>> c-span now is a free mobile app featuring your unfiltered view of what's happening in washington, live and on demand. keep up with the day's biggest events with live streams of floor proceedings and hearings from the u.s. congress, the white house, campaigns, and more from the world of politics all at your fingertips. you can also stay current with the latest episodes of washington journal and for tv's networks and c-span radio plus a variety of compelling podcasts. c-span now is available at the apple store and google play, download it free today or visit our website, c-span.org/c-span now, your front row seat to washington, anytime, anywhere. >> the federal government will shut down at midnight tonight unless the senate passes funding. and this morning, speaker

johnson and republicans have a new plan for approving a spending bill and are voting on the legislation this morning. last night the house failed to approve a measure that included a two year suspension of the debt ceiling requested by president-elect trump. until house action the senate is in a holding pattern coming in for more work on judicial nominations and advancing a measure to expand social security benefits. live coverage on c-span2. ...

the presiding officer: the senate will come to order. the chaplain will lead the senate in prayer. this morning we will be led in prayer by the wonderful senator from the state of oklahoma, james lankford. mr. lankford: wonderful counselor, mighty god, ever lasting father, prince of peace, the one who holds the government on your shoulders, we are grateful for all the joy of this christmas season, when we were arrogant, powerless and without hope, you came. the first christmas you set the example of humility. you are the suffering servant who loved us, foregave us when we could bring you nothing. we could never say thank you enough. i pray a blessing on the senators who are retiring from the senate this week. in the days ahead help them to

hear your voice and to know your affection. i pray for my friend, chaplain barry black, and his family as they care for him. give him rest, healing, fresh insight into your word, and vision for the days ahead. father, you told us that when we lack wisdom, we should ask you. we're asking now. as we start this day, we do not know how it will end, but we are fixing our eyes on you and we're asking for your help. if you could guide wise men from the east with a star, you can certainly guide us with your wisdom and with your presence. today would you give us the clarity of mind to hear your thoughts, the humility to listen to each other and the boldness to do the right thing the right way. forgive us as only you can, and heal our land as we turn to you. i pray this in the powerful and present name of jesus.

amen. the presiding officer: please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance to the flag. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. the presiding officer: the clerk will read a communication to the senate. the clerk: washington, d.c, december 20, 2024. to the senate: under the provisions of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable alex padilla, a senator from the state of california, to perform the duties of the chair. signed: patty murray, president pro tempore. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the senate will resume consideration of the following nomination, which the clerk will report. the clerk: nomination, the

judiciary, benjamin j. cheeks of california to be united states district judge for the southern district.

>> republican leader mitch mcconnell. over the course of a political career that begin with a hard-fought race for student council president in his junior

of high school, a race i might add that he won with what would become his signature blend, hard work, intelligence, and determination. mitch has built a legacy that will long, long outlast his time here in the united states senate. the day he became the longest serving party leader in senate history, leader mcconnell's delivered a speech discussing past senate party leaders and their characteristics from the mastery of relationships demonstrated by lyndon johnson to the quote tackle football end quote of joseph taylor robinson. and it got me thinking about some of the things that have characterized mitch's tenure. there are three that stand up to me in particular. first, there's mitch's peerless knowledge of senate procedure. i suspect few who have served in his body and develop the kind of knowledge that mitch possesses of most arcane details, and they

are arcane, of senate rules. but mitch recognized early on knowledge of civil procedure could play a big part in success as a senator. and it was right, he was right. so with his signature determination he set out to acquire it and became an undisputed master. second, mr. president, that wealth of knowledge is added a fierce commitment to the senate as an institution. a commitment i hope to emulate when i take the reins of majority leader next year. there are a lot of people out there these days who would like to see the senate turned into a proxy of the house of representatives. but that's not what our founders envisioned or what our country needs. and mitch has served our entire country by fighting to ensure that the senate maintains its institutional character.

finally, mr. president, brats the aspect of mitch's tenure stands up to me the most is work he's done to protect the rule of law by filling the judiciary with judges and justices who understand what the role of a judge is, to interpret the law, not make it. to call balls and strikes, not rewrite the rules of the game. during his time as majority leader mitch oversaw the confirmation of 234 and in women to the federal bench, three of them as supreme court justices. and the effects of that will be felt for a long time. decisions up and down the judiciary, the respect the law and the constitution. that, mr. president, is no small legacy. and mitch and step down from his polls knowing no one is there more to preserve our legal system and the essential role that it plays in our republic. mitch is in a great honor to

serve with you. and i'm grateful that while you're stepping down as your role of leader you will still be here in the senate bringing your mastery of senate procedure to leadership of the senate rules committee. hopefully, hopefully you won't mind a few knocks on your door for advice. thank you for your long and faithful service to our party, to the senate, and to our country. i look forward to continue to work with you in the years ahead. mr. president, i yield the floor. i suggest the absence of a quorum.

>> thank you, mr. president. mr. president, i'm on the floor today to talk to my colleagues about something that is happening right in front of our eyes, a set of events that are not random. they are connected to one another. that threaten to destroy this

country that we love. everybody can see it but for some reason may be the exhaustion of the aftermath of a brutal election, maybe the distraction of the christmas season. not work with democrats in a bipartisan way very soon, the government will shut down at midnight. it's time to go back to the l original agreement we had just a few days ago. it's time the house votes on our bipartisan c.r. it's the quickest, simplest and easiest way we can make sure the government stays open while delivering critical emergency aid to the american people. if the house put our original agreement on the floor today, it would pass and we could put the threat of a shutdown behind us. our agreement would keep the government open, provide emergency aid for communities battered by hurricanes and other

natural disasters, support our seniors, support our doctors, nurses, rural hospitals, and protect our farmers from the dairy cliff. as i said, the only, only way to get anything done is through bipartisanship. now on senate business, as the senate continues working on gotcha funding, the senate -- on government funding the senate has other matters to attend to on the floor. today the senate is scheduled to vote on two more district judges. ben cheeks to be district judge for the southern district of california and serena raquel murillo to be the district judge for the southern district of california for the information of colleagues, our first vote will be at 11: 00 to advance the cheeks nomination. if cloture is invoked, the senate will vote to confirm sometimes this afternoon. after that, we'll proceed with the roll call vote to advance the murillo nomination. it's my vote we can finish

voting on these two judicial nominees by the end of the day. finally, the senate will keep working on the social security fairness act. we should pass the bill sent by us to the house -- we should pass the bill sent to us by the house as soon as we can. it's very important for our retired teachers and firefighters and postal workers and police officers and so many other public servants who deserve their full social security benefits. i yield the floor, note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: the clerk: ms. baldwin.

>> mr. president, i'm on the floor today to talk to my colleagues about something that is happening right in front of our eyes, set of events that are

not random. they are connected to one another, that threaten to destroy this country that we love. everybody can see it, but for some reason, maybe the exhaustion of the aftermath of a brutal election, maybe the distraction of the christmas season, maybe just instinctively instead of fight. are far too many people that are denying to themselves what they are seeing. what is happening right now, donald trump and his billionaire advisors are unfolding for the country in real time i plan to t shutdowns of the federal government, why the shutdown of the government is a bad idea. usually people approach shutting the government down because

they've got some big scheme they want to accomplish and they'll accomplish it during the negotiations to opening up the government or accomplishing from the threat of shutting down the government. what i have found in past instances when that's been tried, you shut the government down, you open the government up, and that member or members have not accomplished the goal that they want to accomplish. it costs money to shut the government down. it costs money during this week to get ready to shut the government down. then after a period of time, of a day or at the most 35 days, about six, seven years ago, government opens up and it costs

money to open the government up. the government is supposed to be a service for the american people, and you can't serve the american people when the government isn't operating. so, i hope that something can be accomplished today or tomorrow so the government stays open. now to the social security trust fund -- that fund is speeding towards ins insolvency. come 2033, seniors will automatically see their retirement benefits cut 25%, absent congressional action. congress should be working towards a consensus on legislation to ensure that this never happens.

instead, we're on the cusp of enacting significant changes to social security that will result in larger cuts. that would normally happen 2033, but now happen sooner. if the bill before us is enacted, a typical senior would see their benefits cut by an additional $4,000 and six months earlier than that date that's predicted now to be the year 2033. that's quite a stocking stuff for 50 million seniors that depend on social security, some of who have no other income, like from pensions for example. while the vast majority of seniors stand to receive a lump of coal for christmas, a select few state and local government

employees will be gifted a boost in their benefits. in iowa only 1% of retirees would benefit while everyone else would get less. that doesn't sound fair to me. now, don't get me wrong. i have great respect for the government workers in iowa. this includes the police officers and firefighters to whom we owe our gratitude. congress should work to address the inequities that the bill before us is trying to solve. let's be crystal clear -- this bill would increase unfairness to how social security benefits are calculated. the social security windfall elimination provision, wep as it's called around here, which

this bill repeals, addresses a real concern that exists in how the social security benefit formula works, or more how it fails to work, when the government employee spends most of their career in non-social security covered positions. the social security benefit formula is designed to be progr progressive. that is, is provides a low-income worker a more generous benefit relative to their contributions compared to a middle-class income individual. as a result, absent the windfall elimination provision, senior-level employees who spend most of their career not contributing to social security, while also earning a high salary and a government pension, would receive a generous social security benefit working as few

as ten years covered by social security. the social security formula treats those ten years as if this was their only income during their working life, and therefore provides an unfair bonus. that's simply not fair to the average private sector worker who spend their entire career paying social security taxes, earning similar or lower pay than the government workers, but receives less social security benefit per dollar paid in. now, you don't have to take this senator's word for it. aarp, the premier voice for senior citizens, says as much in its website, noting that repealing the wep without

replacing it would allow individuals to inaccurately receive a higher social security benefit than if they had worked their whole careers in jobs covered by social security. this unfairness doesn't only exist between government workers and private sector workers. most states have opted into social security for the vast majority of their workers. these states' government employees and retirees covered by social security see no benefit under this bill. in iowa only 8% of government workers are not covered by social security. for some states it's fewer than 5%. but there happens to be a handful of states where 50% or

more of their workers are exempt from social security and thus don't pay into social security ta taxes. for instance, the state of massachusetts. it's over 97% of their government employees. can you imagine that? liberal massachusetts seeks their government -- thinks their government employees are too good for social security. it's these states that will be the big winner under this bill. effectively, states like iowa, where the vast majority of government employees are covered by social security, are being asked to subsidize the retirement of government workers in massachusetts, california, colorado, states that largely choose to opt out of social security. i have put forward a commonsense and fiscally responsible

amendment. it would address the inequity that can arise due to how current law addresses noncovered social security employment, without the unfairness that will arise under the bill before us. my amendment would pay for the repeal of the windfall elimination provision and the government pension offset, while also making social security fairer for everyone. under my amendment, if state and local employees are not currently covered by social security voluntarily opt into social security, these rules are repealed for current and future retirees of that state's government pension system. only current workers under 52, or with at least ten years until retimer, would need to join -- until retirement, would need to

join social security. this helps ensure such workers will work long enough to earn social security benefits. they would also be able to get the benefit of the more generous social security formula. the underlying bill would raid from the social security trust fund $200 billion. in contrast, my amendment would increase social security solvency by $100 billion if all states took advantage of my proposal. so that's a win-win for everyone. now, i know that this bill will probably be debated under no opportunity to offer my amendment or an amendment by senator cruz of texas that would also be more fiscally responsible than the bill before us and not harm senior citizens

by reducing their income from social security trust fund six months sooner than otherwise. i yield the floor, and i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: the clerk: ms. baldwin.

