million people that have come across the southern border and released into the interior of the united states, released at the texas-mexico border? not a lot of empathy. not a lot of sympathy for what we've had to endure, our border communities and the people in texas, not to mention the billions of dollars that we've had to spend of taxpayer money by texans to do the federal government's job. it's it's outrageous and the part that is most tragic is, of course, alled lives lost to the drugs that come across the southern border. but the biden administration does not seem to understand or they seem to be in willful suspense of their power of disbelief is that the 71,000

americans who died of drug -- of fentanyl overdoses last year, those drugs come from synthetic provideds made -- opioids made from precursors, come from china, go to mexico, made into something that looks like a pharmaceutical product, relatively innocuous, but fentanyl poisoning is the leading cause of death of americans 18 to 45 years of age. i keep asking myself what's it going to take? what's it going to take for the biden administration to wake up and do something about it, to do its job? well, obviously seven million migrants, that's not enough. 108,000 dead mention, apparent -- dead americans, apparently that doesn't get president biden's attention. how about the 300,000 children, the unaccompanied minors that have been placed with sponsors

in the interior of the united states? "the new york times" documented that in 85,000 cases when a call was made 30 days after the child was placed with a sponsor, there was no answer. there have been some terrible stories about forced labor and very dangerous jobs, but it doesn't take imagination to realize what the biden administration has done is to -- is lose basically 300,000 children. we don't know whether they're going to school. we don't know whether they're getting the health care they need. we don't know whether they're being trafficked for sex, forced in involuntary servitude. we don't know and the only conclusion i can reach is the biden administration and the president of the united states does not care.

he doesn't care. because if he did care, he would do something about it. well, because we have been met with complete intransigents by the biden administration and by the majority here in the senate when it comes to solving some of these problems in a bipartisan basis, there are many of us who would be willing to work on a bill. we've worked on bills. i see the senator from south carolina who bears the scars of having worked in the immigration issue many years as have i. this is a tough, hard issue. but enough is enough. we're not going to proceed to this emergency supplemental that the president has asked for unless and until policy changes are made to our asylum policy, the catch and release policies that will stem the flow of

millions of migrants across the border only to be released into the united states. it will not happen. i'm confident of that. so i won't go through the statistics. let me just mention one example. it makes no sense for my grants who come from places like haiti to move to south america to avoid what are admittedly dire circumstances in haiti only to live in south america and then when the opportunity presents itself, to show up in del rio, texas, and claim asylum. they have escaped the circumstances which cause them to leave haiti and living in a safe third country. so why is it that under the current policies we say okay, if you make it to the u.s. border,

we'll let you in if you claim asylum? when you're claiming a claiminga persecution of what happened in haiti, not in south america, yet this is a huge flashing green light and a welcome mat for people anywhere around the word who want to make their way to our southern border. eagle pass mayor salinas has said that the city of eagle pass has lost at least $500,000 during closure of a bridge due to the influx of migrants. one of the things we did during president trump's tenure in office, which i think was one of the most significant, was we passed the u.s.-mexico-canada trade agreement in recognition of the fact our economies in north america are intertwined and that millions of americans'

jobs depend on that flow of legitimate trade and commerce across our international bridges. but again one of the other consequences of president biden's border crisis is that even the benefits of that trade and legitimate commerce are being denied because resources at our bridges and ports of entry are being overwhelmed. i mentioned new york city. last year more than 130,000 migrants have arrived in new york city. that city spent $2 billion to manage the crisis. that's a drop in the bucket compared to what the state of texas has had to do over recent years. but it's no surprise that the mayor and others in new york have taken notice. i think that's the point. governor abbott knew that if the biden administration was going to ignore the plight of border

states like texas, arizona, and new mexico, and california, that maybe he would care if these my grants showed up in new york city. now polls have shown that new yorkers are overwhelmingly concerned about the influx of migrants in their state and in their city. 82% said it was a serious problem. so why doesn't president biden who maybe doesn't care about a red state like texas but he should care about a blue state. the truth is he should care about the entire united states, but let's just be maybe questioned why he would ignore the pleas of mayor adams and the voters in new york state, a state that probably was responsible for his margin of victory in the last presidential election. well, he continues to ignore it and in fact, the senate majority

leader from new york where mayor adams is mayor of the major capital city there, despite the fact that senator schumer represents that same state, he's criticized the republican effort to actually address the biden border crisis. he's called it partisan and hard right. well, frankly, that's all the majority leader and our democratic cleez have been willing to do -- colleagues have been willing to do, but we're not going to miss this opportunity to get true policy changes which help stem the flow of illegal migration across the border. it's clear that the president and secretary mayorkas who's been an absolute unmitigated disaster as secretary of homeland security, i told him at the last hearing we had i have lost confidence, any confidence

in your willingness to do your job. you should resign. well, he continues to show up and testify under oath and to lie when he says the border is secure. anybody with eyes in their head can tell that that's not true. and he's told the border patrol don't actually tell anybody what's happening at the border. well, enough is enough. we're not going anywhere on this supplemental appropriation bill until and unless acceptable provisions are made to change the policies that currently implement the biden border crisis and to staunch the flow of drugs and people across the

border. madam president, i yield the floor. a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from south carolina. mr. graham: thank you. i just want to pick up where senator cornyn sort of left off. he's been a great person to try to work with to find a solution on our immigration problems. what we're dealing with on the senate floor is not an immigration issue. to my democratic colleagues, i worked with many of you on solutions to immigration, comprehensive immigration reform. we are now having to deal with a broken border from a national sciewsht lens -- national security lens. 172 encounters that we know of of people on the terrorist watch list. f.y. 21 is was 15 so it's going through the roof. we've got to get control of our border for our own national security sake. terrorism is on the rise. the world is on fire.

now is not the time to have a broken border. the numbers are really astounding. in september we had the highest encounters at the border in recorded history. in december of 2020 we had the lowest in decades. f.y. 23 which ended september 30, two and a half million people since president biden has been in office, six million people. that's larger than the state of south carolina. one of two things are going on regarding the border. the biden administration wants it to be this way for some reason or they're incompetent. if they're incompetent, they need to listen to people who have actually tried to secure the border successfully and worked with us to get it done. if they want it to be this way, it's going to end if you want money for other countries. i have been involved in about

every gang there is on immigration reform, but i'm here to tell my democratic colleagues, i'm not going back to south carolina and say i've provided money for ukraine and israel, which i desperately support unless we fix in a real way the problems at our border. that's unsustainable for me. the speaker of the house was just addressing the republican senate. i think he understands the need for ukraine funding, but he says border security has to be real for the house republicans to be able to do what they need to do. to my democratic colleagues, you're fighting us in a way that makes no sense to me. i understand why we should send money to ukraine. you had me at hello. i understand why we need to have our friends in -- help our friends in israel. i don't understand why you fight the changes that would bring back order out of chaos.

is that the position the of the -- position of the democratic party that the policies that led to this overwhelming surge ever illegal immigration are not subject to change? we're not going to vote for legislation that doesn't stop what's on this chart. period. look at the line. f.y. 20, 458,000 encounters. f.y. 23, two and a half million. it's got to stop. look at the asylum system being completely gamed. it's become a joke. it needs to stop. parole. we've had some major efforts to reform asylum.

