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remains a trusted resource or you, for future generations. >> we take you live now to capitol hill with the senate is ready to gavel in. today, members are considering the house past 2025 defense programs and policy bill known as the ndaa. about to advance the bill is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. eastern. you are watching live coverage here on c-span2. the presiding officer: the senate will come to order. the chaplain will lead the senate in prayer. the chaplain: let us pray. god of all comfort, we thank you that your steadfast love endures forever.

today we offer our thanksgiving for your word that counsels us, for your spirit, that guides us, and for prayer that sustains us. give our senators grace, and wisdom to fix their eyes on you and to meditate on your ways, knowing that your testimonies are better than silver and gold. as we anticipate the end of advent and look forward to the wondrous beginning of christmas, we ask you to come light our world. we pray in your mighty name, amen. the presiding officer: please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance to the flag. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty

and justice for all. the presiding officer: the clerk will read a communication to the senate. the clerk: washington, d.c, december 16, 2024. to the senate: under the provisions of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable tammy duckworth, a senator from the state of illinois, to perform the duties of the chair. signed: patty murray, president pro tempore. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. morning business is closed. under the previous order, the senate will resume consideration of the house message to accompany h.r. 5009, which the clerk will report. the clerk: house message to accompany h.r. 5009, an act to

reauthorize wildlife habitat and conserves programs and for other purposes.

and people are coming in money and you probably noticed polls taken literally and 39 years small business owners 41% jump, the first jump in 39 here's.

nobody has seen that. in one of the net it may be better than almost anybody. invest in its billing dollars and they say they kept that promise in every way, shape and form.

>> thank you so much. the economy of the united states and 100 billing dollars the united states the double down to 100,000 jobs that has double

down one more thing i'm really hoping if they the world discuss this. they go for more. 200 billing dollars.

[laughter] up and. the usa. >> the people of the pan and help from disrespectful to what he just did. i'd be surprised if it didn't go. >> i will really try.

>> fantastic. and proud of u.s. and and stronger and very excited to make this happen. [applause] >> amazing. a great leader and investor. i-40 one -- 40 jump. they know a minimum of 39 years

so it's great. i want to thank him for his faith and what's happening with our country and all over the world. not necessarily friends of mine but a light in shining armor around the world working strongly with getting the hostages back. the horrible war in ukraine and russia. it is tough, people are being killed at levels nobody has seen. the only thing that stops a bullet is a human body. the number of soldiers being

killed is astronomical. i get reports every week and it's not even -- nobody seen anything like it. a flat land which is why it's great farming claimed the production the world was flat. no protection, no nothing. it's far worse than people are reporting. we been doing revested we will see what happens. we had no wars only at the office now the whole world is blowing up but there is great optimism. restore our nation we will go

full prosperity and build the greatest economy the world is ever seen. we have the greatest economy the world had seen. we had to slow down with covid in the end by get the back substantial increase of the stock market. eliminating ten old regulations. we cut more regulations in any president has ever by four approximately by five times some

regulations have been put back on but will catch up. there are two events that took place from the takeover, transition as they like to cite and it is but two events took place that were terrible. one of people don't come back to office, they will be dismissed and somebody in the biden administration gave a five-year waiver so for five years people have to come back to the office. it involved 49000 people. they just decided this thing that's ridiculous. it was like a gift to a union. the other thing that's terrible we spent a tremendous amount of money building the wall designed

by the patrol. it's powerful steel. we pour concrete were just on concrete in the 60 story building. it is incredible. we have a remark inside it's very hard, and expensive process

and we had people testing and they were not able to get over the plate on top which i never allowed the look but it works so unbelievably well and we have hundreds of miles we put up my 571 miles of wall in addition to the fact that mexico helped with their military and we ordered an additional 200 of wall and now it's about double the price what would have been six years ago and administration is trying to sell it 5 cents on the dollar knowing we are getting ready to put it on.

it's almost a criminal act. they know we are going to use it and if we don't have it, we will have to rebuild and it will cost double what it cost years ago and that's hundreds of millions of dollars. i built much more that i said i would build whatever it was it was built, i said we could do more because of wall, people flow through and what happened is there trying to live 5 cents to the dollar and that is nothing to do with transition, that has to do with people really trying to solve our nation. all that means is we are going to spend hundreds of millions walked. on building the same wall that

we already have an you will have already come back us and have deals at 5 cents and 4 cents and 3 cents on the dollar so they make a deal with the united states and they call us say do you want to buy it back? will sell it back for hundreds of dollars a foot. in the senators of texas. i spoke to a lot of people and hopefully will be able to have a restraining order but how ridiculous it is. in nothing to do with democrat or republican.

we want on common sense and may be one of the most egregious examples of people trying to make a deal with us of year, th attention is focused squarely on a long list of business with deadlines fast approaching. extending government funding by friday is our top priority. shutting the government down is a one-way ticket to needless destruction of important func functions. it's never been a winning proposition, and this time is no different. delivering urgent disaster relief is a nonnegotiable as communities across the country continue to pick up the pieces from a devastating storm season.

they're watching closely for the senate to deliver on the promise of a much-needed helping hand. after months of unnecessary delay, the senate will finally vote on the national defense authorization act. the armed services committee reported this year's ndaa six months ago, by an overwhelming bipartisan vote. the fact that it's only reached the floor a week before christmas is really inexcusable. so is the absence of a vote on defense appropriations legis legislation, and the blame for this neglect will rest squarely on the outgoing senate majority. ranking member wicker and our colleagues on the committee tried mightily to ensure that the final bill congress made

annual opportunity to shape defense priorities backs tough talk on growing threats with the tools required to meet them. but the ndaa, like all major legis legislation, is a compromised product. in the absence of the senate-backed increase to top line investments will go down as a tremendous, tremendous missed opportunity. artificial budget restraints mean that major bill provisions, like a pay raise for enlisted servic servicemembers, will come at the expense of investments in the critical weapon systems and munitions that deter conflict and keeps them safe. for all the talk about growing threats to america's national security, it's past time for an honest conversation about the

military requirements to meet those needs. and if this ndaa offers any valuable lesson, it's that we have a tremendous amount of work to do. now, on an entirely different matter, my earliest participation in politics is wearing an i like ike pin on school picture day. well, last month, the state of indiana was chanting i like mike. mike braun's fellow hoosiers like him so much, in fact, they've had decided to shoo him back from washington to be their governor. if i know anything about indiana's junior senator, he's probably looking forward to trading in the trappings of this institution for a job a lot closer to home. is but i'd like to say just a few words before he goes. years ago, a local reporter asked mike braun about his approach to life and to work.

he told him, quote, you live like you're going out of business every day, and it makes you healthy. for a spry former three-sport athlete like mike, that much checks out. but needless to say, in the process of keeping him young, our colleague's mantra also brought a fair bit of political success. sure, a cushy white collar gig on the corporate ladder would have been natural next step fresh out of harvard business school. but where is the fun in that? mike, in order to live like you're going out a business, you have to run a business yourself asmt got to build a team and take risks. what better place to do that than in your own hometown?

most of us are familiar with at least some of what came next for mike and his high school sweetheart, maureen. the life and professional lessons of mike's dad, amos, a decorated world war ii vet, steering a 15-person operation through the aftermath of the 19kwoifts farm crisis -- 1980's farm crisis, and turning it into a national team spread across 38 states. for years, running that success with sleeves rolled up and raising four kids along the way, three of them have found their own calling in the family business. as i understand it, we have maureen to thank that this incredible story of hard work and entrepreneurial spirit took a turn into politics in the first place. when friends around jasper tried drafting her to run for school

board, she offered them mike ins instead. and so began two decades and counting of life in politics. here in the senate, mike's going out of business approach to public service made an early impression. careful observers ranked him at one point the most effective freshman in the chamber. he dove head first into legislation that mattered to him and to indiana. he advocated passionately for farmers and for families impacted by rare diseases. he fought for outcomes. and he stood on principle. but hoosiers will be proud to know that he still doesn't like dressing up here on the senate floor. who can blame him? by mike's own admission, most of what he likes to do -- tend the farm, fish and hunt, both animals and mushrooms -- he can do within 60 miles of

jasper. so it speaks to mike's commitment to his neighbors that even though he's leaving washington, he's not quite going home just yet. nor will he be able to hang up the coat and the tie. the trust of the people of indiana is rightly a great source of pride for our colleague, second only to his pride in the family he and maureen built. and i know he can't wait to get to work for all of them in indianapolis. so, i know i speak for our colleagues when i thank mike for his service these past six years. i wish him all the best in his

over the country, takeover what a 100 year rebuild you never have it the way it was five president, it would never happened we are inheriting challenges at home and all over the world no, no problem. no inflation, less than 1%. we had inflation, the likes of which i believe the country has ever seen. they say 38 years. i think it's probably ever but we will take care of all the and get prices down. we have more energy than anybody else.

richard, saver and longer ever before. we do know that people can we do know a lot of things. an incredible. the greatest economy in history and will do it again. i believe still because we understand the washington. i did know any of them. a lot of great people but some people i wouldn't have used in record so like to 100 million.

that is money you can't invest elsewhere. >> i'm not going to be good talk hostages for so very strong discussed where are things? they are doing a great job

happy. it was a recap goal more than anything else. we will take a look by four points and there are those that say tik tok has something to do with that some of the people recommended, i said who is not? i can't believe you don't know. it was cute and had an impact but tik tok had an impact. publicans are always down, i don't know why but we ended up

36 points of the young people. that was strange to answer that way. to answer a question like that? >> not something i would ever

answer. >> the connection between the i had dinner the other night rfk and other people involved. thirty years ago one in 100 and now one in 100 so something is wrong and we are going to find out about it.

>> what you say to people who are worried about in their kids less safe? >> an open mind and radical but there are a lot of nation. another thing again incredible and representatives and what came out as we are paying much more than other countries.

we have the middleman the makes more money than the drug. i don't know who these middlemen are but they are rich. >> we are going to get drug costs down that nobody has ever seen before. we spent more time for talking about that, more than anything else. >> what about the polio vaccine? >> i think everything should be looked at. >> should mandate vaccines? >> i'm not a big mandate person.

mostly democrat governors. they did a portly of the dod probably will will illinois. mr. durbin: madam president, the next time you're checking out at your local grocery or convenience store, take a look around. there's a good chance you will see the kiosk marked with the letter b with with two vertical

letters running through it. sincere the symbol for bitcoin, and what you're looking at is a bitcoin atm. take a closer look, is somebody using the machine, do they seem stressed? if so, they might be one of the growing number of victims of bitcoin atm fraud. these scams that target elderly americans starts with a phone call, the person claims he's from a bank, the irs, some federal agency. he tells the victim the bank account is hacked or late paying their taxes and explains they need to go to their bank immediately and take out money. sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars. he directs his victim to a local business that hosts a bitcoin

atm and might even order an uber driver to pick them up. from there he walks them through how to deposit their money into the machine, how to use it to buy bitcoin and how to transfer it using a digital wallet controlled by the victim. in a moment the money is gone lost to the vulnerability inherent to bitcoin. bitcoin atm scams have exploded in the recent years. according to data released, the amount of consumers scammed increased nearly tenfold between 2020 and 2023, from 12 million to $114 million. in the first half of this year alone, victims lost a staggering $65 million. a disproportionate number of these victims were elderly

americans. in 2023, the fbi's internet complaint center received thousands of atm fraud complaints from 60 years or older. earlier this summer, the illinois times reported reported that a small business owner in springfield, illinois, saw his shall atm being used by elderly individuals to depositing large sums of money. he explained, 100% of the time we saw somebody at the machine, they were being scammed. i was like, this machine has to go. i'm not going to be part of this. he wisely removed the bitcoin atm from the store. a good samaritan reported she saw thousands of dollars being deposited into the machine, she

tried to stop the individual, but was unsuccessful, only when a responding officer arrived did she finally understand that she had been scammed. he is narrows like -- scenarios like these are being played out across america. we need to limit the damage caused by these criminals, eliminating it is not a solution to this growing problem. i sent letters to the ten largest bitcoin operators. we wanted them to understand what they were doing, if anything, to prevent fraudulent use of their machines. the responses we received were not reassuring. while some safeguards such -- other commonsense measures, like analyzing transactions and digital wallets were not. other best practices, such as

setting maximum transaction sizes were left to the vague ris of state laws, leaving too many americans at risk in too many states. that simply isn't good enough. companies should meet certain specific antifraud measures. that's why i'm going to introduce legislation in the next few weeks that establishes a federal antifraud baseline for bitcoin atm's. as i start to develop this bill, there are a few things that strike me as absolutely necessary. bitcoin atm's should have transaction limits as these machines are increasingly used to perpetrate fraud. second, any transaction initiated by a new customer should be held for some reasonable period of time before

it's processed. this will allow new customers to cancel their transactions, particularly if they learn they are victims of fraud. minnesota and connecticut, passed legislation requiring bitcoin an operators to atm app employ this technology. fourth, bitcoin atm's should be required to include transaction receipts, this will allow law enforcement to easily trace the transaction, collect evidence of the crime and maybe recover some stolen funds. i plan to work would stakeholderser to make this -- shake holders to make this pass, that includes states attorneys general and aarp, it includes bitcoin atm operators, in

responses to many of my letters, many have responded to work with congress. i hope they will come to the table in good faith. i'm not going to stand idly by while thousands of americans, particularly elderly measures are ripped off in bitcoin atm scams, my bill will address this problem before it spirals out of control. madam president, i yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: the clerk: ms. baldwin.

xi jinping was here in the dining room, with the famous

chocolate cake as the missiles were shot. every one of those missiles hit target. had president obama drawn the line, you wouldn't have even had russia. the fantastic job they did and emmanuelle did a phenomenal job on that. great respect for.

the representative of our country, we were treated with great respect. ukraine, zelenskyy and would like to have. the worst carnage the world has seen since world war ii. if you saw those pictures, he would feel strongly about. >> we will talking representatives.

