mr. grassley: this week my democratic colleagues are poised to push through the senate here untargeted and unfocused one in nine-tenths tax and spending package and it's all being done under the guise of covid relief. and some of it is very essential for covid relief. but a small part of it. this whole act is very unfortunate because it didn't have to be this way. in the past year, republicans and democrats were able to work together to pass more than $4 trillion in covid relief and it was all done with strong bipartisan support. from the start of this year, my republican colleagues and i have stood ready to engage in go good-faith bipartisan negotiations to provide further tax relief. however, despite all the talk of unity and bipartisanship by president biden, the new senate majority hasn't even attempted to reach across the aisle. bipartisanship worked five times over the last 12 months starting about one year ago right now. the majority demonstrating their unwillingness to compromise have resorted to using special budget procedures so that they may be pass a partisan bill strictly alon

mr. grassley? mr. grassley, no. mr. haggardy? >> no. >> mr. haggerty, no. miss hassan? >> aye. >> mr. hawley? >> know. >> mr. hawley, no. mr. heinrich? >>aye. >> mr. heinrich, aye. mr. lick enhooper? aye. mr. hovan? >> no. >> mr. hovan, no. >> mrs. hyde-smith? no. mr. innoff? >> no. >> mr. johnson. >> no. >> mr. johnson, no. >> mr. kane? mr. kane, aye. mr. kelly? >> aye. >> mr. kelly, aye. >> mr. kennedy? >> no. >> mr. kennedy, no. mr. king? >> aye. >> mr. king, aye. miss kwloeb klobuchar? >> aye. >> mr. langford? >> no. >> mr. langford, no. mr. leahy? >> aye. >> mr. leahy, aye. mr. lee? no. miss lummage? >> no. >> miss lummage, no. mr. manchin? >> aye. >> mr. manchin, aye. >> mr. markey, aye. >> mr. marshall? >> no. >> mr. marshall, no. >> mr. mcconnell? >> no. >> mr. mcconnell, no. >> mr. menendez? >> mr. menendez? aye. >> mr. merkley? >> aye. >> in merkley, aye. >> mr. moran? >> no. >> miss murkowski? >> miss murkowski? no. >> miss murkowski, no. >> mr. murphy, aye. >> mrs. murray? >> aye. >> mrs. murray, aye. >> mr. ossoff? >> aye. >> mr. ossoff, aye. mr. padilla? >> aye. >> mr. p

mr. grassley: this week my democratic colleagues are poised to push through the senate here untargeted and unfocused one in nine-tenths tax and spending package and it's all being done under the

mr. grassley: thank you.ivil war legislation called the false claims act has been on the books since that period of time. in 1986, i believe it was, i got some amendments to it that have made it a much more valuable piece of legislation than it was before that time. it's called the false claims act, and it's brought, i think, something like $64 billion back into the federal treasury of fraudulent taking money since then. the problem today, even though it's been a successful law, is that the courts tend to from time to time neuter its capabilities by interpreting it in a way so it's not quite as effective. from time to time, we have passed legislation to overcome some of those court decisions, so i'm here today to talk about another opportunity this senate has to make the false claims act the effective piece of legislation it was. so i want to alert my colleagues about the most recent limitations the courts have imposed on the false claims act. the false claims act was signed into law by president abraham linc

mr. grassley: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mr. grassley: i ask that the calling of the quorumming suspend spended. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. grassley: the appropriations committee is reported here in the senate to prepare to announce the return of earmarks. that's a process that around here we know, people back home might not know, so let me explain that the process of earmarks inserts individual projects designated for specific interest into a bill, most often an appropriations bill. so when i say individual projects, it means senators doing it for their, probably their district or their state. ee -- earmarks are a practice that has become a symbol to the american people of the waste and out-of-control spending in washington. i'm strongly against the return of earmarks. the earmark moratorium was implemented as a direct result of the events leading up to the election of 2010, and there was clearly a mandate coming from that 2010 election to do away with earmarks. so people sometimes think through the elections