senator lankford is doing a good job. to my good friend, nor bennet, i want -- senator bennet, i want money for ukraine. i support ukraine funding. i think a lot of republicans do, but we've got to have real reform on the border, and your statement that ukrainian aid should be separate and apart from border is not growing to happen. -- is not going to happen. so parole is meant to be a case-by-case analysis based on two things. there was an urgent humanitarian reason for the person to come in under parole or significant public benefit, any ailian applying for admission to the united states. -- alien applying for admission to the until. that's the law being abused. past administrations granted parole in a handful of cases. there had to be an urgent humanitarian reason or the individual in question had to be provide a significant public benefit. the biden administration is using the parole statute to

allow people in by the hundreds of notices without any individual analysis, in my view. so all i'm asking you to do is follow the law. quit using the parole statute to allow hundreds of thousands of people in in violation of the law. if we went back to what the law says, most of this would stop. secretary mayorkas, here's what he said to senator lankford. we need the ability to remove individuals who do not qualify for asylum with efficiency and speed. why are so many people coming? word is out that if you get into america to ask for asylum, you never leave. we release you into the interior of the country. years pass before your asylum claim is heard, and you're here in america and you never leave. we've to change the asylum laws

so that you actually have to aplay the first safe country you pass through, not just here in america. we should not release you until your claim has at least been adjudicateed. clearly, the screening system needs to change a -- to change. so, long story short, we're not going to pass a supplemental that doesn't have policy changes to dramatically stem the flow at the border. this is not an immigration negotiation. there's not going to be a dream act provision attached to this. this is about locking the border down in a fashion to give the public confidence that as a nation we have the ability to secure our own border. to all my friends on the other side and on this side who have

negotiated immigration reform in the past, president biden's irresponsible handling of the u.s.-mexican border has made it virtually impossible to do an immigration deal anytime soon. no republican in their right mind would vote for a comprehensive immigration bill until the democratic party can prove that they're capable of securing the border. everything we've worked for all these years has been lost. your approach to the border during the last three years has made it impossible to do immigration reform until we first secure the border, not as part of an overallest to deal with -- overall effort to deal with immigration, but you need to prove to us and the people of the united states you can and will secure the border. until do you that, no deal. how this ends, i don't know.

i just though this -- i'm okay with aid to ukraine, i'm more than okay with aid to israel. i am insisting on border security that's meaningful. i'm not asking for h.r. 2. i'm not asking for everything i would do to secure the border if i were king of the country. but i've been around this issue enough to know what works and what doesn't. the policy changes we're insisting upon regarding asylum and parole need to be implemented to regain control of our border, and that's not too much to s -- to ask. madam president, i look forward to working with our colleagues on the other side and you to find a way to help israel who are in dire straits, bring some sonty back to the world, but

you're going to have to work with us. we're not looking for half measures. we're smart enough on our side to know what works. and i'm not in to doing a deal that doesn't work. with that, a i yield the floor. mr. tillis: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from north carolina. mr. tillis: thank you, madam president. i appreciate the words of my colleague from south carolina. i fully support everything he said. and i want to come up and speak again to the challenge that we have at the border and why we need to take action now and why that action needs to be taken as part of a supplemental that includes funding for israel and ukraine. the situation at the border has simply gotten out of control. i think it bears repeating. it's been said by some of the folks who've spoke before. we're talking about a fourfold

increase. donald trump was president for four years. president biden has been president for three years. and in three years we have nearly four times the crossings that we did in the trump administration. now, let's say some of that's because we had title 42 and covid. that's fine. we can argue that. but we can still recognize this is a two- or three-time increase in illegal crossings. we've lost operational control of the border. we don't have situational awareness at the border. let me explain what that means. when you have one and a half million people that we know came into this country illegally, they paid money to a cartel, $5,000 to $50,000, depending on what country they came from. but the some of them particularly want to go through a specter that the cartels specialize in making sure that you never have to encounter a border agent.

they're called got-aways. one and a half million cot gas have entered this country. i've entered the border several times. once you cross the rheogrande river, most people are going to present themselves to a border patrol agent. they then you're going to be processed. from the time you cross the border to the time you're released into the united states, it is a matter of days or a week. so why would somebody spend money, why would one half million people spend money to expressly avoid being detained? unless they've got a bad record, unless they have criminal intent or maligned intent. ladies and gentlemen, we have captured, apprehended people at the border who are on the terrorist watch list. so we've lost operational control of the border by a fourfold increase in crossings. we've lost situational awareness because we don't know where that's one and a half people

are. now, i hate to almost draw this pail he will, but i think it is -- to draw this parallel, but i think it is important. when israel is able to be successful in their response to hamas is, israel is going to have to go back and say, how did this happen often october 7? we know. i think a part of that is going to be that they had lost situation a wareness on the threat coming from gaza. people may say it is an unfair comparison. i don't think it is. when we have almost 8 million people by the end of this administration here illegally you is it unfair to say that some of them could be terrorists? there is a compelling homeland security reason for securing the border. and the american people agree. i want to get quickly to the negotiations that are being led by james lankford. the american people now -- a

majority, we're not talking a plurality, we're talking a majority of the american people, democrats, independents, republicans agree that we have a major problem or crisis at the border. biden needs to fix this problem. biden needs to fix this problem for senators that are running up. this is not a situation where it's just republicans saying, we want a secure border. we always do. we always will. this is now the american people and the electorate saying that we need to fix it. so when we get into negotiations, of course we've got to change asylum policy. of course we've guilt to change parole policy. and of course that's going to make some democrats get out of their comfort zone e -- comfort zone. in the last congress, ladies and gentlemen, i participated in every single bipartisan bill that was passioned out of the congress in the last -- that was passed out of the congress in the last congress. i tyke a lot of heat for doing that. the democrats can say that they had a bipartisan vote in the last congress but they didn't.

all 50 of them voted for something that i worked hard to get 11 or 12 or 15 republicans to vote on. so now it is time for democrats to demonstrate their commitment to bipartisanship. it's time to let some of their members get out of -- get out of their comfort zone or vote no on the supplemental while the other ones who recognize this is a problem and that the american people have disapproved of this administration's handling of it, now it's their time to be bipartisan. now, it's their time to recognize that parole reform and asylum reform is critical to reducing the future flows. and i hope that my colleagues will. because as someone who's tried to be bipartisan and respectful of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, i have no intention of supporting a supplemental bill that doesn't have meaningful bipartisan border security that we can measure on an almost immediate basis in terms of reducing the

future flows. so, madam president, i hope that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle that i've thoroughly enjoyed working with on bipartisan efforts in the last congress will see that this is their time to demonstrate the same courage, to eliminate go out of their comfort zone and do what's right for the american people. i yield the floor. mr. hoeven: i ask unanimous consent that the be allowed to speak for five minutes. also that senator menendez be allowed to speak for five minutes as well. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. hoeven: thank you, madam president. i want to echo the comments of both the esteemed senator from south carolina as well as the senator from north carolina, and i rise to address the same subject. that is to bring attention to the crisis that's taking place at our southern border. and you know the cause of the crisis is very clear and the numbers do not lie. in fiscal year 2022, cbp

encountered nearly 2.4 million illegal crossings at the southern border. in fiscal year 2023, the number of encounters rose to nearly 2.5 million. 2.5 million. now, since the start of fiscal year 2024, just over -- so that's, what, just the first month, there have been over 240,000 illegal crossings at our southern border. put differently you this means that after just over a month, the end of the fiscal year, this fiscal year 20924, nearly -- fiscal year 20 this nearly a quarter of a million people have tried to illegally enter the united states via the southern border. these are just the individuals that we know about. reporting shows that since the start of fiscal year 20 this there have been more than 23,000 known got-aways. since the beginning of the biden administration, there have been

1.7 million got-aways. additionally you cbp has confirmed that a dozen individuals on the terrorist watch list have attempted to illegally enter the united states through the southern border already this fiscal year. in just one month. and look what's going on in the world right now. and we have people on the terrorist watch list trying to cross our border. the american people can see the problem even if the biden administration can't. or, worse, just continues to choose to ignore it. this crisis is the result of the biden administration's failure to secure our border, pure and simple. it's not an issue of not having comprehensive immigration reform. it's a failure of the administration to enforce the law. the open border policies of the biden administration jeopardize our national security because border security is national security. i want to repeat that. and i am i'll repeat it again.

border security is national security. the americans know it. the situation at the southern border has turned every state into a border state. last month i was in jamestown, north dakota to stand with the 817th engineer company as they prepared to deploy for a yearlong mission to assist cbp in securing our southern border. so now we've got the national guard down there trying to secure the border. but again they can't get the job done if they aren't given the enforcement authority to do it. dhs writ large as well as any other support down there has to be given the authority to enforce the law and the administration will not do it because the administration wants an open border policy. as we continue to debate the upcoming supplemental appropriations package, remus include real enforcement steps

to secure our border. this should include benchmarks so we know the administration is enforcing the law and reducing the number of encounters and illegal entries. the administration's current priorities include processing migrants who come across illegally and then providing them with housing, transportation, and other services once they enter the united states. the administration is turning cbp into one of the most well-funded government trillion agencies in the world. any supplemental funding must secure our border,rure own border. -- our own border. that means ensuring that the administration reinstates the migrant protection protocols or the remain in mexico policy, enforces third safe country agreements and resumes construction of the border wall. those are in place now. it doesn't require legislation from congress. those are measures that are in law now.

