggressive actions by

russian aircraft are risky and could lead, i repeat, to unintended escalation. the u.s. has routinely flown over the black sea since before putin's illegal and reckless invasion of ukraine, and i'm confident our military will continue to do so. now, over the weekend, as we all know, the u.s. banking system faced a significant threat after the collapse of silicon valley bank. if the damage had spread across our financial system, the deposits and savings of tens of millions of families and small businesses could have been at serious risk. today, as we speak, thankfully, our banking system is stable, thanks to the work of the biden administration, the federal reserve, and the fdic on sunday. i thank president, the federal

reserve, and the fdic for taking swift action to preserve confidence in the banking system. and the american people can rest assured that bank regulators have acted quickly and are doing everything they can to protect consumers. in the days and weeks to come, congress will look closely at what caused the run on silicon valley bank and how we can prevent similar events in the future. now, later today, i will take the first procedural steps to take up legislation repealing the iraq aumf's of 1991 and 2002. after a lot of hard work from senators cane and young -- senators kaine and young, chairman menendez and ranking member risch, this is the week the senate will begin the process to end the legal authority that started the iraq war two decades ago. every year we keep these aumf's

on the books, and every year we keep them on the books it's another chance for future administrations to abuse or misuse them. war powers belong in the hands of congress, and that means we have a responsibility to prevent future presidents from exploiting these aumf's to bumble us into a new middle east conflict. are tired of endless wars in the middle east, and we owe it to them, their veterans and families to repeal the iraq war aumf. thank you, thank you to the members of the senate foreign fn relations committee for their work, especially chairman menendez and ranking member risch, and thank you again to senators kaine and young for their work spearheading this legislation. the iraq war has formally been over more than ten years. the reality on the ground has long since changed, so the laws on the books must change too. repealing this aumf will in no

way hinder or national defense and is a step forward with the iraqi government. i'm pleased this effort has been thoroughly bipartisan. president biden voiced his support for the measure. the house passed a similar bill a few years ago, with strong support from both democrats and republicans. here in the senate, the bill was reported out of committee with a 13-8 vote. i thank my colleagues on both sides for allowing this bill to proceed. now, on aucus, yesterday, in san diego, president biden joined his counterparts from the united kingdom and australia and announced the next steps in a historic arrangement known as aukus. the president's announcement is a bold and generational investment to create a new fleet of nuclear-powered submarines to counter president xi and china's

influence in the pacific. aukus will be a critical part of ensuring stability in the region. i applaud president biden for recognizing the need to forge ahead on this multinational partnership. during my recent codel overseas, our discussions with world leaders stressed the need for the u.s. to continue deepening our security arrangements with our longstanding partners. at the same time, i made it clear that we also must expand and grow relationships with countries like india, which will play a major role in shaping global stabt in the 21 -- stability in the 21st century. like aukus serves as a bulwark in the pacific, so will the quad powers of the united states, japan, australia and india working together for democracy and stability in asia. the u.s. will only stay ahead of president xi and the chinese communist party if we can bring other democracies of the world to partner with us.

from india, australia, japan, the u.k. and so many others. and india and australia can be very important partners in containing president xi and the ccp. so i remain committed to deepening our existing relationships and finding opportunities to build new ones and i look forward to working on a bipartisan basis to advance them. now, on the president's executive order on guns, today in monterey park, california, where sadly, unfortunately, tragically, a gunman murdered 11 people in january during lunar new year celebrations, president biden will announce a new executive order to strengthen background checks and other commonsense gun safety measures. i commend president biden for taking this much-needed step to fight the scourge of gun violence in our country. after gunmen massacred dozens in buffalo and uvalde last year, the senate defied the nra and

passed a bipartisan, commonsense and lifesaving gun safety bill for the first time in decades. it was the first step congress took since the brady bill in 1994, which i was proud to author and lead passage of, and which mandated federal background checks on firearms. last year's bipartisan safety bill was a good, long overdue step of progress, but we must do more. gun violence remains a devastating sickness thatfesterp within the heart of our nation. democrats and republicans stand ready to keep working together to combat gun violence -- or rather, democrats stand ready to keep working together to combat violence, and we hope a good number of our republican colleagues will join us once again. i hope my colleagues on the other side can free themselves from the vice grip of the nra and the maga wing of the republican party and work with

democrats to pass more gun safety legislation in this congress. now, on insulin and cbo, it's another important day for millions of americans who rely on insulin. following eli lilly's recent announcement that they're capping insulin at $35 a month, novo nordisc announced they're slashing prices by as much as 75%. it is good news that these enormous drug pharmaceutical companies are waking up to the injustice of price gouging of americans who rely on insulin daily. there's no justification, none, for having insulin cost $300 or $500 or more a month. people who need that insulin for their health, for their safety, for their lives, can't afford it anymore, this lowering of price is very important. as we all know, we senate democrats took a major step in

righting this wrong by capping insulin costs at $35 a month for americans on medicare. it is my hope that both parties can build on this good work with commonsense bipartisan legislation to extend that $35 cap to all americans. lowering insulin costs is a good policy that everyone on both sides of the aisle should get behind. this is not a democratic issue. this is not a republican issue. it's something that affects people in every city and every state and is an american issue. and finally, mr. president, today cbo released a letter confirming what most of us already knew, the republican plan to balance the budget in ten years and keep the trump tax cuts is impossible. mathematically impossible. without making cuts to social security, medicare, defense, and veterans benefits. to balance the budget in ten

years, with no new revenues, while somehow leaving medicare, social security, veterans programs and defense unscathed, republicans would have to cut 86% from every other federal program. that means nearly obliterating funds for medicare, for food and housing support, border security, health care, infrastructure. this leaves americans with a profound worry about their benefits, and it leaves americans with some big questions down the road. if republicans can't reach their goals without forcing severe cuts down americans' throats, then what exactly are they planning to do? to date, republicans have refused to talk straity with the american people about -- to talk straight with the american people about budget cuts. speaker mccarthy, today is march 14. show us your plan. mr. president, i yield the floor.

mr. durbin: mr. president. mr. president, it seems a little unusual to follow senator schumer, because usually senator mcconnell is next, and we certainly understand why he's not here today. he's in recovery from a fall that he experienced last week. we wish him the very best and hope he's back very soon. mr. president, there's an old saying that there are a lot of -- that there aren't a lot of atheists in foxholes. in my experience, there aren't a lot of unyielding, uncompromising, fiscally conservative, so-called budget hawks when a disaster hits. it gets personal. when tornadoes rip across your state or hurricanes devastate your community, when a cold snap takes down the electric grid in your state, or blazing heat sets off raging wildfires, when a

freight train hauling toxic chemicals derails and explodes into a raging fireball, you don't find a platoon of ayn rand quoting ideologues that really come to the scene and want to be heard. people want to see fema and other government agencies on the scene helping as quickly as possible. they want to know their government is there to help when it's needed. when it gets right down to it, we americans face a fundamental choice. do we want a federal government that's there when we need a hand, or do we want a government that will preach us to, sorry, you're on your own, mr. taxpayer? do we want a government far sighted enough to plant the american flag on new industries and inventions for the future? or do we plant on leaving these transformative discoveries, the moon shots of this century, to china? president biden told us last week where he stands on these

basic questions. when he proposed his budget to congress. it's a plan that protects social security, strengthens medicare, and adds 25 years of additional solvency to the medicare program. the president's budget plan gives working families help with the basics -- affordable, reliable health care coverage, including savings on prescription drugs, which the democratic leader just noted when it came to insulin. the president's budget invests in affordable housing and quality child care. it invests in community colleges to educate skilled workers that our economy desperately needs. and it helps students land a good-paying job or start on a four-year degree. the president's budget helps cut poverty among children in the united states in half when we included it during the pandemic.