>> mr. president, i'm on the floor today to talk to my colleagues about something that is happening right in front of our eyes, it's a set of events that are not random. there connected to one another, the threaten to destroy this country that we love. everybody can see it, but for some reason, maybe the exhaustion of the aftermath of a brutal election, , maybe the distraction of the christmas season. maybe just an instinct to flee instead of fight. there are far too many people that are denying to themselves what they are seeing. what is happening right now is donald trump and his billionaire advisors are unfolding for the country in real time i plan to transition this country from a

democracy to a restrictive oligarchy, where political opposition is silent. with the media isn't free, and were government just exists to enrich a small cabal of elite that surrounds the man in charge. i know a lot of my colleagues to see how these dots exist and how they connect. and i know a lot of you see the specter of the disaster that is coming. but if you don't want to spend a few minutes laying it out. and to make us things simple i'm going to focus on three events that happen in the last seven days. the recommendation by house republicans that trump critic liz cheney be subject to criminal prosecution. the lawsuit filed by trump against an iowa poster and i when newspaper, in the decision by abc to pay trump $15 million to get rid of a bogus lawsuit.

first, the recommendation from house republicans that liz cheney be prosecuted. liz cheney was a member of the january 6 commission that tried to find some accountability for the assault on this capital that resulted in people dying, the result in officer with blood running down his face running into this chamber to rescue us before the violent rioters got a hold of us. donald trump did not like that narrative that he had something to do with, that he inspired the january 6th riot. he doesn't even like the narrative that january 6th was a riot. the events are open by the january 6th choir in commemoration of the events of that day. what happened this week is that

donald trump made good on his promise. he said during the campaign that he was going to use the military, law enforcement, the national guard to deal with the enemy within. and when asked who the enemy within was come he said nancy pelosi, adam schiff, democrats. people laughed it off to the campaign. that doesn't happen in america. we don't use law enforcement to lock up your political opposition. but that's exactly what is being recommended when it comes to liz cheney. liz cheney did nothing criminal. there's not even a whiff of a criminal allegation. she was just in charge of a commission that donald trump opposed but house republicans, taking orders from donald trump, just recommended that the next administration, the next department of justice criminally prosecute liz cheney. by the way, liz cheney won't be the last. there will be other political opponents of donald trump the will be referred for prosecution. prosecution.

now, that would be laughable today under an fbi and the department of justice that doesn't lock up people for political reasons. but donald trump is changing the guard at the fbi. he's putting in someone loyal to them as the next attorney general. the person he's going to put in at the fbi wrote a book about how important it was to eliminate from government anybody that doesn't line up with the political priorities of the president. he has said the people who ran fair election in 2020 should go to jail. if he didn't run an election result in donald trump being elected then you did something wrong. this week the house recommended liz cheney for criminal prosecution, donald trump cheered that recommendation and we're getting ready to vote on an attorney general and a director of the fbi who have made clear they are ready to

eagerly prosecute trump's political opponents. this is really important to talk about. this is one of the key ways that democracies fall all around the world. it frankly doesn't take hundreds of political prosecutions. it only takes a handful before ordinary average americans just decide they would be better off staying quiet instead of facing potential harassment or intimidation, or a jail sentence for speaking out the way that liz cheney did. the second thing that happened in this last week was that donald trump filed a lawsuit against a pollster in iowa, the grounds of the lawsuit are simple. he didn't like the results of the pole. the pulse of the island race was close. the poll ended up being wrong but he is suing the in the newspaper because he was upset

that that poll help galvanize opposition to it. that poll which is suggested that race was close got a lot of people to donate to his political opponent, gave people in iowa some hope it may be a democrat could win. that's not allowed in donald trump's world. it's not allowed in donald trump's world for anything to be in service of his political opposition so he spotted a a lawsuit that has no chance of succeeding because he wants to try to intimidate journalists and of the press into submissio submission. whether you like it or not it just is true that maybe in the future a pollster who has a pole in front of them that shows a race closing, shows a race that a fumble to democrats won't publicize that poll out of fear of a lawsuit. and connected to the lawsuit is

the third thing i want to talk about, the decision but abc to pay donald trump $50 million to settle a bogus lawsuit, a bogus defamation lawsuit that would've never succeeded in court. but abc for whatever reason decided it would be better for them to just pay donald trump to make it go away. and you are seeing repeated decisions by people in the media to just go along with donald trump rather than risk his ire rather than potentially put their profits at risk that donald trump at his regular agencies turned against him. use jeff bezos tell his newspapers not to endorse kamala harris. ufc and effort by comcast to divest itself from msnbc. you have seen in b. c. -- abc payoff donald trump over and over again. you see members of the press

starting to decide it's just better not to fight. these three things taken together show you the playbook, threaten political opposition with jail, throw a few of them into jail to show you are serious, sue and intimidate and harass anybody that does anything that is helpful to your political opposition, and intimidate and harass the media in the hopes that they will just go away and stop criticizing you. i don't think it's a coincidence that during this period of media harassment by donald trump, when liz cheney was referred to criminal prosecution, all of headlines plated totally safe. none of the headlight suggested the criminal prosecution was bogus, was built on lies, was built on the 1% of the law. the headlines just said liz cheney referred to criminal

prosecution. i think it's really important that we lay out what's happening here because this is how a democracy vanishes but i think it's also equally important to talk about why donald trump and elon musk and vivek ramaswamy and all of this billionaire friends are engaged in this very coordinated early attack even before he is sworn in to try to intimidate his political opposition and bully the press. and the reason they are doing this, the reason they are trying to suppress is because they are preparing to steal from us. donald trump and his billionaire buddies want to be in charge of government so that they can make themselves more wealthy they want government contracts. they want to privatize government programs. they want to get bigger

regulatory breaks. they want lower taxes. donald trump and his billionaire cronies want government to serve them, but they know the only way they get away with that is if no one holds them accountable. so in order to steal from us they have to silence political opposition, intimidate activists into submission, and try to get the press twofold. if they do that then they can get away with using government as a mechanism to enrich themselves. and if you want further proof of their agenda, look what's happening right now today as we speak. republicans and democrats had a deal to keep the government open and operating, to fund much-needed disaster assistance, and it was killed yesterday by the two billionaires closest to donald trump. and when asked as to what their alternative was, they said raise

the debt ceiling. donald trump said raise the debt ceiling. you will have my support for continuing resolution if you raise the debt ceiling. why did he want to raise the debt ceiling? it easy. they want to pass a huge tax cut for the billionaires in charge of donald trump's government. that's their agenda. big, big tax cut for billionaires and corporations. but the only way you can do that is if the debt ceiling is raised. the only when you can get away with that is if you can borrow more money on the backs of ordinary, average, everyday people in order to pay for that tax cut. so we are seeing the agenda of the trump administration before they are even sort in in front of our eyes. rig the rules in order to make the billionaires richer, and

telegraph that as your number one priority to congress. listen, there are just democracy and dictatorship in the world. there are dozens of countries that occupy a gray zone in between those polls. countries where there are still elections but the media and the political opposition are so weak, weak because they've been beaten into submission by the regime, that the people actually have no power. there are elections with the same group, the same man, same family wins every time. america has been for almost all of our history a functioning robust democracy where why or individual in power changes regularly because people hold all the tools necessary to choose their leaders. but that could change any heartbeat so quickly but without giving one galvanizing moment.

but the transition might be missed by all of us. you could just wake up one day and find out that the rules of democracy have been so rigged that republicans or the trump family never ever lose again, and billionaire skid to steal from all of us without any accountability. i know that that sounds hard to believe. i admit i might be wrong about all of this. america's democracy, it is a longest existing democracy in history of the world. it has proven to be resilient. it's filled with grid. it has survived challenges before, but like everyone of us, eventually disappears from this planet. so does every democracy. every democracy has a last day. and if you look around the world, the steps that lead to the termination of your democracy, the termination, the end of self-government are

shockingly similar from country to country. the wealthy people who control the media and the economy fold into the regime. better to join than to fight. the citizens get scared of joining up with the opposition movement because they are fearful of harassment. better to stay quiet than fight. if we don't speak out more loudly and more boldly about the events of the last week, and the way that we are seeing in purposeful detailed roadmap, constructed by donald trump and his billionaire friends to transition democracy to an oligarchy, if we don't fight like hell against these nominees, especially those going to the department of justice that will execute this assault on democracy, then our nation very soon could easily fall the

same as these other distracted democracies. the survival of our 240 year experiment is facing right now one of its most severe tests i just think it's time everybody woke up to that and pulled their heads out. quorum call:

>> nearly 1500 convicted criminals including drug dealers, fraudsters and corrupt public officials. these are not sympathetic figures. these are individuals who stole from the poor and sick. they tore families apart and menace communities. under a quorum call? the presiding officer: yes, we are. mr. merkley: i ask the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. merkley: we are all here getting ready to leave after we fund the government, and return home to our families.

i get pretty excited about this time of year thinking about the holidays to come. we're heading home to our loved ones. we know there will be extended family gatherings, there will be games with the children, there will be exchanges of presents, and there will be food. there will be awesome food. ham, turkey, all kinds of wonderfully crafted vegetable dishes. and there will be so much that we can drink. oh, yes, there will be wine varieties, there will be egg nog. perhaps some of it will be spiked. there will be carbonated apple juice or cranberry juice for the kids. we'll put it into glasses, we'll have toasts. we will really celebrate life. we'll celebrate life with a roof over our head, with our loved

ones close by, and with our cupboards well stocked. but also in these holidays, there will be time for reflection in every religious tradition. and for those of us who are fortunate to have that roof over our head, food in our cupboard and loved ones close by, we will recognize that for so many that is not the case. for so many here in the united states who by virtue of economic conditions or the ravages of disease or mental afflictions, they will not have a roof over their head. they may not have family members close by. they may not even have a cupboard, let alone one that is well stocked.

we'll ponder the possibility fo improve those conditions. we will ponder the landscape across the broader globe knowing in many places people have been so ravaged by natural disasters, so affected by conflict and war. i'm sure we'll see programs p and commentary about sudan, where millions have been displaced by civil war and by drought and by famine. or in burma, where so many are suffering escalating violence. or in ukraine, where people are brutalized by putin's invasion, the efforts to defend their country. no matter where you look, there is no shortage of suffering. but the place that weighs heaviest on my heart this season

is the middle east. we have the families of israel continuing to grieve the loss of 1,200 of their own loved ones on october 7, 2023. we have families in israel that continue to not know the fate of their loved ones taken hostage, whether they are alive, whether they are dead, whether they're being cared for, whether they're suffering, will they be released. there will be an empty charity table. the -- chair at the table. the victims in israel weigh on my opinion heart. but the palestinian victims also on my heart. individuals on the west bank, palestinians who suffer from decades of occupation, of the economic constraints and indignity that come from check

points, that come from land lost to settlements and to outposts, to olive orchards bulldozed down, to lives lost and injuries suffered from increasing violence by settlers against palestinian villagers. but by p far, the most devastated communities are the palestinian communities in gaza. both because of the extraordinary level of devastation and it weighs on my heart because of the connection between the united states and israel. our close connection with our ally, where we share security strategies, where we provide economic and miment assistance. we share intelligence on the issues of the world.

we are so closely connected that we are connected to the devastation in gaza. since october 7, 2023, more than 45,000 palestinians in gaza have d died. more than 100,000 have been severely injured. the vast bulk of those injured and those who have died are women and children and seniors, people who have no connection whatsoever to hamas that conducted the raids on october 7 of 2023. the devastation is massive. this same picture taken in north gaza could be almost copied for community after community from north to south of gaza. of the 2.1 million people, the

palestinians in gaza, some 1.9 million, almost everyone that is, is without a home either because their home has been blasted into smitsmitherines or because they have been forcibly moved to a different location within gaza, forced relocation. a year ago p senator van hollen and i went to rafah gate. we hoped to get inside gaza to see with our own eyes and talk to people and understand better the devastation. but what we heard a year ago was that all the fundamentals for a normal community were devastated. shelter, i've already spoken to,

