university campus. you have to develop your intellectual and mental fitness, spiritual fitness, emotional fitness to withstand this battle. it starts with you at the end of this week. should be running out of 3 x 5 cards tonight. walgreens should not have any 3 x 5 cards. everyone of you find a way to get some. then you have this over here, constitution and declaration. that's how you go out and serve and understand what it means to be an american. thank you for having me, have a great week. ..[cheers and applause]i want r calls to show you this real quick. the topic was on the front page of usa today this morning.

politics engulfed black history. in demand ap course runs into wall in florida. the article says ap african megan studies arrived last year at 16 schools across the country. this fall it will be tested in roughly 800 high schools, twice what was originally planned thanks to the surging demand despite growth and highly publicized provision, it remains off limits informant florida. last week approved african-american history standards a lot of as the anti- local approach teaching about black experiences in the united states. they gloss over key aspects of the story. nathaniel is first new jersey. >> good morning. you guys do a great job.

i think the problem is white -- >> we are going to break away for live coverage of the u.s. senate.

the presiding officer: the senator from kentucky. mr. paul: you i ask unanimous consent that the following interns from my office be granted floor privileges until august 2023, indicate mccall if, sidney windhorse, lyndon shelby, spencer woodall and chloe true it. the presiding officer: without objection. the senator from michigan. peters peters i will shortly ask for unanimous consent --

mr. peters: i will ask unanimous consent for the passage of cfius, this was created in the wake of september 11 and oklahoma city bombing. to ensure that common weapons could not be used by terrorists in an attack. now the program is set to expire on july 27, tomorrow, and we simply cannot let that happen. there are approximately 3,300 facilities across the united states that participate in this program. these facilities support a range of industries from chemical manufacturing and distribution to agriculture and food production, paint and coatings operations and health care and pharmaceuticals. in their every day work, these

facilities use materials that in the wrong hands can be turned into dangerous weapons. because these types of industrial or commercially products are common and offer a simple pathway to terrorism. by participating in the cfats program, we will develop a plan to ensure potentially hazardous material is secure. i introduced bipartisan legislation, along with senators capito, carper, and lankford to extend this important counterterrorism program for five years. the five-year extension provides regulatory certainty and the stability for the companies and groups that participate in the program ensuring that they can keep these important safeguards in place for longer. companies including dow, easf,

and rent-tag north america, along with the u.s. chamber of commerce, the american chemical council, the national association of chemical distributors, the american fuel and petrochemical manufacturers, the agricultural retailers association and the fertilizer instituted, all -- institute, all support extending this vital national security program for another five years. however, last night the house passed a two-year extension with overwhelming bipartisan support, more than 400 members of the u.s. house voted to extend the program. and while i believe passing a longer extension to provide more certainty for the companies and the dhs would be better, the program will expire tomorrow, and if we do not pass legislation to extend it, our

national security could be at risk. if this body allows this program to expire, the 3,300 facilities will no longer be required to maintain security measures and any new high-risk facilities will not be required to invest in additional security. department of homeland security will no longer be able to assess whether facilities are high risk or share information about specific terrorist threats connected to chemical facilities. the high-risk chemical facilities would no longer be able to screen individuals who have access to sensitive areas against the terrorist screening database, which is a critical way to ensure that we're keeping substances from getting into the wrong hands. since it was created, cfats has been extended with bipartisan support four times. we cannot let this vital program

expire. we must take urgent action to pass this two-year extension that just passed overwhelmingly through the united states house and keep the american people safe from harm. mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of h.r. 4470, which was received from the house, that the bill be considered read a third time and passed, and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: is there objection? mr. paul: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from connecticut. mr. paul: reserving the right to object. i rise today to object to the quick passage of h.r. 4470, which seeks to extend the chemical facility antiterrorism standards program. how can anybody be against that? i'm actually for it.

we should have terrorism standards, but you know what, we always also these before 9/11, how did it work before the government got involved? companies had to insure things, if you had ever -- an company you had insurance. these things happen, it's not as if safety for our utilities and public chemical plants didn't exist before 9/11. so there are ways that the marketplace would take care of this. this measure, though, which would reauthorize this regulatory program for another two years, i think is being rushed through the senate without due consideration, or really any consideration at all. the homeland security committee has jurisdiction over the program yet we have not had any hearings to discuss this program or its effectiveness. this is the part of the problem with government, we tend to authorize things without

examining whether it works or doesn't work. some programs might need more money, some programs might need less money and we might ask ourselves, do we have any money? we're $32 trillion in debt, we borrow a trillion dollars every year. it's easy to be for stuff. everybody's got something good, everybody's for something, but where does the money come from? we haven't had any hearing to discuss this program or its effectiveness since the last time it was authorized, nor has the committee considered any legislation to reform the program. this is a regulatory program. it has hundreds of regulations and it was established to prevent the misuse of hazardous hems. it fails to understand that every company has a self-incentive to protect hazardous chemicals. facilities that store designated quantities must undergo a risk

assessment every two years, if it is not reauthorized, it's been going on for 20 years, my guess is that if not all did go through the program. even if the program didn't exist, they would have bob wiers and protection against terrorism because they want to protect their investment. the requirement, though, through government, though, places a burden on business, impeding their potential growth and creating unsurmountable barriers for entry for those who find the regulatory compliance too expensive to break into the sector. this is why a lot of times big businesses like regulations, regulations become a barrier to new companies coming into the business. why not have a ton of regulations? sort of like banks, guess who likes the banking regulations? big banks, they can hire for

compliance officers, the bank in your town can't do it so it is gobbled up by the bigger bank due to regulatory burden. the requirements to do this is substantial and the cost implications impact not just private companies but also the department of homeland security. the united states is trillions of dollars in debt. we cannot continue to pour money into nonsensal government programs. we should have a discussion of what are the private incentives for people to protect their chemical plants, to protect their utilities. there's a long history of this. in fact, it was the history of our country until fairly recently. the department of homeland security has a consistent track record of creating duplicative programs. over the past 12 years, the government accountability office, the gao, has documented over 1100 cases of duplicative programs created by congress. everybody has a great idea.

we're going to fix this. but they don't ever take time to look up to find out somebody had the idea three years before and they already created a ■progra to fix this. so sometimes we have as many as 80 different programs to fix a problem that's already been fixed previously 80 times. it should come as no surprise to nil of us that -- any of us that our government has grown into ad 6.5 la vie thin and this body seems more interested in passing bills than understanding the contents of the bills, the programs, or whether the programs are working. we saved over $550 billion by removing just half of gao's identified duplicative programs. $550 billion was saved by taking the time to figure out. i've expressed a number of concerns about the program but what should alarm us the most about the reauthorization is

that gao already found much of this program to be duplicative of other agencies in a report from 2021. that's why i will be introducing and attaching to this bill and letting the bill go, frankly, if we can agree today to attach a small bill, but i think it could have profound implications over government. this is called the duplication scoring act. so what would happen is every time someone gets a genius idea how they're going to fix your life or fix your business with another law, there would have to be a duplication score. government would come forward and say, oh, well, we have 32 programs that already do the same thing. or we have 32 programs that aren't working that do the same thing. it would be -- what a government should normally do before creating a new program, find out if we already have existing programs. so i will be asking consent to pass this bill. i'll let the program continue. even though i think it has many

problems if it will add a a duplicating scoring system to all programs in government so we can review whether they already exist and are working. this program would be produced for each bill. i think all of us can agree that there's no point in passing a bill that already exists in another fashion or already has agencies that do the same job. before we unknowingly pass a thousand more of these duplicative fragmented programs, i urge my colleagues to support my amendment which would continue the program, allow it to be reauthorized, but at the same time begin having a duplication score on every new proposal. so i would ask the senate to modify the current request that my amendment, which is at the desk, is considered and agreed to, the bill as amended be considered read a third time and passed, and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

the presiding officer: is there objection to the senator's request to modify. a senator: mr. president, reserving the right to object. the presiding officer: the senator from michigan is recognized. mr. peters: i certainly appreciate senator paul's commitment, making government more efficient. i was pleased that my committee advanced his bill earlier this year. but as i had noted at the time of our passing it out of committee, the bill requires additional work before it's ready to be passed by the full senate. we have heard from several committees who have concerns about the potential impacts of the legislation. and i hope that we can continue working over the summer to try and address those concerns and find a path forward for this legislation. however, the chemical facilities antiterrorism standards program is set to expire tomorrow.

we urge -- urgently need to pass this bipartisan two-year extension now. if we do not, chemical facilities that are at risk of being exploited by terrorists will no longer be able to implement critical security measures, including ensuring that individuals in the terrorist screening database do not have access to restricted areas in these facilities. and the department of homeland security will no longer be able to assess or share information about terrorist threats related to these facilities. mr. president, our national security is on the line. and we cannot let this program expire over a completely unrelated bill about the inside workings of congress. mr. president, i object. the presiding officer: the objection is heard to the modification. is there objection to the original request? mr. paul: i object, mr. president. i object. the presiding officer: the objection is heard.

a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from ohio. mr. brown: thank you, mr. president. i rise today to recognize sharon cohen who retires this week from the senate dining room. over her almost three decades here, ms. cohen has left a lasting impression on a must be of my colleagues and guest who visit the dining room, including my children and grandchildren and the whole senate dining team. she has seen senators come and go from this building. she has been here longer than most of my colleagues and longer than i have. i always look forward to seeing ms. cohen. she's always welcoming, always gracious. she makes an effort to get to know not just every senator but every guest who comes through the doors regardless of who they walked in with, regardless of their political affiliation. in place where at times relationships can be tested and debated can be intense. she always made senate dining a welcoming place. it's clear to anyone who has met

ms. cohen that she cares deeply for the people in her life, her family, her colleagues, her guests. she seems to always be thinking about what's best for others among her colleagues, ms. cohen is known for being steady and reliable and most importantly for her generous spirit. she's always helping whomever she can, however she can. she never asks for anything in return. her colleagues share that they don't think they've ever met anyone who works harder than she and when she finishes her work, she helps everyone else who needs it. she's a team player. she's a hard worker. maybe most important, she's made a difference for so many people. maybe all of us, my colleagues and i, can learn from that. the workers in these jobs often don't get a lot of recognition. they're too often ignored yet they're every bit as important to the senate as the people on the senate floor. she brings a dignity to this job, the same kind of dignity that a carpenter who's proud of her work or a sheet metal worker who is proud of his work or

someone who works in manufacturing, someone who works in a veterans hospital, someone who provides home care. because all work has dignity as she understands. ms. cohen is a treasured member of staff and of this institution. as her colleagues shared their -- they're sad to see her leave, they know things won't be the same without her, she share her excitement in the next chapter. she plans to spend time with her daughter and care for her granddaughter. i know she'll be missed by the senate fining team. i know we'll all miss seeing her, and i appreciate not just her work bup the work of all -- but the work of all people who serve in this body in all kinds of capacities. ms. cohen, thank you. i wish you a long, joyous retirement spent with your granddaughter. congratulations. thank you, mr. president.

a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from hawaii.

