syria is important for its strategy to resupply hezbollah and to fight its proxy war against israel in the middle east. despite all of that there is reporting of tensions. i think they are overblown but those exist in every political relationship. one other reason he might have gone to russia is that he already sent his family members to russia. lastly there is a deeper security tied with the russian state even though the iranians bailed him out first. the russians did it more effectively so he thought in terms of capacity, family and longevity, this is a better spot. host: first, explain to viewers your organization, the foundation for defense of democrac to order. -- >> we will leave this for live coverage of the u.s. senate. today lawmakers are considering house approved 2025 defense programs policy bill or ndaa.

by a strong margin. it says last night the senate voted 83-12 to advance the ndaa by a strong margin of 83-12. reading my notes. he got it, know what else. the ndaa is now on a glide path passage. of course the ndaa is not perfect. it doesn't have everything either side would like. it includes some provisions we democrats would not have added and of the provisions we would want left out entirely but, of course, you need bipartisanship to get this through the finish line. the ndaa took a strong stance against the ccp, the chinese communist party. something i have fought for very hard to get in that bill and now it's in. the ndaa will boost use ai for

our competitiveness in national defense come something you know i'm very passionate about. it would also expand the -- the bipartisan chips and science act. these funds will transform communities in new york and across the country into the next epicenters of innovation. lots of smaller cities and rural areas that were left out will now be part of this modernization of our tech industry. bipartisan measures to expand on it i i come to expand her ai infrastructure and strengthen u.s. edge against the ccp, are so important to our national security and our technological edge. chairman reed has done a great job. i salute him peculiar from him in pushing this bill through. on the cr, there continues to be good progress. work is ongoing to finalize an agreement in text. text has not yet posted. of course time is of the essence

to pass this bill before the december 20 deadline. to prevent harmful government shutdown and deliver critical disaster relief which we are fighting very hard for for american families. senator murray and i will continue to work together to make this happen so let me turn it over to senator murray. >> thank you. we've been working around the clock to wrap up the cr and the disaster relief bill. we should be done but, unfortunately, we have been delayed by an 11th hour demand from the speaker. we're close to an agreement. i look forward to resolving the final issues and getting back on track. we are heading into the holidays and the nation really needs a bipartisan package that will prevent and need a shutdown can keep our government open and get much-needed support areas across the country that are recovering from disaster. communities hit by hurricanes and tornadoes and fires and a lot more have been waiting for a

long time for this. it's been nearly a month since i held a bipartisan hearing on just how urgently people all across our country need disaster relief. they are telling us to deliver the resources they need to get back on your feet, to rebuild essential infrastructure and recovered in the wake of disaster. they are watching and wondering whether congress is going to help them. and we have to answer with a resounding yes by getting this package across the finish line which is what i am focused on doing. we have to make some hard choices and in congress som. this should not be one of them. another easy choice ahead of us funding the government and preventing a senseless and devastating shutdown. i do want to note here in the senate where democrats hold the majority we put forward a serious funding bill. we passed them out of committee on an overwhelming bipartisan basis, not a theoretical

exercise, but to write bills that could pass both chambers and actually help people. because it does matter of if in that age is force operates on years spending priorities, setting back ground breaking research. does matter if the social security administration has the resources they need to clear backlogs to seniors can get their benefits or if wit is fully funded some moms and babies don't go hungry. across all of our funding bills that are real consequences for real people for our economy and for our national security. so yes, it is disappointing to be here again at the 11th hour waiting to simply kick the can down the road with another cr rather than passing our bills into law that need to meet the needs of her country. i will write a joint as we work together not to negotiate a full-year spending spending bill for fiscal year 2025 the appropriations process, process

will remain bipartisan. house republicans will have fewer seats than he do this year, and senate republicans will not have 60 members. democrats will continue fighting for the adjustments that matter to families and working people and who are in this country on everything from childcare to affordable healthcare to clean drinking water and so much more. so merry christmas, happy holidays. let's fund the government, passed these bills that will help our fellow americans and get them across the line. thank you. >> thank you, leader schumer and chair murray. 2025 national defense authorization act strengthens america's economic, of senator kaine's request for unanimous consent for the senate to pass the saving the civil service act. it's a critical bill that i hope all of my colleagues would agree

needs to be enshrined in law. one of the great strengths of our democracy is that we have an independent, merit-based civil service. back in the 19th century, we saw what happens when you have a federal workforce that was made up of political spoils and political patriots. so the congress back in 1883 said that we should put in place an independent civil service. that has been the law of the hand for 150 years. virtually every other country has modeled this. virginia we have 147,000 federal employees, senator hirono mentioned hawaii has some of the highest concentration. senator kaine's bill would say

let's not break that system. the idea, and the incoming president has said he wants this, to make and get rid of a merit of-based civil service -- merit-based civil service is in my mind incomprehensible. do you want that nurse at the v.a. hospital that the first criteria is who did she vote for? or that air traffic controller who says, i may have been politically active for a nonpopular candidate so i might get fired. the independent economist at the bureau of labor statistics, presidents of each party get mad when the numbers come out because the numbers are

verified. the rest of the world would run from that and, frankly, undermine the reserve nature of the u.s. dollar as the backbone of the world if we are cooking the books on our economic numbers. there are a host of examples that we could almost go category by category. the vast majority of federal workers that i interact with, most could have done better in the private sector, they do this work because of this sense of public service. you get rid of a merit-based system and do it all for political patronage, who will join that kind of government on a forward-going basis? it undermines our security and the ability yf the -- ability of the american people to get fair services. i will yield to senator van hollen. the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. mr. van hollen: i want to thank my colleague from virginia,

senator warner, who just addressed this very important issuings and my -- issue, and my friend and colleague, senator kaine, who is making the motion today that we pass his saving civil service act. this is a critical piece of legislation to protect one of america's best innovations, which is the idea of a nonpartisan, merit-based federal workforce, one that serves all americans regardless of political affiliation. one where you don't take a political test to decide whether you have the credentials for the job, you take a skills-based, knowledge-based test to decide if you are best for the job. our federal workers are air traffic controllers who ensure safe passage when americans fly, they are the inspectors, they are the folks who determine whether or not medicines put on

the market are going to be both safe and do what they say they're going to do. they're the folks at the social security administration in baltimore city to make sure that people get their social security checks on time, they are the doctors and nurses at veterans' hospitals, and many other essential functions. today the only criteria for their employment is performance. it's what they know, no who they -- not who they know. they are qualified to serve based on those credentials, and they do a good job protecting the american public. they serve in those jobs regardless of what president is in the white house and what party that president may belong to. their duty is to serve the american people. so why are we here on the floor?

because the incoming administration has threatened to change the long-time practice of making sure we have a merit-based civil service. at the very end of the last trump administration, they proposed something called schedule f, which would allow them to convert merit-based positions into politically based positions. in other words, substituting political cronies for qualified merit-based federal employees. that is a recipe for corruption. and our predecessors a long time ago recognized that. that's why back in 1883, the congress passed the pendleton act to create the merit-based civil service, prior to that we had a spoils system where people who worked on campaigns thought they could get any job they

wanted regardless of their qualifications because of their political party label. in fact, the reason we ended up getting the pendleton act, one of them, was in 1881, one of those people who worked on a political campaign and thought they should have gotten a job and didn't assassinated president garfield. at that time the country was shaken and said we have to get rid of the spoil system and replace it with a merit-based system. i want to make two points. because the incoming administration, as i said, tried the schedule f idea at the end of the administration, this time they're talking about doing it at the beginning of this incoming administration, which is why we are here on the floor today trying to take this action to prevent that from happening. i want to point out that presidents have about 4,000

political positions to fill. so, you know, we're talking secretary of defense, secretary of state, presidents have the discretion already, the power today to nominate those people to 4,000 positions. so we're not talking about taking that away. we're saying you can't convert thousands of other positions that today are based on merit into those political type of jobs. finally, we've heard a lot about the need for more government efficiency, and count me in. count all of our colleagues from virginia and maryland, and i think probably both sides of the aisle in on the idea of trying to make sure that we achieve greater efficiencies in government. but i will not sure port and we will not support something on the under of the claim of government efficiency is simply a trojan horse to undo our

merit-based system and turn it into one based on political cronyism because that leads to corruption which will erode the public's confidence and erode the quality of service that our federal civil servants provide. so i want to again thank my colleague from virginia, senator kaine, for all he's done. i want to thank my colleague from maryland, senator cardin who also has been a great partner in this. with that i will yield to the senator from virginia, senator kaine. mr. kaine: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from virginia. mr. kaine: mr. president, i appreciate my colleague, senator warner, and senator van hollen. we had a press conference where senator cardin and senator hirono also came to speak about the importance of this issue. as everybody knows, you learn this in civics in grade school, officials in the united states swear loyalty not to the president but to the constitution of the united states. and under the constitution,

congress passes laws and the president enforces them. but from the beginning days of our country, the president can't do all the enforcement and implementation on his or her own. it's too big of a job for an individual in a big and complex country. you need people whose whole job might be enforcing a particular law, say inspecting a meat processing plant. you need people to make sure planes don't crash into each other at airports. people to prosecute anybody running a scam to cheat the elderly out of their lifesavings. people to bust tax cheats or catch somebody dumping toxic chem k58s into a -- californias into a stream in -- chemicals into the violation of the clean water act. they ensure krit sources are provided in countless communities across america. they work to keep social security up and running, manage veterans benefits, research medical diseases and develop cures and vaccines.

enforcing the law and running government requires people who are duty bound to enforce the laws enacted by congress and to obey the lawful orders of the president, all subject to the overriding duty to support and defend the constitution of the united states. but we swear fealty to that constitution, not to a person. early in the republic, as my colleague indicated, senator van hollen, the executive branch operated under what's known as the spoils system, as in the expression to the victor go the spoils. but there quickly rose an obvious problem. if people who enforce american laws answer only to the president, if you're on the president's team they go easy on you. if you're against the president, they bring federal law down on you like a hammer. that is not the rule of law. it took a century from the founding of america until enactment of the pendleton act,

and senator van hollen talked about the tragedy, a tragedy that occurred at the foot of capitol hill which was once a train station where president garfield was assassinated in 1881. it took that tragedy to galvanize this growing awareness that our federal employees should be hired based on merit, not political loyalty. since then nearly 150 years, our nation has recognized the value of a nonpartisan and merit-based system to carry out federal government functions. having a dedicated civil service based on merit rather than political loyalties is in the best interest of everyone. and not only promotes professionalism and reduces cronyism, it also promotes stability. we saw in the last trump administration the track record of the political appointees. there was a revolving door in many of these positions. how many secretaries of state, how many secretaries of defense, how many secretaries of the navy? when you're switching positions

out, you get worse and worse quality of service. the professionalism of service is not just merit but stability. they're tasked with protecting so many values, national security, economic productivity, guiding public health and so much more. there have been attempts in recent years to erode the independence of the federal civil service. that's why i'm here on the floor where i will in a minute request senate passage of the saving the civil service act. the bill upholds the merit system principles to ensure that federal government is equipped with the most qualified and experienced individuals. specifically, the saving the civil service act will prohibit the reclassification of federal employees to schedules outside of the competitive civil service without congressional consent. if congress agrees to this, that's one thing. but t the reclassification over the objection without even consulting with congress would

be barred by this bill. over two million federal employees work in all 50 states and u.s. territories. there are 14747 -- 147,000 in virginia. in new mexico, there are more than 22,000 federal employees who work in critical areas, such as nuclear research, some of the most important research that's been done in the history of the united states was done in new mexico by highly trained scientists and that continues today. in missouri where my colleague senator schmitt represents federal employment is more than 37,000 and many work for the v.a., for the treasury, for the army, the u.s. department of agriculture, and the department of homeland security. this shouldn't be a partisan bill. we don't have any need and never have had a need for democratic meat inspectors or republican air traffic controllers. democratic v.a. nurses and republican cancer researchers. we just want people who have

expertise. these experts may have their personal political opinions but as long as they're doing their jobs, they deserve protection from political retaliation. to be clear, the president can govern as he or she sees fit within the bounds of statute. many federal laws have ambiguity. if there's too much ambiguity, we in congress need to fix it. the president is emspou we ared to use flexibility within the law as he sees fit and career federal employees have to follow those directives and implement the president's interpretation of the law following within legal bounds and the president additionally has the ability to appoint 4,000 political appointees, some of whom must be confirmed by the senate but many of whom don't even require senate confirmation. if a president tries to go outside the law and someone should be able to stand up and say, mr. president, that's illegal and you can't do it. and telling your boss that's illegal and you can't do it is not disloyalty. that's patriotism. that's loyalty to the constitution and to the law.

again, we all take this same oepth, the oath is to the document, not the president. third and finally, my bill does not mean we don't expect accountability from federal workers. any large organization, government agency, or large company, there's a potential for unnecessary bureaucracy to develop. in a large pool of people, there may be some bad apples not doing their job. nothing in this bill protects federal employees from accountability for their performance. in fact, the national federation for federal employees has testified before congress on more than one occasion about the circumstances in which federal employees have been terminated for cause. that demonstrates that while they exist to defend the rights of their members, they're not going to apologize for or shirk responsibility for bad behavior of employees whose performance merits termination. i'm all for solutions that increase accountability and efficiency. i'm on the foreign relations committee, and i followed with

great interest the efforts of president trump's first secretary of state rex tillerson and his team in 2017 in that space. the rights of civil servants and the goals of an efficient response of federal government shouldn't be in competition. and i refuse to dismiss as naive the idea that federal workers can have a range of personal political views but still serve faithfully and carry out the law and the faithful orders of the commander in chief. i know this is possible because it's exactly what we ask of the american military, my oldest son is a marine in the military -- and the military delivers that in a significant way. every servicemember is allowed to vote but whoever is duly elected, that's whose lawful orders they follow. the bill is about basic fairness. the american people should have high expectations of federal workers and should know that the people enforcing american laws aren't going easy on somebody just because they happen to be a friend of a president, democrat or republican.

some will argue that this is necessary because the federal government is too big and inefficient. in fact, the federal government is smaller today than it was during its peak in the post world war ii years with more than three million federal employees at that time. so i am looking forward to working on this and making sure that we uphold this value that has stood the test of time since 1883, professional self service, not one -- civil service, not one based on cronyism. i ask unanimous consent that the committee on homeland security and government affairs be discharged from further consideration of s. 399 and the senate proceed to its immediate consideration, that the bill be considered read a third time and passed, and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: is there objection? a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from missouri. a senator: reserving my right to object. i am heartened to hear the historical references from my friend from virginia and from maryland. if we go back a little further

to our nation's founding, the founders were very concerned about concentrations of power. that's why we have a system of federalism, three branchs of government, separation of powers always meant to disburse governmentsso no one branch or person got too powerful with the underlying belief that it would save the system of self-government was that people would be accountable to the people. mr. schmitt: that if you sent somebody up here and agreed with them, you'd send them back or send them home. what we've seen tinkly in the last hundred years is the growth of an administrative state that isn't accountable to anybody. that's the truth. i was in northwest missouri a couple of years ago and a farmer told me, eric, i just don't remember voting for the deputy under secretary of the epa. he had a point. a guidance letter and not even a rule and certainly not a law can destroy a farmer's livelihood

and a farm they've had for generationals. or take, for example, the abuses we saw during covid. the supreme court -- i know something about it. i was the a.g. that brought the case. the vaccine mandate. they didn't have any authority to force a medical procedure on a hundred million people, but they wanted to do it anyway. student loan debt forgiveness. there's no authority to wipe away half a trillion dollars worth of student loan debt with the stroke of a pen, but they did it anyway. and these are big, broad discussions. the supreme court's weighed in. the major questions doctrine. they've been reining in the abuses of government now and unelected bureaucrats over the last decade and of course with the overturning of the chevron decision, the ball is now in our court to sort of reassert the rt cal one branch's role -- article one branch's role. that we're the ones -- if you want to ban gas stoves, we should vote on it.

what this bill does is blatantly infringe on prerogative to shake the executive workforce. so the courts have weighed in and dare i say the american people weighed in just about a month ago. there is no secret that president trump ran on greater government efficiency and reducing the size of government. this is another effort to trump proof before january 20. we're seeing a wholesale auction of the border wall for less than 1% of its value. it's happening right now. to thwart what's coming. these sort of efforts that are happening behind the scenes and now here on the senate floor are intended to do one thing which is to prevent president trump from executingon what he cam campaigned -- executing what he campaigned on which is government efficiency. about 16% of the term work force right now is in any one of those buildings on pennsylvania avenue. i think over the coming months

with the doge committee and some of those efforts -- i hope we can work in a bipartisan way. saving money should not be a bipartisan issue, and there are some people that probably need to go. there are great federal workers in our federal workforce. but we are wasting a lot of money and people aren't even willing to show up to work right now. so having flexibility to deliver on the message that people saw across their television screens and in rallies all across this country in the last two years during the presidential campaign, that's what this is about. this bill would thwart those efforts, and that is why, mr. president, i'm objecting. therefore i object. the presiding officer: the objection is heard. mr. kaine: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from virginia. mr. kaine: just a brief response. my colleague from missouri mentioned the fact that recent decisions of the supreme court have put more burden on the shoulders of congress, not to advocate decision-making

responsibility but to own it. and that's precisely what my bill would do. it would not block a president from trying to make reforms to the federal civil service. it would just require that the president do so in consultation with the article one branch. and that article one branch come january 3 is going to be two republican houses. i can't imagine why a trump presidency would be afraid of two republican houses if the -- any proposal with respect to the federal civil service has merit, it would seem that the president should have some sense of confidence that he could convince the next congress of the united states to go along with it. but if in fact he's worried about his ability to convince two republican houses to go along with plans with respect to the federal civil service, i think that should tell us something. with that, mr. president, i yield the floor and i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. :

quorum call:

>> based on what we know. other side of the room. >> two questions on drones. one, that particular interest by hospitals regarding the drones in new jersey. any indication of stroke in new jersey are some of -- activity, et cetera then the drones that are spotted at wright-patterson air force base and other locations in the past few days? >> what i would tell you, we don't say connection at this point between any of those activities. again, just taking a step back here, maybe 500 drone flights a

day, but again don't say connection at this stage. >> my second question, determined who was responsible for the drone incursions in the uk? >> to my knowledge still being looked at. i would have to refer you to the uk m.o.d. and u.s. air force in europe. >> south korea and china -- on china -- using drones china could not -- [inaudible] activity using drones on u.s. aircraft carriers. what message do want to send to china posing security threat to me allies? >> what was the message to china?

