mr. mcconnell: i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: mr. thune: mr. president. the presiding officer: the republican whip. mr. thune: the senate i understand is in a quorum call. the presiding officer: yes, it is. mr. thune: i ask unanimous consent it be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. thune: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, tomorrow the supreme court will hear oral arguments in the dobbs case which deals with the mississippi law that would prohibit most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. this case offers the best opportunity in many years to see roe v. wade overturned or modified. something that is long overdue. roe v. wade was a bad decision that should long ago have been reversed. legal scholars from across the ideological spectrum have criticized the decision, noting in the words of one expert, and i quote, this constitutional -- as constitutional argument, roe is barely coherent. the court pulled its fundamental right to choose more or less from the constitutional ether, end quote. or a

mr. mcconnell: madam president? the presiding officer: the republican leader. mr. mcconnell: this has become an almost weekly routine. my friends on the other side trying to give washington unprecedented power over how americans cast their vote. we don't have time to do the ndaa or an appropriations process, but we always have time for a few more of these stunts. in many of these bills, congressional democrats propose to make themselves into a national board of elections. today there's a small difference. they want instead to hand that power to attorney general merrick garland. a different branch of government, same bad idea. i just want to add one observation from last night. governors races and state legislative seats weren't the only things on the ballot last night. yesterday the deep blue state of new york, new york, the home of the senate majority leader, had two of america's signature proposals for weaker elections actually on the ballot as ballot measures. citizens got to vote directly on whether to open the door to two changes, two changes that the politicia

mr. mcconnell: madam president. the presiding officer: the republican leader. mr. mcconnell: i ask consent that further proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: this week, voters delivered a clear message to the democratic party. you were not elected to radically change america. you were not elected to radically change america. period. the message was clear. on inflation, on economics. the message was clear on keeping woke propaganda out of public schools. the message was clear when even the citizens of blue new york, blue new york voted down left-wing changes that would weaken elections similar to what's been proposed here multiple times. and the message was clear when citizens pushed back on antipolicing and on antilaw enforcement attitudes. even in the most liberal cities and the most liberal states, americans told democrats leave their extreme campaign to defund the police behind. let's take minnea -- let's take minneapolis, for example. one local woman called the police department, quote, rot

mr. mcconnell: i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: thune madam president. the presiding officer: the republican whip. mr. thune: thank you, madam president. madam president, i ask unanimous consent the quorum call be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. thune: madam president, the biden border crisis continues to rage. last month u.s. customs and border protection encountered 164,303 individuals attempting to illegally cross our southern border. that's more than twice the number of encounters, customs and border protection had the previous october and the highest october number ever recorded by customs and border protection. in all, more than 1.7 million migrants were apprehended attempting to cross our southern border in fiscal year 2021, the highest number ever. we are in the midst of a very serious crisis, madam president, and the response from democrats and the administration were mostly crickets. democrats seem to hope that ignoring the border situation will make it go away, or at least ensure that

mr. mcconnell: madam president. the presiding officer: the republican leader. mr. mcconnell: well, the american people are hurting, inflation just hit another 30-year record high, families are paying skyrocketing prices for every day needs. the murder rate across the country just recorded its biggest jump ever. but here's what the biden administration is focused on, handing out six-figure and seven-figure payments to illegal immigrants. a few years back, liberal interest groups started trying to sue the united states government on behalf of illegal immigrants. they want american taxpayers to pay out legal damages because of the conditions some people faced as they tried to break into our country illegally. now, as a legal matter, these lawsuits were borderline frivolous, our government was all but certain to win the suits, but this administration wants to stand in and voluntarily pay out massive damages. quote, the u.s. departments of justice, homeland security and health and human services are considering payments that could amount to close to $1 million a family -

mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent further proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: today's democratic party does not make the policy decisions of a party that is serious about protecting our country. in may president biden released a budget proposal that proposed a de facto cut in defense spending. that was before the president's own supercharged inflation cut the purchasing power of every defense dollar. in august, his botched afghanistan retreat shattered our allies' trust and delighted the terrorists. in ten months in office despite naive happy talk from the administration, the threats we face are markedly worse. the vacuum they dleft? -- left in afghanistan embold ened those to the highest ramptions of the taliban's government. their desperation to a nuclear deal has given iran the upper hand in negotiations. for four years my colleague, the democratic leader, seemed constantly focused on putin and russia, but now with putin flaunting his power and russia engaged in troop buildups, crickets. and for all th

mr. mcconnell maybe the data on —- the data and the facts as they are thank you to all witnesses this is we are here to support small businesses condemnation doesn't go too far conversation does thank you to my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to share my interest to identify the problems but most importantly finding solutions. the pandemic has upended a lot with those exposed weaknesses including particularly our supply chain it is a complex system there is no magic solution i was hoping we might come here today to find the magic wand to solve the problem but the truth is i did not hear one actionable solution we have to make investments long-term strategic thoughtful and intentional by democrats and republicans this is the spirit of the committee it will take strong leadership we do a few things the biden administration so they would extend hours 24 hours. . . . . if there is no further business to come before the committee we are now adjourned. thank you everybody. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] asian owners and the importance of financial assistance for mino