a senator: are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are not. mr. schatz: thank you, mr. president. as we move forward with the national defense authorization act, i want to say a little bit about why it's so important we get this done. over the last several months the administration and all of us in the senate with particular thanks to chair reed and ranking member wicker have worked hard to deliver a bill that will keep our country safe. there is a lot in this bill and we all know about some of the big stuff. this year's ndaa will better position us to deter conflict in the indo-pacific, strengthen our cybersecurity capabilities, help us to acquire nextgen microlek tronnics to keep our military competitive, extend our security assistance to ukraine and authorize other programs that support our national defense. and these are all reasons that i support this legislation. but i want to highlight a couple of provisions that are just as important and are focused on taking care of the people who serve our country. civilian and military and

underscore the need for accountability. people are the glue that hold everything together. and they are why we have a young national -- strong national defense. some of these provisions are included in this bill but others we're still working on to include in the final package. one provision we worked to secure in this bill deals directly with the state of hawaii. when the department of the navy's red hill bulk fuel storage facility leaked jet fuel into the water system on the island of oahu, many were exposed to contaminated water. although we are on a path to defuel and permanently close the facility, we still do not have an accurate accounting of those affected. this year's defense authorization establishes a bill -- establishes a registry to track those exposed to the fuel leak. that is meaningful step to continue to deliver resources to

community members, servicemembers, and military families and monitor long-term health concerns. this leak should have never happened, but now we need to do everything we can to help those who have been impacted. a key provision we were still working to include in the final package will help us to better protect the most vulnerable among us -- kids. in 2018 the department of defense's internet network was rankinged 19th out of almost 3,000 nationwide networks in the amount of peer-to-peer child pornography shared. 19th out of 3,000. the ranking remains shocking and unacceptable. but it was not entirely unexpected. a 2006 investigation by federal law enforcement officials found that 5,000 individuals -- 5,000 individuals -- including hundreds affiliated with the department of defense subscribed to websites that contained child

sexual abuse images and videos. out of those 5,000 people, 80% of them were not investigated. 80% of them were not investigated. that's because the military lacked the capacity and resources needed to follow up on leads, coordinate with local and federal law enforcement and prosecute the criminals. so senator murkowski and i went to work and authored a bill that would give the dod the tools they needed to address this problem. the end network abuse act received bipartisan support and was included in the 2020 defense bill, clearing the wait for dod to act. -- the way for dod to act. but it's almost four years later, and the dod has been maddeningly slow to implement this law. this the cannot wait any further. my amendment would simply compel the department of defense to implement this law immediately. we cannot afford to let another day, another moppets, another four years go by without

addressing this matter. the stakes are too high and we already have a federal law. while these provisions aren't the most attractive to cable news, they're not leading the headlines or national papers, they directly impact our greatest national security asset -- our people. talking about our national defense priorities meaning into if we neglect to support the people who make it possible. we've got to continue to honor our commitments to care for them, whether it is through quality health care or protecting the most vulnerable or keeping ourselves accountable to those who serve. our job in congress is to deliver for them, and that means passing a final bill. on a different but related topic to appear elsewhere in the record, later today some of my colleagues, including chair reed and senator kelly, will speak on the critical topic of our

military promotions and the crisis currently caused by their delay here in the senate by the obstruction by a few republican senators. for the first time in over a hundred years we have an acting commandant of the marine corps. the service that is reorganizing to better compete in the indo-pacific, the region that we all say we need to prioritize, has no confirmed head. there is no reason to delay his confirmation. more than 250 career military promotions are being held up. 2509 career military creations are being held up. this is hitting the morale of the forces and it is causing a backlog in the chain of command. in senator tuberville wants to have a debate, let us debate on the floor. but to penalize the armed forces. united states of america in this way is an abuse of the power of

advice and consent. let's just be really clear. we don't vote on flag and general officer promotions. that is done in what they call a wrap-up script, right? the the end of some evening, the leader or his designee reads a script and says, i ask that nominations number -- and then he listed them or she listed them -- and then all of those one stars become two stars and three stars become four stars and you got a new commandant of the marine corps and, you know, the pac fleet commander moves from two years to three star, whatever it is. it's perfunctory. we're not in the position of making individual judgments. we don't have the time about 250 flag and general officers, the people that oversee every service branch. and so the idea that we should sit here and burn up postcloture time and turn the senate into the personnel committee for the department of defense is

antithetical to the idea of advice and consent. and, yes, every senator has enormous power. i could probably block the defense bill this week if i wanted to, but i won't. you know why? because i am ape not a maniac. -- because i am neat a maniac. -- because i am not a maniac. were -- with this kind of power, you have to be careful how you exercise it. i've blocked one or two things in my 11 is years. when i blocking is, people know i am very serious. i know no one, the current 100 senators besides senator tuberville, i i've never seen this in my life. this is a breaking of the department of defense. and this breaking of the basic understanding that, a hey, we're going to vest each other with the kind of authority that is pretty enormous, right? but in exchange you have to use

that power wisely. in exchange you have to use that power wisely. and senator tuberville is mad about an abortion issue, and so he's preventing all of these general and flag officers from getting their promotions. it's bad for morale, the chain after command, it's also bad for these individual families. you have people who have to make basic choices -- real estate decisions. am i rent ago condo or not? where am i living? is i'm not sure. where should i enroll my kids in school? i don't know. and my whole life depends on when senator tuberville decides that this craziness is over. it's got to end. it's bad for the country. it's bad for the senate. and it's bad for the united unid states' armed forces. 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 clerk: ms. baldwin.

mr. moran: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from kansas. mr. moran: assuming there is a quorum call in place, i ask unanimous consent that it be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection you the senator is recognized. mr. moran: mr. president, thank you. earlier this year the public confidence in the banking system was shaken by a a series of significant bank failures. to put it simply, these banks failed to account for interest rate increases while leaning on deposits that were almost uninsured. that's a textbook case after

mismanagement. it is critical that faith be restored in our nation's banks and their regulators, but before policymakers clamor to write stricter banking regulations, an independent review board should be appointed to thoroughly probe the failure of silicon valley bank and the response of the federal reserve bank. many questions still remain unanswered. silicon valley bank was quickly deemed important because of its size but the ensuing failure of a larger bank was not. the sale was dragged out for weeks out of fear that certain banks would grow too large only for the largest bank in the country to turn and and purchase the next bank failure. in my opinion, all parties involved had a role in this failure. bank executives, examiners and regulators. the bank failed to both accurately leverage their position and react to rising interest rates. examiners failed to the require changes in either the bank's

policy or subsequent actions. regulators failed by arbitrarily guaranteeing all funds against loss, creating an unlimited market insecurity by forcing taxpayers to now question the safety of their deposits. meaningful oversight requires objectivity and must hold all parties accountable without having predetermined regulatory agenda in mind. to restore public confidence, the next step in my view would be to hire an outside investigative group to conduct a review of the federal reserve bank's response. conflicts of interest inherently arise when a singular member of the board prepares a self investigation. this comprehensive review must be done by a party uninvolved in the failure of silicon valley bank and/or uninvolved in the

federal response. this would better ensure that the outcome of this investigation would be impartial, helping to put to bed doubts that the fed's review all served as a stamp of approval. the fed's own internal review sound significant negligence by both management and regulators. the public needs incite into the reasoning and confirmations of the regulators, the white house, and bank management involved in the response. silicon valley bank and the banks that were -- that subsequently failed were specialized to do business with a unique financial sector. any reform regulators push now must be narrowly tailored to avoid collateral damage to small and midsized banks that operate responsibly. stricter capital requirements

will push lending out into the nonbanks and money market banks. understanding the context and reason behind a response is absolutely necessary for ensuring future bank failures have a smooth and fair resolution with a minimal impact upon american taxpayers. an independent review of silicon valley bank collapse is necessary to give americans confidence in our banking system and policymakers better ability to ensure our financial system remains the strongest in the world. mr. president, i yield the floor. mr. kennedy: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from louisiana.

mr. kennedy: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, as we know, president biden has been talking the last 30 to 60 days about bidenomics, and i think it would be fair to say that because so many americans recent struggling to support their families, that president biden is struggling to explain what he means by bidenomics. i think most fair-minded americans, based on the, what, year and a half, year and a half and a few months that president biden has been president, understand what bidenomics is because they understand at this

juncture what president biden believes in -- not only what he believes in, what he's done. bidenomics to most fair-minded americans is bigger government. bidenomics is higher taxes. bidenomics is more regulation. bidenomics is more spending. bidenomics is more debt. bidenomics is also inflation. let me say that again. first and foremost, bidenomics is inflation. inflation -- president biden's inflation history, i believe, will demonstrate this, is a cancer on the american dream.

it's a cancer on the american dream. since president biden has been president, electricity is up 24%. there's your bidenomics. gas -- gasoline, i'll just quote you from louisiana, is up 65%, eggs are up 39%, potato chips are up 25%, bread is up 26%, coffee costs 30% more thanks to president biden's inflation and bidenomics. rice is up 29%, flour is up 25%, mil's up 18%, ice cream 18%, chicken 23%.

i could keep going. let me give you a few statistics to put those numbers in context. the median household income in my state of louisiana is $53,571. the median household income of an american family nationwide, is $70,784. so louisiana median household income, not individual income, household income, about $54,000, median income throughout america

is about $71,000. in my state bidenomics and president biden's inflation is causing my people, the average family in louisiana, an additional $757 a month, not a year, a month. that's $9,084 a year. so imagine in louisiana if you -- if you're at the median household income of $54,000 a year, that's you and a spouse and children, and all of a sudden in the past year and a half under bidenomics, you've got to come out out of pocket an

extra $9,000 a year. you're making $54,000 a year to support the family and now all of a sudden you've -- you've got to find an extra $9,000 just -- just to tread water. where are you going to get that money? maybe you saved up a little money from the stimulus checks, but that's probably gone. maybe you have a savings account that you set aside, but that's probably gone now too. maybe you got a couple of credit cards, but you've maxed those out. maybe you have a treatment of sending your children to college and you have a college fund. you've already had to dip into that, and there's no end into sight. now, that's the experience of the people in my state from

bidenomics, and i think that's the experience across america. that's why i say that -- that inflation, president biden's inflation has been a cancer on the american dream. and i can tell you in louisiana my people are getting really good at barely getting by, and there's no end in sight. now, i'm pleased to be able to say, mr. president, that -- that the rate of inflation has been coming down, and i hope it keeps coming down. our last inflation numbers show that -- you've seen them -- reported in the media, inflation is now at 3%. that's -- that's sort of accurate. it is at 3%, but the reason it's at 3% is because of the --

primarily because of the fall in the price of gasoline, gasoline is still high, but the price of oil has come down because our economy and the world economy is so weak so there's less demand for oil. but more important than overall inflation is core inflation, that's what most economists look at. they look at core inflation, because core inflation looks at inflation without looking at energy or food because energy and food can both be very volatile. core inflation is at 4.8% and it's been very sticky. still way over the federal reserve's targeted 2%. but it has been coming down, and that's good news.

but what does that mean? all it means is that the rate of increase in inflation has been slowing. when you have inflation, let's say at 8%, and you get it down to 6%, that means that you have reduced the rate of increase of the prices. the economists call that disinflation. that doesn't mean that prices rg -- that prices are going down. it just means that prices aren't rising as rapidly. and if we can get core inflation down to 2%, that does not mean these high prices that i just quoted are going to go down. that would be deflation.

i regret to tell you, mr. president, and i think you know what i'm saying is accurate, these high prices are permanent. we're going to be stuck with a 24% increase in electricity. even if we can get inflation down to zero percent, these high prices that have been caused by bidenomics are permanent. we're going to be stuck with coffee up 30%. i'm not going to reread the list. that's why i say that inflation, the major product to bidenomics has been a cancer on the american dream. now, my people in louisiana need every dollar they can get right now. the average family making

$54,000 a year, now having to find an additional $9,000 a year, and that's not going to change. their only hope is that it doesn't get worse. so i want to call the attention of my people to tax refunds. a lot of my people get tax refunds. they get money back. they have money withheld from their paychecks and oftentimes it's too much, and the state of louisiana and the federal government owe them money in the form of a tax refund. and sometimes my people in louisiana are busy earning a living. they get up every day, they go to work, they obey the law, they pay their taxes, they try to teach their children morals, they try to do the right thick for their children. they get busy and sometimes people forget to claim their tax

refunds. so i'm here today, number one, to try to explain bidenomics and tell the people in louisiana and the people of america, i'm sorry they're having to go through this. but number two, i understand that every dollar counts. and please, please, please check and see if you are due a tax refund. for example, let's start with a state -- the state of louisiana is holding almost $12 million, $ $$11,700,249,000 owed to the people of louisiana, 51,000 people are owed a tax refund and haven't claimed it, the average refund is $750. you need to blame it, i say to my people, you need to claim it by august 28. if you don't claim it by

august 28, you won't lose it, the money will be transferred to the treasury department, become part of what is called the unclaimed property program and then you just have to fill out more paperwork to get your money. if you think you have a tax refund due from the state of louisiana, get it by august 28. it's worth checking. all you've got to do is it go to the department of revenue website, revenue.louisiana.gov. now, also my department of revenue, thank you for doing this, just sent out letters to every one of these 15,461 people to woman the state owes the tax refund. our department of revenue sent them a letter. please open that letter. don't throw it away. this includes individuals and business women and business men. all you've got to do is open that letter and there's a voucher in there and you just

fill it out and send it back into the department of revenue and you will get your money. so please do that. you earned it. now at the federal level, it's a little more complicated, no one's surprise at the federal level. i tried to get the information from the irs about how much is owed to my people in terms of federal income tax refunds. you won't -- you won't faint with surprise, mr. president, when i say it's hard to get them on the phone. and when we did get them on the phone, they said we can't give you that information. if we told you we'd have to kill you. and so i went back and did some research. the most recent numbers that i have are from 2019. and in 2019 tax refunds in the

amount of $22 million were owed to the people of louisiana. these are federal income tax refunds. this is 2019. now, i don't know what the current number is because the irs won't tell me. but based on 2019 numbers, it's anywhere from $22 million to $29 million and 29,000 louisiana are owed federal refunds on top of state refunds. you can call them you if you -- if you would like, but lots of luck, okay. go to www.irs.gov/refunds.