1.9 people relocated either because they were forced to flee or because their home no longer exists. that the phone networks were down, the cell networks were down, that the internet networks were down. and even if they were up, people had very little opportunity to recharge their cell phones because there wasn't electricity. so the power was down. the transportation was down because many roads were impassable. food was in short supply, driving malnutrition. a year ago clean water was often unavailable. a year ago. a year ago p senator van hollen and i could not get into gaza. reporters had not been allowed

into gaza except for very carefully monitored short visits monitored by the netanyahu government. humanitarian organizations were having a hard time getting in and often had to do a very careful exchange of an exact number for an exact number coming out. but as we stood there at that gate, a couple doctors came out. i spent some time talking to them. and one of them was a burn specialist who described how hard it was to treat many of the massive burns that he had witnessed. the other was a bone doctor, and he said i can treat the broken bones, but i can't necessarily treat the soft tissue damage that comes from the shock waves that emanate from all the

explosions taking down the buildings. the impact, he said, of the blast radius in terms of the shock waves was greater than the physical damage. and we were able to talk to humanitarian organizations of aid workers who had been in gaza, and they said understand this, that we are seasoned workers who have been in the worst places in the world. we have been in yemen, we have been on the front line of ukraine, we have been in sudan. nothing compares to the devastation in gaza. that was a year ago. i was particularly affected by hearing about the challenge of mot mothers. mothers receive our attention

particularly when they are caring -- carrying babies because all our efforts go to make sure that that delivery of that child will come safely into the world, healthy into the world, the mother will be cared for. but what we heard from humanitarian organizations was hunger was driving malnutrition. malnutrition made people more susceptible to disease. and for mothers, it meant increases in miscarriages, increases in still birth, increases in very low birthweight babies, increases in the difficulty of mothers breast feeding their children because they were too malnourished to produce milk. and babies getting sick because when formula was used, if available, the water might be contaminated. think about the children you

brought into the world, that your wife or your partner has brought into the world, and how horrific it would be to see those circumstances. this time of year is a time of year in my spiritual tradition where we think a lot about the challenges mary went there. she and joseph were traveling from galilee to bethlehem, and they were traveling there at the time that mary was very pregnant with jesus because a census had been ordered by the roman emperor caesar augustus, and they were required to be there and report to joseph's ancestral home of bethlehem. traveling the roads when pregnant, very hard. and then they weren't able to find a room in bethlehem, and yet mary went into labor and

delivered in a barn. not ideal circumstances. and because this time of year, and because we think about that story so much, the mothers in g gaza, their conditions so much worse. it's something we can connect with. and now the children in gaza, they're entering the second year in this devastation. some have some format of school, but many do not. now we here in america know, we know what covid did to interrupt the education of our children. some did well with tutors. many suffered isolation, many suffered setbacks in what they learned. many are still carrying that challenge forward as they seek education. so we can also connect to the children of gaza who have had their education, their life so

disrupted, a life disrupted by lack of food and water, instability, lack of safety. two weeks ago an ambassador from the middle east drew attention to a part of gaza in worse shape than the res of gaza -- the rest of gaza, and he referred to this area, where specifically it's north gaza. where is fort gaza? you have north and south separated by the corridor, it travels from israel to the mediterranean sea. then you have gaza city and the communities. in those communities, he said there's 65,000 people who are

starving to death. because food cannot get in. 65,000 people starving. now, we know the food conditions have been horrific in gaza for a year, but in this case sustained prevention of food getting in and people are starving. well, he asserted this. so i asked a visiting official from another middle eastern country about this, and he emphasized yes. yes, he said, there are in fact 65,000 people or more starving in northern gaza, isolated from the rest of the world. okay, well, that's two officials, but that's a big thing to say. but then this came out -- gaza humanitarian access snapshot number 8. it is cosigned by 30

organizations, organizations like save the children, like care, like mercy corps, and 27 others, and what do they say in this report? they say 65,000 to 75,000 people are trapped without food, water, electricity, or reliable health care. that's a direct quote from the report of these 30 humanitarian organizations. it goes on to say humanitarian aid has been almost entirely blocked for 60 days. it goes on to say that only three hospitals remain partially operational, with restricted access. very little health care. it says the population faces imminent risk of disease, starvation, and violence, without urgent relief. without urgent relief. i called up cindy mccain.

we know cindy well here. cindy mccain is executive director of the world food program. she is the spouse of our former deceased colleague, john mccain, and i said to her, is this right? are 65,000 people isolated in north gaza, for week after week after week, no delivery of food, or virtually none? and she said yes. she said yes. that is the case. and she didn't just to me. she also talked about gaza more broadly, and she said we can no longer sit by and just allow these people to starve to death. children, especially, she said, are starving to death. the height of malnutrition, the height of hunger, with that region, is unbelievably

horrible. in november the united nations made 41 attempts to deliver aid to this section, north gaza, to the besieged people trapped in north gaza. 37 of the 41 attempts were blocked by the netanyahu government. four other deliveries were not blocked but were troubled. here is the situation -- a year ago, we heard that if there isn't sufficient food, chaos will ensue, because starving people will storm whatever truck there is that has food, because they are desperate. the trucks won't be able to make it to the warehouse, or if they do make it to the warehouse the warehouse will be sacked. we are now in the very condition that the humanitarian organizations told us would happen. very little food being allowed in. what is being allowed in can't be distributed in any

significant organized fashion, and people are starving. even if those four truckloads could have been at the warehouse and distributed, too little food, microscopic amount of food, for the 65,000 people who are there. so, here we are now. gaza's destruction, this destruction that we saw in that previous chart, this destruction, this is carried out by american bombs. this is how we are complicit in this situation. it is our munitions that are being used by the israeli defense forces to produce this result. we are connected, and therefore we are morally connected to the situation in gaza. our weapon packages have included 50,000 120 millimeter

high explosive mortar rounds. our provisions have included more than 32,000 120 mill meter tank bombs. hundreds of 250-pound bombs. think about a 2,000-pound bottoms. this is like the biggest bomb. "new york times" described how when it's dropped it is designed to break fortified military bunkers. it will create a massive crater, 40 to 50 feet wide. and when it explodes, will shatter, and i quote, into razor-sharp shards that can kill or incapacitate people over several hundred feet. you kind of get the feeling how any bomb like that is indiscriminate. whether it's dropped on the intended building or it falls

somewhere further afield, it kills a tremendous number of civilians. we are providing those bombs. now, the biden administration suspended the delivery of 200-pound bombs to the netanyahu government because of that. also suspended the 500-pound bombs. but "the wall street journal" reported in july that the delivery had been restored, of the 500-pound bombs. the point here is we continue to be deeply connected and tied to this devastation in gaza. and it's not just the devastation of civilians. it's also american law. it's also international law. national security memorandum 20, a process created because of the work of my colleague, senator van hollen, in it it says this, it is reasonable to assess, the

report says, it is reasonable to assess that defense articles covered have been used by israeli security forces inconsistent with international humanitarian law, and the obligations for mitigating civilian harm. so, what have we done? it was last february, now ten months ago, that a group of us called on the united states for operation gaza relief. we must at least provide massive amounts of humanitarian aid so people are not starving in gaza. we have that responsibility. if we are urging israel to provide the aid, which is the best strategy, but they do not do it, we have the obligation to provide it. and we did so little. we have the most massive sealift capability in the world, and we didn't use a single bit of it to address a humanitarian crisis in

gaza. we have two hospital ships, a thousand beds each, and we did not move them into the mediterranean to help out. we did not encourage other nations to provide their hospital ships. now, we did do one modest thing. we did a floating pier that operated intermittentsly -- intermittently from may to july that had all kinds of problems breaking up in the waves. it provided ultimately, at the best estimate, enough food for people of gaza for a week. not at all addressing the magnitude of the challenge. we had a responsibility to provide help, independent of any other cessation of hostilities, and we failed. and yes, we pressed for cessation of hostilities.

we pressed for a ceasefire. and i applaud the administration for doing so. but while that failed, we also failed. we, america, failed, and our responsibility to provide relief to the humanitarian suffering on which we are so closely connected. our own law says that if our aid is impeded, as it has been, by the netanyahu government, that we cannot provide arms. but we have been violating our own law. 620-i, no assistance shall be furnished under this act, the arms export control act to any country, when it's known that that government restricts, directly or indirectly, the transport or delivery of united states humanitarian assistance. we have a moral responsibility, and we have a legal responsibility. so we must, must do more. we must do more in the remaining

weeks of this administration. we must do more in the opening year of the next administration. balls these issues of moral responsibility, these issues of international law do not depend on who sits in the oval office. so as we stand here about to go home and celebrate with our big plates of food and our full pitchers of wine, as we read our cards, call for peace in the world, as we offer our prayers, let us not forget those who suffer in the middle east. let us not forget the families who lost their family members on october 7 in israel. let us not forget the families in israel whose hostages, whose family members are still held hostage. let us not forget those on the west bank, suffering the inflictions of local violence. but most of all, let us not forget the victims in gaza, and do all we can under our moral

responsibility, under our legal responsibility to come to their aid. thank you, mr. president. mr. padilla: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from california is rec namesed. mr. padilla: i ask unanimous consent to waive the mandatory quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture. the clerk: cloture motion, we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate do hereby move to bring to a close debate on nomination of executive calendar number 849, benjamin j. cheeks, of california, to be united states district judge for the southern district of california. signed by 18 senators. the presiding officer: by unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum call has been waived. the question is, is it the sense of the senate that debate on the nomination of benjamin j. cheeks, of california, to be united states district judge for

the southern district of california shall be brought to a close? the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. the clerk will call the roll. vote: the clerk: ms. baldwin. international the clerk: mr. barrasso. mr. bennet.

mrs. blackburn. mr. blumenthal. mr. booker. mr. boozman. mr. braun. mrs. britt. mr. brown. mr. budd. ms. cantwell. mrs. capito. mr. cardin. mr. carper. mr. casey. mr. cassidy. ms. collins. mr. coons. mr. cornyn. ms. cortez masto. mr. cotton.

mr. cramer. mr. crapo. mr. cruz. mr. daines. ms. duckworth. mr. durbin. ms. ernst. mr. fetterman. mrs. fischer. mrs. gillibrand. mr. graham. mr. grassley. mr. hagerty. ms. hassan.

the clerk: mr. hawley. mr. heinrich. mr. hickenlooper. ms. hirono. mr. hoeven. mrs. hyde-smith. mr. johnson. mr. kaine. mr. kelly. mr. kennedy. mr. kim. mr. king. ms. klobuchar. mr. lankford. mr. lee. mr. lujan. ms. lummis. mr. manchin. mr. markey. mr. marshall. mr. mcconnell. mr. merkley. mr. moran. mr. mullin. ms. murkowski. mr. murphy. mrs. murray. mr. ossoff. mr. padilla. mr. paul. mr. peters. mr. reed.

mr. ricketts. mr. risch. mr. romney. ms. rosen. mr. rounds. mr. rubio. mr. sanders. mr. schatz. mr. schiff. mr. schmitt. mr. schumer. mr. scott of florida. mr. scott of south carolina. mrs. shaheen. ms. sinema. ms. smith. ms. stabenow. mr. sullivan. mr. tester. mr. thune. mr. tillis. mr. tuberville. mr. van hollen.

mr. vance.

the clerk: mr. warner. mr. warnock. ms. warren. mr. welch. mr. tester. mr. thune. mr. tillis, mr. tuberville. mr. whitehouse. mr. wicker. mr. wyden. mr. young.

houseboats the quickest, simplest spike we can make sure and deliver the threat of a shut them behind us the government open provide emerges supporters

of doctors farmers. only way to get done this bipartisan.

during the negotiation the government for accomplishing from the front of shutting down the government the government down about publish the goal they wanted to accomplish. get ready the government down and after a few the time of the day or at the most, 35 days six

or seven years ago government opens up the the government is supposed to be of service for the american you can't serve the american hopefully by hope accomplish they are tomorrow seniors will automatically benefit drivers and has had congressional action.

congress should be in short legislation to work this never happens it will result in larger that would normally have 2033 or sooner. if enacted the benefit that an additional $4000 six months earlier than the date that might be something suffered depend on social security some have no other income level full and iowa

only 1% of them while everyone else less. that is in town fair i have great respect for work as work to address the inequities unfairness benefits are calculated social security elimination provision the bill

repeals addresses a real concern for how the benefit works on the government wastelands not social security benefit designs aggressive provides a locomotive margin is benefit as income individual high salaryretired

philia save this senators word for it is the social security

benefit the job workers often are vast majority of their workers no benefit under this bill.