we are in fact the richest nation on earth, yet shamefully we have the highest child poverty rate among all advanced nations. if the super wealthy can claim tax breaks on their yachts, surely we can find affordable tax credits to help working families care for their kids. president reagan called another part of the tax code the earned income tax credit, the best antipoverty program ever invented. president biden is proposing to make the earned income tax credit for childless workers permanent to lift millions of low-wage americans out of poverty. isn't that something that should be our aspiration in this country as a high priority? if you say you believe in the dignity of work, if you say you respect men and women who take the bus early in the morning working maybe two or even jobs to make ends meet, here's a chance to show our respect for

work. support the earned income tax credit. president biden's budget includes continued funding for a cancer moonshot to end cancer as we know it. what family in america hasn't known the heartache personally or among friends or family members, and frequently the financial devastation of cancer? not many. i hope we will not only embrace the administration's cancer moonshot, but will continue the 5% real growth in medical research, including the national institutes of health that this senate has supported on a bipartisan basis for nearly a decade. mr. president, i went out to national institutes of health about ten years ago, and i met with one of the greatest living americans, and i say that without sphraition -- reservation. dr. francis colin. he did a remarkable job. among other things, he was one

of the key elements and contributors in mapping the human genome that has just transformed our whole area of medical research. and i said to dr. collins when i went out to see him, i want to help the national institutes of health with medical research. i know there was a time when a bipartisan coalition doubled your budget. that coalition should be remembered on the floor of the senate. it was arlen specter, republican from pennsylvania; tom harkin democrat iowa; john porter, from the state of illinois. the three of them got together and doubled the budget for the national institutes of health. so i said to dr. collins, i want to do something that helps you. what can i do? he said work to give us 5% real growth every single year. you know why? he says our researchers aren't sure you're going to be there next year, congress. they're not sure you're going to fund our projects, so they don't follow through to the end

as they should. they lose patience and end up in some other place. if you can give them a reliable budget each year for medical research, they'll continue their research and find dramatic breakthroughs. in the words of dr. collins, he said we can line up the score board if you'll make that commitment. i talked to a number of my colleagues. i talked to roy blunt, now retired from the state of missouri. i talked to patty murray, still serving here, chairing the subcommittee from the state of washington. i spoke to lamar alexander, a republican of tennessee. the four of us got together and put together a bipartisan team, and we achieve that goal of 5% real growth for eight years. we went from $30 billion at the nih to $40 billion in the nih, and it makes a difference. it made a big difference when the pandemic struck. we're doing things now that really do improve the likelihood that we'll find cures for many diseases, and i want to continue in that. and i'm glad to report that

president biden's budget does just that. and that's the kind of commitment that we need to make in the senate on a bipartisan basis for at least another decade. the president's plan also stren nens border security -- strengthens border security and the united states immigration system. there is no excuse why we have not rewritten our terrible immigration laws, our broken immigration system in almost 30 years. 30 years, since ronald reagan was the president, was the last time we ever agreed on any significant changes in immigration policy. the world has changed dramatically. america has changed. and we still are laboring under the old law, old laws, i should say, which do not meet today's needs. we need to do more. we need a plan that makes sense, that reflects our values as a nation of immigrants, which reflects the values we share when it comes to our

future and recognizes the reality that many of these immigrants seeking to be part of the united states are going to make a significant difference not only in the lives of their family, but in the lives of americans all over. these are people that have amazing energy and determination. i have yet to meet one of these new immigrants in my state of illinois who is asking me where the welfare office is. they're asking me where they can go to work, and they're ready to roll up their sleeves and start working immediately. they are wonderful, ingenious, innovative, hard-charging people and we need them in our future. it's time to wake up to the reality. having a system of orderly immigration into this country is the best thing to make sure that we keep our labor pool strong and the best innovation available in entrepreneur pursuits. the president's budget increases defense spending to ensure we can deter threats from china,

russia, iran or any other country. it maintains our defense for the brave people in ukraine. i read over the weekend with the governor from the state of florida really questioned whether we ought to be doing anything to help the people in ukraine. i couldn't believe it when i read it, but i guess in politics almost anything can happen. to think that we would turn our backs now on these brave ukrainians who for more than a year have fought off vladimir putin and his thugs invading their country in an unprovoked invasion is just, to my mind, mindless. if we can't stand up for the values of the ukrainian people and stop this kind of ruthless war crime behavior by vladimir putin, shame on us. the united states needs to stand by the people of ukraine who are literally giving their lives on a daily basis for the future of their nation. i might add, the president's budget honors the americans' commitment to our military and

veterans, boosting investment in veterans health and funding. the pact act which is going to allow those who were injured in service to our country by burn pits, for example, an opportunity to get the best medical care and to care for veterans sickened by exposure fo toxic hazards. this is important. according to the white house, if you earn less than $400,000 a year, the president's budget won't raise your taxes one dollar. that bears repeating. if your family earns less than $400,000 a year, your taxes under the president's budget will not go up one penny. he made that promise when he ran. he stuck with it. the president pays for his plan by making the ultra wealthy, over $400,000, and big corporations finally pay their fair share. when 55 of the largest corporations in america paid no taxes, zero, last year,

that's not a conservative precept. that's a big con, and it's not fair. now we know the president's plan is just an opening bid in what promises to be a long, complicated budget process. we will undoubtedly see alternative proposals from both sides of the aisle. that's the nature of negotiations and debate. but it does take two sides. i have to join with the democratic leader in the senate and say, speaker exphargt, where's -- mccarthy, where's your plan? where's your budget? you talk big but you don't produce anything. we want to see it. during the last administration our republican colleagues voted to add nearly $8 trillion to the national debt, and the last administration was the sing- -- single largest increase. that's nearly one quarter of all the debt accumulated since the beginning of this nation. it happened in the last four years under the previous president. most of the $ trillion in new

debt was piled on before the pandemic. a lot of it was spent on tax cuts for the wealthiest people in america. and their corporations that they own. now they say they want to eliminate the deficit in a decade, as senator schumer said earlier, it just doesn't pass the laugh test, let alone the math test. once -- what's the plan to do that? put it on paper, put it on the table and let's see it speaker mccarthy? are you going to cut education? health care? medical research? aid for veterans? fema? the president's plan is on the table. republicans have a responsibility to come up with a credible, serious counter offer, not just bumper sticker slogans. on a related note, mr. president, it was 60 years ago that john kennedy as president signed the equal pay act. the law was simple. here's what it said. women should not be paid less than men for the same work.

simple, and yet 60 years later we're still not there. 60 years. today is equal pay day in america. let me tell you what it means. this is the day when the average american woman will finally earn as much as the average man did last year. in other words, on average, it takes women 15.5 months to earn as much as men do in america in 12 months. the pay gap persists despite the law i told you about. here's the reality. women in america are still paid less than men even when they do exactly the same job. on average, women in america make 82 cents for every dollar a man makes. this means that women who work full time year round lose up to $400,000 over the course of their working lives. when you include part-time and seasonal workers, women make only 77 cents for every dollar a man makes. the pay gap is even wider for women of color who lose up to

around $1 million over the course of their working lives. and less pay during your working years means less retirement income, we all know. apologists offer all kinds of explanations and justifications, but the persistent pay gap among men and women is sexism plain and simple. it doesn't just hurt women. it hurts their families who depend on them. additionally while men's wages rise throughout their lives, women's wages rise more slowly and the gap widens if they have children. president biden's budget proposal contains measures that will help working families make ends meet. it includes affordable child care. what a high priority that is for every working parent. and paid family and medical leave so that women who also are primary caregivers in most families don't have to stop working to care for a loved one. but those measures, as necessary as they are, will not close the inexcusable pay gap for women. we need to pass the paycheck

fairness act. closing loopholes in the equal pay act and finally giving women the tools they need to hold employers accountable if they break equal pay laws. house and senate senate democrats reintroduced this essential legislation last week. i want to thank my colleague, senator patty murray, chairman, as i mentioned, of the appropriations committee, in particular for her leadership on this issue. we are committed to passing the paycheck fairness act, and we need republicans to make it happen. if they believe in fairness, as i think we all do, if you care about the financial security of working families, stand with us and let's finally pass this bill. mr. president, i yield the floor.

test. >> i'm excited for our next session. we are fortunate to have the administrator for the center for medicare and medicaid services. she oversees programs including medicare, medicaid, children's health insurance program and healthcare.gov health insurance marketplace that provides

healthcare and coverage for more than 100 million people nationwide. she played a key role in guiding the affordable care act and has decades of experience working in the federal government, on capitol hill, and in the private sector. administrator, we are excited to have you here. [applause] >> thank you for the kind introduction and invitation to be here with you all. good morning. i was walking with my daughter and nice to see the sun out. it's a pleasure to join you to discuss the vision and strategies for delivering affordable, meaningful

healthcare coverage for all people. as we transition from the covid 19 pandemic, our 6 strategic pillars continue to be our guideposts as we work to see an immense opportunity to transform the way we care for people. we are laser focused on advancing health equity, expanding access, engaging partners, driving innovation, protecting our programs, and fostering operational excellence. medicare, medicaid and the marketplace, pms oversees the healthcare -- cms oversees healthcare coverage of 150 million people with record high enrollments across all of our programs we are reaching nearly half the population of the united states. it is a vast responsibly. or partnership is essential to

ensuring the people we serve, many of whom are your members, the healthcare they need to thrive. these historic gains in enrollment are due to the biden/harris administration's investment in our greatest resource, our health. i would like to discuss a few of our top priorities to ensure all people are served by our program, they have a just opportunity to obtain their optimal health. market place coverage is more affordable than ever. 16 million people signed up during this year's open enrollment. with expanded financial assistance continued by the inflation reduction act, four out of five people were able to find marketplace coverage for $10 or less a month after tax credits. we also doubled down to reach people where they are. we made unprecedented investment to expand our enrollment