www.irs.gov/refunds, and you can check to see if the irs owes you a tax refund. you're going to need your social security, of course, or your taxpayer i.d. number, you're going to need your filing status. they want you to tell them the exact amount of your refund. they have all of that information, but they want you to tell that to them. don't argue with them. do it based off of your tax return, and you can -- you can make a claim there -- there online and give them a reasonable amount of time and you can get a check from the federal government as well. i used to be the tax collector in louisiana, and i can tell you for a variety of reasons that a lot of people, not just

louisianans, all across america, forget to claim their state income tax re -- refund and or their federal tax income refund. if they fail to take action on this, i want to tell them i'm sorry that the federal government has let them down. i'm embarrassed by bidenomics. i'm sorry about this inflation. there's a cancer on -- it is a cancer on the american dream. i'm afraid it is going to be with us for a while. i hope i'm wrong, but if we succeed in getting that inflation down to 2%, that doesn't mean prices are going down. i wish i could sit here and tell you that. these higher prices are permanent. what we're trying to do is just stop the increase. stop the price from going up so fast. i hope you will take advantage of this information, not just in louisiana but all across america

and go claim your tax refunds if you're owed them. madam president, i yield to my friend and colleague, senator sanders. mr. sanders: thank you, senator kennedy. the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. sanders: the senate is now debating $860 billion defense authorization bill. and unless there are major changes to that bill, i intend to vote against it. and let me take a few minutes to explain why. i think everybody in our country knows that we face enormous crises. as a result of climate change, our planet is experiencing unprecedented and rising temperatures along with the rest of the world, we need to make

major investments to transform our energy system away from fossil fuels and into energy efficiency and sustainable energies. if -- and if we do not do that, not only america but china, countries all over the world, the planet that we are leaving our kids and future generations will become increasingly unhealthy and precarious. in fact, there are some who wonder whether the planet will continue to exist in years to come unless we move aggressively on this existential threat. but it's not only climate change. our health care system is broken and it is dysfunctional. not a secret. most americans know that.

while the insurance companies and the drug companies make hundreds of billions of dollars in profit, 85 million americans are uninsured or underinsured. unbelievably, our life expectancy which is already lower than most major countries is declining. and today we have a massive shortage of doctors, nurses, mental health practitioners and dentists, something that the committee that i chair, the help committee, is trying to address. but it is a reality today. health care system broken and dysfunctional. our educational system is teetering. while we have one of the highest rates of childhood poverty of almost any major country, millions of parents in vermont, nevada, all over this country are unable to find affordable

and quality child care. major, major crisis which is only going to become worse as a result of the cliff that the child care folks are going to be experiencing in a few months. but it's not just child care. when we talk about education, we should appreciate that the number of our young people who graduate from college today is falling further and further behind other countries. in other words, we need to have the best educated country on earth in order to compete internationally. yet other countries are seeing a greater percentage of their young people graduating college. and one of the reasons is the high cost of college. and many young people do not want to go $50,000, $100,000 in debt to get a college or graduate school degree. and today we have 45 million americans who are struggling under the weight of student debt, something that president

biden, i, and others have been trying to deal with. but it is not only climate, it is not only health care, it is not only education. today all over this country we're seeing a massive crisis in terms of low income and affordable housing. while gentrification is causing rents to soar in many parts of our country, some 600,000 americans are homeless a few blocks away from right here in the nation's capitol, people sleeping out on the streets. and we have some 18 million people who are spending more than half of their limited incomes on housing. so that's what the country faces. we have a planetary crisis in terms of climate change. our health care system is broken and dysfunctional. our educational system is teetering. our housing stock is totally

inadequate. and these are just some of the crises facing our country. and what is very clear i think to the american people and to many people here in the senate and those in the house, we're not addressing those crises. we are not addressing those crises, madam president. when is the last time you heard a serious debate here about how we address climate change? how we build the affordable housing? how we reform the health care system? it is not taking place. we're not addressing those issues. so that is one political reality that exists here in the nation's capital. but there is another reality, and that is the reality of the pentagon and military spending. and that, madam president, is a whole other story. every year with seemingly little

regard for the strategic picture nationing our -- facing our country, this body, house and the senate, vote to increase the military budget. this happens. we don't worry about people sleeping on the street. we don't worry about people that don't have any health care. we don't worry about people who can't afford prescription drug. every year, the military, more money. the wars in iraq and afghanistan are over, and tens of thousands of american troops have returned home. yet the pentagon's budget continues to go up. every year despite partisan, sometimes very contentious partisan fights on all manners of things. you name it, big fights going on. congress somehow comes together very quietly, little debate to vote for the one thing that they agree on, and that is more and more money for the pentagon.

and right now despite all of the enormous needs facing working families in this country, over half of the federal discretionary budget goes to the military. got it? over half of the federal discretionary budget goes to the military. madam president, i support a strong military. people don't have to convince me why we need a strong military. but i will oppose this legislation, this defense authorization bill for four major reasons. first, more military spending right now is unnecessary. the united states remains the world's dominant military power and is in no danger of losing that position. alone we account for roughly 40% of global military spending.

this comes despite the end of the war in afghanistan and despite the fact that the united states now spends more on the military than the next ten countries combined, most of whom are our allies. we spend more than the next ten countries combined, most of whom are our allies. last year we spent more than three times what china is spending on the military and more than ten times what russia spent. and while this year -- this year's defense authorization act would merely match the pentagon's record breaking request, in most recent years congress has seen fit to give the department of defense more money than it even asked for. imagine that. 85 million people uninsured,

don't help them. people can't afford the high cost of prescription drugs, hardly doing anything on that people sleeping out on the streets, can't do that. kids can't afford to go to college, can't do that. but we have year after year given the pentagon more money than they have even requested. requiring them to submit, quote, unquote, wish lists of items to congress. in other words, tell us what more you need. the pentagon is routinely given so much taxpayer money that it literally doesn't know what to do with all the money congress has thrown at them. according to the government accountability office, the gao, over an 11-year period, the pentagon returned an astonishing $128 billion in excess funds to the treasury. in other words, we gave them so much money.

they couldn't even spend it and had to return some of that. that's reason number one why i oppose this legislation. number two, the pentagon cannot keep track of the dollars it already has leading to massive waste, fraud, and abuse in the sprawling military industrial complex. the pentagon accounts for about two-thirds of all federal contracting activity obligating more money every year than all civilian federal agencies combined. yet the department of defense remains the only major federal agency that cannot pass an independent audit. more than 30 years after congress required them to do so. so we're throwing hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars

into the pentagon. 30 years ago congress said we want an audit. we want to know what's going on. a reasonable request. it's only been 30 years. we still have not gotten an independent audit. madam president, last year the department of defense was unable to account for over half of its assets which are in excess of $3 trillion or roughly 78% of what the entire federal government owns. the government accountability office, gao, reports that the department of defense still cannot accurately track its finances or capture and post transactions to the current accounts. each year auditors find billions of dollars in the pentagon's proverbial couch cushions, just money lying around that pops up here and there.

in fiscal 2022, navy auditors found $4.4 billion in untracked inventory. couldn't find it but there was $4.4 billion while air force auditors identified $5.2 billion worth of variances in its general ledger. these problems are why senator grassley and i have again introduced our audit the pentagon act with a number of cosponsors which would force the pentagon to get serious about these shortcomings by reducing by 1% the budget of any dod component that cannot pass an audit. i don't think that's an unreasonable request. a meaningful effort to address this waste should be undertaken before congress throws more money at the pentagon yet this absolutely necessary oversight is again missing from this bill. doesn't matter. next year we're learn that tens of tens of billions of dollars

can't be accounted for. so what's the problem? in june the gao found that in the preceding year, one single year, dod's largest acquisition programs had seen cost estimates rise by $37 billion. it goes on and on and on. they come up with an estimate for a weapons system and then they say oh, sorry, it turns out it's going to cost a lot more than we told you. this comes after decades in which we spent more than $2 trillion on ill-considered wars in my view in iraq and afghanistan. somehow despite this incredible record of waste and fraud, the military industrial complex escapes meaningful scrutiny. third, third point that i want to make in opposition, much of this additional military spending will go to line the pockets of hugely profitable

defense contractors. it is corporate welfare by a different name. almost half of the pentagon budget goes to private contractors, some of whom are exploiting their monopoly positions and the trust granted them by the united states to line their pockets. repeated investigations by the dod inspector general, the gao, and cbs news have uncovered numerous instances of contractors massively overwharnlging the department of -- overcharging the department of defense, helping boost these companies' profits to nearly 40%. profit margins to nearly 40% and sometimes to over 4,000% while costing u.s. taxpayers hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars.

lockheed martin and raytheon are among the offenders dramatically overcharging taxpayers while reaping enormous profits, seeing their stock prices soar, and handling out massive executive compensation packages. just one example -- lockheed martin received $46 billion in unclassified federal contracts last year, returned $11 billion to shareholders through dividends and stock buybacks and paid it's ceo $25 million. these companies are fully reliant on the u.s. taxpayer, yet their ceo's make over 100 times more than the secretary of defense and 500% more than the average newly enlisted servicemember. trans-time touted $3.1 blm in profits on $5.4 billion of net

sales, almost boasting to investors about just how fully it was fleecing the taxpayers. indeed, over the past two decades, major defense contractors have paid billions of dollars in fines or related settlements for fraud or misconduct. almost every major defense contractor has had to pay fines for fraud or misconduct. just the other day -- people may have seen it in the papers -- the consulting firm of booze allen hamilton was find $377 million for overcharging the defense department, just these contracts never dry up. that is why i introduced an amendment to this year's ndaa to require the secretary of defense to produce an updated report on defense contractor fraud. that amendment was not included in what we will be voting on.

madam president -- and here's maybe the major point i want to make -- if the pandemic, the covid pandemic, has taught us anything -- and let us not forget for one minute that that pandemic cost us over one million lives -- it is that national security relies on much more than just a strong military. and it's funny, as chairman of the help committee, a couple months ago we had those people who are responsible for protecting these country against future pandemics before us, and the question that everybody asked them -- democrat, republican -- is, hey, are we prepared for the next pandemic that is likely to come? and without exception the leaders of the government agencies whose job is to protect us for that next pandemic said, no, we are not prepared. and by the way, there are some right now who want to take money

away from the center for disease control in this particular bill. the point is that when you lose over a million people to a pandemic and when the scientists tell us there is a good chance that another one may come, that's a national security issue. true security, if we're really looking at what true security is about, it means everything that we can do to improve the lives of ordinary americans. true security is that we address the crisis of a declining life expectancy, that got between the lifetime of the wealth economy and the working class is over ten years. if you are working class in this country, you're going to die ten years shorter than the wealthy. is that not an issue of national security? do we not want to make sure that all of our people, whether they're rich or poor or middle class, have the right to live full and productive and healthy lives? i think so.

that's called national security. national security has to do with the issue of education for our kids. how are we secure if our young people, from child care to graduate school, are not getting the quality of education? madam president, there are millions of children who today in america as we speak are food insecure. there are days that go by when they are hungry. how do we talk about national security and not talk about the crisis of childhood hunger, not to mention childhood poverty in general? how do we talk about national security when people are sleeping out on the street? how do we, in any sense of the word, talk about national security without understanding the weather in texas, in the southwest is now hitting record-breaking levels, people are dying from it the heat? oceans are getting hotter.

we're looking at drought, extreme disturbances. in my own state, the worst natural disasterrings that we have had since 1927. that is national security, where the people get forced out of their homes because of flooding, die from heat stroke. that's calleddality security. -- that's called national security. this body, the senate, could decided to have one or two fewer ballistic missiles submarines, saving almost $15 billion over the next decade, and we could put that money and it would be go a long way toward housing the homeless or feeding the 5 million children in this country who are food insecure. instead, day after day here in washington, many of my colleagues tell the american people that we just don't have the money. we can't do what every other country on earth does --

guarantee health care to all people. can't provide affordable housing, can't provide affordable child care, can't provide nutrition to kids in america who are hungry. we just can't afford to do any of those things. but come the military budget and all the lobbyists around here from the defense contractors, my god, we can't stop throwing money at them. so, madam president, what i would say is that the time is long overdue for our country to get our national priorities right. and one small step forward would be to say no to this very bloated and wasteful military budget and start reordering our priorities so that we pay attention to the needs of the middle class and working class and low-income people rather

than just defense contract whyers. with that, a madam president, i yield the floor.

good afternoon everyone. we we are on a path to finishing the nba -- nda this week in a string of -- [inaudible conversations] >> do you want to say anything else to the press? >> go ahead, john.