mr. grassley: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mr. grassley: i have spoken on the senate floor recently on the subject of free speech as it applies to the world of digital media. the principles of free speech are timeless and are applicable to new forms of communication. still, it is natural that new questions will arise and new mechanisms might be needed to apply those principles across new modes of communication. what shouldn't be in question is the need for open dialogue and freedom of speech in academia. otherwise, what does the principle of academic freedom mean if it isn't involved with freedom of speech? all of the progress that has been made -- that has made modern life possible has been the result of individuals who have been able to think of things in new ways, even if that challenged an old orthodoxy. a healthy and vibrant academic environment is not afraid of those challenges. only stagnant, defensive, and unconfident regimes restrict speech. think about the recent protests in russia, belarus, or burma. china's restrictions

mr. grassley: i ask that the calling of the quorum be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. grassley: mr. president, we welcome about a million immigrants every year. we welcome them because they come here abiding by our laws, and we need immigrants, and we've been a welcoming country for a long time. but i come to the floor today to speak about the ongoing crisis at our southern border, a crisis that i think this administration doesn't want to admit is a crisis, and because of some changes in policy we have that crisis. and that crisis is people entering our country in violation of our laws. since taking office, this administration has advanced policies that undermine immigration enforcement. these policies undermine efforts to secure our southern border and they encourage illegal immigration into our country. president biden has signaled that when it comes to immigration that violates our laws, the united states is open for business. speaker pelosi and house democrats are doubling down on that position this very week. they're w

mr. grassley: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mr. grassley: i ask that the calling of the quorum be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. grassley: this week my democratic colleagues are poised to push through the senate here untargeted and unfocused one in nine-tenths tax and spending package and it's all being done under the guise of covid relief. and some of it is very essential for covid relief. but a small part of it. this whole act is very unfortunate because it didn't have to be this way. in the past year, republicans and democrats were able to work together to pass more than $4 trillion in covid relief and it was all done with strong bipartisan support. from the start of this year, my republican colleagues and i have stood ready to engage in go good-faith bipartisan negotiations to provide further tax relief. however, despite all the talk of unity and bipartisanship by president biden, the new senate majority hasn't even attempted to reach across the aisle. bipartisanship worked five times over the last 12 m

mr. grassley: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from iowa is recognized. mr. ey: on march 6 of this year, the intelligence community issued its intelligence community assessment on foreign threats involving the 2020 u.s. federal elections. based on that report, some in the liberal media have falsely claimed that my and senator johnson's hunter biden related oversight activity last congress were based on russian disinformation. even peter strue need to chime in on twitter to say that we received russian disinformation. i don't know how many times i have to say it, but such claims are false and misleading. to be precise, senator johnson and i did receive solicit, or rely upon any information from andrii derchev and we publicly said so. i don't know how many times last year i was on the floor of the united states senate to the people who were making those accusations. it seems like struck pays just about as careful attention to these facts as he did to the crossfire fisa applications. of course twitter let's stories about the steel dossier run wild. there is unref

mr. grassley: thank you. today i'm going to discuss a very important issue that i started to investigate during the last congress and an issue that the executive branch must continue to improve upon. the subject? information sharing between the intelligence community and the department of health and human services, the connection between those two entities is a critical information-sharing data point and it must last beyond the current pandemic. to date the obvious. the health care landscape has evolved considerably in the past several decades. more specifically, the health care landscape has changed considerably in just the last year because of the covid pandemic. threats to health care now include cyber, intelligence and counterintelligence threats. for example, we know the chinese government engaged in cyberattacks to steal covid-related research. the communist chinese government will stop at nothing to steal our hard-earned work product. they know as does the world that the best of the best is still right

mr. chair and ranking member grassley.illed to be here to offer boards on behalf of my constituent vanita gupta. she's a passionate advocate for justice, a concensus builder and because she's a history maker. i was a civil rights lawyer for 17 years before i got into statewide politics. my first job was a summer intern at the naacp legal defense fund and i'm thrilled to have someone who spent her career as an attorney number three at department of justice. i've faced things in my career civil rights people complaining about causes i championed and cases where i represented people, but virginia voters looked at the fact that lawyers often were elected to office who had been prosecutors. lawyers been elected to office who represented corporations or those with significant advantages. why couldn't somebody with a civil rights background also be entrusted to take an oath and follow the law and fight for justice? the chairman talked about her first case, vanita took on this challenge of exonerating 46 people who had been wrongf

