be citizens of the only country they had ever known. two of the justices of the court descented from the ruling and one resigned partially to protest it. the backlash over dred scott v. sandford became one of the precipitating causes of the civil war a few years later. as the civil war came to a close, with hundreds of thousands dead, with much of the south in ruins, with president lincoln asasassinated and with slavery abolished by the 13th amendment, the reunited nation realized it needed to fix the damage done by the dred scott case. and to do so, it needed to finally add a definition of citizen to the american constitution. and that is what is congress and

the states did in adopting section 1 of the 14th amendment. all persons -- all persons -- either born in the united states or naturalized by law are citizens as long as they're subject to u.s. jurisdiction. this sentence, this one sentence, turned the formerly enslaved and all free african americans born here into citizens. the 13th amendment rendered them not slaves. yet, they were not yet citizens, so long as dred scott was the law of the land. this sentence was what turned liberated slaves and free african americans into u.s. citizens. if you are born in america, citizenship is your birthright. in the 1890's, the notion of

birthright citizenship was tested in the supreme court. a man by the name of juan -- wan kim ark was born to noncitizens. he traveled to china. in traveling back to the united states, his birthplace and home, he was denied reentry into this country based on the chinese exclusion act, an egregious law of the time, attempting to bar chinese immigration. he sued to overturn the congressional ban, and the court ruled in 1898 that he was a u.s. citizen based on the plain language of the 14th amendment and the chinese exclusion act could therefore not apply to bar him entry into this country. lawyers in the case attempted to argue, as some do today, that wan kim ark, though born in the united states, was not subject to the jurisdiction of this country, but the court

dispatched this argument quickly by finding that he was clearly subject to the laws of the land of his birth, and this ruling, from 1898, has been the clear understanding of american law ever since. birthright citizenship means that you are a u.s. citizen if you are born in america. your right to citizenship does not depend upon the status of your parents. dred scott, wan kim ark and donald trump all meet that test. this birthright was only guaranteed following incalcuable bloodshed, the centuries-long deprafbity of slavery. the citizenship clause in the 14th amendment was meant as atonement for and repair of that

suffering. anyone who wants to reverse or curtail birthright citizenship is acting directly contrary to the plain meaning of the constitution, and they're attempting to move the u.s. back to a pre-civil war mentality where certain kinds of people, though born in and long resides in the united states, are seen as subordinate and unequal because of their parents' status and ancestry. one additional point is important. the president-elect's claim that only the united states recognizes birthright citizenship. this statement is either ignorant or willfully deceptive. 33 nations, many in the america's, including canada and mexico, grant full birthright citizenship to all born within their borders. the u.s. is not alone in

embracing birthright citizenship. in fact, i would argue that the u.s. has been the leader of a global movement to embrace birthright citizenship. i've described the painful history of how america reached the conclusion that all born here are entitled to citizenship, so long as they are subject to the jurisdiction of this country. in future weeks, i'll return to the senate floor to describe the many benefits that birthright citizenship has bestowed on our nation, and i'll do so by telling the stories of americans born to immigrant parents whose contributions have enriched this country and even enriched the place we stand today, the united states senate. with that, madam president, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from florida. mr. scott: madam president, it's my distinct opportunity to talk about my good friend, senator

mike braun from indiana. senator braun and i came up here at the exact same time. he was 99th in seniority, i was 100th in seniority six years ago. we had very similar backgrounds. both of us built businesses. both of us had very similar backgrounds in how we got started. neither of us started with any money. we got to build successful businesses and had to figure out how to control costs, because you're not going to succeed if you don't figure out how to control your costs. he had a very similar experience with how you control health care costs. you make your employees consumers of health care, they make the decisions on how they're going to spend health care dollars. he also is very focused on the problems of federal debt, the problems of federal spending. from the time he got up here, he was a champion of fiscal sanity.

we, with our wives, had the opportunity to travel to israel, i think our first summer here. i think it was our first summer. and spent a week there, learning everything we could about israel. senator braun has a wonderful family, wonderful wife, also an entrepreneur like he is. i'm going to miss him a lot. he talked about the fact we were so naive when we first came up here that we were supposed to have lump from 12:30 -- have lunch from 12:30 to 2:00. we show up on time. there are two of us there. the food wasn't out. we were told it -- they say it starts on time, but it never did. we both saw the difficulty of trying to get things accomplished here, difficulty of trying to control spending here. but his voice has been very important on the fight for fiscal sanity, here, and his voice has been very important on

the ability to try to figure out how to get health care costs in line so people can afford it. not just government, but individuals can afford it. i'm going to miss him. we had the worst times together. he had the -- i think he had the 3:00 to 6:00, i had the 6:00 to whenever we finished on thursdays. he was very smart. he put it together so at least every thursday one of us could go home a little earlier. he did talk to dan sullivan, who does a great job, if you haven't had the opportunity to watch, listen to dan's alaska every week, talking about an alaskan, he does a great job with that. he got him to move it up so we could get out earlier. we served on aging committee, budget committee, a wonderful person to serve with. he's going to love being governor. i was governor from 2011 to 2019. it's a freight job. if you -- it's a great job. if you care about families, you want to help people get jobs or better education, keep people

safe, that's exactly what you get to do. i think senator braun is going to be the best governor in the country soon. he's going to be the -- he's going to make sure indiana is the state that people can get a great-paying job, their kids get a great education, and people feel safe. it is still a little cold for me. florida is a little warmer than indiana. i want to say i'm very appreciative of mike's friendship and his hard work. i appreciate his tenacity. i can tell you, they're always going to live within their means, because mike will not waste a dime. indiana will have the best, probably the best budget in the country, and all their debt, if they have any, will be paid off very quickly. i want to say to mike, thank you for your friendship. i look forward to working with you, and i'm going to miss you up here. i yield the floor. mr. merkley: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. merkley: i want to note, first, madam president, that i really appreciated senator mike

braun's support on our effort to protect americans' privacy and take on the rapid expansion of tsa use of facial surveillance, stopping the establishment of a national surveillance system is important to the freedom and privacy in america. i much appreciate his partnership in this topic. i wish him all the best in his return to be governor of indiana. madam president, i rise to say a few words about senate bill 1351 and ask for its passage as amended, but before i formally ask, i want to know what this is all about, and that is across our country there are institutions that are say they will help with your troubled teen. in fact, this has become known as the troubled teen industry. now, some of these institutions are long-established huge amounts of oversight, the best

practices, and the best results. and we certainly need these types of places to assist families when they are challenged, in the family setting, by the difficulties experienced by their children. but we also have a whole series of companies that have sprung up, whether for-profit or nonprofit, without the exp expertise, and saw an opportunity to make a lot of money and jump into a space without the proper foundation for actually being beneficial to teens. we had an experience with one of our oregon children who died at just such a facility. one of the individuals, really the individual, who proceeded to draw attention to this largely unregulated, troubled teen industry, is paris hilton. paris wrote a memoir, and she

shared in it, as summarized by -- well, a summary of her book, that her childhood was shattered by two years of strip searches, isolation, beatings, restraints, and brainwashing in this troubled teen institution. her story is not alone. there are multiple stories of broken bones, of sexual assaults, of solitary confi confinement, even stories who, as our child in oregon, stories of them dying in these institutions. so, we found that there really is a lack of detailed information about what's going on across america. 12 democrats and 12 republicans have come together to sponsor this bill, to say we need to understand, and therefore have

recommendations on how to avoid the horrendous outcomes at some of the institutions. so this bill calls for just such a study. this bill proceeds to say that we want our kids safe. we want our kids respected. we want our children to have the very best care. i am struck by the tragedy that occurs when parents, searching for help for their children, strive to send them to a safe place, and end up sending them to a very dangerous place. this is unacceptable. so this bill says let's get a complete map of these institutions, let's understand where they are, what they look like, what they cost and how long kids are staying there, and how children are treated, how they are treated in ways that

are inappropriate and how, in some institutions, they're gold star institutions, how their best practices should be shared across the nation, and how we should inform decision-makers and policymakers across the country with the findings. that's the simple story of this bill. and i'm pleased that i'm able to come to the floor now, with a lot of support. senator john cornyn, the lead on the republican side, a lot of help from tommy tuberville, senator cassidy, who chairs -- or is ranking member of help, was involved in helping this bill go forward. i want to thank the information we received from the florida sheriffs youth ranches, an institution that is highly respected and has been in operation since 1957, providing support and help to literally thousands of young boys.

actually, that's the type of information we want collected, institutions that are working well, that have those best practices. so madam president, as if in legislative session, i ask unanimous consent that the committee on health, education, labor, and pensions be discharged from further consideration of senate bill 1351, and the senate proceed to its immediate consideration. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. 1351, a bill to study and prevent child abuse in youth residential programs, and for other purposes. the presiding officer: without objection, the committee is discharged and the senate will proceed to the measure. mr. merkley: madam president, i ask unanimous consent that the merkley-cornyn substitute amendment at the desk be agreed to, the bill be amendment -- as amended be considered read a third time and passed and the motions to reconsider be

considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. merkley: thank you, madam president. and i failed to mention my appreciation for the conversations i've had with senator rick scott, who helped facilitate a dialogue with the florida sheriffs youth ranches and their contributions to how we should go forward. so with that, i'm really excited that we are getting this bill done. thank you. hopefully the house will be able to expedite it and we'll start to understand an industry we need to understand, and america needs to understand, so children are helped, not hurt. i noete the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

the clerk: ms. baldwin.

>> it's been the honor of my lifetime to represent hoosiers here in the u.s. senate. i said i was going to do this back in 2017, didn't have much of a political legacy. to leave my business that the i had spent 37 years running and that i wanted to to run for the u.s. senate. everybody said fool's errand, couldn't be done. but there were a lot of hoosiers wanting the system to be shaken up. a little bitment and when i interpreted, i think, what politics was doing back in '15 and '16, i crafted that unusual

idea that it could be done even when you've made most of your life in the trenches in the real world. i was told when i got here, freshman senators are not to be heard, maybe seen. sit back, learn the ropes. well, that wasn't going to work for me, because i had already put myself into a corner as i said i wouldn't do it more than two terms. that's unusual. everyone says it. they get amnesia, and then you know the rest of the story. i've been so proud of what we've done here in these six years, what we've done for hoosiers. and when i tell you about some of the things that can be done, i think you're going to be

amazed. i put together a staff the that a came here mostly from indiana, and their goal was to get things done, get it across the finish line. and, sure, proud to have been named the most effective first-term republican senator, sixth most effective in our caucus generally. in the last congress, probably close to that again in this one. but all of us here poe that we get the credit for it, and it's the your staff that does all the heavy lifting. 2021, freshman senate office gets more bills across the finish line hand in any other -- than in any other. amazing. 37 in the span of 6 years. again, that's why the center for effective lawmaker -- law making

singled out our office as being most impactful in areas like health care, education and agriculture. all stuff i bumped into in so many ways in the real world before i got here. i want about to tell you about a few of these wins so that any incoming senators will hopefully get inspired by it. imagine imagine as a republican when one of your biggest pieces of legislation has the word climate in it. so i'll get to the new senate majority -- the presiding officer: we're in a quorum call. mr. barrasso: thank you, madam president. i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. barrasso: the new republican majority begins on january 3 of 2025, so our day one starts in three weeks. republicans are going to enter

the next congress with a long fix-it list on behalf of the american people and at the top of the list is an agenda to lower costs and to restore american energy dominance. prices today are 20% higher than they were two years ago. we know the culprits, the problem behind the high prices. wasteful washington spending, and we've seen a lot of it the last four years. the other reason, of course, is the democrats throttling american energy production. republicans are going to fix the fiscal insanity of the last four years. we'll put americans, not washington bureaucrats, back in the driver's seat. we're going to start by repealing the biden car bribe. this is something that president trump strongly supports, and he is supporting what we are

promoting. he's asked for it, he's campaigned on it. eliminating this car bribe by the biden administration, it is one of the most wasteful policies that we've seen from this administration in the last four years. it's the democrats' $7,500 subsidy for people buying electric vehicles. it was included in their reckless tax and spending legislation. received zero, zero republican votes. not a one. it's an attempt by the democrats to bribe the american people to go along with their unpopular climate fantasy. it's a welfare check for wealthy elites and for green corporations. it's a giveaway to communist china which control key parts of the e.v. supply chain. we were initially told by the joint committee on taxation that these subsidies would cost about $14 billion. well, the price tag has continued to tick up since then.

today there have been some revised estimates and they have ballooned to projected costs of way over $300 billion. that's right, over $300 billion, and that's for vehicles that most americans don't want, can't afford, and don't work for them or their families. the auto dealers in wyoming tell me it takes much, much longer to try to sell these things compared to the traditional gas-powered vehicles. they say they can't even sell them at a loss. they're stuck piling up on the lots. less than 10% of the new car sales in america last year were e.v.'s. the sale figures have been abysmal. e.v.'s lost market share. hard to believe, actually lost market share in 2024. so you have these carmakers from around the country who are now hemorrhaging cash, losing tons of money. and we have auto workers who have lost their jobs. the ceo of ford says his company

is projected to lose $5 billion this year on their e.v. market. silantis is also in the ditch. it announced plans to lay off thousands of auto workers at its plant in michigan. yet, last week it won $7.54 billion loan, a loan, an additional loan from the biden administration, over $7.5 billion for something that's failing. joe biden is leaving the white house the same way he led it, by doubling down on failure. america now has fewer manufacturing jobs today than it did last year. and you want to know the dirtiest secrets of the democrats in terms of this biden car bribe? it sends taxpayer money to communist china. the original law was clear. it said if your e.v. was made with chinese batteries or used

their critical minerals, they would then be ineligible, not eligible for taxpayer-funded subsidies. china batteries, china components, can't get any of the subsidy benefits. joe manchin, he actually wrote that provision into that bill. republicans still voted against the entire bill. we thought it was a waste of taxpayer dollars. joe biden signed it, and then e.v. sales stalled out. so what did the democrats do? they double dealed. they could have made it easier to mine more critical minerals in america, use our own supply chain. but, no, president biden decided to overrule the china ban. his own department of treasury came out with lax rules on sourcing materials, meaning that china, communist china will benefit from american tax dollars. it also means that american workers will pay a higher price

for policy and for vehicles they don't want. we need to go back to consumer-driven free enterprise system, madam president. this is the united states of america. we should never be dependent on dictators and despots like those that we have in communist china. electric vehicles make sense for some people, but they're not an option for all people. consumers have legitimate anxiety about the range of these vehicles, about costly repairs, and about extremely expensive insurance because often a minor ding on one of these electric vehicles with the damage done, they call it a total and complete loss of the vehicle. not something that can be repaired. that's why the insurance is much higher on electric vehicles than traditional vehicles. if e.v.'s were better options, then government wouldn't need to

bribe americans all across the country to buy them or to bribe businesses to build them. electric vehicles are a luxury item. they are toys with severe limitations. they are not must-have means of transportation. taxpayers shouldn't be forced to pay to the cost of luxury vehicles. it's wrong for taxpayers, tax dollars and for working americans, families to subsidize the car purchases of the wealthy elites. the american people have proven that they refuse to be force-fed these electric vehicles. can't be pushed into buying them, can't be bribed into buying them. no thank you said the american consumer. but that's exactly what the democrats have been trying to do. to ban traditional vehicles and to prescribe people to buy --

and to bribe people to buy electric vehicles. democrats want to pick what you can drive. they want to punish everyone who doesn't want to do it, all as a result of their smug moral superiority. well, i have a message for my colleagues, and it's the same message that americans sent in november when taxpayers and voters went to the polls, they said government, big government, democrat government does not know better than we the people. senate democrats don't know better than we the people. we the people have a right to decide what's best for us, what's best for our families. the incoming trump administration and the the senate majority will get rid of the biden car bribe and ban, embrace free enterprise and fiscal responsibility. we'll restore america's america's independence and dominance. we're going to strengthen our

manufacturing. we're going to bring back good-paying jobs. we're going to put americans back in the driver's seat. thank you, madam president. i yield the floor. a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from mississippi. mrs. hyde-smith: thank you, madam president. our farm economy is headed in a dark and scary direction. i hope all of my colleagues here in the senate and on the other side of the capitol recognize that. it is time for congress to deliver meaningful assistance to our agriculture producers. they have been devastated by unprecedented market conditions and natural disasters over the last two years, and they need help recovering from both. not one or the other.

