vote:

the vice president: on this vote the yeas are 50, the nays are 50. the senate being evenly divided, the vice president votes in the affirmative, the motion is agreed to. mr. schumer: madam president. and madam vice president. the vice president: majority leader. mr. schumer: i want to note that this is a history-making moment for the united states senate. today vice president kamala harris matches the record for the most tie-breaking votes ever cast in the united states by a vice president. the constitution says that, quote, the vice president of the united states shall be the president of the senate and with

that comes the immense burden of casting votes whenever this chamber is evenly split. when it's mattered most, vice president harris has provided the decisive vote on some of the most historic bills of modern times, from the american rescue plan to the inflation reduction act, to so many federal judges who now preside and provide balance on the federal bench. she's carried out her duties with supreme excellence. and today all of us, all of us thank her for making the work of the senate possible. we also thank vice president harris for doing all this work despite all the other demands she faces as the nation's vice president, from leading the charge on protecting freedom of choice, to speaking out on criminal justice reform and gun safety, to pushing for climate justice, our nation is stronger, fairer, more

prosperous because of the work of the vice president. so, madam vice president, on this historic day, thank you. thank you for your leadership and your service to this institution and to the united states of america. i yield the floor. the vice president: the clerk will call the roll quorum call:

the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. welch: mr. president, are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are. mr. welch: i would ask unanimous consent to dispense with the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. welch: and i would like to address the senate. mr. president, today was an inspiring day but also a sad day. vermont in the past few days has suffered a severe flood from a storm that in some places dropped nine inches of rain. it tumbled down off the

mountains into our streams, flooded those streams and rivers, overflowed into our villages and some of our major cities. to my right we're looking at downtown montpelier, the capital of vermont. here we're seeing damage up in what's called the northeast kingdom to infrastructure. there are scenes like this everywhere. senator sanders, congresswoman balant, the entire vermont delegation with me toured vermont with the governor of vermont, phil scott, and with our fema administrator administrator criswell. it was an inspiring day because we saw firsthand the extraordinary response of our government. president biden immediately declared a state of emergency that unleashed the ability of

fema to provide resources. we saw our governor and our first responders in vermont, our national guard, our medical personnel who -- our first responders who did so much to rescue people and animals. we saw vermont volunteers who were along the main street of montpelier when senator sanders and congresswoman ballot were there coming out of their homes whose businesses had been devastated. we saw the press, the vermont press reporting constantly in giving detailed information about every location in vermont that was under water, giving an update in a report about how things were coming and where people could help. and, by the way, it's just a testament to the vital importance of local journalism. so we're grateful as well to the

hard work that our news organizations and the reporters did, oftentimes putting themselves in some significant peril. so that was very inspiring. what's sad is the damage of these storms, and this particular storm is just overwhelming. meeting homeowners in barry, who in the case of one man that we spoke to had lived in this home, very modest home but very beautifully taken care of -- it's where he raised his child, where he tended his garden -- it had four feet of water in his basement and that was the good news because the water had been up to his first floor. and he's desperately trying to get the water out to try to get that place in position where it's not going to have mold in

his lifelong home that means so much to him will be reaper -- repaired. we saw a woman who lived in a mobile home. and all of us know that when these weather catastrophes, it's oftentimes the people with the least who suffer the most. she came out of her mobile home and walked across a steep mud-drenched field in barre, vermont, towards us and the governor with a little pail that represented toys of her children. and she really had no place to go. her mom had suffered flood damage as well, and they were huddling together with her partner and her kids. and what's so hard is it's easy to understand the challenge that father had, that mother had,

and we're there and it's hopeful for them that we show up, that our fema administrator was there with her team. but what we know is that tomorrow when the sun is shining hopefully -- because more rain can be forecast -- her life has to go on but it's without the foundation that she built, that that father i mentioned built over 30 years. that's the heart. it's really, really hard for folks who established this stability in their lives to see that business they had committed themselves to, worked so hard to establish, that home they cared for and tended, that home where they provided security to their family, the mystery to them is what's going to happen. it's why it is so important for us, and i'm asking my colleagues for their support, that we do the minimum, and the minimum is

at least get those federal resources from fema back to vermont, which is in a state of emergency, and where so many vermonters have suffered very significant loss. they're willing to face it. people do that. they know they've got to clean that house up. but they've got to have some help, and it's help they get from their neighbors, it's the help -- but it also has to be help that they get from the government that has to back folks up when, through no fault of their own, there's a catastrophic weather event and it does so much damage to the lives and livelihoods of so many. senator sanders and congresswoman balancity and i were very -- balit were proud of the vermont response, from the governor, to the administrators and press on the case. but we've got a job here, and i'm going to be asking my colleagues for us to do that which only the federal government can do, and that is