>> the government knows. the garage, they can go into that garage. they know where they came from and where it went. our military knows. i can't imagine. something strange is going on. they are very close.

>> i don't want to comment on it. >> you want rfk junior to revoke it? >> i want to come back with a report. we will have tremendous cost savings, that is a minimum and serious discussions. they have a better mortality rate is it is makes.

so we will have that very quick. a very rational way. you won't lose the polio vaccine. i have friends that were affected by that. they are still not in good shape because of it. the moment they took that vaccine, it ended. i don't anticipate that at all but we are going to look into the rates of the five years ago. one hundred times higher. we are going to find out why we are paying more than other countries and we were in the process of being transparent and

we brought it down. who are the ones who got all of that done but it will take a lot of credit for what we did and i will have a big conversational price. why are we paying many times more? what i put in place was terminated unexpectedly. >> you mentioned some of the areas are already. do you believe ukraine should

seek territory to russia? >> i will let you know after my first we but a lot of that territory -- there are cities where there is not a building standing. so people can't go back to those cities. there's nothing there. it's just robles. it just like knocking down manhattan. this is worse actually. and those buildings are many people. when they said the number in ukraine is much higher than deaths, it will be a much higher number than you are hearing. fifteen just 20 stories high. massive buildings flattened like

a pancake. they say nobody was hurt nobody knows who was in those buildings. many more people are being killed in the ukraine war than reported including soldiers. it's a carnage we haven't seen since the second world war. >> a meeting with him yesterday and hoping to have a meeting soon. >> i sent him a book. i was very close to prime

minister and his wife wanted to know if it was possible. i would love to see the prime minister. i sent him a book. >> will happen before inauguration day? >> i have great respect and if you would like to do that. >> highly respected. fantastic job. >> which other world leaders

have you shown the operations? >> they are calling me and would really like to meet. they are literally calling me. i will be seeing some of them. it's hard to say i'm not going to see you. i've spoken to weigh over 100 where they called to congratulate not only on the election with the size of the election, the victory. they were great. i've spoken to over 100 countries. he wouldn't believe how many countries there are. i'm trying the best i can to get back to everybody but there are a lot of countries and literally everyone called. some felt it was an emergency. i've seen president zelenskyy and france. they had about 70 presidents and prime ministers and in one case

a king. i met with william and i was very impressed by william. >> did you invite zelenskyy? >> no but if you would like to come, i'd like to have him. >> argued disappointed china won't be at the inauguration? >> i don't know that actually. i will say if you like to come, i'd love to have him. it had discussion through letters. we had a good relationship until

covid. covid didn't and the relationship but it was far for me. he hasn't said one way or the other to be clear. it's something we just about didn't discuss but through letters, we've had good discussions. china and the united states can together solve all of the problems of the world if you think about so it's very important. he's a friend of mine sitting in a comfortable chair. we spent hours talking and he is an amazing guy.

in. >> united healthcare, can you give us your thoughts? >> it is really terrible that some people seem to admire him. i was happy to see it wasn't specific this gentleman that was killed. it's over all sickness as opposed to a specific sickness. it was cold-blooded, horrible killing and people like this guy, that is a sickness actually. especially the way it was done, right in the back. very that. you can't believe some people

and maybe it's fake news. it's hard to believe that could be thought of but there's a certain appetite for him it seems. >> i want to expand papers. >> they are very dishonest. we need great media. it's very important. billions of ballots were sent. the votes were counted three weeks ago, you need fair elections and borders.

i have a few doing. i'm doing this not because i want to but i feel the obligation to look. the people in iowa, a very good poster and just before the election, she said i would lose by three or four points which became a big story. it was interesting, she said i would only win by four two weeks before because she went down from 22 points to four or whatever the number was. there's no reason to go there because she brought it from way up and walked away and it turned out to be the election, they

went by many points. and she brought it down to four a couple of weeks before and everybody said wow, he's only up by four points and was down by three or four. that was the des moines register and it was their parent in my opinion, it was brought and election and interference. she's a very good poster and then she quit.

we are following one on 60 minutes about that where they took pamela's answer which was a crazy answer, a horrible answer. took the whole answer out and replaced it with something. interview. it was not like the first one. the first one was grossly incompetent. there was fraud in election interference by their news magazine. a big part of cbs news. we are involved in one which has been going on for a while and very successfully against bob woodward. he did not meet properly from the tapes and then on top of everything else, he sold the tapes. not for sale purposes. he admits that. i think we have one very

interestingly because reporters have prizes for their wonderful reporting. people, like many people, john solomon, sean hannity got it right. many people got it right. tucker got it right. jesse got it right, laura got it right. a lot of people got it right. they gave it to reporters. they got it absolutely wrong. i want them to take back and big damages. i think we are doing very well on that one. they gave a pulitzer prize to writers that got russia russia russia wrong. i feel like i have to do this. i should not be the one to do it

it cost a lot of money to do it. we have to straighten out the rest. our press is very corrupt. >> are you worried about venezuela? >> for january 6 defendant you had said in the first few minutes you want to issue pardons for january 6. will that be a blanket pardon? >> you will find out. it will go quickly. >> preliminary discussions with countries like venezuela. the gang is now —-dash. >> they are all taking them back and if they do not, they will be met very harshly economically. they will all take them back. you know, venezuela and other

countries were not behaving very well with us during my administration and within 24 hours they were behaving very well. >> nice to see you, jeff. >> this is like the old days. you look better now than you did four years ago. what is he doing? >> you just mentioned you are in office. >> we will have a lot. you could say as well as i could executive orders that we are designing. >> your conversation with her minister benjamin yet -- netanyahu is a review. we had a really good conversation.

i think actually more difficult will be the russia ukraine situation. i think it is. the koreans i don't think it should have been allowed. certainly not just weeks before taking over. there will be hell to pay if the hostages are not released before january 20. what does that mean? >> they will have to determine what that means but it will not be pleasant.

it will not be pleasant. >> did you talk about tariffs and that? >> i had dinner with all of them this is one of the big differences, we are talking about it before. one of the big differences between the first-term, the first-term everybody was fighting me. this time everybody wants to be my friend. my personality changed or something. as you know, i had sunday are from google. sergei is the owner, the primary owner, along with his friend, as you know. sergei was here also. i cannot believe you did not pick that up. there is a big difference. the first time everybody was fighting me.

we had a great administration. we got the biggest tax cuts in history. stupidly given away, horribly given away. i think just one of the reasons up to 10 when into ukraine when he saw the stupidity of these guys, stupid people, very stupid people. we were pulling out of afghanistan. i would've pulled out with dignity and strength. they would not have been having parades. we were not going to leave any equipment behind. not $0.10. every screw and every bolt. the biggest differences people have gone through four years. it was not easy for me, but it was not easy for me either. tim cook is here. i think he's done an incredible job. he talked about the future of

apple. we have many others not in that business. we do have jeff bezos coming in sometime during the week. look forward to that. a lot of great executives coming in. honestly, i don't know what it was, it is like a complete opposite. the president has covered that fairly recently. the first one very hostile. maybe it was my fault, but i do not really think so. may be very rich from the beginning. this one is much less hostile. >> i know that you had some involvement 18 years ago with the students at duke accused. >> i thought that it was a hoax when it happened. the duke situation.

i did not believe the woman, as you know. they destroyed the lives of these kids. i don't care what they got. their lives have been destroyed. their lives have been shortened by what took place. now, the woman admitted that it never happened. that is horrible. as you know, i took a lot of heat. those kids were beautiful. kids with beautiful families. in some cases, they will never be the same. >> do you talk to them, by chance. >> your thoughts on the postal service. you mentioned jeff bezos a little bit ago and i thought he would be the key person. >> there is talk about the postal service taken private. you do know that. not the worst idea i have ever heard. it really is not.

amazon and ups and fedex and all the things that you did not have there is talk about that. i think we are looking at that, any questions for howard, by the way. >> mr. incoming secretary, do you see another trade deal with china coming? >> i think the president, it is easy for me, you are sitting next to me. [laughter] it is okay. the president has very clear agenda for tariffs. i think reciprocity is something that will be a key topic for us. how you treat us is how you should expect to be treated. >> would you like the way in, sir, on that? >> we tax them the same amount. forget just a second. they tax us, we tax them.

in all cases, they are taxing us >> is there a deal underway with respect to that. >> we will make great deals. we have all of the cards. don't forget, howard was going over the numbers with me last night. we took in $600 billion and more in terrace from china. no other presidential not $0.10. we will be doing things. the word reciprocal is important we don't have to talk about that 100%, we charge them nothing. they send in the bicycle we sent them a bicycle and they charge us 10200. brazil charges us a lot. if they want to charge us, that

is fine, but we will charge them the same thing. >> some of the senators are not necessarily business people. when i give that to them, they say, that sounds fair. >> are you concerned that the tariffs may hurt the stock market that you've seen in the economy more broadly? >> tariffs will make our country rich. >> i did not have any inflation and i had massive tariffs on a lot of things. we put tariffs on steel. if i did not put tariffs on steel, 50% and more, they were dumping steel, china and others i put tariffs on it and it stopped. we made a fortune on it. tariffs properly used, which we will do and being reciprocal of other nations, but it will make our country rich. our country right now loses to everybody. almost nobody do we have a surplus with.

almost nobody. to me, tariffs, the most beautiful word in the dictionary go back and look at the 1890s and you take a look at tariffs, that is when we were at our, proportionately, the richest. [inaudible] >> back on ukraine. what should zelensky, if anything, prepared to give up? >> prepared to make a deal. got to be a deal. too many people being killed. got to make the deal. >> putin would never of that. if vice president we would not have had inflation. either good relationship with putin despite the russia hoax which made it more difficult. if we had that election, if it

were an honorable election, we would not have had any of the problems we are talking about right now. >> you said you could make a deal before you left office, do you still think you could make that deal? >> i'm going to try. >> i think we have to get on with our lives. we can see what happens. right now, syria has a lot of indefinite spirit nobody knows what will happen with syria. i think turkey will hold the key to syria, actually. i don't think you've heard that from anybody else. i want to thank you all. we will make america great again thank you very much. thank you very much. [applause]