organization's footprint and every county in the country. alongside our enrollment partners we targeted the hardest communities, communities with the fifth proportionately high uninsured rate and we know you all worked hard to grow marketplace enrollment, so thank you. this year, marketplace open enrollment showed up again what works, greater affordability and accessibility. as a result, additionally, we continue to implement the no surprise act protecting consumers from potentially life altering bills. we hope you will work in good faith to ensure this lot remains impactful for the american people. alongside marketplaces, medicaid

and chip are at critical levels in our work to strengthen health equity and access in the united states. to access medicaid and chip. medicaid and chip are a lifeline to millions of people especially those in underserved communities, these are not only access to care but help build bridges with the healthcare system and people's health related nutrition and safe housing. we evaluate ways to ensure access to care, 70% of people with medicaid get covered to managed care plan. and maintaining coverage and access the care they need. many of you provided valuable feedback to requests for information, the latest medicaid

access, the input helps stronger as we undertake a new medicaid access role, one that considers access issues in medicaid managed care. we may be releasing the medicaid access, for medicaid managed care. and with medicaid, for their mental and physical health needs. it is as we continue to ensure that people stay enrolled and covered. the covid 19 pandemic, public health emergency, on may 11th, one of our top priorities to ensure smooth transition from waivers and flexibilities including the continuous

eligibility requirements. your partnership is essential to ensuring smooth transition for people in medicaid and chip whether they stay in these programs or transition to marketplace, or enrollment, employer-sponsored coverage. cms is considered mated to working with you for the mutual goal of keeping people covered and ask you continue to work with states to help educate your enrollees. some of the great examples of efforts they are making and ask you continue these efforts through the time of unwinding. some of you heard me say that cms is pulling our levers, like a market plague coverage, affordability, medicare payments, medicaid and chip access. prescription medications are another key lever, strengthening

access to affordable medications is -- >> senator er: the senator from oklahoma. mr. lankford: is the senate in a quorum call? the presiding officer: it is not. aferred aferred i often -- mr. lankford: i often come to the floor to talk about one item. today it's a little different for me. in some ways i feel a little bit like will rogers famous statement, the famous oklahoman, all i really know is what i know is in the newspapers which is an alibi for my ignorance. i want to talk about rand random stories. right now seven in ten americans feel like america is on the wrong track, seven in ten. i don't know why. they feel like something is not going right. things are out of control. it's frustrating for me to go through so many news stories lately and to be able to say if

i put this in front much seven of ten or maybe nine in ten of americans, they would say why are we doing this as a nation? i understand a lot of the issues we face are complicated and quite frankly some of the issues are not complicated. they are common sense. they become complicated in this city but most of america it's not complicated. i get frustrated with the language not just coming out of the administration but the things happening in the federal government now. things that need to be called out. and say as a senate, let's sit down and talk about these issues. instead of knee-jerk reactions, let's try to solve some of these things. things are going sideways instead of things being solved. over the past five days we watched the collapse of the silicon bank, a big bank in france and a smaller bank in

new york. we've had the fdic step in and they're going to save every person in the bank. that is very -- most know that you're insured up to $250,000, but the biden administration said oh, no, everyone will be kept 100% whole. the comment that came out has been that no taxpayers will have to pay for this. and if you listen closely, the next statement is, it's going to come from an assessment on the banks instead. let me tell you what that means. one of the wealthiest banks in america, mostly millionaires that bank there. to show you that, 90% of the depositors in silicon valley bank, their depos depos its excd

that. in san francisco, all of their deportistors will have an assessment. let me tell you what is happening in the next few months. banks in oklahoma in rural towns are about to pay a special fee to be able to bail out ll nairs millionaires in san francisco. what oklahoma banks had to do with it i have no idea. but the comments made over and over again, no taxpayer is going to be affected by this. i'm sure my bankers would be glad to know they don't pay taxes anymore apparently and i'm sure that every person that banks there will be interested to know that when their bank fees go up and when their interest rates go down, to be able to cover what happened in san francisco. now, listen. i don't want to see a contagion

of banks either, but what's happening is a backdoor tax increase on americans, it's not the irs, it's using community banks to charge a quick higher fee which will fiend mean a hig- which will mean a higher fee to members of the bank rather than the typical way, by taking that bank, actually doing an auction, auctioning it off to other banks to take it in. i look at it and say you can't make this stuff up in some ways to say no taxpayer will be affected but quietly taxpayers across the country are going to be affected by this. i was surprised when i saw the president's budget come out when he said this was a new budget and a new way to reduce deficits. the budget proposal is

$6.8 trillion. to put this in perspective, in 2019, four years ago, total spending for the federal government was $4.4 trillion. that was the last year before covid, 4.4 thrldz. -- $4.4 trillion. now it is $6.8 trillion in spending. i visited with some folks on immigration. the numbers went down and so the department put out numbers are down. even before the month was done, the numbers came out a the numbers were down. and now it's the middle of march, we can't get the numbers for february because the best guess is that they have skyrocketed back up. they have released a new proposal to be able to expedite individuals to get to an asylum area, which is a good idea. but the current proposal they'll

do about 500 people a month when we actually have 5,000 people a day illegally crossing. so their new proposed answer is how to expedite hearing for 500 people a month when the problem is 5,000 people a day. in addition to that the biden administration just released out a new set of rules on what will constitute, as they say, violent crimes. these are individuals that are illegally present in the country that are due to be deported. they're trying to redefine what violent crimes mean and who is eligible for deportation in the country and part of what they're redefining are who are sex offenders and how would you define a sex offender? i wouldn't find many americans who would say we only want part

of the illegal sex offenders in the country, yet the biden administration is trying to redefine what equals a sex defender and who has to be deported from that group. i met with the director of the fbi and had a conversation about a memo that the fbi put out just be a month ago saying that there's a threat for terrorism coming from traditional catholics and they need to have further investigation. now, to their credit, the fbi pulled that back quickly after they released it, after the director saw it and the director uneeequivocally distanced himsef from it, but why did that start in the first place? why was there an office in the fbi that considers traditional catholics to be a threat to the country? -- country. the federal workforce, it's interesting, about a month ago there was a big to do.

even some in this room made a big to do about the irs. the statement was made after we passed the inflation reduction act, the irs now has a much higher percentage of answered calls. and it was a celebration on the floor here. i have to tell you that's a good thing to be able to answer more calls because there's been millions of unanswered calls from the irs. so i went to check the data because so many people were saying the percentage of calls answered is much higher than what it was last year, thanks to the inflawtion reduction -- inflation reduction act. so i pulled the data on it to be able to look at it and be able to check the facts. here's the actual facts. half as many people called the irs last year as did the year before. in fact, the irs actually answered a hundred thousand fewer calls than they did the year before. just so many millions of people stopped calling them knowing

that they're not going to get an answer at all. the percentage looks better because fewer people were trying, but the actual number of answered calls actually went down. literally you can't make this stuff up. we need to stop celebrating better percentage when the real facts are fewer calls were actually answered by the irs. in the category of you can't make this up, the office of personnel management who runs the federal hiring process, i just did a letter to them a few days ago because two of their leadership individuals and senior management team are now going to need to be fired because in their previous employment they had credible accusations of harassment. this is the office that's designed to be able to oversee hiring in the federal government that failed to do background checks on senior management they were hiring. on the category of you can't

make this up and the inflation reduction act again, there was a lot to do about drug pricing and saying we're not going to control drug pricing. here's also what's occurred with that. four drug manufacturers have now pulled new cancer drugs from the american market just in the last six months. four new cancer drugs have been pulled because they're saying they can't make it work with the new inflation reduction act law. if i want to stack on top of the inflation reduction act, there was a huge section on green energy within the inflawtion reduction act which is really what the act was, a green new deal bill. a huge section all about how we're going to do more energy production, more battery production for electric batteries, the future of green energy is going to be in america and as the president said over and over again, it's going to be

made in america. in fact, i sat in on the president's state of the union address, and this is what the president said during the state of the union address. the president said and i quote, folks, i know i have been criticized for saying this but i'm not going to change my view. we're going to make sure the supply chain for america begins in america. the supply chain begins in america. so when we do these projects -- and again i get criticized about this but i make no excuses for it -- we're going to buy american. we're going to buy american. folks, and it's totally -- it's totally consistent with international trade rules. buy american has been the law since 1933, but for too long past administrations, democrat and republican, have fought to get around it but not anymore. that's what the president said down the hall at the state of the union address. what's happened in the last three weeks? the president's team has actually worked with japan to create a false free trade

agreement because there's an exception in the inflation reduction act that if you want to do green energy production, you have to do it in north america or you had to be a free trade agreement. we don't have that fta with japan so they're creating a type of fta with japan so japan can sell us batteries. so much for the previous administration or the ones that tried to work around that. i'd love to say it's isolated but they just did the same thing with germany, to create a workaround in the inflation reduction act made in america act so that the made in america act and produced in america act will now also include japan and their production will now also include germany and their production and may i say to you, one of the large epps new north america battery manufacturers