provide those financial resources to help folks when there's been a weather emergency where they live. if there's any base-level function of government to try to bring us together as a community, as a united states of america, it's to stand up and help folks, whether it's in vermont or it's in louisiana or it's in deep texas. wherever it is, when there's an event, through no fault of their own, where the weather is doing so much damage, i think each of us reveres the opportunity we can have to help our colleague and the folks that our colleagues represent. vermont needs help now, and senator sanders and i will be seeking to obtain that help on behalf of vermonters. but i want to wind down here a little bit by describing a photograph, a sight i saw and

took a photograph we don't have here. along the river in barre, where the mud had come down and the silt had settled way outside of the banks of the river, there were three beautiful bicycles that were in a tangled mess and half buried. what it represented clearly was the bikes of three young kids, maybe boys and girls, who looked forward at the end of the day on a beautiful vermont summer day to riding that bike and having fun. they don't know where those bikes are, and they're buried, they're twisted, they're out of their reach, and it's having an effect on their life. i know vermonters are going to respond and say i hope our federal government responds. we've got to get bikes for those kids. one of the things we have to do

is make some contributions to funds that vermonters have done before when we suffered tropical storm irene, where we were trying to put families with the help that they needed to be able to have those kids back out on their bicycles in a beautiful vermont summer that can, after this storm, resume. what i hope we do here, and i'm going to be joined fully by senator sanders, who led today's delegation, is seek the assistance of our colleagues so that this government can be a friend at the time of need for the vermonters who, in times of others' needs, have always been there. i want to thank many of my colleagues who've approached me, senator kennedy foremost among

them who's had a lot of experience with natural disasters in louisiana. but one colleague after another saying, peter, if there's anything that we can do, we want to help. so i take everyone at their word, and i want to end where i began, and that is my expression of gratitude to the response from vermonters, from president biden, from administrator criswell and my colleagues as well. vermont is strong, we'll get through this, but make no mistake, it's asking so much of a family who's lost a home. it's asking so much of kids who summer expectation is they're going to be able to ride in those vermont country roads and enjoy being out with your friends, and no longer have that bike. it's asking a lot of families who are wondering what's going to happen now that mom's business is closed. it's going to ask a lot of vermonters who are trying to figure out how in the world,

even with help here, they're going to navigate the paperwork that's necessary in order to get that assistance. what we are going to do here, in assistance to seeking the -- in addition to seeking the assistance required, senator sanders, congresswoman balint and i are coordinating the casework response. there's a lot of concrete challenges folks face, and we want them to absolutely call us. we're going to work it out between the three of tus, to make sure we can help the most vermonters as quickly as possible get access to things that will be helpful to them to rebuild their future. we'll be strong. we'll recover. but i just want to end by acknowledging the sadness i feel for so many families who -- and businesses that have been so hammered by this storm. this storm, by the way, was

dropping so much rain as a result of the change in our climate that at this point is undeniable. the warmer temperatures over the ocean creates much more moisture in the air, and what was going to be a, quote, normal rainstorm, becomes a deluge. three inches turns into six or seven or eight or nine inches. so we do owe it to the future to act with alacrity, effectiveness and determination to address the climate factors that are going into creating these megastorms. mr. president, i yield back. i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll.

will the senator witt hold his suggestion of the -- withhold his suggestion of the absence of a quorum? mr. welch: yes, sir. mr. sullivan: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from alaska. mr. sullivan: mr. president, it's my favorite time of the week here in the u.s. senate. i like to come down on a regular basis and talk about the alaskan of the week. now, the alaskan of the week can be someone who's doing something great for their local community, their state, their country, maybe someone who's helping actually save the world. that's who we've got today, mr. president, someone who literally helped save the world. before i begin, i know we have some alaskans in the gallery here today, the boys and girls club is in town. we've got some great young leaders from my state here. i'm really glad to see them. it's appropriate.

