mr. kaine: first, i have one request for a committee to meet during today's session of the senate. it has the approval of the majority and minority leaders. the presiding officer: duly noted. mr. kaine: madam president, second request, my remarks are coming about six minutes after i intended to start. i ask for per mugs to complete my remarks before the vote begins. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. kaine: i rise to essentially do a part two of a talk that i gave on the senate floor about two weeks ago. the first part of my talk was my analysis of the dobbs decision of the supreme court expressing my deep dissolutionment with the court's decision to cast aside a century of precedent under the 14th amendment due process clause, and in particular casting aside 50 years of using the 14th amendment to protect women's rights to make reproductive decisions with regard to contraception and abortion. i analyzed the court's opinion and precedents at that time, but i sort of left it hanging w

mr. kaine: madam president, i'm so pleased to be on the floor today to join with senator murray, senator schumer, senator blumenthal to talk about the critical importance of child care. i will speak in about 40 minutes about a piece of this bill, the black lung program, which is really important to virginia. like senator murray, i share a sadness that child care is not included in this bill, because this is what i'm hearing from virginians, that even before the pandemic, there was an inadequate supply. people working in this field weren't being paid enough. it's a market failure and we have to fix it. this bill doesn't and so we'll have to continue it. there's never been anyone in the history of the united states senate that's been as passionate and an advocate for child care than senator murray. she sort of swallows a lead because she's a modest person when she said i cared about this before i got here, her colleagues and those in washington know that senator murray was a childhood educator be

mr. kaine: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from virginia. mr. kaine: i rise to speak about a very important provision in the inflation reduction act that combines the three pillars of the act -- health care, energy, and tax reform. that provision is a permanent p funding fix for the black lung benefit program. and i dedicate this floor speech to all my friends who are virginia coal miners, to their retirees, to their families, and i especially dedicate it to my friends at the united mine workers including a dear friend, president cecil roberts. i came to virginia in 1984 never having been to virginia. i grew up in kansas and didn't know too much about the coal industry. i married my wife ann 38 years ago and part of her family is from big stone gap, virginia, in the heart of appalachia, those counties in southwestern virginia, wise, lee, dickinson, russell, buchanan, scott, that have coal mining as the very heart of their economies. and it's not only coal mines, but it's the miners themselves, many of whom drive across state lines to work in west