>> yes. >> look, i'm not going to get into the any specific operations overseas other than to say we take force protection operation security very seriously. we value the partnerships we have with our allies throughout the indo-pacific region and worldwide as we work together towards our mutual security interests. wherever there is a potential threat we of course will take measures to mitigate, but just leave it there. >> on south korea, security vacuum is in chaos due to -- [inaudible] is there any discussion in u.s. south korea alliance and who is secretary austin current dialogue? >> right up front i would say

you heard secretary austin zetas the alliance between the united states and the rok is ironclad. we continue to remain committed to peace and security of the korean peninsula and our combined defense posture remains strong. i know the general spoke with the acting republic of korea president on sunday. he emphasize the strength of the alliance and reaffirmed commitments to preplan training and exercises. he also spoke with the acting minister of defense on thursday on the same topic. don't have anything to read out right now in terms of potential phone calls with secretary austin and acting defense minister in the future but certainly will keep you updated. >> the turkish defense minister says -- [inaudible]

is that your biggest concern? this is your major ally saint shirley if there were such partnership with use and turkey these are the two largest militaries in their alliance. why not team up? is it lack of truss? trust? you don't believe in or -- [inaudible] >> thanks for the question. as you highlight, turkey is a very valued nato ally and we continue to keep lines of communication open as relates to the situation in syria, as it relates to regional security interests like isis. i don't have anything to announce in terms of any changes in u.s. force posture or how we are approaching the defeat isis mission but i'm confident we'll continue to keep having those conversations with turkey and other regional partners on this issue. >> a follow-up. turkish foreign minister on the same day said -- [inaudible] dissolve itself will be

destroyed in syria. is the united states going to militarily step in? i asked this question before because of turkey stresses it very clear, or if you can work with us and -- [inaudible] how do you approach this and accept this behavior? >> i don't have a comment to provide on the foreign ministers common. what i would say is what i've we did before, which is the sdf remains an important partner. i think it's important to remember what daish or isis is capable of as we've seen in the past and we all have a vested interest in ensuring that they cannot research. i know again we are speaking with our turkish counterparts and others in the region as relates to the challenges associated with isis as well as the sdf and the role the candidate portal they play in preventing a resurgent of bases

that will continue have those conversations and i will just leave it there. >> let me get a a couple of te folks here real quick. let it go to jeff. >> thank you. have any of the drone sightings been accompanied with sightings of a large rectangular black object sometimes called a monolith, often accompanied by -- [inaudible] >> yeah, thanks, jeff. i would probably have to think back to the words of a very wise prophet, obi-wan kenobi visit these are not the drones you are looking for. but beyond that i will okay. but they go to howard altman, war zone. >> i have two questions get one on drones and one in syria. i know you told chris, are not

-- not seeing connection but in terms of visual or censored data of the drones that a been seen over the u.s. basis, what similarities are you saying in visual and censored data? my question on syria is, the head of sdf is proposing a proposal establish to demilitarized zone with the redistribution of secretive force under american supervision and present. is the u.s. familiar with this and does the u.s. have any building to of additional forces, additional presence in that region? thanks. >> on your first question, not on any information to provide in terms of sensor data, other than a again as a highlighted earlier we are employing a variety of

both passive and active sensors in order to detect, as it pertains to duty installations and, of course, we're not the only ones in this business when it comes to u.s. civil airspace or conservative for you to dhs and faa on that front. as far as khobani goes and this ceasefire discussions between groups that are there and the sdf and others, that something we are obviously monitoring closely as a highlighted to your colleague. i think we have a vested interest in ensuring that groups in the region capitalize on the situation here to enable the people of syria to be able to have a better life than he did under the assad regime. but as a relates to force presence in syria, it is focused on the defeat isis mission. that continues to be their focus.

i will just leave it there. [inaudible question] >> what i can tell you, no, talking about the counter -- the counter isis defeat isis strikes? yes, those were in what i'm tracking four separate locations, and centcom assesses 12 isis members were killed. >> thank you, general. basis you can. we know you're actively involved in negotiation between the syrian free syrian army at the sdf, especially in the area of -- [inaudible] but other than that in the south, in cities like raqqa, there are a lot of protests against the sdf, and especially the arab population in this

area. area. they claim the sdf was collaborating with the assad regime and this even as complicit here and after the fall of the regime and what the out of the neighborhood. what do you say about these kind of requests from the local syrians in those areas? and you think that will create possible for for u.s. forces? >> well, you know, i'm sure you can appreciate i'm not going to delve into domestic syrian politics, other than to say, again, we recognize the situation right now in syria is fragile, particularly as relates to the post assad regime. u.s. forces have been working closely with sdf for years now on the defeat isis mission, and i continue to be our focus. i won't speak on the sdf what the local populace may or may not be saying, other than again i think we'll have a vested interest in ensuring that isis

is not allowed to regroup and research and return to the kinds of activities that we saw. time for just a couple more. >> the leadership of the assad regime, most of them were criminals involved in like slaughtering of their own people. and very possibly in the future there will be courts against these names. we know bashar al-assad flew right way to moscow but rest of his team. do you have any idea how did they get out of the country? for you follow intelligence about like assad's brother. >> was that it had anything to provide from here. >> thank you, joe. one additional on syria. i think last week turkey's national army and militants, have controlled areas of sdf.

..

so had more i don't have anything to announce. >> admitted very clear several times but are partner in the community saying for americans

to vision so is and are willing to have boots on the ground? >> i'm sure here. the question. >> you said besides why do they seem to be around new jersey a

drone related question, developing the military's ability to protect your own and working on the ability. >> the ability to ask questions and i would encourage you to look at the home and security but out this last week that talks about approaching that ability drones in kinetically and non- medically. the impact drones can have reported sightings, i can't answer that. i've seen drones and as i've

mentioned before the private drone operator and what the drone is doing so without taking a holistic have taught, it is hard to know specifically why at this time and it's highlighted in a joint statement that includes aircraft we are taking this seriously.

because of a heightened awareness we are now aware of this secular issue we will continue to take the seriously is not identified anomalous and national security risk over civilian your safety. >> in gilbert airspace and joint thursday's. >> you came in the briefing. >> thank you.

is there a surge let's does any of that included equipment? king at the installations. >> twenty-three drones down. his the different capabilities of these measures would have the ability to proceed most about

emitting signals and right here signal. this technology that we have

data celebration of life. last year's time in history with ever had lighting here in the

capital but this year to do it with my own binaural. this was presented to me a couple months ago shrapnel of rockets shot down by the idea is one-of-a-kind. the only because it is my first world but when you look at it, you are reminded of monica in the face of darkness, light and in the presence of fear, miracles emerged a moment of despair, hope of eternal. jewish brothers and sisters around the country the last year or more. we all know 2024 difficult year for jewish americans college

campuses land of self individual and for jewish people have shown unshakable extreme optimism. we believe truth always overcomes darkness. the battle for israel's existence of battle light and darkness civilization, good versus evil so ceremonially the first month we recall the power of light and holland to faith that god has not forgotten. as we remember god almighty's work abraham and isaac and jacob in the maccabees of the second temple until this very day we can rejoice in the hope of victory.

i will exalt you lord lifted me out of the and did not let my enemies over me. >> happy holiday. i may have story last year we all put on our yarmulkes so i was a congressman in a jewish neighborhood and a lady came over to me. your congressman schumer, gives. she said i'd like to a compliment. i've never met you in person but i months he spent religiously. you're the only one with more courage than any of the other members of congress.

what makes you have the most edge? he said i watch he spent religiously, he was the only one when you rise your feet to where yarmulke. that is not a yarmulke. i could go on and on. the first majority leader and highest ranking jewish elected carol in american history, i am

proud to this great temple democracy share. a story of perseverance, a story of how jewish people of the different age forbidden to practice religion and temples destroyed and decimated and expanded together in the hills it was to keep the flame of hope burning bright.

went money extinguish forces of hatred and bigotry, we cannot let them when. together cost the file darkness of our world october 7 a rise in anti-semitic attacks. let the light write us inspired by the possible (, resilience

from hatred and bigotry and all other forces of darkness. [laughter] >> thank you for your leadership in partnership and your friendship and your celebration. . i ask unanimous consent to vitiate the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schatz: mr. president, the past four years have been historic for the senate committee on indian affairs, by almost any measure. we secured the largest investment in native communities in american history, totaling more than $45 billion.

we had the committee's most productive four-year period ever, passing more than a dozen bills into law, and just this month we passed another ten bills in the senate that are waiting for action in the house. taken together, these record investments and laws cover a wide range of priorities for native people -- securing ancestral lands and waters, building safer communities for children and elders, and turning a new page on the boarding school era by promoting native languages, education, and healing. but the numbers alone don't tell the story, because behind each of these statutes and investments are real, tangible benefits for native communities everywhere, from the homes they live in to the roads they get around on to the water they drink every day. and i'm proud that we've been able to deliver such important investments in indian country,

on hawaiian homelands, and in alaska native villages, whose needs have been so often overlooked or even sometimes harmed by the federal government. this progress means more people will have homes with working electricity and clean, piped water. advanced appropriations for the indian health service for the first time ever means people don't have to worry whether or not they can get to a doctor or not, if the government shuts down, significant investments in tribal transportation and infrastructure means communities are one step closer to making dirt roads and broadband deserts a thing of the past. thanks to the provincials in the violence against women act reautho reauthorization, tribes can be in charge of their own safety again, with the ability to keep their children and their neighbors safe. the committee has also enacted

three water rights settlements into law and secured $2.5 billion to pay for these and the more than 30 other already enacted settlements. there is more work to do to get other settlements over the line, and we're going to continue to work with our house colleagues to get it done. rebuilding tribal homelands, expanding broadband, building out our transportation projects were key priorities for our committee on a bipartisan basis. we were also focused on helping napive communities unlock clean -- native communities unlock clean energy and adapt to a changing climate. everywhere we put real resources into the federal government's efforts to revitalize native languages and work to bring healing around the federal indian boarding school era. from day one our work was guided by the voices of native leaders

and community members -- nothing about me without me, as the saying goes. we couldn't have done this without the incredible leadership of native people across our great country, telling us what matters and holding us accountable. the progress, though long overdue, is still in progress. the bills we passed and the investments we've made will materially benefit people's lives, for american indians, native ha wians, and -- ha wians and alaska natives. that doesn't mean we get to call it a day. to say this is the most productive period for native people, as it relates to congressional action in american history, is to say two things -- it is to say we did a lot. it is certainly to say we did a lot, we did it on a bipartisan basis, we did it with extraordinary staff from my

indian affairs committee staffers to lisa murkowski's staffers to all of the members and advocacy organizations. we did a lot. it is also to acknowledge that it was a damn low bar. most congresses not only didn't help native communities much, but actively harmed native communities a lot. the official position of the united states federal government was the ex ttermination of trib governments. the official position with the army corps of engineer, the united states military, the department of inteenor and -- interior and other federal agencies and their representatives was to essentially dismantle native cul cultures, language, access to water, access to land. they cut the children's hair.

they punished them physically if they spoke their native language. they removed these children from their parents and incarcerated them in something that they called boarding schools. but let's be clear, it wasn't a boarding school in the sense of my kid's 16, we have some extra money, maybe they're going to go to a good school on the east coast somewhere. they were incarcerated! and so it is true that we've done a lot. it's also true that we've done a lot. that we have harmed native communities for centuries. and this four-year period marks a change in the relationship between the united states federal government and native communities, from hawaii to alaska and all across the continent. so i am extraordinarily proud of the accomplishments of this

committee, but i don't want anyone to mistake this for a victory lap. we have so much more to do, to undo literally generations of injustice. no amount of work we're going to do in a year, or even four years, is going to suddenly and totally reverse generations of neglect and harm by the federal government. and yet, this is a moment to recognize the great work we've done. it's broadband, it's water, it's economic opportunity, it's native culture, it's native language, it's native music, it's people being in control of their own intellectual property, in control of their own destiny, and that's what this is about. this is about the right of people, the first peoples of the united states, to self-determination. i am proud to be a small part of that legacy.

i think invite. i would like to say to try to friends, you have personal take on. higher your public.

if this were in our home for synagogue i would go left to right. ♪♪ and here we go. ♪♪

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ >> it must be because.

♪♪ [inaudible] ♪♪

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so what? ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪

make an observation especially about the authorization act is unavailable june and they have not prioritized our national security at a time when we have tips i can't get up to see and planes i can fly in a military readiness problem.

national security, trump campaign on national security. we will make sure these priorities are addressed in the upcoming year. it's regrettable this is where we are now will have to do our best to get into next year and they will be different priorities. >> the military prepared to fight, that is intimidating,

border security and america energy dominance. border security is national security. i just returned from the 80th anniversary commemoration of the battle of the bulge, the bloodiest war in world war ii. it was fish is attacked by 200,000 germans a surprise to u.s. troops. my father was one of the 500,000 brave americans in who thought that better cool winter of 1944 or 5000 american soldiers. along with the general.

a constant reminder our enemies are unforgiving and for america to be safe we must be strong. the last four years this administration squandered american strength and surrendered strategic advantages and our enemies are on the march. it is the only way for our nation to be safe and free. >> as much as it pains me to say this, congratulations to the united states naval academy on their strong wind u.s. academy

on saturday. incredible young men on the field, the ones willing to die. congratulations to navy. i will be paying rick scott later but we want to make sure we have the most legal fighting force in the face of the planet and would not seem that in the last four years under the biden administration. our adversaries look at us and see weakness. our friends are wondering, where is american leadership let's what we've seen on last four years, we've seen chaos at our

southern border, the killing of american service members think back to towered 22 in jordan and we had chinese spy balloons paving the way for identified drones with no reaction from our federal government. this week we will be passing national defense authorization act and through that america's fighting forces. i've focused on traumatic brain injury with diverse members providing safety measures to come. we continue to build on trumps abraham accords.

there's no doubt we will be the world with american leadership. >> hello to everybody. jonathan said thing i wanted to talk about. he said there's a lot of unfinished business but the biden administration is trying to finish their spending business before the clock ticks off on january the 20th. one official says it's like going bars on the titanic policy events. 1.6 billion dollars last

thursday to 84 new recipients in their environmental justice block grant and community change program. now if you recall, i brought to this podium the fact that pa would grant off summer two groups that are what i consider anti- american pro- palestinian on the website far left. inspector general to file $41 billion inflation reduction act and now you see them flooding. they don't want to leave it there program in a lot of

different people across the country requested the transparency here and 11th hour. and all of us in this question and this jurisdiction is that

process and i would expect the nominee to have. >> what problems. you it's like to look at. >> they got there said that they. our members will be hard to gauge reaction until we have seen. this is a big pile up at the end of the year largely attributable to a lack of democrats reaction the last six months of planning bill authorization act feeling

because of that. they'll take up the basic possibilities so that is why we are where we are. [inaudible question] >> those ideas in the end down to making their own decisions. the sales but in front of the house my policy and the issues we need to address in the

immediate issue is dealt with and done by the end of the day and final passage and we will seek. please have had a conversation about that and that's about all i can tell you. >> i think they tried. i know some of the nominees for democrats that has been some cases responded to by democrats so our nominees as they reach out to republicans and make contact with democrats this morning. hopefully the democrats will

bring our nominees and get the opportunity to make their case and hear them out. hopefully they are qualified for the job. >> merry christmas, everybody. >> hi, everybody. thank you for joining me. as my flesh soldiers treated and murray for being here today. a busy week in the senate to says airlock by the senate voted 83 to 12 to advance a strong margin is to. reading my notes. he got it. no one else. the nda eight is on its way to final passage. it doesn't help everything but

bipartisanship to get through initialing. something i have fought hard and will boost a.i. for our competitiveness and national defense and expand the program from the chips and science act transform across the country and innovation. the modernization of our cap industry. bipartisan measures to expand on a.i. and infrastructure are so

important to national security. there continues to be progress in work is ongoing. the deadline.

we are close to an agreement. we get much-needed support across the country covering from disaster by hurricanes and a lot more waiting for a long time for this. it's been nearly a month hearing how urgently people across the country need disaster relief rebuild recovered. and we have to answer with a resounding yes.

and it's what i'm focused on doing it should not be one of them. not an easy choice ahead of us. the devastating down. we put forward serious funding bills of past the committee and pass both chambers and help people because it does matter if they are forced to step back on making research. they need clear backlog the benefits so moms and dads and babies don't go hungry. there are real consequences for

our economy and national security threat is disappointing to be here again waiting with another cr rather than passing bills into law by remind everyone that the process will remain a partisan. families are working people on everything from childcare water and much more.