mr. mcconnell, needs to do something about him. why is he silent? when the man is threatening tocal another -- to till another member this body? and threatening the president of the united states of america. i ask your listeners one question. if yours truly had put out something like that do you think for one moment that my democratic colleagues would not take action against me they would do it. and they should do it. >> here's what the republican leadership did instead. mccarthy took to the house floor and described the send sewer motion as an abuse of power. politico reports, the post was posted by gosar's staff, not by him and that he deleted it when he found. gosar expressed regret and said he didn't mean to promote violence. this begs the question why gosar hasn't publicbly apologized to aoc, who regularly received death threats. gosar spoke at a white nationalist conference weeks after the capitol attack and he has peddled conspiracy theories about the 2017 white supremacist rally in charlottesville. s that all on top of falsely claiming that

mr. mcconnell. i leave the data and facts as they are. i want to thank all our witnesses for being with us today. this is tough stuff. we are here to support small businesses. condemnation doesn't go to far. conversation duds. i want to thank my colleagues on both sides of the aisle who share hi interest in identifying the problems, but most importantly, finding solutions. the pandemic has up ended a lot in our lives. it has exposed weaknesses, including small businesses, including particularly our supply chain. it is a complex system our supply chain. there is no magic solution. i was hoping we might come here today and find that magic wand that we could just solve this problem. the truth is i didn't hear one actionable solution that we could implement today to solve the problem. we have to make investments. long-term, strategic, thoughtful and intentional, by both democrats and republicans. that is the spirited of this committee. that is what i hope we do. it is going to take strong leadership. we can do a few things. the biden administ

this is what leaders do, and this is the failure of kevin mccarthy, of mitch mcconnell, of mr. trump. they have got to stand up and purge those extremists but they don't want to. i think some of them, mccarthy and mcconnell, need them and want to use them. but i think some of them, like mr. trump, is one of them. >> when people got in trouble when boehner was speaker, they'd be summoned to the office. and you'd be asked. is this true? if they said yes, you see that letter on the desk, that's your resignation letter. >> can you do that now? >> no, but that's what happened. >> no leverage for the leader. >> that's what would happen. they just didn't want to deal with it. they didn't want to deal with it. too many important things to deal with. if you are a member of congress you don't want to be answering these questions about paul gosar if you're a republican. back to the trump era, lowered the standards bar so low and people don't feel shame anymore. now they can monetize it. >> where is the shame? >> there isn't any. >> that issue is the apology or lack thereof in speaking to m

senator mcconnell had a call patch through to the president and he said, mr. president, you should nominate somebody right away and that person should be amy comey barrett. >> not yet i am saving the seat. that network went well beyond. that was just kind of the icing on the cake. this inevitability to it. the white house talked about a short list and mentioned some other names. there was really only one name on the list. he was wired from the very beginning. >> they did exactly what they did, try to put out the breadcrumbs that would suggest a different nominee. i know you just researched into how they told how they had it down in florida. ron desantis was very excited about the possibility. just like he led reporters on a bit of a chase during the selection, he tried to do that a little bit in the amy comey barrett situation. we know from the filings that that then judge barrett had to produce that the president offered her the job right at her interview that monday. >> right. >> trump was very different from bill clinton. [laughter] >> yeah. >> the vacancy

mcconnell both paid tribute to vermont senator patrick leahy who announced he's retiring. senator leahy, who was first elected in 1974, is the longest current serving senator and senate president pro tempore. >> mr. president,. >> majority leader. >> i come to the floor today a little sad but also immensely full of gratitude. earlier today our dear colleagun senator patrick leahy announced he will retire from the senate at the conclusion of his term. this chamber has had a long history of many dedicatedat pubc servants, but there's only been one patrick leahy. for eight terms, the gentle man from vermont has been

mitch mcconnell did that when he was the majority leader in the senate by being mr. no, by never moving forward any legislation that came out of the house. and we are seeing kevin mccarthy doing that now by coming up with false equivalentsies for not being a leader and only being interested in potentially being a speaker to reprimand and to keep his party in line. >> kong woman alexandrea ocasio cortez made a similar point about false equivalencies. >> when the republican leader rose to talk about how there are all of these double standards and list as litany of all of these different things not once did he list an example of a member of congress threatening the life of another. this is not about a double standard. and what is unprecedented, and what is tragic is the dissent of transgression in this body. >> where do you go from this place of acknowledging and having it sort of conveyed not just in this country, but around the world, and on the american right there is no bottom, not even, as the congresswoman said there, threats of violence against a colleague? >> i