for e.v. just got moved to canada, not the united states. so much for past administrations have fought to get around it but not anymore. this administration is working around the made in america, by america right now for green energy. where do they get their supplies and critical minerals? it's not from the u.s. it's from china. and the energy environment, while i'm still talking through that as well, the willow project has been talked about greatly with alaska and saying conco. phillips is going to be able to produce off three platforms, more oil and gas from alaska. good, by the way. we have a steady supply that can come from alaska for a very long time and it's been blocked off over and over again when the law

states energy has been set off for that project. biden not only allowed three platforms but they blocked off three million new acres from production. three million. it was recently in the iew -- i was recently in the united emirates dealing with the accords. it's interesting when i'm traveling around, that absolutely beautiful country, and you see the wealth that's there. i couldn't help but think this is what alaska would look like if the federal government would actually allow energy production there like there's energy production in the uae. but our nation won't allow that. instead we're still buying from other nations rather than allowing full production in our own. you can't make this stuff up. if you talk to a developer right now, they will tell you it's very hard to develop new

neighborhoods in new locations because they can't get transformers. those old boxes that sit on the ins of neighborhoods, some of those are the transformers that are up high, those transformers have a 99.55% efficiency. 99.55% efficiency. i wish i had that layer of efficiency. but the biden administration just put out new rules for those transformsers that are very hard to get right now because they're backordered to add a .1% new energy efficiency requirement on them. remember, there are already 99.55% efficient. they want them to be 99.65% efficient. so they're moving it just that little decimal right there. to do that it's going to slow down production again of the transformers. could be up to 16 months slower, and it will increase the cost by

hundreds of millions of dollars. so when your electricity bill goes up and they're not able to continue building an expansion, that is not the fault of your electric company. that's the fault of your federal government right now so they can brag about increasing production by .1% in something that's already 99.55% efficient. put this on top of the biden administration's new expiration to be able to cut off gas stoves which they initially announced from two agency and pulled it back and said oh, no, we're just going to study gas stoves in america and we're going to look at trying to be able to shut those off in the future, but we're not going to do that right now leading up to the election. because there's millions and millions of people this use gas stoves, which, by the way, have been studied for years across the country. this is not an issue about

particulates in the house. this is an issue about an administration that doesn't care about the cost to the consumer as long as they can say they got their way. it's the same exact issue on the epa's heavy duty electric vehicle emissions rule. that rule is rightly being addressed by my colleague from nebraska who's going after a very simple thing that the epa is trying to be able to do in this biden administration that will raise the cost of trucks up to $8,000 per vehicle. listen, there's a lot of long haul folks that cannot afford $8,000 per vehicle just to be able to do a new biden administration policy. listen, i put all these things together because as i read the news and as i go through the different things that i go through on a daily basis and be able to read through things, at some point i look at it and think who says this makes sense?

where are these things coming from? and if i pull any one of these out and put them in front of the vast majority of people in oklahoma and say is this the direction the country needs to go, they would say no. this senate needs to talk about the direction the nation's going. when you put controls around agencies, they can't just make up the rules based on their own preferences. this is not just an issue for our consumers. this body had a wake-up call this weekend when we watched china broker a deal between saudi arabia and iran and the united states state department was not at the table. because our foreign policy is schaptioning around the world -- collapsing around the world. that is a threat to american national security and it's not just an absence of american policymaking a difference.

it's an absence of our american values. when china's values are on the move worldwide, that is not a safer world that we're living in. we need to shift the direction this is going. and it needs to be soon. with that i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from nebraska. mrs. fischer: thank you, mr. president. almost 20 years ago a family in idaho purchased a lot in a residential area near priest lake. they were looking to build a home. they obtained county building permits and started placing sand and gravel on their property to get it ready for the build. but shortly after the family began preparing their lot, the

environmental protection agency, they told them to stop. there was water on their building plot with no surface water connection to any body of water, but because of its proximity to priest lake, the epa said placing sand and gravel on the property violated the clean water act. the clean water act prohibits the discharge of pollutants such as the rocks and sand used to prepare a building plot and to, quote, navigable waters, unquote. navigable waters are ambiguously defined by the clean water act as, quote, waters of the united states, unquote. that's more commonly known as wotus. normally navigable waters are defined as waters that are deep,

they're wide, and they're calm enough for boats or ships to go across. well, the surface water on the idaho family's lot certainly doesn't fit that bill. the idaho family, they tried to challenge the epa. they sought a hearing. but the epa chose not to grant them one and instead continued to assert the clean water act jurisdiction over their land. so michael and chantal saket sued. they'd been to the supreme court once, and they are back again this year. they still haven't been able to build on the property that they first acquired in 2004. the sackett v. epa supreme court case centers on interpretation of the clean water act.

what counts as water of the united states? in 2015 the obama administration published an unprecedented expansion of the definition of wotus giving the federal government jurisdiction over a state resource. that is nebraska's water. it doesn't belong to the federal government. i fought former president obama's wotus rule since my very first term here in the united states senate. the rule was the federal government at its worst. it encroached on families, on communities, and businesses by its brazen intrusion into the precious water resource of my home state of nebraska. and all the rest of our states as well.

the trump administration rescinded the wotus rule, but when president biden took office, he reversed that. the president issue add new rule allowing epa officials in washington, d.c., to make case-by-case determinations of what should be considered water of the united states. privately owned land containing pend ponds -- ponds, puddles and even dry ditches can now be regulated by the federal government. this needless power grab only places more people under restrictive regulations and rules. the federal government should not have power to regulate nebraska's water. nebraskans should. nebraska has a special system of natural resource districts that empowers locally elected

community members to manage water resources based on river basin boundaries. regular people living their lives at home know better than d.c. bureaucrats how to use and how to manage their state's natural resources. and that's why i've partnered with my colleague, senator capito, in introducing legislation to overturn president biden's wotus rule. the biden administration is determined to impose an overly restrictive rule right now, and that's before the supreme court has an opportunity to decide the sackett case. we cannot let that happen. in the past, i've cosponsored a bill targeting the flawed science used by the epa to expand its definition of wotus. i've also helped to introduce legislation that would require

presidential administration to consult with states, to consult with stakeholders before they impose these restrictions on our state-owned natural resources. this is essential. states understand the complex geological and hydrological factors that affect their own water resources. there is no way that the federal government can take all of that into account with its one-size-fits-all regulations. i've dealt with these issues during my time in the legislature -- in the nebraska legislature, and i know there are not benefits when the federal government tries to take control of state resources through these onerous regulations. leave water management to the experts. the states know their own water. the federal government needs to stay out of issues that are

handled much better under state jurisdiction. wotus is is not the issue that everyone wants to talk about, but it is important to regular americans in nebraska and idaho and many other states, and those americans, well, they're who we are here to represent. wotus has a real tangible impact on american lives, so let's come together. we can solve this problem that was created by the administration's rash and their reckless regulating. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll.

quorum call:

the presiding officer: the senator from alaska. ms. murkowski: mr. president, are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are. ms. murkowski: i request that proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. murkowski: thank you, mr. president. colleagues that have been around for a while know that it's usually about this time of year that i come to the floor to talk about my favorite sporting event, and i'm not talking about march madness. i'm talking about alaska's version of march madness, which is the iditarod, when teams of dogs led by pretty able athletes embark on a thousand-mile mushing about adventure across the wild alaska, beginning down in anchorage all the way up to nome. this year it's not quite a thousand miles. it's 998 miles, as they took the southern route, which they try to alternate during different

years. but it has been an adventure for the 33 teams that ventured out just last sunday, and i am here to announce that literally ten minutes ago -- perhaps less than ten minutes ago -- the winner has just crossed the finish line under the burled arch in nome. so alaskans are excited. the iditarod website has crashed because everybody was checking in to see if ryan reddington had made it across, and i'm here to announce that ryan reddington is the winner of the 51st iditarod race in alaska. he and his team just -- as i said, just crossed. he has been in the lead for the past several days, but we're really, really quite excited about the -- about his win, and

i'm looking forward to being able to give a call myself to congratulate him. but i know that right now his family, his friends, everyone who is there in nome to greet them after this eight-day journey is really quite excited. so he's probably not going to be answering his phone just yet. the iditarod is really an extraordinary, extraordinary event. it is -- it's an experience like no other, and when they say it takes a village, it really takes a village. all of these little checkpoints along the way -- some of them are communities, some of them are literally nothing more than a cabin. so it is an opportunity for the musher and their teams to be checking in, being checked out by the volunteer veterinarians that are along the way, refuel in the sense of feeding their

dogs, resting their dogs, getting a little food for themselves, but then traveling on. think about -- think about what it means to drive a dog team for a thousand miles over this period of time and over terrain like this. mr. president, you are -- if you're from a northern state. you -- you're from a northern state. you appreciate snow. we're not a frayed of a little weather. but what these mushers and their teams have been there has been pretty amaze ago. i was there at the ceremonial start last week. it was zero in anchorage. it was a pretty great day to be a dog because it was nice and cool. temperatures increased along the way. they encountered everything from drizzle to rain to mud, then to deep snow, then to freezing cold, then to gale winds, pumps along the way. -- bumps along the way.