i think one of those two, some of the boils and girls clubs -- boys & girls clubs awardees can probably be alaskan of the week soon, right? i always like to begin my alaskan of the week remarks by just giving a little update what's going on back home in alaska. we're having a great summer. it's actually a really cold summer for us. the sup is high -- the sun is high in the sky. people are fishing. tourists are knocking to our -- flocking to our state. if you're watching on tv, come to alaska. you'll have the best vacation of a lifetime. i guarantee it. midnight sun is out. the scene beery is spectacular -- scenery is spectacular. we're a place of big skies, big places, big ocean, big rivers, some of the most resilient, interesting, special people in the world, and some of the most patriotic. we have more veterans per capita

than any state in the country. i have the pleasure of frequently speaking about our veterans in alaska, our military in alaska. many of them have been honored by being alaskans of the week, and that's going to happen again today, with a very special veteran, alverta lincoln. let's talk a little about our alaskan of the week. mr. president, she served in the u.s. navy during the second world war. i'm going to talk a little about the program, the waves program. very famous program now. the women exception for voluntary emergency service. that's the acronym, waves. so world war ii vet, an alaskan pioneer literally, author, mother, grandmother,

great-great-grandmother. such an amazing story. she is turning 100 in a couple of days! 100. and still going strong. let me spend a few minutes talking about this extraordinary woman, who is sum an inspiration inspiration to so many in alaska, and hopefully after millions of americans watch this speech, so many americans across the country. alverta was born in 1923 in minnesota, the oldest of 14 kids. she was about 6 years old when the great depression began. of course, it was a very tough time for most americans. in her words, there was no work, her family literally did not know where the next meal was coming from. they ate a lot of soup, she said. when there was not enough for the 14 kids, the parents had to take care of, they just added water to the soup.

tough times. but she and her family survived. she said we like so many other americans were all in the same boat. after graduating from high school, elverda worked in washington state, working in a fruit cannery, waitressing. but none of these jobs gave her a sense of fulfillment or adventure or satisfaction. then, mr. president, december 7, 1941 happened, and our great nation was at war. so, what did this young woman do? she said she noticed a huge sign in her local post office. you know what the sign was -- one of the most famous recruiting posters ever, with uncle sam literally pointing at her. every day, she said, she walked past that sign that said i want

you. she was a patriot. so eventually, elverda heeded uncle sam's call and joined the navy. like i said, the waves program. she was soon on a train to new york and a journey then that took her across the country, five-day train ride. the waves program was set up in 1942 by president roosevelt to free up positions primarily stateside, but very important positions, you're going to hear about what elverda did for her country and the navy, so that male sailors could deploy overseas. so, she gets on a plane with eight other women, who had also joined waves, they had to take turns sleeping on the floor of the lavatory for five days,

because there was no assigned seats on this train going across our great nation. four weeks of boot camp, tough duty, 4:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. every day for four weeks straight. when she completed boot camp elverda was filled with a sense of accomplishment and patriotis patriotism. she had done something hard, fulfilling and worthwhile. beyond that, she felt connected with her fellow waves. these are sailors in the u.s. navy, women sailors, and of course she was connected with probably one of the most important causes our country has ever undertaken, to win world war ii and free the world from tyranny and oppression. her confidence soared, she said, when she received her navy uniform, and her $50 per month

paycheck. a lot of money back then. she was first stationed in seattle. get this, mr. president -- her job was to keep track of the exact locations of u.s. ships and enemy ships and planes throughout the pacific. she then was transferred to tung point naval air station in astoria, oregon. at this point, of course, the pacific theater and the war in the pacific was in full force. she aided in modifying naval communications manuals, she helped to code a great deal of radio signals and manuals that were used in battles like the battle of iwo jima. and used in the invasion of the

alucian islands in japan. a lot of people don't know that our country had to fight brutal battles in the aleutian islands. it was only after the war that elverda realized the great importance of what she had done. like i said, she's an alaskan of the week who helped save the world. literally helped save the world. she saw her time in the navy as a great transition in her life where she found out what hard work and dedication and patriotism was all about, and importantly, she also met her husband, bob lincoln, a u.s. marine. so we know elverda has very good

tastes by marrying a u.s. marine while he was stationed in oregon. both elverda and bob wanted to continue to live a life of adventure and travel. so after the war in 1950, with one child already born and another one on the way, they packed up their car and they drove north to the great state of alaska. it wasn't a state back then, it was still a territory, but you get the picture, mr. president. they wanted an alaskan adventure and they got it. they settled in the town of wasilla on a homestead. elverda and her husband bob added to wasilla's population which back then was 100 people. it's much bigger today. they built a home, built a life, raised three wonderful kids.