>> where coming up on the one-year anniversary of the ir a end of course if you look at the ultimate impact of the ir a.m.. happening with the economy in the country today prices continue to rise above the fed's 2% inflation rate and way above the historical average so the american people continue to deal with the economic impacts of high inflation churn narrated by the ira and also you've got now new studies out the congressional budget office adjoint committee on taxation came out with studies that suggest the deal with a green new deal are going to be hundreds of billions of dollars more than what was projected to cost. so this continues to be a reason

why the american people are experiencing the economic impacts of high inflation and higher interest rates, so much so that if you look at the impact on the average american, it's resulting in a 6% loss in the value of their assets assets or in other words about $34,000 per person in this country. that has a cumulative effect that higher inflation coupled with higher interest rates and as a result of all the passage of this massive government spending that democrats put through and we found out this week billions of dollars literally billions of dollars of the ir a went to foreign companies and so the american people have good reason to ask about bikenomics. on the other hand republicans and working on the authorization bill which is a critical priority for this country. national security had to be job one where the american people and we have worked in a way to

get the bill to the floor and the amendments considered to be in order voted on and in. had 16 voted on already an additional 500 provisions in and 250 amendments adopted and 51 amendments adopted. that's the kind of thing that we ought to be focused on in this country which really speaks to the essential needs of the american people rather than passing these bills that contribute to higher inflation and higher interest rates that are leading to reduced asset values for the american people. >> joe biden is making life worse for american families. when you ask people under the biden policies only one in five

people say that it has made life better. more than 2.5 times as many people say the biden policies have made their life worse so the democrats are completely out of touch with the american people. clearly every weekend at home i continue to hear about the high prices and joe biden is the president of high prices. you would think with such a bad report card the president would let up a little but he didn't. this past week he accelerated his attacks on the affordable american energy. prices are up 16% since he has taken over. people need some relief. joe biden is so desperate to win the support of the environmental extremists they will do whatever they want to that's why he has come out with new attacks on oil and which will raise the cost at the pump, raise the cost of the grocery store and to heat or cool your home and these attacks

are so bad that they will force a number for oil and workers to lose their job and that could be tens of thousands. from my home state of wyoming we are america's energy breadbasket and it will be especially devastating. i often wonder if these elitist have any clue or understanding of where their energy comes from or where their food comes from. my former colleague mike enzi's to talk about a book called hidden america from coalminers to cowboys, the unseen americans who make this country work and joe biden could learn a lot from reading the book and talking to the coalminers in the cowboys all across this country. because it is these heros, these hard-working heroes who are the ones who are the most being hurt by joe biden and the democrats who are out of touch with america.

>> the small business administration is running a drive-thru for fraudsters using covid 19 as the program and i will give you a couple of examples. more than $3 million was given to eight convicted fraudster to pay for guns, bling and luxury vehicles. another example of a felon received $400,000 to pay for a car, a boat, a vacation in tickets to sporting events. the fda has handed out more than $200 billion, billion with a b folks, and suspected fraudulent pandemic recovery grants and loans to 4.5 million scammers. the restaurant revitalization,

if we can all say it together, the restaurant revitalization fund dished out dollars to thousands of fraudsters while leaving nearly 2000 struggling restaurants in iowa with their handouts. biden is looking the other direction on allowing billions of dollars that fraudsters were allowed to rip off taxpayers to go on collected and requiring it fda to collect the covid cash at zero to our taxpayers and expanding the jurisdiction of the special inspector general defined for fraud. so $200 billion has gone out to fraudsters. we need to do something about this. ring that money back in so that our taxpayers don't have the foot the bill.

>> in two weeks it will be the one-year anniversary of the passing of the inflation reduction act and there's going to be celebrations on the other side of the aisle but for the life of me i don't know what they are celebrating. as john mentioned, john thune and john barasso mentioned the price of goods and services is way inflated. the inflation numbers are still way up, double what they are traditionally. people are paying more and getting less everywhere in this inflation reduction act which puts inflation act in parentheses because it doesn't do that. it's just a hoodwinked title and it is a payoff to a lot of green energy. but i think the point that john thune made is extremely important.

60% of the tax credits that are available are the tax advantages that are available through the so-called inflation reduction act are going to companies that are not american companies. they are overseas so we are growing the workforce in other countries. $8 billion of those subsidies that have gone out have gone to companies that had some kind of china affiliation, $8 billion to those companies. this inflation reduction act is nothing to celebrate and did my state we are not celebrating because you see how it disadvantages our homegrown energy and how it disadvantages are homegrown workers. >> not long after vladimir invaded ukraine i had a conversation with the prime minister of the european

country. they had a balanced energy portfolio and lamenting the choices of some other european leaders have made in shutting down the tower and the mess that europe was and because of dependence on vladimir's natural and lacking a balanced energy portfolio and he said to me a vision without a solid action plan is a hallucination. then he went on to talk about the fact that the world is going to need 50% more energy in the next 25 years than it currently needs today it's so we are going to need more energy, more energy choices and it should be a choice of being either renewables or conventional sources. we truly need both. we need to expand our portfolio choices not to allow the biden of administration to have this very dangerous vision of

stopping replacing all conventional sources of energy. last week made an american energy took another hit from this administration. the department of interior proposed a new rule that would increase the cost of energy production in our country estimated at $2 billion between now and 2031. that's in the industry and these costs will be passed onto consumers at the pump with higher prices as we speak. once again as of administration has shown us where their loyalty lies. it's with radical environmentalists instead of with montana and an american energy. what is worse is every single one of my democratic colleagues in the u.s. senate paved the way for this rule. remember before the democrats passed their hyperinflation bomb a year ago, i worked to language

that would increase the cost of energy production. they wanted to increase the cost and we that language out. only one democrat was needed to vote with us and the rest of my colleagues to stop that. unfortunately every single senate democrat gave biden to greenlight to continue on this anti-energy warpath. instead of working to support more american-made energy biden and the democrats are tearing it down for juliette -- tearing it down at every turn across-the-board. we must reverse this course before it's too late and get back to incentivizing and then leasing more american-made energy. >> could you address what happened at the start of congress related to your -- when he suffered a concussion.

mr. leader can i get your reaction to what appears to be a plea deal falling apart and what are your thoughts? >> their lot of people in the house and is a bit confusing now and i'm not sure what happened this morning. but to the extent that it looks like the administration is treating democrats more favorably than republicans i can understand why people are upset about it. to you see any merit in president biden's -- >> two years ago when we had not one but two impeachment that once we go down this path it incentivizes the other side to do the same thing.

impeachment not to be rare rather than common and so i'm not surprised that having been treated the way they work, house republicans and congress began to open up the possibility of doing it again and i think this is not good for the country and i have repeated impeachment problems. steam of the state of alabama move -- [inaudible] >> we will opiate up to the alabama legislature to decide how to handle it in the wake of this court decision. i have no idea how this ultimately ends. i gather from reading the article, the alabama legislature thinks that they are compliant

with the supreme court decision. we will see. there will probably be litigation. >> senator collins said the appropriations committee will get all its bills then but she's uncertain as to what schumer will do with regards to allocating floor time. what would you like to see happen in september in terms of the appropriations bill? >> will we have come a lot further this congress than we did the last. tomorrow i think the appropriations committee will report out with at least for more bills. surely the majority leader will go to the appropriations bill in september to give us a chance to least have a -- with the house passed appropriation bill coming over typically to substitute for that. we are ready to go and senator murray i think has a commitment from the majority leader that we

will try to process these appropriation bills and we need to do that in september. since you have anybody in my du plessis when you are no longer the leader? [inaudible conversations] c okay, good afternoon everybody. thank you for joining us. i want to thank senators reed and shaheen for joining me as well. we have a lot on the agenda this week. i'm going to get right to thing on everybody's mind and the aa. thanks to the work of many, especially chairman reed, yesterday we adopted to two important amendments to the ndaa adding to the senate's work on outcompeting the chinese government are both amendments passed overwhelmingly with 91

votes each. it's not often you see 91 senators unite on anything let alone to that are important. two less uniting on outcompeting the chinese government was a demonstration that this issue remains broadly bipartisan. this morning we will hold another vote an amendment by senator warnock and but in our servicemembers by debt collectors and to help assess support and let's not forget last week of tough fentanyl bill which will go after the chinese and government that subscribes to the chemicals that goes into making fentanyl and it will be a huge help giving powers and its important pieces on ai in that legislation. and these are the beginning steps and some stuff on competing with the chinese government so this is a robust

bill that has lots of good things in it already. last night, did i mention senator warnock, they will hold another vote were not in budd. i hope this will enjoy broad support as well. last night we sent out a hotline with a number of additional amendments and i'm hopeful we can lock in an agreement soon and begin voting on some. less wednesday the senate voted on eight amendments on the floor by voice vote. this is what people want, or real amendment process. that's what's happening and i'm glad to say it's happening on a bipartisan basis. finally i will also keep working with chair reed member wicker senator shaheen and many others on the second managers package that will add more comp which meant both sides can embrace and appreciate the cooperation in good faith of my colleagues from

both sides of the aisle. the ndaa process in this chamber is a welcome departure from the chaotic, contentious, partisan and often race to the bottom we saw in the house. we wish to finish the ndaa as soon as we can and there's no reason for delay. also the anniversary of one of our largest accomplishments last congress is approaching, the passage of the inflation reduction act. one of the most defining legislative pieces in the 21st century on the most important pieces of legislation in 40 years in the most important piece of legislation we have ever passed on climate change. since the eye area became law it delivered on its promises promises. inflation is gone down in its half of what it was at its peak. medicare negotiating the price of prescription drugs and prices are falling in for seniors insulin caps and vaccines are free.

on top of all the savings we said the ira would kickstart the era of affordable clean energy, countless good paying green jobs and that's what's happening to thousands and thousands of jobs and so many parts of the country. these are jobs of the future. when your son or daughter gets a job you want these new industry to give a few -- great future that even my grandkids can work for. we are restructuring the summer awaits the american economy to have a bright future with more jobs, more good-paying jobs and reducing the amount of carbon that goes into our atmosphere so we are very excited about the eye or a. it's delivered and it will continue to in let me senator reed. >> thank you very much senator schumer paid the ndaa is critical toward national defense and we continue to make real progress with an open process that is added amendments from both sides.

the result is a bipartisan ndaa that includes 5.2% pay raise for troops in defense civilians. addresses long-term multidimensional challenges posed by china, russia and other adversaries and it's a priority health both parties. i want to commend chairman tester for leading the bipartisan effort to protect american farmland security from foreign adversaries. the senators were together and we are open to good ideas from all sides. the bottom line is congress has a constant duty to provide for the common defense. the order for troops to achieve there -- congress must fulfill its obligation to pass a responsible ndaa. thanks in large part to leadership ran my colleagues on staff including senator shaheen we haven't ndaa here that takes

our country safer and stronger. we are laser focused on policies and platforms that will prepare our groups to win real wars not partisan culture wars. one major obstacle remains. the senator from alabama is blocking military promotions and harming military families. senator tuberville and republican backers are suppressing the promotions and pay from honorable servicemen and women that have nothing to do with the policy at hand. they seem to think it helps them score political points with a maga crowd even though it hurts real people. the senator from alabama should end this outrageous blockade immediately. and not skip town and leave hard milak working military men and women out to dry. their promotions are in limbo their families are unable to

move to the next duty station and their kids are unable to start new schools. that's why i will be going to the senate floor tonight with colleagues to discuss each and every one of the military nominees to my colleagues and i will speak for several hours about the accomplishments and qualifications of these officers. we will also discuss the painful cost that these holds are inflicting on families. the republican should immediately end their month-long partisan blockade of merit-based military promotions. our troops deserve better and the american people deserve better also. thank you. >> thank you senator reed and senator schumer. i'm pleased to be here to support the ndaa. this is a bipartisan bill that came out of the committee with a strong bipartisan vote thanks to the leadership of senator reed and senator wicker i'm pleased

that we are seeing that bipartisanship continue as we look at amendments on the senate floor and to invest in our defense and national security priorities and for me as a senator from new hampshire invest significantly in the ports of naval shipyards and our 157th air refueling wing in the kc-46 tanker and priorities that we have new hampshire that are critical including our defense industrial base. so i think it's important for us to pass this bill for those two reasons. most important after six decades it's critical that we pass this legislation because it sends a mission -- a message to our allies, to our adversaries into and to our constituents that congress can work together, that the senate can work across the aisle in a bipartisan way to get things done better in the

answers as of the united states and our constituents and for that reason we are going to pass this bill this week and send it to the house and hopefully the house will take it up, drop some of their extremist positions and we would get a bill to the american people. thank you. >> are you at all worried -- [inaudible] are you all worried that hunter biden and the cases around hunter biden will be a liability for president biden? >> the bottom line is at the prosecution being done in the fairway bye bye the former top prosecutor. >> your reaction to the hunter biden -- falling apart. again i have faith in the prosecution and it was a prosecutor who isn't pointed and no one should interfere with this politically, ideologically

and let justice go forward. >> are you concerned about collaborating to undermine democrats in the election? >> joe biden is going to be a really strong candidate and he is going to win. >> i don't know if you sob when leader mcconnell came to the podium and stop talking. he says he's fine. >> i always wish leader mcconnell well. >> in the appropriations process democrats are calling the republicans spending cuts draconian. at the house and the senate are worlds apart when it comes to the appropriations process. one thing the house republicans want to do is return those levels to 2019 nondiscretionary non-defense levels. what's wrong with that? >> the bottom line is i think we had an agreement when it came to default in both parties agreed in within a week house republicans abandoned that

agreement. the way to make this work is to do it in a bipartisan way like we are doing in the senate. we can do it in a partisan way and you're heading to a shutdown. i believe that's where the house republicans are headed. >> what's your reaction in power part voters reacting? >> it's. [inaudible] >> there lots of things we are trying to do administrative way and you have read about some in ferc where we are working to get a number of good things done and the house passed h.r. 1 which is anti-environmental to get things done but we will look at every aspect that we can secede to get this done environmentally in the senate. thank you everybody.

