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handling and every purchase helps support our nonprofit operations. >> on this thursday morning, the u.s. united states senate is about to go into session reviewing the resolutions, one repealing the habitat in the endangered species act and the other repeal protections for the northern long-eared bat. and coming up, to advance the judgment in a d.c. circuit court. will lead the senate in. the chaplain: let us pray. gracious god, most holy, the source of our hope, keep us from dragging the honor

of this great nation in the dust. lord, our senators need your presence and help for the journey ahead. you've promised that you will never fail or forsake them, so empower them to trust you, come what may. allow them -- to minister on life's margins lord, give them , continuing your work of setting the captives free. wisdom and courage to serve their generation in a way that honors you. may they place their lives and this nation's future into your all-powerful hands.

we pray in your merciful name. amen. the presiding officer: please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance to our flag. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. the presiding officer: the clerk will read a communication to the senate. the clerk: washington, d.c, may 11, 2023. to the senate: under the provisions of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable gary peters, a senator from the state of michigan, 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 an en bloc consideration of the following joint resolutions, which the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 6 1-rbgs s.j. res. res. 23, providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5 of united states code. calendar number 62, s.j. res. res. 24, providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5 united states code, and so forth.

>> of silicon valley bank with, gao's preliminary review x without objection, all members will have five legislative days within which to submit extraneous materials to the chair for inclusion in the record. and i would like to take five minutes here for a brief opening statement. congressional oversight is a constitutional authority used to the maintain the well-being of our system of government. this is as lesson that i learned from my fellow congress -- >> [inaudible] >> sorry, we've got to the make sure we get the timer going. there we go. this lesson of oversight was something that i learned from someone who is considered the

lion of the house, john dingell. he was still in congress when i first came here, and he taught me a couple of things. one, he called it the tyranny of the vote. it didn't matter who you were with, what you were doing, what was happening or where you were, when they rang the bells, we had that time to go to the house floor to vote. the other was our constitutional standing, our obligation, frankly, of oversight of administration. and he was an expert at that. didn't matter what the party label was, he always fought for the standing of congress. well, the gao office is, the government accountability office is an investigative arm of congress. they provide fact-based, nonpartisan information that can be used to improve government and save taxpayers billions of dollars. committee republicans and democrats should support robust oversight of our financial

regulators aiming to seek transparency and commanding that accountability. unfortunately as you will hear in today's testimony, regulators in washington are attempting to paint a bit of a different picture, but the facts are clear. the collapse of svb and signature bank were the result of risky business strategies, no doubt, and years of failed supervisory action. in fact, some of the concerns identified in ga or o's april report -- gao's april report are now not new. in 2013 a report titled financial institutions: causes and consequences of recent bank failures, the gao highlighted that aggressive growth strategies using non-traditional, riskier funding similar to those of svb and signature were key factors in bank failures. these uninsured, unstable deposits accounted for much of svb and signature bank with total assets which the fdic noted in 2019, quote, could pose risks to regional banks.

close quote. svb was also affected by rising interest rates which was fueled by reckless spending in the federal reserve that was too late to react. in 2015, gao report on bank failures concluded that the regulatory process was not always effective or timely in correcting the underlying problems before these banks failed. in the years prior to their collapse, the federal reserve and the fdic identified management risks at both banks yet allowed those risks to go unfixed. the failure of federal regulators to mitigate or escalate management if concerns proved costly. while the gao's report that examines treasury's use of the systemic risk exception, the sre, and the establishment of the bank term funding program. particularly, the use of the sre is a powerful emergency ool the, and that -- tool the, and that has not been without criticism.