mr. chairman. >> thank you senator cantwell. important for the country and especially important for the people in the pacific northwest and i thank you for doing that. the senator grassley>> mr. chairman for holding this hearing. we need fairness in our trade and we need a tough level playing field and you are hitting that very hard with this hearing. i want to lead into a question with ms. hughes this way. the australian strategic policy institute of january of last year around 600 ethnic minority workers from xinjiang were employed at the shoe manufacturer whose dimeric customers nike. these workers were mostly weaker women who at night were required to study mandarin and sing chinese national anthem. chinese academic publication with information from public government sources show that the primary aim of what the chinese call labor transfers are not economic to political and demographic to a report made public in english by the communism memorial foundation. details a state campaign of cultural and demographic genocide. in your testimony you said you want to look at the role of the u.s. cbp to implement enforcement so that no products of forced labor reach the united

grassley. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you, director wray, for being here as opposed to being virtual like we have some people testifying. we all agree that what happened at the capitol january 6th was a desecration of our shared values, it was an attack on the seat of democracy. those who engaged in violence disgraced our country and we know the statistics, at least seven people, including one u.s. capitol police officer, died as a result of that day. we also know that two officers committed suicide and we know that hundreds were injured. we expect that god watches over them and their families. those who broke the law must be prosecuted and congress needs answers, especially about one officer, brian sicknick, what happened to him. in pursuit of the facts related to january 6th, senator durbin and i have sent oversight letters to the fbi and other agencies. to date we haven't received any productions. it's ticket to hold a hearing today without records, so the fbi must fully respond to congress, however, i'm pleased

grassley. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and thank you, director wray, for being here as opposed to being virtual like we have some people testifying. we all agree that what happened at the capitol january 6th was a desecration of our shared values. it was an attack on the seat of democracy. those who engaged in violence disgraced our country and we know the statistics, at least seven people including one u.s. capitol police officer died as a result of that day. also know that two officers committed suicide and we know that hundreds were injured. and we expected god watches over them and their families. those who broke the law must be prosecuted and congress needs answers, especially about one officer, brian sicknick, what happened to him. in pursuit of the facts related to january 6th, senator durbin and i have sent oversight letters to the fbi and other agencies, to date we haven't received any productions. it is difficult to hold a hearing today without records. so the fbi must fully respond to congress. however, i'm plea

mr. chair and ranking member grassley. i'm thrilled to be here to offer boards on behalf of my constituent vanita gupta. she's a passionate advocate for justice, a concensus builder and because she's a history maker. i was a civil rights lawyer for 17 years before i got into statewide politics. my first job was a summer intern at the naacp legal defense fund and i'm thrilled to have someone who spent her career as an attorney number three at department of justice. i've faced things in my career civil rights people complaining about causes i championed and cases where i represented people, but virginia voters looked at the fact that lawyers often were elected to office who had been prosecutors. lawyers been elected to office who represented corporations or those with significant advantages. why couldn't somebody with a civil rights background also be entrusted to take an oath and follow the law and fight for justice? the chairman talked about her first case, vanita took on this challenge of exonerating 46 people who had bee

mr. chairman. thank you, chairman durbin, ranking member , ranking member grassley, members of the committee. i'm honored to be a today as the president's nominee to be the deputy attorney general. and i think senator markey for his very kind introduction and for the shout out to my father. without the love and support of my family i would not have been able to pursue a career in public service. i am joined today by my brother mark and his wife jennifer. i'm very grateful for their presence and for the support of their children, nicholas and sophia, as well as that of my twin brother chris come his wife lisa, my nieces desiccant and julia and my brother peter and his partner nancy. when i came before this committee as the nominee ten years ago, almost to the day, mr. chairman, my mother and father were sitting right behind me. my mother is no longer with us but as has been noted my father is riveted to the tv this morning. i am deeply grateful to my parents who have taught me about hard work, about humility and about what it means to live one's values. if confirmed, would be an honor to work

