mr. portman: madam president? the presiding officer: the junior nor from ohio. mr. portman: madam president, i have worked with my colleague from pennsylvania on some of these home care options, and i think it's a very positive thing. in fact, it savings a the although of cost for the system -- it saves a lot of cost for the system, but the question is, what's is doing in a covid relief bill? having been involved on five different covid relief packages over the last year, i am just so discouraged that we can't sit down as republicans and democrats alike and work out a targeted, focused bill on covid. and, by the way, then move on to other things, including health care reform and issues that have traditionally been bipartisan, like infrastructure, retirement security, and dealing with china and supply chain issues. but this is not the way to start. we are looking at a $1.9 trillion package, the second largest appropriation every written by congress -- the first one went through last year -- and no input, virtually no input from anybody on our side of the aisle because

mr. portman? mr. portman? no. mr. reed? mr. reed, aye. mr. risch? no. >> mr. risch, no. mr. romney? >> no. >> mr. romney, no. miss rosen? >> aye. >> mr. rounds? >> mr. rounds, no. >> mr. rubio? >> no. >> mr. rubio, no. mr. sanders? >> aye. >> mr. and sanders, aye. >> mr. sauj? >> no. mr. shots? aye. >> mr. schumer? >> aye. >> mr. schumer, aye. mr. scott of florida? >> no. >> mr. scott of florida, no. mr. scott of south carolina? >> no. >> mr. scott of south carolina, no. mrs. shaheen? >> mrs. shaheen, aye. mr. shelby? >> no. >> miss sinema? >> yes. >> miss sinema, aye. miss smith? >> aye. >> miss smith, aye. >> miss stabenow? >> aye. >> mr. tester? mr. tester aye. >> mr. thune? mr. thune no. mr. tillis? >> no. >> mr. tillis, no. mr. toomey? >> no. >> mr. toomey, no. >> mr. tuberville? >> no. >> mr. tuberville, no. >> mr. van hollins? >> aye. >> mr. val hollen, aye. mr. warner? >> aye. >> mr. warnock? >> aye. >> miss warren? >> aye. >> mr. white house? mr. whitehouse, aye. mr. wicker? >> no. mr. widen? >> aye. mr. young? >> mr. young, no. >> all right, everyone, we've taken a listen

mr. portman: i'm on the floor today -- the presiding officer: senator, we are in a quorum call. mr. portman: i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. the senator from the ohio. mr. portman: i am here to talk about workforce training, an issue always, but particularly now as we come to the point where we're coming out of the covid-19 crisis. it's a significant issue to be able to help individuals to be able to achieve their god-given potential in life. but also its really important to our economy becauseworkforce is really one of the big challenges we have. to be able to have good-paying benefits but also to help our economy to fully recover from the effects of the pandemic. it's been over a year since the pandemic changed all of our lives. in the early weeks and moppets of that crisis, it look -- and months of that crisis, it looked like things were going to continue to be tough. i stayed in touch with business owners and workers across my home state of ohio to see how they are handling the painful side effects in the r

mr. portman: i'm from california, ma'am -- ms. porter: i'm from california, ma'am. thank you so much. mr. ramakrishna, we're here today to talk about a major security breach. why are security breaches a problem? very briefly, just in a few words. what are we worried about? mr. ramakrishna: they could impact people and companies with breach of sensitive information and data. and they could -- ms. porter: wonderful. mr. ramakrishna, do you want to please provide your home address for the committee today? and the american public? mr. ramakrishna: i'm happy to provide it, representative. i would like to take off the record and provide it online. ms. porter: so you don't want to share it with the whole world, like with russia? mr. ramakrishna: yes. ms. porter: so, you would agree that the information that got hacked is national security information, that it's damaging to national security implications, it could literally put lives at risk? you don't want to even give out your address, much less personal security information. what kind of legal liability is solarwinds taking for this hack? m

mr. portman, no. mr. reed, aye. mr. risch, no. mr. romney, no. ms. hear the yays and nays, and senate minority leader mcconnell saying he recommends a no vote and so far it appears republicans are following suit. democrats need 50 votes. they feel like they have them. m manu raju knows better than i. probably the white house is bracing for a first legislative victory in the biden administration. right manu? >> yeah, this is going to be one huge step towards achieving central pillar of the new president's agenda. this bill is going to pass, passing on a straight party line vote. we expect the vote to be 50-49. two key votes, joe manchin was the subject of intense speculation, scrutiny, negotiation behind the scenes yesterday, he voted yes. he's a democrat from west virginia. he was likely to vote yes after he secured his deal yesterday on jobless benefits. but lisa murkowski, the alaska republican senator, she had not said how she might come down. she just said she is voting no against the bill. she was really the only potential republican swing vote