part of our investigation into the government's ponce to these bank failures -- response to these bank failures, the subcommittee hopes to better understand how federal reserve and fdic concluded that recommending use of the sre was the last resort. again, the gao has previously reported that use of the systemic risk exception, quote, may weaken market participants' incentives to properly manage mh june 1 only 21 days away, the most important thing congressional leaders can do to protect the well-being of americans is say loud and clear, default is off the table. that is the assurance the president gave two days ago when he met with congressional leaders. it is the assurance leader jefferies and myself gave that day at the meeting as well. even leader mcconnell said the u.s. will not default on the national debt. speaker mccarthy, however,

continues on a path to drive the country towards disaster. instead of taking default off the table, speaker mccarthy is taking default hostage. let me say that again because that sums up what's happening right now. instead of taking default off the table, speaker mccarthy is taking default hostage. the strategy of the hard-right remains our way or the highway. either americans accept devastating cuts to veterans, law enforcement, even cancer research or the hard right will allow default. what a terrible choice. and that is what makes this default fight uniquely dangerous. the hard right is dominant in the house and they seem to be ready, seem to be perfectly willing to let the u.s. default. speaker mccarthy realizes his hard-right agenda has embodied

on their default with america act cannot win support from the american people on the merits, so he and the hard right are holding the country hostage to default. and if anyone doubts the hard right is in control, all they have to do is watch last night's cnn town hall where former president donald trump openly called on republicans to, quote, do a default if they cannot enact their hard-right agenda. never mind that under donald trump's watch republicans agreed to avoid default three times without ever getting hung up about unrelated partisan priorities. and never mind that 25%, a quarter of the national debt was actually accumulated while president trump was in office. he is openly calling on his party to destroy the economy if they can't pass their radical

agenda. by now, of course, it is old news that donald trump is about as qualified to run the country as a broken brick. but the danger here is he holds enormous sway over speaker mccarthy and the hard right. if donald trump says that it's better for the u.s. to default than it is for republicans to compromise, that unfortunately, makes default more likely. donald trump's demands for default would cause tens of millions of americans to suffer. this isn't difficult. can we all clearly and unmistake my take default -- unmistakably take default off the table? will speaker mccarthy take default off the table? he is the only one who met at the white house who has not answered that. speaker mccarthy, will you allow the hard right to keep pulling the strings and push our country off a cliff or will you

make it clear that no matter, we will preserve the full faith and credit of the united states. look, we recognize that republicans have objections about certain policies, certain spending, certain investments. we do not agree with them. but these discussions are a normal part of the budget crisis that both. a senator: sides have engaged in for a long time. this is too important for brinksmanship and reckless ultimatums. the white house staff, along with my office, the speaker's office, leader mcconnell, leader jefferies, will continue to meet in an attempt to find a con destructive way forward on the -- a constructive way forward. if he continues with default is off the table, there can be progress, as speaker of the house, mccarthy will have real influence in that. but that progress should not and

cannot be tied to default. i hope americans take a moment to listen to the dangerous things president trump said last night about default because he exposed just how unfit maga republicans are for governing and how serious they are about their threats. now, on the military holds. i want to talk for a moment about the profane and dangerous thing happening -- the profane and dangerous things a colleague of ours recently said on the radio. for the past couple of months, hundreds of senior military officers and their families have held their lives unnecessarily put on hold because of the senator from alabama. senator tuberville's actions are endangering our military readiness, provoking reaction not just from the current secretary of defense, but from seven -- seven former defense secretaries from both parties. and earlier this week, new

comments of his came to light. where he not only doubled down on his obstruction, but also apparently bemoaned the military's efforts to root out white nationalism from our armed forces. let me read the exchange with senator tuberville because it's shocking. during the interview the senator was asked, quote, do you believe the defense department in the military. the senator's response, well, they call them that. i call them americans. can you believe that? revolting. utterly revolting. does senator tuberville honestly believe that our military is stronger with white nationalists in its ranks? i cannot believe this needs to be said, but white nationalism has no place in our armed forces and no place in any corner of american society, period, full stop, end of story. i urge senator tuberville to think about the destructive spectacle he is creating in the

