mr. menendez: mr. president, i want to thank my colleague, senator warren, for beginning this debate, and we will move to a consent shortly. and i want to thank her for working together with me on this most important issue. mr. president, at this moment there are millions of women who face an uncertain future after the repeal of roe v. wade. millions of women who no longer have the right to make their own decisions about their own bodies. it's a heart-wrenching choice. no doubt one of the hardest decisions anyone will ever have to make. but in the midst of this, in this post-roe landscape we find ourselves in, there are organizations, as has been discussed here, known as crisis pregnancy centers, who are preying on the fears of women. exacerbating the fierce caused by the dobbs decision. crisis pregnancy decisions cloak themselves in benign language about, quote, providing answers and, quote, offering advice. but they have an agenda; namely, to steer women away from abortion through a combination of gu

mr. menendez. did anybody make a fuss? i don't think that the president of china should control the schedules of members of congress or anyone else who wants to visit taiwan. he's trying to isolate taiwan, you know they can't join the w.h.o. or they could make a very valuable contribution into terms of global hnl or other organizations. so he may try to keep them from attending meetings but he's not going to keep members of congress from visiting taiwan. we will not be accomplices to his isolation of taiwan. >> so what do you we learn from taiwan. president xi has taken the current in an even more autocratic direction over the past several years. >> yes. >> what have you learned by his overreaction to a member of congress's visit to taiwan? >> well, i think that he's in a fragile place. he's -- his problems with his economy, he's acting like a scared bully and this is before the meeting that where he will want to be re-elected. but we didn't do there to talk about china. we went there to talk about taiwan. taiwan eclipsed

mr. menendez have came.hope that it's really clear that while china has stood in the way of taiwan participating and going to certain meetings, that they understand that they will not stand in the way of people coming to taiwan. it's a show of friendship, of support but also a source of learning about how we can work together better in collaboration. so, yeah, no i don't -- i think that they made a big fuss because i'm speaker, i guess. i don't know if that was the reason or an excuse. because they didn't say anything when the men came. >> that was pelosi just a few hours ago in taipei. she visited taiwan once before back in 1999 before she was a member of house leadership. last night she was awarded its highest civilian honor with taiwan's president calling her, quote, a devoted friend. joining us now live from taipei is taiwan plus reporter luis. thank you for joining us this morning. obviously we know china not thrilled with the speaker's visit. they ordered up some military drills to take place near taiw

mr. menendez: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from new jersey. mr. menendez: mr. president, while i know the senate and the american people's attention has been drawn in many different directions over the past couple of months, and while we are still working through numerous legislative proposals to address real challenges that families across the united states are facing from high food prices to, to gas prices, to devastating natural disasters exacerbated by climate change, i am here today to encourage my colleagues to support the united states taking an important step forward in affirming our commitment to freedom, democracy, and collective defense, to send a signal to the world that we will unite against those actors who seek to destabilize the supply of food that threatens hunger for millions of people all over the world, who seek to weaponize energy in the middle of an unprecedented heat wave, and who think they can simply invade a neighbor with no consequences. as we grapple with the complexion geopolitics -- complex geopolitics, putin is bombing ukrainian c

mr. menendez? >> it was confusion, fear. >> you were afraid of her, at that point?as so cruel, she got up to run and they went out and they reloaded and they put the gun up to her cheek and blew her brains out. i'm sorry. that is the height of cruelty. >> what's more, observed reporter alan abrahamson. >> let's count how many seconds it might take to go out to the walk. walk. walk. walk. grab the shotgun shell. put the shotgun shell in. run back in. remember, time is ticking. time is ticking. you put the barrel of that shotgun against her cheek and you pull. that is intent. no doubt about it. >> the prosecution believed the brothers were flat-out lying about the abuse and the events leading up to the murders. and, as it turned out, their testimony gave the state a big opening. >> they offered their mental state, as a defense. and when you offer your mental state as a defense, you have waived your psychiatric patient privilege. >> remember that? by testifying, the brothers had put their mental state on center stage, meaning the tape was now fair game. >> the defense