87% our government but for social states with states like iowa with a vast majority of purity are subsidized retirement of government workers, states that job outand all set.

and local employees are not covered often they are and not

the more generous the social security trust fund doing dollars is all win-win for everyone i know this will probably becl debated offer migt amendment small and otherwise.

commitment across our. then women, busy robert nurses

them states have opted out of social security but many of them had jobs or will have other jobs the jobs that will require them a career before taking on the job or is of either or both decades, given spent returned

with devastating consequences are too many americans on many advising the last of tito off the nomination were first cut in 19 american response is.

have a highest unfortunately alaska these are all great like the retired one paycheck away from publicist the young alaska widow a lot of.

these are not hypothetical, reach out to me that entire current benefit, where is the fairness and not let advantages this alive responded.

and they are saying happening in real time it's hard. still warm to that socialization fairness act and i'm proud 72 of us joyce get it to final

passage. i'll be able to tell the school district you will have a better chance it will be easier infected. firefighters and police the ms let's care for their spouses government themselves alive to our community.

in the social policy and it will continue sure social fairness act and left.

and any quick settings. and potential fund an additional $10000 a year and it did they social security. and the income earner great

benefits and against the interests of other beneficiaries interest similar issue in short the benefit reflect income and unfair payment. the data. exactly that event a better

system to unfairly reward some and the respect of others. dangerously unsustainable path, the trust fund to run out of money in the next decade. this bill would not fix that $196 billion and up by 60 month dire situation and financial

health left no reason on this issue and responsible reform in the senate majority those workers 96% of them america

spies overly generous benefits in the workforce and instead to this. most employees it would be hard, not help security fairness act toward a small minority vast majority experience. so the overwhelming majority be harmed by this from apartment one the other present.

back a broken system the trust fund more than it is already been in this work is body never have i seen that degree. almost 200 billing dollars. this is reckless but worse than that one is causes of this challenge in the underlying

issue is has responsibility 30 personal american not just a selected few many decades in the making

the clerk: mr. barrasso, no. mr. cardin, aye. the clerk: mr. markey, aye.

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

government will shutdown quickly. it's time to go back to the original we had a few days ago. the quickest, simplest easiest way to make sure the government stays open while delivering critical emergency aid. if the house put out an agreement today we could put the travel shutdown.

emergency aid for communities for the natural disasters support seniors and nurses protect our farmers. >> i don't usually get an applause. [laughter] >> welcome, everybody. he special opportunity to happen with us. >> but who's counting? [laughter] >> longtime friend and member of the council delighted to have him. >> we are meeting at this historic moment tectonic shifts

around the world. unprecedented competition with china and the global south and climate change issues. >> hello? did you hear me? can hear me? i will speak more loudly. undergoing fundamental dangers. how do you think historians will look back at the biden administration? >> wonderful to see so many friends and colleagues.

i think you have to start with a couple of things. he took four years ago. the worst public health crisis going back at least 100 years. we had a country internally and relationships with allies and partners. a perception from our adversaries that the u.s. was in decline. if you look at what the president put in motion terms of the investments we made it home and restoring our competitiveness around the

world, everything from infrastructure cra. we have more investment than ever before and it's one of the most important measures because they're looking at trust so a budget that has reinvested itself and ready to engage the world. the other side we are responsible for to reengage and re-energize and reimagine the partnership.

and we thought ships around the world. >> access of autocracies, china russia, iran, north korea new and different ways and expected. what you think the extent of the cooperation might be going forward it is there anything the u.s. can do? >> we have seen in alignment and russian is really needed that.

it strengthens relationship with iran and china as part of this makes so much more elected and does have to ask itself the reputational cost and what the consequences will be. and you think about it this way, and ongoing way against ukraine and the primary driver north korea missiles and troops so you

can see and it is an awakening what's happening in the indo pacific. in bridges between the atlantic. excellent group like russia, iran and north korea.

>> given the intent and any other country knowing for the primary challenge to do that if others make it trouble for us they will look at what if it wants to be seen as a responsible rise in power can on one hand for example say you estimate ukraine file the other hand feeling following question, 70% are from china.

we've seen countries around the world in particular your safe not in it is skewing it, it doesn't hold up awkwardness about and remains the same. >> of the other elements it is much more complex other his intent to to ask a lot of

questions. how can we compete? it's hard to fight something with nothing more will have nearly as much as china does. what is your field and how the government better. [laughter] have a better off. i think we do a lot of time on this. a lot of the things that also a hangover people wake up to. ...

initiative the president and partnership global infrastructure investment is bringing together hundreds of billions of dollars which were putting into effect. the president was in angola seeing the actual realization of this corridor that eventually connect the indian and atlantic oceans in africa but across angola, zambia, congo. and connect in ways that are putting together not just transportation but communications, agriculture and create a vibrant living a court order that's connecting the continent. that's a result of a very focused approach on marshaling these resources. we can do it anywhere. our benefit, our value added is

getting the private sector in on the deal. would like when he could be with the chinese dollar to dollar. we can bring in the private sector and a few other things the board. the international financial institutions has to be more responsive for the needs of majority of countries. they don't have access we work to expand the access through reforming these institutions down in -- janet yellen some great job. the whole question helping countries get out from under the debt that they been burdened with including from china. that we've been making it a difference on and you see countries responding. all this has to be sustained in one of the thing with a lot of tools in the united states government. we worked hard to bring them together so that acting together like the dnc. as looking at it now we're starting to see the result and countries that want to work

partner with us and our allies. >> let's switch over to iran. iran has lost its primary proxy, hezbollah in terms of its effectiveness as -- dismissals up and be quite feckless against israeli u.s. and allied partners defense. is it inevitable they go nuclear? that's the third leg of their deterrence defense stool with the other two having proven to be weak. how to see that evolving and what advice would you be given to the incoming administration on how to build a relationship with iran? >> there's no doubt this is not been a good year for iran. worsening that play out every single day. iran has to make fundamental choices. one choice they could make and should make is to focus on itself and trying to build a

better more successful country that delivers for its people which is clearly the most iranians want. and to stop getting involved in these adventures or misadventures throughout the region and beyond. whether it will be wise enough to make that choice i don't know but they desperately need to be making that choice and need to be focused on the economy, growing the country and delivering for people. if they don't make that choice, they have hard decisions to make us about where they're going to go in the future to sustain the troublemaking that they've been engaged in for many, many years. i don't think a nuclear weapon is inevitable. i think this is something that may be more a question now because as a lost different tools, they've lost different lines of defense. you'll see more thinking about that but the cost and consequences in pursuing that can be severe.

i'm hopeful that remains a check. i'm also biased. we worked together during the obama administration. the one probably successfully took up the table through the joe called jcpoa are nuclear deal was the prospect of iran getting to nuclear weapon anytime soon by bottling up tying up its material making sure the breakout time producing enough missile material was pushed back beyond a year. now that breakout time in terms is a matter of a week or two. they don't have weapon and weaponization has taken some time but the thing we could have eyes on most effectively to make sure they were not looking at the direction, this all material, , is a steal put in a box. enforcement the decision to break out of the box i don't think was a wise one. we have to find a way with the next initiation what to find way to engage them because the production of 60% enriched

uranium gives them of the capacity in terms of this all material to produce multiple weapons with the material on very short order. >> looking at the u.s. approach, we have tried sanctions, engagement with jcpoa, we tried sanctions again. what influence can we have on iranian behavior? do you think there is a prospect of negotiation of a new deal on the nuclear piece of this with iran? >> there is prospect of negotiations. it depends on what iran to subdue and whether it chooses to engage. of course the incoming administration. president trump last time around pulling out of the deal said he wanted as he called it a better stronger deal. fine. he wrote a book about that. >> so let's see. that would be a better way to approach it. but look one way or another this much i know. from administration to a decision, whether ours or trump

or obama, there's been a shared determination and shared determination remains to ensure a retrospect it a nuclear weapon weapon one way or another. i'm convinced just as our administration had that policy, the next administration will,, too. >> given the success the israelis have had in lebanon recently, how fearful are you they decide this is a time to clean up all the issues in the neighborhood and go after iran? >> from israel's perspective the success they have had in dealing a terrible blow to hezbollah and, of course, to hamas in the weight of the horse of october seventh, but also with the great human cost to the children, women and men in gaza who have been caught in this crossfire, but the damage that's been done to hamas, hezbollah, to iran, its air defense

capacity in the wake of the second direct attack on israel, israel's response, very focused, very calibrated and very effective in taking out iranian air defenses. that's put them in a very challenging position. from israel's perspective they have accomplished significant and abort strategic goals militarily. the question now is how do you translate those into enduring political assessment? how do you move from the gaza where by israel's own account they've achieved what the fun in the setup to jew trying to injure october summit never happens again. dismantle hamas, they done that. deal with the leaders responsible for october 7. they have done that. now is the time assume we get the hostages back to move this to another place where they are not left holding the bag in

gaza. because if they do if they wind up holding the bag they will be taken with an insurgency for years. that's not in their interest. gaza has to be translated into something different that pressures hamas is not in any way in charge, that israel doesn't have to be and their something coherent that funnels that enables the governance, security, reconstruction of gaza. when it comes to lebanon and has been i think there's an opportunity not only to have dealt with pushing hezbollah back, allowing israelis who in chase of the homes in the north 70, 80,000, go buckled as well as lebanese to go back to the homes in southern lebanon, but only to have that on a more effective sustainable basis. remember in 2006 after the war the basis for in his war was resolution 1701 and the notion has bone would pull back, we can be a threat to the border communities in israel and it was never implemented.