i rise today to urge our colleagues to take action and to support those who support you. the economic landscape for farmers is looking more like a farm crisis of the 1980's every day. that's pretty scary. there's not a farm crisis looming. it's already under way. but it's not too late to keep it from snowballing out of control if congress acts. the farm crisis ofproducers. of the 1980's, was one of the worst economic disasters since the great depression, decimated rural america and took years for many communities to recover from, some never did. what caused the crisis? inflation, low-farm income,

depressed crop prices and inadequate price support policy. does that sound familiar? u.s. farm income has dropped $41 billion over the last two years, the worst decline we've ever seen. our trade deficit is expected to reach a record high of $45.5 billion for fiscal year 2025. input costs and interest rates are close to an all time high, commodity prices are low and the federal farm safety net is not providing any support because the price-loss coverage program references prices that haven't been updated since the 2014 farm bill. these are unprecedented market conditions. believe me, i know. to break this down in greater detail, market losses suffered

by producers for the 2024 crop year alone are estimated at $31 billion. 31 billion with a b. madam president, i have a breakdown of the market losses by state and commodity that i ask to be submitted into the record. every single state in the united states suffered market losses this crop year. the office of management and budget recently submitted a disaster supplemental request to congress asking for $21 billion for ad hoc support for farmers impacted by natural sdarsz in -- disasters in 2023 and 2024, and i support that. however, omb's request failed to mention anything pertaining to market losses. how can we ignore $31 billion in

market losses this year alone and expect to keep u.s. agriculture afloat? we shouldn't and we can't. farmers need market loss assistance too. we need an additional $15 billion for market losses. the house and senate agriculture committees have been working on a proposal that would cover market losses on top of natural disaster losses. it is estimated to cost about $15 billion. congress should support that whether through supplemental appropriations or a farm bill extension in addition to have what -- to what has been proposed for natural disasters. producers should be eligible for both. state farm bureaus from all 50 states have sent letters to congress asking for both market and disaster assistance. both, not one or the other.

further every major agricultural organization across the country, american farm bureau fed -- federation, national association of wheat growers, national barley growers association, national cotton council, u.s. canola association, and u.s. peanut federation, u.s. dry pea and lentil council have endorsed marker legislation introduced in the house focused on market losses. if congress fails to recognize the importance of providing market loss help and only focuses on natural disaster, my fear is that one, farmer and farm groups across the country are going to be very angry that congress decided to address only

half the problem while ignoring every farmer across the country impacted by record input costs and depressed prices. and, two, we're going to have a farm crisis in this country worse than the 1980's crisis. i will leave my colleagues with this question. are we going to learn from lessons of the past and take appropriate action or take the path of least resistance today and be required to pay hundreds of billions on the back end after it is too late? madam president, i yield the

>> 56 trillion in 10 years. that gets geometrically more difficult to get out of that holing being dug that deep. i had -- hole being dug that deep. i had a business where the office was in a a mobile home first 17 years, got introduced out here. had his office in a double wild. i said it was a used single wide. of that was my first and only opportunity of doing what i wanted to do. well, the overhead was so low you almost had to stoop to get in the door, figuratively

speaking, but i learned a lot of valuable lessons. in the real world, you've got to live within your means. borrowing money from our kids and grandkids is not a business with plan that's going to work. how do we turn things around? the best thing the we are not flying blind here. there's an instruction manual. it's called the constitution. especially the tenth amendment. as the federal government has struggled, the states have been a laboratory for how you fix things. that's where the innovation is going to come from in the next decade, and i'm so excited to lead that charge back home in indiana. it was so hard to get here in the first place. the question i get asked most, why wouldn't you stay? well, i kind of explained that a little bit earlier, that i

believe in term limits, and it was an either/or choice. either run for governor or serve another term here. i'm not going to lose sight of what i've been a part of. but i cofeel i've made the righe right choice. and on this entire journey, i couldn't have done it without my life partner, power rhine -- maureen, married 48 years ago. never get that number wrong even if it's off by a year. at our wedding, i'll never forget, everyone as they passed me and got to her, i was trying to listen if anyone said that she was lucky. because i was first, and everyone without exception said how lucky i was. well, i just couldn't resist. after we got out of the line

there at church, i said, dear, were are there any people that told you you were lucky in and in a very diplomatic way, she said there were a few. [laughter] i've been blessed beyond all measure there. i've got a family that that has worked great. three of the four kids worked in the business i ran for 37 years. three of the seven grandkids, right up there. jason, one of my four kids. i've been blessed beyond measure when you look at all of that, and then the thing i talk most often about is faith, family and community. and in that broader scope, how we were so lucky to be dropped into a place called jasper,

abe -- indiana, that, to me, is something you'll never figure out. i'm just thankful when i had one of the best mbas in the country and was headed to wall street and we talked the about do we want to do it when we wanted to raise a family, i took the first entrepreneur's course there. she already wanted her own business. didn't seem like wall street was going to the work out. well, we moved what back home. best job i could fine, the over ankle -- 80% a pay cuts. -- cut. if we haven't -- if we hadn't done that, almost certain i wouldn't have been here this afternoon doing a farewell speech in the u.s. senate. i tour all 92 counties each year. i've offered open office hours on fridays. hoosiers, i'll be doing that as your next governor as well. hoosiers are some of the most good-hearted, hard working people in the world.

and it's been my honor to serve you here. and to all my colleagues here in the senate, thank you for your friendship and the ohioan of serving alongside you -- the honor of serving alongside you in this esteemed body not to mention all the precious memories i'll take back to indiana. and i'll part on this, because i've spent so much time sitting in that seat as the presiding officer at the most unconvenient time each week, thursday afternoon from 3-6. [laughter] if well, you're pretty well the lone soldier by then. you're going to get in the watch-up. rick scott was the only one who had poorer seniority than me. and i'll never forget, we were all interested in wrapping it up. well, the first thing i did was where i figured out a way to where i only a had to do it

every other week. it paid off so i didn't have to do it every week. and then when i found there were some senators that the liked to linger around a little later on thursdays than maybe what they needed to and one that did it every thursday and had flexibility mr. tuberville: mada, a little while ago my colleagues were successful in passing the stop institutional act, and i want to thank paris hilton for her great work on this legislation. i applaud her for using her position of influence as a force for good. she has worked hard to make sure no child has to go through what she went through in her earlier life. american kids and young adults will decide the future of this country. i dedicated my life to mentoring young people because they are the most precious commodity that we have. if we get everything else right but neglect our young people,

our country has no future. i've seen some of these residential treatment facilities with my own eyes, and i know they need reform. right now there's not enough oversight in some of these schools. some states are trying to regulate them but we need to do more on a national level. we don't know where the federal money is going or who is making money off looking after our kids. we don't understand the regulations and whether they benefit our children or not. this bill authorizes a study of these felts and looks a shall -- facilities and hooks at them nation -- looks at them nationwide. it looks at what it takes to go to harvard and what it costs for one of these kids to be in these institution. there's an old saying that

suns sunlight is the best disinfectant. we need more sunlight on these facilities so we can put a stop to the waste, fraud, and abuse in this system. i'm proud to support this bill and i stand with our kids. now, i'd like to remind you of a vote that president joe biden took in 1983 as a senator to tax your social security. that's right. joe biden is responsible for your social security money today being taxed and it's a scam. one of the big reasons why the american people elected president trump is to be the next president of the united states is because they are tired of being scammed by the federal government. they're tired of seeing their hard earned money evaporate into thin air because of inflation, which is caused by the biden and democrats speck money that --

spending money that we don't have. they're tired of having their tax dollars sent to fund foreign wars where america's interests are really not at stake. they're tired of the federal government use taxpayer dollars to put illegal aliens up in fancy hotels instead of building a war to secure our nation's sovereignty. what the american people have been tired of for years, decades even, is how they've been getting scammed out of their retirement money, the money that they pay into this government. here is the sad truth. the american people don't have any confidence that they will see all the money they paid into social security over the years. since being signed into law in the 1930's by president roosevelt, americans' money has been going in the front door of the federal government and then out the back door. it's a big ponzi scheme.

and everyone is forced to participate in it. you have no choice. it doesn't matter if you're 16 or 76. a little over 6% of your paycheck is taken out to pay for this retirement. americans have been paying into social security for years only to see a fraction of what they have been promised to be returned to them. and that's not all. after decades of having social security taken out of their paychecks, millions of americans have to pay taxes on what they do get at the end of the day. that's right. the money that's owed to them, the taxpayers' own money that's been held for years by the federal government is taxed again as if it's new income. withdrawing money from your paycheck every week or month for social security is already taxed

to begin with. the money taken out of your pocket and your paychecks isn't put into an account that gains interest like a mutual fund. it doesn't even gain interest like a savings account. it actually has a lower rate of interest than the rate of inflation. and that's not the worst of it. the pot your social security money sits in isn't left alone by the federal government. no. your money that you pay into social security is being used like a debit card by the federal government. so the money you're paying into, it is effectively a tax. then would little money you do get back is taxed again. we've got people that are getting ready to retire in this country that are going to try to live off $2,000 a month after paying social security all their

life. in this day and age, $2,000, it's impossible to live off of, totally impossible. we'd better start figuring this problem out because one of these days, millions of people are going to come to d.c. and say, where is my money? and i don't blame them. i don't blame them one bit. we're $36 trillion in debt, and that's no sign of that slowing down. let me repeat that. $36 trillion in debt. we seem to be spending all we can on everything but retired american workers. we've sent over $200 billion to ukraine. just yesterday the biden administration announced they're getting $20 billion more to ukraine this the form of a loan. well, that's interesting.

we're never getting that money back. it's another scam. over $400 billion in covid relief money was wasted, misspent, or stolen. and i just saw on tv when i came down here in a news report, president biden just gave iran $10 billion more. the biden administration set aside billions of dollars to build e.v. stations across this country, plug-ins. up here we toss money around like it's nothing. and then we turn around and tax americans' social security checks. it's unfair for the millions of americans who paid into social security to suffer for their government's incompetence. my two sons ask me all the time if they're ever going to see the money they paid into social security. at this rate they've got a better chance of seeing world

war iii than ever seeing that 6% that was taken out of their paychecks since they started working. how bleak is that? that's why when president trump says he wants to fight for social security to protect it and preserve the retirement age, it resonates with people. people listen. because it sounds like somebody is going to help somebody. the american people aren't dumb. they know there's been funny business going on at the social security administration for many, many years. and that they may never see a dime of their money that they're owed. americans aren't dumb. every election year you hear our democratic colleagues saying republicans want to cut social security benefits, raise the retirement age. yet it was joe biden who voted to tax your social security check. as usual our democrat colleagues just keep throwing money at other programs, projects and

wars, neglecting one of the biggest problems facing our country. with president trump coming to town, we're finally going to make sure the government is serving the people, not bleeding them dry. president trump is going to make sure the government is accountable to all american taxpayers. at the very least he's going to give it to you straight, not just tell you would you want to hear -- tell you what you want to hear. the department of government efficiency or what we are now calling doge will play a big role in solving this problem. elon and vivek will make sure the american people know exactly what is going on in washington. there will be no secrets. the bottom line is this. we need to get bureaucrats a and -- politicians' hands out of the mess that they've made with the social security money. we need to make sure americans

get what they were promised. president trump's pick to be the commissioner of the social security administration is a great choice to get social security cleaned up. if he doesn't, we'll change him. frank is an excellent -- has an excellent track record as an executive in a business and finance. he's not a politician. as president trump said, commissioner frank will deliver on the agency's commitment to the american people for generations to come. it's about time washington, d.c. starts working for the people that we're supposed to represent. what a thought. not the special interests. not for career politicians and entrenched bureaucrats or the liberal pet projects or foreign wars that don't deserve our interest. instead of spending money, we

don't have things -- don't have on things we don't need, let's put it back in the pockets of the americans that have worked and paid for this. not only is it in america's best interest to do this, it is the right thing to do. madam president, i yield the floor.

♪ ♪ >> distinguished guests, the president of the united states and and dr. biden. ♪ ♪

[cheers and applause] >> you're so quiet. it's like a classroom. [laughter] [cheers and applause] so is in the intermission, were y'all, like, dancing and everything? [laughter] get a little movement, you know, you've been sitting for a while with. thank you for standing, but, you know, i'm glad you get, like you said, robin, a little movement. that's what it's all about. so -- oh, please sit down, please. [laughter] you feel all stretched out by now. so before i begin, i just want to say i'm so glad that you got to come here today, because the white house is decorated. [cheers and applause]

and the theme this year is peace and light. so i hope that you all feel that sense of, you know, peace and light and that just for a moment when you leave here today, that you feel, i don't know, a littl. because i think we all need, like, you know, we all need to feel joy e now during this time of the season, during, just during this time. so anyway -- [laughter] okay. now -- [laughter] if you're all reading into that. [laughter] anyway, for decades, for centuries even at dinner tables and in waiting rooms, in whispered conversations, you know, when we meet our friends for coffee, women have been talking to each to other about our health. isn't that true? >> yes. >> so today we brought that

conversation to the white house. [cheers and applause] today we are saying to women everywhere, we hear you and we will get you the answers you need. so thank you for joining us for the white house conference on women's health research. the united states has the best health research in the world, yet women's health is understudied, and research is underfunded. and so many of you have said this. and the united states economy loses $1.8 billion in working time every year to menopause if somes -- symptoms that upend women's lives x. that's what maria shriver and i talked about on that saturday afternoon in april last year. so maria keeps this quote next to the her phone.

you have a stationary phone? if. [laughter] in her office x. it says, why go to the moon. and your uncle, president end kennedy, asked we choose to go the to the moon in this decade and do other things not because they are easy, because they are hard. so maria, thank you for carrying on that mission, pushing for breakthroughs that are never easy but possible. thank you. [applause] so a little more than a year ago, president biden launched the first ever white house initiative on women's health research. building on the foundation of decades of work in women's health from many of you in this

room. and caroline made sure yesterday as we were doing speech prep that i understood, she said, jill, you know, i know what we're doing -- that we're doing this now, but there are some women like caroline who have been doing this research forever and ever and ever, and i i just want you to say we, we recognize that. so -- [applause] [laughter] a -- so it, and you heard from if caroline, you know, our incredible and our incredible team here at the white house who's ensured that government-funded research today will include well from the beginning. women from the beginning. and if that the means designing studies and separating the data which everyone has said and reporting findings to to create treatments specifically for women and for men. i mean, we're not going to leave you guys out. [laughter] and we've invested nearly $1

billion in this research on women's health. [cheers and applause] so over this past year i've traveled around the country, and i have met, honestly, some really incredible researchers. and i've been to universities and the new york stock exchange to to bring people together and create connections across industries. and the women of this country are paying attention. researchers and business leaders are too. so we brought all of you into this room to elevate all this information, discoveries that that will change how we treat menopause symptoms. we talked about all this morning.

we are going to be great grandparents. [applause] so founders the market for mental advocates making sure women know solutions are at our fingertips keep fighting for them. the murder of robert toward closing the gap until everything in place today always learn something new.