[cheering and applause] hello. hello. [cheering and applause] good morning. i think it is still morning. how is everyone out there. i love it. thank you for being here. it is such an honor to be here with you today on behalf of the nearly 13 million working people in the al f cio. and on behalf of working americans everywhere in this country. i cannot tell you how powerful it is to be part of this celebration. for someone who, to me, is an unsung hero in our national story. who has inspired millions of women, millions of workers and

is directly responsible for so many of the rights and benefits that we have as working people today across this country. now, i think about frances perkins a lot spirit a glass ceiling breaker. someone who has opened doors for people like me to have a seat at that leadership table. she gave this great speech at the american association of university women in 1939. she was six years into her role as a secretary of labor, first woman, of course, cabinet member , we know, it was at the tail end of the depression and the new deal had been implemented. as she went to the stage, she pulled out this little hand written note. she had written it eight years earlier. and it had scribbled down on this, you can imagine this piece of paper, a list of ideas that

at the time she thought would be good for policymakers to consider. she thought the governor would think about working hours. higher wages. help for the elderly and unemployed. abolishing child labor. measures for industrial safety and the right to organize a union and bargain collectively. [cheering and applause] those ideas that as she gave that speech were all now a reality. she said, they were made possible because at no point did anyone in the administration say we are satisfied. that is good enough. president roosevelt, secretary perkins, every worker who stood with them, they kept fighting

and does frances perkins said in that speech, and i quote, a healthy discontent keeps us alert to the changing needs of our time. president biden, since you were first coming up in the senate, you have led with that same spirit that frances perkins was talking about. that ability to say, we are not satisfied. that is not good enough for workers in families all over this country. they deserve dignity, they deserve respect, they deserve a fair shot. because of you and acting secretary julie sue and this team, we have taken massive steps forward these last four years. [applause] for the first time, for the first time in history, a

president of the united states stood with union members on a picket line. [applause] we have seen a department of labor that actually works for working people. [applause] we have seen over time expand and noncompete band and generational investments in this country that are creating millions of good union jobs. nothing short of amazing. it is a historic record. we will move forward with that same healthy discontent that secretary perkins spoke about. we will defend that record and fight to build on it every single day. i am so honored now to introduce someone that has led the department of labor in a way that secretary perkins would be damn proud of. she has taken the fight to

anyone who tries to exploit working people. she has stood with our unions. she has turned dol into a true house of labor. yeah. [applause] and i will just say, i have watched her, and i have seen how she has helped. navigating through conflict all across this country. when we've seen workers rising up in historic numbers, she has been there and helped with contract fights and settle strikes and really delivered for working people. with that, it is my great honor to introduce acting secretary of labor julie sue. [cheering and applause]

>> thank you. thank you. thank you all so much. thank you. please have a seat. thank you. thank you so much to president schuller on the day we are talking about history making, it is phenomenal to have worked alongside you women and to be a front row seat to your history making leadership. i also want to thank my friend and colleague secretary deb holland for making the announcement about this monument here at the frances perkins building today. this is no ordinary day in the department of labor. not only because we honor francis perkins but on all accounts the most controversial our country has ever seen. this day is really special because we are also doing something else.

today, we are at the department of labor, we are honoring a secretary of labor with all of you, dozens of labor leaders and labor organizers and our labor champions in congress and, so, it is really no surprise to anyone that knows president biden that we are doing this here today altogether. sort of like that commercial about reese's peanut butter cups president biden in labor just go together. [laughter] now, mr. president, you have made history time and time again with your commitment to working people. you are here to honor one of my predecessors, we are here to induct you into the labor hall of honor. [applause] now, the hall of honor is how we

acknowledge the labor heroes of america. as we reflect on your legacy, mr. president, the way you always have workers backs, the way you put workers first, there is really no one like you. my fellow cabinet members know this, but in the start us oval office across from your desk eloquence. so we pray for the chaplain and can't wait to see him back very soon. now on drone sightings. yesterday, madam president, i called on homeland security secretary mayorkas to quickly deploy available drone-detecting tools to help new york and new jersey deal with the mysterious drone sightings of the past few weeks. this week i will also come to the floor of the senate to seek passage of legislation that will give local officials greater authority to swiftly respond to these sightings. the reports of the past few weeks ignited immense anxiety

and confusion for millions of people across the northeast. thankfully there is no reason to believe these drone sightings pose a national security threat. but even so, they can be r disruptive if they fly over restricted airspace, particularly near airports and bases. while there's no shortage of reports about possible drone activity, we still have very few answers on where some of the drones, where some of these drones come from and who may be operating them. the people of new york and new jersey have a lot of questions and haven't gotten many answers. we know one thing, though. local officials now don't have the resources nor authority to get to the bottom of what's happening. this is federal jurisdiction, but of course because drones are so new and there are so many in so many different places, including recreational users, that we need to do a lot more. so to repeat, this week i will

move for the senate to pass legislation giving local officials the tools and authorities necessary to act and in lock step with the department of homeland security -- sorry. this week i will move for the senate to pass legislation giving local officials the tools and authorities necessary to act quickly and in lock step with the department of homeland security and other agencies. local authorities can do a lot to help answer our questions, but right now they are not empowered do so because the federal government has total jurisdiction. in the meantime, i urge dhs to take all necessary action to deploy as many drone-detecting resources possible. right now they have not deployed close to enough, and that's why these questions that so many people have are going unanswered. some of the new technology, like the robin systems, are 360-degree radar.

they can see 360 degrees and can go a long way to help local officials collect real data about where these drones are coming from. so i want to see a flock of robin-like technology systems deployed across the new york city metropolitan area. so we need the department of homeland security to spring into action. senate business. on the ndaa, the c.r., wrda. the senate gavels back into session for a very busy week. we must finish our work on the ndaa. we must keep the government open, act on the social security fairness act, act on wrda and eda and confirm more of the president's nominees. it's going to take cooperation from our republican colleagues to get these things done in a timely fashion. first, as i said, we must pass our annual defense authorization bill, the ndaa. this afternoon we'll take the first procedural vote on the

ndaa package sent to us last week by the house. if cloture is invoked, i hope we can find a path to passing ndaa as soon as tomorrow. this year'sed ndaa is -- this year's ndaa is not a perfect bill but it nonetheless has good things democrats fought hard for and that will strengthen military families and boost tech innovation here at home, something very important to me and to you, madam president. to be sure, the ndaa has some bad provisions democrats would not have included, and there are other provisions that were left out of ndaa which we still hope can get done elsewhere. i want to thank chairman reed, member wicker, and all the members of the armed services committee for their good work on this year's defense bill. on another matter, by the end of the week the senate must also pass a temporary extension of government funding before december 20 or else the

government will shut down right before christmas. democrats have spent weeks working in good faith with our republican counterparts on crafting a strong c.r. that will keep the government open while also providing much-needed disaster relief for the american people. we kept working through the weekend on finalizing an agreement, but our republican colleagues are still sorting out through disagreements on their end, and there are many. democrats will keep working to finish the job on passing a strong and bipartisan c.r. we don't want the government to shut down during the holiday season, and i expect that many if not most of our republican colleagues feel the same way. so let's finish the job. besides keeping the government open, the senate will also vote later this week on reauthorizing wrda and the economic development administration. reauthorize wrda, the water resources development act, is vital for strengthening america's ports and waterways,

protecting our wetlands, boosting our economy. reauthorizing the eda would provide critical investments in infrastructure, workforce, and domestic supply chains that will help the u.s. outcompete the rest of the world. the the house passed wrda and eda with overwhelming bipartisan support last week. we expect it to pass here with equally robust support and we'll work with our republican colleagues on finding time to hold a floor vote. i thank them for working with us to get these bills done. finally, before i get to the social security fairness act, the senate will also be working on nominations. later today i will file cloture on the nominations of benjamin cheeks to be u.s. district attorney for the southern district of kravenlth and serena raquel murillo to be district judge for the central district of california. i'll have more to say on our

outstanding nominees throughout the week. now on soegz, this week the senate will vote to take up a bipartisan piece of legislation that impacts millions of retirees and their spouses, the social security fairness act. i'm proud to sponsor this bill with my good friend senator brown as a staunch advocate for working americans, and he is a very staunch advocate as well. the senate has a golden opportunity to deliver for our firefighters, and other public servants. the bill would ensure no public retiree or spouse is denied their well-deserved social security benefits by repealing two widely criticized policies that have eaten at the benefits of millions of people, wep and

the government pension offset, gpo. many of these retirees have contributed towards social security for years but are penalized because at one point they worked for a teacher, firefighter, a postal worker, a police officer, or some other public sector job. the bill has already won immense support from republicans and democrats alike, the house passed the bill with an overwhelming 327 vote margin. senate democrats are ready to vote yes on this legislation, and we hope our republican colleagues will join us. retirees have been pushing for action on wepa, gpo for decades. we will vote, and every senator will choose, where are you? do you stand on the side of public retirees or had you block this bill. the 62-county tour. today is a very special day for

me because today you can flip one of my favorite numbers, 62, that's the number of counties in new york, and get another very important number, 26. for the 26th year in a row, i have just completed earlier this afternoon my annual tour of all 62 counties in new york state. it's a promise i never fail to keep. not even after being named majority leader, not even during covid, because it's the best way i keep up with everything new yorkers are doing, thinking, and saying. just as everyone knows here, you sit at your desk, talk on the telephone, it's to the the same as being out there. and the 62-county tour makes sure i'm out there week in and week out, and so i am so, so, happy that we have completed the tour, and i can't wait in january to start doing it again

for the 27th year. i yield the floor and moat the absence -- note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. schumer: i move to proceed to executive session to consider calendar number 849. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. all in favor say aye. all opposed, no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. the clerk will report the nomination. the clerk: nomination, the judiciary, benjamin j. cheeks, of california, to be united states district judge for the southern district. mr. schumer: i send a cloture motion to the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: cloture the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby bring to a close debate on the nomination of executive calendar number 849, benjamin j. cheeks of california, to be united states district judge for the southern district of california,

signed by 18 senators as follows -- mr. schumer: i ask consent the reading of the names be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i move to proceed to legislative session. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. all those in favor say aye. all opposed, no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. mr. schumer: i move to proceed to executive session to consider calendar number 850. the presiding officer: the question's on the motion. all those in favor say aye. all opposed, no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. the clerk will report the nomination. the clerk: nomination, the judiciary, serena murillo, of california, to be united states district judge for the central strict. mr. schumer: i send a cloture motion to the determine. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: cloture the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby bring to a close debate on the nomination of executive calendar

number 850, serena serena raquel murillo, to be united states district judge for the central district of california. mr. schumer: i ask that the reading of the names be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: as if in legislative session, i ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum call with respect to the cloture motion on the -- cloture vote on the motion to concur in the house of representatives to the senate amendment to h.r. 5009 be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i yield the floor. mr. cornyn: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mr. cornyn: madam president, last week i came to the senate floor to discuss provisions that would discuss outbound transparency that congress neglected to put in the national defense authorization act conference report which we are presently considering. well, i'm back again, and i wish

i had better news to share. as i mentioned last week, no one can claim to be serious about the chooen threat while turning -- china threat while turning a blind eye toward outbound investment transparency. simply put american investment in chinese companies are the lifeblood of the chinese economy. if the people's republic of china and the chinese communist party were part of the world base national order, it would be one thing, but they are not. the people's republic of china are building their economy while building their military and arming their country threatening peace. i'm disappointed that the house and the senate have so far failed to take action on this matter that is of critical importance to our strategic

competition with the chinese communist party. the house and the senate will have one last chance this year to address the outbound transparency discussing in the continuing resolution before we leave for the holiday recess, but consider for a moment we're awaiting an announcement that this continuing resolution has somehow been agreed to by the leaders here when we're talking about financing the government that we should have done before the end of the fiscal year last september and now here we are at the last minute trying to figure out how to kick the can down the road to march. but notwithstanding this terrible way to do business and to handle our country's finances threatening once again another government shutdown, a completely unnecessary drama, i would urge my colleagues not to

miss this opportunity to include this outbound investment transparency provision in the continuing resolution. we simply cannot wait another year to address this issue. while members of the house and senate hymn and hauw china is developing their military capabilities, they continue to engage in provocative and aggressive behavior toward our ally the philippines in the south china sea. it's no secret that president xi has ordered the chinese military to be ready and capable of taking taiwan by force by the year 2027, barely two years from now. the last thing the united states of america should be doing is financing the very economy and the weapon systems that will be

used to try to destroy our allies and potentially us. as we all who he, china -- as we all know, china, russia, iran, and north korea have joined together as the access of autocracies in opposition to the democracies across the planet. this is a very dangerous, dangerous alliance which foreshadows the sorts of things that led to the runnup of world war ii. it's simply foolish for the united states to help china to modernize its military and create this very dangerous scenario by investing in technologies that could be used ultimately to kill american soldiers. i could can care less if american investors want to build another starbucks or burger king

in china, i do care about dual-used and advanced technology that they could use to defeat us in the indo-pacific. by some estimates, u.s. investments in chinese companies total $2.3 trillion in market value by the end of 2020. this includes incredibly enough $21 billion in semiconductors, $54 billion in military companies, and a whopping $221 billion in artificial intelligence. those are american companies investing in china to build those things. a recent report from the u.s.-chain economic and conscious r- -- u.s.-china economic and security review commission found that more than 90% of the investment is found in the semiconductor industry. when it comes to china's a.i. industry, the report cites an

analysis that u.s. investors account for 37% of the $110 billion of global financing raised by firms from 2015 to 2021. this is in a.i. to capture this picture from another angle, the report points out that, quote, u.s. investors consistently contribute more than double the capital to these sectors compared to all non-u.s. investors combined. now, consider the fact that away passed the chips and science act in 2021 to create programs to bolster our ability to compete with china and to eliminate vulnerable supply chains when it comes to advantaged semiconductors. we made this critical investment in restoring the manufacturing of advanced semiconductors, but also we've made critical investments in quantum computing and a.i. to ensure that we win

the competition with china. and we established guardrails to make sure that these funds could not be used by our adversaries or to fund them. but how foolish would it be for us to have made this investment and still continue to fund the growth of china's xalts in -- capabilities in these sectors at the exact same time? by turning a blind eye to this reality, we are feeding the hand that is preparing to bite us. and the truth is addressing outbound investment transparency will only become more painful if we wait. this is a can that the united states of america cannot afford to kick down the road anymore. as i said, china's president xi -- xi jinping has made plans to have their army to invade

taiwan by 2027. he could not be more clear. what are we waiting for? while i know i painted a rather grim picture, which i believe to be completely accurate, i remain optimistic that progress will be made on this critical matter of the end of the year. it has to. we simply cannot put it off. it has to be in the continuing resolution. and while our political environment is divided, there is one thing that democrats and republicans, hawks and doves alike, can agree on, and that's the threat posed by china and the chinese communist party. i've been working on this matter for a long time now and i've been amazed at the amount of bipartisan and bicameral agreement that invests on outbound investment transparency. what's the delay? why haven't we done it yet?