it is a grueling test for all of these teams. but as we look to -- as we look to what comes together to put on a race like this, it is something that alaskans take great pride in. volunteer efforts, this is fueled by volunteers whether it's the iditarod air force, whether it's the veterinarians that come to volunteer, there's going to be a mushers' banquet up in nome. people come from all over the country to come and volunteer to come and serve dinner, clean up after dinner. i met a group a couple years ago, they were from somewhere in florida -- i didn't know the name of the community -- but they said that they took vacation every year to come to alaska, to come to nome, and their job was dinner rolls. they take a week vacation to go to nome, alaska, from florida to

be there, to be part of this extraordinary, extraordinary event. so met me tell you a -- so let me tell you a little bit about ryan reddington and this race that he has just finished. so, we're still looking at the exact number of minutes, but he has been on the trail now for eight days, 21 hours, and -- again, trying to figure out what the minutes are. this is his first-ever victory. ryan is 40 years old. but ryan has a stake in this race perhaps unlike any other young musher out there. he is a -- he is a legacy musher, to put it in a sense. he was born and raised in kinnek, alaska, on his mom's side. his great-grandfather was an

inupiat who delivered the mail from unicleat to other villages by dog sled. that was how we utilized dog teams back then. ryan comes from a family of mushers. his brother and sister in law have participated in sled race. his father and uncle have both raced in the iditarod. they are not only -- not only did they compete, but they're in the iditarod hall of fame. his daughter and son are taking up the tradition by carrying on -- taking on race ago. on his dad's side is it's his grandfather, joe redington sr. who is the founder -- we call him the father of the iditarod. he's raced that race -- joe redington sr., has raced that race almost 20 times. when he crossed the finish line for his last race in 1997 he was 80 years old. 80 years old. can you imagine being 80 years old and running a thousand

miles, standing on the runners, running with your dogs? these are -- the iditarod is not for the faint of heart. and so it's just an example here to say that mushing really runs in ryan's blood. he has, in addition to competing in the iditarod, he's competed in numerous races across alaska and the lower 48. he was the prior champion of the june i don't remember iditarod. he is the 2021 champion of the race in kotzebue. he has finished the iditarod now nine times, nine times. he came in seventh in 2021. and then last year he had his third consecutive top-ten finish. he placed ninth. so this is a guy who has given his all, given his all along

with his incredible canine athletes to be where he is today -- number one. we are just so excited and so thrilled for him, particularly given the family legacy surrounding the iditarod. ryan is the first inupiat iditarod champion since 2011. and it's interesting, mr. president, i don't want to jinx things, but if you look -- this is our reader board that we have outside my office in the hart building. every day this week, we've been kind of following the mushers up the trail so that people would know who's in the lead. and these are today's standings. ryan of course in first, buppies a. followed by pete kaiser. pete is from bethel. pete is innewt yap. richie deal.

alaska native. if the places hold, it will be quite a strong and telling statement that our top three mushers would be alaska natives. dog mushing has been a part of life and culture for alaska native people long, long, long before the iditarod, but it is an ongoing reminder, i think a beautiful reminder of how men and women and really incredible dogs can work together in some pretty extraordinary winter conditions, connecting communities, connecting people. ryan is an inspiration to so many of us, inspiring alaskans and future generations of mushers for how he cares for his team, for the character that he has shown as he has competed. and so to ryan, i'm going to

have an opportunity to speak with you directly, but you need to know that you represent the true spirit of alaska. you make us all so very proud, and we certainly congratulate you as the 2023 iditarod champion. so, mr. president, as i many here on the floor today and speaking of great news for alaskans, i cannot yield the floor without noting the significance of the news yesterday. yesterday a record decision was announced by the obama administration, announcing that the willow project in the national petroleum reserve alaska has been approved and that conocophillips, the producer, will be allowed to advance under what is now a modified alternative that will

allow for three pads of drilling activity in the national petroleum reserve. this is significant for alaska from a jobs perspective. this is going to be about 2,500 jobs to a state that desperately needs that. this will be revenue and income to a state that desperately needs that. our economy is still suffering in a postpandemic world. our economy is still challenged in many, many ways. we're seeing a net out-migration unlike any state in the country. and it is because it's directly tied to the state of our economy. and so we recognize that we are a resource-based state. so to be able to access resources not only for the benefits of alaskans, but for the benefit of the country, and in fairness, mr. president, for the benefit of our friends and allies who look to us, who

look to us and our resources to be able to help them as well. so i have been asked by many, what is the willow project. the willow project is an oil project, yes, but willow represents economic security. it represents energy security. and it represents national security. it was a pretty incredible effort that came together to advance the cause of this. this was not one oil company that is standing off in the corner saying we want to be allowed to proceed here. it was an extraordinary coalition of alaska native leaders and individuals. it was an extraordinary coalition of labor leaders not only in the state. 100% of the labor unions in alaska support advancing

willow, backed by their national unions back here because they know that these will be good-paying jobs. these will be solid union jobs. these will be jobs for the future. it was backed by a coalition of industry leaders, the university, unanimous, unanimous resolutions out of both houses of our state legislature. think about that. we've got a pretty broad spectrum across the political spectrum when it comes to our state legislature. so to know that from the southeast all the way to the north and the southwest, that alaskans came together through their elected representatives to affirm their support of this project advancing was really quite remarkable. a united delegation, senator sullivan, representative

peltola, myself, coming together to lead this effort, working with our governor, it was a coalition that was remarkable and remarked upon. and rightly so. because there are oftentimes so many matters that draw us apart. and there are, there are opposing voices to this in alaska, we understand that. but i think it was so important that the voices of alaskans, particularly those who live and work and raise their families in the north slope, that those voices were heard. and what they heard from those who are from the north slope region, are that this is not only jobs and economic opportunity. these are resources that will help us with our quality of life, help us be able to

resource and finance the search and rescue that goes on when somebody has gone missing on a hunting trip for their subsistence purposes, to help with the community supports whether it's through the schools or public safety. the north slope burough is very unique in how they provide for all of their services for their residents in their eight communities across that huge burough that stretches all the way across the entire north slope of the state. and so for them, this is significant and real in a meaningful way. it means everything to them in terms of health and wellness and life expectancy, as we have seen the benefits of the resources that come to these areas that flow from the oil, we have seen an absolute increase in life expectancy because of the quality of life

that then can come with decent housing, with decent health care, with access to food and resources. what has been seen up north has been consequential. and so this was an issue that when presented to the administration, when the alaskan voices were allowed to be heard, the administration listened, and i thank them for that. i thank them for allowing, allowing those voices to be heard. i also recognize that in addition to allowing willow to advance, the administration is proposing to submit rule making in a period of time maybe within a matter of weeks, maybe a

matter of months, that would provide for special protections, further special protections within the mpra. there is much to be seen about what these protections will entail, whether it will allow for any level of activity, whether it be crossings in any way, pipeline or road in any way. there is much to be learned. the administration has sent that signal that in order to advance the oil production opportunities within the willow footprint, that vastly reduced footprint, that they want to add additional protections in several different areas. we will evaluate that. we will take a look critically. there is a process that we'll follow.

we understand that. but i think for today and where we are in recognizing the value that willow will bring to alaska, that willow will bring to our country, it's important to applaud the actions of the administration and the president in advancing this. at peak production, willow is expected to bring on line about 180,000 barrels of oil a day. that's significant, mr. president. it's significant. and putting into context with where the united states has had to turn recently as we have, we have looked to meet demand here in this country. the ask, the willingness to go to venezuela to lift sanctions, to ask for more production out

of venezuela. venezuela will be providing us about 100,000 barrels a day. think about where we would be if alaska's willow opportunity were already on line. we would not have had to go to maduro. we would not have had to go to a country whose environmental track record is abysmal. we would not have to turn to those countries who not only have environmental degradation as they produce the resource, but human rights issues that we don't want to see, we don't want to talk about. we just know that for this time we need your oil. we cannot export that environmental consequence. we should be producing where we know we can do it safely, where it's under tight environmental conditions and restrictions and limitations, where the producers will adhere to the

rule, rules of the road, the rule of law, that there is a sensitivity to the environment around there as we operate up north. they say that we have some of the tightest environmental conditions on how we access our resources out of the northern region than anywhere. anywhere not only in the country, but in the world. there's a reason for that. it costs more. it adds to the cost. but there's a sensitivity to the land, and we appreciate that. as an alaskan, i appreciate that and i expect that and i demand that of the companies. and if you're not willing to operate this way, then you shouldn't be coming to alaska. but companies that are willing to respect the fact that when, when the tundra is no longer frozen, there's no exploration activity.