of -- [inaudible conversations] do you want to say anything else to the press? >> go ahead, john. >> this is, we are coming up on the one-year anniversary of the ira and of course if you look at the ultimate impact of the ira in what's happening with the economy and the country today prices continue to rise above

the fed's 2% inflation rate and way above the historical efforts of the american people continue to deal with the economic impacts of high inflation generated by the ira and also you've got now new studies out the congressional budget office the joint committee on taxation have come out with a study that suggests provisions in the eye are a bit deal with the green new deal are going to be hundreds of millions of dollars more than what was projected to cost. so this continues to be a reason why the american people are experiencing the economic impacts of high inflation and higher in just rate, so much so that if you look at the impact on the average american, it's resulting in a 6% loss in the value of their assets or in other words $34,000 per person in this country.

that's the cumulative effect of higher inflation coupled with higher interest rates as a result of all the passage of this massive government spending bill. we found out this week week that billions of dollars literally billions of dollars from the ira went to foreign companies and so the american people have good reason to ask about bidenomics. on the other hand what republicans have been working on this week is the defense authorization bill which is a critical priority to the country's national security and has to be job one for the american people. we have worked in a constructive way to get the bill to the floor to get amendments considered voted on and we have had 16 voted on already in addition to the 500 provisions in the face bill in 250 amendments adopted for markup and amendments adopted in a subsidy when he

came to the floor. that's the kind of thing we had to be focused on in this country which is really speaking the presiding officer: we're

one joule -- j-o-u-l-e -- is our standard unit of energy tend plies to heat energy. a zettajoule is one joule with 21 zeros behind it. it is a truly massive number. in a 2019 time to wake up speech, i reported that more than nine zettajoules of heat energy was being added to the ocean annually. since then, i've come to the floor with an updated number. our oceans are absorbing around 14 zettajoules of excess heat every year. let's put that in context.

the total energy consumption of all humankind amounts to about one half of a zettajoule of energy per year. that means that for the fossil fuel component of that one half of a zettaall of energy -- zettajoule of energy, we pay the price of 14 added zettajoules of heat into the ocean every year. said another way, we load into our earth's oceans every year nearly 30 times the entire energy use of the entire species on the expire planet. -- on the entire planet. that is a big magnification.

if this is the zettajoules of excess heat absorbed into the oceans every year, that dot is the average annual energy consumption of the human species on the planet. for the price of the fossil fuel component of that, mankind's entire energy consumption in zettajoules, we suffer that load of heat energy going into the oceans. that's a bit hard to comprehend, so consider one other unit of measure. the energy released by the detonation of the nuclear bomb

america dropped on hiroshima. in hiroshima bomb terms, last year the ocean absorbed the equivalent of seven hiroshima bombs detonating every second in the ocean. every second of every day for the entire year, seven nuclear detonations worth of heat into our oceans, per second. this unfathomable amount of heat has been somewhat offset by la nina, the cool phase of a recurring climate pattern called the el nino southernous callation or enso. that's the acronym for the el nino southernous callation.

this consists of rainfall, temperature, and as mott spheric circulation located over the pacific ocean near the equator and in that oscillation, la nina is the name for the cooling period. well, in june we left la nina and moved into an el nino period. el nino is the warmer side of the enso cycle. we saw it raise temperatures in previous cycles in 1998 and 2016. all those zettajoules of excess heat being dumped into the earth's oceans, and now we're headed into the warming part of the cycle. watch for more heat records to fall. one major consequence for us of hotter oceans is stronger hurricane activity.

hurricanes are powered up more by hotter water as they move over the atlantic. this june, sea surface temperatures into the north atlantic ocean are the hottest in 170 years. the hottest in 170 years. nine whole degrees fahrenheit above normal. this is what is considered by science an extreme oceanic heat wave. and certain parts of the ocean are reaching the rare designation called beyond extreme. that's actually happening. on a scale from one to five, the north atlantic's heat is either category 4 or category 5, depending on where you are.

bring it home to florida. water temperatures in florida have hit records reaching as high as 101 degrees. that's not the air temperature. that's the ocean temperature. that's actually the recommended temperature for a hot tub. indeed, that's the midpoint of the jacuzzi company's recommended range for its hot tub temperatures for healthy adults. now, doctors recommend that children under the age of five avoid hot tubs over 95 degrees and pregnant women are advised to stay out of water once it gets much above 100 degrees. so the ocean off florida is almost too hot for many humans. almost too hot for humans means

definitely too hot for many ocean creatures, particularly ocean corals. coral reefs matter because they support a quarter of all known marine species. florida has the largest coral reef ecosystem in the continental united states, the third-largest living barrier coral reef in the world. if you don't care about creatures and only care about money, well, florida's protected waters contribute billions of tourism dollars to the florida economy. all of that is in jeopardy in this heat. according to noaa, when temperatures reach one degree celsius or about two degrees fahrenheit warmer than normal, corals i don't say what is called their -- corals cross what is called their bleaching threshold. that is where they turn white as they evulse the livings

creatures that keep them alive. that is a step on the way to death. that is bad news considering that temperatures around florida have been running five degrees above normal. and the longer this goes on, the more trouble corals will have recovering. we hear sometimes about hundred-year or even 500-year storms. these are storms that are so extreme, they're expected to owed cur only once every 100 or 500 years. well, scientists have put this florida heat wave oef the -- off the charts. the director at the university of american family says, if you just wrote a statistical model and said, what are the chances of this level of warming, it would be one in 250,000 years.

not one in 100 years. one in 250,000 years. if that's not a warning that it's time to wake up, i do not know what is. ultra rare weather events are not so rare anymore in this climate changed world. this is not just happening in the united states. this is worldwide. this summer months of the oceans on planet earth have at least a 70% chance of experiencing what are called marine heat wave conditions. the effects of marine haitiwaves read -- of marine haitiwaves read like biblical plagues.

fish die-offs,. then come the weather effects. droughts in some places and increasingly deadly and dangerous storms in others because our oceans drive our weather on this planet e. over the course of a weekend last month, thousands of dead fish washed upped along the texas -- up along the texas gulf coast. they died of lack of oxygen. warm water holds much less oxygen than cold water. the ocean, through heat, becomes inoxic, and this slaughter results. again, if you don't care about creatures and only care about money, in the united states last year alone there were 18 separate billion-dollar weather and climate disasters exceeding

$175 billion in total cost and, by the way you costing nearly 500 americans their lives. aside from those sudden disasters comes the slow and insidious changes like the accelerating creep of sea level rise across your coast and mine, mr. president. as ocean temperatures increase, two things happen. one, ice in the arctic and antarctic melts, adding water to the ocean. and, two, seawater expands. remember those zettajoules. combined the effects of melting ice sheets and expanding seawater volume increases sea levels along our coasts. and that slow creep of sea level rise is not as slow as it used to be. the ocean rose more than twice as fast this decade as it did

the previous decade. at last year set a new record high. the news gets worse. there is a centuries' long time lag in the natural systems causing sea level rise, meaning that we're only seeing the leading edge of what we have caused. even if we stopped emitting greenhouse gases today, ocean levels would continue to rise for decades. noaa has predicted that the acceleration will continue, sea level rise along the u.s. coastline will rise 10 to 12 inches just over the next 30 years as much as the entire rise measured over the last century. one way to help deal with this is through the national coastal resilience fund, a grant program that restores increases and strengthens natural infrastructure to protect

coastal communities and to protect habitats for fish and wild will have. the fund invest and conservation projects restore coastal marshes, oyster and coral reefs and barrier islands that minimize the impacts of storm and sea level rise, as well as other dangerous events like lost fisheries from ocean warming. this program is so direly needed that it is vastly oversubscribed. in 2022, over $600 million of projects went unfunded because there simply wasn't enough money in the program. nearly half a billion dollars in unfunded protections for vulnerable coastal communities. i'll give you one example of where this program is important.

in 2019, the fund awarded $1 million to the alaska native village of shaktulak to restore ocean coastal dune habitat and to construct a natural storm surge berrum. well, last year along came typhoon merba and devastated parts of the alaskan coastline. shaktulak was at the epicenter of the tie -- typhoon. the berm protected the community from coastal flooding. as one resident noted it saved our lives. that's the value of resiliency planning and investment. but more than just brace ourselves for the baked-in effects of fossil fuel emissions poisoning our planet, we need to head off climate change at

the oil spig bot. that means taking on the fossil fuel industry's increasingly desperate lies and its well-funded political juggernaut that does such evil in this building. we know how to solve this problem. we just don't do it because fossil fuel fingers creep through so many corners of the capitol. in the time it took me to deliver this speech, around 6,000 hiroshima bombs of excess heat energy were put into our oceans. every day it's getting worse. we completely underestimate how bad things are going to get. completely. even people who care about climate change and believe that

it's real and aren't in tow to the fossil fuel industry and its dark money, they still completely underestimate how bad this is going to get. and the tragedy is it has always been preventable simply by moving to a productive, economically valuable, clean energy future. and stopping our indulgence of fossil fuel pollution and obstruction. if what is going on with climate change heat going into our oceans is not enough to wake us up, i do not know what will. it is certainly, certainly time to wake up. i yield the floor.

mr. whitehouse: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. whitehouse: mr. president, i would like to go through some of the materials that would older be in the evening wrap-up, but nobody watching should think we are in evening wrap-up. we are still expecting a great number of votes this evening

when everything gets worked out. in the meantime, may i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of calendar 86, s.es 546. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 86, s. 546, a bill to amend the omnibus crime control and safe streets act of 1968, and so forth and for other purposes. the presiding officer: without objection,so ordered,. mr. whitehouse: i further ask that committee-reported amendment be agreed to. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. whitehouse: i know of no further debate on the bill as amended. the presiding officer: if there is no further debate, all those in favor say aye. all opposed say no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it and the bill as amended is passed. mr. whitehouse: i ask that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. whitehouse: i now ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of calendar number

87, s. 994. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 87, s. 994, a bill to amend the omnibus crime control and safe streets act of 1968, and so forth. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will proceed to the measure. mr. whitehouse: i further ask that the committee-reported amendments be agreed to. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. whitehouse: i know of no further debate on the bill as amended. the presiding officer: if there is no further debate, all those in favor say aye. all opposed say no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it and the bill as amended is passed. mr. whitehouse: i ask that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. whitehouse: let me now ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of calendar number 88, s. 1387. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 88, s. 1387, a bill to reauthorize the project safe neighborhoods grant program authorization act of 2018 and for other purposes.

the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will proceed to the measure. mr. whitehouse: i further ask that the committee-reported substitute amendment be agreed to. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. whitehouse: i know of no further debate on the bill as amended. the presiding officer: if there is no further debate, all those in favor say aye, all those opposed. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes have it and the bill is passed. mr. whitehouse: i ask that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. whitehouse: i ask unanimous consent that the committee on judiciary be discharged from further consideration of s. 2051 and the senate proceed to its immediate consideration. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. 2051, a bill to reauthorize the missing children's assistance act and for other purposes. the presiding officer: without objection, the committee is discharged and the senate will proceed. mr. whitehouse: i ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read a third time. the presiding officer: without objection. if there is no further debate,

all those in favor say aye. all opposed say no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the bill is passed. mr. whitehouse: i ask that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. whitehouse: i now ask unanimous consent that the committee on commerce, science, and transportation be discharged from further consideration and the senate now proceed to s. res. 166. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. clip senate resolution 16 --. the clerk: honoring the efforts of the coast guard for excellence in maritime border security. the presiding officer: without objection, the committee is discharged and the senate will proceed to the measure. mr. whitehouse: i ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, that the cruz amendment to the preamble which is at the desk be considered and agreed to, that the preamble as amended be agreed to and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. whitehouse: i ask unanimous consent that the committee on the judiciary be discharged from further consideration and the senate now proceed to senate resolution 288. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. res. 288 observing

the 150th anniversary of vanderbilt university. the presiding officer: without objection, the committee is discharged and the senate will proceed to the measure. mr. whitehouse: i ask unanimous consent thalt resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. whitehouse: i now ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the en bloc consideration of the following senate resolutions introduced earlier today -- senate resolution 313, 314, 315, and 317. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will proceed to the resolutions 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: lastly, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the consideration of senate resolution 316 which was submitted earlier today.