>> thank you. the authorization act, economic industrial. significant raises or other uniformed personnel and dod civilians critical investment and advanced weapons. innovative research. i appreciate those who came to get the last time.

we can recruit and retain the workforce. bipartisan support like you share the frustration the provisions that would prohibit gender affirming healthcare. i voted against this. we were successful vast majority of provisions in the hospital

work together for the most fighting force in the planet. new line skill and judgment and courage. will be of this sacrifice. >> happy hanukkah, happy kwanzaa, happy everything is able. >> we didn't have the votes on the four and supported it.

what you need. >> handle looking back at it will. >> most of the chip manufacturers are doing well across the country from a federal the specifics of the chips and science act is one of the best things as the a little deal america number one is. >> agreed to march 15 -- 14th deadline and i believe that will hold.

>> i will await decision by the president. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ >> good morning. i love seeing all of our young leaders. i feel so strongly the future of

our country is bright because of all of you and i want to thank you for your commitment and we are setting. [cheering] let me start with what has happened yesterday before i begin my other comments on the shooting in madison wisconsin. another merely torn apart by god violent. as we pulled our loved ones this holiday, we must renew our commitment and order of gun

violence, both mass shootings and every day gun violence that touches so many in our nation. we must be committed to have the courage to know that solutions are at hand but we need elected leaders that have the courage to step up and do the right thing. [applause] [cheering and applauding] someone i have worked with and known for so many years senator elect. [cheering]

and thank you to the people of maryland to the work of service and lifting up the condition of other people. this will affect people who for the most part never know the name but it's your work and dedication. public service is noble and the

work you do love, it matters your work is the optimism that one individual can make a difference in the lives of so many people. god knows we have a group of people the impact you have on our nation and by extension the world so i can buy to express my gratitude for the work you have been doing and i'm here to reaffirm shared commitment the work ahead.

i have received ends of thousands of letters from people across our nation. every life in every age and political party but there is also result for the future. there's nothing in the world that would take away my drive, energy, passion and the destiny that i have dual people of our country.

young people that were rightly impatient for change. i love that about you. patient for change. it will not let anyone or any circumstance defeat your spirit

or your sense of purpose. you will not allow your spirit or your sense of purpose to be defeated. you, who have, i think by your actions, adopted some advice my mother gave me a long time ago. she would say don't just complain about what is wrong, do something about it. make it right. that is a life you want to live in. you reflect the best of the america i have seen. during the campaign, during my four years as vice president and throughout my life. and america where we recognize that we are all in this to gather. that no matter our background, we share the same dreams,

aspirations and ambitions for ourselves and our family. that we all have so much more in common than what separates us. and america where we are guided by the ideals that have always defined us when we are at our best. dignity. and decency. fairness, freedom and opportunity for all. and america where we recognize that the true measure of the strength of a leader is not based on who you beat down, it is based on who you lift up. [cheering and applause] 's the story of america's

progress, you all know history. the story of america's progress when we have made progress, in many ways, is the story of people who stayed true to their ideals even in the face of difficulty. the story of americans who, yes, faced disappointment, but did not grow weary. did not grow weary. who faced setbacks, but did not give up. people who refused to let the light of america's promise dim or burnout in moments of challenge.

the movement for civil rights, women's rights, workers rights, the united states of america itself would never have come to be if people had given up their cause after a court case or a battle or an election did not go their way. what sasha wrote and what we hear no is in moments like this, the true test of our character is how resilient and persistent we are. to pursue the future that we all can see. the true test of our commitment

is whether, in the face of an obstacle, do we throw up our hands or do we roll up our sleeves. and, as we approach. [cheering and applause] [laughter] , and as we then approach the end of this year, many people have come up to me telling me they feel tired. maybe even resigned. folks who have said to me they are not sure, whether they have the strength, much less the desire to stay in the fight. no one can walk away. >> we must stay in the fight.

an economy that works not just those at the top of her working people, all americans. making sure everyone has a fair shot. the fight for our ideals. including the equality among us. the freedoms to which we are entitled. the dignity that we possess and dispossessed by every one of us. so, we must stay in the fight. because that is the responsibility, in my opinion that comes with the privilege of being an american. that responsibility has always been fueled the american

experiment. in our country, you see the recognition that we are all created equal with certain fundamental rights and freedoms. the belief that here in our country, anything is possible. the promise of america itself is a powerful yet fragile idea. powerful because it has inspired billions of people. and made it possible for us to become the strongest, most prosperous nation in the world. yet, fragile. because that idea is only as strong as our willingness to fight for it. only as strong as our face that

we the people are the ones who make it real. so, i will say this as we close out this year, i ask of you this . at those here and anyone watching, that you will not walk away. that you will stay true to your spirit and your sense of purpose that you will continue to fight for the promise of america. and i ask you to remember the context in which you exist. [laughter] yeah, i did that. [laughter]

i ask you to remember that this struggle is not new. it goes back nearly 250 years. to lexington and concord. generation after generation. it has been driven by those who love our country cherish its ideals and refuse to sit passive while our ideals are under assault. and now this fight to keep the light and to ensure it burns bright. this fight now, it continues with you. you are it's errors.

we are it's errors. so i will end with this. get some rest over the holidays. spend time with the people that you love. you know i believe family comes in many forms. family by blood and family by love. i urge you then after you have had some rest, in fact, i challenge you to come back ready ready to chart our path to the future. chin up, shoulders back forever impatient for change. in like sasha, ready to sell men your drive, your energy, your passion to help our fellow american and get ready to get

back to work fighting for opportunity and freedom, fighting for fairness and dignity and fighting for this country we love and the future we share. god bless you and god bless the united states of america. [cheering and applause] ♪♪

we are waiting here for senator to come to the floor to speak. lawmakers are considering the house approved 2025 bill. you will hear it called on the floor the nda. a final vote on the bill as possible today. live coverage of the senate is here on c-span2 i rise in opposition of the national defense authorization act. i've supported the final passage of each nda that has come before me in the senate up until now.

this bill that authorizes funding for military, supporting those in uniform and keeping our country safe. one that i would argue is all too uncommon but still this is no important serious consequences. this is not to say that we do not have our differences. of course we do. but we know our commitment is bigger sin those differences. this year, that commitment to our service members, to the people we all represent into our security and safety was broken. it has been broken because some republicans decided that betting the rights of our service members to score cheap medical points was more worthy. let's be clear.

we are talking about parents serving our country in uniform. having the right to consult with their families. get the health care that they want and need for their transgender children. that is it. they want the right to get whatever healthcare is best for their child. something that i imagine all parents want. and the healthcare we are talking about here can sometimes be life saving. some folks estimate that this will impact between 6,007,000 families in the military. i come up for one, trustee service members and their families to make their own decisions about healthcare. without politicians butting and. it is flat out wrong to put this provision in this will and take away a service members freedom to make that decision for their families. look, this problem has a

solution. a simple one at that. my amendment would strike this provision that cuts our service members rights. i was glad to have 20 colleagues to join me in supporting yield. it is unfortunate that some of our colleagues decided to force this harmful provision in this national defense authorization act because otherwise, i would have been proud to support it. this bill has done great things for our service members. in my home state of wisconsin and measures that i've long pushed for. this bill invest in our most valuable asset. our people. i am thrilled to see that we are giving our junior enlisted troops a well-deserved pay raise boosting pay for all others by nearly 5%. this legislation invest in the health and well-being of our troops and their families. eliminating co-pays for contraception for troops. and their families on tricare.

tele- mental care services available regardless of where the patient is. and so much more. a long-standing priority of mine in this bill and beyond is ensuring that when we use taxpayer dollars, we are supporting american companies and american workers in the american economy. when it comes to our national defense, this notion is essential for our safety and security. that is why i am glad to see steps forward in supporting the made in america economy. the nda put strategies in place to make sure that we are sourcing things domestically. from high-tech batteries to navy warships. these suppliers are not only providing the highest quality products, but also creating and supporting good paying jobs across the country. in wisconsin is home to many of them. whether it be the iconic

openings like fairbanks morse or aust cost defense, or the military installations like fort mccoy, wisconsin is crucial in our country's defense. i am excited to see that this bill recognizes our contribution . making sound investments in the wisconsin rapids army national guard readiness center to support training our troops need of tomorrow's threats. and despite all of the common ground that we found in all of the smart investments that we are making in our troops, their families and our securities, some folks poison this bill and turn their backs on those in-service and the people that we represent. this bill should embody the best of us as elected officials coming together without partisan agendas to keep our country safe and support those in uniform. sadly, that is not what happens.

in turn, if we pass this bill as is, we will grip away the rights of our service members to get the healthcare that they want for themselves and their children. it is wrong and i encourage my colleagues to vote no. they are to be joined by colleagues who share these concerns. and would yield to senator kim. for his remarks. >> mr. president. >> from new jersey. >> i rise today to join my colleagues to call for section 708 the nda to be removed from the final bill. as you know, i am new to the united states senate. i come to the floor today with great humility but also great urgency. because while i am new to the

united states senate i have the honor of serving the past six years as a member of the united states house of representatives. during my time as a member of the house, most proud to work on . as a house member, the tri- service base in the country. because of that i represented tens of thousands of military families who signed up to serve our country. when you talk to military families, the last thing you want to hear about his politics. military families often struggle with putting food on the table. they face inadequacy healthcare 's. them a -- they face barriers. while it is only the service member who swears the oath, it is all family that serves. they sought to politicize. the dangerous provision in both

the house and senate. this is a negotiation that sends a dangerous precedent for what is widely considered the last true space a traditional bipartisan legislation. they would harm those by denying healthcare for military families by banning tricare from covering gender affirming care for minors , we are standing in the way of military families in the healthcare their doctors have prescribed. we are putting politics into a bill where it is simply does not belong. we are sending a signal to our military families that if your loved ones are transgender, we do not have their backs. for the former ranking member of the military personnel subcommittee on the house armed services committee, there is a lot about this national defense authorization act to support.

our junior enlisted service members will receiveed a 14.5% y raise and all others desk i occ three terms, senator kennedy spoke after my remarks about his commitment and my commitment to workers. my speech, no surprise to anyone, was about workers and their dignity, raising the minimum wage, creating more opportunity for this country with their brains and hands. my life began less than three miles from here, my dad, a family doctor from mansfield and my mother met at a dance at the mayflour hotel -- mayflower hotel. their first date a few days later was at the willard hotel. when they married the next year, my father moved to mansfield,

ohio, then a prosperous industrial city where ohioans manufactured steel and cars and appliances, for young families returning from world war ii. when i was in high school, my mother troubled by the racism she saw in small town georgia as a kid and in ohio when she moved there helped found the ohio council ywca, it is to eliminate racism and to empower women. my dad was a family doctor with a working class practice, he always took care of people regardless of their ability to pay. from them came from my values and desire to deserve. he was a conservative, he a liberal, she a democrat, taught me by their action that the role of government was 0 help the little guy. the big guy can take care of

himself. i went to johnny apple seed junior high, i went to school with kids of machinists at tap and stove and the daughters and sons of the thousands of mill rights and pipe fitters who kept the plants running. these workers, especially those lucky enough to carry a union card could take that vacation and made up the middle class, by the time i graduated, these plants were starting to shut down. corporations searched the globe for cheap labor. first they moved south to antiunion states, then they lobbied for jobs overseas, always in search of lower wages. compliant politicians were all too happy to oblige, they called it the north american free trade

agreement they called it the central america free trade agreement, the trans-pacific partnership until we put a start to it. wall street rewarded those companies and politicians over and over again. i saw what corporate agreed and -- greed and presidents of both parties did to my town and throughout the congress. throughout my years in congress i tried to be the voice and megaphone for those communities. every night at the other end of this billed every night -- this building, i read letters from ohioans opposing bush's war in iraq from dayton to columbus to toledo to athens, the white house with an itch to go to work was sending working-class kids to fight and often die in iraq, a war that history tells us was

a mistake. i drew from john quincy adams, a return to the house. to evade house rules that prohibited slavery, rules enforced by people's house, he read letter after letter about the evils of slavery and abdicating for its abolition. we need to be that strong and effective megaphone, you start to listen. i remember leading the opposition in my first year in the house. bill richardson a pro-nafta representative lamented the fact that members would go home during congressal recess. he said every time we if home, my side loses votes. so every friday, saturday, sunday, i'm in ohio, i

crisscross the state from gallipolis to zanesville to port smith to toledo, holding round tables, walking picket lines, talking to workers in break rooms and behind checkout counters, on monday afternoons, i return to washington carrying a satchel of good ideas. i have represented the workers, to listen to them, to speak out for them, to fight for them. not to listen to wall street, not the drug companies, not the big railroads, but to fight for the people who make this country work. over the last few weeks people have come up to me, since the election, at the grocery store, after church, at the airport, in the halls of the senate, asking how i'm doing. there are two reasons i answer i'm doing well. first this is -- is this team. i've never been prouder of the public servants who work in this

office, how they immediately went to work to help and support each other. all of them have dedicated themselves to making sure their colleagues land well and to making sure casework for ohioans is handed off to other members of congress. over the last few weeks i've been meeting with every single staff member, 70 in all, to discuss their careers and futures. the second reason is that for me this job has never really about the title of u.s. senator. much of the important work we've done has been driven not by a bunch of washington insiders, but by ohioans. when wall street gambled away workers retirement savings, we fought back, most people in washington don't really understood and what collective barring gaining is. that -- bargaining is. that workers give up rights at the bargaining table for pensions all for the promise of a secure retirement for their family. ohioans put this on the agenda,

they kept it there, they, we never gave up and together we passed the butch lewis act, named for an ohioan who served the pensions for millions of people. think about those -- ohio veterans and their families came to us, they put it on the agenda, they forced -- forced washington to listen, veterans traveled to washington, many of them camped outside this door, not far from here to make this happen. because of them, the heath robinson pact, again named for an ohioan is now law. those fights aren't quick, dickly when you take on -- particularly when you take on corporate interest. we organized bus trips for ohio seniors, three-hour bus trip from toledo to windsor, ontario, so they could save money on prescription drugs.

throughout my time in the senate, we fought big pharmaceutical. two years ago we won, with we capped the plies of insulin at $35, for medicare beneficiaries, for the first time medicare is negotiating prices for seniors. these victories don't come easy, but they matter to families. when you stand up to corporate special interests, when we guarantee workers a seat at the table, when we see decisions here through the eyes of workers, we all do our jobs a little bit differently and better. we includeded a project labor agreement for 8,000 workers at a single construction site. to keep up with the cost of living. two million children in ohio benefited.

