mr. durbin: mr.ous consent that notwithstanding the order of january 24; 1901, the traditional reading of george washington's farewell address take place on february 23, following the prayer and pledge of the flag. the presiding officer: without objection, the chair on behalf of the vice president, pursuant to the order of the senate of january 24, 1901, as modified of the order of january 31, 2023, appointments the senator from oklahoma to read washington's farewell address on monday, february 27, 2023. the senator from oklahoma, lankford. the presiding mr. durbin: i ask that when the senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned until 10:00 a.m. on february 1, twreetd, and the senate be in period of morning business with senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each. further, that the senate recess from 12:30 12:30 until 2:15 p.mo allow for the weekly democratic caucus meeting. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. durbin: roll call votes are expected during wedne

mr. durbin: thank you. mr.nt, america must never become a save haven for anyone who assaults the values for which this nation stands, values like democracy, human rights, the rule of law, and the sanctity of free and fair elections. wewe already deny visas to those who are human traffickers, drug traffickers, money launderers, corrupt kleptoaccurates and those who -- kleptoaccurates. we have allowed -- or used children as soldiers in deadly conflict. i've written some of those policies and i certainly agree with them. today i'm introducing legislation to further align our immigration system with our values as a nation. the bill i'm introducing would prevent foreign officials who interfere with democratic elections or prevent the democratic transfer of power in their country from taking refuge in the united states. in recent years autocrats around the world have used a toxic brew of nationalism, authoritarianism and corruption and social media to weaken and attack the very foundations of democracy. fortunately d

mr. durbin: roll call votes are expected during wednesday's session, if there is no further business to come before the senate i ask that it stand adjourned under the previous order. the presiding officer: the senate stands adjourned until senate stands adjourned until we believe what is here or here or out in the middle of anywhere you should have access to past reliable internet. we are taking you. >> media, supports c-span as a public servicelong with these other television providers giving a front row seat to democracy. >> president biden traveled to new york to talk about the construction of a rail tunnel project under the hudson river being funded by the infrastructure bill joined by senate majority leader chuck schumer. >> 123. [inaudible] [laughter] [inaudible] [applause] ♪♪ ♪♪ [applause] >> hello, everybody. what a great day, a great afternoon and it's so great to be here to celebrate the major milestone in the most consequential and for such a project in all of america. [applause] as many of you know for a long time now this project has been my passion, labor of love and after many

mr. durbin: mr. president. the presiding officer: the democratic whip. mr. durbin: i ask consent to end the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. durbin: mr. president, i have two requests for committees to meet during today's session, they have the approval of the majority and minority leaders. the presiding officer: duly noted. mr. durbin: mr. president, i ask permission to complete my remarks before the recess. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. durbin: 50 years ago this last sunday, the supreme court ruled that reproductive health care in america is a constitutionally protected right and that americans have the freedom to make the most personal decision imaginable, when and whether to start a family. the case was called roe v. wade. for those who were alive when it was decided, we remember what it meant for millions of americans, the freedom to make their own reproductive health decisions. when roe v. wade was decided, our nation had a long way to go living up to the promise of equal justice under the law. as one example, w

mr. durbin: mr.president, it took 15 votes for kevin mccarthy to become speaker of the house of representatives. it may not have been historic, but it was a sight to behold. to finally become speak, kevin mccarthy made all kinds of commitments to the maga extremists in his republican party. one of the promises he made to the hard right holdouts in order to become speak was that house republicans will use their razor-thin majority in the house to try to freeze federal spending in fiscal year 2024 to fiscal year 2022 levels. let me bring that down in plain english. this means cutting $130 billion out of the federal budget that congress just passed last month. $130 billion is nothing to sneeze at. how are they going to do it? what's on the republican agenda in terms of cuts? speak mccarthy won't say, neither will the house republicans. what they have said is they plan to use the debt ceiling as leverage to try to get their way. what is the debt ceiling? let me give an example. last night, you went to a

mr. president. yesterday on abc's "this week" senator durbin asked senator booker and i to come back to the table and start talking about policing in america. i never left the table, mr. president, but it was senator durbin who filibustered my justice act. it was senator durbin who called the effort to make de-escalation training more available a token piece of legislation. it was indeed the senator from illinois who said as aspects of my justice act talked about the importance of the duty to intervene a token piece of legislation. in that legislation, mr. president, we had more resources for more training because we want only the best wearing the badge in every location, in every municipality, in every county, in every state in this great nation. but politics too often gets in the way of doing what every american knows is common sense. here we find ourselves again, mr. president, having the same conversation with no action having happened so far. mr. president, i don't speak on this floor very often, but this is my tenth speech on policing in america in eight years. the tenth time i've asked for som

durbin: are they the biggest? mr. berchtold: no, sir. they are generally, the biggest tend to be the sports venues, the owners of the sports teams. sen. durbin: you had an experience at barclays, did you not in terms of an opportunity for your company to take over a venue that had been controlled by ticketmaster. how did that work? >> the new york times reported a few weeks ago how once we took over ticketing for the berkeley center in brooklyn the berkeley center saw a market decrease in the number of concerts from live nation sent to that venue versus historical averages. so, earlier, last year, the barclays center management came to us and said we would like to keep using you for ticketing our basketball but we want to be able to use ticketmaster to ticket concerts. we look into it and could not get the economics to work, so we said to them, listen, let's part ways amicably and we did. sen. durbin: so, they used their power of the marketplace to diminish the number of acts? at that venue and the venue decided they had to go back to tic