minority leader hakeem watkins prevented it from being introduced in the ndaa, but i hope he will continue to work in a bipartisan manner with republicans on including this critical tool in this end of year funding package, which must be acted on by the end of this week. i would like to thank the speaker -- the speaker of the house to get this done in a timely fashion. last year, this passed the senate by 91-6, but was not included in the final version of the national defense authorization act. however speak johnson -- speaker johnson assured me those provisions would be included in the end of year funding package, likewise senator schumer made

the same commitment, and i know they will keep their word. so i look forward to continuing to work with all of my colleagues to make sure that this critical matter is addressed in this year's funding measure. we simply cannot put it off any longer many we cannot continue to -- longer. we cannot continue to fly blind when it comes to american companies investing in china's in industries and areas that could be used to not only build their economy but threaten peace and stability in the region and beyond. as i said last week, no one can seriously claim to care about the threat posed by china if they support continued u.s. investment in chinese defense technologies. china is certainly not waiting around and neither should we. madam president, i yield the floor. and i'd note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll.

quorum call: the clerk: ms. baldwin.

thank you all. happy holidays. let me start off by thinking every one of you. we made history in the last

election by raising $2.15 billion. [cheering and applause] now, folks, i know a lot of our hearts are broken, but let does not forget what resident biden advice president harris have done. i can tell you being involved in politics for 34 years that they are the most in my lifetime, what they did, president biden and kamala harris are the most consequential administration of my life. we all should be proud of that because without all of you, that would have never happened. i wanted thank you all for everything you have done.

one big family and we move forward together in the future. it is my great pleasure to also introduce a hero of the democratic party. worked side-by-side every day in the last five years. our chairman jamie harrison. welcome. >> thank you, mr. chairman. hello, everybody. >> happy holidays to each and every one of you in this room. blessings to you and your family and i hope you get an opportunity to really understand and remember what this holiday season is all about. i am so fortunate to have had the opportunity in the last four years to get an opportunity to work with each and every one of you. i want to say thank you.

thank you for always being the corner of the democratic party when most importantly, thank you for always being in the corner of our president and vice president. joe biden and kamala harris. [cheering and applause] you know, chris said it all. these last four years i've had the opportunity to work with the most consequential and legislatively successful administration of my lifetime. a round headed black boy from south carolina born to a teen mom, raised by grandparents with the fourth grade and eighth grade education get the opportunity to chair the oldest party on the face of this planet that only happens in america. partly it happened because of joe biden.

our president. folks, it is indeed my honor and my pleasure to introduce to you all and i hope g our work together next month on the joint congressional committee on inaugural ceremonies that i chair. i also want to express my gratitude to my friend, former senator blunt, for our work when we led the committee together and to congratulate our incoming chair, leader mcconnell and ranking member senator padilla. in addition, i want to thank the rules committee members for their service, and i look forward to continue to serve on the committee. and that would be senator schumer and senator warner, merkley, senator padilla, of course, senator ossoff, bennet, welch, senator schiff who just joined the committee in place of senator butler.

we also thank her. senator mcconnell, senator cruz, senator capito, senator wicker, senator hyde-smith, senator hagerty, and senator britt. as well as the staff who have supported our work, including my staff director who is here, elizabeth farrah who has been with me for a very long time as my counsel and judiciary, director. has done incredible work. i also want to thank former staff directors lizzy paluso and lizzy kerr and members of the rules committee staff, some of whom are here today, including steve spaulding who has done comment work on elections, ben driscoll, counsel, kristin mullet, allison hunn, keloni and our clerks cammy morrison and casey jones as well as the staff

for senator fischer and the nonpartisan staff as well. the rules committee is a little different than some of the other committees, and if we have disagreements, we have tended to work them out. as senator blunt used to say, the chair and ranking member of the committee are kind of like the mayors of the capitol, kind of getting involved in many issues regarding the building itself, regarding the personnel, regarding our senators and making sure that this place functions. and that means you don't want to have a lot of public brawls over how to fix things. we have managed to get a lot done and made a lot of changes that are really positive over the last few years. what may be our committee's lasting contribution to the senate and the country will be on display last month when we convene to certify the results of the election in line with the significant reforms that we have

made to the electoral count act. senator blunt and i shepherded that bill through the rules committee and worked on the bill along, of course, senator collins and senator manchin. we got a bipartisan vote of our committee of 14-1 to significant changes to make sure the will of the voters prevails, and that in fact we don't have situations where one senator or one house member can block the electoral count or that claims can be made that a vice president can overcome the will of the people and the like. that was an old law that needed to be changed. we changed it for generations to come. we also will see the changes as we see key security improvements that we've made, thanks in large part to capitol police chief tom manger, someone who we installed after january 6, and as well as the men and women of the capitol police who stand in defense of the capitol every single day.

we also thank sergeant at arms general karen gibson for her good work. we had a final hearing of the rules committee last week involving chief manger. it was our eighth hearing on the capitol police, including two hearings that i held with the homeland security committee, major, major joint hearings after january 6 in which our focus was on security failures and how they had to be fixed after january 6. we also had our first joint hearing of the capitol police board with the house with representative styles, first hearing since 1945. as the chief testified at our hearing last week, the capitol police have made significant progress in the last four years. in the time that department has made necessary enhancements impacting all aspects of work, including implementing the bipartisan security report that

came out of those major, major hearings that were televised and which we called the former police chief of the -- former police chief, major leaders in fbi and homeland security to figure out what went wrong. on my mind is always the haunting voice of the officer on the police line that day that went over the police radio saying does anyone have a plan, does anyone have a plan. the horror story of 75% of the cops not having access to riot gear, that a number of their gears were actually locked on a bus that they couldn't access with the insurrectionists sometimes having better gear than our police officers had. senator blunt then led legislation which has passed to allow the capitol police to request immediate assistance from the national guard in an emergency. it was like a phone tree they had to go through that led to significant delays. that legislation has passed and

allowed the police chief to do that. the bipartisan security report that senators blunt, peters, portman, and i put in the wake of our hearings, those changes have been made and 103 recommendations from the department's inspector general have been implemented. all 103 repizations. and the -- recommendations. we had a hearing and more were done. that is the accountability, that is a bipartisan job of the u.s. senate to oversee these things and make sure they got done for the safety of our police officers, for the security of the people that work in this capitol, and not just the members but the court reporters and the people that are working in the cafeteria and the people that are keeping things clean around here. they need that protection. they were the ones hiding in closets. we also passed my bipartisan legislation with senator fischer to improve accountability and empower congress to appoint and remove the architect of the

capitol. we learned that day through hearings from the house of representatives, as well as our work in the senate, that the then-architect of the capitol didn't even come in that day. he said he was in his mobile van. that person has been terminated, but we found out in the course of all this, that we didn't have an ability to terminate the architect of the capitol in the house and the senate, so we passed legislation that gave us the ownership of this. we hire this person on a bipartisan basis with the senate and the house, republicans and democrats. it supervises the work of thousands of employees in this capitol, and we also have the right to terminate that person, not the president, us. and, as a result, we have our new architect. capitol, tom austin is and he was supported with unanimous bipartisan and bicameral support. and with the support of so many servicemembers, veterans, and military families, our committee passed a resolution that paved the way -- i see the presiding

officer, senator welch, who was part of this -- to pass a rule that paved the way for an eventual voluntary greement so that more -- agreement so that more than 400 military promotions would move forward after months and month whose of delay. i thank my republican colleagues who stood up on this floor to get those nominations through, as well as all the democrats, and i thank the democrats on the committee working with me on this resolution so that we can pass it to change the rules and that eventually put some pressure on to get this done. during my time in the committee, thanks to our great members, we have taken on a whole host of issues -- re-opening the buildings after the pandemic, the handling of harassment claims on capitol hill, something did i with former senator blunt, making closed-captioning available for all senate committee hearings,

we worked to ensure that the people of this capitol more closely reflect the people of this country. it is about who you put up there so that when little kidses come in, they see them and they think, oh, that's someone that looks like me. we passed my legislation with senators murkowski and sinema for two statues of two supreme court justices, one appointed by a democratic president, and one appointed by a republican. once completed, there will be 21 women finally represented in statues in the capitol of the 209 statues in the capitol, 192 are men. but, okay, i'm not count 0ing. but i -- but our change is one statue at a time. we also dead tated the first rooms in the senate wing of the capitol. this was sort of ironic. we had not one room in the

capitol named after a woman when i came in. not one, zero, when we've in fact had many women leaders in the congress. and we dedicated those first rooms in the senate wing in honor of the women -- i'm talking about the senate wing here -- former senators barbara mikulski and margaret chase smith. margaret chase smith was from maine, the first republican on the armed services committee and the first major candidate for president on the republican side. the bust of justice taney, who offered the dred scott decision, was removed and will be replaced with one of justice thurgood marshall. that stound -- that you understand 10s like a pretty good trade to me. when our restaurant workers fought to unionize, we fought to make sure they had a fair contract. my favorite moment -- we worked on a lot of detailed things which involve senators telling

there's too long a line of vis visitors trying come to in the capitol, making sure we have people working at the gates, making sure that senators get their offices. what was really fun is when senator blunt and i worked to update the rule so that when senator duckworth who was just presiding over the senate, was able to bring her baby onto the senate floor. before that we only allowed dogs onto the senate floor. senator duckworth already had a toddler. if there were late knife votes is -- if there were late-night votes, she would have to bring her baby with her. we had to get this done because she wasn't going to burp her baby in the house. it was a dr. seuss kind of

thing. some of the more senior members didn't want to change the rule. they didn't want to talk about breast feeding and all that. we changed the rule. it is a good thing. i will never forget the first day that senator duckworth brought her little baby onto the floor wheeling her in on her chair with all the reporters looking down and not a dry high in the house -- dry eye in the house. things have changed in little ways, one thing at a time. we have done important work, as i note, much much it behind the scenes, to help so many of our colleagues with issues that impact their ability to do their work regardless of party or ideology. we helped to support repairs and updates to offices here in washington and in their home states. we've implemented new security measures and we've made sure that constituents can be hosted and feel welcome in this place.

we strive to make sure the security lines to get in the buildings were moving along. there was some transition after the pandemic, and we literally have worked to make sure that trains in the basement were running smoothly. i have got a lot of texts from members about that. as we look ahead to the new congress, we have worked with the secretary of the senate, the architect of the capitol, and the sergeant at arms to welcome our newly elected colleagues on both sides of the aisle to the senate and make sure they have what they need to run their office on day one. we have worked tirelessly to provide the safety. especially the parliamentarian's office which was really at risk, as i look at some of my favorite employees in the senate, that day of january 6, and we take their input and try to make changes whenever we can with those concerned. we've worked to support the agencies and the committee's

jurisdiction here in our nation's capitol. the library of congress has expanded public access to its digital collections and its new david rubenstein gallery opened to the public earlier this year, featuring special items like a draft of the gettysburg address, president james madison, crystal flute and the original hand written lyrics from the sound of music. we celebrate the arrival of the new pandas that will be ready to meet visitors at the national zoo last month. i got to see them already. they're really cute. and since two new smithsonian museums were built, we are at this moment working to get those locations nailed down, the locations have been chosen, tense -- tens of millions of dollars have been raised.