now as a result of the ceasefire agreement we negotiated along with france, , we're in a positn where that problem can be solved but the larger problem of lebanon standing on its own feet asserting its own sovereignty, that's a much greater possibility that it's been. we want to see the election of a president feel that i can. we want to see visitations in the state standing up and taking responsibility for the life of the lebanese. it offers a much different much better prospect going forward. it means israel doesn't have to push thinks any further. and i ran some us to bring some over talk about before. what are the funnel decisions? that will dictate what visual and other stupid last thing, there is a much different trajectory we see embryonic like, possible for israel in the region and for our interest,

too. we saw when i ran attack israel in a response that the response that only of the united states went for the first time ever we came to israel's active defense but the front of the countries along. not just european countries. countries in the region. you can see what the integration of the region could look like including on the security side of the ledger in a way isolates iran and betty sharpens the choice that has to make about his own future. that's possible. you can see it but to get theire requires two things. it requires a course, resolution to gaza which would start to open the door to pursuing normalization of saudi arabia and requires resolution with palestinians. it requires that because arab countries that is not normalize with israel starting with saudi arabia need that, once that, expected. the problem we have is we have two megastore known traumatized societies in israel and among

palestinians. having that conversation is almost impossible at this moment. i still believe fundamentally we are going up to get to the conversation because it offers the prospect of something israel sought from day one of which is to be fully accepted in the greater into the region, and have enduring decent security. first step. got to resolve gaza and then the work that we've done and off to the next administration including on the prospect of normalization between israel and saudi arabia, carry that forward. that's the vision for the future. i believe one way or another one day or another we are going to get back to it. >> you and jake sullivan and bill burns have been in fatigue about running across a region trying to reach a ceasefire, resolution, release of hostages. there's been reports this been a bit of progress perhaps on the s

side in terms of making compromises. you've got 31, 32 days left. what synergy to put on the prospect of reaching an agreement? where are you spending the christmas? >> one of the things that we know is about for those of us old enough to have grown up with charlie brown, there's a lucy and football moment when lucy puts a bubble that and charlie brown comes up to kick it and lucy pulls a football away. i do want to hazard a guess on this because we've had a few of those. here's why i think and hope this is a meaningful moment and finally getting this across the finish line. what's been the main impediment? the main impediment as fundamentally been hamas and hamas at various moments believe it can get hezbollah, a can get iran in, get other iranian backed proxies in. now it knows the cavalry is not coming to the rescue and it

can't depend on and even really think about that wider war precisely because of what we talked about, hezbollah can't and won't do. i read can't and won't do it. that has concert minds among hezbollah, hamas excuse me, leadership about needing to bring this to a conclusion. mot. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senior senator from maryland is recognized. mr. cardin: mr. president, in a moment i'm going to be making a unanimous consent. i'll wait for senator grassley to come to the floor. let me, if i might, explain what the unanimous consent will be. it deals with h.r. 766. i'm a proud sponsor of the preventive health savings act since the 113th congress as it stands. the congressional budget office scores budgetary implications of preventive health legislation in a ten-year time frame limiting

congress' ability to understand the long-term impacts of meaningful prevention policies. this bicameral, bipartisan legislation would direct cbo to more accurately reflect the long-term cost savings potential of preventive health care initiatives and encourage the use of data of preventive health measures. the house of representatives passed this legislation in march of this year by voice vote. now, here's the challenge we have. this legislation will allow us to implement preventive health care sooner. that will save lives and will save dollars. i'll just give you one example. we now have a multicancer blood screening test that could be implemented for certain targeted populations. the longer that's delayed and being reimbursable under our health care system, the more people are not going to have the advantage of that, more lives are going to be lost, and later detection of cancer, we know, is

a more costly type of care that's neededers and it costs -- needed and it costs more money. so we have a chance today, because this is a house-passed bill, to send this bill to the president, and that's why i will be making unanimous consent requests in regards to the bill. i notice senator grassley has other legislation that he's been trying to get attached. i will urge him not to do that because it will obviously mean this bill will not pass. his issue is not related to the issue that this bill is about. i want to thank senator whitehouse and senator grassley for their help on the budget committee itself, but this is our last opportunity to do something meaningful to implement preventive health care that will save lives and actually save dollars for the taxpayers of this country. there's no question about it. this bill saves money, and we can get it done now. any amendment on it, obviously, would have to go back to the house and there's no possibility that the house would agree to

it. so, mr. president, as if in legislative session, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of h.r. 766, which was received from the house and is at the desk. further, 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? mr. grassley: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from iowa is recognized. mr. grassley: reserving the right to object, and i have a counteroffer. but before i get to that i want to say, first of all, it's not easy for me to stand here and object to something that the senior senator -- or the senator from maryland wants to bring up because he's a gentleman in the 100% way in the united states senate, so it's not easy to go against his ideas. but i want you to know, i've been working on this with representative burgess, the

leader in the house of representatives, and we offered four amendments to him in negotiations. he agreed to two of them, and two of them he didn't agree to, and we agreed to not push for that amendment. so we felt that we had good discussions with representative burgess, but now we're working on the house bill here, and none of those things that burgess agreed to could be. so it's where we are. where we are is, you know, even though burgess agreed to some compromise, senators over here have issues with preventing congress from depositing savings into the medicare improvement fund. in budget years 11 to 30, based

upon cbo estimates of preventive health savings legislation. now, i have no doubt that preventive medicine saves money. but putting mona fund for -- but moaning money in a fund for 11 to 30 years out can only lead to what we know happens too obstruction of justice -- too often here in the united states senate of budget gimmicks, saying that we're going to use funds in a certain fund. well, that's perfectly a legitimate thing to do, but you have to have confidence that what cbo says about that is going to be legitimate and have credibility. and so what i've been trying to work out with representative burgess is just exactly to do

that. yeah, put this fund out there, as you say it's going to save money, but i want to the make sure that cbo, when they say something, we have a way of verifying that. so i want to the say that i appreciate the intentions of this bill. increasing preventive health care to improve health outcomes and help patients and taxpayers avoid costly treatment and services down the road is a laudable goal. however, i'm concerned that, as currently constructed, this bill will lead to budget gimmicks that will ultimately increase rather than decrease health spending. the sponsors are well aware of my concerns. i worked in good faith to offer up ideas to address my budget gimmicks concerns. i made it clear i'm willing to compromise. i've already done so with my

most recent offer and dropped commonsense budget process reform provisions that i thought were important, and these budget process reforms were what was in the famous enzi-whitehouse bill that senator enzi and now the -- former senator enzi and now senator whitehouse worked out in budget committee reform. and i've said that burgess was willing to go along. but these changes have been rejected in the senate, and my concerns have been addressed. the bill before us contains no commonsense guardrails, such as requiring a disclaimer that a supplementary estimate doesn't

replace a cbo 10-year cost estimate. ensuring supplemental estimates are separate and distinct from the 10-year cost estimates and requiring the congressional budget office to be transparent in their modeling. that latter point is based on the proposition that we expect cbo to show us how they arrived at figures dealing with cost savings of some particular preventive medicine program. the bill also doesn't address concerns about how supplementary analysis could be used for budget gimmicks in the future, such as depositing uncertain out year savings into the medicare and medicaid improvement fund. the bill needs commonsense guardrails to prevent budget

gimmicks. so i would like to suggest this alternative -- so i ask the senator from maryland to modify his request to include my amendment, which was at the desk; that the amendment be considered and agreed to; the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time, and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: is there objection to the modification? mr. cardin: mr. president, reserving the right to object -- if i might, again, i appreciate senator grassley's comments about this senator. i feel the same about senator grassley. he's been an incredible voice in the united states senate, particularly on transparency, particularly against waste, and

has taken on some of the most challenging battles here on the floor of the united states senate. i've worked on this legislation now for several congresses. my partners are senator crapo, senator cramer, senator king. we've all worked on this bill together. and the boil is very simple -- and the bill is very simple. it just allows a more realistic budget window for preventive health care, and it's something we have been talking about for a long time, so that we don't get trapped with high upfront costs that have large savings and we never get to the savings because cbo cannot score it under the current budget rules. the challenges that senator grassley is raising are not in this bill. we've worked very closely with the budget people to make sure that this bill does not contain the concerns that senator grassley is raising. the senator might be raising very legitimate concerns, but it's not this legislation that's causing it.

this legislation only allows us to be able to implement in a more realistic way preventive health care services with legitimate cost estimates and offsets so that we can get the savings from preventive health care and implement preventive health care sooner, saving lives and dollars. we can make progress on this issue now. the problem is twofold with the request that's being made -- first, it's not -- the potential abuse is not in this legislation. it deals with a broader issue. and then, secondly, if this bill is amended, i think senator grassley also understands the chances of passage are zero. there's no possibility that this bill can be taken up in the house at this late stage. so this is our last opportunity. i came to the floor today and not before because i respect greatly senator grassley and his concernings and i was hoping we can find a path forward for that to happen.

but there is to path forward for that to happen. and by including the request, i would be sacrificing both bills, and i would hope the senator would recognize that and would allow this modest improvement for preventive health care to go forward. with that, mr. president, i regretfully object. mr. grassley: mr. president. the presiding officer: objection to the modification is heard. mr. grassley: mr. president. the presiding officer: is is there objection to the original request? mr. grassley: yes, i object. i'd like to -- the presiding officer: objection is heard. mr. grassley: around here we use the words budget gimmickry pretty freely, and i want to say, as an example, that every senator in this senate knows the term medicare sequester as a budget gimmick. so something beyond the ten-year window we're going to draw in to spend money today. that's one example of a budget gimmick. i just want to make sure that we

don't widen that down the road. thank you. i yield the floor.

the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: the clerk: ms. baldwin.

quorum call:

>> these are individuals who stole from the poor and chosen secretary of state tore families bark of minutes communities. they were sent to jail. they belong in jail. with this action joe biden didn't just reward 1500 criminals, he robbed hundreds of thousandsen of victims with closure and justice they vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. peters: mr. president, i move as if in legislative session and notwithstanding rule 22, i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of s. 5639 which was introduced earlier today. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. 5639, a bill to extend the authority for the protection of certain sfiments and assets -- facilities and

assets from unmanned aircraft. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will proceed. mr. peters: i ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read three times and passed and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from michigan is recognized. mr. peters: mr. president, as we near the deadline to fund the government tonight without a clear path from the republican colleagues in the house, it appears that we're once again on thing brink of a government shutdown. and when the clock runs out at midnight, the current authorities at the department of homeland security and the fbi have to safely disable drones that pose a security will also expire, and we simply cannot let that happen. i just received unanimous consent to pass a bill that will extend the current authorities for one year.

i appreciate my senate colleagues for joining me in passing this legislation so that our federal law enforcement agencies can continue to protect against dangerous drones while giving us additional time to work on bipartisan legislation that senator johnson and i have authored to strengthen counter drone efforts. there are now more than one million drones currently registered in the united states, and the overwhelming of them are used for lobby, commercial or law enforcement purposes, and in a responsible and legal way. but we've also seen many instances where drones can pose a serious threat to the safety of the public, our critical infrastructure, our airports, and our communities. from the reports of drone sightings in new jersey that have led to airport runway closures and caused alarm in multiple cities to drone incursions at nfl games that put fans and team safety at risk. we need to be able to to take

the appropriate actions to identify, detract drones that could be a threat. earlier this yooek i called on the senate to pass strong bipartisan legislation that would not only enforce the current authority we have in place but would help address current concerns we're seeing from communities across our country. by helping to provide state and local law enforcement with the authority to use technology to identify and disarm risky drones so that they can protect our own communities. unfortunately, unfortunately that legislation was blocked from passing. and that's why it's so important that we just passed this one-year extension so that the fbi, the dhs will be able to disable any drones that possess a danger to public service. so i want to thank my colleagues for joining me in passing this one-year extension so that we can ensure we'll be able to protect our communities from any immediate drone threats. and i hope my colleagues from both sides of the aisle will continue to work with me in the

months ahead along with senator johnson on a larger piece of legislation that will allow us to more effectively address the risk posed by increasing numbers of drones in our country. mr. president, i yield the floor.

including drug dealers, fraudsters and corrupt public officials. these are not sympathetic figures. these are individuals who stole from the poor and sick. they tore families apart and menace communities. they were sent to jail. they belong in jail. with this action joe biden didn't just reward 1500 criminals. he robbed hundreds of thousands of victims of the closure and justice they deserve. their cruelty of these commendations is only matched by the shameless incompetence of the administration that issued them. this administration admitted that joe biden didn't individually review these cases or for that matter anyone else individually reviewed the cases.

that he notified the verdict of thousands of jurors and judges anyway. he disrespected the countless man-hours that federal law enforcement prosecutors dedicated to solving cases. the whole purpose of the presidential pardon power is to correct individual and limited failures of the criminal justice system. it's in the nature of the power and government itself. we are a legislature. we make generally applicable, perspective laws for everyone. can those laws in certain cases yield unjust outcomes? yes, of course. that is the nature of the legislative power. the reason an executive has the pardon power is to mitigate that injustice in specific particular

cases. it's not to make generally applicable pardons in a broad set of parameters as white house officials have caused called. certainly not to blindly can free -- free newly convicted criminals. these blanket commutations demonstrating gross contempt to our legal system and its traditions. to put president biden's actions and can't exceed issued more commutations in single day than donald trump, george bush and bill clinton issued in their entire presidencies. combined. let's just talk about a few of the beneficiaries of joe biden's jailbreak. jacqueline mills stole $3 million that was intended for hungry arkansas kids and low income families.