the administration refuses to enforce them because the administration wants an open border policy. and we need to include benchmarks to hold the administration's feet to the fire and ensure that these policies get enforced. the biden administration must address the border crisis, enforce the laws that kept monthly encounters to lower numbers under the prior administration. we're not guessing about this. we saw that this works under the prior administration. and take border security seriously because, again, border security is national security. with that, a madam president, i yield the floor. a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from new jersey. mr. menendez: i ask that my -- unanimous consent that my remarks be included prayer to the vote. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. menendez: i rise to proudly vote for the confirmation of jamel semper, the united states district is

court of unusually. mr. semper, who i personally recommended to president biden, is exceptionally well-qualified for this position. and you don't have to take my word for it. mr. semper received strong bipartisan support on the judiciary committee. so there is a know reason he shouldn't enjoy that same bipartisan support here on the senate floor. for more than 15 years, mr. semper has tirelessly sought justice for the resident whose call new jersey home. indeed, it is the central theme that runs throughout his career. an unwavering commitment to the rule of law and to the communities the law is meant to protect. he gang his career as an -- he began his career in union county, hand ago a wide range of cases across the appellate, juvenile, and adult trial units. that enin essex counties went off car jack ers and murderers including the prosecution of a homicide under the new jersey jersey domestic terrorism statute. he was sworn in has an assistant

attorney and ultimately served as chief of both the criminality crime and organized crime units. today he is the deputy chief of the criminal division, role in which he is responsible for supervise something all faces of release investigation and prosecution. in each of these positionss has demonstrated fay dealt to the rule of law. time and time again he has kept new jerseyans safe. this community focus approach to law enforcement has earned mr. semper plaudits from individuals and organizations representing diverse interests, especially those who advocate for communities of color in the garden state. consider the words reverend ron slaughter,. he said semper has stayed connected to the community, remained patient. this is a great day for new jersey, america, our judiciary, and my community. truer words haven't been spoken.

mr. semper's confirmation today not only furthers our collective goal of addressing judicial vacancies across our country, it also advances the federal bench. it brings us one step closer towards ensuring that our most hallowed institutions reflect the rich tapestry of america. for nearly 18 years i have taken my constitutional duty to provide advice and consent on judicial nominees seriously. it is one of the most solemn obligations as united states senators that we have. and it is one of the most consequential impacts we have in our democracy as senators, confirming judges who interpret and shape the law and our constitution for decades to come. so i am a firm believer that our independent judiciary must reflect the very best of america's values and its citizens, which is why i can honestly say that jamel semper's compliment to public service combined with his temperament and trust he has built with new jerseyans, all of it is exactly what we look for in a federal judge. he will no doubt be an asset to

new jersey's federal bench and i encourage all of my colleagues to support him to his rightful place on the district judge of unusually. before i yield the floor, i'd like to take a moment to forcefully oppose ongoing efforts to attach harmful immigration proposals to the national security supplemental package we are consideringment. it is the height of absurdity to claim that the price for assisting our international allies is gutting our asylum and humanitarian parole laws. democrats should not and cannot stand idly by while asylum seek ers and immigrant families are imperiled by a handful of senators operating in total darkness without any meaningful feedback from a coalition of spanish, black, asian advocates and others who should be helping shape these negotiations. for all of those who care about the future of immigrants in this

country, our identity as a beacon of hope, now is the time to make your voice heard. now is the time to make it clear that we will not allow our asylum and humanitarian parole laws to be gutted while undocumented immigrants, including dream ers, tps recipients, farmworkers and essential workers are forced to stay in the shadows. now is a time to make it clear that we will not stand by as some try to fundamentally change our immigration system without any transparent deliberative process. this is the time to make it clear that we should not be codifying asylum and transit bans into law, failed policies that will do nothing to mitigate the flow of migration to the united states. moreover, now is the time for my democratic colleagues in both the senate and the house to meet the moment. it is a clarion call. we must find the moral courage to do what is right. otherwise what are we doing here? how are we supposed to face our constituents and families across

the nation, some who are doing the most difficult jobs in our nation? we cannot exalate to otoextremes? the -- to the extremes in the republican party that is more interested in hurting immigrants than working together in good faith to fix our immigration system. we must reject the notion that playing our role as a defender of freedom and democracy around the world comes at the cost of our own identity as a nation of immigrants. we are the united states of america. let's ultimately start acting like that. with that, a madam president, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: all time has expired. the question is on the nomination. is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote:

the clerk: ms. baldwin. mr. barrasso. mr. bennet. mrs. blackburn. mr. blumenthal. mr. booker. mr. boozman. mr. braun. mrs. britt. mr. brown. mr. budd. ms. butler. ms. cantwell. mrs. capito. mr. cardin. mr. carper. mr. casey.

mr. cassidy. ms. collins. mr. coons. mr. cornyn. ms. cortez masto. mr. cotton. mr. cramer. mr. crapo. mr. cruz. mr. daines. ms. duckworth. mr. durbin. ms. ernst. mr. fetterman. mrs. fischer. mrs. gillibrand. mr. graham. mr. grassley. mr. hagerty. ms. hassan. mr. hawley. mr. heinrich.

mr. hickenlooper. ms. hirono. mr. hoeven. mrs. hyde-smith. mr. johnson. mr. kaine. mr. kelly. mr. kennedy. mr. king. ms. klobuchar. mr. lankford. mr. lee. mr. lujan. ms. lummis. mr. manchin. mr. markey. mr. marshall. mr. mcconnell. mr. menendez. mr. merkley. mr. moran. mr. mullin. ms. murkowski. mr. murphy. mrs. murray. mr. ossoff. mr. padilla. mr. paul. mr. peters. mr. reed. mr. ricketts. mr. risch.

mr. romney. ms. rosen. mr. rounds. mr. rubio. mr. sanders. mr. schatz. mr. schmitt. mr. schumer. mr. scott of florida. mr. scott of south carolina. mrs. shaheen. ms. sinema. ms. smith. ms. stabenow. mr. sullivan. mr. tester. mr. thune. mr. tillis. mr. tuberville. mr. van hollen. mr. vance. mr. warner. mr. warnock. ms. warren. mr. welch. mr. whitehouse. mr. wicker. mr. wyden. mr. young.

senators voting in the affirmative -- brown, butler, cardin, carper,

collins, duckworth, kaine, kelly, kennedy, menendez, merkley, ossoff, reed, rosen, shaheen, van hollen, warner, and whitehouse. mr. markey, aye. ms. stabenow, aye. senators voting in the negative -- blackburn, braun, budd, capito, cornyn, cramer, ernst, hagerty, hoeven, lummis, ricketts, romney, rubio, schmitt, sullivan, and wicker. mr. scott of south carolina, no.

the clerk: mr. cotton, no.

the clerk: mr. tuberville, no.

mr. welch, aye. mr. tillis, aye.

the clerk: ms. warren, aye. mr. bennet, aye.

the clerk: mr. casey, aye. the clerk: mr. king, aye.

mr. paul, no. mr. thune, no.

the clerk: mr. booker, aye. ms. cantwell, aye. ms. murkowski, aye. mr. lujan, aye. mr. coons, aye. mr. blumenthal, aye. mr. peters, aye.

the clerk: mr. vance, no.

the clerk: mr. mcconnell, no. mr. scott of florida, no. ms. cortez masto, aye.

the clerk: mr. klobuchar, aye.

the clerk: mr. durbin, aye.

mr. schumer, aye. the clerk: mrs. fischer, no. mr. lee, no.

the clerk: mr. barasso, no.

ms. hassan, aye. ms. hirono, aye.

the clerk: ms. sinema, aye. mr. mullin, aye.

the clerk: mr. cassidy, no. the clerk: mr. hawley, no. mr. marshall,

vote: the clerk: mr. johnson, no. ms. baldwin, aye.

the clerk: ms. smith, aye. mr. moran, no. mr. wyden, aye.

mr. risch, no.

the clerk: mr. hyde-smith, no. mr. boozman, no. the clerk: mr. murphy, aye.

the clerk: mr. daines, no. mr. graham, aye. the clerk: mrs. gillibrand, aye. mr. padilla, aye.

the clerk: mrs. murray, aye.

the clerk: mr. sanders, aye. mr. lankford, no.