grassley? >> thank you, mr. chairman. i'm going to ask my question in this order.g, solomon, hupp, swearer. thank you about the needs of vulnerable communities to protect themselves. can you think of any instance where asian-americans have needed to use firearms to protect themselves? >> absolutely. we don't have to look any farther back than the 1992 l.a. riots. korea town when l.a. was burning and korea town was under attack. and it called the l.a.p.d. for help and the l.a.p.d. was underresourced and unavailable to come to the aid of korean-americans. what did they do? they utilized their second amendment rights and took their own firearms and protected their businesses, their lives and their community. >> when police departments are defunded it is often communities of color that are most impacted. so mr. cheng, how does this impact the need for self-defense with firearms? >> if we look back at the past year with covid-19, it's been a pressure cooker for all of us to see the civil unrest, the violence that has enrap sured our country. when you couple that with ca

grassley. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and thank you, director wray, for being here as opposed to being virtual like we have some people testifying. we all agree that what happened at the capitol january 6th was a discretion of our shared values. it was an attack on the seat of democracy. those who engaged in violence, disgraced our country. and we know the statistics. at least seven people, including one u.s. capitol police officer died as a result of that day. also know two officers committed suicide and we know that hundreds were injured. we expect god watches over them and their families. those who broke the law, must be prosecuted and congress needs answers, especially about one officer, brian sicknick. what happened to him. in pursuit of the facts related to january 6th, senator durbin and i have sent oversight letters to the fbi and other agencies. to date, we haven't received any productions. it's difficult to hold a hearing today without records. so, the fbi must fully respond to congress. however, i'm pleased to

grassley. >> thank you mr. chairman. welcome everyone. as we revereon the nomination of two candidates for leadership of justice.e. lisa monaco and to be deputy attorney general and vanita gupta to be associated attorney general. extend a warm welcome to the candidates nominees as well as their families and friends. lisa monaco is nominated to serve the second-highest ranking position in the department. it's a serious job and i applaun president biden for nominating a serious person for the position. lisa monaco, has worked to keep americansam safe from violent criminals terrorists and cyber threats. she is the type of mainstream pick would expect from the democratic nomination or administration vanita gupta is nominated as serve the department of justice as the third-highest ranking official. the deputy attorney general generally runs criminal law enforcement of the associated attorney general is in charge of the civil side of the department. vanita gupta comes before this committee with her impressive career advocating on behalf of vava

mr. david. our next witness. >> thank you, chairman durbin. ranking member grassleymbers of the committee, i am mary hassan. hassan. let me begin by stating clearly i believe discrimination is always wrong. all americans should be treated equally. we are created male or female from conception. today we have heard about the threats posed by the equality act to females. i share those concerns. because biological sex matters for law, medicine, and many of us. for many of us it affects the practice of our faith. it redefines sex with no reference to biological distinction between male and female. unlike, the equality act defined as stereotypes, sex characteristics, pregnancies, sexual desires with gender identity and the equality act thus cements the ideological belief that it can be self defined and it punishes those who dissent, but sex does matter. only females experience female puberty. pregnancy, birth, and menopause. biology also makes females uniquely vulnerable to having their safety and privacy compromised. nine out of 10 rate victims are female. when the law pr

mr. chairman and all the witnesses who are with us today senator cruz a want to associate myself with your opening comments with cruise and grassleye introduced it something i would like to get on if you are looking for a cosponsor like to get as an introduction. mr. chairman since i have been here for six or six and half years, the c events of boulder colorado are not the first. it's a sad situation. what i worry about that this is the time you think we would all come together on something that is common sense but we go into our quarters and make no progress. i think the bill is a step in the right direction does something we cany try and work on we don't know much about the shooter in boulder. my guess is it will follow many of the same patterns. if we m only had better resources for law enforcement. and had they spoken up with interventionth with a discussion in ground increasing can control alone into simplistic to think will make any progress on a matter that hopefully will make progress on. that theni challenge those that should have indiscriminate rags on - - red flag laws without any due process to be initiated by persons

host: chuck grassley of iowa sending out a tweet in response to the resident saying -- to the president saying "he is wrong saying you had to collapse to get the final vote. he has confused with mr. smith goes to washington. josie from pennsylvania, democrats line. hello. caller: i think what many of your callers are forgetting is the lack of information of the previous president's news conferences. there would be a lack of information and a hostility. i believe yesterday was clear and concise. he did look at his briefing book which was refreshing. in the past, the president proceeded him did not do that. i think we have to give the man a chance. he is moving forward. we are looking at his cognitive abilities. i will remind people that there was great question about arnold reagan in the first administration about his cognitive ability and whether or not he was suffering from alzheimer's. host: from want the president said, what did you gain from that information? caller: i gained the fact that immigration has been a problem for a long time. we can go back several administration. -- several administrations. the measures have not worked. it is not south america sending illegal imm

