mr. cornyn: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cornyn: mr. president, in my lifetime, children has gone from a poor and isolated country to now accounting for nearly 20% of global gross domestic product. there is no doubt the chinese people have contributed to this success, but we know the driving force behind this dramatic rise is the aggressiveness of the chinese communist party. its aims can be summed up with four r's, resist, reduce, replace, and reorder. china resists american economic influence by manipulating american businesses and industries and stealing intellectual property. it reduces internal dissent and free expression of ideas through massive surveillance and censorship of its own people and it seeks to exert its power and influence in the united states. the chinese communist party intends to replace america as the world's technology leader through the made in china 2025 initiative, which seeks to

mr. cornyn, for himself and mr. cotton proposes an amendment numbered 1858. mr. cornyn: mr. president, last year senator warner, the senior senator from virginia, and i introduced the chips for america act to help shore up supply chains for semiconductors and reduce our reliance on other countries for the most critical components of everything from the f-35 joint strike fighter to the cell phones in our pockets and everything in between. the vast majority of our colleagues have agreed that this is a critical task. it was carefully crafted after months long bipartisan, bicameral negotiations. in fact, this legislation was adopted as an amendment to the national defense authorization act by a vote of 96-4 at the end of last year. but now we need to fund the program we created, and there's just one issue standing in the way. during committee consideration of the endless frontiers act, an amendment was adopted that would apply controversial and unprecedented prevailing wage language to the chips for america act signed into law last year. this provision creates needless, a needle

mr. cornyn: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mr. cornyn: i had sea ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cornyn: madam president, a few hours ago i had the pleasure of joining secretary raimondo and senator warner of virginia for a tour of the micron technologies manufacturing plant just outside washington, d.c., in manassas, virginia. this is one of the great companies with facilities that produces semiconductors on u.s. soil. secretary raimondo, senator warner and i were given a behind-the-scenes tour of how these advanced chips where semiconductor are made and we discuss some of the reasons why it is more expensive to build these facilities in the united states. the average american uses countless products every day that could not function without semiconductors. everything from cell phones to televisions to cars, dishwashers , chips underpin our most used technology. as we become more technology-dependent, it's going to get nothing but more important. but it's

mr. cornyn: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mr. cornyn: madam president, this has been a tough year since covid-19 became a global pandemic. there are many lessons to be learned from this pandemic. but one of them jumps out at me as being abundantly obvious, and that is the real-world consequences of vulnerable supply chains. you know, we were almost -- we almost began to believe since cheap consumer goods could be played in china or someplace -- made in china or someplace overseas that that was the optimal arrangement, and consumers in america have benefited from low prices when it comes to a number of things that are not made in this country. but some of the things that we depend upon, whether it's for public health or to keep our economy going or for our national security, are dependent on vulnerable supply chains. perhaps the easiest one for everybody to identify with is the shortage of personal protective equipment. i remember when i called my governor in texas. he said two things you can get us -- more p.p.e. and more testing.

mr. cornyn: mr.nt, one of the topics of discussion right now here in washington, d.c., -- actually there are many different topics of discussion, but one of those is infrastructure, and depending on who you ask, you will get different answers on exactly what people mean when they say the world infrastructure. when i and my constituents in -- what i and my constituents in texas think about infrastructure, we think about our highways and bridges, those are the two big things that come to mind. we are the home to the largest network of highways in the nation as well as the largest number of bridges. and these structures are supporting more and more texans by the day. it's no secret that in the last decade texas has grown by nearly four million people. roughly the population of our neighbor to the north, oklahoma. if we want to get all 29 million texans and our visitors and our crucial commercial cargo around the state safely and efficiently, we need a reliable network of transportation infrastructure. a

mr. cornyn: and we don't have any plans of stopping there. we're also making serious strides in energy innovation. a couple of years ago i visited the net power plant in laporte, texas, right outside of houston. net power is significant because it's developed the first of its kind power system that generates affordable zero emissions electricity. using their unique carbon capture technology, they have taken natural gas, one of the most prevalent and affordable energy sources, and made it emission free. that's what innovation can produce. emission free electricity from natural gas. as impressive as this project is, though, it's made even better by the fact that it's not unique. private companies are harnessing the power of human ingenuity to make our most used energy sources emission free. earlier this year, for example, exxonmobil announced a $100 billion carbon capture and storage project in the houston area otherwise known as the energy capital of the world. this would create a carbon capture innovation zone to significantly reduce carbon e