the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: senate resolution 316 honoring the life of lowell palmer weiker jr., former senator for the state of connecticut. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will proceed to the measure. mr. whitehouse: i ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. whitehouse: i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. the clerk: ms. baldwin. quorum call:

quorum call:

collectors. let's not forget last week we had a very tough bill which will really go after the chinese and mexican governments chemicals that go into fence out the huge help giving the president emergency powers.

we put important pieces on ai in that legislation. and the beginning steps. and stuff on competing with the chinese government. this is a robust bill that has lots of good things in it already. last night, did i mention senator warnock? they are going to hold another amendment votes on warnock and bud harassment of service members by debt collectors hope this will enjoy broad support as well. we sent out a hotline with additional amendments. i am hopeful we can lock in the agreement soon and vote on some of them. since wednesday week voted on eight and minutes are on the floor, adopted seven more by voice vote. this is what people want. a real amendment process. that's what's happening i'm glad to say it's happening on a bipartisan basis. housekeeper cochair read, member

wicker sheen and others of more accomplishments both sides can embrace the process in this chamber is a welcome departure from the chaotic comic, content, partisan and often nasty race to the bottom we saw in the house. we wish to finish the nda as soon as we can over there is no reason for delay. also the anniversary of one of our largest accomplishments unless congress is approaching. the passage of the inflation reduction act. one of the most defining legislative feats of the 21st century. what are the most important pieces of legislation we passed in 40 years. the most important piece of legislation we have ever passed on climate change. since the ira became delivered on his promises. inflation has gone down. it's about half of what it was at its peak.

medicare can negotiate the price of prescription drugs, those prices are falling. and for seniors, insulin is capped and vaccines are free. on top of all of the savings we said the ira would kickstart the era of affordable clean energy, countless good paying clean jobs and that is what is happening for thousands and thousands of jobs in so many parts of the country. these are jobs of the future. when your son or daughter gets a job in one of these new industries going to have a great future even my grandkids can work and there is a big change in america we are restructuring and some railways the american economy to have a bright future more jobs, more good paying jobs and of course reducing the amount of carbon that was into our atmosphere. we are very excited about the ira. light has delivered. it's going to continue to deliver. mccall and senator reid. >> thank you very much senator schumer for the nda is critical to our national defense to our

military readiness. we continue to make real progress within open process that is added amendments from both sides. the result is a bipartisan nda that includes historic five-point to percent pay raise for our troops and defense civilians but addresses a long-term multi dimensional challenges posed by china, russia, and other adversaries. it's a priority of both parties. i want to commend chairman tester for leaving the bipartisan effort to protect prt american farmland and food security and foreign adversaries. he and senator rounds work together and again we are open to good ideas from all sides. the bottom line is congress has a constitutional duty to provide for the common defense. in order for our troops to achieve their mission, congress must fulfill its obligation and

pass a responsible nda. thanks in large part to later schumer wouldn't senator shaheen we have an nda that makes our country safer. who have nothing to do with the policy at hand. they seem to think that helped score political points with the maga crowd. even though it hurts real people. the senator from alabama should end this outrageous blockade

immediately. we should not skip town and leave a hard-working military men and women out to dry. promotions are in limbo. families unable to move to the next duty station. start new schools as well be going in our colleagues to discuss each and every one of the military nominees. my colleagues and i will speak for several hours about the accomplishments and qualifications of his officers free will also discuss the painful course that these are inflicted on their feelings. the republicans should immediately end their month-long partisan blockade of american-based military promotions. our troops deserve better and the american people deserve better also, thank you. but thank you, senator reid. and senator schumer.

i am pleased to be here to support the nda prints a bipartisan bill that came out of the committee's of the leadership of senator reid and senator wicker. i am pleased we are seeing the bipartisanship as we look at amendments on the senate floor to build and invest in our defense and national security head for me as a senator from new hampshire and invest significantly and under wonderful refueling weighing in that casie 46 tanker. priorities we have a new hampshire that are critical including our defense industrial base. i think it is important for us most important, after six decades it is critical we pass this legislation because it sends a message again both to

our allies comment to our, to os into our constituency. congress can work together by the senate can work across the aisle in a bipartisan way to get things done better in the interest of the united states and our constituents. for that reason were going to pass this bill this week and send it on to the house and hopefully the house will take it up, drop some of their extreme positions and we will get a bill that can benefit the american people. thank you. ask are t you at all. mr. reed: thank you, mr. president. thank you, madam president. i rise tonight to discuss once again the routine promotions of our military's general and flag officers. during this congress, due to the dangerous and extreme position of one republican senator, not a single general or flag officer has been confirmed. not one. all because that senator disagrees with the policy that

is designed to ensure safe and reasonable access for all servicemembers to reproductive health care, regardless of where the military chooses to assign them. last week, the defense partner's legal advisers and subject matter experts came before the armed services committee to brief us on the policy and to answer our members' questions. they laid out clear, plain facts that explain the legality and appropriateness of the policy. as i stated publicly after the briefing, no one with an ounce of intellectual honesty can deny that the department's policy is legal and is, in fact, rooted in decades of precedent through administrations of both parties. i respect my colleagues on the other side who feel strongly about this issue, but until congress passes a law to overturn 40 years of legal precedent, the department of defense has a responsibility to

manage the health, welfare and readiness of the force. within the legal authorities available to it. the department's legal experts also outlined in detail the long existing statutory authorities that allow the department to provide these travel and leave benefits, and that's all they are, travel and leave policies, policies i would note that have been on the books in various fashions for decades. even senator ernst, the sponsor of the bill that would rescind the policy, recognized publicly after the briefing that the policy is legal. i will note my respect for senator ernst. unlike most of her colleagues, she stayed to the end of the briefing and listened to everything the department had to say and formed her opinion accordingly. senator ernst and i have very different views on this issue, but we share a common respect for our military women and men

and understanding of how congress should treat them. our colleague from alabama has chosen to take a profoundly disrespectful approach. the nominations he is blocking have no objections raised against them and have all been confirmed by unanimous approval in the committee, including by the senator from alabama. these are not controversial nominations. for many decades, military promotions have been a bipartisan, routine piece of senate business. now they have been turned into a political sideshow by the senator from alabama. a. gettins getting a lot of personal benefit out of this and i guess fund-raising. to avoid accountability, the senator likes to say that we should just vote on these nominations, but he knows this is a ludicrous idea. let me explain it again.

it is virtually impossible for the senate to process this volume of nominations through floor procedures. as the majority leader and i have explained before, it would literally take the rest of this congress to move through the nominations we have now, not even accounting for the hundreds still to come. the senator from alabama knows this. so he does not really want to just vote. he wants to grind the senate to a halt on a series of nonstop 9 99-1 roll cal votes. that means no other senate business, such as the annual defense bill that ware debating right now, or the appropriations bills which are being considered by the appropriations committee, no legislation of any kind which may in fact be his motive. the senator from has moved his goalpost many times, never offing a viable -- offering a viable or reasonable compromise. originally he just want a call from the secretary of defense.

once he got it, he changed his demand again. when he asked for a vote to repeal the policy, we did so during the ndaa markup but of course he changed his demands again and he is now calling for the complete capitulation of the department. at this point one has to wonder if he actually wants to achieve his demands or if he just wants to stay in the spotlight. we will soon enter the seventh month of this nonsense and the effects. this doesn't just affect the 2733 officers stuck on -- 273 officers stuck on the floor, it affects the spouses and children, and it affects the officers coming up behind them, some whom could be assigned is except the officer sits ahead of them awaiting senate confirmation before they can move. according to the department of defense, 45 officers are unable

to assume new positions, including 35 who cannot move because their assigned ranking goes with the position for which they've been nominated. and another ten officers who are projected to be assigned to a position now held by one of those 35. 22 officers who have been selected for their first star will have assume the duties of a higher grade while serving as a field grade officer, not a flag officer. those officers are losing about $2,600 per month through no fault of the their own. similarly, 20 officers selected to the grade of 08 or two stars will assume duties of the higher grade while remaining in their current grade. these officers are losing nearly $2,000 per month while this blockade continues. and contrary to the misinformation from the senator from alabama, there will be absolutely -- there will absolutely be no pay for these officers.

no back pay at all. their pay is tied to their rank which is tied to their appoint appointment to that remark which cannot occur until the senate provides its consent. while the senator is trying to enmans his note right, these officers are losing pay. 21 have had their retirements deferred to ensure continuity of command. after years of service, numerous combat deployments, countless missed birthdays or anniversaries, countless missed sports games and musical recitals, these officers have been told that their lives are less important than one senator's ego. the most heartbreaking effect on the families impacted by these holds, i will describe just a few of these stories. because of the the senator from alabama's hold, the marine corps was forced to cancel a

coast-to-coast move to invoke cloture for a major general and his family. the household goods had already been shipped and are now abating at the duty station. two air force officers who sold their homes in anticipation of moves are living in temporary housing and paying their storage costs out of their own pockets. they have no clarity about the length of time that nominations will remain on hold as they are forced to continue their service and -- in their current assignments. a naval officer has been caught in the senator's hold. this officer's spouse was a teacher with fairfax county public schools in virginia, anticipating an overseas assignment with her spouse, this teacher ended her contract with her previous employer. but she has been unable to either accept a new contract at the overseas location nor

recommit to returning to fairfax county public schools due to the uncertainty from this hold. she is stuck in limbo. two children of affected officers were disenrolled from their current schools but now they cannot enroll in a new school because the senator from alabama has blocked their move. three officers have chosen to move their families at their own expense with no option to be reimbursed to ensure that the children will be enrolled in school in the hope that they will be reunited with their families after the senator from alabama comes to his senses. finally, yesterday we reported by the largest statewide news organization in alabama that a position signed by more than 500 military spouses was delivered to the senator calling on him to end his blockade and the harm it is doing to military families. the petition organized by the secure families initiative

called on senate leadership to, quote, reiterate to senator tuberville the dangers and ramifications of miss political grandstanding, work together to resolve disagreements outside the military space, and expeditiously confirm all blocked positions. these are but a few of the tragic family costs being inflicted. these stories will increase significantly is as we go into august. traditionally a month that many military families move to new duty stations and start new schools. all of these effects are but the tip of the iceberg, snapshots, stories of those willing to share. the true impact of the senator's actions may out in be known for years. the destabilizing effect this has on the apolitical nature of military service is what keeps me up at night. the broader impact on our national security is

incalculable. in the united states military, there is a total of 852 general and flag officers. by the end of this year, we expect that 650 of them will need to pass through the senate for promotion or reassignment. an additional 110 officers will be forced to perform two jobs simultaneously or will will be assigned to a temporary position as a result of the senator's holds. thus, nearly 90% of our general and flag officers, our most senior military officers, will had been affected by the senator's holds. right now our nation faces an unparalleled threat from china and violent, unstable russia threatening all of our nato allies. to not have our military leaders ready to command at a moment's notice is to flirt with disaster. the senator from alabama has

achieved something that xi jinping and vladimir putin could only have dreamed of. i'm sure they would have paid good money to ahave achieved it, but they don't have to. what disappoints me the most is the silence my colleagues across the aisle. for six months they have hardly said a word about the senator from alabama's antics. do they not care? i know many of them do and many of them disagree with what he is doing. so why are they not down here right now? i call on my colleagues across the aisle to support our military and military families to stand with us to help repair this affront to senate traditions. tonight my colleagues and i will discuss every military nomination on the executive calendar. we'll read the names of each officer whose nomination has been blocked by the senator from alabama, along with a little bit about their background. each of these officers have served decades in uniform,

something the senator from alabama knows nothing about. their lives have not been easy. i know firsthand that the nature of military life, even in the best of times, is difficult. punctuated with frequent moves, time away from family, and duties that are as demanding physically as they are mentally and spiritually. this generation of general and flagged officers has had it even harder than many. most of these nominees have served the majority of their careers during a state after war. for 20 years they fought in the global war on terror and many of them fought in wars before that. they went where we asked them to go. they fought so other americans, including most of us in this chamber, wouldn't have to. we've never had a generation of military leadership whose entire professional development occurred during a period of constant conflict. they went through each of these

officers' biographies, i was struck by the manifestation of this service. as you'll hear from the the senator from alabama, his blocking the promotion of officers who has been awarded the purple heart, the silver star, the bronze star, the distinguished frying cross and every other distinguished award that the defense department bestowed. he's blocking the promotion of officers with numerous combat tours of duty, including those who have been injured in combat. he is blocking the million to o. nomination of a career -- he is blocking the nomination of a officer that was an astronaut for nasa. and pilots as we know too well on the armed services committee, they also have the option of flying commerce commercially for the airlines. we can't compete with the airlines on pay, but we have always competed on opportunity and mission.

