mr. durbin: mr. president. the presiding officer: the majority whip is recognized. mr. durbin: are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are. mr. durbin: i ask unanimous consent the quorum call be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. durbin: mr. president, this past saturday at 9:00 p.m., chicago police officer ella french was shot and killed during a traffic stop on the chicago south side. her death is devastating. officer french was 29 years old. she had served as a member of the chicago police department since 2018. her brother described her as the epitome of a good samaritan. a fellow officer said of her, and i quote, she truly showed the community that she loved them and would do anything for them. officer french's partner was also shot and critically wounded. we pray for his recovery. two men have beening charged by the cook county state's attorneys office in the shooting of these officers. a third man has been charged by the u.s. attorney's office for the northern

mr. durbin: madam president? the presiding officer: the democratic whip. mr. durbin: madam president, the senator from mississippi has stated her case explicitly. if a prosecutor fails to prosecute a case, the town or community that he represents as prosecutor, the town or community will be denied federal funds. think about this. under the senator's amendment, if a district attorney decides not to charge a certain. th-- a certain --even in one can will lose its eligibility under federal funding. like the violence against women's act. we know what that is. or the bulletproof vest grant act to protect law enforcement in that same community. they'd lose their opportunity for federal grants under the senator's amendment that she's offering. i think we ought to think carefully about this. prosecutors decide whether to proceed with the case or not proceed based on the amount of evidence, the likelihood of conviction, the possibility of securing a plea bargain for lesser offense. to deny a community funds or the police, i hope my -- all of my colleagues will oppose th

mr. durbin: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from illinois. mr. durbin: mr. president, i attended the same classified briefing as the republican senate leader, and i listened carefully as the administration presented the realities of afghanistan. and i was drawn to an historical analogy that was best captured in a short verse by rudyard kipling. it goes like this -- when you're wounded and down on the afghan plain, and the women come out to cut up your remains, just roll on your rifle and blow out your brains and go to your god like a soldier. that stark verse was a description of what happened to the british empire when they felt that moving into afghanistan would be part of their record of conquest. they learned otherwise. the retreat from kabul was repeated over and over, but it basically was a retreat that killed every british soldier, save one, they wanted one person, the afghans did to return to queen victoria when they threw the british out of afghanistan. a similar story can

mr. durbin: thank you. i have been listening to criticism from the other side of the aisle about our plan to improve american families' economic security and interest in the long term and to strengthen our economy, and i have to wonder why do republicans never worry about deficits when they are passing trillion-dollar tax cuts that shower nearly all of the benefits on millionaires and wealthy corporations? why do republicans only rediscover a concern about the debt when they are asked to support policies that help middle-class working families, low-income individuals? these are people struggling to get into the middle class. soar when someone proposes a long-term solution to make america's economy more resilient and more prosperous for everyone, they are opposed to it. that's big spending. republican welfare for the rich has always been a bad investment. 40 years of trickle-down economics has given america the greatest income inequality since the gilded age in our history and the largest national debt in ou

mr. durbin: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from illinois. mr. durbin: mr. president, this week the senate will vote on eunice lee's nomination to serve on the second court of appeals. if confirmed, ms. lee would be the only, the only black womannened a the only former public defender to serve on the second circuit. with her nomination the biden administration and senate democrats are continuing our efforts to build a federal judiciary that looks like america. i'd like to take a moment or two to discuss ms. lee's qualifications and what she will bring to the bench. a perspective that is sorely needed. ms. lee has dedicated her entire legal career to public defense work. most recently as an assistant federal public defender with the federal defenders of new york. graduating from ohio state university and yale law school, ms. lee began her legal career clerking with the southern distributor of ohio and then with the -- southern district of ho and sixth circuit court of appeals. she joined the office of the appellate defender where she spent more than 20 years