senate. his actions are dangerous. his words are grateful damaging -- grairvely damaging, and his refusal to think about the cons againsts of his actn be -- his consequences on military personnel and families is a stain upon this chamber. senators are called to a higher standard of conduct, but our colleague from alabama is dragging all of us down. and for what? to push the hard right's party line on banning freedom of choice. senator tuberville needs to do two things -- he needs to come out and state clearly and unequivocally that white nationalism is un-american, and he needs to drop his destructive hold on hundreds of our senior military leaders. this farce is endangering our national security, putting the lives of men and women who have served our country for decades in real trouble, and it needs to end. now, on senate business, well,

madam president, it's been a very, very busy week on and off the senate floor. there is so much going on in the country that it may have overshadowed the fact that it has been an extremely busy week and much is being accomplished this week. on the floor we confirmed more of president biden's appointees to important positions across the government, and today we'll vote to advance bradley n. garcia to serve as circuit court judge for the d.c. circuit, one of the most important federal courts in the country. teeing up his nomination for monday, when the senate returns. off the floor our committees are hard at work holding hearings and advancing important nominees and legislation. the commerce committee yesterday moved the railway safety act, sponsored by senators brown and vance of ohio, out of committee and with bipartisan support. i thank the senators from ohio, and senators casey and fetterman from pennsylvania, and other

cosponsors for their work on this bill after the derailment in east palestine. i look forward to working with them to bring it to the floor for a vote. today the help committee is holding a hearing on our bipartisan cannabis legislation, the safe banking act. we made a lot of good bipartisan progress on safe banking last congress, and the work is continuing. and there is also a markup today in the help committee on legislation for pbm reform, which could lead to lower costs of insulin for non-medicare americans. so it's been a very busy week in the senate, on very important issues that affect us all -- rail safety, safe banking, and making, growing, and selling marijuana safe, and pbm reform, which can lead to reduction of insulin costs for non-medicare people. we'll keep moving ahead with our work, to support the american people and reward the trust they placed in us.

finally, on the shooting in buffalo a year ago, this weekend the hearts of every single american will be with the city of good neighbors, buffalo, new york. at 2:30 in the afternoon, saturday, may 14 last year, in a prominently black neighborhood in buffalo's east side, ten lives were cut short in the worst shooting in buffalo history. ten beautiful americans. we'll never get them back. they were parents, sons, daughters, friends, security guards, a policeman, all taken away from us in just minutes. i'm going to read their names. ruth whitfield. roberta drury. aaron salter jr. heyward patterson. pearl young. geraldine talley. sillistine cheney, cat massie.

marcus morrison. andre mcneil. god bless their memories. i don't know what could possess someone to bring violence to a place like that. but i do know that the buffalo shooting was a manifestation of the original sin of this nation, a legacy of slavery and the centuries of racial hatred to continue to poison our society. it's also one of the worst examples in recent memory of another terrible epidemic in this nation, the pandemic of gun violence. we have made important progress in the area of gun violence. last year, in the wake of what happened in buffalo and uvalde, the senate came together in a way that it hadn't for decades, beating back the dark forces of the nra, and passing the first gun safety bill in more than a quarter century. some of the friends and relatives of those who passed away in buffalo are instrumental in importuning us to pass this

legislation. i thank them for lighting that candle. we have a long way to go, a lot of work before our job is done. gun violence is a shameful blemish on this nation. we cannot allow ourselves to tolerate it. indifference on this subject has been a death sentence for too many americans. i yield the floor. excuse me. finally, madam president, today the senate will meet for a special caucus to talk about the next steps on gun violence. while nobody pretends progress will come easy, we have a moral obligation to keep pushing, keep fighting, keep working to rid this nation of gun violence. may god bless buffalo. bless all the families impacted by the tragedy one year ago.

to the complete the preliminary report so quickly is much appreciated. your report is the only impartial review, frankly, conducted on these bank failures in my estimation, and i'd like to the start by setting the stage a little bit starting with how the preliminary review was conducted. i understand that you conducted interviews with staff from the federal reserve, fdic and treasury. can you talk to us about how those witnesses were identified for you to interview? did you do that on your own, or how did that work? >> one, we had one meeting with each of those entities.