they is in the finish line, it's a start. it's up to us to make it unstoppable the honor of my life to serve as your first lady and join you in this work but my work doesn't stop in january when joe and i leave this house. i will keep building alliances the ones that brought us here today. i will keep funding for innovative research. [cheering and applauding] each proposal you work on from the beginning the investor for

the next breakthrough product every space in boardrooms to classrooms to laboratories and ask, what are we doing to advance men's health? make a promise to those women out there right now after doctors appointment wondering why you're not being heard. it sounds like you're putting it down.

we want the answers. trying to make that one 100% there. until you worry turns into answers. let it be the moment we push harder. [cheering and applauding]

[applause] who hurt us. [laughter] and action quickly. without joe mathis wouldn't have been made possible and that's the power of someone who understands make things happen in government is event here what, 50 years? re we in a -- bl are we in a -- mrs. blackburn: are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are not. mrs. blackburn: last week i spoke about president trump's excellent picks to lead our national intelligence agencies. today i'd like to take a moment

to discuss president trump's picks to oversee our nation's national security. across the board, these selections prove that president trump is prepared to restore american strength after four years of the biden-harris failures in our nation's national security. look no further than the president's outstanding choice for defense secretary. that is tennessean pete hegseth. as a bronze star medal recipient who deployed to iraq and afghanistan, mr. hegseth knows exactly what our servicemembers need to defend our freedoms. he knows what the men and women in uniform need to carry out their mission. under president biden, this administration has demoralized our soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen from anti-american

dei programs to weakness and appeasement abroad. this assault on our military will come to and he under mr. hegseth as he works to restore the defense department to its core mission -- securing peace through strength. joining him in this fight are three talented congressional colleagues. our colleague here in the senate, senator marco rubio of florida as secretary of state; congressman mike waltz as the national security advisor; and congresswoman elise stefanik as u.s. ambassador to the united nations. all three are proven leaders who have stood up to our adversaries, strengthened relationships with our allies, and defended u.s. interests. to restore american strepping,

we also need -- american strength, we also need intelligence agencies focused on protecting the american people, not targeting them. thankfully, president trump's pick for director of nih, tulsi gap barred, has -- gabbard, has demonstrated the leadership needed to restore accountability at the dni. as a lieutenant colonel for over two years, she has seen firsthand the critical role of intelligence in national security. she handled highly classified information, led troops on deployments and understands the gravity of safeguarding american lives. but what sets ms. gabbard apart is her willingness to challenge the status quo. for years she's been an outspoken critic of abuses within the intel community, especially under the biden-harris administration.

under her leadership, though, the intel community will return to its rightful purpose -- defending the american people and upholding our constitutional freedoms. america shines as a beacon of freedom in our dangerous world because of the powerful sacrifices our active duty servicemembers and veterans have made to preserve freedom. last week i had the pleasure of meeting with our next v.a. secretary, former congressman and air force veteran doug icle lips, who will enyour -- collins who will ensure that no veteran is left behind and that all ernst vents receive the service they deserve. with all of president trump's picks, he is a he making one thing leer an it's this -- starting in january, his administration is committed to

supporting our troops, restoring military readiness and making america stronger than ever before. mr. president, i am so pleased to spend a few minutes on the floor and just really so honored that my colleague, senator blumenthal, is joining me on the floor because we are at crunch time for the kids' online safety act. and, mr. president, as you know, this is a piece of legislation that senator blumenthal and i have worked on for about four

years. and we are so honored that 72 members of this chamber stand as cosponsors of this legislation, and it passed out of this chamber in july on a vote that is 91-3. so it is time to hold that final vote on this legislation in the house. now, there's a lot of misinformation that is out there about the kids' online safety act. and if we can get this passed in the remaining few days, what you will have is for the first time since 1998, there will be legislation passed to protect our children in the virtual space and provide safeguards for minors that, you know, when you look at product design and

product safety, nearly every product -- every product that is sold in this country -- has some kind of safety design attached. that is, every product except what you're seeing in the virtual space. and, of course, while we have laws in the physical space that protect children from the harms of alcohol, tobacco, firearms, protect them from cyberbullying, protect them from exposure to sexual exploitation or pornography, if -- in the virtual space, we do not have those laws. and kosa has been in the house, as is said, since july, and it has stopped over there because there are blatant falsehoods that are being peddled by the big-tech lobbyists about this

legislation, including one that they've made up, a falsehood they keep saying, well, cosa would lead to censorship. nothing is further from the truth because this is not a content bill. it is a product design bill. so to put this false narrative to rest, senator blumenthal and i worked with elon musk and ex-ceo linda yucarino to update the text to make sure that cosa will safeguard free speech while protecting children online. to be clear, no one is probably more qualified to speak on the issue of free speech than elon musk. among the changes in language that reaffirm that cosa does not permit the government to penalize platforms based on users' viewpoints or alter

existing protections for third-party content under section 230, these are protections that have been put in place. with the new changes, both elon musk and donald trump jr. are now publicly calling on the house to immediately pass the bill, which is also supported by tech companies like microsoft and pinterest. and for good reason -- every day, every day that goes by without passing the kids online safety act, more children are being put at risk, more children are losing their lives. and for years my colleagues and i on the senate judiciary committee and the commerce committee have heard heartbreaking stories from parents across the country of who have lost their children to social media harms. i could read through these stories today.

they are heartbreaking. we know from working with these parents, from listening to these parents, and also listening to young people, listening to pediatricians and principals, we know what is happening in the virtual space. we know that big tech looks at these children as the product. we know that they are so invested in keeping kids endlessly scrolling. mr. president, meta has even assigned a dollar value to what a child in the virtual space is worth to them as they look at profit. that is $270 of profit per kid. that's what they consider. now, children, grandchildren are important to each and every one

of us, and it is disgusting that you have corporate executives who have done so much work and so much surveying and so much review of how their platform is used, they can tell you what that user is worth. these companies should be better than that. they should agree that in the physical space, we have those laws to protect children, to protect them from exposure. they do not exist in the virtual space. and for the naysayers and the falsehood spreaders that are out there saying this would compromise free speech, as i said, we have addressed this. we have amended language. we have brought it forth. and you now have ex--ceo linda

sackarino, you have elon musk and others who are tweeting in support and saying to the house republicans, it is time to pass this legislation. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from connecticut. mr. blumenthal: thank you, mr. president. let me begin by expressing my profound thanks to senator blackburn for her leadership as a champion of the kids online safety act. we have worked together over these years. yes, it has been years through the hearing, the drafting, the redrafting, the revisions on the redraft. tirelessly she has been a partner and a true bipartisan

par partner, as have been senator schumer and senator thune, senator mcconnell, and senator cruz. i want to give my thanks to colleagues on both sides of the aisle for bringing us to this truly momentous and historic point in advocating for the kids online safety act. i am grateful to them and to chair mcmorris rogers on the house, energy, and commerce committee, representative belarakus and to all who have joined us from the tech community, including supportive companies like microsoft and pinterest. their leaders have endorsed this legislation. i express my appreciation as well to elon musk and lindy

yakarino. over the weekend we negotiated a redraft that clarifies what we have said all along -- this bill is about product design, about protecting kids from toxic content driven at them by products designed specifically to addict them, to take them down dark rabbit holes, to drive toxic content about bullying and eating disorders, self-harm, even suicide. a scourge that every parent in the united states recognizes must be stopped and stopped now. not next session or the session afterwards, because children are dying. they are literally in peril every day as we know because we

are parents, we are grandparents, we are public officials who visited schools where young people, elementary school students tell us about how their companions, their friends, their family members are harmed day in and day out, and resort to suicide because no one is protecting them. we are saying the kids online safety act will give you protection. it will give you tools and safeguards so you can take back your online lives and so that the bull list can't follow you -- so the bullies can't follow you literally into your bedroom at night. not confined to the schoolyard anymore, but free to follow kids wherever they go because they are in jeopardy everywhere.

what we've clarified is that there's no censorship in this bill, there's no content moderation, there's no blocking of specific content. it is about choice, giving young people choice and their parents safeguards, tools to protect their children, and imposing a duty of care, which other producers of any kind of product know they have. they have a duty of care to stop harm when they know or should know it's going to cause physical or emotional harm to people they should protect. we are now one step away. we are so close to the kids online safety act becoming law.

this measure passed in this body 91-3. how many measures pass the united states senate these days by 91-3? major steps forward in legislation passing with that kind of bipartisan support is virtually unheard of. and today in the house of representatives, let me just be very blunt, it will pass by the same overwhelming bipartisan majority if it is given a vote. let them vote. let them do their job. i call on the house leadership to simply enable the democratic process to move forward. we've based this legislation on the kind of process that is the

ideal here. we started with a recognition that the united states of america faces a mental health crisis. we can all give speeches, we can all recite the rhetoric about the mental health crisis in america that afflicts teens and pre preteens, a dramatic increase in anxiety, depression, eating disorders, and suicide. and we can all agree, we do all agree that social media is exacerbating and indeed fueling that mental health crisis in america. and senator blackburn and i have worked over years through hearings to demonstrate that kids online safety is an idea whose time has come now. we heard from young people and parents across the country who have shared their experiences.

they have come forward. they are our strongest supporters and advocates. we received l documents from whistleblowers demonstrating that facebook, now known as meta, consciously knew its products were harming people, and they continued because it made money. they knew that they were attracting more eyeballs nor longer periods of time and therefore more advertising collecting more data. it's all about the money. they decided to put profits ahead of young people. and that's not from us. it's from their own documents that we can draw those conclusions. we brought in the big tech executives and we grilled them on their appalling business practices, and they said to us, yeah, we know regulation is

nece necessary, and they repeated it as a mantra when we had hearings. regulation is important. just not that regulation. let me just say blunlt, i challenge meta, facebook and google to support this legislation as microsoft and pinterest and now elon musk have done. don't tell us it's a censorship measure. listen to elon musk, the champion of first amendment, free expression among tech executives who now supports this bill. because the arguments that you have given to us about censorship and free expression, the money that you have spent to fight this legislation, the armies of lawyers and lobbyists that still you use against us

simply cannot overcome the voices and faces of young people who have been harmed. and i want you to meet some of them. you know, there's a story that there, there's a saying that every good story has a villain, a victim, and a hero. our heroes are the young people and parents who have come forward to watch this moment. the world is watching us in the united states congress at this mo mo moment. and the victims are young people and parents, parents who have suffered losses of their children. and some of them are with us here today in spirit to demonstrate the cost of congressional delay and in

action, the cost that every parent should fear and feel today. that's what happened to moses -- mason edans who is here in this picture. mason loved football and loved making other people smile. he wanted to serve his country when he grew up. he talked about becoming a police officer. in 2022, mason experienced his first heartbreak. quickly after microsoft's algorithms inundated him with messages promoting self-harm, even sought to help on tiktok. but instead of providing that help, tiktok sent him more suicidal messages. he was trapped in a rabbit hole, depressed, having lost control.

in november of 2022, mason -- this young man -- took his own life at the age of 16. i have four children. they're a lot older than 16 now. but every one of us knows a 16-year-old. we know how vulnerable young people are at that age. tiktok is delighted to addict kids at all costs. what happened to mason is a consequence of their business model. it's not some random occurrence. it is the direct result of a business model that is uncons unconscionable, and his death was preventable. he's just one of a dozen, dozens of deaths and horrific harms that we know happen while

congress waited. we waited and we waited to pass the kids online safety act. another one of those victims is desaia kapoonchick, a native american girl, young woman. her name means eagle woman, one with earth, and little huntress. her parents did what they could to set rules around her use of social media, but they didn't know that tiktok and snapchat began to connect desaia with sexual predators. they exploited her trust. by age 11, desaia was experiencing self-harm and suicidal ideation again fueled

by social media. no matter what help her parents tried to get her, desaia sank deeper into depression. this saturday desaia would have reached 16 years old. instead she took her life last march. again, one of dozens, like jesse harrington. jesse is here. he wanted to be a firefighter when he grew up. he wanted to save lives. he didn't get his first phone until last christmas at age 15. that's a pretty late age to be getting a phone these days. he became addicted, unable to sleep, unable to look away from endless scrolling, unable to

look away from the nudges of instagram, snapchat and tiktok, and he began having trouble in school, getting into conflicts with others. now, that part of the story, i think, occurs thousands and millions of times in america today, the distraction, unable to look away, addictive impact. on october 29 of this year, jesse took his life. that part of the story, fortunately, is not common to as many children, but for jesse it was the end. police found his device open and streaming when they arrived. mason, dasai and jesse were all

horrific experiences. they didn't need to happen. they were preventible. we have exams and -- examples and examples, i could spend the rest of today and all of tomorrow with specific expenses, bullying, eating disorders, fentanyl poisoning, sexual exploitation, all of it happened right now, right here in america in real time to our young people. that's not the message we want to send to america as a congress. senator blackburn and i have addressed every single issue that big tech has thrown in our way. there are no excuses for delay. anybody saying let's wait until next session so we can get it

really right, that is saying they're okay with more kids dying. they are, in effect, with all due respect, playing political games with those lives that are at risk today in real time in america. more families shattered like mason, tasaia, jesse. when i say shattered, i mean shattered. i want to finish by quoting another mom. someone who has been a fierce advocate for this legislation. i've come to know her from this fight. i greatly respect her and admire her courage and strength. deb told me, and i'm quoting,

letting it wait to go until the next legislature, children are going to die, it means another year of children dying, and who wants to be accountable for that? we can't wait another year. we need this now. now, we can't bring back her daughter, becka, a beautiful young woman or mason or tacia or jesse, but we can prevent other families from suffering the worse loss imaginable. we have it within reach to do it. passing the kids online safety act is not some convenient step we can take to make people feel good. it's real action. we don't often here in this body have an opportunity to save lives, to save futures, to save

young people. we have that opportunity now. i challenge the house of representatives to do the right thing, pass the kids online safety act. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. blumenthal blumenthal i mr. blumenthal: i ask the chair to execute the order of november 20 with the wise nomination. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. blumenthal: thank you, mr. president. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from delaware. mr. carper: as you know, we have a term known as asset mates. for -- as seat mates. and i've never been prouder of

him for all you have accomplished. wonderful to be your trend and colleague. mr. president, thank you very much, and to our colleagues that are coming in to join us, in just a few weeks i'mingif to step -- i'm going to step down as one of delaware's two united states senators, ending a half century of service in the united states navy and elected office. martha, my bride of 38, is sitting right up there and i will turn the page and hit the road together, visiting family members near and far, exploring parts of america that we have yet to see before beginning to think of new ways to serve the people of delaware and our country. recently a friend told me i have lived a charmed life, and you know what, he is right. i have been truly blessed. truth be known, it didn't start that way. my sister sheila and i were born

in a coal mining town in west virginia. we didn't have much but we were raised in a home by parents who instilled a strong work ethic, along with a deep faith that embraced the golden rule. our parents also instilled in us an abiding love for our country and this planet that we call home. our father and most of our uncles served in world war ii or in korea or both. our mother's youngest brother brother was killed in a camma kazzy attack -- calm in an attack. our grandmother was a gold star mother. this life-sized picture of him in his dress blues hangs in my senate office. he was a hero as i was a kid growing up and he still is.

our kids never went to college, but they wanted us to go and they expected my sister and i how to pay for it. fortunately, in my senior year in high school, i wouldn't a navy rotc scholarship and i was able to work a couple of jobs at ohio state, including washing pots and pans and -- in order to keep from starving and i graduated at the height of the vietnam war and completed three tours of duty in southeast asia as a flight officer. the best days of the week for us on those six-month deployments were the days that the mail came, bringing cards, care packages, newspapers and magazines. following the 1972 election, the issues of both time and

