mr. cornyn: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mr. cornyn: madam president, i didn't come to the floor to speak on this matter, but

mr. cornyn: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mr. cornyn: madam president, i didn't come to the floor to speak on this matter, but listening to the comments of my friend from illinois about contributions made by immigrants to our country that i will wholeheartedly agree with him about that. really, when i think about immigration, i think it's really sort of the secret sauce to american success. it's the notion that you can come from anywhere with virtually nothing and you can legally immigrate to the united states and you can begin to get one of those very difficult jobs working in the fields, working in a meat-packing place or someplace else and begin your climb toward the american dream. and that's, to me, one of the crown jewels of our country. it's what makes us different. you look at other countries around the world, they don't welcome immigrants. they shun immigrants and their economies and their countries suffer for it. so i -- let me just say i agree with the senator from illinois about the contribution of immigrants, and i li

mr. cornyn: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from texas is recognized. mr. cornyn: i ask unanimous consent the quorum call is dispensed with. i gather from the parliamentarian shaking her head we are not in a quorum call. thank you very much. madam president, since last march, state and local governments have received about a half a trillion dollars in federal funding to bolster their fight against covid-19. leaders in my state have used this funding to cover the mounting costs of expenses at the start of the pandemic. it enabled them to stand up testing, increase bed space for i.c.u.'s and hospitals and provide grants to small businesses without the fear of cutting other critical services. as time has gone on, the battle against this virus has shifted and so have the needs of my state and our local communities. many simply don't have the continued need or even opportunity under the guardrails congress imposed to spend this money within the set timeline. that's especially true in some of the rural parts of my state or places where covid numbers are thankfully

mr. president, i gild the floor. sen. cornynlistening to the comments of my friend from illinois about the contributions made by immigrants to our country that i wholeheartedly agree with him. when i think about immigration, i think it is a secret sauce to american success. it's the notion you can come from

mr. president, i gild the floor. sen. cornyn: listening to the comments of my friend from illinois about the contributions made by immigrants to our country that i wholeheartedly agree with him. when i think about immigration, i think it is a secret sauce to american success. it's the notion you can come from anywhere with virtually nothing, and you can legally immigrate to the united states and begin to get one of those difficult jobs working in the fields or a meatpacking plant and begin your climb toward the american dream. that is to me, one of the crown jewels of our country. that is what makes us different. you look at other countries, they don't welcome immigrants. they shun immigrants. in their economies and country suffers for it. let me say, i agree with the senator from illinois about the contribution of immigrants. and i listen very carefully as a border state senator, my state is 40% hispanic. i'm sure the senator from nevada has a large hispanic population. they are part of us. they are part of our great nation, to

mr. pottinger. feel free to weigh in as well. i wanted to start with an issue that senator cornyn i work on, especially in the lead up to the most recent competition legislation. we introduced a bill called the national critical capabilities defense act. it would establish an interagency committee to review outbound transactions. by u.s. firms to nonmarket economies like china that would, in my judgment, result in the outsourcing of critical supply chains and create further u.s. dependence upon market economy like china. my first question is, to what extent is that kind of investment by u.s. companies to nonmarket economies like china compromising our supply chain security? subsequently, our national security? >> thank you, senator. i am not familiar with the legislation you put forward. but, i will comment on the supply chain question. i think it is very important. we see, just most recently, with ppe, how unreliable some of those supplies were. a colleague of mine has done a lot of research on medical supply chains and especially, how do we have pandemic responsiveness when our supply chains are not located here? so, i think t

mr. hagerty: i ask unanimous consent that the following amendments be -- a senator: the following amendments be called up and they be the only remaining amendments in order. first ernst 2639, cornyn-padilla 2602, wicker-stabenow 2206, cruz 2389, lee 2517, grassley-klobuchar 2500, crapo 2507, blackburn 2308, warner-portman, cantwell 2588, wyden-murkowski 2603, cantwell-brawrn 2621, van hollen 2613, as modified, cruz-lieu hawn 2690, sullivan 2586, shelby 2535, rounds 2636, sinema-portman number 2620. further, that the senate vote in relation to all pending amendments with no amendments in order to the amendments prior to a vote in relation to the amendment. and that if a roll call is ordered, then 60 affirmative votes except for lee numbered 2517, warner 2617, wyden 2498, ernst 2639, and grassley 2500 and that there be two minute ps for debate equally divided prior to each vote. the presiding officer: is there an objection. ms. sinema: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from arizona. ms. sinema: reserving the right to object. thank you, madam president. as my esteemed colleague from tennessee is aware, and as we all are aware, the senate operates under unanimous co