there is no work that precedes in that way off of the tundra. so in alaska, in alaska, our season, if you will, is 90 days. it's 90 days. and it's not 90 days in the good weather. it's between basically january and april, the coldest, darkest, harshest time that anyone could be up on the north slope, much less being outside and working. but that's how we do it because that's when the ground is frozen. that's when, when we have that license to operate if you will. and we respect that. it's not when the companies decide we're done with this aspect of the program. when things start to warm up and start to thaw, that's when you are gone.

and you are gone because the state regulators and the federal regulators have said clock's up. you don't have extra additional days because spring is coming. think about that. any other business in the world, can you think about having just a 90-day window of operation. we do a fair amount of that in jack -- alaska, we have a lot of seasonal activity. think about what that means if you're trying to build a project and you have to stop, stop after 90 days. think about what it means to design a project around sensitive areas that may have, may have wildlife or waterfowl

we need to be sensitive to. that's what we do. this project, this willow project that was sent back for revision was to make sure that the impact on subsistence hunting, the impact on the animals was not going to be appreciable. and so there is a sensitivity. we get it. we get it. the people who live up there are the first stewards of the land, and they get it. and so when you have whaling captains who are standing shoulder to shoulder with the alaska delegation, out there, out in front of the capitol standing there saying, we need willow. we need willow for our economy.

we need willow for our people. we will make sure that the subsistence need of those who live in the area are met. we will make sure that the environmental considerations are met. so we are -- we are ready. we are ready to proceed. and as i stand here, i'm regretful that i think the next phase of this is not necessarily going to be movement towards -- towards gaining production. it's going to be movement towards the courts because that's just what seems to happen in every development project in my incredible state. but we are prepared for that as well. we are prepared for that as well because this project is environmentally sound, it is

just, it is fair, it is balanced, and it is time. so, again, i stand here appreciative that the administration has heard the voice of alaskans. now let's get to work. with that, mr. president, i yield the floor.

mr. cornyn: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mr. cornyn: mr. president, over the years i've heard president biden share a favorite expression of his father's. he says his dad would tell you, don't tell me what you value, show me your budget and i'll tell you what you value. well, there's a lot of wisdom in that statement. a person's budget shows what they truly value, whether that's supporting those who are less fortunate, saving for the future or achieving a certain type of lifestyle. the same is true for the federal government. it's easy for leaders to say they value a strong military or fiscal responsibility but a budget shows whether they really mean it. last week, of course, president biden released his budget for

the next fiscal year, which gave us an unvarnished view of what he truly values. and in countless ways, it stands in stark contrast to what he's told the american people. the president spoke about the need to rein in out-of-control spending, but he proposed more than $2 trillion in new spending. given the growing threats from china and russia, he said he cares about a strong national defense, but he proposed a mere 3.2% increase in defense spending, far below the level of inflation, so it actually is a cut. he's spoken about the sponsors of growing -- about growing our economy but proposed tax hikes on main street businesses and other creators. he said he's concerned about energy costs, but proposed

$37 billion in new energy taxes -- taxes that will be paid ultimately by the consumer and increase costs. and despite saying he cares about the border, president biden's made -- made it absolutely clear he isn't serious about addressing the crisis at our southern border. for two years law enforcement and border communities have struggled to keep up with the overwhelming number of migrants that are crossing every day. during president biden's first two years of office, customs and border customs and border protection has encountered 4.7 million migrants at the southern border. that's an astonishing, a breathtaking figure. well, there's a clear need, there's an obvious need to strengthen our southern border y

and that includes $545 million for border security at the ports of entry. it could include advanced equipment to quickly scan cargo and vehicles. mexico is our second-largest trading partner and that binational trade is important to both of our economies. but this same technology could be key to stopping illicit drugs, weapons, and currency from coming across the border. between the ports of entry, this funding could go toward sensors, cameras and other surveillance tools that allow border patrol to monitor unpatrolled portions of of the border. given the fentanyl epidemic, which is killing 70,000 americans every year, there could not be a more important

time to invest in border security. while the president's request for $535 million may sound like a lot of money, and it is a lot of money, but when you compare it to other line items in his budget, it starts to look a whole lot smaller. for example, the white house wants to spend $1 billion trying to address, quote, root causes of migration in central america and haiti. that's nearly double the amount he wants to spend on border security technology. over the last few years we've seen failed attempts to alleviate what are called the push factors, violence and -- ad poverty that cause people to leave their countries and come to the united states. they are not just coming from central america and haiti.

they're literally coming from all over the world. best case scenario, it would take years, if ever, if these efforts translated into even one inch of progress at the border. i've said before what i learned at the humana border -- yuma border patrol sector, he said in this -- they said they have people coming from across the border from 176 countries speaking 200 200 languages. this is a global phenomenon, not just isolated to central america and haiti. well, worst-case scenario, the administration flushes the money down the drain while the border remains in a state of crisis. the white house wants to spend even more money on the

department of homeland security's climate resilience program. climate resilience, a whopping $4 billion they want for that, that's more than seven times higher what the president proposed for border security technology. now, the mission of the department of homeland security isn't to fight climate change. it's to safeguard the american people. it cannot achieve that mission with the meager budget proposed by president biden and the lack of priorities. you may think that climate resilience is an important matter, but it certainly doesn't rise to the level of the crisis we're experiencing today on the border with an overwhelming number of migrants and illegal drugs that killed 108,000 americans last year alone. of course, the funding level requested for technology is only

part of the problem. the question isn't just, how much do you want to spend but what do you need to spend it on? as i mentioned, this is one pot of funding that would support two purposes, security at the borders and security between the ports of entry. both of those functions are essential to our security an economy, but the white house didn't delineate how they would spend that. would be it -- would it be divided 50/50? how would they decide where to spend the money? we have a responsibility to taxpayers to ensure that every dollar is maximized and serves the greatest purpose possible. a few years ago senator sinema, the senator from arizona and i introduced something called the

southwest border security technology improvement act, to understand the best way to do that. it required the administration to assess technology needs at the border and issue a report within a year. our bill was signed into law at the end of 2020 and then a deadline for that final report was december 27, 2021. well, 15 months has passed and we still have no report. i've repeatedly asked for updates from the administration but received zero response. in short, the administration has failed to provide an assessment that is necessary for congress to determine what the technology gaps are at the border and what the priority should be. instead they just ask congress for $535 million and a blank check. now, they've offered zero assurance that they plan to use those funds to increase

operational control over the border. they haven't even assured us what those needs are. once again, the administration isn't trying to solve the problem just to create an illusion of effort. but technology funding isn't the only problem with the president's budget. it also falls short when it comes to personnel. now, i've been to the southern border more times than i can count, but i do count ten times since president biden took office. and i've spoken with every law enforcement officer and local elected official, nonprofit and small business owners i can fine. when i ask them what is needed the most to combat this crisis, there is a recurring answer. we need more boots on the ground. we desperately need more border patrol agents on the front lines lines. the administration wants to hire

an additional 350 border patrol agents, which would be a great start, but the white house isn't taking any action to address underlying barriers to hiring those agents. for years they struggled to meet their staffing goals and one of the biggest obstacles is the polygraph. nearly half of new officers failed the polygraph. applicants talked about being stereo typed based on their background and traveling to other states in hopes of having a different experience. still, failing a polygraph or receiving an inconclusive result disqualifies a potential agent. it wouldn't matter if the white house called for 10,000 new agents in the budget, the agency wouldn't be able to fill the

spots until the administration fixes the broken application process and we have seen no independent indication of their plans to do so. the white house is also calling for 460 processing assistants at border border protection. these are the men and women who would help process the migrants. based on my conversations with those at the border, i can tell you this is desperately needed, but that's only one piece of the solution. a huge part of the solution lies in deterrence. if people with frivolous asylum claims see they'll be quickly removed from the united states, they're not likely to attempt the journey to our border in the first place. that's why we can't just staff up on coordinators. we need more people to enforce the law and deliver consequences to those who break it. the biden administration has

refused to do so time and time again and the biden budget only makes insignificant changes to staffing for immigration and customs enforcement and removal operations as well as fugitive operations' team members. these are the dedicated men and women who do the difficult but important job of removing people who have no legal right to enter the country. but right now the system is so overwhelmed with migrants who will not be ultimately granted asylum. so what happens when their claim is denied? it's an important question to ask because i can assure you ice does not have the sufficient manpower to enforce the law given the scale of this crisis. in short the white house has proposed adding mr personnel to process migrants and then release them. but it doesn't want to hire more people who will actually remove

people who break our laws. based on his own assessment strategy, president biden does not value border security because his budget certainly does not reflect it. his budget is not a serious proposal to gain operational control of the border. it's more talk with no action. our country is experiencing an absolutely unprecedented migration crisis. the southern border has become an open highway instead of a secure check point. the administration is essentially waving everyone through from migrants with frivolous asylum claims to the drug runners who are carrying fentanyl to kill fellow americans. based on president biden's budget, he appears content for it to stay that way. i yield the floor.