our standard practice is to send our list of questions over to the agencies, and the agencies will identify staff who are best positioned to answer those questions. doing follow-up work, which we do tend to complete with this, we'll be more specific in asking for particular individuals to the speak with. >> so in the case of the federal reserve, we met with board staff and the supervisor and supervision and regulation division and also with the staff from the federal reserve bank of san francisco. >> and then did you feel like you had full access to to the agency staff? were you able to do follow up with those folks if they were getting back with some of these answers? you said you passed those questions along. they self-identified who would be best to answer those. were you able to interis view those folks -- interview those folks and do some follow up? >> at this point we've just had the one meeting with the9 three

agencies. again, moving forward, we will have further meetings with them. >> okay. so were they in-person? >> they were not, they were virtual. >> they were virtual, so they were not in -- okay. and then do you know that the interviews that you conducted, were there others, were there multiple people on at the same time or was it with one individual? >> these were hourlong meetings with the entire staff at the agency -- that the agencies identified for us. >> okay. so it's kind of a whirlwind you had everybody on the screen doing this zoom? >> it's what we refer to as an -- [inaudible] conference. >> i'm sorry, a what conference? >> an entrance conference. our preliminary, or initial feeting with the agencies -- meeting with the agencies and questions we had for them. >> so in other words, you were planning on doing follow up? >> we do plan additional work once with we move beyond getting concern. >> this preliminary report, okay. and did you feel like the

regulators proprovided you with access to all of the documents and the material facts that you had requested in a timely manner? what was the turn-around time from these requests that you sent this to when you were actually doing these zoom interviews? >> the agencies are responsive to getting us the desired information. we had requested a variety of supervisely information -- supervisory information, scoping memos, schedules, records of exam, supervise arely letters. we received all those, i would say, probably within three or four days. i know the fed's staff was working over the weekend get us that information. so we actually did appreciate9 the timeliness for this -- [inaudible] recognizing the importance of this work. >> i'm glad to the hear they're response i to somebody in this, because we've got a number of letters that have been out that are lacking that response, frankly. so now i'd like to pivot and ask about something specific in your report or, rather, something

that was maybe not in your report. gao is in a position to provide sort of a unique historical perspective on bank failures with other economic events from the past because you have done some of these reports in the past, correct, on previous challenges. >> that's correct. we go back to 991 -- 1991, i think '89 might have been our first looking at the savings and loan -- >> okay. savings and loan failures that were then. all right. in contrast to the g ark o report, the report issued by the federal reserve partial ifly blames the failure by fed examiners not escalating svb easley quiddity and interest rate concerns quickly on, quote, and these are your words, a shift -- i'm sorry, their words, a shift in culture and expectations that changed how supervision was executed, close quote. from what you saw, was a culture shift referenced in any discussions that you had with the fed staff or any documents

that you review over the course of compiling your initial report? >> i have no basis to say whether there was a culture shift one way or the other. again, we had the single meeting with the fed. the issue of culture wasn't brought up. in fairness, we didn't ask it, but they did not bring it up either. >> okay. but it features prominently in their report that there was this culture shift. seems odd to me that they would not have brought that up in your investigation. all right. to your knowledge, was a culture shift mentioned in any past gao work on similar bank supervision issues in 1991 or 2011 or 2015 or 2019 when you've done some of these other reports? >> i'm not aware of there being a cultural change. there is -- we've previously reported that in general examiners in the past have taken a cooperative, unformal approach with agencies -- informal approach, and that's been as

early as '91. >> all right. my time has expired. we're going to be sending you some additional written questions from me as well. regarding the fdic and trying to make sure that we understand the process for both svb and signature bank. so with that, i will recognize the ranking member of the full committee, ms. watters, for 5 minutes. >> thank you very much. mr. clemons, when i served as chairwoman, i investigated the egregious pattern of consumer abuse at wells fargo and bound that regulators fail -- and found that regulators failed to the use escalating enforcement action to the correct the bank's bad behavior. even as new and similar abuses emerged. i have legs that would require the bank regulators -- legislation that would require the bank regulators to impose limits on bank growth, divestment and other penalties for noncompliance. that is why i'm pleased to to hear that regulators like the