"newsweek" where there was a 29-year-old defeated an icon, i remember thinking, i'd like to meet that young guy some day and see what he's made of. and then one day, that's what i -- that's what i did. later on, after i fulfilled my military object gaegs, i en -- obligation, i enrolled in the mba program and i enrolled in the -- i found a place to live in delaware. shortly thereafter, i had just a chance meetingwith the professor at the university of delaware who was planning to run for congress and i got to know him and later, not much later, he asked me to be his campaign treasurer. i think i had been in delaware a couple of months and found myself as a campaign treasurer. i was invited a month or two

after that to do a pep talk at delaware's junior senator joe biden. after herning of my -- after learning of my service, we began a friendship that lasted 50 years. he went to work in economic development for the state of delaware. i was elected state treasurer at the age of 29 on the same day republican pete dupont was elected our state's governor. i called my parents in florida and told them i was state treasure, and they said you don't know how to spell cash management, how are you going to do that? governor dupont announced the

state of delaware was bankrupt and delaware's credit rating fell to the lowest. i was 29 years old and thought, what do i do now? even though i didn't know a lot about cash management, the end of the story is a pretty good one. woe may not -- we may not have known a lot about cash management, but what we did have fortunately on our side was a new governor who quickly put together a talented team to turn our state around and he asked me, a democrat of all things, to become part of the team. less than four years later delaware's credit rating was about to be raised to aa, after being at the bottom. the governor asked me, of all people, to announce to the world that our credit rating was being raised to aa. following that, the announcement got a lot of attention, but in

the regularly scheduled election, the people of delaware elected me to serve as their lone congressman and the rest is history. what lessons might we all take from this? for me one lesson is that our elected leaders surround themselves with the best people they can find. another lesson, in adversity lies opportunity. in adversity lies opportunity. third lesson was the importance of job creation and the realization is that while our elected leaders don't create jobs, we create a nurturing environment that supports job creation. i learned from joe biden that all politics is personal, and that all diplomacy is personal. and i learned that just because someone is your adversary one day they don't have to become your enemy. they don't have to become your enemy. and i also learned an ancient

pror verb that -- proverb, that if you give a person a fish, you can feed them for that day, if you teach a person to fish, they can feed themselves and their family for a lifetime. since announcing that i would not be running for reelection, i've had a number of interviews, and among the questions that have been asked of me, that you might have been asked yourselves, one of the questions was, why did you decide not to run for reelection. i tell they'll with tongue in cheek that i was following the advice of senger songwriter kenny rogers, who i met at ohio state trying to get them to come to a concert in ohio state and i would meet him later, he was the second best male recording artist. he did not remember meating me at ohio -- meeting me at ohio state. he asked if there was a song i

would like to sing and dedicate to me. i said that would be great and i asked him to sing the gambler. you've got to know when to hold them and when to fold them. when i announced with martha by my side years later when i said i wasn't going to run, i made a tribute to kenny rogers. among the questions i've been asked of late, what are you prouders of in your 24 years -- proudest of in ir-24 years -- in your 24 years in the senate, one is being in the public and works committee with shelly capito. and she is a native west virginian. our committee enjoys a well reputation as a workhorse committee and one that works across the ooichlt our relationship -- across the aisle. we have crafted a comprehensive

two-year water resources development act which includes the reautshorizations -- we hav recycling bills to enact transformational legislation leak the bipartisan infrastructure law, the most transformational infrastructure law in the history of our country. she and i managed this bill right out here on the floor. also to pass significant nuclear legislation like the advance act and major legislation to reduce powerful greenhouse gas emissions known as hfc's. and that is just a few. and we've demonstrated time and time again that bipartisan solutions are lasting solutions. even in today's polarized environment, it's still possible to accomplish a great deal for our country, for our planet, and for our citizens.

there's a lot that we've helped to accomplish in this senate, but there remains unfinished birx as you know, that i want to encourage our colleagues to continue, way april ing correspondent -- a navy phrase. i am asked here in d.c. and delaware how do you like being retired? how do you like -- i tell them, i'm not retired. and i hope i am not ever truly retired. i tell people, i hope i want to find other ways where i can continue to make a difference for as long as i live. in truth, i've spent many years helping to lead the effort to combat global warming, as many of you know. many of you have been partners in that effort. in delaware we are aware of the climate crisis. our state is sinking and the seas around us are rising. that is not good.

my wife just spent part of last month in north carolina, western north carolina and just saw the devastation that's been wreaked on her hometown many weeks ago. that's i have a worked so hard to help pass the inflation reduction act with some of you, which reduces on one hand the cost of prescription medicines while also helping us to fight the climate crisis and just as important creating hundreds of thousands of new american jobs, good-paying american jobs. the night that we voted here in this chamber on that bill, we stayed up all night. we finished up at about 6:00 in the morning. as many of you will recall, it passed by one vote. and that one vote was passed did i -- was cast by our vice president, kamala harris, who was presiding over the senate. about of:00 in the morning -- about 6:00 in the morning, i headed down to the train station

to catch a train back to delaware. i got there about 7:30, got off the train. i thought on my way home, maybe i should just go by wawa -- a convenience store up and down the east coast. people have a great affection for. i went by wawa to pick up a cup of coffee before -- kind of to celebrate before i went home. it was about 7:00, 8:00 in the morning. the lady who was a cashier, i got a small cup of coffee. i went to pay for it, she said, your money is no good for a small cup of coffee. i said, could i get a bigger cup of coffee? and she said, no, your money is no good for a small cup of coffee. so i made do on a small cup of coffee. then she said, you've been up all night, haven't you? i know what you've been doing. i said, yes, ma'am.

she said, i have a son and daughter a i want to make sure they have a planet to grow up on . for all of us to make sure with a -- make sure that they do have a planet to grow up on. we also want to make sure they have good jobs to support themselves and their families. now, this says i'm supposed to conclude. i'm not finished, so -- [laughter] mr. carper: this is crazy. in any event, let me conclude -- i am neat quite done, but let me conclude with a couple of thoughts relating to a date that just passed, and that was december 7. that's a date that in our state is well-known. it is called delaware day. it is a celebration of december 7, 1787, the day that the people of delaware ratified

through their 25 representatives the constitution, before anybody else had. delaware ratified the constitution and we became the first state. and i hope that years from now we'll continue to celebrate delaware day in my home state and frankly in other places, too. i hope that people across our nation will continue to be inspired by the words of our founding fathers. as many of our colleagues have heard me say here on this floor in the past, ben franklin was asked as he was exiting the constitutional convention in philadelphia in 1787, he was asked, he said, mr. franklin, what have you wrought here? what have you created here? he said famously, a republic if we can keep it. a republic if we can keep it. that response should not cause us to undervalue its essential meaning. democratic republics are not merely founded on the consent of the people but they are absolutely dependent on the

involvement of the people for the continued help of our -- health of our democracy. while there were many things that our founding fathers disagreed upon, the one thing that they all agreed on, as you know, is that they didn't want america to ever be ruled by a king. they wanted to make sure it never happened. and you know what? we still feel that way today. when we pledge allegiance to the flag or take an oath to defend the constitution against threats foreign or domestic, we pledge our allegiance to our country and our constitution under which we were established. let me just close, if i can -- i want to thank all of my current and former staff members for joining me here today, and a lot are watching as well. somebody came up with the word carpertown. i don't know, who but i love it. remember the song by the eagles request -- "hotel california?"

you can check out but you can never leave? well, there are a lot of people like that in carpertown. i want to ask unanimous consent that all the names of my senate staff here and back in delaware be included in the "congressional record." the presiding officer: without objection. mr. carper: i want to take a moment, if i could, to thank my family. martha is seated up to my right. i have spoken with members of the armed forces over the years who are married and i have not only thanked them for their service but i have also thanked their spouses for their service. you have the person in the uniform, and you have the person not in the uniform. that spouse has served just as much. my wife martha has served as well as i have and we are in her debt and god knows i am in her debt. martha, thank you. i love you.

i'm also proud to have helped raise three boys who've gone on to become terrific young men that any parent would be proud to call their own, and i also want to salute those who served along side me, people like ted kaufman -- it i'm sure other leader remembers ted, who succeeded joe biden -- and john carbone, our gaefrn -- carney, our governor. and joe biden. so those are just some of the people i've gotten to serve with in the house and the senate. i especially want to note my fellow senator, chris coons. chris is sitting over my right shoulder. how are you doing, bud? we call each other -- we call each other a lot of things. he's my wingman and i'm his as as well.

chris is one of the smartest and brightest people i've ever worked with. he surrounds himself with terrific people. he knows the world's leaders like i think none of us ever have. he calls delaware home and will continue to represent our state very, very well. now let me just mention our senator-elect. i don't know if she is here today. hi, lisa. lisa blunt rochester, a beloved member of the united states house of representatives where she serves as a highly respected member of a much-sought-after committee, that is the energy and commerce committee. many years ago she joined my congressional team as an intern, and from that humble beginning, she went on to become a two-therm cabinet member when i was governor of the state of delaware. she is smart. as a caring daughter, sister,

mother, and now a grandmother, too. she leaves an excellent staff. she's also a great dancer, for what it's worth. when my senate colleagues today to me, t.c. -- a lot of people here call me t.c. -- some call me other things. but when they say, t.c., we're really going to miss you in the senate. i say to them, two weeks after lisa blunt rochester joins you in the senate, you won't remember my name. they say, oh, yes we will. i don't know if i believe them but it is nice for them to say that. in close, let me thank the people of delaware to entrusting in me the responsibility of serving them for all of these years. it has been a privilege. it's been a source of great joy that i will always cherish. i want to say to our leader before i close, thank you very much for your kind words earlier in the morning. one of the things i understand

he mentioned is our love for music and music lyrics. with that in mind, let me close with this. with apologies to neil young of crosby stills, nash, and young, "keep on rocking in the free world." it's been my joy to be your colleague. i'm looking forward to knowing all of you and working with you in delaware, if we can ever be of support at all, you know we want to. thank you all so much.

a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from delaware. mr. coons: madam president, i rise to speak in thanks and in recognition of my dear friend and colleague, the senior senator from the great state of delaware, tom carper. all of us have

had a chance to hear his farewell speech but i get a chance to add a little bit here on the end. you know, when folks have said to senator carper, what do you plan on doing in retirement at home, he has repeatedly said i don't plan on retiring. and this has a history to it. as you know, in the arc of his decades of service in the senate and in our state, he was our governor, and he has described himself many times as a recovering governor who never really recovered. he never stopped being intimately interested in and engaged in every detail of our community. and i cannot thank you enough, t.c., for your more than five decades of service to our nation, to our state, to our party, to the world. i've got a lot of remarks, and i will try not to use all of them.

but i think you are the all-time champion, having been elected 14 times statewide. state treasurer, congressman, governor, senator. you are frugal. i have had the experience of you having made a modest contribution to a very early campaign of mine, and i failed to timely deposit the check, and not long thereafter you accosted me and said you never cleared this check. it's in my checkbook. everybody knows that you drove a fabulous minivan more than 400,000 miles. and you took that passion for frugality and for reasonableness and for attention to details to being the state treasurer, as you shared with all of us, to restoring our triple a bond l rating. when i first became county executive nothing was more important than that, protect your bond rating. and you did a great job as

straight treasurer. you also are someone who as governor had a saying you were very fond of -- figure out what works. do more of that. figure out what works. do more of that. everybody here knows he makes you say important things twice. and so as an active member of the national governors association, as a mentor to other governors, as a mentor to young county elected officials, t.c. did a great job of figuring out what worked well in other states around the country and applying it both at home and making sure that other governors had a chance to learn from that around our country. i can't neglect senator carper's remarkable commitment to our nation's military. as you saw, of all the people he could have chosen to honor in his farewell speech, his uncle bob, his family service and sacrifice anchors him. having dpon on a naval -- gone

on a naval rotc scholarship at ohio state, three tours in vietnam and decades in the navy reserve, senator carper is the last vietnam veteran to serve in this body. that is a long and proud legacy that stretches from senators m{l1}c{l0}cain and kerry to kerry to hagel to harkin. but senator carper in our state has done more to fight for the v.a., to fight for veterans, to fight for veterans cemetery, to fight for veterans home and to personally engage on memorial day with the families of every delawarean who has fallen in combat in living memory. the decency, the commitment, the passion for those who put their life on the line for our nation is unmatched in our state's history. and we in our nation are grateful to you for that. as the chair of two different

committees, hsgak and epw, you worked tirelessly to build relationships with even some of the most difficult of our colleagues. i make no reference to the former senator from oklahoma, i'm saying when you tackled postal issues, many of us wished you all the best. and you put your optimism and positive spirit to the wheel and made real progress. along with senator capito of your native state of west virginia, you've made amazing things happen from where did a, the inflation reduction act -- to wrda to the inflation reduction act, making sure we preserve the blessings of our natural environment will be remembered fittingly by having the bombay hook visitors center named for you. we talk in delaware about something called the delaware way which i literally learned about how you led as governor.

you cleaned up our party. you worked across the aisle. you balanced the budget. you managed a state of great complexity and importance. but you found it by building personal connections, by being kind and respectful to others, and by building a remarkable community that served alongside you. i don't know either where the term carper town came from, but it's an amazing network of alumni that includes people of all different ages and backgrounds, skills and traditions who brought together to join your passion for public service. when asked at your retirement announcement what you would most miss about being a senator, t.c. answered my staff, which is a reminder that you have built an incredible community dedicated passionately to service. when i first got here to the senate, my senior senator was the one who literally showed me the ropes, gave me the combination to the gym, urged me to go to weekly prayer

breakfasts or bible study, and to learn from codels overseas and from time spent over meals together here in the senate. we have been guided by our shared faith, our shared commitment to family, a commitment to bipartisanship, and a deep and abiding love of amtrak. i will never forget a night where we were stuck for seven hours in the bracing cold as two power lines shut down the amtrak line north. senator carper remained cheerful, upbeat and optimistic about the possibility that we would someday get off that train and be warm again. and the newark amtrak station is named in his honor appropriately. tom, you are a grounded man. your childhood dreams of playing for the detroit tigers may not have been realized, but you as a native son of west virginia have made an incredible mark on your adopted, beloved home state of

delaware. you have made a lasting mark as state treasurer and governor, as congressman and senator. i will never forget when as a very, very young man, i had just returned from south africa, and a member of my church arranged an opportunity for me to have lunch with you in the house dining room. i was 25. you gave me your undivided attention, your enthusiasm, your passion. you made me feel like the center of the world. and it had an enormous impact on my commitment to service. and when i ran for county council president, a long shot bid that i should not have won in a four-way primary, and you were running for the u.s. senate, an important and difficult race, you didn't just call me once and wish me well. you didn't just send me a $50 check. you dpraed to stand -- agreed to stand beside me at football

games, at wawa's, and introduce me to thousands of delawareans. i'm grateful for your leadership and your compassion. martha, thank you so much for being be an incredible partner not just to tom, but also to our state for having been the first lady and for having been someone with an incredible career of accomplishment in dupont and around the world. to the two of you for raising christopher and ben and greg and for sharing them with us as well, thank you. you are rooted in your faith. second james teaches us faith without works is dead. and st. francis once said preach the gospel always. when necessary, use words. by your acts, we have known your

faith, and it has made all the difference, and you have changed me, our delegation, our state, and our world. captain carper, bravo zulu. well done, sir. thank you. the presiding officer: the senator from maine. ms. collins: madam president, on may 22, 2023, tom carper l told a crowd of admirers in delaware that he would not seek a fifth term in the senate, bringing to a close nearly 50 years in public service. two days later he delivered a keynote address at a reunion of 200 vietnam war former p.o.w.'s

which was held at the nixon lie prayer in california. those two -- library in california. those two events speak volumes about the character and commitment of my valued colleague and good friend, tom carper. from state treasurer to governor to congressman and senator, tom has been elected to statewide public office a record 14 times. in every way he has justified the trust the people of the first state have placed in him. that remarkable accomplishment came after tom served four tours, three tours of duty as a naval flight officer in vietnam. he is the last veteran of that

conflict in the senate, and a powerful and effective voice for those with whom he served. in 1991, then-congressman carper led a bipartisan delegation of vietnam veterans back to southeast asia. thanks to tom's leadership, that trip helped lay the groundwork for ongoing efforts to account for americans listed as missing in action. he exemplifies the ethic of the united states military that no one is left behind or ever forgotten. in the senate, tom's priorities have included improving our health care system, protecting our environment, investing in infrastructure, and strengthening our national security.