the clerk: mr. warnock, aye. the clerk: mrs. britt, no.

the clerk: mr. tester, aye.

the clerk: mr. young, no.

testing. vote:

the clerk: mr. schatz, aye. the clerk: mr. manchin, aye.

the clerk: mr. fetterman, aye.

the clerk: mr. heinrich, aye.

the presiding officer: have all senators voted? does any senator wish to change his or her vote? if not, the yeas are 57, the nays are 41, and the nomination is agreed -- is confirmed. under the previous order, the motion to reconsider is considered made and laid upon the table, and the president will be immediately notified of the senate's actions.

the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture. the clerk: cloture motion, we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nomination of executive calendar number 378, jamel semper of new jersey to be united states district judge for the district of new jersey. signed by 17 senators. the presiding officer: by unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum call has been waived. the question is, is it the sense of the senate that debate on the nomination of jamel semper of new jersey to be united states district judge for the district of new jersey shall be brought to a close? the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. and the clerk will call the roll. the clerk: ms. baldwin.

mr. barrasso. mr. bennet. mrs. blackburn. mr. blumenthal. mr. booker.

mr. boozman. mr. braun. mrs. britt. mr. brown. mr. budd. ms. butler. ms. cantwell. mrs. capito. mr. cardin. mr. carper.

mr. casey. mr. cassidy. ms. collins. mr. coons. mr. cornyn. ms. cortez masto. mr. cotton. mr. cramer. mr. crapo. mr. cruz. mr. daines. ms. duckworth. mr. durbin. ms. ernst. mr. fetterman. mrs. fischer. mrs. gillibrand. mr. graham. mr. grassley. mr. hagerty. ms. hassan. mr. hawley. mr. heinrich. mr. hickenlooper. ms. hirono.

mr. hoeven. mrs. hyde-smith. mr. johnson. mr. kaine. mr. kelly. mr. kennedy. mr. king. ms. klobuchar. mr. lankford. mr. lee. mr. lujan. ms. lummis. mr. manchin. mr. markey. mr. marshall. mr. mcconnell. mr. menendez. mr. merkley. mr. moran. mr. mullin. ms. murkowski.

mr. murphy. mrs. murray. mr. ossoff. mr. padilla. mr. paul. mr. peters. mr. reed. mr. ricketts. mr. risch. mr. romney. ms. rosen. mr. rounds. mr. rubio. mr. sanders. mr. schatz. mr. schmitt. mr. schumer. mr. scott of florida. mr. scott of south carolina. mrs. shaheen. ms. sinema. ms. smith.

ms. stabenow. mr. sullivan. mr. tester. mr. thune. mr. tillis. mr. tuberville. mr. van hollen. mr. vance. mr. warner. mr. warnock. ms. warren. mr. welch. mr. whitehouse. mr. wicker. mr. wyden. mr. young.

vote:

the clerk: mr. -- senators voting in the affirmative -- baldwin, booker, brown, cantwell, carper, collins, durbin, heinrich, sanders, sinema, smith, tester, warnock. senators voting in the negative -- barasso, cassidy, crapo, grassley, hawley, lankford, moran, sullivan, thune, tuberville, young. mr. tillis, no.

the clerk: mr. hoeven, no. mr. paul, no. the clerk: ms. warren, aye. mr. fetterman, aye.

mr. welch, aye. mr. cramer, no. mrs. murray, aye. mrs. capito, no. mr. kennedy, aye. mr. whitehouse, aye. mrs. shaheen, aye.

the clerk: mr. hirono, aye.

the clerk: mr. murphy, aye.

the clerk: mr. manchin, aye. the clerk: ms. stabenow, aye. mr. ossoff, aye. mr. wyden, aye.

the clerk: mr. graham, aye.

the clerk: ms. rosen, aye. mr. menendez, aye. mr. schmitt, no.

ms. klobuchar, aye.

the clerk: mr. merkley, aye.

mr. lujan, aye.

the clerk: mr. markey, aye. the clerk: mr. peters, aye. mrs. hyde-smith, no. ms. cortez masto, aye. mr. scott of south carolina, no.

mr. budd , no. mr. budd, no.

the clerk: mr. vance, no. the clerk: mrs. blackburn, no. the clerk: mr. johnson, no. the clerk: mrs. britt, no.

the clerk: ms. duckworth, aye.

the clerk: mrs. gillibrand, aye. the clerk: mr. romney, no. ms. ernst, no. ms. lummis, no o -- no.

the clerk: mr. kaine, aye.

the clerk: mr. wicker, no. mr. padilla, aye.

the clerk: mr. marshall, no. the clerk: mr. braun, no. the clerk: mr. mullin, no.

the clerk: mr. scott of florida, no. the clerk: mr. schatz, aye.

mr. hagerty, no. the clerk: mr. risch, no.

the clerk: mr. van hollen, aye. mr. rounds, no o -- no. mr. cornyn, no. mr. casey, aye.

mr. bennet, aye. ms. butler, aye. vote: the clerk: ms. hassan.

the clerk: mr. schumer, aye. mr. cardin, aye. mr. ricketts, no.

the clerk: mr. boozman, no. mr. blumenthal, aye.

the clerk: mr. rubio, no. mr. daines, no. mr. warner, aye. ms. murkowski, aye.

the clerk: mr. king, aye.

mr. kelly, aye. mr. reed, aye. mr. coons, aye.

the clerk: mr. lee, no.

the clerk: mr. cotton, no.

vote:

the clerk: mr. mcconnell, no.

the clerk: mrs. fischer, no. the presiding officer: on this vote, the yeas are 54, the nays are 44, and the motion is agreed

to. the clerk will report the nomination. the clerk: the judiciary, jamel semper, of new jersey, to be united states district judge for the district of new jersey. mrs. murray: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from washington. mrs. murray: madam president, thank you. as you well know, because we've talked about it, our child care system is simply broken. it is not working for families across our country and we face a crisis now that continues to grow worse. i've said that many times. times. and i will say it again and again and again until we fix this broken system for good. i'm not the only one in congress who feels this way. a month ago 48 of my colleagues to leader schumer and leader

mcconnell urging us to have funding in the emergency supplemental. today many are joining me here on the senate floor to lift up concerns we're hearing from parents and to make the case for robust child care funding without delay. we cannot pretend that child care is any less urgent than the other challenges that we face. for every parent, child care is a do it now problem, not a do it later problem. we need to treat it the same way here, urgent and essential. parents can't wait. they have to go to work tomorrow. they need accessible options now. child care workers cannot wait. they have to pay rent thb month. they have to -- this month. they have to put food on the table tonight. they need a salary that let's them take care of their own families and keep doing what they love instead of taking higher pay in retail or food service to keep their families

afloat. providers can't wait. their margins are already razor thin. if they don't get the support they need to cover operating costs, after workers have already left or after they are forced to close their doors, well, it's too late. madam president, the writing on the wall is right now in big bold letters. the child care crisis is only to get worse unless we take action and soon. child care providers across the country are hanging on by a thread, especially now that our stabilization funding has expired, cutting offer a lifeline that helped 220,000 providers stay open. and help provide child care to nearly 10 million kids while raising wages for child care workers and lowering prices for working families. if child care centers don't get the support they need to make

ends meet, the options for children and families is not pretty. we are talking about a very real possibility that child care centers have to reduce the pay for their staff, lay off staff, serve fewer kids and families, raise their prices, or in many cases, just simply shut their door. this is a huge problem for working parents who can scarcely find child care as it is. and even if they can find openings, that doesn't mean they can afford them. in fact, the already high cost of child care is already getting worse. the latest data shows in september, child care prices jumped by the largestrt percent in years, that means parents are unable to return to the workforce because it doesn't square with their family finances. back in my home state i've heard

so many stories of families who are struggling with this. i just read a story about two parents, laura and rob, rob had to leave his country to get a more flexible schedule because child care was too expensive, so he and laura have to trade off shifts to work fewer hours. and they are far from the only ones struggling with this. the kuw article featuring their story included a story about monica who is a school therapist and trades off working with her husband who is a police officer, and trading off shifts with scrch kye. she said i can't pay for soccer and my mortgage and some child care. i have to pick. we have chosen to pick soccer and mortgage and put together