cfpb bb bb border, and further mistakes from the democrats' taking things from very bad to even worse. for more than two years now, president biden and secretary mayorkas have proven they're either incapable, unwilling, or uninterested in defending and maintaining our borders. illegal crossings at our southern border have exploded under this administration. 2.38 million in fiscal year 2022 alone. that's just the subject -- subset of people whom the authorities actually found and stopped. it doesn't count the ones who

got away. the vast majority of these crossers are single adults, not families, not children, but unaccompanied grownups. customs and border protection stopped 67 known terrorist suspects at the southern border post of entry last year alone. but they found 98 attempting to cross the border elsewhere, more than six times as many as the previous year. as of march authorities already sized nearly three times as much fentanyl this fiscal year as they had by this time last year. all these terrible numbers have come with a stopgap pandemic policy called title 42 actually

in place. every month of the biden presidency, anywhere from 20% to 70% of the illegal crossers have been turned right around and expelled rather than apprehended and processed in the typical way. but the biden administration has failed so badly that even with this stopgap in place, our border facilities have still been overwhelmed and overrun. now as the democrats finally give up the covid state of emergency, title 42 is going away. that would impose a crisis for an administration that was willing to get tough on its own and enforce existing immigration

law, but democrats don't seem to be willing to do that. just the opposite. president biden's team has designed a bizarre rube goldberg that has amounted to a special concierge service to help even more illegal immigrants come here more easily. it's a whole parallel system with processing centers in foreign countries, mott to make people come into our front door but to help even more people surge in through the backdoor. now, i understand there's even an official u.s. government smartphone app to help illegal immigrants along the journey. your taxpayer dollars hard at work. our colleague, the senior senator from missouri has

correctly summarized the plan as ticket master for illegal immigrants. ticket master for illegal immigrants. and remember, things are already at an unacceptable level before this new craziness. according to one public report, the authorities are already considering, quote -- listen to this -- street releases of migrants into communities across the border if ngo shelters and cbp facilities do not have the capacity to hold them. releases of immigrants at bus stops, gas stations, supermarkets, et cetera, in communities across the border. end quote. now this week some of our democratic colleagues are feigning great angsh over title

42's demise. they claim to be outraged that president biden doesn't have a better plan. but every senator had a chance just last year to vote to keep funding title 42 measures. senate republicans gave our democratic colleagues that opportunity and every single democrat voted in lockstep against it. every senate democrat voted in unison to let title 42 lapse with no better solution in place. so the country reaps what democrats sowed. now, mr. president, on another matter, the national defense authorization act is a must pass piece of legislation, but senate democrats have developed a bad habit of letting our national security actually languish. last year the 2023ndaa -- 2023

ndaa spent five months in limbo, even at the 11th hour the democratic leader refused to bring the senate's own bill to the floor. they took an informal conference between our colleagues on the armed services committee and the house counterparts just to get the must-pass bill over the finish line. our democratic friends like to invoke america's competition with china whenever they're seeking to justify huge outlays of domestic spending. but they push the nuts and bolts of actually defending america to the back burner. case in point, chairman chairmat announced that they'll wait an entire month before beginning consideration of this year's ndaa. you can bet china isn't waiting around and twiddling its thumbs,

but apparently leader schumer's senate will do just that. what would the democratic majority have us do instead? our colleagues are making a push for a grab bag of leftist domestic priorities they call another china bill. let's remember the last so-called china bill that we just passed last year. commerce secretary and other biden administration officials told us with great alarm that reshoring microchip production was a hugely urgent national security priority. this was last year. now, that's a genuine bipartisan concern and many of us republicans actually agreed. but since then the administration stated urgency is all but disappeared. president biden's approach to implementing the law has been atrocious, atrocious.