mr. cornyn: madam president, the situation in the middle east is a stark contrast from that of just nienl -- nine months ago. last summer the united states helped broker the abraham accords, a historic step in the relationship between israel and the united arab emirates. the u.a.e. became the third arab country, the first gulf state to recognize and normalize relations with israel and bahrain, morocco and sudan will follow suit shortly thereafter. these agreements mark historic progress toward peace in decades and appear to open a new era of diplomacy in the middle east. today, though, the optimism we felt just, a little less than a year ago has been replaced with more violence. more violence and more destruction than we've seen in years, and civilian casualties that continue to climb every day. hamas has fired thousands of rockets into civilian populations in israel and if not for the iron dome, anti-rocket defense system and the u.s. support and funding that made it possible, the death toll would be significantly higher than it is. just as any sovereign state under attack by terrorist f

mr. cornyn. thank you for answering the letter. -- thank you mr. gorman. he spoke about lending to small businesses and over the past year, and in the middle of the pandemic one small businesses and families were desperate for loans, the amount of loans that your banks made has dropped geared and of lending, instead of putting money into the economy, you plan to spend billions on buybacks and dividends. my question starts with mr. moynahan, your banks lending fell 14% in the last year. you announced $25 billion in stock buybacks, but why not lend money to small businesses and families? brian: the good news is that we can do both. we can return capital to shareholders to help them enhance returns and at the same time, lending to small business appeared for the month of may, we did $1 billion in first few weeks of may, we did a billion dollars to commitment to small business, that is up 20% since 2019 showing that we had a $35 billion small business portfolio, largest in the country. the reason why loans stalled and the -- the ppp had a tremendous impact on

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

mr. wales, which is why senator cornyn and i introduced a bill last congress on cdm. so ms. vogel and mr. higgins, how does cdm factor into the plans for improving your agency's cybersecurity and what challenges if any have you encountered in implementing cdm? ms. vogel, we can start with you. >> thank you, and thank you for your comments. cdm has been quite a challenge and that's because it is a huge effort. it is looking into or the complexities of our multiple operating divisions within hhs. and in doing so, we encounter different scenarios, different status of modernization. and each of those areas has to be tailored to a specific requirement. and it means we have to change software, hardware, whatever we do. so it's a very, very complex activity. we have found, though, that what is provided really helps us as a department because we are getting information more timely and we can respond to anything we see on our network or anywhere else, if we see it faster we can respond faster. we're encouraged by the success of cdm so far and we're looking forward to the expansion to

mr. wales which is why cornyn and i introduce a bill last congress to codify but introduced to hear from perspective of agencies implementing so vogel and higgins how does cdm plan for improving cybersecurity and what challenges if any have you encounters in implementing cdm and ms. vogel we can start with you. >> thank you, and thank you for your comments. cdm has been quite a challenge and that's because it is a huge effort. it is looking into all of the complexities of multiple operating divisions within hhs, and in doing so, we encounters scenarios, different status of modernization, and each of those areas have to be tailored to a specific requirement and it means we have to change software hardware whatever we do. so a very, very complex activity. we have found, though, that what is provided really helped us as a department. because as we have implemented the different aspects of cdm we're getting more information more timely and that means we can respond to anything that we see going on on our network or anywhere else. we see that faster we can respond faster basically. that helps

mr. fred upton, and senators corey booker and john cornyn in the senate. we may not agree on much, but we agree on this. we have the power to prevent the next pandemic. and to do nothing would be an act of negligence. a vital lesson that we need to learn from co-strid is we -- covid is that we must fundamentally change the way we interact with wildlife globally if we want to stop this from happening again. this means stopping deforestation and other habitat destruction, slowing and ending global climate change, and it means global shutdown of live wildlife markets. already we've seen how changes in temperature and weather patterns and encroaching human development have brought people and wildlife into more frequent and more intimate contact. human consumption of wildlife can simply be the most dangerous form of that contact. to get rid of this problem, the preventing future pandemics act would establish the official foreign policy of the u.s. to be -- we will work with other countries to shut down these markets, end the trade in terrestrial wildlife for hu