bob did care -- did dairy farming and being a butcher and fell in love with alaska. it's like one big family, elverda said. our friends range from the preachers to the alcoholics and everybody in between. eventually elverda began to write about her life in alaska, some funny, some serious. she's written four with books so far and talking to her, you have no doubt that she has at least four more in her. unfortunately, her husband bob passed away, but before he did, he and elverda traveled the world, something that she continued to do until recently. mr. president, elverda now lives in the senior center in wasilla and she stays busy. she walks every day. she quilts for charities, including quilts of valor and

quilts for children's place. during covid, she made masks. she has five grandchildren, 19 great grandchildren and two great-great grandchildren. in her 100 years of life -- 100 years of wisdom, elverda attributes her longevity to the following and this is a great lesson for everybody. living healthy, staying active, being positive and staying out of other's people's business. i loved every minute of my life, elverda recently said, and what a life it's been. so, elverda, thank you for your service to our country, thank you for your service in the u.s. navy and waves, to the great state of alaska, to wasilla,

thank you for being such a positive inspiration for so many. happy 100th birthday from the united states senate and, of course, congratulations on the great honor of being our alaskan of the week. i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. whitehouse: mr. president, i always considered good fortune when i come to deliver remarks on the senate floor and get to follow senator sullivan's alaskan of the week speeches and his discussion of his constituent elverda, that reminds me of a very, very dear person in my life, florence cairns murray, born a little bit ahead of elverda, 1916, but also

served in the u.s. military, she was in the wac, and then broke essentially every glass ceiling you could break in rhode island politics and in the rhode island judiciary, becoming a very respected and row -- row nouned- renowned supreme court justice. i will join my colleague senator sullivan in wishing elverda a happy birthday and i would like to be a fly on the wall with the conversation between florence and elverda. the presiding officer: the senator from alaska. mr. sullivan: i will gladly pass along your birthday greetings to elverda. thank you very much. mr. whitehouse: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island.

mr. whitehouse: mr. president, i rise this evening now for the 22nd time to keep unmasking the far-right scheme to capture and control our supreme court. this scheme is funded by creepy right-wing billionaires who stay out of the limelight and let others, namely leonard leo and his crew operate their scheme. and how are they benefiting from the scheme? it's hard to track which right-wing billionaires are involved, and that is by design, but thanks to intrepid reporting fromming propublica and others, we're learning all the time. it's harder for the justices and their political allies to pretend tall is kosher -- that

all is kosher at the court. i have described this court capture scheme, creepy right-wing billionaires, phony front groups, amenable justices, large sums of money, and secrecy. i don't know whether they take that shaken or stirred but those seem to be the common ingredients. to chill that court capture cocktail, we can add one more ingredient, alaskan glacier ice. but i'll get back to that later. first, let's review the origin story of justice samuel alito. it begins with judge burke, which infuriated burke's far-right backers, on the court were justices souter and stevens, but they wouldn't help

the billionaires, so the angry chant went out from the far right, no more suiters -- souters and no more stevens, so hair yet myer -- harriet meyers, was to replace sandra day o'connor and the attack on her comes from the right. the far-right billionaires wouldn't have it and their operative oversaw the project of taking her down. and in her place came the every so reliably billionaire friendly sam alito.

this switch, meyers for alito, gave leo immense cred with the billionaires, who since then have made him a very rich man and helped him launch his armada of front groups, of which this array is just a selection. these three groups are the groups from which he takes revenue for himself and through which he manages these two groups, a coordinate 5 oo 1 -- 501(c)(3) and 501c4, that is a -- that usually comes from common staff, common funders, common mail draft and all of that. around this common core are what

are called fictitious names. that's the name for it under virginia law. so 85 fund is also the judicial education project under a fictitious name. it is also a free to learn. conquered fund is also the crisis network. honest election action under a fictitious name and free to learn action out of -- under a fictitious name. that's quite a lot of confusion, and it's designed to be confusing. let's go on to 2021. by that time i had been calling out obvious issues of the supreme court, published articles, delivered speeches and even wrote a book. alito bemoaned what he said were unprecedented ef -- efforts to

intimidate the court. he said that the media was dangerous deciding important issues in the middle of the night hidden from public view. that, of course, referred to the sudden surge under trump and the court's use of its shadow docket to quickly change the law without hearing full public arguments. alito's speech then was considered pretty extraordinary airing of grievance by a supreme court justice. in response, i wrote an op-ed explaining that justice alito participated in a pattern of decisions. among them the shadow docket ruling leaving in place pre-dobbs, texas' bounty -- bounty hunter anti-abortion law, a pattern of big wins for big right-wing donors with little