a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from massachusetts. ms. warren: mr. president, on friday we experienced the second largest bank failure in our nation's history, and make no mistake, this failure was the direct result of leaders in washington weakening financial rules. in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, congress passed the dodd-frank act to protect consumers and to ensure that big banks could never again take down the economy and destroy millions of lives. since then wall street executives who hated the whole idea of the bill spent millions to keep it from becoming law and after it passed, spent millions more to try to weaken it. in 2018 the big banks won with support if both parties -- from both parties president trump signed into law a law to roll

back critical parts of dodd-frank. i see that the leader has arrived. should i yield to the leader for a moment here? mr. schumer: i very much appreciate it. just have to file, something i know the senator from massachusetts supports but i have to sign it first. the presiding officer: the majority leader is recognized. mr. schumer: mr. president. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. schumer: i move to proceed to legislative session. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. all in favor say aye. all opposed no. the ayes appear to 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 27. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. all in favor say aye. all opposed no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. the clerk will report the

nomination. the clerk: nomination, the judiciary, jessica g. l. clarke of new york to be united states district judge for the southern district of new york. mr. schumer: i send a cloture motion to the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. 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 move to bring to a close debate on the nomination of executive calendar number 27, jessica g. l. clarke of new york to be united states district judge for the southern district of new york signed by 17 senators as follows. mr. schumer: i ask consent the reading of the names be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i move to proceed to legislative session. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. all in favor say aye. all opposed no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. mr. schumer: i move to proceed to calendar 25, s. 316. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: the motion to proceed to calendar number 25, s. 316, a bill to repeal the

authorizations for use of military force against iraq. mr. schumer: i send a cloture motion to the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. 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 move to bring to a close debate on the motion to proceed to calendar number 25, s. 316, a bill to repeal the authorizations for use against military force against iraq signed by 17 senators as follows. mr. schumer: i ask consent the reading of the names be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i move to proceed to executive session. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. all in favor say aye. all opposed no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum calls for the cloture motions filed today, match 14, be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i have just filed, mr. president, cloture motion that would finally restore to congress the power to declare

war. i yield the floor and thank my friend from massachusetts for yielding. ms. warren: thank you, mr. leader. the presiding officer: the senator from massachusetts. ms. warren: thank you, mr. president. when we left, i was talking about the fact that support from both parties, president trump signed into law a bill to roll back critical parts of dodd-frank. now, i fought against these changes on the eve of the senate vote in 2018, i warned from right here on the senate floor that, quote, washington is about to make it easier for the banks to run up risk, make it easier to put our constituents at risk, make it easier to put american families in danger just so that the ceo's of these banks can get a new corporate jet and add another floor to their new corporate headquarters. i wish i had been wrong. but last week the ftic was forced to rush in to take over

two failing bank, silicon valley bank and signature bank, and then take extraordinary actions to protect those banks' customers and prevent the contagion from spreading throughout the economy. both svb and signature bank suffered from a toxic mix of poor risk management and weak supervision. if congress and the federal reserve had not rolled back key provisions of dodd-frank, these banks would have been subject to stronger liquidity and capital requirements to help withstand financial shocks that would have been required to conduct regular stress tests to expose their vulnerabilities and shore up their businesses. they would have had more aggressive regulators standing at their shoulder looking more closely at every part of the banks' business. but because those stringent requirements were taken out of dodd-frank when an old fashion

bank run hit svb, the bank could not withstand the pressure. shortly after that signature bank collapsed and to fight back the risk of contagion and to protect the banking system, the federal government once again was called on to take extraordinary measures, the kind of measures that dodd-frank was originally supposed to protect us against. these threats should never have been allowed to materialize. and now we must prevent them from occurring again by reversing the dangerous bank deregulation of the trump era. on monday president biden called on congress and regulators to reverse the trump era deregulation and, quote, strengthen the rules on banks to make it less likely that this kind of bank failure will happen again. the president is right. and that is why today on the

five-year anniversary of having weakened dodd-frank, i am introducing legislation along with 15 of my colleagues, including the president, including my colleague from vermont, to reverse the mistakes that congress and president trump made five years ago when they rolled back a portion of dodd-frank. this is what my legislation does. first, it repeals section 401 of the economic growth regulatory relief and consumer protection act. this will restore strong fed oversight of some of the nation's largest banks which together hold trillions of dollars in assets. stronger oversight will help protect our economy from heightened risk. it is absolutely essential that we demand stronger, not weaker oversight of these multibillion dollar banks. second, my bill repeals section

402 of the 2018 law. that section slashed the capital requirements for large, systematically significant custody banks. big banks cannot be trusted with lower capital requirements that degrade their ability to withstand financial shock. and finally, my bill repeals section 403 which made it easier for giant banks, those much larger than svb, to weaken liquidity requirements by adding municipal debt to the definition of high quality liquid assets, particularly because such debt is actually not very liquid at all. now, there are a lot more changes we need to make to our banking laws. there are many other provisions in the 2018 law that i oppose. but today i remain focused on exactly the weakened rules that

permitted banks like svb and signature to load up on risks, run up their profits, pay their executives giant bonuses, and eventually blow the banks to pieces. i recognize legislation won't fix everything. for five years j. powell has overseen a deregulatory effort at the federal reserve bank for banks like svb. in 2021 i asked him if he could name a single, a single regulation on banks that he thought should actually be strengthened instead of weakened. and he could not. preventing further crises will require a complete 180-degree turnaround from the fed starting immediately. this bill will address the immediate issue in front of us, an explosion of risk in large

financial institutions like svb that have been inadequately supervised and regulated for the last four years. and it will show americans across the country in the wake of this disaster congress is capable of acting quickly and decisively to make sure a serious problem doesn't get worse, a lot worse. the bank failures our nation experienced this weekend were entirely avoidable if congress and the fed had done their jobs and kept strong oversight of big banks in place. and now we must act quickly to prevent the next crisis by repealing the dangerous trump-era provisions that made banks weaker. thank you, mr. president. i yield back. mr. president.

the presiding officer: the senator from massachusetts. ms. warren: i ask unanimous consent that my remarks appear uninterrupted in the record. the presiding officer: without objection. so ordered. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee. mrs. blackburn: thank you, mr. president, i ask unanimous consent to speak for up to 20 minutes prior to the scheduled roll call vote. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. blackburn: thank you, mr. president. every year i meet with local leaders and citizens in all 95 tennessee counties and with each visit, i am more and more encouraged by the changes i see. low taxes, pro-business policies and less invasive government have encouraged growth that my democratic colleagues are not seeing back in their states. but still, many areas of tennessee are hurting, and those that aren't are feeling the negative effects of inflation

and broken supply chains. what has happened over the past few years is proof that these tennessee families and businesses are much better at spending their own money than the federal government is at spending taxpayer money. they have to be because if they were as reckless with their paychecks as the biden administration is with taxpayer funds, they would have gone bankrupt a long time ago. when they saw what the president put together in his latest budget request, they were not surprised, but they were incredibly discouraged at the idea of another year of federal spending that leaves our southern border vulnerable and guarantees another year of unsustainable inflation. joe biden and the democrats have made it their mission to tax and

spend this country into oblivion. but adding insult to injury is their commitment to ignoring the actual problems the american people are facing on a local level -- inflation, drugs, crime, and continued supply chain problems. during my recent visit with officials in cannon county, they had a lot to say about how this failure to govern has affected their ability to follow through on even the most basic public works projects, like many distressed counties around the country, cannon county received emergency funding during the pandemic. they put it towards short-term projects that for this community were really a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to grow. but here's the problem. over the past two years, my democratic colleagues have spent

so much money and driven inflation so high that any progress cannon county leaders could have made with those projects has been completely wash out by the overall effects of inflation. for joe biden and the democrats, this is something that's easily brushed aside. but for the people of cannon county, it means that something as essential as a water project can stalled indefinitely. the topography of cannon county makes it pretty hard to bring water in, but with this particular project, they would have been able to install a water line from neighboring warren county and alleviate the pressure on their water supply. it wasn't a perfect solution, but it would have provided relief. but now inflation and supply chain breakdowns have turned this project into a nightmare.