we are doing everything we can to get this done at the end of the year. i really don't understand what people's issue is when this is not a money situation. this is a location situation, so they can raise even more money than they've already made to build these museums. the smithsonian is supportive of this. these will be money, very positive museums. people want to go see the women's museum, the latino museum. this is our opportunity to get done on a bipartisan basis. fund-raising is now at private fund-raising, $68 million. directors have been hired and staff working to build the collections because of congress. congress gave them the authority to move forward. they've done it and they've done it incredibly well and found locations that both senator blunt and i had signed off on. these two new open sites on the national mall will look even

better. anyone that goes and looks at them and thinks about it and the sixth sewnian board of -- smithsonian board of regents has looked at it. it is ongoing with over 100 cosponsors, evenly split between the parties on the house bill, led by representative any coal maliotaukas and judy chu of california. we have two major californias -- one, getting the two new museums the waiver so they can continue progressing, as our leaders on both sides will decide the fate of the women's museum. the four men who are leading our congress on the senate and house will make this decision. many of the women have been involved in pushing this issue so we can finally move forward on this.

through the past several years -- and we appreciate senator schumer's strong support for this. we have not stopped fighting to protect our free an fair elections, the cornerstone of our democracy, to continue that work. supporting our election workers on the front lines ensuring the needed resources, successfully urging the election commission to enable them to use funding to protect against threats. we held our first field hearing in 20 years in georgia on the freedom to vote act that we are looking forward to reintroducing next year. i am very focused on artificial intelligence in our elections and bipartisan support. i have one bill with senator murkowski, another with senator hawley to take this on. and in closing, i want to end my work on the rules committee with the story that senator blunt always loves to share with our colleagues. it's a story of a bus that he always had in his office called

the unknown cleric. senator blunt did a bunch of research and he could never figure out who this guy was. it was over a hundred years ago. they made this beautiful statue to him and no one could figure out who he was except that he is a cleric. they calls him the unknown cleric. at the time they thought 24 man was so important. but today as senator blunt likes to tell people when they come in his office, whether senators or school kids, today no one even knows who he is. so what is the message we learned from that? that what we do here is more important than who we are. most people aren't going to remember who we are a hundred years from now. and i'd like to to remind my colleagues of that. but they are going to remember when we do good things to help them, that help their kids, that hem their grandkids. they are going to remember when they walk into that women's museum or that latino museum

that someone back at this point had the foresight to think, okay, these are pretty important things in american history. maybe we should honor them. so maybe they're going to think sometime a hundred years from now i'm sure glad we still have our democracy because somewhere back there they made sure with a we reformed our election process or stood up for democracy because what we do is more important than who we are. and that's why this committee, which has been run on such a strong bipartisan basis over the last decades, under both democrat and republican leadership,er has been a big part of that. i look forward to, 0ing with our -- i look forward to working with our incoming leadership chair, leader mcconnell and ranking member padilla. i think maybe senator mcconnell knows a little bit about the capitol and how it's run. i look forward to working with them. thank you, mr. president.

i yield the floor. mr. moran: mr. president, i'm sorry that i am here at this hour of the day oan monday, the -- on monday, the beginning of what we hope to be the last week of this congressional session, as we recess for about a week before returning for the new session of the united states congress. mr. president, i'm here this evening to hope to express -- to express my hope that things that have not happened that have created challenges for farmers and ranchers across kansas and around the country are addressed in legislation pending before the united states senate and the house of representatives. we've made mistakes, errors. we've failed in a couple of significant ways this

congressional session in regards to the appropriations process and the consequences that the failure to pass a farm bill has upon farmers across my state and around the country. first of all, i'm saddened that we are not -- we have not completed the appropriations process, the 12 appropriations bills that should have march ed across this senate floor and across the house and already be sent to the president. the senate appropriations committee of which i'm a senior member of, we passed all but one of those bills and reported to the floor with no further action. as a result of that, one of the items that has not occurred is that there is no appropriations bill dealing with agriculture that is ready for the president's signature or should have been signed by september 30 earlier this year. secondly, the agriculture committee, the senate committee on agriculture has not provided us with a renewed improved farm

bill. we are operating under an extension, and i would expect before the end of the week we will extend the farm bill one more time. as a result, we were combining the effort to meet the needs of farmers and ranchers in this process by which we will pass a continuing resolution funding the federal government presumably to march. and included in that continuing resolution is what we call disaster assistance. the disasters that occurred across the country -- helene, milton, the damage that was done by tropical storms in florida, north carolina, south carolina, georgia, tennessee, the storm damage in many places across the country is to be addressed this week in addition to the continuing resolution that funds the federal government. i support that. there are significant challenges to people that have occurred through no fault of their own.

one of those challenges is to farmers and ranchers who through no fault of their own have no farm bill, therefore no safety net, and who have no opportunity to address the needs as they go to their bankers, their financiers, financial bankers to plan for the new year. no farm bill in place to provide a safety net, and without passage of disaster assistance, is no assistance to help them get through the planting season for agriculture commodities across the country. so before the end of this week, we need to do serious and significant work. and the point i want to make tonight is that with the out -- without the inclusion of assistance to farmers and ranchers in the continuing resolution, i will not vote for the continuing resolution. i despise voting for them regardless all the time.

i have because i so oppose government shutdowns. but in the absence of solving the challenges that farmers and ranchers meet through disaster assistance, through financial assistance to those farmers, the c.r. will not attain my vote. so the negotiations are ongoing, as i understand it. they were to have been completed perhaps a long time ago, but they were certainly to have been completed last night and filed. has not happened yet, and the deadline is december 20 before there's a government shutdown. the circumstances that we face is no -- let me repeat this so i can make it perhaps clearer. without a farm bill, there is no safety net. the safety net that was present under the old farm bill even if extended does not meet today's current challenges that farmers face. the cost of inputs -- fuel, fertilizer, seed, labor, land

values, interest rates in particular -- have skyrocketed, and the u.s. department of agriculture has determined that on the farm income will be down more than 43% over the time when it was we passed the last farm bill now six yearsing a. no farm bill to meet the needs, no farm policy to meet the needs of the challenges that farmers and ranchers have. then unless we provide the disaster assistance, the natural disaster assistance that is so needed -- and again i mention states that have hurricanes. i will highlight in the state of kansas, we've been in a drought for the last four or five years. this is the most severe year yet. 79% of kansas agriculture experienced drought across our state, most of it in severe fashion. this past year kansas wheat farmers experienced their smallest crop since 1961,

largely due to lack of moisture. so you add these things together -- terribly high input costs, low commodity prices, and then if you have no commodity to sell because you couldn't grow any anything, one of my staffers told me, i said you should be home for harvest earlier this year. he says jerry, we plant wheat. we don't harvest wheat. and that's exactly what happened across the state this year, and unfortunately for past years. some will say we have crop insurance to deal with this issue. crop insurance is hugely important to producers around the country, but it doesn't work when there are multiple-year disasters because the average for which you can receive compensation for is based on previous years. so we've never figured out, the department of agriculture has nfrl figured out a crop insurance product that meets the needs of farmers who year after

year after year have less production. the point i want to make is this is a real circumstance that has huge consequences not only on the farmers of kansas and other states across the country, but upon the need to meet our hunger needs around the world and the need to meet the nutrition and safety and well-being of americans across the country. mr. president, again, i ask my colleagues to make certain that the continuing resolution include assistance to agriculture producers and it be done in a way that actually meets their needs. and then let's make certain that we get a farm bill done, again, already late, but can we get it done early in 2025. mr. president, i yield the floor.

a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from kansas. mr. moran: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the roll call vote scheduled at 5:30 begin immediately. the presiding officer: without objection. by unanimous consent -- the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture. the clerk: cloture motion, we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate do hereby move to bring to a close the debate on the motion to concur in the house amendment to the senate amendment to h.r. 5009, an act to reauthorize wildlife habitat and conservation programs and for other purposes signed by 17 senators. the presiding officer: by unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum call has been waived. the question is is it the sense of the senate that debate on the motion to concur in the house amendment to the senate amendment to h.r. 5009, an act to reauthorize wildlife habitat

and conservation programs, and for other purposes shall be brought to a close. the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. the clerk will call the roll. vote: the clerk: ms. baldwin. mr. barrasso. mr. bennet. mrs. blackburn. mr. blumenthal. mr. booker. mr. boozman. mr. braun. mrs. britt. mr. brown. mr. budd. ms. cantwell. mrs. capito. mr. cardin. mr. carper. mr. casey. mr. cassidy. ms. collins. mr. coons. mr. cornyn. ms. cortez masto. mr. cotton. mr. cramer. mr. crapo. mr. cruz. mr. daines. ms. duckworth. mr. durbin. ms. ernst. mr. fetterman. mrs. fischer. mrs. gillibrand. mr. graham. mr. grassley. mr. hagerty. ms. hassan. mr. hawley. mr. heinrich. mr. hickenlooper. ms. hirono. mr. hoeven. mrs. hyde-smith. mr. johnson. mr. kaine.

mr. kelly. mr. kennedy. mr. kim. mr. king. ms. klobuchar. mr. lankford. mr. lee. mr. lujan. ms. lummis. mr. manchin. mr. markey. mr. marshall. mr. mcconnell. mr. merkley. mr. moraran. states hundred thousand five last year of overdoses many fentanyl. call this death of despair that implies little done to reverse the trend. overdose deaths appear to be slightly but doesn't mean addition and part drug use itself has as it continues

unprecedented prevention on top any fractured billing and accounting dealing with aftermath cigarettes cigarette companies to compensate medical expenses the difference this discussion will have settlement funding will go directly to go and governments. the city that suffers it's also

true reference little to no difference. a journalist following disbursement. her goal is to ride what might be most effective for local governments frontline of prevention andt treatment. science driven reform was the. thirty-five years of talking 2,092,010 no moderate staff

station the federal department of education staff district of columbia the council similar to my right over here. he spent most of her career you will foundation governments are

dissenting correspondent work from the throat treatment anyone will work nonprofit of the rosalynn carter award philip here to praise staff psychiatrist patient. >> i appreciate the an worksheet

follow. talking about one thing none of the. others so start picture of what substance.

marijuana, they as a team all right. depending on the substance, more or less the population is that's where it turns into that is a frequency storm for those around you. the permit the line if an answer addiction and you 1 million people criteria for serious

substance abuse disorders known as addiction the top getting any kind of care little. he got misused and the diction doctors that any market. more available to get to have more told by driving, riding. kids who can't make it to class on friday night because it, that produces misuse addiction is different governed by biological

factors that line generic severity from mild to let's talk about about addiction we have a person active addiction walk through the door, all kinds of behaviors might they exhibiting star harm and ability to delay. they swear they will never alcohol or marijuana in the again the next day denial is not

lighting, they cannot see that they have a problem. some that all of hundred, it is easy character disorder, theres just wrong first, billy didn't have religious training. fans of god's shape will ultimately became treatment system. under, if you have an addiction or any character problems thing to do to get from them and get them to admit they have

addiction understand control through computational methods. much of our stages will you that these are the things walmart is to learn to control the problem by not at the stylus is closed off gave the initiation of the started will thousand items initially in response stop in on

veterans coming back the amount of your problems in the same illustration incarcerating time they develop that somebody themselves constituted and

learned deal with it. in the beginning the treatments is segregated the rest of geographically, everything designed to protect forces that might money nobody else described problematic now we wrote about the active service.

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just speculation? no my probably the national until the decade the heart how a brain placement blame how neurons metabolize from places for rent a lot of logical function addicted to cocaine and now is yellow or red.

that means no function is not functioning as to how you feel? it was a ideal a lot decided i'm never going to live large my lesson. they don't have enough that they will about 100 days? not normal with an open advocate

no way we know he medical condition. they don't correct a fairly time turn mentally to the next part of this. character disorder, he treated his innocent way. if you gete illness from the it

is a traditional model how you get treated in a rehab facility the day treatment ck or 90 day outpatient. program here, everybody is in think when they complete should have worked they had a problem but it, realized new ways of dealing rating discharged is a discharge ceremony, honey trying and wishing johnny the very best

of 12 months later worked as a patient wasn't ready traditional different people the condition was don't have it here what their education to diagnose an array of medications in the therapy support services there

available is that doesn't have a different array and medical devices the goal that primary care with a continue level of

data want to let the patient healthcare. the effects last as long as they are do not have the day program. evaluation is equivalent programs they have is to evaluate for the test design guide what happens in the next is ahead the idea is here

problems has. slide. and probably the way the originals failed and never about what new line, it was the sleep state there a lot there were no

you like, or not is little money to make develop medical device the american diabetes advocate for better model is are to buy

more of what we have the power dollars improve? is not a bad idea by more of the same as long as you have devised a the nonprofit will show you

the evidence this is actual data will love you the top tier interested in the lawnmower hear from the diction if you have a lot of practices dementia. you will lead if you have none will not practices, medications

behavioral therapy support services shown the board may quite a number they are not paid to do any don't do it but these are so what you're seeing evidence-based practice and characterize it and when that doesn't work you get that doesn't work they are paid.

one, here where i can be in charge of the the programs admit to evaluation of what they are providing that's one way to make the last way my favorite studies delaware delaware have of money.