and i feel so fortunate to have had the pleasure to work with tom on many issues. as a member of the homeland security and governmental affairs committee following the 9/11 attacks, tom and i were strong allies until supporting america's first responders. he has been a champion for the safer and nfg programs that help provide our firefighters with the equipment, training and support they need. in fact, tom and i serve as cochairs of the congressional fire services caucus. tom and i have also had a long partnership in strengthening the united states postal service. 20 years ago we introduced legislation that became law to reform the postal service, the first overhaul in nearly three

decades, to ensure universal service, affordable rates and community access. another issue that brought us together is protecting the environment and public health from mercury contamination, a particular threat to children and pregnant women. the comprehensive national mercury monitoring act we have championed would allow the united states to take a leadership role in generating a long-term mercury monitoring program. that would benefit not only our nation, but also the world. and i think it would be a freight tri-- great tribute to senator carper if we passed that bill and got it signed into law before the end of this congress. from southeast asia to wilmington to washington, senator tom carper has served with great distinction.

our nation is grateful, and i wish him and martha all the best in the years to come. thank you, madam president. a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from west virginia. mrs. capito: thank you, madam president. i want to thank the senator from maine for her great words of serving so long with our friend and colleague, tom carper. so, first of all, i want to say to tom, i appreciate the very kind words that he mentioned about me and us in our work together on the committee. as we've said, he's dedicated nearly his entire adult life to the service of our country in many different ways and to the home state of delaware. but don't let the delaware next to his name fool you. all those good family values, all those fwood, sturdy qualities of honesty and

service, steadfastness were rooted in his birth in the great state of west virginia. so any time i try to get anything over on him and say, yeah, but i'm from west virginia, he'd always say i am too. so he's always very proud of his west virginia roots. he had a couple family reunions there during our time of service together. and then in 2021, we had the opportunity to have an epw field hearing in his birthplace of co beckley, west virginia. i know it was a very special occasion for him and it certainly was for me as well. as the ranking member of the epw committee serving alongside my chairman carper, over the past four years, i had the pleasure to work in tandem with him to work on infrastructure, energy,

environmental challenges that our country faces many we don't always see eye to eye, but we have a relationship centered on trust and respect. we do talk every thursday afternoon, and i want to tell you that i told your successor that this is something that i think we need to continue because we kept that valuable relationship going through times when we might not agree and couldn't get to the same place. but i think it's essential that the relationship we created really did give us these bipartisan achievements, the surface transportation reauthorization legislation, the drinking water legislation, that became the foundation of the infrastructure law, had started there, i'm not sure we would have ended up there as a body. it is paying dividends in my state and his state and senator collins' state. we passed the advanced nuclear

energy law, it will encourage more innovation and investment right here in our states. and sets the stage for proliferation of reliable and safe nuclear power. we also just recently crafted our -- i think it might be our second or third water resources -- resource development act. it's pending, hopefully we'll get it across the floor here in the next day or two. it is my hope that we will soon pass this. i did name this bill, get down here and vote for the tom carper water redevelopment resources act. outside of tom carper as the native west virginian and senator, i have gotten to know him well. he is just a kind man. we call him in our office, i don't know that we told you this, we call his sayings, carperism.

we have many carperisms, i'm skipping a few but i will tell you the ones that embody you, to follow the golden rule and treat others as you would like to be treated. he has always shown respect to my staff, our committee's witnesses and all those we worked together tlau the years. he is a pragmatic leader, being elected numerous times in delaware, guided by his mantra of, here's another carperism, figuring out what works and doing more of it. pretty simple thing. he is a self-proclaimed recovering governor, but he is well versed in the art of getting things done. above all, chairman carper is a true american. he served his country bravely overseas in wartime and he has given the last 23 years of his life to the service of this chamber. chairman carper has consistently dedicated to making our country

strong as it can be and delivering for the people he represents. his character, compassion, and, yes, dogged determining will certainly be missed in the united states senate. but the impacts of his work will continue to make a difference for generations to come. so, chairman carper, my friend tom, it has been an an honor to work with you, alongside you and for the country for the people we love so very much. i wish you and martha the best. i'll tell you what. that man loves his wife martha. the way he talks about you in such a ven rated way -- ven rated way is how we should all talk about our loved ones. i wish you all the best. thanks for your years of legislatives and friendship. thanks for giving me a part of your heart over the last seven years because it has worked for me and us well. the presiding officer: under the

previous order, the clerk will report the nomination. the clerk: nomination, the judiciary, noel wise, of california, to be united states district judge for the northern district of california. the presiding officer: the question is on the nomination. is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. 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. cantwell. mrs. capito. mr. cardin. mr. carper.

the clerk: mr. casey. secretary i'm pleased you are here today and over the last four years to enjoy the think the cordial relationship. we worked together on many issues of great importance however today your appearance here today and i had to be honest with your comes after six months after i requested your testimony following my comprehensive work and the catastrophic withdrawal from

afghanistan. i have constitutional authority and i have that constitutional authority that i is chairman him responsible for and i also have a responsibility to the american people and to the 13 servicemen and women that died and the many other servicemembers who have died and the afghan allies left behind that died in the women's who are left behind. this under article i of the constitution is congress's greatest role of oversight and transparency. i would had to say-disappointed when you've ignored my request for your testimony, forcing me to subpoena you not once but twice and rather than accept my good faith efforts to accommodate your schedule you held us up for the hearing and i

don't like this anymore than you do. while your presence is duly noted you are showing up only after violating as a correctional -- subpoena holding you in contempt of congress. i've been more than accommodating through the process but as you and your staff has fought this committee every step of the way the fact that you are here today in one of the last weeks of the 118th congress clearly demonstrates my commitment to this critical issue even in the face of persistent delays. you insist you have appeared before congress 14 times and truth be told that number is really misleading. you have not appeared once during my chairmanship to testify about the disastrous afghanistan withdrawal for this committee. twice you have appeared on budget reform and as the head of

the state department it was your duty to appear before this committee to inform us about legislative solutions to the issues outlined in my report so that this never happens again. my only goal has been to work together with you sir to help prevent such another catastrophic event to prevent that from ever, ever happening again. instead you prioritized this administration's political agenda touting the failed withdrawal as a success. on april 14, 2021 president biden announced the decision to withdraw from afghanistan no matter what the cost go to zero were his words. a the secretary of state your trusted with the protection of american interests and citizens overseas. you ignored the taliban's

violation of the doha agreement and ignored objections by her afghan and nato allies and ignored the security risk keeping the less embassy in kabul open despite warnings from our top military advisers. you ignored the warnings of collapse by your own personnel as evidenced by the july 2021 channel cable one that i call a cry for help that was unanswered now tragically more. than three years after this administration's disastrous withdrawal you are finally here to take responsibility. mr. secretary i've reviewed thousands of pages of documents and discovered by the state department that conducted transcribed interviews led eight hearings on the afghanistan withdrawal. i do not take the issue lately.

today's hearing her department provided -- the committee was forced to use its oversight powers. my investigation revealed a president biden's unconstitutional surrender tells them he had plenty of opportunity to plan for the inevitable collapse of afghanistan. instead even with the warning bell sounding loudly ringing loudly you denied these dangers threats to american interests, american citizens and their decades long afghan partners. although while the taliban captured province after province on theirmr march 2 kabul and rather than step up as america's chief diplomat he delegated this responsibility and as the taliban surrendered two kabul

was surrendered to the taliban on august 14 of 2021 you sir were vacationing in new york. i do not say that with the light. i say that as a fact. mr. secretary to preserve optics to sacrifice the safety and security of our servicemembers diplomats citizens and allies andmr she treated terrorists as diplomatic partners and created an environment rife for chaos and on october 26, 2021 and nicest terrorist detonated a suicide bomb at the hamad car side international airport. murdering 13 heroic servicemembers in and 170 afghan civilians. my heart goes out to the

families and i pray for them every day. every day is chairman of this committee. it was the deadliest day of the united states in afghanistan since 2012 and the saddest thing is that did not have the happen. mr. secretary it's time we remember the fundamental principals of diplomacy. peace may only be obtained through strength but but this catastrophic event was the beginning of the failed foreign-policy bet let the world on fire. i welcome your testimony and i hope we take the opportunity for you first to take accountability and second for us to move forward so this never happens again. as you are aware we cannot fix a problem without first admitting that there is a problem. i dedicated my tenure as

chairman of this important committee on this very important issue and your testimony here today willid help guide the next congress and the incoming administration. the american people, the less servicemembers the veteran's and most importantly for goldstar families who are president here today deserve better. they deserve your candor, commitment and transparency. without the chair recognizes the ranking member. >> thank you mr. chairman and let me first say to you that it has been a distinct honor privilege and pleasure in working with you. we have worked together from those four years two years of which i was the chair in and two years in which you were the chair and there has been no difference in our relationship is only intensify. we were collectively together in behalf of the people of the united states of america.

you're a man of integrity, you are a friend. it's been an honor and a privilege to serve with you and to continue to serve with you because as you stated you aren't going anywhere and you'll still be here as a member of the house of representatives. i appreciate the fact that we always, even when we disagree as we will disagree on this hearing but we have always been able to talk about it honestly and that's what's important. when you have honesty and truth and we can disagree but it never becomes personal because the view in the council that you have. i just had to say for the record that it's been an honor. you have been a fair share as well as when you were the ranking member you have been a fair ranking member because you are a fair individual. that's who you are.

and i want to also congratulate the incoming chair. i look forward to working with you and there's no question in anyone's mind you are loyal to the united states of america. you have done everything in military and otherwise to represent this country and i look forward to working with you come january 3 or 4th when this committee resumes as a next year this committee and i look forward to working with you the same madam. and i want to thank you secretary blinken for being here today and i know that there's a lot of going on in syria and around the world and you'll be leaving here on the plane immediately post this hearing so your departure will take you straight to the middle east

where they are dealing with related things in syria. this will be as i recall correctly the six time you've joined us to provide testimony including your appearance in september of 2021. you are the very first cabinet official from the biden administration to testify to congress immediately after our withdrawal from afghanistan and even before you testified before the senate you are right here in the house to testify and despite insisting that they needed to hear answers from you and accuse you of stonewalling my republican colleagues nevertheless released what i see as a partisan and misleading report on the left withdrawal from afghanistan in september that distorts the facts received in their own investigation from 16 state department witnesses

and thousands of pages of documents that you made available to us. sadly on this brand as i've pointed out at every turn and every hearing republicans so-called investigation has been nothing but a cretul aimed at partisan politics in my opinion and to claim that it's a real and legislative purpose when i don't see, they have not introduced a single bill and there has not been a bell at all introduced in this investigation. but there is perhaps no better example on how i would say politically motivated this exercise has been and how the republicans misled the public at abbeygate. for months republicans publicly

suggested the bombing could have been prevented and a marine had a bomber in his sight. privately however they received information from the department of defense is investigation dating back as far back as february of 2022 and again reinforced in april of 2024, findings that the marine identified were two different people and the attack was not preventable. because the gop had this information you would think it would be logical to assume the gop report would make those backs crystal clear. so does the report do that? no. instead of being straightforward with the american people were to go start families who have suffered so much which we all keep deeply in our they continue to muddle the facts.

notwithstanding dod's clear evidence the gop doubts in the dod's findings by asserting on page 27 ' many who were on the ground that day still believe they were one in the same. the full report remains classified and quote. to my colleagues across the aisle bees are not facts. information that the department of defense publicly reported and with which i ask unanimous consent to submit to the record. without objection, so ordered. >> it's not classified. the two men are not the same. so changing or twisting the truth seems to be only happening for political gain had that not only hurts the integrity of this committee it hurts the family of the 13 servicemembers who lost

their lives during the terrorist attack who have been led to believe that there are some greater truths on earth that when in reality there just is not. so i also ask unanimous consent to submit for the record the minority memorandum that i released in september of this year. that report summarizes the actual facts of the committee's investigation. without objection, so ordered. >> which were markedly consistent across 20 witnesses and found the following. the full u.s. withdrawal from afghanistan was said and irreversible motion by president donald trump and he concluded doha deal with the taliban in order to withdraw troops.

that agreement from 14,000 to 8600 then down to 2500 i january 15, 2020 and after the trump administration failed to plan for their withdrawal they started the biden administration conducted a thorough policy review and acknowledge that we would again be at war with the taliban if they abandoned the doha deal and finished the work started by building their withdrawal from the ground up through 2021. after president ghani's decision to flee afghanistan led to the rapid collapse of the afghan government security forces creating the chaos on the ground the men and women of the state department acted heroically alongside their military colleagues to conduct the largest area in left in u.s. history relocating more than 154,000 people.

i believe the president biden made the right decision to and are 20 year war in afghanistan and not ask another generation of americans to make an ultimate sacrifice for a war that no longer has a purpose. no one here has argued that our withdrawal was perfect and i want to make clear i'm not saying any withdrawal has been perfect but we owe it to ourselves and our military diplomatic personnel on the front lines to learn from it and from those 20 years of war in which they served and incorporate those lessons of 20 years in the future. we do a disservice when we did not examine all of the facts.

800,000 served including the military personnel killed over the two decades of war. we should have conducted proper oversight of the policies made across not one administration but for administration's. not only were the months that president biden was in office for the sole purpose of politics. the honest bipartisan assessment we will to await the afghanistan war commission's report due in 2026 because what we have here today is not the true complete facts. in my estimation. finally let me just say this. want to conclude by thanking senator mccaul for honoring the request that i made publicly. i asked the public release all of the transcripts from a closed-door interviews that were part of this is in the stand

withdrawal and i asked the chairman to do the same for all remaining interviews conducted as part of the communities oversight investigation and the american taxpayers pay for it and i asked and you did respond they need to cooperate and made them public and for that i thank you. >> i appreciate the ranking members comment on that. i intend to release all of it to the american people. we are negotiating an interview at with jake sullivan the national security adviser. it may be in a classified setting and we will release that to the american people. we certainly will i want to state that they are two pieces ofr. legislation currently in te national authorization this withdrawal from afghanistan, one from me on having one point of

contact of who is in charge and if that he will another one by warren davidson on evacuation. with that i would like to say to the members opening statements may be submitted for the record and i want to welcome the 71st secretary of state antony blinken, someone i have admiration for and we have traveled abroad and at the end of the day when we travel abroad we are all americans. but as you know sir i have an issue with you over the handling of this matter and i recognize you for your testimony here today. >> mr. chairman and ranking member makes distinguished colleagues in this committee first of all let me just say they have very much appreciated working with you these past four years and work it with the ranking member and doing

important things together. i remind the audience members obstruction of committee proceedings is against the law. holding up signs are making verbal outbursts during the proceedings is disruptive and will not be tolerated. any disruption will result in a suspension of the proceedings itself until the capitol police can restore order. this includes the raising of hands and other forms of disruption. with that i recognize the ranking member. >> thank you mr. chairman and just to say how much of a valued and appreciated working with you these past four years and the dialogue we have had including with this committee whether we agreed or disagreed including on afghanistan. i want to recognize everyone who served in afghanistan including on this committee.