this schedule where my husband is exhausted all the time. that is what mairnts are going -- parents are going through. it is hurting everyone. you can draw a straight line from the expiration of the child care stabilization funds to the closure of child care providers to the subsequent scramble by parents to find new and likely more expensive child care for their kids that is squeezing parents out of hours on the job, if not out of the workforce entirely, right to the employers who are left without the workers they need because you better believe it's going to have an impact on their bottom line. failing to shore up our child care industry that holds up nearly every sector of our economy in the midst of a workforce shortage that is hitting small businesses and big firms alike is going to cost more than the investment in child care we're asking for,

we're going to lose jobs, workers, and our economy will continue to lose more in lost waings and -- wages and revenue and growth. we are talking about a serious meltdown that will cost our economy big if we fail to value our families. there is no reason for this, not if we take action and take it soon. madam president, as you know, we cannot ignore child care. this is hugely important for our national economy. it is one of the biggest line items for family budgets in many states, including my home state of washington, child care now costs more than college tuition. we have to continue to stabilize the child care situation, instead of standing by and letting things get worse and worse and worse. families, get this, all of my colleagues on the floor with me today get this and thankfully president biden does as well. the president sent congress a

request for supplemental funding for urgent domestic priorities and child care was at the top of that list. now i'm calling on all of our colleagues on both sides of the aisle to work with us to pass a package that funds critical needs at home, especially child care. madam president, i think everyone understands there is a lot happening in the world today. that's why we absolutely need to pass supplemental funding to meet our urgent national security challenges and soon, but as we continue to work to do that, we also have to tackle the problems families face here at home and that means addressing the growing child care crisis. we are the united states of america. we can stand with our allies around the world and tackle the challenges we face with our families here at home. if we are serious about the strength of this nation, our communities and our families, we have got to respond to the domestic challenges with the same resolve we do as we do with

the national security challenges. i am going to continue to work hard with everyone to do that and i appreciate everybody's support and all of my colleagues who are here today to speak out on this. thank you, madam president. i yield the floor. a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from minnesota. ms. smith: first i would like to ask that the fellows in my office, emily henske be granted floor privileges until january 1, 2024. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. smith i rise with my -- ms. smisdz: i rise -- ms. smith: i rise to talk about high quality place for child care, and that's why we need to step up and make sure that we provide support for child care as we contemplate next steps for an

emergency supplemental budget. for decades, madam president, minnesotans have struggled to find child care they can afford many even before the pandemic, families told me it cost them as much to pay for a year of day care as to send their child to the university of minnesota for a year. but, of course, these young families haven't had years to save to pay for that child care so they can't afford over $12,000 a year and that's even if they can find a good, safe place for their infants and toddlers, and then, of course, when the pandemic hit, family care providers came into my office to tell me that their businesses were about to collapse and then what happened? congress took crucial action. we came together to pass emergency relief so that providers could pay their bills and keep their doors open and families had a place for their children. these relief programs were absolutely necessary to help child care providers keep their doors open and to operate during

those unprecedented times. so here's the good news. our efforts were a huge success. minnesota providers from the smallest of small businesses operating out of their homes to larger child care centers, they all tell me that they would not have survived without this help. and that is true not just in minnesota but all over the country. just in minnesota, the emergency child care stabilization grants kept over 8,000 child care providers going. it kept them going. they reached over 200,000 kids in just in minnesota, but in every state, from alaska to alabama, every state saw tremendous benefits. in fact -- this is interesting -- 96% of child care providers who got help from the stabilization grants say that it helped them to stay open and operating. so, colleagues, here's our challenge. on september 30, these programs expired, but the deep challenges

that families and child care providers are still there. so we're back in the soup because without help to these providers, they're back at risk themselves, and they face really terrible choices. as senator murray just described. do they try to cut the pay for these workers who are some of the lowest paid, underpaid workers primarily women, primarily women of color any place in the country. so that's one option. pay cuts for those workers who are struggling already themselves. or do they try to increase prices? which we know will drive some families away because they literally cannot afford what it costs. or, as senator murray says, do they just fold up. do they go out of business, do they give up? if that happens we know what we'll see. we'll see more women leaving the workforce at a time when many minnesota businesses are telling me that they are struggling to find the talent that they need to grow their businesses.

so, colleagues, we took decisive action to bolster our nation's care giving infrastructure, and we got great results. and now we cannot afford to lose the progress that we made. this is an issue that i think we all know people are paying attention to, minnesota and all over the country. they are noticing this. child care is one of the top issues that i hear about from people when i'm home. i hear from families in rural minnesota that are driving 50 miles to take their kids to child care. i hear from families that are paying more than a third of their incomes to cover the cost of care for two children. and i hear from employers and economic development professionals who want to hire and retain great talent, but they know that they can't do that unless there is a child care center in their community that people can rely on. so this is about our kids, but it is also about our economy. a recent study found that our

broken child care system cost the economy $122 billion a year in lost earnings and productivity and revenue. that's every year. $122 billion. so if you think about the return on investment for providing the grants to stabilize these child care centers so that they are there for our families, it is so clear what the right thing to do is. we can fix this. we know what to do because we did it once and it worked. and now we just need to do it again. now, i think that everyone in this room knows that we need a long-term solution to our child care crisis, and many of us are working on that. but in the meantime, right now families don't have time to wait. we know what for do. we know how to help parents. we know how to keep child care providers open. and so i urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, let's take what we know worked and let's do it again. join us in providing urgently

needed support for child care. join us for the good of our families, for the good of our babies and toddlers, and for child care providers, and for our whole country. thank you, madam president. i yield the floor. a senator: madam president the presiding officer: the senator from new hampshire a senator: i'm here to join my colleagues because across the country working families are facing an impossible choice that are created by the lack of access to child care. mrs. shaheen: even before the covid pandemic, families in my state of new hampshire and elsewhere have struggled to access affordable child care and they were often faced with shortages of available child care slots. the pandemic exacerbated these challenges and caused centers to close. that forced families to scramble for alternatives.

the clourp of a child care provider can result in higher costs for families and in new england we already pay some of the highest costs for child care in the country. they can also require parents to leave the workforce altogether. since 2019 new hampshire has lost nearly 1500 child care slots as dozens of child care centers have closed their doors. i've visited some of those centers from across my state, from littleton in the northern part of new hampshire to rochester down on the maine border to manchester, our largest city and over in the west to keene. i have seen those closed classrooms and strained facilities in every corner of the granite state. in october 2020 new hampshire had only half of the licensed capacity necessary to serve children under the age of 6 who needed care. only half of the required slots for care. and in just one of our counties, the northern most county of the

state that borders canada, three child care centers have closed since january of this year. like all of my colleagues on the floor, we worked to deliver more than $50 million in federal funding for child care during the pandemic. this is funding that was critical for allowing providers to keep their doors open, to improve child care affordability and expand access, to increase wages for child care workers and build a supply of child care in states like new hampshire. now with that relief funding running out, child care providers are again facing an existential crisis. congress intentionally designed child care relief during the pandemic to accomplish two goals. first, to provide direct relief to providers to stabilize the sector and second, to provide states with the resources to make long-term investments to try and address child care

availability. now, i'm disappointed to say that in my state of new hampshire, they delayed the distribution of that long-term funding stream which made the last two years unnecessarily burden some for families and child care providers across new hampshire. in fact, i'm hearing from providers who are in desperate need of additional support to avoid closing classrooms. so i'm really pleased that the president included $16 billion for support for child care in his domestic supplemental appropriations request to congress, and we need to act as soon as possible to provide this critical fund willing. -- critical funding. we've got to act to stabilize not just the child care industry that our families and workforce and communities rely on but this is vital for our economy as a whole. right now the repercussions of the child care crisis are being felt across every sector of our economy. i've heard from every industry

in new hampshire, manufacturing, health care, nonprofits, tourism that the child care crisis has hamstrung their ability to continue to grow their operations. over the summer i travelled up to the northern most county in new hampshire. i heard from parents. one family, a man named michael whose son's child care center has recently closed. at the time of the closure, the nearest center with any open slots for he and his wife to be able to place their son was more than an hour away. that left michael and his wife like many families across the state struggling to do their best to keep their jobs without local reliable child care. and where they live, their community can't afford for michael or his wife who is a critical health care worker to leave the workforce.