-- defrauded medicare by diluting chemotherapy drugs and reusing old needles on cancer patients. at least one patient at least one contracted hiv as a result. fraudster paul birks ran merrily $1 billion ponzi scheme that robbed 900,000 investors of their money. drug dealer wendy heckman and her husband manufactured and distributed super deadly carfentanil unleashing an epidemic of drug overdoses in omaha. another drug dealer killed a 31-year-old relapsing addict by selling her fentanyl, which is 50 times stronger than heroin she thought she was buying. -- traffic heroin, fentanyl, cocaine, methamphetamine and

guns for the vicious new generation cartel. joe biden even commuted the sentence of a serial killer, virginia grave was known as the black widow for murdering to my cousins and a boyfriend and collecting insurance money. perhaps the present would reconsider this decision if you knew anything about mrs. gray, but he didn't because yet again he and the white house officials did not review individual cases on the merits. they didn't pick up the case file. they didn't talk to victims or families. then there's the parade of corrupt public officials, the worst of home is michael conahan, the so-called cash for kids judge who accepted kickbacks in exchange for his role in sending more than 2300

children to private detention centers, including an eight-year-old. again, a judge in pennsylvania sentenced more than 2300 children to private juvenile detention centers in return for cash kickbacks. one man he said the jail later killed himself. he was just 23. his mother said that she is shocked and hurt by joe biden's commutation. yet again the president did not review the case individually. president biden also commuted the sense of an ohio commissioner who took $450,000 in bribes. he even commuted the sentence of rita cromwell, a city comptroller from illinois who embezzled $54 million. she was responsible for not only

the biggest city embezzlement scandal in history of illinois. she was responsible for the biggest municipal and investment investment scandal in history of america up to that time. i understand we have disagreements about criminal justice and the democrats don't always share my view on these things but for years we heard lectures about the rule of law and how joe biden the democrats are the defenders of democracy. yet joe biden is one who commuted the sentences of the very public officials who most threaten the public trust in our democracy. the american people also know joe biden issued these commutations or a simple reason. it helps cover up the corrupt pardon that he issued to his corrupt son to protect his family. i think we should condemn all of

these pardons and certainly condemn the president for not individually reviewing the merits of the cases. but again i understand my democratic colleagues don't agree with that so i only offer a resolution to condemn one pardon. simply one. maybe the worst of them all, the convocation of michael conahan, the cash for kids judge who took cash kickbacks and bribes to sentence more than 2300 kids to private detention centers. the judge who re we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are not. mr. cornyn: mr. president, it's hardly breaking news that this is december 20, five days before christmas, a day celebrated by two billion people throughout

the world. it's also the last day of the 118th congress, and there's no better time than the present to take stock of what we've done or not done this last year. students around the country wrapped up their semester and they have come home with a report card to show their parents the grades they've earned in things like math, science, english, and other subjects. of course report cards are a helpful metric, advancement or not, as the case may be. it's also a means to hold people accountable -- where they are excelling, where they need to improve. here in the senate i think it's important to issue the democratic majority a similar report card style evaluation, and people may wonder, well, why would it just be of the democratic majority and not the

senate as a whole? well, obviously each of us are -- represent our respective states, but there's one important difference. only the majority leader, the democratic majority leader, sets the senate schedule. that means we consider bills that only he calls up for consideration. no one else in the senate. not the other 99 of us can schedule bills for votes. that also means what he does not schedule on the senate's calendar is not considered, including bills that have passed the house, even by broad bipartisan majorities. in a few short days, all the bills that he has chosen not to schedule will suffer a quiet death. the majority leader's ability to run this chamber has repercussions, in every state, city, and community across the

country. as public servants, we are all accountable to the people we serve, and leaders of the institution should be accountable as well, which is what i want to proceed to do now. last year the majority leader's report card at the halfway mark of the congressional session showed that he had quite a bit of room for improvement in the second half of this two-year session. but unfortunately, i'm sorry to report, he did not improve his performances last year. in fact, in the recent referendum on senate democrats' performance, which is the general election of november 5, the american people voted for republicans to take over the reins of the senate next year, because they believe the senate and the country was headed in the wrong direction. so let's start with government funding. that seems a particular -- to be particularly timely now, since here we are in another

government shutdown narrative, which is i will show, or tend to show, is entirely contrived, and is by design and not the way the senate should be running. you recall, last year the majority leader earned an incomplete on this subject. so, i had hopes that we would see a change in the way we handled government funding. so the first two months of this calendar year we spent processing -- we saw the appropriations committee pass bipartisan appropriations bills that were never scheduled on the senate floor. now, we find ourselves in the exact same situation as last year. the appropriations committee did their work, again, on a bipartisan basis. many of the 12 bills they passed were passed unanimously, but never called up or scheduled for votes here in the senate.

leader schumer made the exact same mistake he made last year. he procrastinated on scheduling floor time to consider the bills, and we are, even now as i speak, dealing with the funding decisions that should have been decided and settled last september. so, here we are, less than three days before sending -- less than three days before the senate was scheduled to head home, he negotiated a text of a bill that was more than 1500 pages. now, you might wonder why is it that he would fail to call up the 12 funding bills for the entire rest of the year, and then three days before we're supposed to leave for the christmas recess propose a 1500-page bill? well, it should seem pretty obvious. it's because the people who negotiate that bill are not the

rank-and-file members of the senate. as a matter of fact, they don't even get a chance to change negotiated product, which is done between the so-called big four. so, he was hoping to shove through a cramnibus that lawmakers would not even have had time to read, and he snuck in a pay raise for congress, to boot. now it's only a few days before the end of the year, and we are in the exact same boat we found ourselves last year. we were tasked -- we're now tasked with passing a continuing resolution to kick the can down the road even more, into march. again, this should have been addressed last september. i must say i'm disappointed, but not entirely surprised. it was part of a plan. so, i believe that on the appropriations process, keeping the lights on and keeping government open, the report card

for the democratic majority and the majority leader is an f. now let's turn to national defense authorization act. i've said time and time again on this floor that something that i think we all recognize, this is the most dangerous world since world war ii, with north korea sending soldiers to fight with the russians in ukraine, with kim jong unlaunching missiles over allies of the united states into the sea of japan. with hamas and hezbollah and the houthis, the proxies for tehran killing innocent people, and then of course the war in ukraine, which has tragically gone on for two years, with hundreds of thousands of people dead. so, you would think one of the most important things we would do is pass the national defense

authorization act, something we've done literally 63 years in a row. that law should have been signed -- that bill should have been signed into law by the end of the last fiscal year, which is september 30. yes, once again, the majority leader, the only person who can schedule these bills on the floor, procrastinated. that bill was finally completed the last week of the year, more than two months past the deadline. just like government funding, the majority leader did not learn from his mistakes on the ndaa. two days ago, on wednesday of this week, he actually came down here and brazenly acknowledged what many people had said, that they were worried we would not even be able to pass the defense authorization bill this year, because he hadn't scheduled it for consideration on the floor. but he came down and bragged

that, yes, here we are, we're going to vote on the ndaa, but it's a conference report that rank-and-file members have never had the chance to debate and amend on the senate floor. this again was a bill negotiated behind closed doors, not in the light of day, with senators, all 100 senators, having a chance to participate. it was just a railroad job. well, he acts like this is the way he handled it was to his credit, but just the opposite was true. next we have the farm bill. a strong and on-time farm bill is essential to the health and well-being of the agriculture industry, the american people, and our economy. texas, which i'm proud to represent, is home to more than 230,000 farms and ranches, more than any other state in the country. one out of e seven texans -- one

out of every seven texans worked in an ag-related job. this legislation provides critical life lines for the folks back home. here again, last year the senate failed to pass a farm bill on a timely basis, and instead kicked the can down the road. unfortunately, recently the chair of the agriculture committee, a democratic chair, waited until november, that was just last month, to release a partisan farm bill that was simply not going to cut it for our farmers and ranchers back home, and it had no chance of passing because it was strictly a party line partisan bill. instead of working together on a bipartisan basis to pass a fair and effective farm bill on time, we had to scramble to include farm assistance in the end-of-the-year continuing resolution. that was part of the 1500-page bill that the majority leader and others negotiated.

which unfortunately does not look like it's going to go anywhere. that part of it, the farm assistance. but we wouldn't have needed to do that, at least not the scale at which that farm assistance was provided for, if we had simply done our work on time and passed a timely farm bill. of course, this continuing resolution, or whatever the house will end up sending to us, doesn't allow producers to plan, doesn't give them certainty for multiple years. the least congress can do to our farmers and ranchers, for them, is to provide them agricultural assistance now. playing politics with the livelihoods of the very people who grow our crops that feed the world is unacceptable. that's why getting our work done on a farm bill on time is so important. and it is something that the republican majority will deliver on next year.

for this congress, the democratic leader, once again, has earned an f, for failing to pass a timely farm bill. well, with the c-plus on the ndaa and multiple f's, we have to wonder what has senator schumer been doing all year. what has the senate been doing all year, if we haven't done our work on time? what has happened? the answer is we simply squandered our time. there are 365 days in a year. according to my colleague, the incoming senate majority leader, john thune, in 2024, the senate had been in session only 116 days out of 365. 116 days as of today. last year, we were in session a little bit longer, 124 days.

but this year, we had nine mondays during the regular session weeks when the senate took an extra recess day off. so we came in on tuesday, left on thursday. honestly, looking at it, we only worked about two and a half days a week. i'm relieved that the incoming ger majority leader is going to put this chamber back to work and produce our time on time next year. the majority leader has also wasted a significant part of the year with the summer of show votes, when he could have been getting this other essential work done. show votes are something that he knows are not going to pass but are designed for political messaging or to embarrass opposing political party. we voted on a number of bills that were never intended to pass. we vogted on a -- voted on a tax package that hadn't been considered here in the senate by the finance committee, mere hours before the senate was scheduled for a recess.

this is a huge bill that hadn't received any input from the senate finance committee, none. it could not have been more clear that the majority leader was playing games, not actually trying to produce a legislative result. so the only subject where the democratic leader was remotely successful is this last one here, procrastination. he gets an a. but no one takes a class in procrastination. recess is not a subject that receives a grade either. in short, this is an embarrassing report card for the majority leader and the democratic majority this last year. it's no surprise, given this lackluster performance, that the american people chose a different direction in the november 5 election. while i'm disappointed, i'm very much looking forward to working with my republican colleagues

and president trump and any willing democrat who's willing to join us to make sure we can report back to the american people with some better news and a better report card next year. mr. president, i yield the floor. mr. schatz: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from hawaii.

mr. schatz: thanks, mr. president. earlier this week i spoke about the historic accomplishments on the senate committee indian affairs with my good friend and ranking member lisa murkowski. i made it very clear the foundation of this success was and continues to be native leaders, communities, and advocates sharing their priorities and telling us what's most important to them. i also emphasize that we cannot and will not rest on our laurels because our progress is still in progress, and that's why today we have to pass s. 1723, the truth in healing commission on indian boarding schools policy act. this would establish a federal investigation for the boarding school era when the federal government partnered with private insing using tos -- insti institutions for children where

they were far from their families, beaten and abused both mentally and physically. thousands, likely more, died at those schools. those who returned home were never the same. the truth in healing commission would turn the page on this shameful era and help the healing process for native survivors and families, and those who experience the generational trauma and lasting legacy. this bill passed out of the committee, since then vice chair murkowski and i have worked with senator warren to accommodate feedback. the current version of this legislation is the result of hundreds of hours of drafting, redrafting, discussion, and tough negotiations.

i'll now turn it over to -- i'll never turn it over to the vice chair for some remarks before i make a unanimous consent request. the presiding officer: the senator from alaska. ms. murkowski: mr. president, i want to thank and just a couple minutes of the way you will use will you know so

global will you will and great you you all little was argues you. this will will will lucas all will is so sure news of dollars will lose out degrees of urgency to walk of minutes.