our thoughts are with the goldstar families, 2004 in 6061 servicemembers as well as a state department usaid employees. the committee will suspend while the capitol police restore order to this committee. the gentleman will continue. and as i said our thoughts are with all of the goldstar families and they are with the state department usaid employees who lost their lives over the course of 20 years from our military involvement in afghanistan and i can say especially the 13 heroes we lost at abbeygate and i deeply regret we did not and could not do more to protect them. to the families here with us

today you have my thoughts and and i wish -- was here today. i'm also deeply grateful to the dedicated professionals from the state department, from the defense department from across the government from civil society other partner to did so much to support the people of afghanistan over those few decades. the committee will come to order. the committee will suspend while capital police restore order. the committee will come to order. gentleman will continue. >> i'm here today to continue this department's extensive cooperation with this committee and mr. chairman of the department is provided over 20,000 pages of documents to you

and you have conducted transcribed interviews but to more than 15 people. i personally testified before the house and senate committee 14 times on questions on afghanistan including four times before this committee. now i believe any attempt to understand and learn from you as withdrawal from afghanistan had to be put in the proper context of what preceded in terms of the two decades following 9/11 and the decisions in 2020 to 2021 that culminated in the removal of personnel. president biden took office he inherited an agreement to remove all u.s. forces from afghanistan by me first of 2021. at u.s. census as the afghan government released 5000 taliban prisoners including the united states reduced our own troop levels from 14,000 to 2500 in december of 2020.

in return for the taliban agreed to stop attacking you with forces to refrain from threatening afghanistan's major cities and to pursue inter-afghan negotiations for a cease-fire and a settlement. he continues a real atlas march in the countryside and territory containing three-quarters of afghanistan population at december 2020. january 2021 the taliban was in the strongest military position in military position it did then and since 9/11 and we have the smallest number of u.s. forces in afghanistan since 2021. despite the profound effects of the doha agreement president biden ultimately opted to implement previous administrations decisions to withdraw american troops and honor his pledge to end her nation's longest war. president biden faced a choice between ending the war escalating it. had he not followed through on his commitment attacks on our

forces and allies would have resumed for the taliban's assault on the country's major cities would have commenced. that would require sending tens of thousands beat each more u.s. forces and afghanistan to prevent a taliban takeover at best the prospect of restoring a stalemate and remaining stuck under fire in afghanistan indefinitely. president biden inherited deadline. no plan to meet it. at his direction beginning in the spring of 2021 the administration the state departmentcl particular engagedn extensive planning for a whole range of outcomes. we pursue the same campaign to urge americans in afghanistan to leave. we have restarted a dramatically increased resources to what had been a special visa program to bring afghan to the united states. even the governments most pessimistic assessment --

assessment didn't anticipate the afghan government security forces would collapse the rapidly in the face of taliban advances. nevertheless because of administrations interagency planning coordination united states is able to evacuate embassy and relocate or diplomats to the airport within 48 hours to conduct largest airlift in u.s. history helping approximately 120,000 americans afghan citizens of allegations to depart from afghanistan in just two weeks been there for years and the end of the countries on this war all of us including myself have wrestled with what we could have done differently during that period and over the preceding two decades. i asked retired investor dan smith one of our most senior diplomats to lead an after-action review from the state department sections between january 2020 and august of 2021. in response to ambassadors who

put the department has taken steps to guide our response to future crises. the actions we have taken it made a difference in subsequent emergence including sudan israel and lebanon. as we were to address the places where we fell short of believe the president's decision to from afghanistan was the right one. american troops are no longer fighting and dying in afghanistan. the american people are safer and more secure. in fact many of the most pessimistic predictions have been thoroughly disproven. we were told afghanistan would become a haven for terrorist in the majority report contends we'd be all but blind in the situation on the ground. tracking al qaeda and the group that attacked us on 9/11 has not regrouped in afghanistan and in august of 2022 we launched a strike took out its leader ayman al zawahiri with no american boots on the ground.

we were told our allies could no longer trust us. having just returned from for nato innings in brussels in my 20th trip to the indo pacific it's clear our alliances and partnerships are stronger today than they've been in a generation. you see that and more than 50 countries being brought together to defend ukraine against russia's ongoing aggression and in the unity of purpose and actually build contending with the challenges posed by china. we were told hundreds of american afghan partners are left behind but today every good citizen who told us they wanted to leave during the evacuation has now had the opportunity to do so and to those americans who entered the country since august of 2021 and have been detained by the taliban we will not rest until we bring you home. since september 2020 administration has resettled more the 185,000 afghans and welcome 60,000 afghans under the special visa program.

that's nearly half of all the issued since the program's inception in 2009. this is a profoundly differ cold period for the afghan people especially women and girls but i believe the final chapter has not been written. this will last week week that it's sensitive many partners as supported the attackers including members of congress. we were joined by a resilient and resourceful young woman who left afghanistan in august of 2021 and is now in aerospace engineering student at m.i.t.. she aspires to be the first afghan astronaut. in part because of their two decades in afghanistan there many who have the opportunity go to school and imagine different life for themselves. these women their hopes and dreams will i know help pave the path to an afghanistan for people to choose their own

futures. thank you mr. secretary. we have four busloads of girls at the american school of music out after abbeygate that are now in portugal. they performed at carnegie hall in the kennedy center but there many women unfortunately who are now enslaved under sharia law by the taliban but i now recognize myself for questions. mr. secretary in september of this year your state department inspector general revealed in to see kabul and your leadership abandoned quote sensitive security assets unquote during the deadly afghanistan evacuation. those lethal assets include firearms, armored vehicles and other weapons. your ig concluded the embassy attack for the taliban and if that wasn't bad enough

documents, classified documents many that i subpoenaed also revealed you left behind churros of the embassies classified documents to the taliban. your own diplomat described desperate attempts to burn documents on the rooftops and in the embassy while helicopters took off the embassies roof reminiscent in my younger life of saigon all because the administration failed to prepare and finally your chief of the mission kicked out the embassies afghan employees telling them to come back later, leaving them to the taliban. they never made it back and they never survived. so we gave our chest that we'll protect them and you left weapons behind classified

documents and you left behind embassy plants of the taliban in your own ig inspector general you conclude that your state department has been unwilling and unable to learn from its mistakes. my question is have you read the ig report and have you held their own state department accountable with regard to the document we have in place every embassy including afghanistan and the process by which the documents were destroyed and we began that process on august the first and then when we got to august the 12th before the collapse of kabul we proceeded with emergency description of all the remaining sensitive documents and the day before kabul fell but that's a process

we engage in wherever we have an emergency. >> their reclaiming my time the fact is they should have been evacuated long before. you were still negotiating with the taliban in kabul. the embassy as the military buys you to do should have evacuated that embassy. let me ask you this when president biden announced his unconditional surrender to the taliban on april 14 of 2021 you demanded that the embassy in kabul remain open no matter what the cost bridge or personnel opposed that in fact they did so in a cable that was sent that we are booked to get from you in our discovery process a cry for help. the chairman of the joint chiefs to the centcom commander millie mckenzie said this was a fundamental mistake a fatal flaw in their biggest regret is keeping the embassy opened despite the advice of your own people on the ground in military

visors. why did you do that? >> very simply because no one anticipated the government and the afghan armed forces would collapse as quickly as they did. we anticipate in every intelligence that couple would remain in the hands of the government and the afghan armed forces through the balance of the year. >> reclaiming my time. i will let you finish. mark mely said nothing i or anyone else saw indicated a collapse by the army or the government in 11 days and the dni in the days leading up to the taliban takeover intelligence agencies did not see it as imminent. it happened more quickly than they anticipated including in the intelligence committee. >> with reclaiming my time i hear what you're saying that no one saw the collapse coming however i have read your embassy

personnel cable you provided to me that they said you in july before the collapse in 2021 the warning of afghanistan's imminent collapse fearing for their safety and you personally read this sir and cleared it in your deputy secretary brian mckeon testified before this committee that you took no steps to answer the cries for help and as you know secretary of state you have responded the way to protect americans and diplomats. >> mr. chairman that'sr. incorrect. >> why did you ignore cries for help and finally who was in charge as it was a you or mr. sullivan because he seems to me you delegate all your responsibility on this and he had very little to do with it. jake sullivan and national security counsel at the white house called all the shots and on your watch you are the captain of the ship.

>> mr. chairman that's incorrect. first when it comes to the evacuation that's a decision that's reached by the entire interagency and the vice president state department initiated by asking the department of defense to proceed with it but the decision itself is reached as a result of interagency deliberations and we did not doesn't interagency and that includes secretary defends the chairman of the joint chiefs. >> who is in charge? >> were you in charge of this evacuation? i was in charge of the state department the government administration was in charge of evacuation as a business civically the department depends together working closely together with assigned responsibilities. >> and it's a statutory responsibility for you to execute the plan correct?

the deal was executed by the state and department and defense department. >> by what had to say waiting until the last minute is not executing a plan at all. it was the american people and afghan people and afghan allies. the decision was reached collectively and no one urged initiating it until we decided to do it on the 14th. >> in my review of our investigation there were so much confusion coming out of your embassy, coming from the top military advisers who told me and testified they told you to close down that embassy in advance to protect americans and american assets. they were left to the taliban and you were in charge by law to give may have delegated this, i don't know that moving forward i need to know who was in charge and that's why it's so important that mr. sullivan the national security adviser come before this committee to give his

testimony about what the hell was going on during this disastrous evacuation and with that i now recognize the ranking member. >> mr. chairman i do recall a meeting here at the capitol, bipartisan downstairs and we were meeting with president haqqani of afghanistan. we had talked to some folks and president haqqani was the hemant that he was not going to leave afghanistan. he was vehement that the afghan troops were there and he would stay there with all these members of congress and to

everyone that i have talked to from almost anywhere it was clear that was his position. no one knew that one week later, not one month, one week later he would get on a plane and get out until all the troops are gone. everybody at that moment in time was surprised. that's a fact. let me ask some yes or no questions real quick because i believe you have a look at this whole thing when you talk about it. mr. secretary president trump's doha deal explicitly committed to the united states to withdraw all usn allied troops as well as

contractors by many of 2021 yes or no. but the speed at that withdrawal outside of the initial reduction to 8600 troops was not specified by the deal. is that correct? net that is correct. >> and despite that president trump unilaterally reduced the west presence twice beyond that leaving just 2500 chips when president biden took office. is that correct? >> that is correct. we have seen president trump was prepared to go to zero and in fact ambassador testified to the committee that the messages coming out of the trump house led the taliban to conclude that trump was getting out regardless of what was agreed in the doha

deal so let's be clear about the conditions if we are going to be factual about this effect to consider the conditions that trump handed over to you in the fight administration a firm commitment for a total withdrawal with no allowance for residual contract a limited number of troops on the ground and no real attacks on our afghan allies. we heard testimony from general neely ambassador carol azar and others that if we had tried to reopen the doha deal the taliban would have resumed attacks against us. you agree mr. secretary with that assessment yes or no? >> i do. >> it was a fundamental choice facing president biden to complete the withdrawal that was

initiated by president trump or re-escalate the conflict. is that correct? >> that is correct. >> so what do you think president biden's decision to complete the withdrawal and in this so-called forever war gave gave -- gained? >> it gained as an end to america's longest war and not having another generation of americans fighting and dying in afghanistan at the opportunity to refocus and rededicate our resources to the challenges of the moment from the russian aggression against ukraine to the many challenges posed by china to many other issues around the world where we were able to free up resources and free up time. >> months after withdrawal from afghanistan we did face a new threat and that was putin's illegal and unjustified invasion of ukraine in february of 2022 so yes or no do you see any

connection between putin's re-invasion of ukraine and the united states withdraw from afghanistan and? >> no, on the contrary. our efforts varies including russia would have been delighted if we had double down and remain stuck in afghanistan for another 20 years. in 2008 we had between afghanistan and iraq about 200,000 forces deployed and russia invaded georgia. 2014 he still had 12,000 forces in afghanistan and what else happened in 2014, russia for the first time invading ukraine. because we are able to refocus our time and our resources and effort we were at able to build this coalition of 50 countries that have stood up to russia's aggression and i must say the chairman has done a remarkable job. >> i agree.

the chairman and i were closely making sure he ukraine had everything it needed and he was in front of me had he has been a champion on ukraine. the issue i'm trying to make sure it's understood the withdrawal from afghanistan did not hinder our capacity for our credibility to lead our allies in a robust response to the invasion of ukraine. that is correct. >> as well as the withdrawal did not inhibit our relationship with our allies. in fact just the opposite. and this is my last question your assessment of the threat of nato and our alliances today has been them withdrawing from afghanistan focused on the most urgent threat to global security. and get stronger bigger better

resources to and more focused. >> let me just say all of afghanistan within months chairman xi and putin made an agreement and we saw satellite imagery of the russian federation moving toward ukraine and i don't think that was by accident. that was by design. putin saw weakness in the tech aggression in the invaded ukraine and the ayatollah reared his head and without the chairman recognizes the jamon from new jersey mr. smith. >> thank you very much. welcome mr. secretary. i have a number of questions in the fight asked some of them in the past but i chaired the china commission and i have chaired

105 human right abuses in china xi jinping and that the behavior to the uighurs and the atrocities that occur each and every day but will concern me with the exodus from afghanistan without dictators around the world especially xi jinping look looked at that in this propaganda instead of the people of taiwan while the u. uso abandon taiwan eventually and another one was an abandonment is a lesson for the taiwan ttp and when you they are telling the people over and over again in taiwan americans resolve is questionable and we will leave them to it i won't read the editorial because they are very disturbing. dictators love weakness. if they can get away with

something they will and the chairman is right when he talks about this and you had said before how you thought that but i look at in a different way but they look at how was then and yes we were going to get out of afghanistan. it led to loss of american lives and we have seen the pictures shown here and we have met with those families of of loved ones in countless numbers of afghans of the impact of this can you at least admit the dictatorship of the world they saw that as a weakness and secondly how many americans are still in afghanistan posed exodus and how many are in jail, killed tortured, left behind. i know there was a lot of talk you encourage people to leave and we remember reuters wrote that story about how the

president had a conversation with ghani and said very clearly even if we had to make it up in terms of the situation projected as if it's better than it is with this president biden and there's a need whether it's true or not there's a need to protect the invitation and that was done in july 23 so while we made manoush that we are listening to her listening to her presence he said there's a 20,000 man army well-trained and meanwhile talking on the phone projecting a different picture. very disturbing. we have to be truthful. >> two things on this. first we engaged in a sustained campaign to get every american in afghanistan still there and left messages between february and august. by the time the evacuation took place there were about 6000

americans left in afghanistan. they are almost all dual citizens almost all of them and had lived and worked at their families in afghanistan for generations. so despite every effort to get including offering to pay for their travel the airport remained open until august 16. almost all of those remaining we were able to get out. we were left with the few hundred on august the 31st. there were a couple hundred that this is what i testified to floyd dent abide the suspects and keep in mind as you know when you travel to or leave a foreign country you don't have demastus -- register new donut to make yourself known. we made every effort to get effort to getting contacted by the by the end of the evacuation they were a couple of hundred americans who told us they wanted to leave and couldn't get to the airport or into the airport but there were several hundred others who were there

who did not want to leave either because they didn't want to leave extended family members behind or they chose not to leave. so after august 31 as i said and committed to this committee and to this country there is no deadline in getting americans of afghanistan who want to leave and in the ensuing three months until the end of the year we got 500 american citizens out of afghanistan to identify themselves to us and said they wanted to leave and to my knowledge every american who identified themselves and said they wanted to leave was given an opportunity to do so we carried that out every single day. as for those who went back and some who got detained we are working every day to get them out and to get them back and we will not stop and ended i know the incoming administration will carry that through. >> are there any in jail today? been a guest, there are. these are americans who went

after the evacuation for a variety of reasons. >> i'm going to keep the five-minute rule strictly because i want every member to have time to ask questions. the chair recognizes mr. sherman. >> mr. secretary thank you for your service to our country you bring up the fact that americans in war zones and had to register with the embassy and i think we talked in the past about requiring americans in designated dangerous countries to register and i look forward to working with your successor to do that. you point out how difficult it is for the embassy to deal with these situations. before you get to afghanistan back in a you agree that you advocate designating the popular resistance committee, the third-biggest terrorist groups operating in gaza as a terrorist organization. they are responsible for so many

deaths including three americans. this committee voted for my bill to so designate them. do i have your commitment in the next few weeks your department will make a decision as to whether to designate the popular resistance committee a terrorist organization? i asked you to do it and may put how many years does it take? >> as you know there's a lot of goes into these designations. if we can complete that work, we well. when you were here in the past i think you correctly told us you inherited a deadline and you did not inherit a plan. the gentleman from new jersey argues that we should have stayed but that's after trump released 5000 bloodthirsty terrorists. had we stayed, would those

terrorists including the current and afghanistan who was released by trump enable, what they've been willing to risk the lives of everyone of those 5002 risk their lives to kill as many americans as possible >> i can't speak to her one of the 5000 certainly many would have gone back to fight. we went into afghanistan and we drew al al qaeda out only accomplish something in the george w. bush administration and the obama administration we kill bin laden. we stayed in afghanistan for the whole trump administration. 63 of our best died. 57 came back without -- the question is did we accomplish anything during the trump administration? did we get a better deal in 2020