mr. trump, are you 100% trump guy? >> i love president trump and i tell people all the time, i thank him so much for endorsing me, i think senator mcconnelli want to bring this country together. right now we have so much separation with the racism we have so much separation with democrat republican. the way we can get this country together we have to bring people together and decide one thing, get people back to work because the government is paid to stay help. we had to get people back to being rely on herself and getting people to rely on products in this country were a great country we can get it done and that's how we get this thing solved. i hate to say this term but we gotta get america going again. stuart: you are a georgia guy, the braves just won the world series. you were a happy guy this morning for two reasons. the braves won the world series and the republicans look good yesterday. go ahead. >> it is a great day for atlanta, it's a great day for virginia, i think that the ultimate redemption, there moving the all-star game to a city that had a more extraneous voter rights than atlanta. they move it, now they go to win and the

mr. mcconnell: mr. president. the presiding officer: the republican leader is recognized. mr. mcconnell: i ask consent that further proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: since the earliest days of covid-19, washington democrats have admitted they want to use the pandemic as a pretext to permanently transform our country. they hope to use the temporary crisis as a trojan horse for permanent radical change. one of their goals is a huge series of disruptive changes to america's families' child care. the story is like democrats' long march towards socialized medicine. take an intimate area of american life, pile on a maze of new mandates, regulations, cost increases, and subsidies, and push families out of the driver's seat so washington can run their lives. not too long ago the democrats promised that if you like your health care plan, you can keep it was awarded the lie of the year. now they want a sequel. if you like your child care, you can keep your child care. democrats want to sweep the first five years

mr. mcconnell: madam president. the presiding officer: the minority leader. comoimed i ask unanimous consent the proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: a lot has gone wrong since this unified democratic government took the reins back in january. let's look at product liability. the biden administration's clumsy retreat from afghanistan left americans behind who wanted out and handed the country to a government staffed with terrorists that used to be locked up at guantanamo bay. look at energy independence or, should i say, energy dependence. president biden canceled our own keystone x.l. pipeline but cleared the path for a new pipeline for vladimir putin. the amount of russian oil that america has to import has already nearly doubled on the democrats' watch. look at the border. illegal crossings are flooding across our southern border at an all-time high. the democrats have interior enforcement arrests down to a decade low. but there is no question what crisis is at the top of the minds of

mr. mcconnell: are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are. mr. mcconnell: i ask consent that further proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: two weeks ago, president biden and his team flew to glasgow for a glitzy conference. world leaders traveled there to attend one another's speeches on carbon emissions and the climate. the world's largest emitter was not there. china pumps out more than a quarter of the entire world's emissions, but president xi didn't bother to attend this conference. putin didn't show up either. he and his cronies in moscow are too busy using russian natural gas to stranglehold energy -- and make energy hostages out of the european friends who rushed too naively towards renewables. this goes to the core problems with the antienergy agenda that liberals want to thrust on our country. maximum self-inflicted pain for american families in exchange for moo no -- for no meaningful global change. they would have america tie one hand behind our back while our comp

mr. mcconnell: madam president. the presiding officer: the republican leader. mr. mcconnell: earlier today our with distinguished president pro tempore, the senior senator from vermont, announced he will conclude his incredible run of senate service. senator leahy plans to retire at the end of next year at the conclusion of his eighth term. senator leahy has served vermonters in the senate for longer than anyone in the state's history. of course he's also become a senate institution in his own right. i think particularly of the opportunities i had to work with senator leahy when we were sharing leadership of the appropriations subcommittee for state and foreign operations. so it's hard to imagine the senate without pat and his lovely wife marcelle. for now i want to salute our colleague on the occasion of his announcement and add my congratulations on his remarkable career thus far. now on an entirely different matter, last week even more economic data continued to confirm that inflation is hammering working families all across america. in october, consumer prices s

mcconnell both paid tribute to vermont senator patrick leahy who announced he's retiring. senator leahy, who was first elected in 1974, is the longest current serving senator and senate president pro tempore. >> mr. president,. >> majority leader. >> i come to the floor today a little sad but also immensely full of gratitude. earlier today our dear colleagun senator patrick leahy announced he will retire from the senate at the conclusion of his term. this chamber has had a long history of many dedicatedat pubc servants, but there's only been one patrick leahy. for eight terms, the gentle man from vermont has been a senators senator, of only one -- one of only four in the history of the senate to surpass 16,000 votes and observe to his beloved home state. and today i can only say this, thank you. thank you for your many years of friendship, leadership, dedication to the constitution and the rule of law. the senate is better off because of you. vermont is better off because of you, our country is better off because of you. now we still may disagree strongly about which state has the best maple syrup, but we never let that get in the way of doing great things together. pat, you are a great guy. it'