were we created an industrial policy to build more manufacturing in our country. and, mr. president, we have fundamentally changed the debate on trade. of course the town is full of people who think that way, whose arrogance won't allow their world view to be changed by all the evidence that corporate trade deals have failed their workers, failed our communities, and frankly poisoned our politics. they no longer go unchallenged and unquestioned. they used to ridicule you if you spoke up for workers, if you dare suggested that no amount of compensating the losers, no amount of compensation can replace the dignity of good-paying, rewarding job. no longer. i've always looked at things a little differently, perhaps, than some. to me politics is not really left or right or liberally conservative. it's really about whose side you're on and whom you're willing -- whom you're willing to fight for, whom you're

willing to stand up to. that's what true populism is all about. true populism lifts all people. true populism doesn't tear others down, doesn't play to race and division. true populism is essentially about the dignity of work, putting workers at the center of all we should be doing. when i talk about workers, i mean all workers, whether you swipe a ban or punch a clock, whether you work for tips or whether you work on salary, whether you're going to school or raising kids or caring for an ageing parent. no matter who you are, where you live, no matter what kind of work you do, your work has dignity. it ought to pay off for you and your family. we have that in common with all the differences we have as a country, we have work in common. work is really what binds us. for too many people in ohio and around the country, hard work hasn't paid off. today far too many workers don't see a path in the middle class no matter how hard they work. for almost half a century, we know this and should be challenging this, for half a century, the stock market

soared, executive compensation exploded and corporate profits risen dra patically, worker productivity has increased but workers wages have been comparatively flat and costs keep going up. until we solve the fundamental problem in this country, hard work is valued and everyone has a path to the middle class, stability and security of a good-paying job, our work in this body, my work as a private citizen come january, that work is unfinished. if you want to know why so many workers think the system is rigged against them, just look what happened three weeks ago in east texas. to little fanfare, a single judge appointed by president trump at the behest of the texas chamber of commerce struck down a labor department rule which guaranteed overtime for workers making $35,000 or $40,000 a year. that ought to be a fundamental principle. if you put in extra hours, you ought to eastern extra -- earn extra pay. you did the work and upped it. one judge, one decision, four million workers lost their overtime. one judge, one decision, four

million workers lost their overtime. that's why we make this fight. in 1891, peep low crow the 13th who what was recognized, a figure acknowledged the rights of workers and duty of employers to respect workers and dignity. he wrote that to respect every man's dignity, require respecting workers' rights to fair compensation and safe, humane working conditions. seven decades later, in a segregated tennessee, in a segregated city of memphis, in a segregated neighborhood, amidst the torrential downpour, four sanitation workers climbed into -- yes, a segregated garbage truck to shield themselves from the rain. two white workers settled into the warmth and the safety of the cab. two black workers crawled in the back amidst the garbage where the compact are malfunctioned and two young black workers were crushed to death. dr. king went to memphis twice.

he went after that happened. the second time we know he was murdered both times fighting for the dignity of work. he wove together better than anybody i know in history, wove together civil rights, voting rights, and worker rights. better than anybody ever has. in a speech to the ashby can teague -- sanitation workers, a month after they were crushed to death, so often we overlook the work and the significance of those who are not in professional jobs. of all those who are not in the so-called big jobs. but let me say to you tonight, dr. king went on, that whenever you're engaged in work that serves humanity, it has dignity and it has worth. all labor has dignity. while the shape of our fight for the dignity of work may change, it will, of course, continue and i count on my colleagues to that. i'll close the same way i've closed so many speeches across ohio because of the values i fight for have not changed and

will never change come january. on my lapel i wear this pin. some of you have one on today, i know you don't wear it every day but thank you for wearing it. depicting a canary in a bird cage. it was given to me at a workers memorial day rally in ohio. you know the story. turn of the last century, cole miners -- coal miners took the canary down in the mines to warn them of a. -- of poisonous gas. over the last century and a half, think of what we as a nation have done. think of what we've done to change that. all those fights required going up against powerful special interests. i think about the lesson that any nunn organizer knows. they don't just give you fair wages and better benefits in retirement. they don't give it to you. you have to go out and take it. that's how progress works. wall street didn't just wake up and say, you know, older people ought to have a pension.

no. we demanded social security. we fought for it and got it. companies a hundred years ago didn't just all of a sudden think, you know, people are -- work is too hard. we ought to have an eight-hour work day. no, we fought for it, demanded it, got it. big insurance companies didn't just all of a sudden think, you know, there are a lot of senior citizens that can't i forward their health care. no, we fought for it, demanded it and got medicare. in the 1960's, a bunch of southern segregationists didn't say everybody ought to have the right to vote. no, we fought for it, demanded it, and got voting rights in this country. then just two years ago, the drug companies, didn't say insulin costs too much. drugs are expensive. no. we took them on, fought for them and got an insulin cap. those didn't just happen on their own, of course. when i first came to the senate, mr. president, like all new senators, they gave me a really cool, pretty expensive looking piece of jewelry to say i'm a

big shot, i'm a senator. well, i wore that for a couple of days and thought, you know, it didn't feel right. i took it off and put my canary pin back on. wore it every day since. when i walk off the senate floor at the end of this year, i'm not taking off this pin, not giving up my fight for workers. if you love this country, you fight for the people who make it work every day. in january i return to ohio, close to the seven grandchildren who are sitting in the gallery today. my wife, connie surprised me last night with their showing up at a dinner with their parents in tow. my grandchildren in the gallery, some sitting there patiently, some perhaps not so patiently. leo and jackie and my low and carolyn and russell and mayor ra -- mara belle sitting with patrick, caitlin, and our oldest is taking finals today. my journey has been a family affair with my brothers bob and charlie, for literally 50 years

with the sacrifices that family members inevitably make to ambition, service, sometimes ego for a career serving the public. to my beloved connie, how selfless she's been. as i pursued this dream. her exceptional talent is exceeded only by her kindness and spirit. as a wife and mother and grandmother, extraordinaire, there's no one like her. how lucky i've been the last 22 years. so my colleagues, this is my last speech on the senate floor. but it's not, i promise you, the last time you'll hear from me. thank you.

a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from pennsylvania. a senator: mr. president, i know we have a number of colleagues who want to speak. i'll be very brief. i want to start by saying how grateful we are for the service of sherrod brown in the united

states senate. mr. casey: the great work he's done. he reminded us to make sure that we wore the canary pin. for me it has special significance, even though i haven't been wearing it all these years but i wanted to wear it today. but especially significant because i have ancestors who worked, of course, in the coal mines. i think in so many ways it's emblematic of his service, that he never forgot where he came from, never forgot who sent him here, and you heard that throughout his remarks today about the work he's done on behalf of american working men and women and their families. when the history of the labor movement of the united states, if it were ever written, of course it would be -- it wouldn't be one book. it would be a multivolume work by some scholar, maybe some time in the future. but whenever that complete and comprehensive history is written, there will be a

significant portion of that history written about the work of senator sherrod brown of ohio. because no one that i'm aware of that has served in this body has done more for workers in the time he's been in the senate. last thing i want to say is what he did and too many to mention here today, but i want to thank him for what he did leading the effort which culminated in 2021, march of 2021 at 5:34 a.m. in the morning when the first vote was taken on the american rescue plan among many things that bill did was allowed us to take the child tax credit and the existing tax credit and turbo charge it for america's children. as he said, 60 million american children, two million in ohio, a little more than two million in my home state of pennsylvania. would not have happened without his leadership. so with that, mr. president, i will yield the floor and thank

senator brown again for his service. ms. klobuchar: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from minnesota. ms. klobuchar: mr. president, as another occupant of the back row, i just want to add my incredible thanks from not just his family but for sherrod and what he stood for in this place. we are going to forever miss him. we are going to miss, right, senator casey, chuck looking back at this row and glaring at us because sherrod was talking some it's not us. it's not us. i will forever cherish the note in my desk to bob that says, get him to be quiet now. they're going to throw us out. sherrod, you have made trouble but it's a whole lot of good trouble. on behalf of the people of this country. i look up there at connie and i forever love that story, that i will not do justice to, but it's a story of when connie was in an

audience and sherrod was speaking. and a guy she doesn't know turns to her and says, god, i hate that guy's voice. and she says, yeah. and he says yeah. it's a bit like fingernails on a blackboard. and connie says really, you don't like that guy's voice? he says yeah. and she says, i like his voice. and he says, you like his voice? and she says, yeah. you know what i really like it? she leans into the guy. the guy leans in and she says i really like it when he wakes me up in the middle of the night and says in that crabby voice, i love you, baby. p your love of p connie and the it two of you together is something that is such a model. her success, your success is part of this united states senate story. and that pin you wear, that canary in the coal mine, this is not the last time we're all going to wear it. for me, it is not just about

workers, which is about in its glory. but it is also about what we have to confront in this place, the toxicity of this place sometimes. and that you, sherrod, for us, you were that canary in the coal mine, the one reminding us why we are here, when you can't believe people are doing certain things or stopping good pieces of legislation for people in this kupt. you are that person for us who stood up not just when the cameras were on but behind closed doors, reminded your staff to carry on. and they're going to take that torch with them and those pins with them every single place they go. so thank you for giving us that inspiration, sherrod. thank you for your work. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from new jersey mr. booker: i'm going to come out into the aisle because this is doing the sherrod where you get far away from your desk. i think he would have opened the door, taken a couple of steps out and come running in down the

aisle. i stand today with a similar start, because it was this moment in the cloakroom when i was a new guy in the senate that i talked about tester, saying to me very loudly in the cloakroom, i didn't think i was going to like you when i first got here. then sherrod chimed in right away and said i didn't think i'd like you either. i didn't care about jon tester because i don't like jon tester. but i really cared that sherrod brown would say that at one point he didn't like me. but i knew he liked me when he said it, because when i came to the senate, he surprised me. he did something i never expected. i had great experiences when i first came here. friendships, colleagues stepping up. i see my chairman here putting me under their arm. but sherrod did it in a way that surprised me. he said cory, i want to work with you on something really important. i thought all these big issues in the senate -- is it social security? is it lowing prescription drug

prices? i thought what are we going to do for america? and sherrod brown blew me away. he said, i want to fight for fair wages for the cafeteria workers that work in the basement of the buildings we work in. immediately it floored me. i started working in this place in 2013, and i'll never forget it was the least p diverse place i had ever worked. i came here, and one of the first nights i worked past 10:00 p.m., i left out of the employee entrance, and i saw the line of of employees walking in and p they were mostly black and brown people. whep i went to the basement to get something to eat the cafeteria workers were mostly black and brown folks. they didn't have a senator living in washington, d.c., but sherrod was someone who stood up

for their dignity. sherrod, i've been struggling all week because i feel emotional like losing you, and i had this poem that kept coming up over and over again. it's really short and i know you know it. i didn't understand why this was the poem, and i want to try to explain it to you. it's a poem by langston hughes. it's entitled "i too sing america." i am the darker brother. they send me to eat in the kitchen when company comes, but i laugh and eat well and grow strong, because tomorrow i will be at the table when company comes, and nobody will dare say to me eat in the kitchen then. besides, they'll see how beautiful i am and be ashamed. i too sing america.

sherrod, i have served with you for 11 years, and the thing i love the most about you is you see people. you see the folks that others walk past and don't even affirm their humanity. and you p don't just see people. you have shown me time and time again from my first week as a united states senator, is that you see the folks that are the most important to the very idea of america, the idea that people have sweat for and cried for and bled for. to me, that is the definition of what it means to represent people, all the people. and so i end with this, and it's a moment from american history, because i know you are such a nerd. and you, frankly, just never fit my image of what i thought a senator would look like. you're frumpy, you're disheveled

and the only person who has messier hair than you is bernie, for crying out loud. but there are five things i want to say to you in my final farewell to you in my be be official capacity and it's a story from history after lincoln gave his inaugural address -- malice towards none and charity towards all. the ideal that you live that there's no us and them. it's just us. lincoln retired to a reception afterwards, and it was crowded. and people were pulling at him and trying to get his attention. and he was pushing through the crowds looking for one person who almost didn't get into the reception. this guy had to be recognized by someone because he was black p and pulled in to be allowed to be at this incredible reception.

and the president pushes by him. historians say it was the governor of rhode island trying to to talk to him, but ep kept pushing towards this man and he said to the man, my friend, what did you think of my speech? this man, regal in stature, humble in spirit, who mrlooked him and said, mr. president, you should attend to your guests. president lincoln is said to have waved him off and said, no, i want to know what you thought of my speech. i need to know, my friend, what you thought of my speech. and this would be the last time in american history that these two men would ever speak because lincoln would soon be assassinated. this was the last words that they exchanged. if you allow me these five words, i jauvent to say to you -- i just want to say to you in my last farewell to you after your farewell speech, frederick douglass looks at abraham lincoln and simply says it was a

sacred effort. it was a sacred effort. your 18-year career here was a sacred effort, to see everyone in our great country as an american, to affirm their humanity, to affirm their dignity, and to elevate our highest virtues. thank you, my friend. the presiding officer: the senator from illinois. mr. durbin: mr. president. mr. president, i'm saddened by the comment from sherrod that this is his farewell speech. as i said to several of my colleagues, we lose so many good ones here. and after we've lost them to retirement or election results, the senate really has an empty place, and it will in that

corner for as long as i am honored to serve here. the place that was occupied by sherrod. what makes such a difference in this man? why is he viewed so differently? it why so many showed up to hear that farewell speech? what i'm about to say, you can say about him and about connie, his wife. there was a man named jack valente who used to be an advisor to the presidents. he gave the president lyndon johnson a piece of advice. he said every good speech should include six words. let me tell you a story. time and again sherrod p brown told us a story. it was a story from a picket line, it was a story from a clothes factory. it was a story that you picked up in your home state of ohio and as you traveled around this country. and those stories, much like the stories that connie has told over and over again in her celebrated writing, really

illustrate the values of this country. you can give a sterile speech about political science all you wish, but if you tell a story that touches the heart of the listener, it can make a difference in them as it has made in you. time and again sherrod has told those stories. that canary in that cage is a classic example. it tells you he not only saw injustice, but he spoke out against it and dedicated his life to stopping it. and that inspires all of us to listen to these stories and to realize they are the true story of america. and now this troubadour, this speaker, this man who has inspired us so often is stepping into a different place in life, all i can ask is one favor. tell stories. you have so many of them that you've lived and so many things that need to be shared. i know that you are like your wife, are a writer. you wrote the great book about

the desk you're sitting in. and i know you know what history means. but there's another job for you, and i'm not sure what it is, but i hope it will tap into your talent and your values. i remember that day, you said it many times, it was the greatest day of your service in the senate. it involved the child tax credit that bob has talked about, casey has talked to us about. and it also, i'm sure, involved the idea of finally giving these retirees a fighting chance and a wage that could sustain their families. your fingerprints were all over that, sherrod. that's the kind of issue that you would run for office for and fight for and make a difference in the history of this country. so remember those words as you go forward. your stories have inspired us. keep telling those stories. and connie, i know you will. i'll look for your by line. i wish for the best. a senator: mr. president.

the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. he were mr. merkley: when i was wrestling with my p wife mary about whether or not to run for the senate, i had the chance to meet the senator from ohio and his wife at a gathering in massachusetts. and i came away believing that service here could matter. when i learned of your background and your fight, sherrod, i thought that's my fight too. i want to be here and join you in this effort. my dad, mechanic; my mother, a secretary; i don't know how the hell i ended up here on the floor of the senate. but it's because of believing in the vision of america that you referred to at the close of your

speech. and while i can't quote it exactly, it was along the lines of if you love america, you fight for america's worker. or you fight for the workers who make america function. we are in a system now that is so rigged with lawyers and lobbyists and dark money that the antidote is individuals like yourself who say public service mat matters, not here to help the rich become richer, the corporations become stronger. i'm here to fight for the foundation of every family to thrive on health care, on housing, on education and a good-paying job with an honest day's pay for a fair day's work. i then saw you in action on the banking committee. elizabeth warren had this idea

for consumer financial protection bureau, but she wasn't here in the senate yet. but on that committee working on dodd-frank, we collectively delivered that and so much more through that process, including taking on the false mortgages, predatory mortgages turning the dream of homeownership into a nightmare. there's probably a dozen factors in there for america's workers. we made a difference in those years. you made a difference. and i was so happy to see you lead the banking committee. i can't tell you what a loss it is to this chamber, what a loss it is to the workers of america that i will no longer see you in that chair. but i know i'll see you somewhere down the trail fighting the good fight. thank you.

the presiding officer: the senator from minnesota. ms. smith: mr. president, i have a little bit of a beef here with senator brown because right before he spoke, i admonished him to try not to choke up during his speech and of course this was a fool'ser ant, it is like asking the sun not to shine and it was highly predictable that would cause his gravly voice to get a catch in his voice is when he was talking about his family and about his staff, his work family. the very first time i met sherrod, i could see this is a man with a huge heart and tons of energy. and i recognized in you, sherrod, the midwest pop ewe lichl that i come -- populism that i come from the democrat labor party, i sit in the seat

once held by paul wellstone who famously when we all do better, we all do better. i know that has been the guiding light of -- of your service. you know, there are plenty of people here in washington watching out for the rich people, the powerful people, the big corporations, but you have always been our guide and watching out for everybody else. the people that actually make this country work. and i saw this first hand when you and i worked together on one piece of legislation, the butch-lewis act, to basically say that hardworking folks who earned their pensions, who lost their pensions through no fault of their own deserved to be able to retire with dignity. this is of course one of the most important promises of organized labor, a fair wage, safe working conditions and to be able to retire with dignity. and because of your work, i had a chance to see what that really meant to people.