cool so on illegal you all great of why is it will follow lisa's you great involved cells of the this really good is doing great you is some years ago you will partner on this legislation as well as on so

many other matters that we've been able to advance successfully through the committee. my thanks to the chairman's team and to mine as the ranking member on the committee, we've done good work. it's been a successful year for the committee and i'm hoping -- hoping that there is a path somehow that this legislation will actually be able to be taken up by the house of representatives and signed into law. that with be a good and fitting end. mr. schatz: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from hawaii. mr. schatz: as if in legislative session and notwithstanding rule 22, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of calendar number 432, s. 1723. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 431, s. 123 -- 723.

the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will proceed. mr. schatz: i ask unanimous consent that the committee-reported substitute amendment be withdrawn, the murkowski substitute amendment at the desk be considered and agreed to, the bill, as amended be considered read a third time. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schatz: i know of no further debate on the bill, as amendeded. the presiding officer: is there further debate? if not, all those in favor say aye. all those opposed, no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the build, as amended, is passed. mr. schatz: i ask the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schatz: thank you, mr. president. it is no small task for us to confront the un-daschle burden of our -- unbearable burden of our history, but to not act -- we have to turn the light on,

and this is the work that we've done in the senate now and we do hope the house tax action and passes this incredibly important measure into law. i yield the floor. ms. cortez masto: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from nevada.

ms. cortez masto: thank you, mr. president. throughout my career i've been committed to tackling the drug problem in this country and protecting our communities. i have passed bills to hold criminals accountable and crack down on fentanyl manufacturing and trafficking. but i'm here today because our work to protect americans from these harmful drugs is far from over. as we continue our work to keep our families safe from fentanyl, we must also focus on new drugs that are emerging like xilozine, drug traffickers are been adding it to fentanyl to boost their profits. and it's nickname is trank because it is an animal tranquilizer. i have been hearing about how

xilozine is spreading to the west. between 2019 and 2022, the number of overdose deaths skyrocketed by 276%. xilozine is almost entirely unregulated. we have to get ahead of it. that's why we have to have the bipartisan bicameral xl azine bill. this has the support of over 115 bipartisan members of congress in both chambers because it's essential. this legislation would make xlazine -- would help to get the resources we need to get it off

the street and use it as a veterinary tranquilizer. this legislation also gives our veterinarians the ability to still have access to this drug which they need as a tranquilizer for their animals. this is not a partisan issue. we all want to keep our families safe from horrific drugs. we must sglet this harmful -- we must get this harmful drug out of neighborhoods, out of the hands of our kids so that we can save lives. so, mr. president, as if in legislative session and notwithstanding rule 22, i ask unanimous consent that the committee on the judiciary be discharged from further consideration of s. 993, and the senate proceed to its immediate consideration. further, that the cortez masto-grassley substitute amendment at the desk be agreed

to, the bill, as amended be considered read a third time and passed, and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: is there objection? a senator: reserving the right to object. the presiding officer: the senator from massachusetts. mr. markey: thank you, mr. president. and i thank senator cortez masto for being such a leader on fighting the opioid epidemic. she is on the front line of conducting that battle against the scourge and we are both here on the floor today in an effort to find the best solutions for addressing this crisis. we lost over 105,000 americans to overdose last year. that's over one million people in a decade who would die at that pace.

and to put this in more concrete terms, we lost more americans in a single year to overdose than in the entirety of the vietnam war or the korean war, and that was just one year, 105,000 people. for every death we unleash waves of grief and hurt on families that lose one of their own. 105,000 deaths is more than unacceptable. it is a tragedy and this epidemic is made worse by the scourge of xylazine. americans need solutions that work, and in developing those solutions, we must be cautious about any unintended consequences and i am concerned of the unintended consequences of passing the xylazine act.

it would be passed as a schedule three drug and it is to create restrictions based on a balance of the substance's legitimate medical use and potential for abuse. and in the united states we have a process to schedule xylazine, we have a process that is time tested that provides the department of health services. as the drug enforcement administration indicated, they have already started that process. so instead of waiting for the scientific and medical evaluation to be completed, this bill would actually require we skip the process and let congress decide what scheduling is the most appropriate. but ultimately, you know, this process is something which i

believe has to be given to respect -- due respect. if we schedule this without waiting for the experts, this could lead to more people struggling with addiction, having a harder time asking for help and less research into xylazine testing and treatment. i don't think we should skip over expert recommendations to avoid unintended consequences and efforts to skip scientific evaluation should not be supported by the dea. working to undercut the administration's own health experts in their role for a recommendation. there is a tension between the dea and our health officials in terms of the processes we should be using. i understand part of the justification for a legislative

solution is to create solutions for veterinarians. we need to have a complete medical and scientific recommendation and i lock forward obviously to working with my great friend senator cortez masto, who is, again, a great leader in the battle against the opioid epidemic to identify the appropriate legislative solution once we've obtained that medical recommendation from the medical experts. i look forward to working with the drug enforcement administration in making a serious effort to support americans who are struggling with addiction and that includes increasing access to medication treatment, including methadone for opioid use disorder. we agree xylazine is dangerous. our overdose epidemic is unacceptable and we need

solutions and i'm honored to work with senator cortez masto in this fight. we have solutions that we can pursue. we need to pass the support act reauthorization. we need to give communities the tools to test and respond to substances coming in to their communities. we need to train and support law enforcement and health providers responding to overdose after overdose and we need to break down old war on drugs structure to make it nearly impossible for americans to get treatment they need to without getting criminalized and stigmatized. we cannot provide solutions that offer the potential of undermining the process that has been in place to rely upon medical and scientific evaluation and then work in coordination with the drug enforcement agency. and for that set of reasons, at this time, mr. president, i object. the presiding officer: objection

is heard. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from nevada. ms. cortez masto: thank you, mr. president. i absolutely respect my colleague from massachusetts and look forward to working with him. let me just put on the record here the concern and why this legislation is so necessary. time is of the essence here. we're talking about saving lives. never ever would we want to undermine the process to move forward, but unfortunately in this case the process moving forward is going to take one time that we know is very bureaucratic. two, the process moving forward, if we are to wait for it, does not take into consideration our veterinarians and farmer and ranchers. if we wait for the proposal to come forward from the dea, that proposal will not carve out and still allow this particular drug xylazine to be utilized by our veterinarians and farmers. it will absolutely make it a schedule 3 and take it off

completely. that's why this legislation was essential. and that is why working with our veterinarians and working with the dea and the entire executive branch, we wanted to bring them into this process without undermining that process to make sure that we were doing everything possible to address this in a timely manner. it is also why earlier this year the executive branch issued several legislative proposals in its deekt and defeat counter fentanyl proposal which was shared with congress. those proposals made a provision to make xylazine a schedule 3 drug. the proposal to make xylazine a schedule 3 is supported by the entire executive branch including specifically the department of health and human services and the food and drug administration. they have been brought in to this process. those are the health experts. that's what this is about.

the goal was to bring everybody together now, so we can make this a timely legislation and move it because time is of the essence if we are to save lives. that's why honestly many of the veterinarian associations across the country, including massachusetts, support this process. they dmot want to be left out. if we are to wait for the d.a. process to go forward, there is not going to be a carve-out for veterinarians to access this drug. this is my attempt and senator grassley working with the key stakeholders on good legislation that make sense, that's common sense to move forward here, and nobody was left out of the process, including the health experts. i'm disappointed we can't move this today, but i am hopeful working with my colleague from massachusetts that we can provide him the necessary information that he is seeking to move this legislation in a timely manner, because i know he cares about this issue, about saving lives as well. so thank you, mr. chairman.

a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. wyden: earlier this week democrats and republicans from both the house and senate made a deal that struck a blow against the health care middlemen that manipulate our health care system to enrich themselves. unfortunately the very first act of the second trump administration, or should i say the first musk administration, was to step in and strip out the bipartisan agreement that stopped the drug middlemen known as pharmacy benefit managers from ripping off taxpayers and seniors. we all understand that health care is an unavoidable expense for most american families.

it's why i went into public service. health care is not a democratic or a republican issue. it's a family issue. and we know if you or your loved ones don't have their health, everything else in the house goes by the board. unfortunately, the chaos sown by the president-elect and his billionaire mini me -- though again it's hard to tell which is which -- it served to protect the middlemen, the pharmacy benefit managers and insurance companies that take money out of the system while our families are stuck with big medical bills and substandard care. now, donald trump spent the last two weeks telling everybody who will listen that he wants to take on the drug middlemen.

let me quote donald trump here. he said they're rich as hell. he said we're going to knock them out. well, at the very first opportunity to do that, he abandoned that pledge in order to follow elon musk's lead. you don't choose to do business with pharmacy managers, but i'll tell you they are dining out on your paycheck nevertheless. he's pbm squat between big pharma and insurance companies. while they're supposed to negotiate coverage and the price of prescription medicine for your insurance plan, they ended up favoring higher-priced drugs by take a fee that is linked to the price of the drug. now the effort to reform these pbm practices has been

bipartisan from the get it ought to be a no-brainer. i think i told the president of the senate, the senator from ed idaho, we kicked this off two years ago and the senate finance committee passed a bill 26-0 and the house of representatives has worked in a similarly bipartisan way. our legislation would end the practice of profiting off higher practices, higher prices in medicare by ensuring that a pbm can only receive a flat fee from drugmakers. that's going to save taxpayers and seniors hard-earned dollars because finally these pharmacy benefit managers are going to have an incentive to pick lower-price drugs. so let me just pause on that point for a second. these middlemen are not the good

guys. earlier this week -- and i heard my colleagues talking about matters involving opioids. "the new york times" reported that in negotiations with opioid manufacturers like purdue pharma, the pharmacy benefit managers traded away protections designed to reduce the rate of opioid overdoses and addiction in order to make yet another fast buck. these, mr. president, are the people donald trump is letting off the hook at elon musk's direction. the bipartisan agreement, i might also add, is particularly important for us westerners because we've seen our small independent community pharmacies hit so hard. these small businesses have been closing their doors at an alarming rate over the past decade. again, in large part due to the practices by these pbm giants. the pharmacy benefit managers

are able to pay independent pharmacies whatever they feel like, and then the little pharmacy in arizona or oregon or idaho or anywhere else, the small pharmacies have got to accept what the pbm's will pay. what we do in our bipartisan legislation, what a number of committees in the senate have worked on, what has been the effort in the house and what our program is all about is giving the small pharmacies a chance to fight back by reporting unreasonable contract terms to a federal watchdog who is in a position to enforce a fair contract. that's going to mean that independent community pharmacies are paid what they're owed and keep their doors open in rural america without having to pay off the pbm's by gouging customers. beyond the drug middlemen, i'm going to mention several other areas, mr. president, that the

bipartisan legislation cracks down on in terms of helping the american people. the bipartisan legislation goes after ghost networks that are blocking americans from getting the care they need. what these ghost networks are all about is essentially the insurance companies take your money and then there aren't any providers, any navigators, there isn't anybody to help you get your coverage. so under what we are calling for in a bipartisan way, the insurance companies would have to have a list of doctors that actually are going to make care available, so americans who need care can contact them, make an appointment, and not have to pay extra costs, mr. president, by going out of the health care network they paid for. too often based on investigations conducted by the government accountability office as well as the investigative staff of the finance committee, we have found that essentially

these ghost networks mean there's no there there. you've paid your money and you can't get access to real care. either the doctors don't take new patients, nobody picks up the phone, you aren't the able to get what you paid for. finally, the bipartisan agreement that donald trump has directed be rejected, the bipartisan agreement strengthens requirements for insurance companies that sell medicare advantage plans to make sure that their directories are actually up to date. once again we're seeing an area that cries out for reform because americans across the political spectrum are sick and tired of paying premiums for health insurance only to find they can't actually get care when they need it. so medicare advantage, ghost networks, these are the areas that we're strengthening in our bipartisan effort.