9% take director jack said not going to get his problems 9%, and every one of our patient programs can accomplish 100 treatments 40%. and eckstein programs operation you can make 109% and pay you

every month. i want them to stay longer. and here are the results. it was like 40%. yellow because it wasn't fully implemented. it tripled the number of patients care.

they have tremendous power and get value for the citizens so with that, i'll close. [laughter] >> thank you so much. overcharging first name dot hit that o rg.

in other new mistakes being made? recreational marijuana across the country we see harm reduction centers where they are allowed under medical supervision, are they meeting people where they are and understanding is a new approach? >> i'll give you my opinion. it is my opinion it's about idea. what will do by legalizing is

brought the base. for every substance you can think of a number of users, 30% are going to develop harmful, a car accident or harmful use of substance and 10% will have addiction so my personal view is, decriminalization is the way to go. it will ruin their livelihoods for the rest of their lives based on marijuana possession but sanction it and in my opinion, it's wrong. it is hard to argue against something, who is for production

but to me i draw the line i am for harm reduction feature that reduces is not good so i like a lot of the things they talk about but if not demonstrated to get more people into treatment. they are expensive and dangerous. i don't think they are warranted. >> we see new potential. i want to turn to somebody covering this on the front lines. what are you seeing of the state and local, county level terms of

how they are being dispersed? i understand you have news you can share with us. >> the perfect timing for this. my colleague along with johns hopkins public health -- >> what is that for those who don't know what it is? to mecca nonprofit on addiction lessees and advocacy. our organizations have been collaborating scientific answer the question, how is the money spent? would build a database for public records that county and city levels across the country. the database of 7000 ways the first few years and big picture, there's a lot we could get into

but we found -- 23 local governments had about 6000 and opioid settlement funds. roughly a third say they are committed to sending on a variety of initiatives and they said use this and we haven't spent to get and the final there we cannot trust because there were no public reports about that money so it's not clear if they spent it or didn't spend it or how. >> so let's drill down on that. is there any treatment for what works and what doesn't? >> in our data collection we found for $60 million went to treatment broadly.

>> that's a pretty small number of whole thing, isn't it? >> the largest chunk of expenditures we found, the largest so funding treatment was clearly a priority but that can mean a lot of things so the database to the public see him website 7000 plus lines if you want to go through it but you can see some treatment are things experts really show with counseling. some are therapy only, varied approaches. they are all being funded with this money. >> is talking about performance-based contracts and

that may or may not be the thing. >> that is correct. opioid settlement money being spent in evaluating it a step many haven't quite gotten to yet. >> chilling words. the legal aid under, he previously had a role in state government records. ...

the clerk: mr. rounds, aye.

here's where we have arrested people put them in jail. we know that's not helping. we know that is not evidence-based. and the presentation did a beautiful job of talking about how we know this is a chronic health condition. so, locking people up is not, as we have seen is not an effective way of addressing that. getting people connected to evidence-based proven care. that saves lives, they get people connected to the service and support they need. we can commute is healthier. that is where we should be spending these dollars. if i were still in state government or local government, one of the things we have admit advocating for and i would do is look to the communities that have been most impacted. look to the community based organizations protest people have been on the ground during the hard work of making sure people in the services they need.

find the gaps in the continuum of care grants doctor mcclellan talked about. find those gaps. there are entities within the current system that have existing funding mechanisms. and, there are those who don't. a lot of community-based organizations in that category do a lot of amazing work with very little money. i think the opioid settlement funds are great opportunity to get funding to those entities. sounds like they might not be treatment programs are they just doing good stuff and we should fund them because we've got money? [flex treatment is one piece of the continuum of care grants. we have advocated up things like wraparound support, housing services, harm reduction. i note doctor mcclellan talked about prevention centers produce other harm reduction like syringe services, things like that we know are saving lives. i think over the prevention centers also do that.

but it's really about finding out from the community what we are serving, what they need hardware the gaps? and how do we fill it? works as a community that comes to mind when you're talking about a specific place you at once served, once visited you could describe in terms of the impact of the opioid and how the organization do with that? >> philadelphia comes to mind. this is where it is hard not to bring up race and the impact of race has had in this country in certain ways the role it has played in the war on drugs. but when you look at philadelphia that the place has been very hard hit they are getting very creative how to address the issues the thing about harm reduction that is important, harm reduction was

created for by people to lived experience. it's a ground up approach mickens was addressing the needs of the community. i think that's really important in the doing good work in philadelphia. tom are you okay with what she just said? >> there are a range of things labeled harm reduction. i am okay with almost everything she said. there are things i don't think it was true harm reduction i would not spend my money on like safe injection sites. i just don't think there is evidence for them. i do not want to cast it too broad of a brush here. like everything else, follow the evidence. we can measure it if you spend money and go that way. we have spent a lot of money for

a lot of years on ideology. things people have in their minds it ought to work. they often don't. you can know what does work you ought to put your money where that evidence is. focus on the district of columbia city council open the council make decisions. natural national league of cities. philadelphia is part of the national league of cities. what are you hearing from your members about this? are most of them aware or are any of them coming? short answer is yes. what we are hearing as it is personal. >> what? >> personal in the sense they know the families of the children who are overdosing in their public school bathrooms. they themselves have been impacted by it.

and so to the point made, you are spot on. having the solutions are from the ground up. what is working? i don't manage public health that that the county in the state level. but because of what we saw we wn we released our first report with the national league of cities and the national league of counties. who work for that full year because that was putting a strain on their local fire emergency personnel and police in a way that was not sustainable. community residents were looking to them to solve the problem. they had to be the one to roll up their sleeves and convene the advocacy organizations the public health not-for-profit at the community level to not just

assess the scope of the problem, but to figure out what is there to help support and the question asked about something basic community education campaign and awareness campaign. especially bc a particular population dealing with this more so than others. having local officials whether they be a very small community with a population of 1000 or very large community like the city of philadelphia being the ones to bring together, the different stakeholders and have a vested interest in this period by stakeholders, those to people who have the solutions or resources to be able to create a concerted plan to address this in a targeted and meaningful way. >> so, if i am the mayor of

mechanicsburg pennsylvania, or any smaller municipality i am very tempted to use this money to pay for those firefighters that were overstretched. because i'm going to tell myself if it's against the law on the police are out there disrupting the guys on the corner i might prevent the start of substance abuse. are those guys wrong? >> no. it's just as much about prevention as it is about helping people get off of this. and not become addicted. just recently national league of cities posted a dashboard that delineated how much money government has coming to them over the next 18 years. >> 18 years? >> correct. we can plan accordingly put

customers better than getting? because a short answer. >> is they don't half of the top of my head. i did say that to say included with that what are the things that other communities have done from a response but also how do you support the ongoing addiction that happened? what are those ways in which communities regardless of size or capacity have been able to address this. just last year from the annual legislative conference a state attorney general for the state of alabama. we convene our municipal league director from the state of arkansas. and then from ohio we invited the president of the opioid settlement fund to come and talk about what is working and how city leaders given the fact they

do not control the public health system, what is that they can do? how can they be intentional or fusing unlimited funds to meet the specific needs of their communities. and what that conversation folded into people are dying every day. people we know, our neighbors. we cannot afford to not maximize what is coming to cities. especially when congress appropriated emergency funding to deal the opioid epidemic. did not move to local expeditiously. national league of cities is working the sig. city leaders to

clearly write that out and make that available to its education efforts. >> i want to talk to doctor so tell us who here in washington seems patients. it's kind of a faceless problem but it is not baseless for sally. why have you heard? how do you compute? i'll make that a very broad invitation. hooks first thing is because hold them at closer. >> the first thing is the tension over frankly what to fund? i realize most locales have taken a pretty scattershot and i mean that in a positive way. they are trying to approach, take a lot of systems harm reduction, needle exchange, nor can, but one question is do they approach it from the standpoint

of what could prevent a new population or at least try to reduce that. we talk about younger kids obviously. or, should the money go in addition not only help in the people who have a drug problem or preventing others from having one, to the damage that addiction has done. there is an article in the philadelphia inquirer last week in kensington which as you know one of the worst communities and open air markets and there's a lot of overdoses. philadelphia received 20 million settlement funds in 2023. over 30 that was set aside and

divided into five areas one for part, school, repairs, right rentbelief and support for small businesses. there was outcry from some non- profits who said that is not helping people who are addicted. i personally think that is a good idea. >> that sounds counterintuitive. explain your position brick. >> because how's that counterintuitive? what you're not helping directly serving the people. >> i think that is a legitimate scope to also pay attention to the issues that been hurt. more specific i suppose, i don't have to go that far out for social reform or social repairs is just another group i don't know what the name is the coalition 192 national agencies.

i think it's national seachange coalition does not ring a bell at the new one? what search you are referring to i doesn't have a single name it's a coalition of a lot of different community based organizations. they reject the idea of any of this money going for law enforcement. that very much affects people who are addicted because they get arrested and they drove go to drug court hopefully they can go to drug court. unless some has committed a significant crime. they should be under supervision. in a therapeutic context there is a leverage they can stay there. if you mentioned i apologize he spent too much time on it's a

great overview your initial question was why isn't it fulfilling? one answer is no and staying long enough. dropout rates are significant if you are lucky if half of the people in the program were like 25% span in an entire year. the quality of treatment is not so good some of that is because of frankel there is no leverage and people are very ambivalent about giving up their addiction. as much trouble as it causes them, they also use drugs for reasons it is a dynamic of self-medication in my view. so anyway i think that's wrong i've disagreed that coalition for a good use of money it would make drug court and reentry but it's very important when people live prison or jail. how do they integrate that and

their neighborhoods which is a place they got very high end before they were arrested so they do not overdose. the rate overdose is like one 100% but any case it's large you are at very high risk when you come out of a program and then go back into your neighborhood. methadone start the criminal justice system. and so i would disagree with those groups on out. or if you spent some time in southern ohio. in your practice dealing with opioid as part of your feeling communities rather than services. >> there also part of why

people, to some extent most young people are mired in addiction. they feel the communities are polluted devastated. there is a lot of universality to this problem. it's true in d.c. and is to this little town called ironton. there's not enough long-term treatment even though i said people dropout. you have to remember every 7 cents and a treatment program they're not in an emergency room much less likely to od to commit crime, short for the job it's under the table even when the outcomes you finish the program you are not using drugs anymore. that does happen for some

people. it's always a benefit. >> is this tension between uses of the money. first off same reaction to that is this could be really good news billions of dollars could be really good news. we do not want to forget that. if all of these people are not in treatment this could be really big news in really big deal so let's not lose sight of it. about where to use the money is that code and the reporting you have done at the local level? >> absolutely. lots of come up in the group of five folks here. if you look at the money being used in thousands of cities, counties, states across the country there are lots of those. law enforcement or not comic treatment but what kind of

treatment question of primary prevention aimed at kids but is it just say no or mental health resources? i'm a small local government and i have a budget that i have to balance the dollars are gone and now i have a whole and you tell me that monies using can i use that? can use it to pay for the salary of my health director of the money i normally use for their salary conveys that to fill up pot holes while other people are saying hey, the opioid fulfillment money is here to add new services expand what we are doing. it's not enough we need to do more the tension i could spend a whole panel talking to about the pension tensions true and popping up all across the counter how people in this spent. >> these are debates and city council floors quester. >> absolutely. city councils, county commissioner i have watched the spill very differing views about the money. where the sheriff's office it comes folks are asking for the

money or talking about it. sometimes the debate does not happen until after the decision is made because people may not know to show up to that meeting with the decision is made. it shows up somewhere and people say hey, that's not what i wanted that money is for. >> brothers in tobacco the same tension that plays out time and again. >> family brought it up, but for 50 years there has been this terrible wrong tension between law enforcement treatments likes like it's one of the other. any good person and treatment knows it's almost impossible to prevent relapse in a community that's overflowing with drug availability. we need a law enforcement to reduce drug availability. from a factual point of view drug court, sally mentioned her. >> tell us what a drug court is.