20 than we could have gotten in 2017? the deal we got in 2017 was total surrender. the only requirement was that the taliban not be the center for international terrorism and they have that obligation anyway. they did not commit themselves to protecting our troops on the way out or embassy on the way out and moreover the taliban is not in violation of the trump agreement when they pulled 12-year-old girls as sex and kill every person they can kill any afghan that converts to christianity so the deal was it had no enforcement. so could we have gotten that deal in 2017 with 63 more american soldiers if we had done that and? >> is something we had to ask ourselves.

we had dismantled al qaeda. it t was this entire period. clearly the trump ears for years of deaths of american troops and we complement -- the accomplish tabs away nothing

mr. sanders: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. sanders: mr. president, as the holiday season approaches, it is an appropriate time to talk about our national

prio priorities, where we are as a nation, and where we should be going into the future. right now, tonight, as we assemble here in washington, d.c., there are thousands of people in this city and in the surrounding areas who are sleeping out on the streets, and that is not just washington, d.c., it is almost every major city in the country. when we talk about the housing crisis, it's not just hom homelessness. it is a reality that millions of people in vermont and throughout this country are paying 40%, 50%, 60% of their limited incomes for housing. we have a major housing crisis. we need to invest in low-income

and affordable housing. mr. president, today in the united states, in the richest country in the history of the world, which today has more income and wealth inequality than it has ever had, where the very rich become much richer, 60% of our people are living paycheck to paycheck, and millions of workers are earning starvation wages, barely enough to stay alive. the time is long overdue when we talk about our national prio priorities, that this congress pass a liveable minimum wage. raise that minimum wage to a liveable level so that no worker in this country, who works 40 hours a week, lives in poverty. not a radical idea.

mr. president, in the united states today we have a broken and dysfunctional health care system, whose major function is not to provide quality affordable care to our people, but to make billions in profits for the insurance companies and the drug companies. the truth is that while 85 million americans are uninsured or underinsured, while 60,000 die each year because they don't get to a doctor or time -- to a doctor on time, the insurance companies and the drug companies make tens of billions of dollars a year in profit. mr. president, the time is long overdue for the united states to do what every other major country on earth does, and that is to guarantee health care to all people as a human right.

in my view, the most efficient way to do that is to pass a medicare for all single payer program. mr. president, unbelievably, in this wealthy nation, in which three people on top own more wealth than the bottom half of our society, we have the highest rate of childhood poverty of almost any developed country on earth, and on top of that millions of parents, working class parents, cannot find affordable or quality child care. we need to make quality child care available for all. mr. president, in america today, unbelievably in my view, 25% of

senior citizens in our country are trying to survive on $15,000 a year or less. $15,000 a year. i don't know how anybody in america, no matter where you live, let alone if you are a senior citizen with additional health care and other needs, i don't know how anybody survives on $15,000. we need to expand social security benefits by lifting the cap on taxable income so that every senior in this country can retire with dignity and security. and mr. president, those are just a few of the things that, in my view, we should be doing in congress, if we are representing the needs of all

americans and not just wealthy campaign contributors and the top 1%. but tonight i want to say a few words about something that we should not be doing, and that is in the coming days, with almost no debate, we should not be passing the national defense authorization act, which provides some $900 billion for the department of defense. a little bit less than that, $895.2 billion. and when spending on nuclear weapons and emergency defense funding is included, the united states will spend, this year, close to $1 trillion on the military. $1 trillion on the military and a few blocks away from here

people are sleeping out on the streets. mr. president, while middle class and working class families are struggling to survive, we supposedly just don't have the financial resources to help them. we just cannot afford to build more housing. we just cannot afford to provide quality child care to our kids or to support public education or to provide health care to all. just can't afford to do that. but when the military industrial complex and all of their well-paid lobbyists come marching into capitol hill, somehow or another there is more than enough money for congress to provide them with virtually everything that they need. the military industrial complex speaks and congress responds.

mr. president, of that nearly $1 trillion that will be voted on in the next few days, about half will go to a handful of hugely profitable defense contr contractors. the pentagon accounts for about two-thirds of all federal contr contracting, obligating more money every year than all civilian federal agencies combined. combined. yet the pentagon remains the only major federal agency that cannot pass an independent audit. the department of defense still cannot accurately account for their finances, more than 30 years after congress made it a requirement under federal law.

in the most recent failed audit attempt, the department of defense still could not fully account for huge portions of its more than $4 trillion in assets. the gao, the general accountability office -- the government accountability office, reports that the defense department cannot accurately post transactions to the correct accounts. each year, auditors find billions of dollars the pentagon didn't even know it had. in fiscal year 2022, navy auditors found 4.4 billion in untracked inventory. they just lost it. hey, what's $4 billion among friends when you got a trillion dollars to play with? so mr. president, i don't often agree with elon musk. i agree with him very, very rarely. but he is right when he says the pentagon, and i quote, has

little idea how its annual budget of more than 800 billion is spent, end quote. that's musk. mr. president, the inability to track taxpayer dollars has allowed within the defense department massive fraud, massive amounts of waste, and unbelievable amounts of cost o overruns. defense contractors routinely overcharge the pentagon by 40%. and sometimes much higher than that. for example, just one example, in october, a few months ago, rtx, formerly raytheon, was find 950 million tlars for -- $950 million for inflating bills to the department of defense as they lied about labor and material costs and as they paid

bribes to secure foreign business. they were find $950 million. in june, lockheed martin was fined 70 million for overcharging the navy for aircraft parts, the latest in a long line of similar abuses. the f-35, the most expensive weapon system in history, has run up hundreds of billions of dollars in cost overruns. gao now estimates that it will cost more than $2 trillion to develop, maintain, and operate this fighter jet through its lifetime. mr. president, today, as a result of massive consolidation in the defense industry, a large portion of the pentagon budget now goes to just a handful, huge handful of huge defense

contractors, like lockheed martin, rtx, formerly raytheon, general dynamics, and northrop grumman. that consolidation has been extremely profitable for the industry. since 2022, these four contractors have brought in over $650 billion in revenues, including $350 billion in u.s. taxpayer funds and recorded billions in profits. during that same period, they have spent $61 billion on dividends and stock buybacks to make their wealthy shareholders even wealthier. that's just four companies over less than three years taking $353 billion in taxpayer money and handing $61 billion back to wealthy shareholders. mr. president, it is worthwhile

listening to what navy secretary carlos deltorro said earlier this year to a defense industry convention. this is the secretary of the navy. quote, many of you, speaking to defense contractors, many of you are making record profits as evidenced by your quarterly financial statements. you can't be asking for the -- the american taxpayer to make greater public investments while you continue to goose your stock prices through stock buybacks and other accounting maneuvers. that's the united states secretary of navy. and he is quite right. mr. president, it is not only fraud and cost overruns that drive up military spending. the major defense contractors also provide their ceo's with

exorbitant compensation packages. in the last three years, for which information is available, the top four defense companies paid their ceo's more than $257 million combined. these companies are all significant and reliant on the u.s. taxpayer, yet they pay their ceo's about 100 times more than the secretary of defense receives. ceo's, defense industry receive more than 100 times greater compensation than the u.s. secretary of defense and 500 times more than the average newly enlisted servicemember. now how does that happen? how does it happen that they can't -- that the defense department can't pass a defense audit, how ask that they end up paying fines for fraud? how does it happen that we have

massive cost overruns and yet we give the military industrial complex pretty much what they want. by the way, there will be virtually no debate here on the floor. it's only a trillion dollars. hey, what's a trillion dollars in? people going hungry. elderly people can't afford to heat their homes. they have a trillion bucks, no questions asked for the military industrial complex. so how does all of this happen? i think most americans now know the answer and it ain't complicated. these companies, just like the drug companies, just like the insurance companies, just like wall street and the big banks, just like the fossil fuel industry, they spend millions and millions of dollars on campaign contributions and lobbying. in the recent election cycle, the one we just came through,

defense contractors spent nearly $251 million on lobbying and contributed almost $37 million to political candidates. and surprise, surprise, aren't we all shocked that they end up getting what they want with almost no debate? mr. president, the waste and fraud in the defense industry is not just interestingly enough costing american taxpayers huge amounts of money. it is also costing lives. let me tell you what i mean by that. take a look at the war in ukraine. the u.s. is providing tens and tens of billions of dollars to help defend ukraine from putin's horrific invasion of that country. despite their record breaking profits, many defense contractors said that they couldn't ramp up production of

key weapons without more taxpayer support. so the united states government wanted to support, with my vote, ukraine against putin's invasion. ukraine needs weapons and the defense contractors said, hey, if you want us to help ukraine get them weapons, we need to ramp up production, we need more federal aid. and so, as part of that process, congress repeatedly appropriated emergency funding with roughly $78.5 billion going to buy equipment and services from the major defense contractors for ukraine. and how did, with all of that money, these patriotic defense contractors respond? did they say, well, thank you, we're going to do everything we can to get all the weapons we can at a reasonable price to ukraine which is fighting for its hief? not quite.

what the defense contractors did is jack up the prices they were charging us in order to help ukraine. rtx increased prices for stinger missiles from $25,000 in the 1990's to $400,000 in 2023. even accounting for inflation and improvements in technology, that is an outrageous price increase. but it wasn't enough for rtx. a recent nato contract reveals that rtx is now charging approximately $745,000 per stinger. lockheed martin and rtx raised the price of the javelin missile system from $263,000 per unit just before the war to $350,000 this year. the united states has provided

more than 10,000 javelins to ukraine, similar price hikes took place for patriot missiles and other weapon systems. and make no mistake. every time a contractor pads its profit margins, fewer weapons reach the front lines. the greed of these defense contractors is not just costing american taxpayers huge amounts of money, it is killing ukrainians. they get less weapons than they should given the amount of money that we are spending. and, mr. president, there is a name for all of this. it's call war pror tearing -- profiteering. this is not a new problem. during world war ii, then-u.s. senate -- senator harry truman made contracts with defense contractors. he appointed a special commission, it's called the

truman commission to investigate war profiteering and they found massive amounts of fraud. in my view, that is exactly what we should be doing now. we should be instituting a truman commission, or call it whatever you want, to take a hard look at the prices the defense industry is charging us for the weapons they provide. we should also consider other ideas to reduce waste and fraud in the military industrial complex, such as wider use of the defense production act, significant penalties for audit failures and a windfall profit task. mr. president, most americans would agree that we need a strong military and i agree that we need a strong military, but we do not need a defense system that is designed to make huge profits for a handful of giant defense contractors while providing less of what the

military needs. we do not need to spend almost a trillion dollars on the military while half a million americans are homeless, while children go hungry and while elderly people have difficulty heating their homes. mr. president, let me conclude by saying something which i think is one of the more profound statements ever made by a president. and that is that dwight d. eisenhower, who was a former five-star general and a republican president from 1952 to 1960, he warned us about everything that i'm talking about in his farewell address in 1961. and it would be very wise for us to remember what president eisenhower said, and this is the quo, and i quote -- this is the quote and i quote, president

eisenhower, quote, in the councils of government we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought by the military industrial complex. the potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. end of quote. what eisenhower said was true in 1961, it is even more true today. mr. president, i intend to vote against this inflated military budget. i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from louisiana. mr. kennedy: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, with me today are two of my closing from my senate office, mr. john lowry and mr. jackson buely. i'm grateful for their good judgment, counsel and advice.

i am delighted, mr. president, to see so many members of congress, and i mean this sincerely, so many members of congress embrace the call for a less wasteful federal government, for a more efficient federal government. we spend a little over $6 trillion a year, as senator sanders so eloquently pointed out. when you spend $6 trillion a year, somebody's getting $6 trillion a year. every penny in our budget has a constituency, and that constituency will fight us. they will fight us. and i -- i recognize that and it's something that, as we go about downsizing government, we have to be mindful of.

however, there is one constituency that is not going to be able to fight us for -- in our quest to scrutinize federal spending, and i'm referring to dead people. and that's what i want to talk about today. i want to talk about dead people and the fact that they're getting money from the federal government. in fiscal year 2023 alone, this is just one year, our government sent $1.3 billion -- not $1.3 million. we sent $1.3 billion in checks to dead people.

those aren't my numbers. those thumbs come from -- numbers come from the office of management and budget. that's just one year. not only is the federal government sending checks to dead people, those checks are being cashed. now, i have heard, mr. president, of dead people voting but cashing the checks, you don't have to be god's perfect idiot to realize that there's fraud happening with respect to all of this money. here's how this -- this problem ar arises. when you die in america your name is sent to the vital records office in your state.

and at that point the social security administration pays each state to get -- an ongoing list of deceased americans in that state. so far, so good. the social security administration takes this data, this list of deceased people, and they compile on an ongoing basis a list called the death master file. the death haaser file -- the death master file, that's just a list of everybody updated daily of people in the united states who are d■eceased. why does the social security administration do this? well, so the ssa,st social security -- ssa, the social

security administration can stop sending people who have died checks. so far, so good. there's just one problem. i discovered this about seven years ago. the social security administration refuses to share that list with anybody else in the federal government. they won't share it with any other federal agencies. many of which send out checks. the department of treasury, for example, sends out checks. ssa won't share the information with them. the small business administration sends out a lot of checks. the social security administration has a list of all deceased americans, but ssa will not share that information with the sba. i'll give you some examples. you remember, mr. president, when we were in the coronavirus

crisis. we had an economic meltdown. we sent stimulus checks to americans to try to keep the economy on its feet. we paid $1.4 billion to dead people. and they cashed the checks. the paycheck protection program which was a part of our stimulus program paid out $38 million alone to dead people. these were people who were using -- live people obviously who were using dead people's social security numbers to collect payments. the covid-19 economic disaster, injury disaster loan fund, another culprit was involved in sending checks to dead people.

