mr. cornyn: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mr. cornyn: mr. president, are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are not. mr. cornyn: mr. president, in my lifetime, the people's republic of china has gone from a poor and isolated country to one that now accounts for 20% of global domestic product. mr. cornyn: there's no question that the driving force behind this dramatic shift is the ruthlessness of the chinese communist party led by president xi. the c.c.p.'s ruling strategy can best be described as a win at all costs which means that china never thinks twice about disregarding basic values and international norms. but there's no question that the most immediate and grave threat are against countries close to china's borders. last month i led a congressional delegation to visit the indo-pacific to learn more from the people on the ground doing the hard work about the challenges they face and that we face in the indo-pacific. in my conversations with leaders in

mr. cornyn: madam president. the presiding officer: the senior senator from texas? mr. yn: madam president, are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: yes, we are. corn i'd ask consent --. mr. cornyn: i'd ask consent that the call of the conform be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cornyn: the eyes of the world are on russia. russia could literally invade ukraine at any time, and the united states and the international community need to take strong, decisive action to dissuade a russian offensive from invading ukraine. i was glad to see the secretary general of the north atlantic treaty organization, nato, denounce russia's action earlier today, but clearly words are not enough. statements of support are not enough to counter an invasion. the united states and our nato allies must provide additional support as they defend their borders. senator durbin, the senator from illinois and i, have introduced a resolution to provide complete clarity on the united states position on this imminent conflict. our resolution affirms the united states'

mr. cornyn: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mr. cornyn: madam president, i'd ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. morning business is closed. under the previous order, the senate will resume consideration of h.r. 4350 which the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 144, h.r. 4350, an act to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2022 for military activities of the department of defense and so forth and for other purposes. mr. cornyn: madam president, back in september, the small little texas border town del rio, texas, was thrown into the national spotlight. this is a small town on the u.s.-mexico border of 35,000 people, and over the course of several days, they had 15 to -- 15,000 to 20,000 hey yen -- haitian migrants camping out underneath a bridge. migrants huddled under the bridge to escape triple-digit temperatures. it's still hot in september in texas. and they had minimal access to sanitation, to food, and cle

mr. cornyn: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mr. cornyn: mr. president, are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are not. mr. cornyn: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, for months now american families have struggled with the growing burden of inflation. new data shows just how bad things have gotten. last month, consumer prices increased at the fastest pace in 40 years. now, i'd like to take a little walk down memory lane, mr. president. the last time the american people endured price spikes like this, eye of the tiger was one of the top songs on the radio. i'm sure the senator from delaware remembers that very well. the world had yet to be introduced to the nintendo and marrow and consumers -- mario and consumers were anxiously awaiting the release of the cellphone which weighed in at a whopping two pounds. i remember those unwe wouldy telephones -- unwieldily telephones well. over the course of that time, technology has changed, and i'm not just talking about technology, 9/11, the great recession and even during the first yea

mr. cornyn: madam president, as the senate's schedule for this calendar year begins to wind down, hopefully with anticipation of our spending time with our friends and families during this holiday season, i want to look back over some of the deadlines that the majority leader, the senator from new york, has set for senate action, and to ask whether these sort of ash -- arbitrary deadlines and attempts to do legislation essentially along party lines is the right way to actually get things done in the senate. we have excellent examples of how to get things done. today we passed the defense authorization bill with a strong bipartisan vote. but we know that when either political party decides to do things unilaterally, especially in a 50-50 senate, it makes the work immeasurably harder, and that's for a good reason. the founders of this country and our constitution and the creators of this senate look to the senate to be a deliberative body and look for us to do what sometimes doesn't come naturally, which is to work together, to build consensus. but as i said, when one party or the other attem

cornyn? >> thank you, mr. chairman. obviously, if this were easy for presidents, 20 years, we would have figured this out. but what was unprecedented was a terrorist attack that occurred on our soil that took the lives of 3,000 americans. and the american people demand a response. and the american people demanded that we stop future terrorist attacks. but i think part of the -- part and parcel of the confusion here is we industrial people argueing that this is a -- this should be subject to the usual rules in the criminal trial. and for obvious reasons that's not possible for many of them. don't take my word for it. that's what the obama commission agreed to in 2010. can you talk about what we -- we all agree that the rule of law should apply here. but can you talk about why the rule of law applies differently to a noncitizen captured in the battlefield during during a war? >> absolutely, thank you senator cornyn. the supreme court has held that in an ongoing conflict, the united states can hold enemy combatants for the

mr. president, but you can still see it here. you can look out window and see senator mcconnell's office there and the lobbyists lined up. you should have seen them back when senator cornyn was talking about this tax cut, this tax cut for the rich. they made these promises, if you give tax cuts to really rich people and corporations, it'll trickle down and we'll all do better. we'll hire more people and raise wages. we know what they did. they just announced another round of it. a whole bunch of stock buybacks for executives. over those years profits went up for corporations. the stock market soared. executive compensation exploded through the roof. and wages for most people in mansfield, georgia and marietta, georgia stayed flat. we know that. that's why build back better makes sense. it begins to put money in people's pockets. what my friend from texas and we sit across from each other in the finance committee and work together on some issues. i appreciate what he's done in cfius and some other bills. what he didn't explain is why every one of them opposes the child tax credit. we know a number of things. i've been working on this since 2013. started with not a lot of

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, we're nearing the halfway point of the 117th congress, and it's time to look back and see what our democratic colleagues, now in the majority, have accomplished. unfortunately, we've seen a lot of wasted valuable time, the ignoring of critical tasks, and failing to meet some of the most basic requirements of governing. our colleagues used the first few months of the year to ram through a partisan $2 trillion spending bill, and then they wasted the summer on the majority leader's designed-to-fail agenda. it wasn't about actually getting anything done. it was about messaging. and then they threw it in cruise control in fall, refusing to let the senate vote on anything other than low-level nominees and, again, those messaging bills. well, unsurprisingly, this partisan appro

mr. cornyn: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mr. cornyn: mr. president, i want to take just a few moments to go back to march of this year, after a very tough year fighting covid-19, the american people had many reasons to be optimistic about the future. millions of people were being vaccinated every day. the winter surge was fading away, and travel was slowly ramping up. families were able to get back together, who hadn't seen their loved ones, particularly those who were the most vulnerable to the virus. people were able to visit face to face to resume their lives, gradually discovering what i'll call the new normal. we knew the war against the virus was not over, but our communities were well resourced to keep up the fight, thanks to the five bipartisan bills that were signed into law in 2020. yes, it's true ... this last year we passed five bipartisan relief bills with broad bipartisan support, in some cases unanimous support. my, how quickly things changed. after president biden was sworn into office, our friends on the other side of the a

mr. cornyn: an act --. the clerk: an act to address health do pass with an amendment. mr. schumer: i move to concur in the house amendment. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. mr. schumer: i send a cloture motion to the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report, without objection. mr. schumer: i ask consent --. the clerk: we the undersigned senators in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 do hereby move to close debate, s. 610 an act to address behavioral health and well being signed by 17 senators as follows. mr. schumer: i ask consent the reading of the names be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i move to concur in the house amendment with an amendment 4871 which is at the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from new york, mr. schumer, moves to concur in the house amendment with an amendment numbered 4871. mr. schumer: i ask further reading be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i ask for the yeas and nays on the motion to concur with the amendme