mr. cornyn: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mr. cornyn: are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are not. mr. cornyn: i thank the chair. mr. president, as my friend, the republican leader, likes to remind us, the senate is not just a legislative body. we're also in the personnel business. one of the senate's core responsibilities is to provide advice and consent for the president's nominees for a range of important jobs throughout the federal government. in fact, it's a constitutional duty of the senate to perform that function. when the president is of the opposing party, there is all but a guarantee that you will not see eye to eye with every nominee, but the process isn't just about politics or judging nominees based on whether their opinions align with your own or not. as i see it, we are charged with evaluating these individuals to see if they are qualified, not only to carry out the duties of their position but will also do so with honor and integrity. take attorney general merrick garland, for example. when the sena

mr. cornyn: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mr. cornyn: i ask unanimous consent the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cornyn: mr. president, in a state as big as texas, as the presiding officer knows, having lived in and around houston for a number of years in his previous life, we rely on a strong network of roads and bridges to travel safely and efficiently. we have got i-35 which spans the entire length of texas from north to south and from laredo all the way to dallas-fort worth. much of that stretch, it seems like, it feels like, is constantly under some construction. there are bridges that are part of people's daily commutes like r.m. 2090 -- excuse me, r.m. 2900. after this bridge was destroyed by floodwaters a few years back, it didn't just create inconveniences in the community but also risks. it can take a firefighter an hour to get around the water. largely the texas department of transportation construction crews didn't waste any time and i was able to join the dedication less t

mr. cornyn: mr.president? the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mr. cornyn: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cornyn: mr. president, the new power dynamic in washington has brought about a frenzy of proposed institutional changes by our friends across the aisle. the american people elected a democrat president -- that's true. they reduced the democratic majority in the house and elected a 50-50 senate. in all of congress there are seven more democrats than republicans. that's all. self isn't out of 5 -- seven out of 535 members. despite these tight margins, our friends have tried to characterize this new power dynamic as a mandate. first came the push to eliminate the filibuster. just a few years ago, the idea of such a radical change terrified our democratic colleagues. we certainly didn't do it when we were in a position to do it, notwithstanding the encouragement of president trump. when republicans

mr. cornyn: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from texas is recognized. mr. rnyn: madam president, over the last few months we've been spending a lot of time talking about the surge of migrants at our southern border. as the presiding officer knows, we are having bipartisan meetings here to try to figure out how to address that and other challenges of our broken immigration system. we know the spike in migration is not a new phenomenon, and sadly, neither is a dramatic increase in the number of unaccompanied children. but the current surge is unlike anything we've experienced in the past. we're breaking all the wrong kinds of records, including the numbers of unaccompanied children, total monthly border crossings, and capacity levels at care facilities. and of course all of this is happening during a pandemic, which creates serious risks for our law enforcement and for those caring for these migrants and for the migrants themselves. unfortunately, the administration has not yet figured out how to stop this flow of illegal immigration. the president and his tea

mr. cornyn. as i learned in a young boy in a small black church the choir has all thing with army army of us all and now it's time to talk to her witnesses and i'm very excited to introduce our witnesses and i will ask my ranking member to introduce the other witnesses. if i can find my notes here forgive me. if i can get my introduction here, thank you very much. the first witness is major martin smith the commander of the baltimore police department education and training section where he's responsible for the development and delivery of new recruit training and continuing education for approximately 3000 personnel. he also leads the baltimore crisis response program and he has served as the chief of staff to the police commissioner and commander. he holds up that's what degree of arts and creighton university and a masters of criminal justice degree from washington university. and we have the director of the judd foundation and codirector of the mental health strategic impact initiative and sh

mr. cornyn: madam president, i was grateful for the opportunity like i'm sure we all were to be back home for the last two weeks for the state work period and to talk to our constituents. some of my conversations and i suspect i'm not alone, some of these conversations were virtual, but most -- most of us are glad to get back to whatever the next normal is and have more and more human interaction rather than the isolation and, frankly, some of the anxiety that comes along with being kept apart. we're social animals, we home beings, and we thrive on and i believe we need that kind of interaction. but so far this year most of it has been virtual. i did have a chance to speak to the texas hispanic chamber members and the members of the u.s. hispanic chamber as part of their annual legislative summit. like many of the folks who do fly-ins at least once a year, we've had to forego that. so this was a virtual meeting. but i did get a chance to hear from many of the members and their -- particularly their board members on the importance of our response to the pandemic and the progress that they