i'll never forget one of the first meetings i did when which was first a united states senate i went up to duluth, minnesota, an old industrial community on the shores of lake superior. it is a beautiful community. it has seen better days as the shipping out of jobs had affected them and i talked to some of those hardworking teamsters, retired teamsters about the importance of their pension and what i was doing, what i was doing with sherrod brown to help protect their pensions. i'll never forget this one woman as she was describing to me as she paid in, she was doing everything right and was running the risk of losing that. she said, tina, that's my plan a, b, and c. i don't have another plan. my other plan is to live under a bridge. that work, just that one piece of work that you did, that you led us on to make sure that

those pensions were there for folks is a legacy that all of us can aspire to. throughout your career, you've always made sure that while everyone else -- so many others were watching out for the folks that already had it pretty good, that the people who make this country work had a voice. and i too am wearing my canary pin today and i think that your legacy in this body will be all of us who don't forget your work but continue it. you know, hope -- the hope that we can do better, that there is more energy for that fight. hope is an act of will, it is not an article of faith. it takes the will of all of us, you have inspired all of us in this chamber, at least many of us, the will to continue to fight with hope and optimism that we will make this country live up to its full promise. i can't wait to see what you do next, as you have famously said,

and i'll leave out some of the adjectives, you're not dying here, you're just going on to the next thing. and i know those of us who heard the story are grateful that those of us on the floor of the senate am only giving it an abbreviated version. i'm one of many who love you very much and can't wait to see what you do next. -- mr. blumenthal: mr. president, i have my pin. i'm taking your desk, i'm going to get your office, and i wouldn't mind having your hair. and your eloquence. for me, sherrod brown, as for many of our colleagues, has

always been a role model, a friend, a voice for people who are often unseen. and also a real example of integrity. when you talk to sherrod brown, you may not agree with him, but you know what he says is what he believes. and, you know, we live in a day where politicians are often mistrusted, demeaned, maybe as never before, but what you have done for me and for my family is to give politics a good name, to make sure that people understand that the word politician is not a four-letter word, it is something i am proud to say i am a politician because i try to be like sherrod brown.

and, you know, that kind of politician doesn't always win. it is just a fact of life that people often take stands, they espouse causes, they champion people or issues that may not be popular at that moment but they are vindicated by history. and i've been proud to stand with you sherrod for some of those causes and i know they will be vindicated by history, and as i told your staff, some of them in that office, the sherrod brown office, we're going to have a conference room named after you. and it's a trivial thing to do, but it will remind us that we will be asking ourselves at moments -- tough moments, moments of crisis, what would sherrod do? what would he think?

what would he say? and i will continue to value you as a friend, as a role model, and thank you, sherrod for all you've done for all of us. god godspeed. mr. bennet: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from colorado. mr. bennet: thank you, mr. president. i want to be brief. i would like to briefly say something that might be an odd thing the senator from colorado might say. how proud i am that the people of ohio sent sherrod brown to the united states senate for all these years and how much i wish you sent him back one more time. i say that in part because i once lived in ohio and was a young person there learning something about politics in the late 1980's and early 1990's,

sherrod brown was my secretary of state. he was the same person then that he is today i think in all of the important ways. he had a progressive voice for the people of ohio. it was an amazing thing for me to tomorrow -- to come to this place and meet sherrod as a fellow senator and to sit in that chair and preside when sherrod stood -- i don't remember when it would have been. barak obama was probably in the early days of his presidency and listen to the names of the cities and towns all across ohio ricochet around the marble chamber that we're in with such joy because i've been in those places myself and i can remember something about him to hear him fight against the characterization by outsiders of the place he lived as the rough

fold of the united states instead of the industrial heartland of the united states, to remind people in this chamber of the important, as he was describing today, the critical contribution that working people make to this nation every day all day over many years, whether living in the industrial heartland or anywhere else in america. because, for sherrod, workers in every state in this country count and matter. but i want to just say thank you on behalf of the children that i used to work for in the denver public schools. i was a superintendent when my friend cory booker was the mayor of nuclear, and we -- newark, and there have been many times i have been on this floor, senator brown, when i worried about whether the children i used to work for in denver who were

mostly kids of color, mostly kids of poverty, whether anybody here had their interests at heart or whether anybody here could even see them or whether we would actually become really comfortable in a sense that we were treating our kids like they were someone else's kids, not even the country's kids. and more than anybody else in this place, you have lifted their voices. you have seen the kids that i represented or worked for in the denver public schools, the work, the chance for you and bob and cory and i to work together on the child tax credit, which went to 90% of america's kids. it cut the child poverty in half is a symbol to all of us, i think, is possible if we dedicate ourselves to the idea that this country has to live up to its aspirations. and that is something that you never have let us forget. i know you've talked about it

over and over again how one of the happiest days of your time in the senate was the day that we passed that bill. and bob mentioned that. i'll say for a lot of us that are here today, this is one of the saddest days in the senate because the contribution that you have made here is one that is so unique and so singular and it is entirely unfinished. i don't feel sorry for you, but i feel sorry for the rest of us. and i know we are counting on you -- counting on you to make sure that you continue to fight the fight that you've been fighting from the day you arrived here, the day that you were secretary of state all those years ago in ohio for the rest of your life. thanks, sherrod, for your leadership and your friendship and for everything you've done for the american people. i yield the floor.

the presidin the senator from maryland. a senator: we're not in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are not. a senator: i ask unanimous consent that the committee on energy and natural resources be discharged from further consideration of h.r. 1607 and the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of the following bills en bloc. calendar number 278, s. 1277. calendar 333, h.r. 1727. calendar 602, s. 3543. h.r. 6 -- which was received from the house and is at the desk. h.r. -- received from the house.

h.r. 1607. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection, the committee is discharged where applicable and the senate will proceed to the measures en bloc. mr. cardin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the committee-reported substitute amendments where applicable be agreed to, that the bills as amended if amended be considered read a third time and passed, and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table all en bloc. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cardin: mr. president, first, i want to thank senator cassidy for his cooperation in putting together this package. it's a package of bills that were favorably considered by the committee. they're noncontroversial. i want to thank also senator kelly for his help in putting

together this package. and let me just, if i might, talk about two of the issues we just passed. first, h.r. 6826 to designate the visitor and education center at fort mchenry national monument and historic shrine as the paul s. sarbanes visitor and education center. i want to first acknowledge congressman sarbanes who is on the floor, who has represented me so well in the house of representatives. he's also decided not to run for reelection and served for 18 years in the house of representatives. mr. president, i hold the sarbanes seat in the united states senate. paul sarbanes was a dear friend. he was a senator's senator. he was deeply respected by all members of this body. i think it's particularly appropriate that he is honored with the naming of the fort mchenry national monument and historic shrine visitor center and education center.

the late paul sarbanes was a tireless advocate to preserve fort mchenry in baltimore, maryland. senator sarbanes worked to honor the site and elevate the history of the war of 1812 and the national consciousness throughout his career. i got to know senator sarbanes when we were both elected at the same time in the maryland house of delegates many years ago. he would go on to serve in the house of representatives on the judiciary committee, which he was given the responsibility of the first article of impeachment against president nixon during the watergate scandal. later serving in the senate in the aftermath of the 2002 enron scandal, senator sarbanes worked in a bipartisan manner to pass the sarbanes-oxley legislation. then-president george w. bush called the sarbanes-oxley bill the most far-reaching reforms of the american business practices

since the time of franklin delano roosevelt. he had a long and distinguished career of public service to the nation and throughout. he never forget his baltimore roots. he saw fort mchenry as a national treasury in the city and a site worth celebrating. this legislation acknowledges his long-term advocacy for the preservation of the site and the improvement of the visitors' experience by designating a visitor and education center the paul s. sarbanes visitor and education center. it's a fitting tribute to nape the visitors center of fort mchenry national monument historic shrine after a true american hero, paul s. sarbanes. mr. president, i also would like to call my colleagues' attention to h.r. 1727, the chesapeake and ohio canal national historic park commission extension act which we just approved. i'm proud to have worked together with representative trone and senators capito, vol,

manchin, warner and kaine on this legislation. the c & o canal national historic park is covers 20,000 acres winding north and west of the potomac river. from the heart of washington, d.c. to cumberland, maryland. the park includes a canal and contiguous toe path that provides runners, cyclists and backpackers to hundreds of historic structures that tell the story of this critical economic artery. the advisory commission was established in 1971 and has been reauthorized at nominal cost by congress every ten years for the past three decades with overwhelming bipartisan support. there's no better wealth of knowledge of the unique issues of the c&o canal and its resources than the historic park advisory commission. government works better when policymakers listen to the people who know them best, and this commission ensures that all surrounding communities have a voice in shaping their future.

i'm proud to work together with our neighboring delegations to keep this commission running strong. so, mr. president, once again i want to thank my colleagues for the cooperate in -- cooperation in getting this done. i particularly want to acknowledge earlier representative john sarbanes. he has worked his entire career on good governance. there's no stronger need in our society than an advocate for good governance in our community and he's done a good job in the house of representatives. he's also known for his work on the chesapeake bay as the leader of no child left -- child left inside, getting young peep to understand the importance of the chesapeake bay so we have advocates for the future. i congratulate john sarbanes for his incredible record in the house of representatives and wish him the best. i thank you, mr. president, for the courtesy that was just extended. i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president -- a senator: mr. president, rise, the national heritage boundary modification act.

mr. cassidy: i want to take a moment. my french is awful but stay with me. when the british kicked the arcadians out of canada and migrated down to louisiana and along the gulf coast, the basin was where many of them settled and their culture spread out from there. when you think of our culture, the crawfish, it all began in the basin and built out from there. if you look at a map where the mississippi comes down, draining most of the connnl u.s. and -- continental u.s. and the red river comes down which drains colorado, oklahoma, texas, they meet and the chaff lie ya is born. the river was an outlet for the mississippi river and if it were not for human engineering, it would once again be the outlet for the mississippi. it's 1.4 million acres of swamps and wetlands and rivers. the largest wetlands in the

united states. i say this because this arcadian culture, one of the most unique if not the most unique in our country began here. our boundary modification, we extend the footprint of this acknowledging that the cajuns that came from canada, finding refuge in the united states, put a unique im pprint on our count and i hesitate because i'm thinking, for example, broke bridge -- bro bridge, louisiana, is the crawfish capitol of the world. yesterday i'm at a truck stop and in arkansas and i stop and they're selling crispy, crunchy chicken. i can get a side. and it's jambalaya, red beans and rice and something else. i said this is louisiana day. the guy laughed. he goes, it sure is.

so that food that began when those arcadians settled there has spread out. what this does is expands that footprint. it allows more of a celebration of that culture, a preservation of the sportsman's paradise and along the way create a lot of jobs. it's got support across louisiana, including from the original 14 parishes within the national heritage area. so i thank my colleagues for getting this across the line. i'm just very pleased about it. and i look forward to the atchafalaya area educating even more as to the wonders of my state. with that i yield.

a senator: mr. president, this bipartisan bill, h.r. 1607, the storage bill is about delivering affordable, reliable energy to our growing state by expanding hydropower storage. the way it does that is pretty simple. mr. kelly: it clarifies the bureau of reclamations jurisdiction with respect to the future development of pump storage along the salt river in arizona. and it expands an existing withdrawal south of the river from one to two miles allowing the salt river project to explore developing sites, identified in a 2014 bureau of reclamation study. this could ultimately bring upwards of 2,000 megawatts of energy storage capacity to the

state of arizona, providing clean energy and improving grid reliability as the demand for energy rose in the coming years. representative stanton introduced this bill in the house, and it passed the chamber last year by a vote of 384-1. i appreciate the work of my colleagues on the energy and natural resources committee to ensure that our bill received a hearing and a markup. i yield the floor.

every day.

thanks me. i had senators murray, senators reid and murray for being here today. a busy weekend in the senate last night the senate voted 83-12 to advance the ndaa by a strong margin and the senate voted 83-12 to advance the ndaa by strong margin of 83-12. he got it. no one else. the ndaa is on the glide path to final passage. a course the ndaa is not perfect. it doesn't have everything that i would have liked and includes provisions of that we democrats would have not have added we would have left out entirely but of course you need bipartisanship to get this to the finish line. the ndaa took a strong stand against the ccp that chinese communist party, something i have fought for very hard to get into that bill and now it's in.

the ndaa will boost the use of ai for our competitiveness and national events something you know i'm very passionate about. it also expands the tax program from the bipartisanship should chips and science act. these funds will transform communities in new york and across the country and affect every sector innovation lots of smaller cities in rowe areas that were left out will now be part of this modernization of our tech industry. the bipartisan measures to expand on ai to expand our ai infrastructure and strengthen the u.s. edge against the ccp are so important for national security and our technological edge and chairman reed has done a great job and i salute him in pushing this bill through. honda cr there continues to be good progress. work is ongoing to finalize the text for the text is not yet

posted. a course time is of the essence and that's before the 20 -- december 20 deadline to ravenna harmful government shutdown in deliver critical disaster relief which we are fighting hard for for american families. senator murray and i have been working together to make this happen so let me turn it over to senator murray. >> thank you. we have been working around-the-clock to wrap up the cr in the disaster relief bill really should be done but unfortunately they've been delayed by an 11th hour demand from the speaker. we are very close to an agreement so i look forward to resolving the final issues in getting back on track. we are heading into the holidays and the nation needs a bipartisan package that would prevent any shutdown and keep our government open and give much-needed support to areas across the country that are recovering from disaster. communities hit by hurricanes

and tornadoes and fires in the lot more have been waiting for a long time. it's been nearly a month since a bipartisan hearing on just how urgently people across our country need disaster relief. they are counting on us to deliver the research that they need to get back on their feet to rebuild essential infrastructure and recover in the wake of disaster. they were watching and wondering whether congress was going to help them and we have the answer with a resounding yes i getting this package across the finish line which is what i'm focused on doing. we have to make hard choices in congress sometimes and this should not be one of them. another easy choice ahead of us is funding the government of preventing a senseless devastating shutdown. i do want to note here in the senate where democrats hold the majority we put forward a serious funding bill. we passed about a committee on

an overwhelming bipartisan aces and not a theoretical exercise. it could pass both chambers and actually help people. because it does matter if they are forced to operate unless you're >> priorities setting back groundbreaking research but it does matter if the social security administration has the resources they need to clear a backlog so seniors can get their benefits or flick is fully funded so moms and babies don't go hungry. across all of our funding bills there are real consequences for real people for our economy and for a national security. so yes it's disappointing to be here again at the 11th hour waiting to simply kick the can down the road with the cr rather than passing our bill into law that meet the needs of our country. i remind everyone as we work together now to negotiate a

full-year >> bill for fiscal year 2025 the appropriations process will remain bipartisan. house republicans will have fewer seats than they do this year and senate republicans will not have 60 members. democrats will continue fighting for the investments that matter and families of working people everywhere in this country on everything from childcare to political health care to clean drinking water and so much more. so merry christmas and happy holidays. let's fund the government and pass these bills and help americans. >> thank you leader schumer and chery murray. 2025 national senate authorization act strengthens america's economic industrial and military might invest in our servicemembers increasing the pay up junior enlisted servicemembers by and historic level and to contain significant

raises for our other uniformed personnel and dod civilian employees two. it includes major quality-of-life improvements enhancing things like childcare, medical services, employment support for military spouses and authorizes critical investments in technology and advanced weaponry. it strengthens our cybercapabilities and bolsters innovative research. i appreciate the 83 senators who came together last night to advance the bill and help make america safer and stronger. they voted to raise wages and to ensure we can recruit and detain the workforce we need for our industrial base. the bill has strong bipartisan support. i do share my frustrations of the bill includes provisions that would prohibit gender

affirming health care for minors in certain circumstances. i voted against this provision today and disagree strongly with including such an extreme misguided provision. however during the negotiation process we were successful in passing the vast majority of -- our military is and must contain a merit based organization. we must work together to ensure our military remains the strongest most effective professional and lethal fighting force on the planet. we have a duty to support our servicemen and women. we rely on their skills, their judgment, their integrity and their courage through the desert where the leadership, worthy of their sacrifice. we believe this bill by and