regard for fact or precedence. i argued that the court lacked -- this isn't a left-wing figurement. it showed a clear pattern. when big right-wing donor interests came before the court, the federal society justices on the court would regularly trample precedent and contort the facts in the law to deliver the donor's political victories, not a figurement -- not a figment, a pattern, then came the dobbs case which took away a constitutional right for women. for five decades, women had the right to choose when to have children. that constitutional right appeared safely protected in supreme court precedent. then in a letter that appeared

from leonard leo, three justices were appointed to the court. i say mysteriously because the federalist society never had any formal proceedings to develop any list. but it offered no correction when trump kept calling it his federalist society list. well, the next thing you know that constitutional right was taken away by justices who in their confirmation hearings had told the american public and the senate judiciary committee that roe was settled law. settled, that is, until they had the votes to unsettle it and make up their own. as justice kagan observed, if there's a new member of the court and all of a sudden everything is up for grabs and fundamental principles of law are being replaced, then people have a right to say, what's going on there? that doesn't seem very law like.

and she was right. years after he had assured us roe was settled law, it was justice alito who wrote the decision in dobbs. alito's -- alito's draft opinion leaked well ahead of the decision, causing rampant speculation about who leaked the opinion and why. chief justice roberts had an investigation, but with the justices, the marshal undertook other processes and the investigation proved inconclusionive -- inconclusive. days before the opinion leaked, "the wall street journal" editorial page predicted the dobbs decision, raising the suggestion that someone had a source in the court.

the editorial correctly predicted what alito knew that alito would write the decision for the majority so long as chief justice roberts couldn't pull another justice to join a more moderate middle ground decision. then this past april, justice alito was featured in a highly sympathetic interview on "the wall street journal" editorial page. alito spoke about his opinion's leak and said i personally have a pretty good idea who is responsible. but that's different from the level of proof that is needed to name somebody. any major newspaper would have put an exclusive interview with a supreme court justice on the front page. but it would then have been subject to fact-checking. this opinion piece looked like an article, but it appeared in the journal's notoriously fast and loose with the facts opinion

section under a double byline. was one was a staffer and the other was david rifkin, a right-wing lawyer challenge the power plan before the supreme court. a quick detour about "the wall street journal" editorial pain's ties to the right-wing ecosystem. right-wing bizarreo land likes to ape the legitimate world. in the legitimate world, there's a pulitzer prize so right-wing biz czaro land has its own bradley prize which -- guess what? -- has provided hefty prize money to several "wall street journal" editorial page writers a million dollars cash in all. this editorial piece quotes

alito saying, we are being hammered daily and i think quite unfairly in a lot of instances and nobody, practically nobody is defending us. in the piece justice alito declined to talk about the clarence thomas ethics problems reported by republican came, ex-- exowe -- extraffic gant vacations paid by harlan crow and not disclosed. that report was later followed by an additional pro pub la story detailing the billionaire's purchase of properties from justice thomas and his family members, also not properly disclosed, and payments for years of tuition for the justice' grand nephew who the thomass were raising, also not disclosed. justice alito's silence on the thomas bombshell became all the more notable when two months later, for publica published another bombshell. this one about justice alito.

same cocktail ingredients. in this case a right-wing billionaire, an amenable justice, undisclosed private jet travel, an exotic vacation, all very expensive, all secret. justice alito's private jet travel to this all expenses paid alaska fishing vacation was paid for by a hedge fund billionaire paul singer who contributed over $80 million to republican political organizations and whose elliot management group is one of the largest donors to the national republican senatorial committee. this is a politically involved right-wing billionaire. later the billionaire's firm had business before the court. and in that case won billions of

dollars. no disclosure by alito. no recusal. charles gaye, an indiana university law professor and leading expert on recusals had this to say. if you were good friends, what were you doing ruling on his case? and if you weren't good friends, what were you doing accepting this? but wait, there's more. the tab for alito's stay at the salmon lodge in alaska was covered by a different billionaire. if you're keeping score, we're now up to three billionaires. this one is named robin arkley and he funded the launch of leonard leo's advocacy group, the judicial crisis network.

also heavily engaged in right-wing political influence focused on the court. leo, the operative behind the current right-wing supreme court's supermajority not only organized alito's trip, he galavanted off to alaska with the justice and the billionaires. by my count after yet another story about justice thomas, we are now up to six right-wing billionaires attending to the care and feeding of two justices, thomas and alito. and there are all sorts of links among them and with the ubiquitous leonard leo. so many justices, so many billionaires, so many gifts.