mr. chairman. >> senator cornyn. >> thank you, mr. chairman. me say to both of the nominees, i very much appreciate the fact that both of you have extensive trial court experience as practitioners and as a judge, in the case of ms. jackson, i think that's a very important qualification for somebody who's going to sit in judgment on an appellate court that they actually know how the trial courts operate and understand the appropriate standards of review on appeal. both of you have a very impressive background. i agree with my colleagues that it's important to have, that the public have confidence in the judiciary. and i think part of that confidence is knowing that people like them can serve on the bench and that we applaud that diversity. i've noticed a difference in the way those issues have been treated in the past when my democratic colleagues blocked, for example, janice rogers brown, an african-american on the d.c. circuit of miguel estrada. thankfully we've had some great judges in the western district of, northern district of texas. peop

senator cornyn: georgia has a no-excuse absentee voting provision in that law. as mrs. jones said in her written statement, connecticut, delaware, massachusetts, new hampshire -- >> keeping with our long-term commitment to lively gavel to gavel coverage of congress. we'll have to leave this program here. you can continue watching it online at c-span.org. u.s. house is about to start work on a d.c. statehood measure and immigration bill today. now to live coverage of the u.s. house here on c-span. the speaker pro tempore: the house will now be in order. our prayer today will be offered by chaplain kibben. chaplain kibben: would you pray with me? god our judge, as we anxious rble -- anxiously await the verdict from the judge in minnesota, we plead our case with you. as a country, we are rent with acrimony, torn by individual understandings of right and wronging fact and feelings and divided by a host of opinions on crime and punishment. call us to lay all of us, as hopeless as it appears, on your judgment seat. then lay your divine hand upon the outcome of this case and a

mr. chairman. sen. durbin: senator cornyn. sen. cornyn: thank you, mr. chairman. i appreciate the fact that both of you have trout court extent -- experience. i think that is very important -- is a very important qualification for someone who is going to sit in judgment on an appellate court. that they understand the appropriate standards of review on appeal. both of you have a very impressive background. i agree with my colleagues, it is important to have confidence in the judiciary. i think part of that confidence is knowing that people like them can serve on the bench and that we applaud that diversity. i have noticed a difference in the way those issues have been treated in the past when my democratic colleagues blocked, for example, janice rogers-brown , an african-american, miguel estrada. thankfully we have had some great judges in the western district, the northern district of texas. people like ada brown. then asian american judge jim ho. since our democratic colleagues seem to be placing so much emphasis on race, i just want to ask this question. none of

cornyn: mr. gardner, you said there is no early voting in new hampshire, but you don't believe that impact turnout. can you explain that? it seems counterintuitive. sec. gardner: it is counterintuitive, but it is factual. if you look at the shots i submitted to the committee, new hampshire has no early voting. we have election day and it stems back to our constitution. the second one is then no-fault absentee. that is unconstitutional in new hampshire. but if the chart is really important. if you look at the chart, i have been secretary of state during 12 presidential election years. the first five presidential elections, the state of oregon had a turnout higher than new hampshire. starting in 1996 after oregon decided to go to all male voting, we had seven presidential elections. oregon has had a turnout lower than new hampshire than all seven elections. so i have lived through these years watching results that take place in certain states and that's why i'm not projecting onto the country what

senator cornyn: georgia has a no-excuse absentee voting provision in that law. as mrs. jones said in her written statement, connecticut, delaware, massachusetts, new hampshire -- >> keeping with our long-term commitment to lively gavel to gavel coverage of congress. we'll have to leave this program here. you

senator john cornyn of tennis -- of texas said so much for mr. moderate.iden just gave the most ideological, ambitious speech of any president in generations. political headline, biden just gave most ideological ambitious speech of any democratic president in generations. we will touch on that. your thoughts on the address last night from president biden to the joint session of congress. first up is tony in brownsville, texas. caller: i agree with biden, it will bring millions of jobs and infrastructure. it is very obvious the democrats are for the american workers and the republicans are only for the rich. the buildings here are collapsing. other countries have better airports. it is true. they look like they are from the 1970's. it will bring a lot of jobs for american people. i agree with that 100%. host: we heard some comments from a republicans, the president didn't touch it much on issues of migration and issues at the border, do you think you think he should have? caller: we could debate on immigration, we are all immigrants. we are all ancestors. h