mr. menendez: mr. president, as we bring to an end this debate about the accession treaty for sweden and finland, i've been listening in my office to my colleagues' comments, and i think it's all been very constructive, but i dough have -- but i do have a different screw, a view that i on some points i think are wrong. and before this vote casts a vote, i think they should understand why. i appreciate senator paul's focus on congress' prerogatives with respect to war powers. like senator paul, i have a deep respect for the critical role that the constitution assigns to congress in this area, and i believe our democracy is stronger for it. but i rise to convey that senator paul's amendment is unnecessary, unprecedented, and, if apartisan dod, will be deeply -- if adopted, will be deeply damaging to nato and our relationship with nato allies. that's why the foreign relations committee, in marking up these treaties, overwhelmingly, in a bipartisan vote, voted down a substantively identical amendment offer

mr. menendez came. not too much of a fuss was made. trips. and i just hope that it's really clear that while china has stood in the way of taiwan participating and going to certain meetings, that they understand that they will not stand in the way of people coming to taiwan. as a show of friendship, of support, but also a source of learning about how we can work together better in collaboration. so, i think that they made a big fuss because i'm speaker, i guess, i don't know if that was a reason or excuse, because they're going to say anything -- >> house speaker nancy pelosi met with the president of taiwan yesterday. pelosi becoming only the house speaker to travel to the island in 25 years. in april of then 1997, then speaker of the house newt gingrich made a visit. pelosi praised the quote, vibrant and flourishing democracy and said the u.s. delegation used the trip as she said to make unequivocally clear we will not abandon taiwan. last night, pelosi was awarded taiwan's highest honor with the president calling her a devoted frien

mr. menendez. did anybody make a fuss? of members of congress, or anyone else who wants to visit taiwan. he's trying to isolate taiwan. you know, they can't join w.h.o. or they could make a valuable contribution in terms of global health or other organizations. he may try to keep them from attending meetings. but he's not going to keep members of congress from visiting taiwan. we will not be accomplices to his isolation of taiwan. >> what do we learn from china over the past several days? obviously, president xi has taken the country in an even more autocratic direction over the past several years. >> yes. >> what have you learned by his overreaction to a member of congress' visit to taiwan? >> well, i think that he is in a fragile place. his problems with his economy. he is acting like a scared bully. and this is what -- before the meeting where he will want to be re-elected. we didn't go there to talk about china. we went there to talk about taiwan. we went there, the bigger picture, taiwan eclipsed everything else that

menendez: i understand senator cramer is next. sen. cramer: mr. dunn, i think we all -- it seems we all can agree to some degree on the problem. i will tell you and listening to senator toomey's questioning, my mind started going down the usual path. what is the ultimate end to the constant government distortion of markets, the sticks and carrots that seem to create higher price and very little in regards to providing more supply? the problem with inflation, the cause of inflation is when demand outpaces supply. we keep incentivizing demand and not supply. i'm not sure where it all ends. one part of that scenario that we do not talk about is the cost of regulation. there has been a study i am sure you are familiar with recently that predicts about 40% of the cost of multifamily and single-family rent is regulation. can you speak to government regulation? i am sincere when i say i do -- i struggle to find the balance. every time we try to solve the problem, we incentivize one side or the other and escalate cost. can you speak to the imbalance and t

earlier this week senator menendez and i sent a letter to the department commerce and the ustr urging the biden administration to prioritize lumber trade to reduce housing costs so mr. konter you agree reducing tariffs would make home construction and homeownership more affordable? say i thank you for the question. and thank you and senator menendez for your leadership on this issue. yes i do believe reducing tariffs on canadian softwood lumber would help to make homeownership more affordable. lumber represents one of the most significant material inputs for the construction of the home. trade measures on these inputs are necessarily going to increase costs of the final product. conversely anything you can do to remove these trade tears is going to reduce the cost of the final product. and if i could also senator biden earlier said what kind of regulations are outdated or their trade policies kopech to the smoot-hawley act so if you think maybe if they are not working and we can get an agreement and we are structurally the structures built into the review process of that trade program does not have the act of us being able quickly on modifications to trade policies