new hampshire's families should not have to choose between their children and their jobs. and new hampshire's businesses should not have to face additional struggles to find qualified workers. families across america are relying on us, all of us here in congress, to help child care providers stay open and to provide affordable care options. this federal funding would improve their lives while boosting our economy by helping parents keep their jobs or return to work. i appreciate all of those who are here on the floor today and everyone who is supporting additional funding, for speaking out to make sure that we try and do something as soon as possible to help the families who are in need. thank you, madam president. i yield the floor. a senator: madam president a senator: i'd like to join my

colleagues today. i see the chairman here. we did remarkable work to expand the child tax credit during the covid epidemic and it made a truly remarkable difference in children's lives. mr. whitehouse: nearly 50% reduction in child poverty. why would you not want more of that? yet we let it expire in 2021 and sure enough child poverty slimed back up again. there was a lot of fearmongering we did it that this was going to discourage people from working, that they'd just sit at home sop up the tax credit. the fact of the matter is if you can't get child care, you can't get to work. and if you can't get reliable, quality child care, you can't move up into the kind of job where you don't have to worry about being called away because your child care just fell apart. so in rhode island at least, we saw families do more work as a

result of this. 174,000 rhode island children benefited. families got $264 million. low-income families to pay for child care, get to work or step up to a better job. at the same time we also provided additional funding for child care providers in that same american rescue plan. and that was another win. and you put the together together and it really lifted families. right now without congressional action, three million children are projected to lose access to child care. 70,000 child care programs could close. bring that to rhode island, it's 21,000 kids in my state who could lose access to child care. 680 child care workers could lose their jobs. 419 different child care providers could close. we simply cannot let that happen. it is wrong. it is dumb. it is penny wise and pound fool

-- wise and pound foolish. we need to do three simple things. make child care a priority, encourage work and earnings and reduce child poverty. we can do those three things by reestablishing the child tax credit and continuing to support child care providers. thank you. a senator: madam president the presiding officer: the senator from virginia mr. kaine: mapped, i will start -- madam president, i will start by thanking my colleagues, especially senator murray, for organizing this effort and also her life for being a passionate advocate for kids, especially as an early childhood educator. i'll start in another way that is a little nontraditional and be a proud dad. i have three adult children and i'm proud of them all for different reasons. but my middle son, i'm proud of him because he's my only phi beta kappa and an early childhood educator. he decided works as a child care provider is what he wants to do

and he's worked in both pre-k classroom settings and also individually for families. i know how little he makes. ten years out of college. i know how he loves to find some extra hours where he can make a little bit more. i was excited that he was excited a few years ago when he told me that he had picked up extra hours shovelling snow at the pre-k classroom. because he lives in minnesota, there's a lot of snow to be shovelled. on nights and weekends, he's going to make a little bit more being the snow shoveller so parents, teachers and kids can come to school safely that day. the stories i hear around virginia are the same my colleagues have shared. i want to share one, too, one from a parent and one from a provider. heather is in fairfax city, the most populous part of virginia. here's what she told us. one of the reasons my family ended up homeless was because we didn't have access to quality,

affordable child care for our boys when they were little. they also lost access to programs that would allow them to be school ready. when i was pregnant with our prince, i was hospitalized for almost 12 weeks and we couldn't afford child care for our boys so my husband would drop them off at the hospital so that he would be to believe go to work -- be able to go to work. unfortunately without access to child care and a hospital being no place for kids to stay all day long, he ended up losing his job which in turn meant we lost money to provide for ourselves. we had to go on snap to have food and eventually he lost his business and we became homeless. one of the biggest contributing factors was the lack of access to affordable child care. at the time there was not enough space in programs like head start. without access to programs like affordable quality child care families are hurting. the lack of access has forced families to not be able to go to work, go to school or leave

kids at home in compromising positions just to be able to put food on the table. i forgot to include that at this time we were considered middle class before all of this. both my husband and i are college educated. i was working at first too, but i also had to leave my job because we couldn't afford the child care for both of us to work. my husband is an honorably discharged combat veteran. i mean to add this to help demonstrate how far-reaching this is and to break down myths about who this affects. quickly at the other end of my state, appalachia, christie in blacksburg, since the pandemic we had to decrease the number of families we're able to serve because we're having a difficult time with our staffing. being able to pay early childhood teachers has been a significant difficulty for us but since the pandemic it's become tremendous. i think what the senate needs to understand is that if this

industry collapses -- and i would say we're on the verge of collapse -- -- a major collapse, it's going to have a detrimental impact on our workforce and economy. that's why we have to act for this that created breathing room for our families. i stand with colleagues to support president biden's request that we have $16 billion in child care funding at this most critical time. and with that, madam president, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. wyden: madam president, my colleagues have said it so well, and i'm going to be very brief and want to thank senator murray and all my colleagues who have done such good work. let me start by saying, madam president, we democrats are generally not supposed to use the word supply-side economics. i want everybody to understand we've got to be supply siders on

child care. we desperately need more child care facilities. we need more built. and i have no qualms about saying as a proud democrat, chairman. senate finance committee, i am a supply sider on the issue of child care, and i will say that everywhere i go in my state, big communities and small communities, there are waiting lines, very long waiting lines -- sometimes the kid is going to be grown up by the time they get a chance to get child care. it is absolutely unacceptable. we have to increase our splievment we've passed a -- supply. we've passed a number of good pieces of legislation. we have more to do. that's number one. point number two is this is a fundamental issue of american productivity. we know that we are trying to compete in tough global markets.

the president and the senate, my part of the world, in the west, we've got a geographical advantage, leg up on china. let's not give it away with the absence of good child care facilities. you've got to have child care in order to be able to go to work and know that your kid is going to be okay while you're gone and making a good living. high skilled, high-wage jobs. they ought to also be ones that give you an opportunity to make sure that your kid can have good care. and finally the third point that i make, madam president, is we need to tap all the resources that are available in our communities. all of them. and i would say specifically i'd like to see us look at more opportunities to utilize churches in the delivery of health care facilities. and i'd say to my colleagues there's a history of doing this.

i remember, for example, in terms of taking care of kids and families and had some challenges with alcohol and drugs and the like. when i was a young member of the other body we developed something called kinship care where seniors could take care of the little ones. so there are opportunities to do this. and i met a lot of church leaders who said that with just a little bit of help, maybe a tiny, small tax incentive, maybe a little bit of grant funds -- i see my friends from the finance committee, senator stab now senator whitehouse, there is a program that states provide assistance on child care. our committees working together, we can do this but we ought to utilize all our resources. madam president, i'm going to make this a filibuster-free zone. my colleagues all said it really well. supply side economics for getting us more child care facilities, let's focus on this

as a productivity issue, a competitiveness issue. and, third, let's utilize all the resources in our communities. and i congratulate all my colleagues and great to see the finance committee stalwarts out in force. i yield back, madam president. a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from connecticut. mr. blumenthal: thank you, madam president. i'm glad to join my colleagues on the floor today to really emphasize how a family's life falls apart when they don't have access to good child care. i'm one of the --. mr. murphy: i'm one of a handful of young kids. i have no complaints. my wife and i make enough money so we've been able to provide quality child care for our kids as we have both been working throughout their life. be -- but when you are living on a more modest salary -- not a poverty wage but a modest lower, middle-income salary,

your entire world can fall apart when you lose access to a quality child care environment. people have to quit their jobs. they have to move back in with their parents. they have to move their entire family to a different city or a different state. your entire life gets upended when you can't find care for your child, because you will upend your entire life for your child. nothing matters more than making sure that your child is safe. and so what we are forcing our families to do simply because we don't choose to do the right thing and provide funding to make sure that there are affordable child care qualities available, it is sending our families into unnecessary crisis all over this country. in my state, i've had 124,000 parents report that their work has been disrupted by child care

issues, that they have had to leave work, that they have had to leave employment because of an interruption in child care. our child care centers in connecticut -- and we're a high-cost child care state. we're a high cost state in general. 89% of them report that they've had difficulty hiring staff. 60% say that right now they are understaffed. and 70% of them say they have wait lists for new families, which just shows you that all over connecticut we have a total mismatch between the number of slots and the number of families that need those slots. and of course that delivers enormous harm to families but also to our workforce. i met a young woman a few weeks ago who lives in hartford and she's got a very young child. they're on the wait list for a subsidized child care slot. she want to actually be a child care worker. she wants to help solve the