mr. durbin: thank you. mr.resident, the state of illinois is my home and it holds an important place in the history of the american labor movement. all of us learned the name upton sinclair in our early days in school. the author of the 1906 novel "the jungle" which told the story of the horrendous working conditions endured by largely immigrant workers in chicago's meatpacking plants and led to federal regulation. a. phillip randolph, one of america's first unions for african american workers, he is a civil rights champion and leader of the 1963 march on washington. there is also the story of mary harris, mother jones, an irish immigrant who survived the great famine in england, the yellow fever epidemic which took the lives of her husband and children can and after her own dress shop was destroyed in the great chicago fire of 1871, she went on to become a woman labor organizer and a fierce and beloved champion of coal miners. but she died she said she wanted to be buried in a place of honor among coal miners.

. >> on abc this week senator durbin asked senator booker and i to come back to the table and start talking about policing in america. i never left the table, mr. president, but it was senator durbin who filibustered my justice act. senator durbin called the effort to make the de-escalation training more available and a token piece of legislation. it was indeed the senator from illinois that said talk about the importance of the duty to intervene. a token piece of legislation. in the legislation, mr. president, we had more resources for more training because we want only the best wearing the badge in every location and municipality and county and state in this great nation butt politics too often get in the way of doing what is common sense. with no action having happened so far. and mr. president i don't speak on the floor very often, but this is my tenth speech on policing in america in eight years. the tenth time i've asked for something that will make our officers better and safer and make our communities better andk safer. another time i've asked for more resources for recruitment so that we can have only the best wearing the badge for th

mr. durbin, mr. feingold, mrs. feinstein, mr. ford... - was there, like, an uproar when this happened?dline at the time? - there was no headline. in fact, i don't think most congressmen even knew that it happened until probably weeks, months, or maybe even years afterwards. - the bill i will sign in a few moments will enhance the economic strength of america. - they did this massive change to the economy that would affect all these people, and no one noticed? - it was very sneaky what they did. it was two lines slipped in, in conference committee under the dark of night. - there it is... the two lines of legal mumbo jumbo that would alter the economy for multiple generations, almost entirely. - technically, the bankruptcy code says if it represents an undue hardship, you can get a discharge. - undue hardship? [chuckles] that shouldn't be too hard to prove. - well, the courts have interpreted that saying that means there's no hope of repaying. - what do you mean there's supposed to be no hope? - they have to have such a condition you'd never want to have to get the student loan discharg

senator durbin: mr. groetzinge : you had a chance to take over the venue that was controlled by ticketmaster? groetzinger: once we took over ticketing for the berkeley center, they saw market decrease in the number of concerts from live nation. last year, the berkeley center management came to us and said we would like to keep using you for ticketing for basketball but we want to be able to use ticketmaster to ticket concerts. we cannot get the economics to work. sen. durbin: they use their power of the marketplace to dysmenorrhea -- two things -- to diminish the number of acts? groetzinger: the venue decided to move away. sen. durbin: is that true? berchtold: i believe what the new york times was another venue opened in the marketplace. yet two venues vying for the show's going to madison square garden and the number of shows from barclays from the promoters went down as a result of the competition. i have not heard of any allegations that we changed our booking of concerts for that venue. i understand

. >> senator durbin asked senator booker and i to come back to the table and start talking about policing in america. i never left the table, mr. president, but it was senator durbin who filibustered by justice act. i take the issue of policing in america seriously. i want our body to see it not as an issue of republicans versus democrats but as good people standing in the gap elected to do a job that we all ran to do. let's do our jobs. >> that disagreement, perhaps, does not bode well for the future legislation. the original bill, of course, was introduced in the wake of george floyd's death back in 2020. >>> still ahead here on "way too early," the just department is refusing to disclose information about the biden classified documents probe. we'll have the latest on how that fight is playing out plus a preview of the president's trip to new york city today. those stories and a check on the weather when we come right back. . come here! you know why people are always looking at their phones? they're banking, with bank of america. see cousin jimmy over there? his girlfriend just caught the bouquet so... he might need a little

mr. durbin: madam president. the presiding officer: the senior senator from illinois. mr. durbin: madam president, i want to begin by welcoming our newest senator from the state of nebraska pete ricketts. i don't know him well. i'm sure i will come to know him, but i certainly know his family. they have made their impression on the city of chicago by purchasing the historic franchise, the chicago cubs. they made major investments in the city of chicago and state of illinois in that pursuit, and best of all, they've virtually guarantee that wrigley field is going to stay in wrigley field, exactly where it should be. it's one of the cathedrals of baseball in america and the rick cetsz family has made a -- ricketts family has made a commitment to it which is certainly satisfying to devout babe fans like myself. i hope the time of the new senator will be productive and gratifying. the work in this body can sometimes be slow and frustrating but with patience, good things can happen. madam president, four years ago today as another new congress was starting its work, america was