mr. durbin: madam president? the presiding officer: the assistant majority leader is recognized. mr. durbin: madam president, let me say a word of support for the senator from connecticut as well as the senator from new jersey. i couldn't agree with them more. there is no reason why this information, full disclosure of this information is not made known first to the families but certainly to the people of this country at this moment in history, 20 years after that terrible tragedy. it is time for the truth to be known. i support your efforts completely, senator blumenthal, and i'll help you in any way that i can. madam president, on an unrelated topic, when i grew up in east st. louis, illinois, i knew i was from a railroad family because both mom and dad worked for the railroads. i knew we had a pretty comfortable life. i've come to learn that we weren't by any means rich, but we didn't -- we did well enough, two older brothers and myself, and i knew that my mom and dad worked for a railroad and eventually all of us in the family did in some capacity. i also knew that we were a union

mr. durbin: mr. president. the presiding officer: the majority whip. mr. durbin: socialism, it's a label we hear a lot. it's been around a while. a long time. but in american politics it's kind of applied in an unusual way. the notion that every american would pay into an insurance fund so that everyone who retired could live in basic dignity, we called it social security as democrats, the republicans called it socialism. do they want to remove social security as a socialist program? i don't know. i listened carefully as the republican leader starts talking about the weaknesses of the democratic philosophy. and then in the 1960's, lyndon baines johnson looked around america and saw a new class of impoverished americans growing by the day. they were our parents and grandparents. and he decided one of their biggest problems was paying for their medical expenses and their prescription drugs eventually. so he proposed a federal program called medicare for everyone who reached the age of 65 in america, regardless whether they were rich or poor. boy, think of tha

mr. chairman. chair durbin: thank you. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. want to pick up where senator hawley left off. we look at data going back several decades. we can see that there's nothing about the cost of higher education increase that we have seen that can be accounted for just with inflation. the data indicates that back in 1985 to cover room, board, tuition and fees, you are talking about $3859 a year. and for a private four year university, total average was just over $9,000 per year. and a lot of happened since then. wham broke up. parachute pants are no longer cool. nobody watches "alf" anymore, mercifully. but the costs that have increased with higher education are staggering. since then. we're talking about basically a five fold increase since then. it does not even begin to be something that we can explain through inflation. so, dr. akers, july 2017 federal reserve bank of new york study found that there's a -- effect on tuition of changes in subsidized loan maximums of 60 cents on the dollar. how does this pass-through affect explain the

mr. durbin, to fix potholes in missouri. i live in the first congressional district.ho my bipartisan person is, cori bush. can you imagine that? thank you for gerrymandering. host: we talked a bit about cori bush this morning, leading the protest on the steps of the capital for the past couple days to extend the moratorium on evictions. have you watched that? any thoughts on that issue since we spent an hour on that already? caller: i think she is nuts. she absolutely has captured the democratic party in that congressional district throughout -- district, threw out a good democrats, and they are continuing to wreak havoc. they have taken over the prosecutor ships and now they are taking over the mayor. it is a gift to the republicans because it is going down into disaster. pray for us in st. louis because we need help. cori bush is driving us into the sewer. host: that is bill in missouri. this is john in new mexico. democrat. good morning. caller: thank you all for taking my call. of course bipartisanship is the foundation of our democracy and it would be great to ge

mr. mitchell. chairman durbin. >> thank you, chairman. and senator lee. this is an important hearing. i think the american people are given a choice of topics we might discuss in congress would put this at the top of the list. at least they tell us that when we take paul's. it is interesting we live in a country where so many people can spell the word sorrento. you wonder how in the world did that happen? could it be the pharmaceutical industry is spending $6 billion a year? is it possible that advertising, is it possible that the fact that we see their ads nine times a day on average is educating the americans on these drugs? senator grassley and i decided to ask the general accounting office for information on this and they did a study. they found between 2016 2018 come advertised drugs on television and other places to county for 58% of medicare's budget for medications. coincidence? these ads ballooned medicare spending to $320 billion over three years. when i asked blue cross blue shield why premiums were going up, the number one reason where the high cost of prescription drugs.