they're violating congressional intent trying to attach extra strings to the microchip money to end liberal social policy through the private sector. the biden commerce department has tried to say that the semiconductor companies can't get grants unless they tilt their hiring to benefit big labor, unless they provide all kinds of free employment benefits to the satisfaction of washington bureaucrats. you get the picture. it reminds me of a couple of months ago when transportation secretary buttigieg asserted that one important problem with building american infrastructure is the racial and demographic composition of the construction crews. for goodness sake. so, mr. president, washington democrats have spent trillions of dollars, trillions on a never

ending wish list of left-wing domestic priorities heaping historic inflation on the american economy but not a penny of their partisan bills built up our hard power. if our colleagues were truly serious about competing with china, first of all they would prioritize the ndaa, not let it languish. and second, democrats would join republicans in pushing for the strong commonsense policies that will actually help us build and make things. so let's prioritize real, robust permitting reform, the capito-barrasso bill. let's greenlight domestic mining for our own critical minerals and reduce our dependence on chinese supply chains. let's unleash america's abundant domestic energy reserves. let's combat china's rampant espionage and theft of high-tech research and intellectual

property. if our democratic colleagues really want us to outcompete china, then let's put first things first. and stop using this issue as a trojan horse for unrelated liberal demands. mr. thune: mr. president. the presiding officer: the republican chip. mr. thune: mr. president, at a press conference on tuesday, president biden was asked if the united states was ready for the surge of people expected to come across the border after title 42 covid-19 restrictions are

lifted. his answer, it's going to be chaotic for a while. it's going to be chaotic for a while. well that unfortunately, mr. president, could describe the situation at the border during his entire presidency. the biden administration has been defined by chaos at the border for two long years and counting. two years of record record-breag numbers of individuals attempting to cross our southern border illegally. more than five million attempted illegal crossings in total. an average of 6,300 some individuals per day. 6 thown -- 6,300 per day. to put that number in perspective, during the last administration, the average number of illegal crossings per day was approximately 1800.

and all of these numbers just refer to individuals who are actually apprehended. there have been well over a million known got-aways during the biden administration, individuals the border patrol saw, but was unable to apprehend. in fact, one in five border crossers is a gotaway, meaning that huge numbers of people are entering our country illegally without our knowing who they are or what their purpose is in coming here. the fact that we've seen 80 individuals on the terrorist watch list attempt to enter our country illegally via the southern border since just october is a powerful reminder that not everyone trying to enter our country illegally is simply looking for a better life. and it is profoundly troubling that so many unknown individuals are evading the border patrol and making their way into our country. it's a problem that has been compounded as scores of border

patrol agents have been pulled off the front lines to provide humanitarian assistance. so we've had two years, two years of chaos at our southern border, mr. president. two years of chaos that have exacted a tremendous cost. our border communities are overwhelmed. our border patrol agents are overwhelmed. and the chaos at our border is unquestionably facilitating illegal cross-border activity, including the smuggling of deadly drugs like fentanyl into our country. mr. president, we didn't get here by accident. president biden hasn't just happened to provide -- to preside over a record-breaking influx of illegal immigration at the southern border. no, sir. the chaos that we've been experiencing is a direct result of the president's policies. from his campaign on, president

biden was focused on distancing himself from the immigration policies of his predecessor and satisfying the open borders caucus that makes up a huge part of today's democrat party. on its very first day in office, president biden rescinded the declaration of a national emergency at our southern border. he halted construction of the border wall. he revoked the trump administration order that called for the government to faithfully execute our immigration laws and his department of homeland security issued guidelines pausing deportations except under serve conditions. and that was all on his first day. needless to say, the effect of all this was to declare to the world that the united states' borders were effectively open. and the president's policies since that day have done little to correct that impression. which brings us to today. today, mr. president, the biden

administration is ending the use of pandemic-era title 42 authorities which have enabled u.s. customs and border protection to quickly turn back at least some illegal immigrants at the border. title 42 has played an essential role in preventing the crisis at our border from becoming a full blown catastrophe and with its end the flood of illegal immigrants coming across our border is expected to become a torrent. i mentioned that during the biden administration, we've seen an average of 6300 migrants a day totallying to illegally cross our southern border. well get this. the administration is expecting that number to possibly double one's title -- once title 42 is lifted to as many as 13,000 illegal crossings per day. 13,000 per day.