if opportunity and mission are compromised,, patriotism will only carry one so far. particularly as the senate's inaction is literally impacting the direct earnings of many of these nominees. he is block the the nomination is of health care officials. he is blocking the promotion of combat commanders at all levels who have risen to the remarks with the expectation and hope of leading and mentoring the next generation of combat leaders to ensure the highest standards of american military expertise and ethical conduct is passed on. he is has now blocked the confirmation of three members of the joint chiefs of staff -- general c.g. brown be, the nominee to be the next chairman, general eric smith circumthe next commandant of the marine corps, and general randy george or, the next chief of staff in the army. on top of this, we have just

received an historic nomination, the first female officer to be the chief of naval operations and we've just received today the nomination for the next chief of staff for the air force. he is blocking the nominations that are critical combatant commander, a the commander evidence cyber commander, who has serves at the director of the national security agency. it strikes thee that cyber intelligence is not a position which should accept any additional risk. he is blocking the nomination of the next commander of the seventh fleet. which has the responsibility for the indo-pacific area of operation. he is blocking the nomination of the next commander of the navy's fifth fleet responsible for the naval and combined maritime forces in the indian ocean, persian gulf and arabian sea on the overall command of u.s. central command. he is blocking the nomination of the next united states military representative to nato who is

the senior uniform representative to nato during a time when nato continues to provide critical support to ukraine in its war against russia and as nato itself is expanding to counter the threat posed by russia to our european allies. he is blocking the next superintendent of the naval academy during the summer months when new service academy superintendents need to be installed to ensure continuity from one academic year to the next. traditionally the senate ensures this nominee is approved and placed in time for the next class of midshipmen to arrive and to begin their academy training, which started four years ago ago. now even future officers will be commissioned in 2027 are feeling the negative impact of one senator's actions. if we don't break this blockade soon, the senator from alabama will have tied -- tried his hand at decapitating the entire senior military leadership of

the united states armed forces. finally, one last point. one of the officers whose name we read today played any part in promulgating the policy to which the senator from alabama agreed, a policy that like it or not is perfectly legal and backed by 40 years of practice through the administrations of both parties. it's a policy aimed at taking care of our servicemembers, a large percentage of whom are women. this policy simply acknowledges that women's health care is important for readiness too. from president reagan whose justice department interpreted the newly enacted hard amendment to the first bush administration, the clinton administration, the second bush administration, the obama administration, the trump administration and now the biden administration, the interpretation has the same. my republican colleagues who were caught napping on this,

maybe didn't bother to read the legal precedents, maybe they didn't care to. fine, i have no problem with my colleagues expressing disagreement or pursuing legislative solutions to their problems but dmot take -- not take it out tonight professional men and women of the armed forces and their families. as the military spouses who petitions the senator from alabama this week to lift his hold urged, we should engage and address these policies and ideological differences outside of the military space. we're debating the defense bill right now, and as the majority leader has said publicly, we're not stopping the republicans from voting on their bill to rescind dod's policy. let's have that vote. instead the senator has chosen to inflict as much financial and emotional pain as possible on the men and women in the armed forces in the hopes that we will cave. if the senator from alabama actually cared about the

military, he would find another way to demonstrate his political positions. release the hostages, senator. it is time. with that, i would yield to the majority leader.

mr. schumer: madam president. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent that it be in order to call up the following amendments to s. 2226, cruz 421, wicker 10 r 45 -- wicker 10 55,

paul 438, barrasso 999, sanders 1030, cardin 705, marshall 874, gillibrand 1065, kennedy 1034, hawley 10 58, menendez 638. further, that with respect to the amendments listed above at a time to be determined by the majority leader in consultation with the republican leader, the senate vote on the amendments in the order listed with no further amendments or motions in order and with 60 affirmative votes required for adoption and that there be two minutes equally divided prior to each vote. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection,so ordered. mr. schumer: madam president, i send a cloture motion to the substitute amendment 935 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 the debate on the reed substitute amendment numbered 935 to calendar number 119 s. 2226, a bill to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2024 for military activities of the department of defense, and so forth and for other purposes. 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 send a cloture motion to s. 2226 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 calendar number 119, s. 2226, a bill to authorize appropriations for fiscal year

2024 for military activities of the department of defense, and so forth and for other purposes. 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: finally, i ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum calls for the cloture motions filed today, july 26, be waived. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection,so ordered. mr. schumer: for the information of senators, we will begin a series of three roll call votes at 8:00 p.m. this evening. i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from maine. mr. king: i'd like to ask that my defense fellow nick oldman be granted privileges of the floor until the conclusion of the

118th congress. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. king: thank you, madam president. madam president, chairman reed has spoken eloquently in the last few minutes about the personal impact of this hold on general officer nominations and what it means to families, what it means to careers, what it means to people that are coming up through the ranks, because make no doubt, this is not just affecting those people that have been nominated for general officer positions, but it ripples all the way down through the ranks. it is an unprecedented attack on the integrity of our military chain of command. as i say, senator reed talked about the impact on individuals, and tonight we're going to be talking about a lot of those individuals. but i'd like to talk for a moment about the impact on the readiness of our force. the first thing to observe is that china and russia have got to be loving this. they have just -- they could

not imagine that we would do something like this to ourselves to essentially decapitate the senior leadership of our military. if you step back and say, wait a minute, look at what's going on here, nobody would believe that they could achieve something like this, that our adversaries could achieve something like this, but we're doing it to ourselves or actually one person is doing it to all of us and to our country. this is a dangerous moment in the world. i serve on both the armed services and the intelligence committee, and the threats that we are facing right now are unprecedented in the history of this country. we've never before faced the kind of threats that we're facing from two heavily armed and aggressive potential adversaries. we need to have literally all hands on deck, and we are telling our all hands to stand

down, that they're not going to be able to achieve their commands, to take the case for the leadership of our military throughout the military enterprise. it really is amazing that we're doing something that i keep saying we, that the senator from alabama is doing something that is so seriously compromising national security over a policy matter. over a policy matter. i have been in numerous hearings over the last months and talked to the officers, asked them on the record, is this action compromising national security. the answer every single time has been absolutely yes. and these aren't necessarily officers who are being blocked. these are the general officers who are retiring. so they don't have a stake in this. they're not looking for a promotion. they're just telling us what's

happening. to not have a commandant of the marine corps in over, the first time we do not have a commandant in the marine corps in 150 years. that's outrageous. it's unacceptable. and so not only is this impacting people's lives, people who have been dedicated their lives to this country, we're treating them like pawns in a political battle over an issue that the senator from alabama disagrees with. if he disagrees with the issue, there's a way to resolve it. bring an amendment. i'm pretty sure that the majority leader has said he would bring an amendment to the floor to rescind the policy that the senator objects to. that's how we resolve policy differences around here. not by taking hostage the entire leadership corps of our military. now let me talk a minute about the senate. the senate, as i have observed it over the past ten and a

half, almost 11 years, is a rather peculiar institution because it has very lax rules. it allows one senator to hold everything up, to stop things. it has very lax rules. but those rules, as i've studied the history of the senate -- by the way, i recommend reading the first hundred pages of robert karow's book, lyndon johnson master of the senate, a description of how this institution developed. but those lax rules which allow extraordinary actions by individual members have rested for over 200 years on a bedrock of comity and responsibility and restraint. yes, you have the power to do something like this, but you shouldn't do it. you don't take advantage of the rules. and i'll tell you one of the results of this, and this is what i'm hearing from constituents and people around the country and indeed from

people in this hall, this could lead to changing the rules to not allow something like this. if you abuse a rule like this, which is being done in this casf a rule -- somebody is going to say wait a minute, we can't run our country this way. we can't allow this to happen to the readiness of our military in this time of peril. we just can't do that. so we're going to have to figure out another way. all of a sudden one of the privileges -- and i believe it is a privilege of an individual senator are going to have to be starting to be curtailed if you don't restrain yourself, if you don't act responsibly within the context of these rules. my question is where does this lead? going to be the par for the course around here in the future? somebody's going to say i don't like something the department of

interior is doing. i think it's really bad, so i'm going to hold up every nominee for military, or i'm going to hold up every nominee for the department of homeland security or the department of interior or whatever the department is. hostage taking is not how we make policy, and i'm afraid what we're seeing here before our eyes is a precedent being established, where one individual senator who is trying to get his way on a policy issue is using and abusing the rules of the senate in order to get something that ought to be done through the legislative process. bring up the amendment. if you don't like the policy, bring up the amendment. eventually -- i mean the senate is built on the premise of respect for minority rights but ultimately majority rule. that's what we all learned in

kindergarten. this isn't minority rights. this is one person. that's one person out of 100 who is taking this beings that is so bad for the country in a difficult and dangerous time. i respect the rights of senators to use their prerogative as they see fit, but i would urge the senator from alabama, with whom i have a good personal relationship, i would urge him to reconsider, to try to bring the issue forward to the american people and to the united states senate and let's have a vote on it. let's see what the senate believes about the let's lusion of this -- resolution of the issue. we're not talking about the government paying for abortions here. we're talking about leave and travel. if a soldier has a medical condition and they're stationed in a state where they need some kind of specialized treatment,

and it's not available in that state, guess what -- for as long as anybody can remember they've gotten leave and travel to go where they can have that procedure. this isn't some kind of radical new program. again, if the senator thinks it's a wrong policy, bad policy, it's inimicable to his floor, bring to to the floor and have a vote. let's see what the will of the senate is. but don't compromise the lives of many, many people, we're up into the hundreds now, families who've dedicated their lives to this countries. they're innocent pawns in this political game. it's not right. finally, as i've said, it's a compromise of national security. it's a straight-up compromise of national security which our adversaries couldn't dream of achieving.

that's why i believe, i hope and believe, that the senator from alabama will relent, take his vote on the issue and let these nominations move forward. so the senate can do its business and that the military can get back to a place where it's predictable, where they understand what the process is, they understand where the steps are, and they can get about the business of defending this country. thank you, madam president. i yield the floor. mrs. shaheen: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from new hampshire. mrs. shaheen: i come to the floor this evening on behalf of the more than one million people who are serving this country and who rely on this senate to put national security ahead of policy disagreements. with the overturning of roe v. wade millions of americans, including tens of thousands of u.s.

servicemembers, lost access to reproductive care overnight. i would remind us all that the military relies on almost 18% of its makeup on women. most of those women are of reproductive age. since then, since the dobbs decision, more and more states have put in place prohibitions of reproductsive care, care that was previously the right of all americans. now, according to a recent rand corporation study, at least 46% of female servicemembers no longer have unrestricted access to care. now, as we all know, servicemembers and their families are stationed based not on the needs of themselves and families, so not personal preference, but based on the needs of the nation.