this morning, dick durbin revealing what mr. voluntarily and cooperated with us. there was a lot there. you can imagine, seven hours of testimony. and it really is important that we asked these questions because what was going on in the department of justice was frightening from a constitutional point of view. >> joining us now, richard blumenthal, a member of the judiciary committee, and who was in that room during that interview. let's start with how the interviews came about. you heard chairman durbin say that rosen showed up voluntarily. what were the circumstances that led to that? how significant is it that he did go of his own volition? >> it was significant that he appeared voluntarily because the department of justice waived whatever barriers it might have imposed on him. and i think it showed his willingness, indeed his eagerness to cooperate. i hope that other witnesses will be similarly cooperative. because it is essential, absolutely vital, that the american people have this story from jeffrey rosen. and everyone in

mr. biden's victory because the justice department was investigating accusations of voter fraud in the state. here is the senate judiciary committee chairman dig durbin earlier today on msnbc. >> there's a lot of information we'd like to gather from mr. clark, will help bring some clarity to the situation. it certainly raised a question and mr. rosen understood that mr. clark was waiting in the wings and if he didn't do president trump's requests, comply with those requests, he very easily could have been replaced. >> donald trump abused his office. for anyone with eyes or ears before the 2016 election you could see the potential for abuse was high. it is possibly even more alarming that trump's abuses were the abuses of the people around him. from people who were not gold toilet grifters like trump. people like jeffery clark all too eager it seems to break the law for a man who lost the election. before we start sanctify the acting attorney general jeffrey rosen note that he sat in silence for nine or ten months before speaking out against these abuses. now for every jeffery clark who is willing to subvert the law there is a man like this, alexander

today dick durbin said he wants his pam to question mr. clark.it's remarkable, the details we learned. we just mentioned your colleague wants to question jeffrey clark. what questions do you think he should answer? >> you know, i remember jeffrey clark's name in one very big way and that was the reports from "the new york times" that trump was trying to install him as the attorney general over the acting attorney general jeffrey rosen for the purposes of him maintaining the lie when it came to the election. so what we want to know about now is what his role was when it came to election suppression, when it came to questioning the results of the final results of the election, and there's a lot of information out there about what he could have been doing with georgia. and i just step back from this. this isn't a campaign. this is the justice department. in america, the president isn't kingsessing. the law is kingsessing. that's the first thing. he has an obligation to the law of the united states, not to donald trump. that is the oath of office tha

durbin earlier on msnbc. >> a lot of information we would like together for mr. clark to bring some clarity to this situation. it certainly raised a question, mr. rosen understood that mr. clark was waiting in the wings and if he didn't do president trump's quest, comply with those requests, he very easily could have been replaced. >> donald trump abused his office. for anyone with eyes or ears, before the 2016 election, you could see the potential for abuse was high -- so it's possible even more alarming that trump's abuses where the abuses of the people around him. from people who were not gold toilet drifters like trump. people like jeffrey clark, who were all too eager it seems to break the law for a man who lost the election. before we start sanctifying jeffrey rosen, reacting internal general, note that he sat in silence for nine or ten months before speaking out against these abuses. forever jeffrey clark willing to subvert the law, they're someone like, this alexander vindman who risked his career to provide the evidence that led to donald trump's first i

durbin, i appreciate you joining us. based on what your committee has recently heard from these two high-ranking justice officials, jeffrey rosen and mrwashington. here's the president of the united states basically saying, here's what i want you to do, if you can't do it, i've got somebody to replace you. that's pretty powerful. >> i mean, all this information coming the way from the report last week that jeffrey clark, environmental lawyer, had circulated a letter within the department after the election which he wanted to send to state officials to georgia falsely claiming the justice department had identified signature concerns that may have impacted the outcome of the election in multiple states, including the state of georgia. he was trying to get the doj to wade pressure officials to wade into results. do you think the public grasped how dangerous something like this is? >> i don't think they do. there were so many bizarre twists and turns in the trump administration. the election happened, the president did not accept the results. he went to the courthouses around america looking for a friendly judge. he couldn't find any one