mr. trump. there's no over way to get through the general election. i think when you're young and ambitious and want to move up, most republicans statewide, cornyn, of coursere under 60. tour attorney general, they're olding men. they're not looking at a 20-year horizon but 10 years at the most. >> it's more stark with george p. bush, right? because in order to kiss the ring of donald trump, he's got to forsake his father and uncle george. with busch who was president of the united states, at least politically speaking. >> you have a short time horizon. this is the former son of a governor and the nephew of a former president and the grandson of a former president. i sat and watched him take his degree in front of his grandfather at rice university. how quickly we forget the compromise of every elected official. the grandfather in his memoir pointed out he did a lot of things in campaigns he didn't like. willie horton. we forget that. to get elected, you make compromises. in office you make compromises. i think george bush, the fact of the matter is, if you're ambitious, you make those choices. they're not the ones you would make in a perfect world. i have

mr. cornyn: thank you, mr. president. listening to my friend, the democratic whip, reminds me that there is one type of business that our democratic friends always support, and that's the lawsuit business. as he pointed out, about half of the states have taken steps to protect their citizens from frivolous litigation and other litigation that would arise out of their good-faith following of the guidelines laid down by the c.d.c., the centers for disease control. that is what we proposed here in the senate. and my friend, the senator from illinois' view did prevail because i found out that there is one, the most powerful lobby here in washington, d.c. is the trial bar. and unfortunately, it's not just big corporations. i'm sure big companies can take care of themselves. they've got lawyers, they've got compliance officers, they've got people who can help them figure out how to deal with the pandemic. it's the mom and pop businesses, the music venues, the houses of worship, the schools, the universities, those were the ones

mr. cornyn: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, more than four million texans, including half of the children in my state, depend on the stability of the state's medicaid program to provide health care for themselves and their families. everything from emergency room visits to mental health care, medicaid funding is vital to the health of our most vulnerable friends and neighbors. 0 the same is true in virtually every state across the country. unfortunately, a recent move by the biden administration has put the health care of these vulnerable citizens in jeopardy. a few weeks ago the biden administration rescinded approval of texas' 1115 waiver extension. i know that's an obscure reference to most folks, but basically here's the long and short of it. the previous administration reached an agreement with the state that will enable billions of dollars to flow to texans in need. now for some reason the biden administration is trying to stop it. the real question is why. why would the biden administration try to jeopardize t

mr. cornyn: mr. president, i'd like to thank our friend, senator cramer, for telling us this story about this great american patriot. many of us are of that age where we are the children of members of the greatest generation who have their own stories to tell, and just listening to senator cramer talk about this great -- this great patriot who fought at the battle of the bulge, one of the most horrific battles of world war ii, and one of the most consequential battles, where they stopped hitler, it reminds me of my dad who flew b-17's out of england during the last part of the war. of course, their job was to knock out the hitler war machine, but there are so many great stories from that generation. these great world war ii patriots are getting older and they are leaving us, but certainly we will always remember them and their contributions. so i appreciate the senator from north dakota sharing that with us. mr. president, the senate's moving quickly, i hope, toward a vote on a far-reaching proposal

mr. cornyn: thank you, madam president. this week america celebrates national police week. it's a time for us to stop and pay tribute to those who've died in the line of duty defending our communities and to thank those who continue to serve our communities. law enforcement is a calling answered by a select few. these men and women have chosen a difficult and often dangerous life, dedicated to keeping our communities safe, defending our civil liberties and protecting our neighborhoods. these jobs obviously require tremendous courage and sacrifice, not just from the officers themselves but their families, too. and i'm grateful to those who have selflessly serve -- who selflessly serve our communities every day. under normal circumstances shall the events of this week bring tens of thousands of uniformed officers to the washington, d.c. -- from across the country. through laying wreaths, candlelight vigils, church services, they ordinarily gather in remembrance of their fallen brothers and sisters in person. in previous years i've had the pleasure of welcoming a number of tex