>> a drug court is where a person is arrested for a drug related offense let's say it robbery and supporting a habit it's offered the choice very importantly. you can either go and get sentenced or he could go to this drug court. now, the drug court will force you to go to treatment. they will force you to show up every week. to show whether treatment is working you submit your rent and all of that. if you pass the drug court, and it's usually six months to a year, your charge is expunged. you do not have the charge. if you fail, you have already said you are guilty. so you are going to go to jail. so it is the combination of treatment under conditions where there is let's say, artificial motivation. you know our brains are not completely functioning.

so i cannot tell you how many people i've evaluated six months after cursing thank god my parole officer forced me into treatment. i would not of gone. that's an important tension that does not have to be. >> owed teresa, legal aid center is obviously looking at the legal arm of this. do you agree with tom that forced treatment is necessary in some cases? >> legal action centers lead away from forced treatment. from our perspective we have tried the law enforcement approach now for very long time but we have tried having law enforcement be the first responders. and, going to prison are going to jail would have a chronic health condition does not lead to the best outcomes. so from our perspective i would encourage any local governments who were thinking about how to

spend these dollars to think about crisis response. >> what does that mean? works crisis response with summits and mental health or substance abuse disorder crisis, who is respondent? when you call 91 for example if you call 911 and you are having a heart attack the police do not show up at your door. you have trained paramedics that show up at your door. if you call911 because you haven health breaker crisis, most times in cities you have a law enforcement that are responding. law enforcement often agree they're not best prepared to respond to those types of calls suicide hotline hotline crisis hotline how can you municipalities to a better job of changing the weight they respond to these crises? and spent instead of spending a law enforcement officer with a gun to mental health crisis, how do we have someone trained with

mental health crises? hooks those could be new hires with the opioid settlement. >> exactly. back to the point made earlier about looking for those gaps in the continuum of care grants allowed discussion on crisis response about who you call? who response court were to people go think about the gaps and people form propria. >> pierce specialists having mental health counselors be the people who respond to these crises precursory psychologists question. >> not always psychiatrist they do not have to be phd's and pierce specialists are part of it. often times their teams of people who are much better prepared to respond to these types of crises. rarely in these calls you need a law enforcement officer. from our perspective because

jail is not going to be the best place to treat health conditions, if we think about crisis response it differently that's a way to avoid the whole jail and system and get people connected to the care they need not just a treatment but may be other social services and other care that they need. >> very large percentages of our prison population to have a drug and mental health problems. >> that is correct. >> do you have an idea? don't you keep this focus on what local and state governments do? forgetting an idea from teresa hire more first responders of a different sort, very specific. we have heard about community repair that sally was talking about you had some ideas how to contract and the political context and you refer to this in delaware. if you revoke contracts is going to be an outcry. right? if you think there's going to be

a bunch of cities that are actually spending their money ineffectively and say we are going to defund these treatment facilities. one can expect the backlash how would you advise cities to deal with that potential? >> i will say a few words about that. i thought it was a very important point made about small communities don't control their health care system. that is very important. one thing small communities can do and do better than large communities is prevention. this is not my opinion. this is a fact. there are no studies done, large-scale studies of prevention that say you do not need drug abuse prevention, early pregnancy prevention, high school dropout prevention, mental health prevention you need healthy living prevention and it is best done at the community level. cooks healthy living promotion. i want to prevent healthy

living. >> good point, good point. it works best and the results are very impressive like 40% of reductions in early high school dropouts. that is the kind of thing that a small community can do. >> put the meat on the bones for that. what form that actually take? >> .oh one is it is generic prevention. healthcare promotion. it is not very specific. so that doesn't work. it doesn't work because all of the things killing and harming our young have the same generic sequence. two, it's like treatment itself. it works if it is chronic not you get up course in your eighth grade saying drugs are bad. okay, we just had prevention. that don't work that okay? but chronic prevention does.

and it's best when it's age-appropriate and it comes from the entire community. the police several, the schools have a role, the clergy have a role, the parents learn new skills. i'm not talking about fictitious ideas. this is been tried and very successful. washington, iowa, and pennsylvania as a matter fact. so that is a one thing small communities can do. again, back to contrasting and turning against treatment. every insurance company now was full continuum of care programs most states want to assure the public they're getting the full continuum of care grants why the insurance companies interested? as part of the affordable care act they have to have that continuum. meeting detoxification, residential care, intensive outpatient. the way most states do that is to make separate contracts.

they make residential care from our lady of perpetual minutes misery damp detoxification from this place, shady acres does that. everybody's got a contract. those programs are not connected you can't go from one to the other. discharge and then admit it's not at all like being at a hospital but it does not have to be that way in short it's like me saying i have a car. it got the tires and wheels down there in my basement the while is up in my spare bedroom. i've got a car, but it is not run. the way some states are securing this, they are saying to these treatment programs if you can get yourself together, some are forming nonprofit corporations that will allow them to specifically transfer. then the state by simply has real value paid the true continuum of not just the

pieces. but you also have a thought about different types of license in order to deal the fact there is an incumbent advantage. the state of arkansas. they know very well even if you know shady acres they cannot get rid of that program and it's just politically impossible. i probably want to do group therapy and only group therapy could get a level one license for they can continue their practice and earlier they can do recovery support continuing care. but, you could and if you had a physician and you had an electronic health record and could provide all of the kinds of care that you really need.

you could get a level two which give you a lot more money because it's worth more money. you're getting a full set of things that you need to address the illness. we don't use enough stinking medications. no, sir. suppose they got a license to do that. the food not offer any of the medications. it would be malpractice. well, it's done all the time in addiction because it just grew up that way. cooks and sorry we ran too long. cooks is that your experience in pennsylvania, teresa, these programs were to use their bureaucratic jargon silo into not relate to each other? >> i did not necessarily have a lot of expense on the provider side.

with the managed care organizations one thing resume from this discussion it's very hard purposefully to end at certain contracts. for us it was contracts with managed care organizations and to start new ones. pennsylvania it was taking years to do a reprocurement. some of that is by design. they do not want them to come in inand make the changes overnigh. i mean change is hard. >> there is an incumbent advantage. >> for sure. cooks are discerned out of left field question. you see new figures come out that the overdose death rate has declined. so i want to ask you sally or anybody else come everybody should feel they could jump in any time. is it possible that as with crack cocaine this opioid epidemic is going to peak and ab somehow on its own?

>> it is possible. i don't think we know that yet but is encouraging 15% nationally 28% and ohio. think north carolina is even more that's definitely encouraging. there's a lot of speculation why it happens fast. that's what's really interesting and kind of worrying. if we don't know what happens we cannot tell what happened that made it happen so quickly. so again, maybe it was a pretty robust ramping up of narcan. cooks overdose prevention. cooks all those things, overdose prevention.

maybe more people to get into treatment. although i don't think they did. i think that was stable. i should also add there's a lot of local differences but we talk about this issue. i just read something the other day that babies, there is a limitless attribute may be fewer drug companies and people are using, not intentionally at all but there's a drug called silencing which finds its way to the supply and causes these horrific sores on people's bodies. so that may be not only an adverse of development that really scares people either send them to treatment or methamphetamine. but also that zeidler zine is very sedating. like many this is a veteran or

drug. basically, people sleep throughe most of the day. or is they might essentially had this not been mixed in with their heroin and fentanyl.

a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the senior senator from vermont. mr. sanders: madam president, the time is long overdue for congress to get its priorities right. and we can begin moving in that direction by rejecting and voting no on a $900 billion defense bill which is full of waste and fraud and cost overruns. i find it amusing that any time we come to the floor and members point out that we have a housing

crisis, that we have some 600 million americans who are homeless, that we have millions and millions of people in this country spending 40%, 50%, 60% of their limited incomes on housing and that we need to invest in low-income and affordable housing. what i hear is we don't have the money. we don't have the money to build affordable housing. when we have 85 million americans who are uninsured or underinsured, 60,000 die each year because they don't get to a doctor on time. well, we don't have the money to invest in primary health care. when all over this country, working parents are searching desperately to find quality and affordable child care, we don't have the money to invest in

child care. madam president, 25% of senior citizens in this country are trying to survive on $15,000 a year or less. and i don't know anybody in america could survive on $15,000 or less. but when we talk about increasing social security benefit, well, we just can't afford to do that we just can't afford to expand medicare to cover dental, hearing, or vision. we just cannot afford to make higher education in america affordable. that's what i hear every single day. when there is an effort to improve life for the working class of this country, i hear no, no, no, we can't afford it. but when it comes to the military industrial complex and

their needs, would we hear is yes, yes, yes with almost no debate. madam president, there is nobody who has studied the pentagon, who does not believe there is massive waste and fraud and cost overruns in that industry. defense contractors routinely overcharge the pentagon by 40%. and just in october, a few months ago, rtx, formerly raytheon, was fined $950 million for inflating bills to the department of defense. they lied about labor costs and about material costs. and they were busy paying bribes to secure foreign business. but it's not just raytheon.

in june, lockheed-martin was fined $70 million for overcharging the navy for aircraft parts, the latest in a long line of similar abuses. fraud is rampant within the military industrial complex. the f-35, the most expensive weapon system in history, has run up hundreds of billions of dollars in cost overruns. gao now estimate it is will cost more than $2 trillion to develop, maintain, and operate that fighter jet through its lifetime. the simple point that i am making is that when it comes to the needs of the military industrial contracts and their lobbyists, and that industry which makes millions in campaign contributions, we give them what they want, despite the overwhelming evidence of waste

and fraud and the fact that they have not been able to go through and independent -- an independent audit for the last seven years. they can't account literally for trillions of dollars in property and stuff that they own. they have no idea where the money is going. but we give them more and more money. so, madam president, my request is simple. i think this week we're going to be voting on a $900 billion defense budget. i think it's time to tell the military industrial complex they cannot get everything they want. it's time to pay attention to the needs of working families. and with that, madam president, i yield the floor.

the presiding officer: the senator from nebraska

the presiding officer: the senior senator from nebraska. mrs. fischer: thank you, madam president. i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate -- to immediate en bloc consideration of the following bills, which were received from it the house: h.r. 8413, and h.r. 8219. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: h.r. 8413, an act to provide for the conveyance of certain federal land at swanson reservation voyeur and hugh butler reservation in the state of nebraska. h.r. 8219, an act to require the secretary of the interior to conduct a study and so forth and for other purposes. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measures en bloc? without objection. mrs. fischer: thank you, madam

president. madam president. the presiding officer: the senior senator from nebraska. mrs. fischer: working with the rest of the nebraska delegation as well as the bureau of reclamation, i -- madam president. the presiding officer: the senior senator from nebraska. mrs. fischer: i was ahead of myself, madam president. i ask unanimous consent that the bills be considered read a third time and passed, en bloc, and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. fischer: working with the rest of the nebraska delegation as well as the bureau of reclamation, i've introduced legislation supported by all parties. it transfers ownership of the land from the federal government to local officials, benefitting everyone involved. the residents and their local government officials support this bill.

energy and natural resources committee support it, passing it earlier this year by a voice vote. the bureau of reclamation, whom we worked with through this process, also supports my bill. chairman manchin himself has even withdrawn his original concern about this bill's impact on a larger land package. i am grateful to him for understanding how important this issue is to my state. i appreciate my colleagues for understanding the gravity of this situation. this bill will now be on its way to the president's desk. i want to thank representative adrian smith and the entire nebraska congressional delegation for their work over many years. it wouldn't have been possible without their collaboration and their support.

but, most importantly, i want to thank the citizens at swanson and red willow as well as the other local leaders. the love these nebraskans have for their communities and their determination to save them, that made all the difference. madam president, i also want to thank my colleague from hawaii, senator hirono, for putting forward a bill that will help her constituents in her state as well. with that, madam president, i thank you and i yield the floor. ms. hirono: madam president. the presiding officer: the junior senator from hawaii. ms. hirono: madam president, i rise in support of the lahaina national heritage study act. this bill 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. so many people responded with their support of the recovery of the people who were impacted by this horrific wildfire. a national herair tank designatn would bring important resources to promote and manage the historic national and cultural resources. i want to thank senator fischer for her partnership, and i ask my colleagues to join me in passing this bill along with her bill today so that the president can sign into law and the national park service can begin working with the partners, all

of our partners in this effort. and just to listen to my colleague from nebraska talk about all the people she worked with to get her bill onto this agenda tonight really shows the importance much this bill to her constituents -- of this bill to her constituents and of course to the people of lahaina to designate -- to provide this designation is a start in reinforcing how important lahaina is historically. it was the capital of the kingdom of hawaii in the past. so, madam president, i recognize that a number of my colleagues also have public lands bills that they hoped would be included in an end-of-the-year package. it now appears that such a package is not going to happen, and while that is unfortunate, we should not let that doom these two bills, both of which passed the house with broad bipartisan support and have no substantive opposition in the

senate. rather than seeing all similarly situated bills fail, i hope we can pass these two bills tonight. madam president, i yield back to the senator from nebraska. mrs. fischer: thank you, madam president. again, thank you to my colleague from hawaii, thank you for my colleagues here in the senate for passing this unanimous consent tonight. i look forward to our two bills being signed by the president of the united states and having them in law in a few days. thank you, madam president.