mr. cornyn: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mr. cornyn: reserving the right to object, mr. president. i voted for mr. davis' nomination in the judiciary committee, and i support it, but i think the chairman of the judiciary committee, my friend from illinois, could help me try to resolve a problem that i have, primarily with the chief law enforcement officer of the united states. that's the attorney general. the attorney general simply will not answer his mail. let me explain. back in march, i wrote a letter to the attorney general urging him to conduct an investigation of a chemical company named aventar and their role in the opioid epidemic that's sweeping america and the planet. in 2020, 93,000 americans died of drug overdoses with 69,000-plus of those from opioids, including heroin. aventar is a leading producer of a chemical precursor known as acidic anhydryte, a chemical used to convert opium to heroin. aventar's product has been used extensively by drug cartels an

mr. cornyn: madam president, are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are. corn --. mr. cornyn: i'd ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. order, please. mr. cornyn: madam president, now that cloture has been invoked on the substitute bill, we are one step closer to completing this product which has been the subject of bipartisan negotiation for, with the white house for quite some time. i know a lot of hard work has been put into this, and i want to thank all of our colleagues who have contributed to it. after much anticipation, we finally received the bill text earlier this week. there was a lot of what we expected to see. madam president, i'd ask for order. the presiding officer: senate be in order, please. take your conversations out of the chamber. mr. cornyn: after much anticipation, we finally received the text of the bill earlier this week. of course a lot of it was what we expected to see. funding for roads, bridges, ports, waterways, airports, and broadband. under normal circums

mr. cornyn: mr. president, are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are. mr. cornyn: i'd ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be dispensed with. and i'd ask for order. the presiding officer: without objection. senate will come to order. senators will take their conversations off the senate floor. mr. cornyn: thank you, mr. president. as we all know by now, a bipartisan group of senators worked with the white house over the last several weeks to negotiate a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill and i know a lot of hard work went into it, a lot of late nights, and i want to thank all of our colleagues that have made a positive contribution in this debate and discussion. and it's particularly important at this time, i believe, that we do these things on a bipartisan basis, if we can. after much anticipation, we finally received the text sunday night, and a lot of what we expected to see, we saw, like funding for roads, bridges, ports, waterways, and broadband. but what we didn't see was adequate pay-fors for the bill. for example, we learned after the bill was a

mr. cornyn: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mr. cornyn: madam president, are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are not. mr. cornyn: madam president, in a state as big as mine, reliable transportation infrastructure is absolutely essential. we're home to both the largest network of highways as well as the largest number of bridges in the country. we're also a major hub for imports and exports both along the gulf coast and southern border and as we continue to welcome more texans every day, the strain on our infrastructure is growing. it takes a lot of planning an maintenance to get all 29 million texans and crucial cargo around the state safely and efficiently. when you add in broadband, airports, levees, waterways, it is easy to see how big an undertaking this process is. i continue to hear from my constituents back home about the need for federal funding to help repair, maintain and expand infrastructure across our states. but, madam president, we just can't keep adding expenses to the taxpayers' credit card. we have t

mr. cornyn: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mr. cornyn: madam president, i didn't come to the floor to speak on this matter, but listening to the comments of my friend from illinois about contributions made by immigrants to our country that i will wholeheartedly agree with him about that. really, when i think about immigration, i think it's really sort of the secret sauce to american success. it's the notion that you can come from anywhere with virtually nothing and you can legally immigrate to the united states and you can begin to get one of those very difficult jobs working in the fields, working in a meat-packing place or someplace else and begin your climb toward the american dream. and that's, to me, one of the crown jewels of our country. it's what makes us different. you look at other countries around the world, they don't welcome immigrants. they shun immigrants and their economies and their countries suffer for it. so i -- let me just say i agree with the senator from illinois about the contribution of immigrants, and i li

cornyn amendment. the presiding officer: the senator from delaware. mr. carper: i want to join my voice with that of senator capito. i rise in support of the amendment offered by senator lummis, senator cornyn, and senator kelly to have a highway cost allocation study. we're going to vote on in a minute or two. it helps to determine the costs in terms of road use and damage that are attributable to the different types of vehicles that use our roads. this study will evaluate vehicle weights and miles in each class to determine the use and damage to roads and then compare them to the amount paid in user fees to the highway trust fund. my colleagues know that the highway trust fund spends more than it collects in two decades. to equitably address this growing shortfall this will help us to understand how roadway users benefit from roads and how they should fairly contribute to the upkeep of the roads, highways and bridges and it will ensure that all vehicles pay their fair share. i strongly urge my colleagues to support this very worthy amendment. and i note