if border communities and the border patrol were overwhelmed before, it's difficult to even conceive how things will be for them now. the biden administration is busy putting 11th hour policy changes in place in an attempt to stem the expected surge. but how much of it will be too little too late remains to be seen. the president's prediction that things at the border will be chaotic for a while does not exactly inspire confidence that the administration is on top of the situation, nor did the nbc article yesterday morning noting that the biden administration is preparing to release the migrants into the united states with, and i quote, no way to track them, no way to track them, as a way to deal with overcrowding at the border. we're already breaking and we haven't even hit the starting line. that is a quote from the

department of homeland security official in that story. we're already breaking and -- braking and we haven't hit the starting line. so, as i said, mr. president, the biden administration is not exactly inspiring confidence especially since the president continues to reject commonsense measures that could actually help keep numbers down, like reinstating the migrant protection protocols often referred to as remain in mexico, which would require illegal immigrants to stay in mexico. we've seen an early surge in the an anticipation of title 42 ending with -- i'm deeply concerned about the border patrol agents who will have to deal with the lifting of title 42 brings. it's not just about border communities.

while border communities have to deal with the greatest immediate challenges, the consequences of enchecked illegal immigration at the southern border are felt all over the country. new york city has seen a flood of illegal immigrants as a result of biden's border crisis and the mayor recently stated that his city is and i quote, being destroyed by the migrant crisis, end quote. it seems that the biden border crisis is even too much for the sangt -- sanctuary cities that helped stoke it. our current fentanyl crisis is a reminder that illegal activity at the southern border affects every state in the nation. i talked to sheriffs in south dakota, about as far from our southern border as you can get, who are dealing with fentanyl that has been trafficked across the border from mexico. and as i said earlier, that trafficking is undoubtedly

facilitated by the chaos at our southern border. mr. president, this has been a grim speech, but it's a grim situation. it's been two years of crisis at the southern border under the biden administration and we're well on our way to catastrophe. president biden has the power to do something about this, but after two years of ineffective or simply absent leadership from the president, my hope is he will take the steps necessary to secure our borders aren't high. we will see what the coming days will bring. mr. president, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from wyoming.

ms. lummis: mr. president, later today we will be voting on legislation i introduced with 20 of our colleagues, senate joint resolution 23. this resolution rescinds the biden administration's 2022 rule that rolled back a commonsense and necessary definition of habitat under the endangered species act from the previous administration. when congress passed the endangered species act, it granted the secretaries of interior and commerce, through the fish and wildlife service and the national marine fiduciary service, -- fishery service, respectively, to designate habitats. section 7 prevents the destruction or adverse modification of these critical habitat designations. there is no doubt that habitat loss is a contributing factor to

species decline, so protecting habitat it that is necessary to the survival of species is appropriate. the problem that has arisen, however, is that these designations have, on occasion, been weaponized to the detriment of landowners, the american public, and the very species we are trying to protect. two-thirds of all endangered species are located on private lands. for these species to be recovered, private landowners must be part of the solution and not treated as the enemy. unfortunately, through aggressive critical habitat designations, as well intentioned as they might be, private landowners are penalized and harmed instead of incentivized to help with species recovery.

a recent discover that are 13,000 transactions for land or habitat for two listed species in california found that a designation resulted in a large and statistically significant decrease in land value, specifically 48% for the read-legged frog and at least 78% for the bay checker-spot but therfly. this is true across -- butterfly. this is true across the country. let me tell you a story from louisiana. in 2001 the fish and wildlife service listed the dusty frog as endangered. in 2010, the service proposed to -- included 1,544 acres on a