workforce shortage. but she can't get into the workforce. why? because she has to stay home to take care of her young child. and so this cycle that ends up impacting not just families, but our economy at large, is one that we have to break. i just want to leave you with this one last piece of math to just explain how serious the situation is in my state. in connecticut, we have a program called care for kids. this is a program that does for lower-income families, try to give them some subsidy so they can afford child care. but that program cuts off for a one-child family at $41,500 a year in income. that's a lower, middle-income salary in connecticut. that's a salary that's not unfamiliar in my state. let me do very quick math for you. for a family of three, two

bed-room, one-bedroom house can be about $1,800 a month. child care in connecticut on average is going to be about $15,000 a year. total of just the cost for a family that makes just above the threshold to qualify for our subsidy programs. a family makes $42 thousand, doesn't qualify for our subsidy program, is spending $22,000 a year on rent, is spending $15,000 a year on child care. that's $30,700 a year. they make $42,000. $5,000 left. $10 a week, for everything else. for food, for your cell phone, for your clothes for your kid. if you're making above the rate of subsidy in connecticut, just the cost of child care and rent leave you with $10 a week to

survive in the richest, most affluent country in the world. how can we justify leaving families who are doing the right thing, who are working, in that position? that's why i'm so glad to be here on the floor with my colleagues, pleading with our republican friends to do the right thing and support the president's proposed plan to support child care, affordable, quality child care in this country for the families i represent in connecticut. i yield the floor. a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from michigan. ms. stabenow: thank you, madam president. i am so pleased to be joining with my colleagues today to talk about something that is so fundamentally important for our families. so many times i have heard from folks saying we're paying more for child care than our mortgage payment and trying to keep our house together. it is very frightening for many families trying to juggle those costs. so we have an urgent need for our families, for our economy,

for our future. and every morning millions of families in michigan and across the country go through the very same ritual. sleepy children are nudged out of bed, clothes are chosen, breakfasts are eaten, faces are washed, teeth are brushed, snacks are packed and then it's a scramble out the door. car seats are buckled and it's off to the local child care center. only then can mom or dad's work day begin. for millions of families, this essential daily routine is at risk of falling apart. the american child care system already under severe strain before the pandemic now is in danger of collapsing. during the pandemic, i am so proud that we as democrats secured critical emergency funding that helped keep 10

million children in child care. that funding expired, as colleagues have indicated, on september 30. without it, more than 700,000 child care programs could close. 700,000. and 3.2 million families could be left scrambling. as programs are forced to close their doors, quality care will be harder and harder to find, and what care is available will be harder and harder for families to afford. now some people may be thinking i don't have kids in child care. why should i care? you'll care when your doctor or dental appointment gets canceled because the nurse or the hygienist can't find anyone to watch their children that day. you'll care when your favorite coffee shop shuts down because the owners can't find enough workers. and you'll care when your very

best employee has to drop out of the workforce and stay home with their baby because she can't find quality affordable child care. the child care industry is like the scaffolding that our entire economy rests on. when that scaffolding collapses, down goes the economy. president biden understands that, and he has requested the critical funding needed to keep this crucial scaffolding standing. and it's time that we come together on a bipartisan basis and act. american families, american parents and children just can't wait. now just as importantly, we have another challenge that we need to meeting right now that relates to families, to moms

and kids. we need to ensure that american moms and american babies aren't going hungry on our watch. we have this wonderful program that's been supported on a bipartisan basis since the beginning called wic, women, infants and children's programs, provides food assistance, breast feeding support, baby formula, nutrition education to pregnant moms, new moms and children under age 5. and right now we also have a funding cliff happening and a critical need for funding. since 1997, wic has been fully funded to cover all eligible moms and babies and prevent waiting lists. now, we can all come together -- we should all be coming together

to want healthy babies, pregnant moms being healthy, delivering healthy babies and having the nutrition available for moms and babies during their early years of a child's life. that's what wic does. and it's been fully funded since 1997. congress has always understood there can't be a waiting list for pregnant moms. how do you have a waiting list when you've been pregnant the last nine months? it doesn't make sense. to get the nutrition that moms need, that babies need, we have to make sure that there are not waiting lists and newborns keep growing whether they have the food they need or not. but now there's a $1 billion shortfall in the funding of the program. and without funding -- full funding, moms and babies are at

risk of being put on a waiting list for the first time ever in the history of the program in the united states, or seeing critical nutritional support cut. this would take away essential nutrition assistance during a critical time in a baby's life. soon states are going to start making decisions about their budgets and we need to provide assurance to states that they can continue to serve everyone and keep their promise, our promise, to moms and babies. as anyone whose done it knows, raising a family is a tough, tough job. the last thing parents should worry about when they're trying to wash those faces and find those coats and get the kids out the door is whether or not their child care center is going to be open and available or whether

they'll lose the baby formula that their baby needs. american families are raising the next generation. we always say children are our future. the fact is they don't wait to grow up. whether we act or not, they just keep growing. we need to have a sense of urgency about this. if we all care about our children, we need to act to make sure quality affordable child care is there and the nutrition support for our moms and babies is there as well. thank you, madam president. i yield the floor. a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from minnesota. ms. klobuchar: i rise in strong support of senator murray's child care stabilization act .we

know how much this program has been for families, child care providers and our economy since it was established in 2021. thanks to this program, 220,000 child care providers stayed afloat. up to ten million -- 10 million kids' child care slots were saved and the unemployment rate for moms with kids under age 6 empowered moms to return to work at rates we have not seen. the need for high-quality child care is one of those issues i hear about all over minnesota from the iron range up north to our farming towns in southern minnesota, from your ban areas in the -- urban areas in the twin cities to suburbs in the metro. it doesn't matter how qualified you or how badly you need a job, you can't go to work.

there is -- i think about pam and her husband who live in cottage grove, minnesota. they both work full time and rely on day care centers to look after their two little kids. they're paying more than $2,800 a month for child care, meaning pam's husband's paycheck goes to cover the costs. pam told me we may be joining the increasing rank of parents who are part of the workforce because they have no other option. there is another mother who captain find a child care spot .is she sent e-mail after e-mail, but all she got was an overwhelming no infant openings. many of these providers told erin that they wouldn't have openings for years, when she finally found a opening, she couldn't afford it. and there's amelia who lives in

a southern suburb in the twin cities and pays over $15,000 a year for her kids. she says we can't pay our mortgage if i stay home, but we can barely take anything home after sending our kids to preschool. pam, erin, and amelia live in different parts of the state and have different jobs and 51% of parents who also live in child care deserts, they deserve better. they deserve high quality child care that's in their budget with open spots for kids. the good news, we have been making progress in my state. here's a few examples, in red wood falls, a new child care will provide 70 child care spots. the town of morris, a college town near south dakota, they started a program that has six

child care pods, it can be converted to senior housing, but it has small providers that have a place for kids. they share a parking lot and the like. that facility in a smaller town serves more than 80 kids. just a few weeks ago i was in new facilities in perim, minnesota, that was two companies, one food manufacturing with 700 employees, the other a health care company. they combined, they paid for the expansion of existing private child care nonprofit facility, doubled the number of child care spots. got some promised to their kids out of those companies, but a whole lot more for everyone else. fiscal year 2023 congressionally directed spending also made it possible for the halleyq. brown

facility. we're making huge steps in the right direction, including coming out of our state legislature in the last year, but congress needs to pick up this momentum, to do right by people like pam, erin, and amelia and pass the child care stabilization act. for far too many parents, the lack of affordable child care is a barrier to fining a -- finding a job. i thank senator murray for this incredibly important legislation. while we work to strengthen our child care workforce, it's got to be a piece of this in a big way, and build facilities where families need the most, we need to ensure that our child care centers have the funding they need to provide affordable, high quality care. thank you, madam president. i yield the floor. ms. cortez masto: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from nevada is recognized. ms. cortez masto: i rise today, along with my colleagues, as you

have heard, we have a child care crisis in this country. families can't afford it. employers don't have the funds to subsidize it and providers can't pay their workers. in my home state of nevada, it can cost more to send your kids to child care than it does to send them to college. it is just outrageous and we have to do something about it. one of the many consequences of this crisis is that some parents who can't afford child care have to stay home with their kids instead of reentering the workforce. i hear this all the time in nevada. nearly 39% of women with children younger than 5 years old have quit their jobs in last three years, over 90% decided to willingly leave their jobs and not have an income, because they needed to stay home with their children because they lacked the resources for child care in this country to afford it. it is hurting our families, it

is hurting our children and our economy, quite frankly. we must expand access to child care now. now, we took steps to lower child care costs for families when we passed the american rescue plan. that funding has made a difference for families across the country. in nevada, that means families of four that make up to $70,000 a year are getting help covering their child care costs. it means all copays for child care programs have been waived. it means that thousands of families across my state have been able to breathe easier knowing that they won't have to choose between groceries and their kids' tuition. a perfect example is chris steen mc -- christine mcaly, who lives in reno, she works with these families. she told me about a single mom she works with who has three kids.