i wonder if senator dick durbin was on last hour, he described seven hours of testimony from mr.timony from the most senior official at the justice department might have been the difference between acquittal and conviction? >> well, thank you for having me on, nicolle. it is always good to be with you. i wonder. certainly this testimony is extraordinarily important, and the difference now is that late, i think it was last month, the new department of justice released former members of the trump administration department of justice to speak if they wanted to, to house oversight and to the senate judiciary committee, which, of course, they did over the weekend. prior to that they were operating under trump's department of justice. so while i wish we could have had that testimony, it might have made a difference, but, remember, we had testimony that was very damning of the president doing the very same thing, polling the -- excuse me, the department of state, raffensperger and saying, i just need you to find me 11,780 votes. >> right. >> when i heard that testimony and then we heard

mr. durbin: mr. president? that made history and now the senator from missouri is finally coming around to supporting the cops hiring program that was created by senator joe biden in 1994. since its creation, the cops program -- listen to this -- has helped over 13,000 local police departments hire over 134,000 officers. we believe in it on the democratic side. we're glad you've come around. we sent a letter to the appropriations committee signed by 37 democrats for the cops program. do you know how many republicans signed the letter? none. but with your amendment tonight clearly you've come around. the republicans are joining the democrats in supporting joe biden's cops program. you are right. we need 100,000 more police and we stand with joe biden's program and glad that you've joined us. mr. hawley: i ask for the yeas and nays. the presiding officer: the question is on the amendment. the yeas and nays have been ordered. the clerk will call the roll. vote:

mr. durbin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from illinois. mr. durbin: mr. president, first let me say that this issue about this corporation -- i believe the senator said it was known as avantar -- is a corporation that was once under the control of vanita gupta's father. she had no -- no -- active role in the administration of this corporation. as the daughter of the owner, her only connection. it was a stock portfolio, that was it. that's the reason why these suspicions went into where. there's no connection between vanita gupta and this company. it was my understanding at the time that the this company had discontinued its business in mexico and had done that long before her hearing. that was a matter of public record. when members of the judiciary committee on both sides of the aisle said they wanted quicker responses to the letter sent to the department of justice than they received under the trump administration, i said that was perfectly legitimate request, and i invited the members of the committee to join me in a conference equal with the attorney

mr. durbin: i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: quorum call: quorum call: mr. schumer: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the quorum be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent that the following amendment to the substitute be called up and reported by number, lummis-kelly 2181. further, that the senate vote in relation to the amendment on tuesday, august 3 at 11:45 a.m. with no amendment, in order to the amendment prior to a vote in relation to the amendment with 60 affirmative votes required for adoption and two minutes of debate equally divided prior to the vote. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent -- the presiding officer: the clerk will report the amendment by number. the clerk: the senator from new york mr. schumer for ms. lummis proposes amendment 2181 to amendment number 2137. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business

mr. durbin: mr. president. the presiding officer: the assistant majority leader is recognized. mr. durbin: i'd like to add a word and thank the senator from maryland for his leadership and the senator from new york for supporting this, and to reflect for a moment on the comments of the objecter, the senator from kentucky. his exact words were, we've got to learn to live with this. unfortunately, people are not living with this. they're getting infected and dying. and to accept the status quo and to somehow make it a partisan issue that it's the democratic governors that are responsible for what's going on here is an oversimplification. in fact, it's tragic. we know what's happening. we have a new variant of this covid-19 virus that has -- and it is changing by the day. we think the delta variant is contagious, maybe dra dramatically morewe and we know -- we know that it has taken a deadly toll on 90% of the patients who were not vaccinated or subjected to the illness that came about. i want to say in general, i couldn't agree more with senator schumer and senator cardin that restaur