large accomplishes that mission. thank you. >> we will take questions at first merry christmas and happy new year, happy hanukkah happy kwanzaa happy everything to everybody. [inaudible] my reaction is we didn't have the votes on the floor and i was supportive of it and that's regrettable. [inaudible] >> most of the chip

manufacturers are doing well. local and across my country and i don't know the specifics are but the chips and science act as one of the best thing that congress has done in decades. he will keep america number one. [inaudible] >> we agreed to a march 14 deadline and i believe that will hold. [inaudible] >> i will await the decision by the president. thank you everybody. >> good afternoon everyone. we have a bit of a pileup here

in the united states senate. we have the defense authorization bill that we are still trying to get going and the disaster supplemental water resources development act and a social security bill all supposedly processed by the end of the week. i want to make one observation about especially in the national defense authorization act. if it told you before it's been available literally since june when it came out at the service armed senate committee and the democrats stalled and have not put on the floor in nod partners and our security at the time we have ships taking it out to see planes they can fly and a military readiness problem. that's not going to happen next year. i can assure you national security will be a big priority and president trump campaigned on national security and making sure our military is ready to face the threat matrix we face

around the world today and in so full support of us in congress to make sure we support and the national security priorities are addressed in the upcoming year year. it's forgettable that this is where we are and we have this pileup and now we will have to do our best to sort through it and find her way out and get into next year where we will be in the majority and we will set the priorities and they will be very different priorities. >> republicans will restore and reassert america's strength of in the world. that means the military that is lethal, that is prepared to fight, that is intimidating and it means border security and it also means american energy dominance. border security is national security and energy dominance in america strength are tied

together. i just returned from the 80th anniversary commemoration of the battle of the bulge. it was the bloodiest war in world war ii. attack by 200,000 and 1000 tanks was a surprise to our allies into u.s. troops. my father was one of the 500,000 brave americans who fought that battle in the cold and the winter of 1944. i just returned from walking this cemetery in luxembourg were over 5000 american soldiers are buried along with general patton. this is a constant reminder that our enemies are unpredictable and unforgiving and for america to be safe we must be strong. d

authorization bill. d we have considered this most years annually for many decades. typically, though, we'll have a robust debate. we'll have amendments offered, and we'll try to have participation by senators from all over the united states geographically represented in the debate. that won't happen this year. there'll be no debate. it'll be very controlled and circumscribed, and there won't be amendments. this is disappointing to me because i think there are some very important issues that need to be brought up, and one of those is emergency powers. our founding fathers understood that it was very important to divide these powers between the executive branch, the ledgive branch and -- the legislative branch and the judiciary. over the past hundred years, though, we've had a gradual evolution of these powers towards the executive branch and we now have a very, very strong executive branch that in many ways is able to control the narrative and ultimately to

control the country. in the 1970's, frank church wrote these words, which i think represent a problem that existed then and even more so now -- he wrote, hundreds of statutes clothe the president with virtually unchecked powers with which he can affect the lives of american citizens and a host of all-encompassing ways. this vast range of powers taken together confers enough authority on the president to rule the country without reference to normal constitutional of private enter, restrict travel and in a plethora of particular ways control the lives of all american citizens.

these words were written by senator frank church in a 1977 law review article but they're still true to this day and even more worrisome. the church committee's investigatory work -- the time has come to check the checks and balances. it is ironic that the powers that be still conspire to this day to hide the work of the church committee. i've been trying for over a year to read the classified version of the church committee. this is not some sort simplify new document. this is a document from is the 76. but the powers that be have prevented me from -- for over a year from reading the classified report. you got to wonder, does that mean they have something to hide or does that mean they love power so much that they don't want to share it? the national emergencies act of

1976 was supposed to be a reform of presidential emergencies. it was supposed to limit the power of presidents. in that act, they actually gave a legislative veto. if an emergency were invoked by a president and the majority of congress voted it, they would beologicalive able to reject that -- they would legislative able to he aject that emergency. the court ruled that that would have to be signed by the president. if the president declares an emergency, in some ways the unid

states of america is a monarchy in disguise. the united states united states of remains the very near of a republic, but the president exercises awesome and unchecked power by decree and in perpetuity. in you look at emergencies in the books, some have been on the books. if you look at the potential emergencies that would be declared, you would be shocked. this dangerous imbalance of the constitutional separation of the powers is not simply from the executive branch, it is something that congress has actually been complicit with. congress has made itself a feckless branch of the federal government so many emergency powers and refusing to vote on

the termination of national emergencies as required by current law. emergencies go on and on. our concerns should not merely to be -- to restore it, ou true focus should be to restore the founder's vision of limited and diverse powers devoted to securing our inalienable rights, to disperse powers between separate branches is a government less likely to violate our liabilities. we -- liberties. we owe the people nothing less of constitutional principles, of separation of powers, of checks and balances among the branchs of government. i offered steps toward revitalizing it, i introduced the republic act which is an amendment to this bill, but will

not likely be considered. but this amendment, were it considered, would restore congress's role in governance by declaring the declarations of national emergency expire after 30 days. the power would have the ability to declare an emergency but would expire unless affirmed by congress. what it does is essentially switches the role we currently have. currently it takes two-thirds of congress to stop an emergency, now it would take 50% of congress to affirm an emergency. we did this in my state, for our governor, it's a good reform and goes a long way toward restoring the faith that people have in the separation of powers and the limitation of powers. this simple reform allows the president to respond to genuine crisis but ensures that the executive cannot rule by unchecked perpetual emergency m. my bill includes other reforms

to safeguard the country from emergency rules. it would repeal the revisions of the communications act of 1934, also known as the internet kill switch that would allow the president go he declares an emergency to take over all communications. this has never been declared but simply having this on the book for so long is a threat that some day a president might occur who says, i'm going to take over all communications, i am going to shut them down. that is so ominous that no president should have that power. today, though, with the power still in place, with a stroke of the pen, the president could use this power to monitor e-mails, restrict access to the internet, control radio broadcasts and cell phones. long-standing use of this power would ee essentially -- ee essentially eviscerate the --

the president would not longer be able to utilize this power and would have it during a limited time and a majority of congress would have to use this. this is not the type of rule our founders anticipated for our country. the other name for emergency

because men and women will succumb to the desire for power. it's inherent in all. that's why we must have checks and balances. deputy prime minister put it this way -- in describing trudeau's martial law. as of february in 2022, as a warning to the truckers, a bank or financial service provider will be able to freeze or suspend an account without a court order. the government of canada, essentially trudeau could freeze a bank account without a court order or due process of law. if your truck is being used in this protest, your corporate accounts will be frozen, the insurance on your vehicle will be suspended. send your trailers home. and while native born americans may think that emergency powers are to be used to target others,

i would venture to guess that the canadian truckers protesting covid-era mandates didn't expect them to freeze their accounts. if it can happen in canada, it can happen in the u.s. expansionst pansive emergency -- expansive emergency powers do not end there. a country that owes it existence to tax revolt, the president can unilaterally impose and raise taxes on foreign imports. some of that power unfortunately congress gave to the president but it was a mistake and we should take the power back. the rallying cry of our american revolution, no taxation without reputation, was not just a protest of the past, it's a core principle of american governance, yet congress in its feckless desire to abscond all responsibilities, saying you can raise taxes without a vote of

congress. terrible idea. our constitution was designed to prevent any branch from overstepping its bounds. unchecked executive actions, enacting tariffs on our citizens without a vote of congress, threatens our economy, raises prices on every day goods and erodes the checks and balances that our founders crafted. the republic act, the reform of emergency powers, the limitation of emergency powers would correct this. we end up saying to the president, that you can't declare an emergency to raise a tax. our founding fathers were specific, it had to originate in the house before coming to the senate. the house was seen as closer to the people. here we are talking about vast taxes being levied by one person through emergency powers. we should not let this stand. finally, the republic act, by reform, requires the president

to disclose presidential emergency action documents to the congress. what are these? these are executive orders are prepared in anticipation of a wide range of emergency scenarios. these documents are kept secret and congress has historically had little oversight or insight into how many exist, what they say and what are the powers that the president anticipates taking in an emergency. although the documents have never been made public, there have reportedly been emergencies designed to suspend habeas corpus, impose censorship and seize appropriate without warrants. we don't know for certain because they will not reveal these executive orders, but we know they exist. congress needs to see these documents to conduct oversight of these secret plans that could threaten basic constitutional rights. we do not have to accept as inevitable or inevitability the

d-generation of a bubble, we -- public, we do not have to live in a monarchy disguised as a republic. montesquieu wrote when the executive powers are in one branch, there is no liberty. it is time to restore congress and protect the liberties of people by peeling back the powers of the president. i hope that we will allow a vote on this amendment. there is significant bipartisan support. we passed it out of committee i believe 13-1, there's a democrat chairman is a cosponsor of this bill. i think this is a bill that really should bring both sides together. there used to be pride in our country, the pride of the legislative branch to hold firm against use -- usurping power by

other branches, this is something that went beyond party label and brought legislators together. in recent years it is disappointing. some people are for presidential reform of presidential emergencies when their party is not in power or some are for it when their guy or woman is in power. i have been for this emergency reform under the previous former, i'm for this emergency reform under the next president because this is about power, the disinspectors general of power -- deser -- it is importa enough that it should be considered. i think it would pass or considered that the american people need to know that important debates like this will only occur if the powers that be allow a vote to occur, so i would beseech the powers to be to allow a vote on this amendment and for my colleagues to vote yes. thank you, and i reserve the

remainder of my time. .

test. test.

mr. hoeven: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from north dakota. mr. hoeven: are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are not. mr. hoeven: thank you, madam president. i come to the floor today to talk about the national defense authorization act, the act called the national defense authorization act, covers a wide range of topics, but overall it helps us chart a course to defend our country during these very dangerous times. russia, china, and iran are working together to undermine u.s. interests across the globe. a world led by those nations is a very dangerous world and where ordinary americans suffer. i visited key u.s. allies and partners in recent years and i'm convinced when we are strong, when the united states is strong as a nation we attract

like-minded partners that will work with us to push back on our adversaries and defend freedom not only here for our country, but across the globe. and the ndaa is about bolstering our defenses and strengthening those very partnerships. this bill, for example, establishes a taiwan security cooperation initiative. that's modelled after the indo-pacific and ukraine security assistance initiatives, and it's designed to enable taiwan to maintain sufficient self-defense capabilities, vitally important in the pacific and vitally important that we not work just with taiwan but with all our allies in the pacific -- japan, australia, new zea zealand, south korea and others. also this pact requires that the department of defense provide israel with intelligence and advice in support of their war effort in the middle against

hamas and other terrorist organizations including the largest sponsor of the state terrorism in the world -- iran. in addition, the ndaa supports a handful of missions that are both critical to our security around the globe and of particular interest my state. first, for example, uas encounter uas, huge issue right now not only in terms of the battlefield, what we're seeing in ukraine, the middle east and other places, but even here in our own country civilian uses of drones and counter drones is very much at the forefront of the public's attention. we have real problems with that. all the areas we operate here at home and overseas. we still have a patchwork approach that has grown out of an ad hoc response to specific threats to domestic militaries

installations. the department of defense very much needs a coherent strategy and clear guidance when it comes to drones and countering drones. this bill takes a number of important steps toward addressing the issue, including directing the secretary of defense for developing a strategy for unmanned aerial systems and the threats they pose to department of defense facilities, personnel, and assets. that means not only here at home, but across the globe where we have personnel and where we have military installations. so having that strategy for drones and counter drones is very, very important right now. and it's very complex, as we're seeing. it also requires standing up -- this legislation also requires standing up a counter uas, unmanned aerial system, drone task force to review and update all of dod guidance to provide

clarity and expedited decision-making processes and information processes so that the public knows what we're doing and has confidence in what we're doing. in h north dakota, we have a uas ecosystem that is ready to support this initiative both in the military aspects and in the civilian aspects. and we've had that focus on uas technology going back all the way to 2005. and again, i think we're one of the only air bases in the country it the grand forks air force base where we operate military and civilian manned and unmanned aircraft all at the same base as well as our connection to the lower satellites through the space defense agency. we've established what we call there project ultra. project ultra is specifically designed to move unmanned aerial

systems and to counter unmanned aerial systems from the drawing board to the war fighter. as i say, we've been at that for almost 20 years. as dod contemplates this counter uas strategy, we are ready to bring industry partners, and i mean some of the leading industry partners like northrop grumman, like raytheon and many others as well that are already operating in the grand sky technology park on the grand forks air force base, and we're ready to bring those partnerships, those companies that developed these technologies together with the department of defense under the directive in this legislation to defend, like i say, not only our military installations, but to do more in the civilian airspace so that the public can have confidence that when they see a drone flying in our national airspace, that it has been accounted for and properly dealt with. second, second huge issue in the ndaa is nuclear modernization.

our nuclear deterrent is the foundation of global stability and prerequisite for the success of our conventional forces. if we have a nuclear deterrent that no adversary ever questions, then they will never go beyond conventional forces. we have the finest military in the world. our conventional forces are more than a match for anyone in the world, and so that could create the temptation for somebody to actually use nuclear forces. but if they know our deterrent is so strong, then they will never actually challenge us. so it is the bedrock or the foundation on which our conventional forces reside. we're facing an increasingly dangerous nuclear world where we must deter multiple nuclear powers at the same time. several years ago i led efforts to ensure that the department of defense kept our inventory of silos for intercontinental

ballistic missiles and preserve a full deployment of these missiles to support deterrence. today we need those missiles to support deterrence against china which is building up its forces incredibly as well as russia and north korea. this ndaa carries, continues to carry language preserving a number of icbm's that we deploy. it also creates a new assistant secretary of defense to oversee nuclear deterrence policies and programs across the department of defense. and most importantly, it authorizes the next steps in modernizing not only the icbm force, but all three legs of the nuclear triad -- bombers, the missiles and submarines -- provides more than $5.6 billion in authorization for modernizing these programs. for example, modern air force base in north dakota, the only dual nuclear base we have, both

the bombers and the missiles. but it also updates the aircraft, the sentinel, which is the new missile program, the lsro, the new air launch cruise missiles, which is part of the bomber fleet, the b-52's, the new b-2 bombers, as well as our other long-range standoff missile programs. all of those things as well as their submarines form the nuclear deterrent that is the bedrock of our military forces. with the evolution of technology, the environment, and our own ambitions, the military environment i'm talking about and the near peer challenges that we face with russia and particularly with china, we have no choice but to make sure that we are updating and modernizing our nuclear forces so that no one ever challenges the united states or our ability to defend

ourselves and our allies. space development agency, i mentioned that just a minute ago, another area of emphasis that is very important in this legislation. we know that space is an increasingly important part of defending our nation and our interests around the dmroeb. when we look at russia, when we look at china and what they are doing in space, we must not only keep up, we must continue to exceed what they are doing. it is vitally important to making sure that our nuclear forces have the best technology and a technological advantage in warfare over our adversaries. this legislation authorizes more than $4 billion p for the space development agency, including how the lower earth orbit satellite program is operated. this program is significant and will fundamentally change the lower orbit it satellites which we're putting in space now, and we'll have many of them, hundreds of them, this program

is significant and will fundamentally change the way our forces operate around the globe. every soldier, every weapons system and every mission will benefit from getting information from these low earth orbit satellites. and we're taking steps in this bill and in the appropriation process to do just that. and so when you look at space x sending those rockets into space, many have low earth orbit satellites we are already putting out in space. those low earth orbit satellites will be controlled from one army base and one air force base. the army base is the red stone arm base in alabama and the air force base is the grand forks air force base in my state. some other provisions that i want to mention are noteworthy as well. first, greenhouse gas emissions. this ndaa extends a prohibition that we passed last year on any rules that would force

contractors to report on greenhouse gas emissions. i fought hard against these types of regulations which would add unnecessary red tape and delays, drive up costs and provide no benefit to the war fighting. the purpose of our weapons systems must be to make sure that our forces have a superior advantage to any other forces in the world in lethality. and that's exactly how they need to be designed, and that's what this provision is designed to ensure. support for our servicemembers, this bill includes a number of provisions that i've heard about in regard to strongly supporting our servicemembers and their families. for example, pay increases. it authorizes a 14.5% pay increase for junior enlisted servicemembers, e-4 and below. and a 4.5 basic pay increase for all other servicemembers. second, access to mental health.