mr. grassley: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mr. grassley: i have a motion to commit at the desk and i ask that it be reported. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from iowa, mr. grassley, moves to commit the bill h.r. 1319 to the committee on finance with instructions, to report the same back to the senate in three days, not counting any day on which the senate is not in session, with changes that, one, are within the jurisdiction of such committee and, two, include reforms to protect taxpayers from perpetually subsidizing private-sector pension plans by ensuring the long-term solvescy of the multiemployer pension system. mr. grassley: i ask unanimous consent two minutes evenly divided. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. grassley: this bill includes $86 billion, no had of strings bailout of multiemployer pension plans. it does not belong in the current package. it has nothing to do with covid. the bailout is not coupled with any reforms and consequently there won't be any long-term sustain

mr. grassley proposes amendment 902. mr. grassley: i ask for two minutes equally divided. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. grassley: you folks on the other side of the aisle, the house agricultural committee voted out a bipartisan that had the support of congressman fingstra of iowa and congresswoman axny of iowa. it got out of committee and the rules committee took it out of the bill that came over here. i'm asking for reconsideration of that. this amendment does this. it makes farmers in iowa that were hit by the durotio wind and that is a wind that you don't predict like you do a tornado and it just crops up and 150 miles long and 30 miles wide. it destroyed 350 acres of corn. laid it fat. most of it was plowed under. the presiding officer: the senator's time expired. mr. grassley: time is up already? i would like to have it considered, please. ms. stabenow: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from michigan. ms. stabenow: thank you, mr. president. to my good friend, we worked together on so many things on agriculture. we saw the devastation ca

mr. grassley: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mr. assley: recently the biden administration withdrew a proposed trump administration rule that would have required universities and k-12 schools to identify their connections with confucius institutes, which are very much connected to the country of china and i would even say the communist party of china, which maybe would be one in the same. i've asked the biden administration about that move, but the administration has failed to respond to date. today i'm here to discuss four areas where the administration must be tough with china as well as other countries. since april 2015 i've conducted oversight on several key aspects of foreign efforts to influence members of congress and the american public. first, i focused on the equal, fair, and aggressive enforcement of transparency laws, and an example of one transparency law that i'll focus on is the foreign agents registration act. i first raised concerns about the foreign registration act in april 2015 when it became very apparent that it

mr. grassley: before i speak, i ask unanimous consent that myself, senator braun, and senator hirono be able to complete our remarks before the vote. the presiding officer: is there objection? so ordered -- without objection. mr. grassley: i want to compliment that the commodity futures trading commission operates a highly successful whistle-blower program. as one of the senators who led the effort to establish that whistle-blower program back in 2010, i'm proud of what this program has accomplished. since the commission issued its first whistle-blower award in 2014, whistle-blowers have helped the agency root out waste, fraud, and abuse in the commodities trading industry and has recovered nearly $950 million. that's a very good reason to compliment the commodity futures trading commission. that's a lot of restitution for harmed investors. it's also a lot of money going to the u.s. treasury and to the american taxpayers. now if congress doesn't act quickly, all of that progress could come to a swift and sudden halt. several months ago the commission contacted my office to tell me that its w

mr. grassley: i want to come to the floor to bring up four subjects. the first one is 30 seconds. we hear from democrats that they want to do things in a bipartisan way. last year, senator wyden and i developed a bipartisan bill that would save the taxpayers $95 billion and reduce the costs of prescription drugs. everybody wants that. president trump wanted it, president biden wanted it, and there is no reason why in one week we couldn't get that bill passed, and we don't have to wait until several weeks down the road to do something like that. it didn't come up last congress because both senators schumer and senator mcconnell were against it. it is bipartisan. we ought to move on that. on another subject, over the years, the consolidation of the beef industry has threatened the livelihood of iowa farm families in rural communities where they reside, and it is not limited to just iowa. this would be farmers all over the country. i have been working since 2002 to increase the producers' leverage against processors, improve market price discovery, and better situate independent iowa