louisiana site owned by a warehouse company and family of landowners. the service included the sight even though the -- site even though the frog was last seen there in 1965. the site would require substantial modification to support a sustainable population. according to the service's own report, designation of the site could cost the landowners nearly $35 million in lost development value. warehouser sued fish and wildlife over the designation, arguing that the site could not be critical habitat, because the frog, which did not exist at the site could not survive there without the site being transformed from a closed canopy timber -- timber plantation to an open canopy long pine forest,

in other words it could not be critical habitat for the frog because it was not habitat at all. in a unanimous 8-0 decision in 2018, the supreme court agreed. it said the esa does not authorize the secretary to designate an area's critical habitat unless it is also habitat for the piece see. now, -- piececy. now -- species. now the -- it is not in the endangered species act. prompted by the supreme court case, the u.s. fish and wildlife service finalized a rule in 2020 that defined the term habitat for designating critical habitat under the esa. habitat is an area that, quote, currently or periodically contains the resources and

conditions necessary to support one or more life process of a species. seems pretty reasonable. in 2020, the biden administration caved to radical groups that wanted to return to free-for-all des ig nagses and -- designations and finalized a rule to rescind this very reasonable commonsense definition. so we're now operating under an ad hoc system that creates decreased appropriate values and predatory challenges for american families and businesses. in fact, it incentives landowners to ensure their land could never be habitat for threatened or endangered species. with the trump-era rule rescinded, there is no regulation to bind federal agencies of determining a

habitat of an endangered species from which critical habitats can be designated. without certainty of what habitat means, investment of any type can be blocked, including necessary infrastructure projects that the majority of this body recently spent hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars to support. it is for this reason that a huge group of outside groups endorsed this resolution, including the american road and transportation builders association, the american farm bureau, the national water resources association, the national association of counties, the public lands council, the national association of homebuilders, and many others. in closing, the only way to recover endangered species is to enlist the help of private landowners in our efforts. overly broad critical habitat

des ig nagses do -- designations do just the on. my friends across the aisle have argued this is necessary for species recover rif. the facts simply don't back this up. among the 60 species still listed from the esa because of recovery as of july 2020, 51 of them never even had critical habitat designations. by lowering private landowner opposition to conservation efforts, which will happen if we pass this rule, our nation can help recover threatened and endangered species while simultaneously supporting our public landowners and public land users in their worthy goals of providing food, energy, jobs and home necessary for the survival of our own species. i urge my colleagues to vote yes

in support of this resolution, and, mr. president, i yield back.

test: the presiding officer: under the previous order, the senate will proceed to the en bloc consideration -- under the previous order, the joint resolutions are considered read a third time en bloc. the questions occurs on passage of s.j. res. 23. is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote:

vote:

vote:

vote: vote:

vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: on this vote the yeas are 51, the nays are 49. the joint resolution is passed. the presiding officer: the question now occurs on s.j. res. 24.

the yeas and nays have been requested. there appears to be a sufficient second. the clerk will call the roll. vote:

vote: vote:

vote:

vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: the yeas are 51, the nays are 49. the joint resolution is passed. 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, the judiciary. bradley n. garcia of maryland to be united states circuit judge for the district of columbia circuit. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the senate stands in recess subject to the stands in recess subject to the

senators are planning to consider the nomination of a judge for the d.c. circuit court. as always live coverage of the senate here on c-span2. >> c-span is your unfiltered view of government. we are funded by these television companies and more including comcast. >> are you thinking this is just a community center? it's way more than that. >> comcast is partnering with 1000 community centers to create wi-fi enabled lift zones so students can get the tools they need to be ready for anything. comcast supports c-span is a public service along with his other television providers

giving you a front row seat to democracy. >> librarian of congress carla hayden testified about a new visitor experience being created at the library in time for the 250th anniversary of the declaration of independence in 2026. she responded to questions about how the u.s. copyright office which is housed under the library of congress will be used to protect copyrighted works amid growing use of artificial intelligence. the senate hearing is about an hour. >> good afternoon. we are looking forward to this hearing, and i called or the hearing on oversight of the library of congress. i would like to thank ranking member fisher for her work as well as the librarian of congress dr. carla hayden for again appearing before this