mr. durbin: madam president. the presiding officer: the majority whip. mr. durbin: madam president, after many weeks of uncertainty and distress, millions of americans can for now let go of the fear of losing their homes and the roofs over their head. last night the biden administration announced a new 60-day eviction moratorium. i certainly support that decision. i want to thank all those who insisted that we do something about it, especially u.s. congresswoman cori bush of missouri, who has been a victim of eviction in her life. she camped outside on the capitol steps for five nights. she slept on the steps of this building so some of the most vulnerable people in america would be able to sleep with a roof over their heads while we made sure the law caught up with our assistance. i also want to thank my fellow democratic senators, especially sherrod brown and elizabeth warren who pushed for a fair and just solution that would have been an entirely preventable tragedy who lost so much in the pandemic. millions of americans have fallen behind on their rent be

mr. durbin: mr. president, reserving the right to object. the presiding officer: the majority whip. mr. durbin: i rise in oppositio- mr. carper: the senate is not in order. the presiding officer: come to order. mr. durbin: i rise in opposition to the unanimous consent request of the senator from florida. the amendment before us would change the standing rules of the senate and require additional reporting requirements regarding inflation, a change which would substantially increase the administrative burden on committees and staff and the process on the floor. we already have significant tools at our disposal to evaluate economic indicators. we have economists at the department of labor, treasury department, congressional budget office, federal reserve, and other federal offices regularly consulting with congress on issues about inflation and other economic indicators. this is totally unnecessary. for these reasons, i oppose this resolution and the request for a unanimous consent. i object. the presiding officer: the objection is heard. the senator from florida. mr. scott: mr. president,

mr. durbin: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from illinois. mr. durbin: i ask unanimous consent that the following the klobuchar amendment, the following be in order, the amendments be reported in order with no intervening amendments in order. bozeman 3030, brawn 3114. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. tuberville: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from alabama. mr. tuberville: i call up my amendment 3113 and it be report by number. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from alabama, mr. tuberville, proposes amendment number 3113. mr. tuberville: thank you very much. believe it or not, people back home duly listen to what we say here. the far-left rally cry of defund the police is is not just d.c. rhetoric. they're actually acting on it. more than 80% of law enforcement in america is ask unanimous consented by state and local police departments. 80%. these men and women are community heroes. we should invest in all of them. but local leaders across the country have deci

mr. durbin: mr. president, i want to start by wishing our friend and colleague, senator lindsey graham, a speedy recovery. yesterday senator graham shared that he had tested positive for covid-19. we're all relieved to hear his symptoms are mild and we look forward to seeing him back in the chamber once he recovers. i hope everyone at home follows his example by getting vaccinated. in senator graham's worded, without vaccination i am certain i would not feel as well as i do now. the dealt at that variant is no -- the delta variant is no joke. covid-19 and hospitalizations are surging across america and they're surge the most in those parts of the country where large numbers of people are unvaccinate. over 90% of the most recent infections, hospitalizations and disedges are among people who were not -- deaths are among people who were not vaccinated. the good news is vaccinations are starting to trend upward. thanks to the leadership of the president and the urging of many health professionals, as of

mr. durbin: you have to ask the basic question of how many debts are not dischargeable in bankruptcy. there are only a few -- alimony, child support, criminal finds, taxes. maybe one other, but i think student loans is the only one of that bunch that is a consumer loan that you can't discharge in bankruptcy. over the years, the number of -- the terms of the loans and the number of years that you were held back from filing bankruptcy changed. ultimately about ten years ago, the decision was made you could never file for bankruptcy. we held a hearing on student loan debt in the senate judiciary committee this week. i'm sorry senator cornyn has left the floor, but he and i have introduced a bill which has good chance, i think. we know that student loans are the fastest growing category of household debt in america. 45 million student borrowers in our country. in little under a decade, student loan debt has ballooned from $1 trillion to $1.7 trillion. the average student borrower now carries $30,000 in debt, and many, especially those who are swindled by the for-profit colleges, owe well