the bill improves services, access to services for mental health, making it easier for telehealth providers to offer services and expand accreditation opportunities for behavioral health providers. it's a big need. specialty care travel allowances. the bill includes a provision i supported to require the secretary to reassess the travel and transportation allowances provided to servicemembers anden dependents seeking specialty care, health care within 100 miles of their duty station. next, permanent authority to the department of defense to make transferring professional licenses between states easier for military spouses. diversity, equity, and inclusion, it's important that our military members can put mission first, and this bill eliminates authorizations for a range of disruptive dei programs, while establishing a one-year freeze on hiring for

dei work at the department of defense. like i said at the beginning of my remarks, the ndaa helps us chart a course to defend our country during these dangerous times. with the passage of ndaa, we'll have authorization for these important programs, and as a member of the senate defense appropriation committee we're ready -- i and others, are ready to get to work to fund these important programs for our nation's defense. we have the finest military in the world, and we must do all that we can to support our men and women in uniform. with that, madam president, thank you, and i yield the floor.

mr. kennedy: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from louisiana. mr. kennedy: mr. president, could we have order? the presiding officer: the senate will be in order. mr. kennedy: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, i'm laughing because it was senator hoeven who was over there, probably talking about you and me, mr. president. i just couldn't let that go

unchallenged. with me today, mr. president, is one of my able colleagues from my senate office, ms. p ms. paloma chacon. behind my back, some of my s staffers call paloma kennedy's brain. they think i don't know they're saying that, but it's probably true, and i want to thank her for her good judgment, counsel, and advice. what i want to talk about briefly tonight, mr. president, breaks my heart, but it also makes me mad, but it does break my heart. on thursday, november 21, we had another mass shooting in new orleans, this time in the french quarter. it happened at the corner of iberville and royal street, across from dickie brennan's

st steakhouse. three masked men pulled up in a car, and started firing bys bystanders -- firing. bystanders said they fired about 40 rounds. one person was killed, three others were injured. some people, particularly back home, are probably thinking, mr. president, okay, what else is new? another mass shooting in louisiana and in new orleans. but this one was preventable. one of the shooters who was arr arrested, his name is nicholas march everyone arana -- miarana. mr. miarana is 28 years old. he has spent most of his adult

life in prison. he is a, based on his record, a career criminal. he served seven years in prison for armed robbery. he got out. shortly thereafter, in 2023, mr. president, miarana was arrested for a bunch of things -- defense battery, child endan endangerment, a series of gun charges, including being a felon with a firearm. what happened next is dis disgusting. in january of 2024, our district

attorney offered mr. miarano a really sweet deal. forget about the child endan endangerment, forget about the domestic battery, forget about all the gun charges. the d.a. said you can plead guilty -- he said this to mr. miarano, you can please guilty to attempted possession of a firearm by a felon. attempted possession of a firearm by a felon. what? attempted possession? i don't mean to be metaphysical here, but you ear possess a firearm -- you either possess a firearm or you don't. i don't understand attempted possession of a firearm. maybe it was because had m

mr. miarana been offered a deal, take it or leave it, for possession of a firearm, as opposed to attempted possession of a firearm, which i didn't even know exists, it would have carried a five-year sentence. obviously, mr. miorana took the deal, and he appeared before judge leon roach, in our criminal court in new orleans. mr. roach gave him probation. eight months later, while he's on probation, mr. miorano violated his probation, and his probation officer sought to revoke his probation. then one month later, nobody did anything about revoking his

probation, so one month later miorana was arrested for domestic abuse battery. he went back before judge roach. judge roach didn't revoke his probation. he just gave him house arrest, and told him he had to wear an ankle monitor. that was in september of 2024. then, a little bit later, judge roach decided to lighten even those conditions. he allowed mr. miorana to be free every day from 90 to 6:00 -- from 9:00 to 6:00. every day, 9:00 to 6:00, supposedly to go to work. beginning october 8, mr. miorana

violated the judge's orders every single day. every single day. for 45 days. how do we know this? he had on an ankle monitor, and the monitor company reported to the district attorney and to judge roche that mr. miorana is violating the terms of his house arrest and ankle monitoring. 45 days. you know would the district attorney did? you know what judge roche did? nothing. zero. zilch. nada. i've already told you how this story ends.

allegedly -- i have to say allegedly -- he's been arrested for it anyway. mr. miorana and three of his buddies put on a mask, got in a honda, killed somebody in the frefrm quarter and -- french quarter and shot three others. mr. miorana was caught. you know how he was caught? he had on an ankle monitor. he was caught within hours. this was a system failure, mr. president. i love new orleans. i used to live in new orleans. i earned a living in new orleans. i met my wife in new orleans. my son lived the first couple of years of his life in new orleans. i love new orleans. what did tennessee williams say? america has only three cities,

new york, san francisco, and new orleans. everything else, tennessee williams said, is cleveland. and before my friends in cleveland get mad at me, i didn't say it. tennessee williams said it. but i think what mr. williams was trying to convey is what an extraordinary, unique city new orleans is. every other state in america would kill to have a new orleans. 20 million people from all over the world come to visit the city in america which is perhaps the most european city, the most diverse city in our country. and i love new orleans. but new orleans deserves better. i wish this hadn't happened. i wish there were more people in this world like mr. miorana, but

there are some people in this world they just habitually consistently hurt other people. and they take other people's stuff. i wish they wouldn't but they do. i don't know why they do. if i make it to heaven, i'm going to ask. but they do. and they've got to be separated from society. and our judges and our district attorneys are not doing anybody, anybody in new orleans a favor by not putting those folks into jail. it breaks my heart. it also makes me mad. the second thing i want to just mention briefly, mr. president, i say this gently, respectfully

but gently. president erdogan, the distinguished president of turkey, leave the kurds alone. leave the kurds alone. kurds, as you know, mr. president, are wonderful people. they're probably -- there are probably 30 million to 40 million kurds throughout the world. some we're blessed to have here in the united states. they live mostly in turkey, iran, northern iraq, and syria. the kurds are a distinct ethnic group. they're sort of a stateless country because they're spread all over the world. the kurds are america's friends. hadn't been that many years ago

since isis was rising high. isis had established a caliphate in the middle east. that's a fancy word for a country. they established their own country in the middle east. and america and other countries beat them back. we destroyed isis. they're still there, but we destroyed their caliphate. the people most responsible for helping us, most responsible for destroying isis were the kurds. we lost less than 20 american lives in destroying isis in the middle east. our friends from kurd lost over 10 10,000. 10,000 fighting alongside us. over 30,000 kurds were wounded.

without the kurds, isis would still be there. now, mr. erdogan, the president of turkey, does not like the kurds. i'm not going to go into why. he's entitled to his opinion. but right now mr. erdogan has troops and tanks and weapons smarled on the border between turkey and syria. as we know, the people in syria finally had enough. they overthrew mr. assad, their president. predictably, assad, who we think stole billions of dollars from the good people of syria is now predictably living in russia. we're going to try to find his mo money. mr. assad, like his father, is a

butcher. he killed tens and tens of thou thousands of syrians, and many of them he hurt the entire time they were dying. to keep power and his money, a lot of which he made by dealing drugs, he used chemical weapons against his own people. and now the people in syria are free of him. everybody ought to stay out of syria. president trump's already talked about it. doesn't mean we can't offer our advice, but we all need toe stay out of seer -- to stay out of syria. the defeat of mr. assad in syria would not have happened but for israel. we know that. you don't have to be -- you

don't have to be a graduate of cal tech to know that. israel destroyed hezbollah which was working with iran which was working with russia to keep assad into power. russia and iran and hezbollah were on the side of the butcher. but russia's tied up in ukraine and israel hezbollah was holding down the fort while russia was tied up in ukraine. and israel ignored the advice of many and went out and destroyed hezbollah. thank you, israel. that's idea people of syria today are free. and they're entitled to self-determine. mr. erdogan in turkey, i worry is going to invade syria. i'm not accusing him of

anything, but i worry that he is because we have intelligence that he has many soldiers and many tanks and much equipment and many weapons right now stationed on the border between turkey and syria. and our kurd friends are afraid that mr. erdogan because of his hatred for the kurds is going to attack them. the kurds live very peacefully in northeast syria. so my message today is, president erdogan, i don't want to mess in affairs of your country, but don't do it. leave the kurds alone. leave the people of syria alone. turkey has problems now. turkey is supposed to be our friend. turkey is a member of nato. lately they haven't been acting

like our friend. turkey has its own problems. the interest rates -- we think interest rates are high in america. they're close to 50% in turkey. some people think they're in a recession. their inflation is between 40% and 50%. if you invade syria and touch a hair on the head of the kurds, i'm going to ask this united states congress to do something. and our sanctions are not going to help the economy of turkey. i don't want to do that. leave the kurds alone. mr. president, my work here is done. i will show myself to the door and i will suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: the clerk: ms. baldwin.

has been available since june. it has stalled, not put her on the floor, not prioritize her national security at a time we have ships they cannot get out to sea. planes that cannot fly and military readiness problem seriously to be addressed that is not going to happen next year i can assure you the national security is a big priority of the president trump campaign on national security and making sure that our military is ready the threat matrix we face around the world today. he will have the full support of us and the congress to make sure those important national security priorities are addressed in the upcoming year. so, it is regrettable that this is where we are and we have this

a pilot but it's the democrats own making. and now were going to have to do our best to try to sort through it and find our way out of it and get into next year where we are going to be in the majority and will set the priorities it will be a very different priorities. >> oh well, republicans will restore reassert america strength in the world. that means a military that is prepared to fight. that is intimidating. it means border security it also means america energy dominance. border security is national security. america's strengths are tied together. i have just returned from the 80th anniversary commemoration of the battle of the bulge. that was the bloodiest war in world war ii. hitler's vicious attack by

200,000 germans in 1000 tanks was a surprise to our allies into the u.s. troops. my father was one of the 500,000 brave americans who fought that battle in the bitter cold on the cold winter of 1944. i have just returned from walking the cemetery in luxembourg were over 5000 american soldiers are buried along with general patton. this is a constant reminder that our enemies are unpredictable and under forgetting. for america to be safe we must be strong. for the last four years this administration has squandered american strength. it has surrendered our strategic advantages. that is whynt our enemies are on

theca march. natural resources be discharged from further consideration of h.r. 3324 and that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of the following bills en bloc: calendar 277, s. 1097. calendar number 528, h.r. 2468. calendar number 530, h.r. 4094. calendar number 640, s. 5005. calendar number 660, h.r. 7332 and h.r. 3324. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measures en bloc? without objection. the committee is discharged on the relevant bill. and the senate will proceed to the measures en bloc. mr. lee: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the committee-reported amendment, where applicable, be agreed to,

that the bills, as amended, if amended, be considered read a third time and passed and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, all en bloc. the presiding officer: without objection.

you will good afternoon everyone in the bit of a pilot in the senate. we have got a continuing resolution, a disaster supplemental, water resources development act and a social security bill all supposedly be processed by the end of the week. i want to make one observation especially national defense authorization act. i told you before it's been available literally since june when he came out of the senate armed services committee. stalled, not put her on the floor. not prioritize her national security at a time when we have

ships it cannot get out to sea. planes that cannot fly. military readiness problem seriously needs to be addressed this is not going to happen next year but i can assure you national security be a priority president trump campaign on national security and making sure our military is ready to fund a threat matrix we face around the world today. he will the full support of us in the congress to make sure those important national security priorities are addressed. so, it is regrettable this is where we are and we have this pilot. it is the democrats own making and now is going to have to do our best to try to sort through it and find our way out of it and get into next year where we are going to be in the majority and will set the priorities.

we are on the floor debating a the national defense authorization act. it sets our defense policy. it sets spending numbers. it lays out the things that congress wants to do, hopefully to focus on lethality for our troops, and it's about taking care of our military men and women and their families, so it's at very important bill. we're here end of the year unfortunately, and i'm going to complain a little bit, mr. president. we got this bill done in june in the senate, never brought it to the senate floor, and i'm just going to be a little blunt. it's the majority leader, senator schumer, doesn't prioritize national defense. does it -- every year under the ndaa has come to the floor at the very end of the year, no chance to amend it, no senate floor vote.

it's -- it's wrong, mr. president. -- that we don't prioritize it. he doesn't prioritize national defense. we're looking at one of the most dangerous periods that we've seen since world war ii, dictators on the march around the world -- russia, china, iran, north korea, they're all working together -- and lookality what we're -- and look at what we're doing with regard to defense spending. we are hitting with president biden -- you look at that 3% of gdp. we've been at 3% of gdp or lower only three or four times since the end of world war ii. that's not a number you should aspire to if you want a strong national defense. but we're going down. 3p the biden budget would bring us below 3% next year, and so

again, mr. president, this is being jammed through the end of the year. we never debated it on the senate floor. we did a lot of good work in the u.s. senate. i want to particularly do a shout out to senator wicker, the ranking member of the armed services committee. he will be the chairman of the armed services committee starting in january. that will be really great for our military, for our country, and in our bill we got an additional $25 billion added to the biden budget to make our military stronger. one of the disappointments of the ndaa that we're debating now, that was a bipartisan addition to the budget. remember, it's a democrat-controlled senate, a democrat-controlled armed services committee. i do want to do a shout out to senator jack reed, the chairman as well. senator wicker's leadership got us an additional $25 billion, which we need. our military needs, our troops

need, their families need. and this final bill just leaves that on the cutting room floor. hey, it's one of the reasons i was thinking about voting against the bill, but there's a lot of good things in the bill. so we don't want to be at this level, mr. president. but we all got to come together here, democrats and republicans, recognizing the dangerous world in which we are now living. now, some of the good things in the ndaa, i do want to do a shout out to the work that was done, particularly as it relates to pay raises for our junior -- our most junior-enlisted servicemembers. these are the pay grades e-1 to e-4. and they're going to get a 14.5% pay increase. that's very significant. as a matter of fact, i've been doing this for almost ten years now. that's the biggest pay raise i've seen ever, mr. president, and they needed it. our troops need that money.

their families need that money. inflation has been really, really undermining their ability to live on bases in alaska or georgia or other places, and there's been a recruiting crisis in our military. i think it has a lot to do with the leadership of the biden administration. in 2024 army, air force, and navy all once again failed to meet their recruiting goals. so this pay raise is needed. this pay raise will help. so that's a big positive about this bill. some other things, mr. president -- it improves the support for israel in its capabilities against iran during this very existential threat -- time that israel is facing. we are starting finally in this bill to reverse the shrinking united states air force and we're starting to finally attack the issue of navy shipbuilding. we are in the worst crisis in

almost 50 yearsness terms of building -- years in terms of building ships. that's a bipartisan assessment by the congressional research service, manning, maintaining ships has not been this bad in almost a half a century. the chinese are building ships at the rapid rate and we can't build anything. so we're starting to turn that around. this bill should start to turn that around. president trump and his team i'm really hopeful are going to turn that around. i've talked to president trump about this very topic, our very weak industrial base and how we are getting outbuilt by the chinese. we need to turn that around. and, of course, mr. president, i was honored to work hard on some really important things for the great state of alaska. the father of the air force, billy mitchell, general billy mitchell called alaska the most strategic place in the world. it is.

our enemies know that, and americans should know that. so we are building up our military in alaska. i consider alaska contributing -- our great state contributes many things to our nation's defense. i like to say there are three pillars of the strength of alaska for america. we are the cornerstone of missile defense. all the missiles that would interceptor anything shot at new york or american family or chicago -- or miami or chicago. they're all based in alaska. with the exception of vanderberg air force base. all are based in alaska. we are the hub of air combat power for the arctic and asia pacific. we have over 105th generation fighters in alaska. no place on the planet earth has that kind of fifth-gen combat

possibility. and, mr. president, we are the place where expeditionary forces -- now the 11th airborne division for the u.s. army -- can deploy at a moment's notice anywhere in the world because we're so strategic. so those are the three pillars, mr. president. we're going to build on those pillars in this bill. i was able to get close to $750 million in military construction for the great state of alaska, and that's good for alaska, it's good for our economy, good for our workers. but, most importantly, when we're talking about national defense in the ndaa, mr. president, it's really good for the national security of america. so, mr. president, overall, i'm going to be supporting this bill. it's important. it should have gotten here way earlier, should have been able to have amendments for it. again, i don't know why senator

schumer whenever he was in leaderships always brought this at the end of the year, never prioritized the ndaa, never. but i will say, mr. president, i'm disappointed about a couple things in this bill, and this is just an area where the congress of the united states has to start getting a lot more serious. i have this chart here. it says xi's appeasers in congress. now, that's tough language. that's xi jinping, the dictator of china. but, mr. president, i and others had some provisions -- i'm going to mention a few of mine, three of mine -- that were focused on going after the chinese communist party. very bipartisan provisions in the ndaa. and yet somebody in the middle of the night -- i don't know who, an appeaser for xi -- strips these measures out of the bill and the final bill doesn't have them.