mr. chairman, thank you. i think we have an excellent nominee here. chair durbin: thank you very much senator leahy. now senator cornyn. sen. cornyn: martin luther king famously said he had a dream work there would be a date where the children will be known by the content of their character and not the color of their skin. do you agree with that? ms. clarke: absolutely. sen. cornyn: maybe there is a misprint, but i'm sure you can clear it up for me. dating back to your days in school when you seemed to argue that african-americans were genetically superior to caucasians, is that correct? ms. clarke: no, senator. i believe you are referring to an op-ed that i wrote at the age of 19 about the bell curve theory, a racist book that he equated dna with genetics and race. as a black student of harvard at the time we took great offense to this book. it was co-authored by a harvard professor, we did a number of events to speak out against the book. this op-ed opened with a satirical reference to the statement that you just noted. reporting by the campus paper made very clear that this was not a view that i espoused. what i wa

mr. cornyn: mr. president, in all honesty, sometimes it's hard to figure out exactly what the policy goals that the biden administration is striving to achieve. take the so-called covid-19 relief bill that was signed into law just last month. despite the fact that every pandemic relief bill that became law last year received broad bipartisan support, this bill did not. in fact, not a single republican voted for it. the biden administration is preparing to rinse and release the strategy with a new and misleading label, calling it infrastructure, but the reason why republicans didn't vote for the covid-19 relief bill while we did for every single one last year was because only about 10% of the bill was actually dedicated to the goal stated by the proponents. only about 10% of the massive $1.9 trillion bill was related to the pandemic, and less than 1% was related to our vaccination efforts. as i said, now the administration is preparing to -- preparing a rinse and release strategy, rinse and repeat, i

mr. cornyn: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from texas seeks recognition. mr. cornyn: i would ask unanimous consent to be added as a cosponsor of this amendment. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. hirono: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from hawaii. ms. hirono: i yield back the remainder of my time. the presiding officer: the question is on the amendment. is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote: vote: vote: the presiding officer: on this vote, the yeas are 49, the nays are 48. under the previous order requiring 60 votes for the adoption of this amendment, the amendment is not agreed to. under the previous order, there will now be four minutes of debate equally divided prior to a vote in relation to amendment numbered 1425. mr. cruz: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from texas. the senate will be in order. mr. cruz: mr. president, i rise to speak in support of senator lee's amendment, number 1425. despite the protections of the first amendment, over the course of the pande

mr. cornyn: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from -- mr. bennet: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from colorado. mr. bennet: i have are 1r5 committees that want to meet. they have the approval of the majority and minority leaders. the presiding officer: duly noted. mr. bennet: mr. president, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mr. cornyn: mr. president, tomorrow evening across the capitol, president biden will deliver his first state of the union address. as we continue to make headway on our fight against covid-19, i expect the president to reflect on the tremendous progress we've made and encourage americans to get vaccinated. so far so good. but i also believe he will try to frame the nearly $2 trillion partisan bill that was rammed through congress earlier this year as a driving force behind that progress, even though less than 10% of the bill was related to covid-19. i expect the president will call on congress to pass his so-called

mr. cornyn: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mr. nyn: madam president, last night the american people heard from president biden in his first address to a joint session of congress. the american people heard him speak about many of the same themes that he touched on in his inauguration -- unifying the country, healing the soul of our nation, healing the divisions that divide us. it sounds great, but those who paid attention to the president's actions know that his rhetoric and his actions don't line up. the only legislative achievement so far for president biden has been an eye-popping $1.9 trillion piece of spending that is brand -- was branded as covid-19 relief. it was so controversial that our democratic colleagues didn't bother to use the standard legislative procedure. instead, they used the budget reconciliation process so they could make it at that law without a single republican vote. hardly coming together. -- and unifying the country. as expected, president biden had the audacity to brand this legislation as the reason why

mr. cornyn: mr. president, later this afternoon, the senate will vote on whether to discharge the nomination of vanita gupta, the nominee for associate attorney general from the judiciary committee. ms. gupta is a polarizing figure, as reflected by the vote in the judiciary committee. it was a tie vote, 11 votes to 11. so she failed to receive majority support from the committee and so now the senate must vote on whether or not her nomination can be -- can come to the senate floor for consideration. i want to be clear. the passionate opposition to this nominee is not about politics. i voted to confirm the vast majority of president biden's nominees. my attitude being that he won the election, he's entitled to populate the cabinet and other important positions with people he has confidence in. but there are limits. the president's nominee for the top two positions at the department of justice did not require this extraordinary step. i voted to support ms. monaco's nomination who has been nominated for