local leaders are questioning the construction estimates because they change or expire before their contractors can get their hands on the right materials. this means that by the time those materials come in, the county may not be able to pay for the work and on and on it goes. there's no light at the end of the tunnel. the white house can spin this all they want, but this is not how business normally works. joe biden and the democrats have embraced dysfunction at every turn, and tennesseans, they're the ones that are suffering. our wide-open southern border has come up in every single county meeting i've taken since joe biden took his oath of office, and over the past few years, we have watched the situation become increasingly

dire. every town is a border town, and every state is a border state, including tennessee. when i was in mcminnville earlier this year, local leaders described to me in great detail how the biden administration's refusal to secure the border has pushed local police to the breaking point. for a town that small, the people of mcminnville should not be suffering from so much crime. but the flow of drugs is out of control and the law enforcement officials i spoke with can trace it from their neighborhoods to the closest cartel distribution hub in atlanta and then down to the southern border. they find fentanyl in just about every drug that they seize, deadly fentanyl.

overdoses caused by marijuana laced with fentanyl are common now, something that just a few years ago would have been rare, if not unthinkable. the rampant availability of drugs has caused a crisis among teens and young people who are now using at such a rate that law enforcement has nowhere to hire juvenile offenders. fentanyl, the leading killer of americans age 18 to 45, fentanyl, the fastest-growing killer of children under 18, fentanyl that is flooding across our southern border. 14,000 pounds apprehended last year by border patrol. that's enough to kill 3.3 billion people.

3.3 billion people. this is why every town is a border state. it is why every -- every single local law enforcement official is saying we need help. secure that southern border. when i've talked to them about what they need to get a grip on the fentanyl issue, they've told me the same thing that local officials are telling other members of this body -- secure the border and make the resources available so that we can get a grip on this. they need to hire more law enforcement officers. they need to give them better pay and training, and they need to expand antidrug programming for younger children.

as sad as that is, they're the ones that are being introduced to and affected by these drugs. you could visit any county in the united states and probably hear very similar stories from local officials who have worked hard, kept their own spending in check, and who have done their best to plan for the future of their communities. they love their communities. they're worried about crime. they're worried about drugs. they want more choice and options for education. they want security in their local streets. officials in the white house and here on capitol hill know what their policies have done to these local leaders and to the american people. they also know that the president's budget request doesn't reflect what they need or even what they want.

they're asking for relief. they are not asking for new programs. they're not asking for pie-in-the-sky. they're not wanting to see more bailouts. they don't need more mandates. what they need is relief, relief that will address inflation, relief that will address supply chains, relief that will address the drugs and the crime that is flowing across that southern border. these are issues they look at as root causes of rampant, out-of-control crime and out-of-control spending that has stalled growth in many communities. they won't be able to do that until joe biden and the democrats realign their priorities with those of the american people.

i yield the floor.

the presiding officer: the senator from arizona. ms. collins: i ask that the -- mr. kelly: i ask that the vote occur immediately. the presiding officer: without objection. no objection is heard. the clerk will report the motion 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 move to bring to a close debate on the nomination of executive calendar number 62, brent neiman of illinois, to be deputy under secretary of the treasury, 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 in a debate on the nomination of brent neiman of illinois to be a deputy under secretary of the treasury 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:

the presiding officer: the yeas are 52, the nays are 40. the motion is agreed to.

mr. peters: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from michigan. mr. peters: mr. president, a little over a decade ago, michigan lawmakers convened a session in the dark of the night. they put padlocks on the doors of the state capitol so they wouldn't have to listen to the protestors who had gathered outside. they had come to lansing to pass, quote, right to work, a policy that weakened the power of unions all across michigan. but today, today my colleagues in the state legislature passed legislation in the state senate to repeal that law, and it now moves to the house next week. they're stepping up.

they're stepping up because they understand that we are living through a crucial moment. the richest americans are only getting richer, while many working people are lest behind. unable to reap the benefits of the wealth that they helped to create. labor unions are the best tool that we have to buck that trend. they expand and empower the middle class. they allow workers to negotiate for better wages and safer workplaces and the right to retire with dignity. but union membership is at an all-time low. many employers intimidate workers who attempt to organize and retaliate against those who are able to come together. it's one reason that the gap between rich and poor continues to grow. in order to keep building an economy that works for everyone, we need to take a lesson from my

home state of michigan. we need to breathe new life into american unions, and we need to pass the pro act. this legislation will empower workers to exercise their right to organize. it will hold employers accountable for violating workers' rights. it will secure free, fair, and safe union elections. and it will preempt right-to-work laws across the country. simply put, the pro act will make it easier for working people everywhere to join a union. as a michigangander, the right to organize is a pillar in my state. modern unions were born in flint, michigan, when autoworkers banded together in the winter of 1936 for better pay and working conditions. their 44-day strike started a

movement that formed the backbone of the american middle class. but this is also very personal to me. my dad was a teacher and a member of the mea. my father-in-law is a proud member of uaw local 5960 as a retiree. my mother, a nurse's aide, worked tirelessly with the seiu to organize her workplace. and when management tried to sway her to not support the union, with a raise, she refused. she would not quit. she would not stop her fight until everyone got a better deal. and everyone got a raise. after the employees voted to unionize, they made her a union steward. she taught me the value of standing up and fighting for your rights no matter what's in

your way. we have seen what's possible when we choose to stand up for working people. we enacted the bipartisan infrastructure deal which will create good-paying union jobs all across our country and penalize companies that break labor law. and just over two years ago, we passed the butch lewis act and secured pensions for millions of american workers. these victories have helped people all across our country, and we can build on that work by passing the pro act. it is a comprehensive, commonsense piece of legislation that we have to get across the finish line. the namesake of of this bill is former afl-cio president richard trumka, a legend in the labor movement and tireless advocate for working people. and just before he died, he addressed a group of alabama coal miners who were in the throes of ra strike -- throes of

a strike, and he told them, quote, we're not going to give up, we are not going to give in, we will prevail. one day longer, one day stronger. his words ring as true today as they did that night in brookwood, alabama. we are not giving in or giving up, and together we will prevail. and i'm proud to stand in solidarity with labor unions all across michigan as well as all across this country as a cosponsor of the pro act, and i will continue to do everything in my power to see that it gets passed. mr. president, i yield the floor.

mr. peters: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from michigan. mr. peters: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that

notwithstanding rule 22, the senate consider the following nomination, calendar number 67, michael alan ratney to be ambassador to saudi arabia, 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 objection? without objection. the clerk will report. the clerk: nomination, department of state, michael alan ratney to be ambassador to saudi arabia. the presiding officer: the question occurs on the nomination. all in favor say aye. all opposed, no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the nomination is confirmed. mr. peters: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to legislative session and be in a period of morning business with senators

permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. president, i have one request for the committee to meet during today's session of the senate. it has the approval of the majority majority and minority leaders. the presiding officer: duly noted. mr. peters: i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business it stand adjourn until 10:00 a.m. on march 15, following the prayer and pledge, morning the morninge deemed expired, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and morning business be closed. following the conclusion of morning business, the senate proceed to executive session and resume consideration of the neiman nomination postcloture. further that all postcloture time be considered expired at 11:30 a.m. and the senate vote on confirmation of the nomination. that following the cloture vote on the garcetti nomination, the senate recess until 2:15 p.m. to

allow for the weekly caucus meetings. further, if cloture has been invoked on the garcetti nomination, all postcloture time b expired at 2:15 and the senate vote on the nomination and if cloture is invoked on the shadi -- finally, if any nominations are confirmed during wednesday's session, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, and the president be immediately notified of the senate's action. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. peters: if there is no further business to come before the senate, i ask that it stand adjourned under the previous order. the presiding officer: the senate stands adjourned until 10:00 a.m. tomorrow. the senate is considering some of president binds executive nominations this week including

brent to be deputy under secretary of the treasury. they will also take a former los angeles mayor eric garcetti's nomination to the u.s. ambassador to india. with the 20th anniversary the george w. bush era invasion of iraq coming up next week, senators will start work on a bill to repeal the 1991 and 2002 iraq war authorizations. as always, live coverage of the senate on cspan2. ♪ c-span unfiltered view of government. funded by these television companies and more including media. >> at media, we believe whether you live here or right here, or wait out in the middle of anywhere you should have access to fast, reliable, internet. that's but we are leading the wii way. >> media, support c-span is a public service along with these other television providers. giving you a front receipt to

democracy. click state and local election officials from ohio, louisiana and florida along with voting rights advocates testified on the success and challenges of the 2022 midterm elections. house had missed ration hearing tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern cspan2 on c-span are mobile video app or online at c-span.org. prexy spent camping 2024 coverage does your front row seat to the presidential election bird watch our coverage of the candidates on the campaign trail with announcements, meet and greets, speeches and events to make up your own mind. campaign 2024 on c-span network. c-span and now our free mobile video app or any time online at c-span.org. c-span, your unfiltered view of politics