the final bill doesn't have them. and these are the most bipartisan things. and yet we got members of congress -- they don't realize this guy is a dictator, that we need to be ready to defeat. and when we have anti-china stuff, anti-chinese communist party stuff, members of congress somewhere, somehow stripped this. who the heck is appeasing xi jinping? come on, what are we doing? number one, mr. president, see down here. this is "the new york times." this is from last week. "china bans rare mineral exports to the united states." well, we knew that was coming. critical mines rare earth elements, so we're very vulnerable to the chinese. okay? so here's the good news.

we got critical minerals in america. we got great crit kr -- critica minerals in alaska. we got minerals that can make our country less dependent on china when they blackmail us, like this. so i had a provision, mr. president -- we have a road in alaska to go to what's called the ambler mining district. it's got critical minerals, one of the biggest sources of critical minerals in america. so we have a road. the previous administration starting with president obama, president trump certified this road right away. of course, president biden, who will listen to the radical environmental groups no matter what, even when it makes us weaker to china, he killed the road and in the markup of the senate ndaa bill i said to my colleagues, colleagues, we need this road because it's going to make us less dependent on china.

and guess what? that provision in the senate ndaa passed 20-5. i believe the presiding officer voted for it. bipartisan. everybody agreed. we need to do more to have our own critical minerals so we're not dependent on china. that was good. that was good for owl country, our -- that was good for our country, for our military, good for alaska. yet somebody stripped it out. i heard it was hakeem jeffries. he stripped out the provision that was going to make us stronger in terms of critical minerals. the week the chinese said they're going to pan exports of -- ban exports of critical minerals to america. good job, minority leader, jeffries. way to. i'm sure xi jinping applauded your actions. second, mr. president, this one might seem a little bit small ball, but it was important to me, and i think important to

america, somehow, some way, the chinese have dominated global fis fishing. they are the largest seafood producer and consumer and exporter of fish, rising to almost $93 billion in 2023. here's the deal, mr. president, they use ghost fleets, they have a horrible environmental record, they use slave labor on their ships. they're about as bad as it gets in global fishing. well, a constituent of mine back home said, hey, senator, why are we selling chinese communist party fish to our military members, to our commissaries, to our chow halls, soldiers, marines, sailors eating this fish? it's horrible fish, by the way. why are we selling this to them? are why are our military buying chinese communist party fish when they can buy great alaskan

seafood, freedom fish? why? it's a great question. i had a provision saying, hey, you think the chinese are letting their military eat great alaskan freedom fish? do you think the chinese buy alaskan fish? they don't. why the heck are we buying chinese fish? i had a provision in the ndaa, i had a provision in the ndaa, >> i have a provision in the senate, this is the military and ark chow halls and our soldiers, they are sailors they are not will were not weighted by chinee and why should we help those guys they don't buy our fish, that's the american fish, alaskan fish, mississippi fish, maine lobsters. mr. president, that vote in the armed services committee in which we use it with me, passed unanimously everybody agrees, and why are we buying chinese communist fish, this by a listen fish for troops and guess what,

somebody i think it was talking jeffries again in the middle of the night, said no going to strip that out. yet strip that out sleep is undermine the lesson and air conditioner less promote chinese slave labor fishermen continue to export never military members eat that fish. when it dumb idea. and who is doing this, whose the congress by no hugging jeffries i heard it was you maybe want to come and talk t to us but why would you get rid of that this lessons and helps a fishermen in american fishermen, helps her troops house military no, were going to rip that out and we will make sure that chinese fish exports which you just under slave labor still going to our military bases. i cannot believe it, but that is what happens and finally, this

outbound investment probation, we been working on this issue and senator cornyn, in particular, has been a great job and so ascended to casing on this predict this is the amendment of ours that we in analyst said that impartially, we have some finance firms in america couple of these guys myself cannot believe it is like okay where is the patriotism right, when american hedge funds and private equity groups and even some investment banks about is invested time in chinese military capabilities, quantum computing and a.i., and advanced chip manufacturing in china and all of the provisions that the hey we want to know who is doing that. we want to reap sue met will u.s. senate with over 97 votes it passed and we finally got it. and, mr. president, got stripped out and that got stripped out spending and i think that it was

minority t leader jeffries did that one and so again these are all things and everyone of these and or excess for critical minerals in alaska compete against china getting chinese fish and he was bases for military and commissaries as we get fish from alaska the great american fishermen pretty and as investments, whose investing in quantum computing we want to know. we want to know and that mary can investments using i would teacher pension funds to help the chinese get stronger and are you kidding me, all of these and senatehe bill and they got stripped out by the house come on guys who 71 and million so here's what i want to say we'll know it's a dangerous world is what we got to get back to peace through strength peace through strength.

you can do that in many ways stronger from a military perspective, stronger from a natural resources perspective and stronger from an energy perspective, slip president trump went on and this is what the republican senators ran on in the house members ran on, this is what was in our platform in walking the republican party platform and very similar to the reagan in 1984 platform is what the american people want to pretty and so mr. president, i'm going about yes and tomorrow when we vote on it and a command center read, and senator wicker, for the hard work and still should been brought up way early your time away early. but we need to do better and i should openly work on this bill next to have the thieves ever doing the visa in china, no longer going to do that, we need

to return to peace through strength that is a dangerous world. and mr. president that yield the floor. background sounds

background sounds

background sounds >> we have continuing resolution disaster supplemental, water resources development act. in a social security bill, also pose liquid be processed by the

end of the week and i just want to make an observation about especially national defense authorization act which as i told you before has been available literally since june when he came out of the senate armed services committee names told coming up put it on the floor not prioritized national security.

>> we've seen the killing of the american service members, think back in jordan, with the army preserve were killed, under this administration and we've had chinese spy blends traversing the united states of america, unidentified drones. with no pre- action from our federal government we've elect

american leadership and frankly, this become a movie passing the national defense authorization act. under that act again we will see the banality of the american fighting forces, and i have focus on traumatic brain injuries with her service numbers in fighting for them and we are strengthening our southern border and we continue to build upon president trump's abraham accord. so as we move forward, the clue and keep for our adversaries are in adversaries is president trump is coming back into office and there is no doubt, that we will once again lead the world with american leadership. >> hello to everybody and john said there's a lot of unfinishea business but apparently, the

biden administration is trying to finish their spinning business before the clock ticks off on january 20th. when epa official said that underfunding strategy, that this is like throwing gold bars off of the titanic or its insurance policy, against trump and just last thursday, the epa awarded $1.6 billion last thursday, 384 new recipients in their environmental justice block grant and community change program. now if you recall, i brought to this podium, the fact that the epa is going to grant last summer, hundreds of millions of dollars, to the groups that are what i consider anti- american and anti- law enforcement pro- palestinian, on the websites,

there's totally very far left groups and we don't even have an inspector general because the democrats we did not do not run into the bill and expect inspector general to follow the $41 billion, that is in the suppose it inflation reduction act now you see that they're just putting money out the door and talk about a waste, and they do not want to leave it there because they do not want us to have an angry program or what we would probably do all the money back for programs that are more beneficial to have more meaning, that actually helps a lot of different people across the country. so i just recently requested the epa give us up transparency and give us a matrix as a how much was spent and who is, over the matrix that were used to determine those that will supposedly create the climate justice program here in the 11th hour, before the

president leaves office. >> would you be okay to politician here. >> hhs secretary vaccine used. >> will, i think that all of us are committed to make sure the good of her process pretty and have an opportunity to answer those questions in front of the many jurisdiction. until those things will be part of the confirmation process and i would expect the nominee to have answers. >> thank you sina was on the problems do you anticipate in your side for 72 hours in terms of the reviewing the bill. >> right. [inaudible]. >> in time to look at it. >> will once it is posted, the

of the rules over there they have to comply with but obviously our members are to gauge whether senators will come down to we've seen the text pre- to begin obviously, the pointed out, it's a big pile up at the end of the year and largely to the lack of democrat action on anything for the last six months, and a single spending bill, national defense authorization act, to really with this mess because the democrats in the senate. to take up the most basic responsibilities for the military to spent wisely the taxpayer dollars because that's where we are we are what that looks like needs to be seen. >> the discussion at lunch today, but would you do about the social security act predict.

background sounds the process cusses to her billions met with those ideals with respect to the legislation is a lot of conversation around as i expect and i think in the end it will come down the individual members to make their own decisions about where they want to come down that's with the bill is been put in front of us by the house of representatives and obviously am concerned about the long-term solvency of social security and is an issue we need to address and how this more immediate issue is dealt with and will have the answer to by the end of the day depending upon the final passage that will be the next option and will see with the numbers and we had a very conversation about that and is about all i can tell you. >> the democrats in the process. >> i think they tried and is been an attempt to know that he

met with a benefit and asked if there is not reached an investor has been in some cases, there has been responded to when it democrats and so i think that are nominees to best of my knowledge doing the best to tries to reach out to the republicans particular enrollment stage also contacted the democrats and conversation this morning and hopefully the democrats will entertain are nominees give them an opportunity to make their case tear them out and hopefully are qualified for the job to support coming in and thank you.

>> i rise today. >> we are in a form call. >> okay as the quorum whole be initiated. >> without objection spank. >> thank you and rising

opposition of the authorization act in a position the position i do not take lightly and i have supported the final passage of each nda and, that is come before me in the senate up until now. for my tenure in this body and will be for me, there has been a productive bipartisan tradition when it comes to this bill that authorizes funding for our military and the party knows and keeping our country safe. most years we come together under very quintessential country of a party deal. one that i would argue is all too uncommon is still this was an important annual ritual. serious consequences and this is not to say that we do not have our differences and of course we do. but we know our commitment is bigger than those differences.

and this year, that commitment to our service members to the people that we all represent and into our security and our safety was broken predict and it is been broken because some republicans decided getting the rights of our service members to score cheap political points, was more worthy this be clear, were talking about parents for serving our country in uniform having the right to consult with the families doctor get the healthcare they want and need for their transgender children and that is it, they want the rights to get whatever healthcare is best for their child something i'm original parents lot in healthcare that we are talking about here can sometimes be life savings some folks estimate this will impact between 6,007,000 families in the military to my head i for

one, trust the service members and families to make their own decisions about healthcare without politicians but again and it's flat-out wrong in this bill take away to make that decision for their families this problem has a solution that my amendment would strike this provision gets our service members rights and i was glad to have 20 colleagues joining me in supporting it and we should pass it and it's unfortunate that our colleagues decided to force this harmful position in this national defense authorization act because otherwise, i would've been proud to support it in this bill has some great things for service members my home state of wisconsin and measures that i pushed for in this bill invest in her most valuable assets in our people

and i am thrilled to see that we are jr. enlisted troops and more than 14 percent and boosting pay by nearly 5 percent in this legislation investing in health and well-being of our troops and their families and eliminating pace for contraception for our troops, and their families and making tele- mental health care services available regardless of where the patient is and so much more and long-standing priority of mine in this bill beyond, is ensuring that when we use taxpayer dollars, we have supporting the american companies, and american workers in the american economy when it comes to our national defense, this notion is essential, for our safety and our security that's why i am glad to see steps forward in supporting the meeting american economy in the

mba, it was strategies in place to make sure we are sourcing things domestically from high-tech batteries to navy warships and the suppliers are not only providing highest quality projects, but also creating a supporting good paying jobs across the country and wisconsin is home to many of that whether it be the iconic companies like fairbanks or oshkosh the military installations like fort mccoy and wisconsin is crucial in a country's defense and i'm excited to see that this bill recognizes our contribution. making sound investments in the responses national guard readiness center, to support the attorney our troops need to stay ahead of tomorrow's threats, and despite all of the common ground that we have found, all of the smart and dozens were making her tubes and families in our

securities, some folks poisoned the billing from the backs of those in service, and the people that we represent should embody the best of us is elected official coming together without partisan agenda to keep our country safe, and support those in uniform pretty and sadly, no sadly not what happened and we pass this bill as is, will riverway and riverway the rights of the service members to get the help and hope to date that he wants help the children. and it's wrong and i encourage my colleagues to vote no and i am delighted this morning to be joined by michael x who share these concerns -year-old to senator kim for his remarks. background sounds >> mr. president, new jersey.

>> thank you and i rise today to join my colleagues, to call for section 708, to be moved from the final bill and as you know, i am new to the united states senate i can do the floor today, with great humility but also, great urgency because while i am new to the united states and, i've had the honor of serving the past six years as a member of the united states house of representatives just on the other side of this building and during my time as a member of the house, one of the things that have been most proud were on, or issues involving our military service members and their families pretty has a house member represent mcguire to joint base in the country, because of that i represented tens of thousands of military families, who signed up to serve our country pretty when you talk through to the military families the last thing you want to hear about his policy in effect the last thing they want to talk about is politics printed military families often struggle

with sufficient housing are putting food in the table, the face inadequacy in healthcare military spouses often face barriers to finally work and only the service members who sws the oath is the whole family deserves it pretty to come to the floor with great urgency because speaker johnson thought to politicize this important national authorization act, by inserting a dangerous pollutant a provision after the armed services committee about the house and the senate, became too bipartisan agreement this kind of action and vice trust in negotiations and sensate dangerous presidents from one of the widely considered the last two space traditional bipartisan legislation and let's be clear, section 708, would harm those who serve by denying health care for military families. ...

our service members will have greater access to meals so they can address hunger. they will have additional funding to improve military construction of housing's they will have better roofs over their head. we made real progress in improving access to healthcare. these are all wins we should be proud of. they are bipartisan. they build our stronger national defense. that's all the more reason we strip this provision in section

708 from the bill. we should not play politics with the national security. we should not target transgender youth and further spread fear into a community that is seen so much hate directed towards it. we should path to support their families, all of that without bm the office of congressional workplace rights be printed in the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the committee on banking, housing, and urban affairs be discharged from consideration of s. 5032 and the senate proceed to its immediate consideration. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. 350 20eshgs a bill to amend the fair credit reporting act and so forth and for other purposes. the presiding officer: without objection, the committee is discharged. and the senate will proceed. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the reed-hagerty substitute amendment be considered and agreed to, the

bill, as amended, be considered read a third time and passed, you and you and you and you will

were you you you

you will indian child prevention act. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will proceed. mr. schumer: i further ask that the bill be considered read a third time. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i know of no further debate on the bill. the presiding officer: is there further debate? if not, all in fifer -- in favor say aye. all opposed say no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it.

the bill is passed. mr. schumer: i ask that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of calendar 553, s. 3022. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 553, s. 3022, a bill to amend the indian health care improvement act and so forth 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. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i know of no further debate on the bill as amended. the presiding officer: is there further debate? if not, all those in favor say aye. all opposed say no. the ayes appear to have it. crept ayed. the bill -- the ayes do have it. the bill as amended is passed. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the committee on judiciary be discharged from further consideration of s.

5398, the senate proceed to its immediate consideration. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. 5398, a bill to authorize sentencing enhancements for certain offenses directed or coordinated by foreign governments. the presiding officer: without objection, commit is discharged. the senate will proceed. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the bill be considered read a third time. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i know of no further debate on the bill. the presiding officer: is there further debate? if not, all those in favor say aye. all opposed say no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the bill is passed. mr. schumer: i ask 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 res -- i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the consideration of s. res. 932, which is at the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. res. 932, designating the month of october 2024 as national military toxic

exposures awareness month. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will proceed. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: finally, mr. president, i ask unanimous consent when the senate completes its business today it recess until 10:00 a.m. on wednesday, december 18. all postcloture time with respect toed the house message be considered expired at 11:35 a.m.. further, upon dispo disposition, the senate resume consideration of the motion to proceed, and the cloture motion with respect to the motion to proceed ripen at 2:00 p.m. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: that is house message with respect to h.r. 5009. the presiding officer: without objection. sham if there is no further -- mr. schumer: if there is no further business to come before the senate, ski that it stand

in -- i ask that it stand in recess under the previous order. the presiding officer: the senate stands in recess until senate stands in recess until earlier in the criminal justice services at capitol hill the division is part of the fbi manages the crime reporting program. the national criminal background check system, and the national crime information center. watch the full hearing tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern on cspan2, c-span now our free mobile video app. an online at c-span.org. >> for over 45 years c-span has been your window into the workings of our democracy. offering wide coverage of congress, open form call in programs unfiltered access to decision-makers to shape our nations and we have that it all

without assent of government funding. c-span exists for you. viewer suit value transparent no spin political coverage for your support helps keep our mission alive. as a cult at the air we are asking you to stand with us. your gift, no matter the size, cost one 100% toward supporting c-span by don't work helping to ensure longform in-depth independent coverage continues to thrive skin tax-deductible contribution tonight. i trusted resource for you and for future generations. vice president harris published units in prince georges county maryland there she reflects on the recent school shooting in madison, wisconsin and the need to end gun violence. she encourages students to get involved in civic engagement.