their sacrifice and commitment to serve means they're uniquely affected by the restrictive health care laws that have come into effect in the post-roe era. to address the harm that these health care prohibitions have on servicemembers and military families, the secretary of defense issued commonsense guidance that protects the readiness of the force and family, and it's guidance that i will remind everybody the secretary of defense is legally empowered to issue and implement, and as senator king so rightly pointed out that has been in place for male members of our military for years, as long as we can remember. but the senior senator from alabama has chosen to break with precedent, to break with the decorum of this chamber, and to hold 273 noncontroversial military nominations just

because he disagrees, he personally disagrees with this policy. and as senator king and senator reed so eloquently pointed out, our servicemembers should not be used as bargaining chips in policy debates. senator tuberville's actions are jeopardizing our national security, they're harming military families, and they're causing a whole generation of seen -- senior military leaders to question whether they want to stay in the military. worst of all, the senator from alabama knows exactly what the impact is of these holds because he serves with all of us on the armed services committee. he can't say this is not having an impact. he's hearing, as part of the committee, what the impact is. he knows that the unprecedented nature of his actions and the grave harm that it poses to our country and the military is

real. now, for those who don't sit on the armed services committee, i want to highlight some of the most grievous consequences of senator tuberville's actions. military families are not able to enroll their children into new schools on time, so we have a whole group of families with young children who during the summertime would be when they'd be moving, looking to get their children into new schools, and they're on hold. military spouses can't go to the next assignment and find a job. what's particularly concerning for many of these families is that servicemembers are paid less than what they've earned. just to give you some idea, 22 officers who have been selected for their first star will have to assume the duties of the higher grade while serving as a

field grade officer, not a flag officer, and these officers are losing about $2600 a month, through no fault of their own. the last time i talked to members of our military, they weren't making enough money to be able to sacrifice an additional $2600 a month. 20 srs selected to the -- officers selected to the grade of o-8 are two stars, they'll assume the duties while remaining in their current grade. these officers are losing nearly $2,000 a month while this block aid continues -- blockade continues. contrary to the misinformation that the senator from alabama has said on this floor, there will be no back pay for these officers. their pay is tied to their rank, which is tied to their appointment to that rank, and that can't occur until the senate provides its consent. so, they ought to be charging

senator tuberville for that additional money they're losing, because it's on his back, these additional costs that families are incurring. some of our most critical national security positions, like the commandant of the marine corps, are also unfilled. and this comes at a time when we know that russia's waging war in europe, is when the people's republic of china continues to threaten our interests across the globe. and what's so incredibly hard to understand is our colleagues on the other side of the aisle, i know, are concerned about the prc and the influence of china. yet, they're not willing to call their colleague out for what he's doing that provides a real opportunity for the prc. with every vacancy in our ranks,

our adversaries are gaining an advantage over us, and these holds affect real people who have dedicated their lives to preserving our freedoms in this country. those people who are affected have earned more than being used as political pawns. so, i want to take just a moment, because we're here tonight to talk about those 273 officers who are being held up. i want to talk about some of those really incredible individuals who the senior senator from alabama is blocking. the first is a colonel, who i met when i went to lithuania for the nato summit. we went up to the base in lithuania and the deputy commander of ucom pointed out

that colonel kareem montagu, who was currently the deputy commander of the fourth infantry division, out of fort carson deployed to lithuania was one of those general officers whose promotion is on hold. the colonel has 28 years of service. he's been executive officer to the chief of staff of the united states army. he's opinion the commander of the fifth -- been the commander of the fifth battlefield coordination division, joint base pearl harbor in hawaii. he's been the commander of the first battalion 321st airbornefield reg meant, the 82nd out of fort bragg. he's got the legion of merit, bronze star and defense meritorious service medals. the curve ball doesn't deserve to be held up because the

senator from alabama has a personal beef with secretary austin's policy. then we have eight officers from the marine corps who have been nominated to the rank of brigadier general. the first is colonel david everly, currently serving as chief of staff of the second marine expeditionary force, 28 years of service, the chief of staff to the second marine expeditionary bringing aid. he has been. he's been the commanding officer of second marine expeditionary brigade. he's been the commanding officer of the basic school training command. multiple combat and contingency operation deployments. he's received the defense superior service medal and bronze star medal. colonel everly doesn't deserve to be held up did. neither does colonel kelvin

galman, also marine corps. currently serving as senior military adviser to the secretary of the navy. he's got 29 years of service. he's been the division chief of the deputy division chief. join capabilities division, j.a. joint staff, commanding officer of personnel support detachment. he's been multiple combat and contingency deployments. and he's receiving the defense superior service medal, legion of merit medal and the bronze star. colonel adolpho garcia, also with the marine corps. currently serving as house director of the office of legislative affairs. some of us may have run into him in that capacity. has 30 years of service in. he's been the military secretary to the commandant of the marine corps. he's been the assistant chief of staff to the first marine

expeditionary force, commanding officer of the 14th marine regiment, fourth marine division, multiple combat tours. he's earned the legion of merit, bronze star, defense meritorious service medal. again, he's on hold. then there's colonel matt goode. many of us know colonel goode because we traveled with him. he served as director of the senate liaison office of legislative affairs. having taken a number of trips with colonel goode, i can tell you what a great job he does, how committed he is, how committed he is to this chamber, to the people serving in the senate and to have senator tuberville do to colonel goode and all of these members what he's doing is just unconscionable. colonel goode has 27 years of service. he's been the commanding officer of the seventh marine regiment,

first marine division, commanding officer of the third light armored reconnaissance battalion first marine division. he's been chief of plans, chief of the security cooperation division of the joint task force north, u.s. northern command. he's had multiple combat and contingency deployments. he's earned the legion of merit, the bronze star, the defense meritorious service medal. like all of these marines, like all of the people we're talking about today, they have stellar records of serving this country. what does senator tuberville do to them? he puts their nominations on hold. he denies them funding. he denies them the ability to get on with their lives. colonel trevor hall, u.s. marine corps, currently serving as chief of star to the marine corps forces command, 29 years of service, commanding officer from the 26 marine expeditionary

unit. branch chief transregional synchronization u.s. special operations command. commanding officer, division training officer, third battalion, eight marine regiment, second division. multiple imait and contingency deployments. the legion of merit medal, the defense maror tus -- meritorious service medal. colonel rich joyce, marine corps, commanding officer 29, the second marine aircraft wing with 28 years of service. he's been the branch head of the expeditionary air warfare n-98, office of chief of naval operations, commanding officer, special projects officer, marine light attack, helicopter squadron 469, marine aircraft group 39, the third marine aircraft wing, multiple combat and contingency deployments.

he's received the servicemember medal -- service medal and distinguished flying cross. colonel omar randall serving in the combat development and integration with 27 years of service p been the branch head, futures branch installations and logistics headquarters marine corps, the commanding officer of combat logistics regiment 37, the third marine logistics group. he's had multiple combat and contingency deployments, he'serned the legion of merit and the meritorious service medal. and then there's colonel robert wyler from the u.s. marine corps who's currently serving as military secretary to the commandant of the marine corps with 28 years of service. been the commanding officer of the 5th marine regiment, the first marine division, director of up specks, commanding officer

of the second battalion, 4th marines, senior military advisor, force development, office of the secretary of the defense policy with multiple combat and contingency deployments, a purple heart, a silver star, and a legion of merit. senator tuberville wants to hold up his promotion. then we have -- i want to cite two people from the navy who have been nominated forbe appointments to the grade of rear admiral. the first is captain brian anderson, currently serving as assistant commander supply chain policy and management, naval supply systems command in mechanicsburg, pennsylvania. 28 years of service, been the assistant chief of staff for force logistics naval air force, u.s. pacific fleet, san diego. the chief current operations,

joint operations officer deployed to centcom, camp african, pakistan lee asson officer. been assigned to the defense logistics agency in fort belvoir, and he's earned the legion of merit and the meritorious service medal. and then there's captain julie marie trainer, currently serving as chief of staff in the office of chief of naval operations with 29 years of service. commanding officer of naval supply systemed command fleet logistics in norfolk, naval sea systems command, director of industrial supply operations, she's also earned the legion of merit and the meritorious service medal. both captains, trainer and anderson, been nominated to the grade of rear admiral.

and yet senator tuberville has them on hold. so is i'm going to stop with that list. we have a lot of folks on the floor. we're going to continue to pick up the names of the people who are on hold. but simply put, it is not acceptable to turn policy disputes into political brinksmanship when it comes to our servicemembers. as we've all said, we're happy to debate our colleagues on policy any day of the week, but that's not what we're doing. instead what we have is the senior senator from alabama single-handedly holding military promotions hostage using our servicemembers as political bargaining chips for his own benefit. his actions undermine our military's greatest strength, our people. and when he's asked about it, he

said, oh, it's playing repeally well at home. well, that's not what this is about. this is about making sure that we treat those people who serve in our military the way we ought to be treating them and that we defend our nation and trust those folks who serve to make their own decisions about their own health care. just as i believe our constituents sent us to washington to debate policy differences, not to threaten the health and safety and welfare of those in uniform or to hold our security interests hostage. so i hope that senator tuberville will hear us tonight, that he will let these qualified military officers get back to their work of defending the american people. thank you, madam president. i yield the floor.

mr. kelly: madam president, i ask unanimous consent that ashley daniel in my office be granted floor privileges for the remainder of the day. the presiding officer: without objection. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from illinois. ms. duckworth: i join my colleagues today in expressing my great disappointment in our colleague from alabama and his continuing hold on military promotions. he has argued -- if i've seen him say this several times, that he is not affecting military readiness and that this hold on the promotions of senior officers does not hurt our national security and, if it did hurt our military readiness, that he would certainly stop the hold. so i'm here tee tell you d. to tell you about six different jobs and individuals nominated to those positions and for individuals to decide whether they think having these positions go unfilled with a

confirmed officer is jeopardizing our military readiness. the first position is at the army space and missile defense command. this is the army's force modernization proponent and operational integrateert for global space missile defense and high-altitude missile capabilities. it sits at the nexus between united states space command, u.s. strategic command and u.s. northern command, a pretty important job i would think. to fill the position, the president has nominated major general sean gainey to be a lieutenant general in the united states army and the commanding general of this u.s. space and missile command. major general gainey has moved some 15 times in his years of service. he is a graduate from the georgia southern university rotc program and in those 33 years of service, he has serve earned the

legion of merit and the bronze star a he currently serves as directors of the counter-unmanned aircraft service, united states army washington, d.c. i think the u.s. space and missile defense command is a pretty important job and pretty relevant to our national security. a second position that is being left unfilled with a confirmed nominee is that of deputy chief of staff g.-4 united states head of army logistics. we have been talking at length about this in the indo-pacific region. they oversee logistics to enable total army readiness today and a force modernized for the future. to fill the position of the deputy chief of staff, g4 army logistics is heidi hoyle, graduating from the west point

military academy, embarked on the one hand a 29-year career, spanning 20 different assign piments including her position as director of operations within the office of the army g4 as well as numerous deployments. she has been awarded the legion of merit, a the bronze star medal and the defense meritorious service medal. she is he's more than equal fade to fill this position and the position needs her in it. another provision that is going unfilled with a confirmed officer is to be filled by brigadier general lawrence linton to be major general in the united states army reserve. brigadier general linton is serving in the 88th readiness division in minnesota. he graduated from the state university of new york, rotc program, began a 31-year career of service, and included 24 duty

assignments deploying to haiti, bosnia and kuwait. general linton served most recently as chief of staff of operation warp speed, the critical effort to accelerate covid-19 vaccination development. general linton has been awarded the legion of merit, a the defense meritorious medal and the meritorious service medal with silver oak leaf cluster. the president has also nominated brigadier general stacey m. babcock to be a major general in it the united states army reserve. most recently, general babcock served in this fort knox, kentucky, graduated from the row chester rotc program in 1919 and has served 32 years, a career span something 25 different assign signments, including three separate deployments to

iraq. general babcock has been awarded the brans star. peggy mcman us in, colonel mcmanus serves as senior board advisor, office deputy chief of staff, g1 washington, d.c. colonel mcmanus has now served 31 years, a career spanning 20 different assignments. she's been awarded the meritorious service medal. the president has also nominated major general andrew gibera to be deputy chief of staff at the nuclear integration headquarters, united states air force. do you think that not having a confirmed officer appointed to the deputy chief of staff for strategic deterrence and nuclear integration is not hurting our military readiness? of course it is.

major general gibrera would be responsible to the secretary of the air force and chief of staff of the air force for nuclear deterrence operations. he would provide direction,, guidance, integration and advocacy regarding the nuclear mission of the united states air force and engage with joint and interagency partners with nuclear enterprise solution, only if senator tuberville would allow him to take up this position. and finally, want to talk to you and read to you the background of major general robert m. collins nominated to be lieutenant general of the united states armed and military deputy director, army acquisition corps, office of the assistant secretary for of army acquisition and technologies. if confirmed, general collins will be the senior military officer on acquisition matters. this isality a time of critical modernization by the army and i know very well the future vertical lift program. it is critical that we have capable officer in this position. he is currently sesqui as deputy

for acquisition systems management. he graduated in 1992 from shepherds university rotc program. has now servinged 31 years in the program. we need this officer in this job in this position. these are just a handful of individuals i'm reading today. in which one of these positions does my colleague from alabama think military readiness is not being affected? being left unfilled? all i can say is senator tuberville, please reconsider. you are indeed putting our national security, our military readiness in jeopardy by continuing this hold. with that, i yield. mr. blumenthal: madam president, i have but a few minutes to speak to my colleagues and to the senator from alabama, but more important to the american people.

i have only minutes, but the damage of this hold will be years. be aware, america, be angry, america, as i am angry, as a member of the armed services committee, has a dad of two veterans, a marine corps officer who served in afghanistan and a navy seal who served during these last 20 years, and all of the veterans of america who are angry that our united states military is being used as a political pawn, is held hostage, the brave, determined professionals who want to lead and take our military to the fight that lies ahead, they are in limbo e and it isn't just the

273. it is all who report to them, all who depend on them, all who look to them for leadership e. i had breakfast this morning with the acting commandant, general smith of the united states marine quorum. for the first time in a hundred years, the united states marine corps has no commandant. vice admiral fisherman chetty, chosen to lead the navy, the first woman to be in that position, has been held hostage. general charles brawn, uniquely accomplished aviators and leader, unable to assume his responsibility as chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. and under them, men and women like lieutenant general james beerman nominated to be lieutenant general of the marine corps