i'll close by saying there's a lot more to like in the legislation when it comes to health care. continuing access to telehealth and medicare. again, mr. president, bipartisan. the late senator orrin hatch negotiated with me the chronic care bill which had telemedicine provisions which became the foundation for what we did to fight covid, again, during the trump administration. but we're not getting the benefits of telehealth if we reject this bipartisan agreement, as donald trump is urging. so telemedicine is in our p package p. higher funding for community health centers. i want to commend senator sanders and senator cassidy for working in a bipartisan way on that. and we also have improvements to help moms and kids and americans with disabilities and seniors with medicaid coverage. those are the dual eligibles, folks eligible for medicaid and medicare. i come to the floor simply to

say, mr. president, we've got the holidays coming up. everybody understands that. but there's another gift we can give to the american people, and that is a more fair shake in american health care. we're spending enough money, mr. president. we're spending over $4 trillion. there are 330 million of us. divide the 330 million into $4 trillion, you could send every family of four in america a check for $50,000, say get your health care. we're not spending it in the right places. and i'll tell you in many instances the reason that's the case is because of these middle men. they made sense 30 years ago when you didn't have all the technology and all the data and people who knew how to use it. but today these pharmacy benefit managers are in too many instances ripping off seniors

and taxpayers, and i hope donald trump will see that our bipartisan bill is important to do now, important to do before we go home, and give some relief to seniors and taxpayers. with that, mr. president, i yield the floor.

see different place if it's hard as a senator. and commitment hoping would like

to see the senate is a copy to the senate maintains an aspect. >> the most and judges and justices the role men the

effects and the decisions up and down% the law of the cost. that no small legacy leader of the senate rules committee. the senate and our country.

>> is republicans work in a bipartisan way very soon, the government will shutdown. it is time to go back to these agreements. time the house votes. it is the quickest and easiest way we can make for the government stays open. the house put it on the floor

today, it would pass and that's threat of shutdown behind us. our agreement be behind us. support our seniors, doctors and nurses and protect our farmers the only way to get anything done this bipartisan. >> hardly breaking news, december the 20th, five days for christmas celebrated 2 billion people throughout the world. the one 19th congress and there's no better time to take stock of what we done or not done this last year.

students wrapped up their semester come home with the report card math, science, english of the subjects. and not as the case may be and hold people accountable when they are excelling and why would be the democratic majority? each of us have our respective states but there's an important difference.

no one else in the senate. and past and all the bills he

and past is filled in the senate will we find ourselves in the same situation of last year and did their work on bipartisan basis. never called up was scheduled. the exact/procrastinated consider the bills even now as i

speak less than three days before scheduled in 1500 pages. failed to call the funding bills and then three days before and proposed 1800 page bill. it should seem pretty obvious and they are not the rank-and-file in the senate so-called export and was hoping

lawmakers would not have the time to read and pay raise. now it's only a few days before the end of the year. we are tossed passing the continuing resolution the can down the road even morenorth

korea to fight with the russian warring developments in mexico and promote a solution in which we can all work together in the next congress. i also need to call out actions by our own u.s. trade representative that would undermine american companies facing threats from mexico by allowing the mexican government to expropriate their properties. under the leadership of mexico's previous president, obrador and the current president, the

mexican government is committing a blatant theft against a major american company and by extension the united states itself. earlier this year emlow launched a campaign of intimidation to support theft of assets in mexico materials, an alabama-based company, a trusted partner in our nation's infrastructure development for decades. balkan built and operated the only deep water port on the yucatan peninsula and used it to supply crushed limestone for infrastructure projects from florida to california. balkan's operations in mexico are not just a business venture, they form a critical link in our supply chain and a testament to the importance of american investment in mexico. but amlow decided that he wanted balkan's assets for himself. cloaking his true intentions under the facade of environmental claims, amlow shut

down balkan's operations sent armed law enforcement and the military to intimidate balkan's employees and now under his hand-picked successor, mexico is now seizing balkan's deep water port. president shinebalm seeks to finalize this theft by declaring the property a naturally protected area. let's call this what it is. corruption dressed up as environmentalism. this is not protection. it's plunder. lending any credence to this authorization is absurd. these actions violate international norms, they trample over u.s.-canada free trade agreement, again, an agreement where america actually gives prevention trade treatment to mexico.

surely america's government is standing up for her own nation's interest in the face of this brazen misconduct by the government of mexico, right? sadly, no. a key reason for the current circumstances is an absence of american leadership, especially at the office of the united states trade representative. america's top trade representative, america's top trade negotiator, the u.s. trade representative katherine tai along with our state department stood idly by while amlo and sheinbaumesque lafted their anti-american agenda. their inaction sent a dangerous signal that the united states will allow businesses around the world to be bullied, its laws to be ignored and its negotiated agreements to be undermined. and it gets worse. now as reported in the "wall street journal," we're learning that the office of the u.s. trade representative is siding

with mexico against the interest of u.s. firms by reinterpreting trade rules in a way that will erode the rights of american investors whose property was either confiscated or expropriated. according to news reports, ustr wants to limit the ability to seek redress by american companies whose property is expropriated. i stand here before my colleagues in the senate asking why neither congress nor the u.s. companies that would be impacted by these actions were ever consulted before the ustr stealthily moved to offer the agreement in a manner that undermines american interest. ambassador tai and ustr leadership need to understand how negatively their actions will be viewed by this congress. i can assure you they'll not be forgotten. making last-minute 11th hour

changes to agreements without review from congress or u.s. companies that would be negatively impacted is outright malpractice. it's a slap in the face of american investors and employers who have risked their capital overseas. and it will drive scarcity and inflation of critical infrastructure materials in the u.s. if mexico is allowed to confiscate these assets, including a very strategic deep water port. the implications of mexico's theft and the failure of u.s. trade officials go far beyond welcome materials. they directly attack the foundational principles of reciprocal trade, investor protection, and the rule of law. if mexico is a thousand dollar target without repercussion a company like vul can, one that employs thousands of americans and operated responsibly in mexico for decades, that means no american business is safe in mexico. this kind of lawlessness will

shatter investor confidence in mexico. why would any u.s. company risk capital in a country where contracts are meaningless, regulations are weaponized and property can be seized at the government's whim? this erosion of trust threatens not only american jobs, but also the economic integration of north america, which many think is vital to our national security and our global competitiveness. let's remember what the usmca was supposed to be, a safeguard for traded investment, a framework to protect the rule of law and a cornerstone of north american prosperity. amlo and sheinbaum expropriated vulcan's port and pursuing an antiinvestor agenda. they are acting like saboteurs of the partnership that binds our two nations. congress must respond with strength and resolve.

rather than roll over under the rules of environmentalism, the united states trade representative should follow its duty as stated on its own website to protect american rights under our trade agreements and, quote, ensure american workers, farmer and rancher and businesses receive the maximum benefit under our international trade graechlt what the ustr is complianting is anything but that. that is why we're fully committed to passing s. 5137. this legislation will ensure that those who benefit from stolen american assets, whether they be individuals or government's, face substantial consequences. the p defending american property abroad act will prohibit vessels that utilize proengs educated american -- ex-proponent educated infrastructure from entering u.s. ports. it will bar facilities from u.s. trade and mandate a full counting of these escalations in

the 2026 review. it will make clear to president sheinbaum that the united states will not tolerate the theft of american property. amlo and sheinbaum must understand that their actions will have serious consequences. i will not stand by as mexico betrays its commitments and undermines decades of cooperation. the united states must defend its companies, its workers and its principles with unwavering strength. that's why i'm calling on my colleagues to join me and urgently finals and passing the defending american property abroad access in the next congress. mexico's actions are a techt of our resolve. if we fail, we will invite further aggression not just from mexico, but from every foreign leader watching to see if america will defend its interest. the united states should never

be bullied, stolen from or too feckless to respond to efforts to undermine its strength and sovereignty. and here at home, ustr leadership must reverse course from its plan to renegotiate trade rules and pull the rug from under u.s. firms. a particularly disgraceful capstone for the reputation of this outgoing administration. mr. president, i yield the floor to my colleague from virginia. mr. warner: mr. president, the presiding officer: the senator from virginia. mr. warner: mr. president, i'm glad to be here with my colleagues from tennessee and alabama to speak about this mexican government's unfair discriminatory treatment of vulcan materials and encourage colleagues to support the defending american property abroad act. mr. kaine: before i get into the details, and i see i'm engendering an ling amazing response from the gallery, i was a strong supporter of the usmca.

nafta was 20 years old and any deal after 20 years, you would have learned what worked, what didn't, how to make it better and i viewed usmca as significant achievement of the trump administration which i was glad to support. it got the overwhelming and bipartisan support of this body as well as the house. i'm very worried about incursions into this deal. we'll have plenty of time to talk next year about one worry i have, which is the incoming administration's proposal to levy tariffs against canada and mexico. my thought is once you have a trade agreement that's a state-of-the-art trade agreement that has been voted for by an overwhelming bipartisan majority, that gives you an avenue of communication that you should be able to use with canada and mexico and you shouldn't need to use tariffs p against these trade partners. you should use the framework of the agreement to resolve disputes that you have. but that's a matter for another

day. today i want to talk about in some detail the matter that my friend and colleague, senator hagerty, raised, which is the treatment of vulcan materials. and it's not just the treatment of vulcan but what it might say either about the mexican's government of american companies generally or frankly the american government's posture of either battling to protect american companies or standing by while they're mistreated. vulcan is headquartered in alabama. i see colleagues from alabama on the floor. but it employs over a thousand people in virginia, nearly 70 facilities in the commonwealth of virginia. vulcan has been operating in the yucatan peninsula for more than 30 years. senator hagerty and i came to the floor to talk about this matter a number of months ago in the hopes that we might be able to avert what the amlo administration has done, but nevertheless even in a transition of government, mexico has continued to ratchet up efforts to seize vulcan's

property in the yucatan. these actions against vulcan were initiated, to be sure, by the lopez obrador administration, but with the inauguration of the new president sheinbaum earlier in 2024, these efforts that would continue to degrade the rule of law in mexico continue. they're chilling investor confidence, making mexico a more challenging place for american firms to do business. in august i joined senators are cardin, risch and rubio in expressing our deep concern over proposed constitution reforms in mexico -- the presiding officer: senate will be in order. mr. kaine: separate and apart from the matter of vulcan there is a large context of action in mexico that should cause us some significant concerns. there is a judicial reform under way in mexico promoted by the amlo administration that was widely viewed by sichl actors within mexico, human rights and

other organizations as an effort to undermine the independence of the judiciary and make it harder for the mexican judiciary to stand up against actions, illegal actions by the mexican government. we strongly urged the amlo administration in this bipartisan letter as well as the incoming administration to pursue only reforms that enhanced the professionalism and the independence of the judiciary, but unfortunately neither administration has heeded our call and instead moved forward on implementing reforms that weaken the independence of the mexican judiciary. taken together, the direct bad faith actions against vulcan and the administration's insistence on degrading the independence of the mexican judiciary are jeopardizing critical economic security interests of both of our nations. mexico is one of the top three trade partners with the united

states whether you measure by outgoing or incoming top three. and certainly it's the same in virginia. our two countries have a long history of friendship and our cultural ties run deep. nafta integrated supply chains in the u.s., canada, and mexico in a degree i view as generally positive. we share traditions of democracy, and they require consistent work to ensure strong and independent institutions. looking more closely at the usmca in particular, my colleague talked about worries that rules are being renegotiated around the resolution of disputes that would make it harder for vulcan and companies like vulcan to seek assistance. we've been in this free trade agreement for three decades now. in exchange for preferential access to american markets, which has resulted in the intertwined supply chain that i described, mexico committed to uphold certain standards