before the american rescue plan passed, lowering child care costs, this mother was paying $120 a week in cosponsors, that's $120 per week. not having to cover the cost of these copays anymore has been huge for her and her family and helped to alleviate so much financial pressure, she can pay her electric bills without worrying about covering other costs, including child care. the other problem we heard from colleagues is that this legislation expired this year and unfortunately we don't have all of our colleagues that want to continue to support this. what i'm hearing from really far-right republicans is a refusal to work with us to extend this program and that is going to be devastating for so many families across the country, including in nevada, including christine's families that she works with, thousands of them. we're going to see skyrocketing costs next year. parents who have no one else to

look after their children will face impossible choices, and many will choose to leave the workforce so that they can care for their kids themselves. providers won't be able to pay their staff, forcing many to look for employment elsewhere and child care programs across the country will shut down, families will have to stay on longer waiting lists for more time to access the remaining programs. we just cannot let that happen. so child care, it is critical for our families. this isn't a partisan issue. this is about helping working families across the country. this is what they want. this is what i hear in my state, that's what i hear across the country. we have to pass the child care stabilization act now to protect it and to protect our families. thank you, madam president. mr. markey: madam president. the presiding officer: the

senator from massachusetts is recognized. mr. markey: thank you, madam president. across the country, parents and caregivers are bending over backwards to try to get their children in early education. they are paying tens of thousands of dollars out of pocket, relying on family, friends, or neighbors or simply giving up work or their own education because they can't find a child care program with an opening. at the same time, overworked and underpaid providers are struggling to prop up child care programs, burning themselves out and leaving empty, shuttered classrooms behind them. the system is broken, and if we leave it broken, we are failing multiple generations of people who are relying on us to fix it, to fix the broken system.

as maryann wright said, investing in children is not a national luxury or choice, it is a national necessity, a national necessity for our future. if we want the 21st century to be better than the 20th century, we don't have a choice. it is a necessity. when the pandemic began, congress stepped up and provided the largest ever one-time investment in the child care sector through the american rescue plan, and it worked. in massachusetts, child care providers received higher pay, programs stayed safe and open in more places at more hours through the day. we kept classrooms open and prevented families from trying to decide how to continue working and finding a safe place for their children to learn, to

grow, and to thrive. but the pandemic era money is drying up. and those cracks that ruptured in 2020 were from years of underinvestment, long before we had ever heard of covid-19. if we fail to maintain this investment, if we fail 3.2 million children who would lose their care and the 232,000 child care workers who would lose their jobs, then it would be a tragedy for our country. it would ultimately be an economic catastrophe for our country that we did not invest in those children in the same way that we were invested in by preceding generations. one of the reasons that they call an earlier generation the

greatest generation, they weren't as wealthy as us but they were wiser than us. they knew that every child had to be invested in and that's why we're the country that we are today. the challenge for this generation is are we as wise as preceding generations? do we understand that it's only out of selfishness that we would not make the same decision that those earlier generations made in children to whom they were not related either, who did not come in the same ethnic group as they did either, but they did it because it would help our country. so i'm so proud that massachusetts is a leader in child care. state level investments have saved almost 1,000 programs, and 18,000 seats across the -- across the state from closure.

we can't expect states to keep plugging the holes of a failed system and let early educators and child care providers bear the weight of underinvestment. we can't let generations of families fall behind because of a broken system. and we cannot let our child care system and all of the children, all of the families, all of the workers and providers in it to fall off a cliff because there isn't enough funding for the children in our country to get the care which they need. we need to give states the financial freedom to invest, to improve quality, reduce costs to expand access, and we need to guarantee children and families have high quality child care. we need a national permanent solution to the child care crisis. we want kids to thrive when they start school. if we want families to move out of poverty, we need to fund stabilization, support children

and families, and build a child care system that works. so i thank senator murray for her great historic leadership on this issue, for fighting for all of those children in our country to make sure they get the help that they deserve because they are the ones who are going to make america better in the 21st century. young people are only 20% of our population, but they're 100% of our future and that's all senator murray is talking about. let's invest in them in the same way that we were invested in by previous generations. so, madam president, with that i yield back. the presiding officer: the senator from washington pat pat i ask unanimous consent that all time be yielded back and the scheduled vote begin immediately. the presiding officer: without objection. the question is on the nomination. is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll.

vote: the clerk: ms. baldwin. mr. barrasso. mr. bennet. mrs. blackburn. mr. blumenthal. mr. booker. mr. boozman. mr. braun. mrs. britt. mr. brown. mr. budd. ms. butler. ms. cantwell. mrs. capito. mr. cardin. mr. carper. mr. casey. mr. cassidy. ms. collins. mr. coons. mr. cornyn. ms. cortez masto.

the clerk: mr. cotton. mr. cramer. mr. crapo. mr. cruz. mr. daines. ms. duckworth.

the clerk: mr. durbin. ms. ernst. mr. fetterman. mrs. fischer. mrs. gillibrand. mr. graham. mr. grassley.

the clerk: mr. hagerty. ms. hassan. mr. hawley. mr. heinrich. mr. hickenlooper. ms. hirono. mr. hoeven. mrs. hyde-smith. mr. johnson. mr. kaine. mr. kelly. mr. kennedy. mr. king. ms. klobuchar. mr. lankford. mr. lee. mr. lujan. ms. lummis. mr. manchin. mr. markey.

the clerk: mr. marshall. mr. mcconnell. mr. menendez. mr. merkley. mr. moran. mr. mullin. ms. murkowski. mr. murphy. mrs. murray. mr. ossoff. mr. padilla. mr. paul. mr. peters. mr. reed. mr. ricketts. mr. risch. mr. romney. ms. rosen. mr. rounds. mr. rubio. mr. sanders. mr. schatz. mr. schmitt. mr. schumer. mr. scott of florida. mr. scott of south carolina. mrs. shaheen. ms. sinema. ms. smith. ms. stabenow. mr. sullivan. mr. tester. mr. thune. mr. tillis. mr. tuberville. mr. van hollen.

mr. vance. mr. warner. mr. warnock. ms. warren. mr. welch. mr. whitehouse. mr. wicker. mr. wyden. mr. young.

vote:

the clerk: senators voting in the affirmative -- bennet, carper, cortez masto, duckworth, gillibrand, heinrich, kelly, markey, murkowski, murray, padilla, peters, reed, rosen, sinema, smith, tester, wyden. ms. hirono, aye. senators voting in the negative -- barrasso, blackburn, cassidy, cornyn, cramer, crapo, hagerty, hyde-smith, moran, paul, ricketts, scott of florida.

ms. cantwell, aye. mr. durbin, aye. mr. boozman, no. ms. collins, aye. the clerk: mrs. capito, no.

the clerk: shaheen, aye. ms. baldwin, aye. the clerk: mr. tillis, no. mr. murphy, aye.

the clerk: ms. lummis, no. vote:

the clerk: mr. graham, aye.

the clerk: million -- mr. schmitt, no. mr. schatz, aye. the clerk: mr. marshall, no.

the clerk: mr. fetterman, aye.

the clerk: mr. rubio, no.

the clerk: mr. scott of south carolina, no. mr. ossoff, aye.

the clerk: mr. wicker, no.

the clerk: mr. cardin, aye. mr. brown, aye. the clerk: mr. risch, no.

the clerk: mr. casey, aye. mr. van hollen, aye.

the clerk: mr. warnock, aye. the clerk: ms. stabenow, aye.

the clerk: mr. grassley, no.

the clerk: mr. welch, aye. mr. king, aye.

mr. menendez, aye. the clerk: mr. kaine, aye.

the clerk: mr. whitehouse, aye. mr. tuberville, no. mr. hawley, no.