would like to take a look could join that this morning by political reporter and in the final week here of this lame duck congress we are facing in society deadline passed a vibratory what needs to happen this week is congress on track to pass the government funding bill? >> the government is not going to shut down for the going to come to some agreement. right now it's negotiations are ongoing. the plan is written for johnson

leadership to release the text of continuing resolution yesterday. sometime in the early afternoon, early evening around there than they didn't. there's still some fighting going on republicans really want aid to farmers and they need democrats to support it. democrats look at it like republicans one this we need to get something out of it currently this on a back-and-forth over with the going to add there's a lot of demands they can meet for example one is like one 100% funding for the bridge in baltimore this claps among other things. there's some back and forth trying to get negotiations. additionally there is republicans that are really upset and understandably, health initiative bill the reform bill this trying to get in there that it is upsetting people there's upsetting to the point where republicans are going to need democrats to vote for it in order to pass apart democrats know that so there try to get their money for if you need us

to vote to save you guys come in return for. >> how did that come up this year? >> were the biggest things farm bureau really said farmers need this performance are in trouble they need this aid. in this hell. this came about that way the farm bureau is really big and a lot of rural districts especially. this is something republicans are pushing for specially rural republicans. johnson and house republicans are inclined to get that to the democrats honestly oppose up there like freddie republicans this, you still need our support so we need something in her tulsi are selling the home negotiation. cooks are my people that they do passes helical content and resolution it is? i've more than likely the beginning of march johnson my schism in march which are reported before there a lot of folks upset about that mate well into trump's first one days so

we'll have to deal's reconciliation senate confirmation. there cap to jewels a lot they did throw government funding on the places mike 217 -- 215 majority is going to be very slim mr. majority. matt gaetz has resigned his is not going to be filled by them. mike walters is going to have shipped won't be a member the hout tie in the house fails it will have no margin for error were seeing is tough enough to pass any legislation expressed expressspending bills for quickr public at senate which makes it easier on that cyber. >> yes. whether going to need 60 votes get anything past for any government funding of their liquid empathy three. they're going to have to do some bipartisanship to get to the 604 shall be no bipartisan the house does not go over well.

as a lot of hardliners the freedom caucus you need to cave or compromise little bit in order to pass in the senate. what is the alternative 12 month, nine month government spending bill? what is alternative to something johnson would if he didn't longer see her pb mark said it likely would not pass. there's a lot of members i talked to they would have preferred to clear the deck. actually do the spending bills not just a continued resolution with what four days now? that is not a possibility. people realize this is now johnson's only option. talk to steve lamarck and my stories of this a lack of leadership are they to have leadership right now because of what is happening and said during the preparations process they keep kicking the can down the road. he's like look i hate the fact or having to do i'm going to vote for it.

i would much rather just do the job we were sent here to do and from the government. cooks you talked about up a marchdeadline complicating confirmation happening at that time. where are we this week on confirmation on nominees coming to capitol hill and who you watching for? >> will be in the first half of the% not the first time his is nominees, meaning senators. he's going to make his pitch as we have seen he did not have a good end of the week last week. mitch mcconnell kind of came out, not against by any means but saying hey we should kind of back off the skepticism of the polio vaccine he is a pull survivor himself. he squeezed out an article look at a subtle jab at rfk about the polio vaccine. there are some people who are going to have some tough questions.

especially like when you look at mcconnell he knows the effectiveness of the vaccines. he does not want to see these go away. he's going to have to answer some tough questions. but democrats have expressed an openness he's hearing about. we are going to see this goes for him. quick shot by the headlines last week the headlights continued this morning front page of the "new york times" kennedy aide filed to revoke the shop for polio. so is mitch mcconnell meeting with rfk junior i would imagine that the place apart as a gathering of that would happen. i didn't know exactly what their meeting this so this week he is going to be meeting with him sometime before the confirmation hearing. he's going to want to get answers to these questions for that hat headline was is exactly mcconnell's referring to. is something you don't be reading on the front of any newspaper but i do imagine he will be meeting with him one 100% for the confirmation hearing pick up the onus of the hill this week you watching for?

>> obviously pete hegseth as i reported he kind of salvaged his nomination. it was looking grim there for a second period there were reports and the guy also reported ron desantis is being considered as a replacement before he was struggling. he would give tough question stories coming out about his past he would salvage it and kept fighting to push forward with the help of people at donald trump junior, jd vance, charlie kirk, they all kind of did this pressure campaign they saw helped senate republicans after matt gaetz might become the matt gaetz nomination. they are not going to be attorney general. we do not want you to be attorney general they knew of head except the same thing what happened they would say we are more powerful than trump we can destroy these nominations. they do not want that to happen.

they knew that if hegseth, senator republicans being bullied. they can destroy denominations. they did not want that to happen they started running all of these endorsements. they preemptively ran, they got word of a new yorker story that was running up pete hegseth. they had a story attempting to discredit prior to them publishing the article. donald trump junior and charlie kirk went on twitter trying to push these campaigns, advocate for hegseth. kind of what i was saying before , we cannot give up on pete hegseth, we don't want to give up on pete hegseth. if trump were to replace him with ron desantis, how bad it

would look. going to donald trump from the nominees. there is this whole kind of campaign to convince side republicans. he was significantly a better place and he was just two weeks ago. >> talking about the week ahead in washington. always interested in taking your phone calls as well. democrats 8000. independent 8002. it is notice.org for viewers who are not familiar with this notice. >> news of the united states. it is founded by robert albright it is about 1-year-old. we have this who cover capitol hill. covered energy environment.

there is 10 fellows in the first class. some people may have been there some may be fresh out of college a veteran getting out of the military getting into journalism we are kind of helping them get into national news the best way it is kind of like it teaching possibility. so, really, we're teaching them to come up on the hill. they cover stuff, they will go out on the campaign trail where the campaign was going on. covering state of our cities. this is a real cool trial and learning kind of by doing and -- instead of having someone tell you. white teaching hospital for journalist. kind of a vision for him for a while. he really saul, a lot of times,

in order to do a job here for a little while. journalism does not pay very well. it is highly competitive to get a job at one of the outlets appear. local news, i spent years in local news, i love it. it is kind of hard to find good local news outlets because they are being brought up by hedge funds and they don't pay very well. i think his idea was he wanted to train this new breed and kind of bring them up here and kind of teach them how to do it. they have a two-year contract and then afterwards, the idea is they get a job with their d.c. news, back in the state, national news, that is kind of the thought behind it. across the country. >> we just did an hour-long segment on trust in news in the

united states. americans views on the news industry in the wake of the 2024 election as we enter 2025, as we enter another donald trump administration. where do you think that stands? >> 100% news is down. they are getting the news through other media. kind of different news segments. something we definitely have to look at internally and why are people not trusting this. it is just an objective fact. we have lost the trust of a lot of american people. more of an introspective thing that people often look at. what have we done for the past 10 years that has led to this point. hard to gain the trust back of the american people. it will not be an overnight thing. it's just something we have to attempt to do and really commit

to it. >> how do you bring that into a story about the cr and funding the government past friday. how do you build trust on a story like that where a lot of this is happening behind closed doors. we are hearing about what is in it and what the arguments are. i think just being as fair as possible. implementing your opinion or what you think is best. i think the way it kind of goes in building relationships with sources as well. whenever you're working on a story, people don't want to just feel like you are talking to them, you care what they say. they want to feel heard. they want to feel listened to. talking to these people involved in these things in reporting the news. obviously, there are some objective truths. you don't just go talking to a member of congress who may be opposed to this cr.

you would be like, oh, actually listen and hear them out. we will put their point in. there people that will see their point and say i agree with what they are saying. >> this cr is happening this week. what else is happening on capitol hill that could impact americans on behalf of the lame-duck, we are focused on the regular end-of-the-year funding fight. the scramble, the potential for government shutdown. what else is happening that people may not be paying as much attention to? that is the thing that actually had a lot of impact on people. >> explain what the nda is. the annual defense act the kind of gets in and kind of gives just anything they can do. it funds things and it kinda gives the military more power, different power here and there.

it has to be authorized every single year. for the most part, it usually is pretty easily and in recent history more and more difficult. there is always these sets that oppose it. they pass it pretty overwhelmingly. always a fight to get it in the now. mike rogers had said there were things, getting republican support. one of the things that i believe of no funding for gender surgeries for military. i think that that was something that the members of the house armed services committee looked at. we don't need to make the nda culture. we cannot trump who addresses that on january 20. there some people that are kind of upset at that. nda just kind of want to do the job. a cultural hot button issue.

>> question from twitter. what are the top three legislative priorities for congress in the first week of the new congress of trump's transition in mind. >> i definitely think reconciliation will be a big one working on what it will look like. reconciliation where you can pass through ascended on a filibuster proof so it only needs a simple majority to pass. it is basically how parties empower kind of get their big issues when you have both the house and senate. now trump is going to do it. the talk right now is what reconciliation will look like. one of the top legislative priorities. one bill into wills. the first bill would be border, energy, kind of these big issues that not necessarily are tax related that trump has talked about. they will try to get through that would just be simple majority of the house and senate that would pass. second priority would likely be

taxes. the reauthorization of the tax cut in jobs act of 2017. the trump t tax cuts. raising the salt tabs which is something trump has promised to do. including no tax on tips. those things right there are something that he will also be focusing on. also border security at large. yes, some will have to go through congress report. the clerk: calendar number 559. is 465, a bill to require federal law enforcement agencies to report on cases of missing or murdered indians and for other purposes. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will proceed. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the committee-reported substitute amendment be agreed to, the bill as amended be considered read a third time and passed, and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration

of calendar 658, h.r. 4467. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 658, h.r. 4467, an act to direct the under secretary for management of the department of homeland security to assess contracts for covered services performed by contract personnel, so forth and for other purposes. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will proceed. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the bill be considered read a third time and passed, that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent that the committee on commerce, science, and transportation be discharged from further consideration of s. 5300, the senate proceed to its immediate consideration. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. 5300, a bill to authorize the administrator of the national aeronautics and space administration to reimburse the town of chincoteague, virginia, for costs directly soccered with the removal and replacement of

certain drinking water wells. the presiding officer: without objection, the committee is discharged. the senate will proceed. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the bill be considered read a third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: shacked the -- i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to s. 5433 introduced earlier today. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: a bill to amend the fair credit reporting act and so forth. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will speed it up. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the bill be considered read three times and passed, and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of calendar 688, h.r. 7524. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 6788, h.r. 7524, an act to amend title 40 united states code and so forth and for other purposes. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will

proceed. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent 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. schumer: i ask unanimous consent that the committee on judiciary be discharged from further consideration of s. 5465 and the senate proceed to its immediate consideration. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. 5465 a bill to clarify where court may be held for certain district courts in texas and california. the presiding officer: without objection, the committee is discharged and the senate will proceed. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent 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. schumer: i ask unanimous consent that the committee on judiciary be discharged from further consideration of h.r. 7177, the senate proceed to its immediate consideration. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: h.r. 7177, an act to amend title 28, united states code, to consolidate certain

divisions in the northern district of alabama. the presiding officer: without objection, the committee is discharged and the senate will proceed. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent 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. schumer: i ask unanimous consent when the senate completes its business today, it recess until 10:00 a.m. on tuesday, december 17, 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. following the conclusion of morning business, the senate resume consideration of the house message to accompany h.r. 5009, postcloture, and that all time during adjournment -- recess, morning business and leader remarks count postcloture. further, that the senate recess from 12:30 until 2:15 to allow for the weekly caucus meetings. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: if there is no further business to come before

the senate, i ask that it stand in recess under the preorder -- previous order. the presiding officer: the senate stands in recess until 10:00 a.m. tomorrow. senate lawmakers have gaveled out for the day. the senate voted to limit debates on the house defense programs and policy bill. legislatures will work to move the bill until final passage. defense spending for 2025.

members of congress are continuing work on government funding with the shutdown deadline coming this friday. watching live coverage of the senate when lawmakers return tomorrow here on c-span2. since the supreme court's ruling in murphy rules in 201838 states and the district of columbia have begun to offer legal sports gambling. on tuesday ncaa president and former massachusetts governor charlie baker testifies on the growth of legal sports betting and its impact on society. watch the senate judiciary hearing live at 10:00 a.m. eastern on c-span three. c-span our free mobile video app and online at c-span.org. >> for over 45 years, c-span has been your window into the workings of our democracy. offering live coverage of congress, open forum : programs and access to the

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