but there's even more. alito was not the first justice to stay at this particular lodge. justice scalia also took a private jet to the lodge courtesy of bill their arkley and also did not disclose the gift. in one memorable bit of color from that propublica story, scalia was described as mixing martinis made with ice chipped off of a glacier. there, you thought i'd forgot that but i didn't. the evening before the aload toe billionaire travel story ran -- alito billionaire travel story ran, the wall street story comes back into the picture again. alito took to "the wall street journal" editorial page. in the op-ed, alito argued that he didn't need to disclose the private jet travel under federal

law because the private jet should be considered a facility and that his seat on the private jet would have otherwise been empty so it was free and there was no gift. i won't go into how laughable these arguments are. that is a separate case. what's important is that these arguments were printed on the wall street editorial page without investigation or comment by the page. taken at face value. oh, and by the way, the cost of that charter, the private jet travel would have cost over $100,000 each way. in that "wall street journal" editorial page piece from the spring, alito had said about the court's collapsing approval, well, yeah, what do you expect when you're day in and day out, they're illegitimate. they're engaging in all sorts of unethical conduct. they're doing this. they're doing that.

justice alito's complaining has it completely backwards. the problem is not that americans are pointing out the ethical lapses at the supreme court. the problem is the ethical lapses at the supreme court. the roberts court justices' behavior is crashing public trust in the institution, and justifiably. first, with preposterous judicial behavior that no other judge would indulge. second, with outrageous violations of quite clear rules and procedures, judges are supposed to follow about reporting those gifts. third, with preposterous excuses for the bad behavior and the reporting violations.

and fourth, with no process to ever even try to get to the truth, to establish the facts. it is a mess. ideally the justices would start fixing that mess on their own. the court and the judicial conference which roberts chairs have the ability to fix this. but so far they won't. i suspect there is a lot more to be found out about this mess, and they don't want those further disclosures so they would just as soon pull a rug over the whole thing, but that won't work. congress also has the ability to right ethics rules for the justices.

remember, congress created the judges' financial disclosure requirements in the ethics and government act. and congress created the judicial recusal law which the justices are also required to follow. and congress created the jirnl conference which -- judicial conference which administers financial disclosure and code of conduct matters. clearly the article one legislative branch can legislate in this area. clearly we can oversee agencies that we have created and laws that we have passed. and indeed we have for decades. in the coming days the senate judiciary committee will mark up my supreme court ethics recusal and transparency act. this is a very important step forward in this process.

and i thank chairman durbin for his leadership. this bill would put basic ethics guardrails and transparency measures in place to help ensure the american people that they can get a fair shot at the supreme court, even if they don't have a private jet. today in the court that dark money built, the honor system has play grantly -- flagrantly failed. we need to legislate. we need to investigate. and we need to fix this mess for the american people. to be continuinged, mr. president. -- to be continued, mr. president. i yield the floor.

mr. whitehouse: and now for the wrap-up, mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. whitehouse: 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. whitehouse: i have 11 requests for committees to meet today during today's session of the senate. they have the approval of the majority and minority leaders. the presiding officer: duly noted. mr. whitehouse: i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the en bloc consideration of the following senate resolutions.

291, 292, and 293. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measures en bloc? without objection. the senate will proceed en bloc. mr. whitehouse: i ask unanimous consent that the resolutions be agreed to, the preambles be agreed to, and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table all en bloc. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. whitehouse: i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned until 10:00 a.m. on thursday, july 13. following the prayer and pledge, the journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be exare poirld, morning business be closed. fortunately the conclusion of morning business, the senate proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the kotagal nomination. finally, that if any nominations are confirmed during thursday's session, the motions 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, so ordered. mr. whitehouse: if there's 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 senate stands adjourned until

the seventh of government nominees appointed for the u.s. district court judges in massachusetts and washingto they also held a vote on a nominee to be a mber of the equal employment opportunity commissi. more work on president biden's executive judicl nominations throughout the week. you can find a live coverage of the senate here on cspan2. he spent is a place to turn to see this year's national governors association meeting with comprehensive coverage. it all starts alive from atlantic city on thursday beginning at 10:00 a.m. eastern on c-span three. the governors will address issues around youth mental health, paternal aunt but health and public health along with disaster response first lady joe biden will also speak and then on friday c-span's "washington journal" live at 8:00 a.m. eastern as outgoin nga chair new jersey governor philip murphy and