the department of veterans affairs -- and i'm not blame be them. in many respects it's not their fault. a couple of years ago a scam artist stole the social security number of a deceased person, deceased veteran, and received about $825,000 in checks from 1997 to 2024. now, the person committing this fraud was just quietly accepting the checks. somehow the department of veterans affairs and for some reason stopped sending that person the checks. so the fraudster just picked up the phone and called the department of veterans affairs. he impersonated the dead person and convinced them to start sending the checks again. again, not necessarily the fault of the department of verns affairs -- department of veterans affairs. the v.a. didn't know the social

security number belonged to a deceased person. another example, a person in ohio was able to collect her deceased mother's veterans affairs benefits for 48 years, 48 years before she was caught. the truth is, mr. president, it's sort of like saying -- being asked, you didn't go fishing on saturday. how many fish do you think you didn't catch? we all know how much money we're sending out every year to dead people. let me give you an example of how screwed up the data is, mr. president. this is a strong indicator of what's wrong. the social security

administration, if you ask them, will tell you that there are, according to their records, there are 6.5 million americans living today in america who are 112 years of age or older. they say there are 6.5 million americans who are at least 112 years old or older. now, i don't know about you, mr. president, but i don't know anybody who is 112 years old. and i checked. at any given time there are about 40 people on an ongoing basis in the word who are fortunate enough to live to be 112. but according -- the data is so screwed up that according to ssa, 6.5 million people are 112 years old. a number of years ago, seven

years ago i started working with senator tom carper, a fine american if there ever was one. i started working with tom on this issue. i went to social security and i said look, this problem is easily solved. just share the master file with other -- dead master file with other agencies and especially share it with the department of treasury. i don't want to confuse anyone, but the department of treasury has a do not pay list of people who aren't supposed to receive checks for a variety of reasons that other agencies consult. i said to my friends at social security, why don't you give the dead master file to other agencies? they said we can't. it's illegal. the way we construe our enabling

statutes, we don't have the authority. well, i said okay, i'm not going to argue with them. we'll just go pass a law. it was harder than i thought, but we did. and 2020 senator carper and i passed a bill. the bill was called stopping improper payments to deceased people act. and it gave the social security administration permission and indeed directed the social security security administration to start sharing its list of dead people with other agencies in the federal government. i don't want to get down in the weeds, but believe it or not, we had people oppose the legislation. and many people within the federal government. so in order to get our bill

passed, we had to compromise. we had to agree to only implement this requirement that social security share the list of dead people with everybody e else. we could only get them to agree to do it for three years in a trial program. the clock started ticking on our three-year period in december of 2023. so obviously three years is right upon us. and if we don't make this program permanent, it's going to expire in 2026. so senator carper and i introduced another bill. it does basically the same thing as the 2020 bill, but it makes the program permanent. this new bill is called ending improper payments to deceased people act. and we need to pass it.

there's been a lot of squabbling back and forth. i don't want to do anything to step on too many toes to jeopardize my bill, about how much the states are going to be paid and who is going to pay social security for sharing their dead persons' list with the rest of government. i think we have a lot of it worked out, but we need to go pass this bill. i mean, this makes no sense whatsoever. i can understand if we talk about changing the medicaid program, for example. what's fair, what's unfair. i can understand debating that and i can understand reasonable people disagreeing over what changes if any we ought to make to the medicate program. i get it. i just listened to senator sanders once again speak very eloquently about the waste at the department of defense. that's something that reasonable

people all of whom agree that we ought to have a strong defense, but reasonable people can disagree over how to achieve that. but my god, you don't have to be euclid to figure out that this is just fraud. it's abuse. it's low-hanging fruit, and it's so easily solved. all we have to do is direct the social security administration on a permanent basis, not a three-year trial basis, on a permanent basis to start sharing the list of dead people with the department of treasury, and everybody else in federal government would wants it. and then everybody is on the same page, and we know who is deceased and we can stop sending the money to dead people who

cash the checks. now, i'm talking about this now, mr. president, and i've talked about it before on the floor, i'm not going to try to pass the bill this year. i'm not. we're running up against the clock and we have the ndaa. we have a c.r. to pass. we've got to keep government open. we've got to renew the flood insurance program. you know all that, mr. president, but i'm going to be back. i'm like the terminator. i will be back. as soon as the new congress is sworn in. many of my colleagues have said to me, you know, it's time we stop talking about who needs to pay more in taxes and start talking about and asking the question with respect to what the hell happened to the money, and i agree with them. i can't think of an easier place to start. let's just pass the simple bill.

let's stop sending money to dead people. again, we can debate about the wisdom of dead people voting. we all know what happens. but cashing checks, that's a bridge too far. thank you, mr. president, for your time and attention. i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: the clerk: ms. baldwin.

i come to the floor to say goodbye as difficult as it may be. they represent them for 20 years the maryland general assembly. eight years as speaker, 20 years in the house of representatives, and 18 years the united states senate including now chairing the senate foreign relations committee. let me start by thanking marylanders for giving me your trust to represent you in this body. you have supported me in 18 elections the hebrew letter for 18 is five which also means light. fifty-eight years of my life. my grandparents came to this country over 100 years ago to escape europe. they settled in baltimore built a life for their family.

their grandson now serves in the united states senate. this is a great country. marylanders have allowed me too pursue my ambition a public of c service to help others, whose voices and needs are often ignored in the halls of power. my family i was taught from a young age that it is our responsibility to make the world a better place. she repair the world, help those who are less fortunate and are in need. these principles were demonstrated to me by the communal activities of my parents. these principles, these values have been my northstar that have guided my public service as a legislator. the work of a legislator is not always easy. it requires perseverance, patience, sense of humor and optimism that can make the world a better place even the face of often horrible insurmountable challenges.

as i look back at my time here has the hardest battles that were some of the most rewarding. each one reflects the values i cherish. and collective will to help make the world around us and our communities a better place to live. on the senate finance committee i have had a front seat advancing health policy. i was fortunate just serve at the champion of healthcare senator ted kennedy. he was a mentor to me as steps we can take so all americans affordable quality healthcare healthcare should be a right for everyone out of the congress to pass the affordable care act. that law included my legislation that elevated the national institute for minority health and health disparities at nih. as much progress this has brought, the struggle for healthcare inequality continues.

today medicare coverage includes legislation i authored, through screening and preventive care, saving lives in dollars. all health insurance now covers pediatric dental care through legislation i authored after the tragic death of a 12-year-old maryland whose life could have been saved with the simple tooth extraction. >> it into law and the players providing opportunities for their employees to participate in retirement plan. her legislation included — for lower wage workers not an automatic enrollment provision but had dramatically increased participation by the employees. in the last ten years, participation in retirement

savings for the lowest income part of americans as increased by 135 percent. an affordable housing and economic development, and underserved communities come i have worked for senator cantwell on improvements to the low income housing tax credit and of successful legislation to expand the new market tax credit history tax credit in a abuse for economic development affordable housing opportunities across maryland and our nation. examples of the use of these tools merely include the justice marshall center in baltimore the building in baltimore couple of la legacy center in annapolis, and yes just yesterday where the southern wellness center they used new market tax credits and energizing and revitalizing communities in east baltimore great department of public works committee up at the opportunity

to expand the government's commitment to our infrastructure recently enacted bipartisan infrastructure law, including many of my priorities. for example, including funding for reconnecting communities that have been divided and disadvantaged through ill-conceived transportation projects pretty clippers a child for this initiative is the franklin mowbray carter in baltimore vanessa pricing the baltimore receive funding the first round of federal grants. weekly proud of the expansion of transportation alternative program of the other the tell program that allows the government to make their own priority decisions on the use the federal highway funds in this bit of a resource of funds to provide trails to local communities that connect the neighborhoods for walkers and bikers including for example the rehabilitation of the path in washington frederick in montgomery county and we take

advantage of the scouts to observe the beauty of our communities that are not connected by paths and trails predict older community still have pipes bringing reading letter to the homes and schools threatening the health of our children. bipartisan info structure law provides significant help to make this public health threat including $82 million. objection. mrs. fischer: thank you. madam president, i come before you today to discuss a grave situation that's unfolding in the southwestern part of my state. two nebraska communities, one at swanson reservoir and the other red willow, are at risk. over the past 50 years, residents of these two communities have built friendships. they've started and supported businesses. and they've enjoyed the

recreation that the local area offers. but in just two months, these nebraskans will be forced to leave. they will be forced out of their homes over a disagreement between the federal government and local stakeholders on how the land should be managed. the good news is there is a simple solution to this problem. working with the rest of the nebraska delegation, as well as the bureau of reclamation, i have introduced legislation that benefits all parties. it transfers ownership of this land from the federal government to local officials. i want to thank congressman adrian smith especially for introducing companion legislation in the house. once the counties control the land around these reservoirs, the residents of red willow and

swanson can work with local authorities to chart a better path forward, one that preserves the communities, and one that also improves the recreation areas. since i introduced this bill, i've heard from over 1,000 nebraskans about how urgently they need this land transferred. i've received numerous letters of support from local communities and businesses. eve everyone, everyone involved, supports this bill. the residents and their local government officials support this bill. our colleagues on both sides of the aisle have offered no objection to this bill. energy and natural resources economy passed this bill on a voice vote. we also worked with the bureau of reclamation on this solution.

everyone, everyone agrees that my bill offers the best future for the hundreds of nebraskans who call these areas home. madam president, it is time to do what's right and to save these communities. madam president, i would yield time to the senator from hawaii. ms. hirono: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from hawaii. ms. hirono: today, i rise in support of h.r. 8219, the lahaina national heritage area study act, and i also want to lend my support to the bill that is proposed by my esteemed colleague from nebraska. now, h.r. 8219 requires the secretary of the interior to study the potential for lahaina to be designated as a national heritage area.

the august 2023 wildfires brought to the forefront how special lahaina is to maui, to hawaii, to our country, and indeed the world. the national heritage area designation could bring important federal resources to help protect and manage the historic natural and cultural resources that are unique to lahaina. i thank senator fischer for her partnership in supporting this measure, and i ask my colleagues to join me in passing this bill today so that the president can sign it into law and the national park service can begin working with local partners on this effort. i just want to mention that it is very clear that both senator fischer and i have worked very closely with our communities in garnering support for these two bills, and no one is raising any substantive objections to these

measures. so, as we rush to finish the work of the senate, i think it would be a very positive decision on our part to support these bills that nobody substantively objects to. i hope that we can u.c. these bills, and i yield back to the senator from nebraska. mrs. fischer: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from nebraska. mrs. fischer: i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediately en bloc consideration of h.r. 8413 and h.r. 8219, which were received from the house. i further ask that the bills 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? mr. manchin: madam president, reserving the right to object. i have no substantive concerns with these bills. however, we have dozens and

dozens of other bills that have been reported out of the energy committee. senator barrasso and i have been very clear about our intentions to put together and pass a public lands bill, which consists of about 150 bills. all of these reported bills have gone through the same process in a package. these two bills would be part of that, and this week is our last chance to reach agreement on and finalize that package. so i cannot in good conscience start deconstructing this package that so many of our colleagues have worked so hard and so long and waited for today, while we're continuing to negotiate on it. we just finished large meetings, and we'll continue the meetings throughout tonight and tomorrow. so for now, i have to preserve the options to get a package agreed to, and i object to both senators' unanimous consent requests. the presiding officer: the objection is heard. the senator from hawaii. ms. hirono: i'd just like to note that i certainly recognize

that the esteemed chair of the energy and natural resources committee is working very hard to put together a bill that contains dozens of these kinds of bills that have been worked through the committee as well as by the proponents. however, the reality of time is that there are serious concerns as to whether or not we are going to be able to get the kind of agreement that the chairman seeks. therefore, here we are, with the actual two bills, and believe me, madam president, that if all of the other people who have similar kinds of legislation come to this floor and ask for unanimous consent, i will be happy to give it. that's all we're asking at this point, that these two bills are ripe today, whether or not the chair is able to succeed in putting together this massive legislation that he referred to

i think is very problematic, and i think we should at least take positive action on the bills that the senator from nebraska and i have worked very hard on. i yield. the presiding officer: the senator from nebraska. mrs. fischer: madam president, this really is outrageous. my legislation cannot wait. as i've said, it passed the energy and natural resource committee on a voice vote. last week, it passed the full house of representatives unanimously. the bill is different from the rest of the package that my colleagues are negotiating. nebraskans are watching this bill. they're watching my bill. because nebraskans will be kicked off their land starting in february. two months from now, if it is

not signed into law. i've been working with the chair, i've been working with his team for over a year, over a year on this legislation, incorporating feedback from them and continuously emphasizing the urgency with my legislation. none of my colleagues are objecting to policy in this bill. they know it is the right thing to do. in fact, my colleague objecting has already voted in favor of the bill in committee. rather, objecting to this legislation is choosing to use these people, their homes at these reservoirs, and the small businesses as political leverage for unrelated matters. i've heard from over a thousand

constituents who are in support of this legislation. they know that it will chart a better path forward for that local community and the federal government. they did not ask to be used as political leverage, and i hope my colleague will reconsider his objection. otherwise, i will continue coming to this floor, day after day this week, asking for unanimous consent. although, madam president, i have been told by our cloakroom that there is no time available tomorrow for any action like this on the floor. it needs to happen now. thank you, madam president. i yield the floor. mr. manchin: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from west virginia. mr. manchin: i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to legislative session and be in a period of morning business,

with senators permitted to speak there upon for ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. manchin: madam president, i have three requests for committees to meet during today's session of the senate. they have the approval of the majority and minority leaders. the presiding officer: duly noted. mr. manchin: i understand that there is a bill at the desk due for a second reading. the presiding officer: the clerk will road the title of the bill for a second time. the clerk: an act to amend title 82 of the social security act. mr. manchin: in order to place the bill on the calendar under the provisions of rule 14, i object to further proceedings. the presiding officer: objection having been heard, the bill will be placed on the calendar. mr. manchin: i ask unanimous consent that the committee on the judiciary be discharged from further consideration of s. sent bill 5060, and the senate proceed to its immediate consideration. the presiding officer: the clerk will report.

the clerk: s. 5060, a bill to reauthorize the protect our children act of 2008 and for other purposes. the presiding officer: without objection, the committee is discharged and the senate will proceed to the measure. mr. manchin: i ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. manchin: madam president, i ask unanimous consent that the committee on homeland security and governmental affairs be discharged from further consideration of h.r. 5301 and the senate proceed to its immediate consideration. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: h.r. 530 #, an -- 01, an act to amend title 1, united states code, and so forth and for other purposes. the presiding officer: without objection, the committee is discharged and the senate will proceed to the measure. mr. manchin: i ask unanimous consent, that the bill be considered read a third time and passed, and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection.

mr. manchin: madam president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of h.r. 5646, which was received from the house and is at the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: h.r. 5646, an act to amend the higher education act of 1965 and so forced and for other -- so forth and for other purposes the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will proceed to the measure. mr. manchin: i ask that the bill be considered read a third time and passed, and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. manchin: madam president, i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned until 10:00 a.m. on thursday, december 12, that following the prayer and pledge, the journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be deemed expired, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and morning business be closed. falling the conclusion of morning business, the senate proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the mara

z anno nomination, further, that it ripen at 11:30 a.m., if any nominations are confirmed during thursday's session, the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table and the president be immediately notified of the senate's action. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. manchin: madam president, if there is no further business to come before the senate, i ask that it stand adjourned under the previous order. the presiding officer: the senate stands adjourned until >> the senate has gambled out for the day, nearly the chamber voted against advancing the nomination of laura mcferrin entered the democrats as the chair of the national neighbor relations work for another five-year term by the vote was 49 — 50 and also on the floor negotiations are continuing government funding measures with down deadline approaching on the summer 20th and live senate coverage when lawmakers return here on "c-span2".

abc news said number of other sources are repornghat fbi director christopher wright intends to resign on january nearly two years before the end of his tenure term and appointed by donald trump during his first administration the fbi director has faced criticism from a former president who announced his desire to replace him with kash patel in the new year. ♪ ♪♪ attention middle and high school students across america, it is time to make your voice heard, c-span student camps documentary contest 2025, this is your chance created documentary that can inspire change, raise awareness and make an impact them your documentary should into this year's question, your message to the president and what is issues most important to you for your community whether you're passionate about politics, they are environmental or. student count is your platform

to share your message with the world. $100,000 in prices, including grand prize of $5000 and this is your opportunity not only to make an impact but also be rewarded for your creativity and hard work and enter your submissions today. scan t coders student cannot . work for the details on how to enter and the deadline is january 20th of 2025. sees manager unfiltered view of government, funded by these television companies and more including charter communications scenic tours proud to be recognized were the best internet providers and we are just getting started it, building 100 and 1000 miles of millions of structure to reach those who need it most. charter communications, support c-span is a publi service along with these other television