mr. portman. mr. portman, no. mr. reed. mr. reed, aye. mr. risch. many mr. risch, no. mr. romney. mr.y, no. ms. rosen. ms. rosen, aye. mr. rounds. mr. rounds, no. mr. rubio. mr. rubio, no. mr. sanders. mr. sanders, aye. mr. sasse? mr. sasse no. mr. schatz? mr. schatz, aye. mr. schumer. mr. schumer, aye. mr. scott of florida. mr. scott of florida, no. mr. scott of. mr. scott of south carolina, no. griff: now, one senator you won't hear from is republican senator from dan sullivan -- from alaska dan sullivan, had a family member pass away, i believe it's his father-in-law. he's gone back. that's why we believe that this vote will be roughly 50-49 and pass narrowly. i want to bring our congressional correspondent chad pell grim back in. chad, it's a very historic vote, but it's predictable. >> reporter: right. they thought they would be a able to get everybody onboard here, and this is why chuck schumer, the democratic leader, worked so hard with joe manchin yesterday trying to make sure he had him onboard. again, it probably helped democrats a little bit, the fact that under very unfort

senator portman: including going after fraud? mr. miller: yes, sir. senator portman: i was pleased to see president biden sign an executive order with the intent of strengthening the buy america act. it mirrors our buy american.gov. in some ways it weakens requirements by existing exonen test with a new value added test that reduces the procurement of u.s. content. will you commit to protecting this problem? mr. miller: ranking member portman, thank you for the question. commend you for your work and leadership on this issue. i think it's critical that our procurement policies are enacting strong domestic reverence requirements. as i understand it the intent of the e.o. is to do just that and make sure procurement is increasing the amount of domestic economic activity. you have my commitment to work with you to ensure it does that. senator portman: i hope you work with senator murphy and me on our legislation that codifies some of what's done but does a better job of protecting the american workers. ms. young and mr. miller, last year senator and i int

portman: great. we'll get you the legislation and would love your help. mr. miller? mr. miller: thank you, ranking member portman. agree. it's a key issue in making sure our research enterprise, our academic institutions are protected. and we welcome the opportunity to work with you on that issue. senator portman: on permitting reform, we talked about this in our conversations, and i appreciate your support generally for the bill i co-sponsored in 2015. bipartisan bill. by the way, which has saved well over $1 billion in terms of permitting and many years of permitting for major projects. we specifically gave o.m.b. a big role. it was a fight frankly with the obama administration and they conceded at the end and gave you, if you are to be confirmed at o.m.b., the coordinating role as putting together the council and coordinating these large projects that would be covered. i appreciated our conversations again and i want to ensure that we can work together to lift the sunset that's otherwise going to happen on fast 41. i want to ask you now in this form, will you commit to

mr. chairman. >> senator portman. >> thank you, mr. chairman and thank you much for thiss hearin.t's incredibly important. i want to ask ms. vandenberg and mr. menotti manon a ques to what we can learn from our experiences in the trafficking world. in dealing with human trafficking we have been able to get the global community to enact very strong law. we talk about transparency and need to do with supply chain and forced labor. we have strong laws dealing with trafficking. we put resources find those walls in order to get the facts. we don't just rely on transparency here we have capacity to know what country are doing in regards to fighting human trafficking. persons repory country consequences you don't need certain standards i can tailor to meet with representatives from other countries, they know about our persons report they know how they are rated. and that document has received widespread support against gets visibility every year in the report is released for it so my question to the two of you, is there something we can take out of what we've been able to do with traffic

mr. portman: madam president? the presiding officer: the junior nor from ohio. mr. portman: madam president, i have worked with my colleague from pennsylvania on some of these home care options, and i think it's a very positive thing. in fact, it savings a the although of cost for the system -- it saves a lot of cost for the system, but the question is, what's is doing in a covid relief bill? having been involved on five different covid relief packages over the last year, i am just so discouraged that we can't sit down as republicans and democrats alike and work out a targeted, focused bill on covid. and, by the way, then move on to other things, including health care reform and issues that have traditionally been bipartisan, like infrastructure, retirement security, and dealing with china and supply chain issues. but this is not the way to start. we are looking at a $1.9 trillion package, the second largest appropriation every written by congress -- the first one went through last year -- and no input, virtually no input from anybody on our side of the aisle because

mr. portman: i thank the majority leader and i thank the presiding officer for allowing me to speak. just returned from the southern border and want to give a brief report and talk about some potential ways forward to deal with what is happening on the mexican border. i went with the secretary of homeland security mayorkas and also with the chair of the committee, my colleague from michigan and with my colleague from west virginia and my colleague from connecticut, who are the chairs and ranking members of the house -- the senate homeland security appropriations committees. so we had a bipartisan group and those of us who were involved on the authorizing side and on the appropriations side. you probably heard that the situation is bad and it is. there's a record numbered of unaccompanied children coming to our border today being let in and ending up in border patrol detention facilities. yesterday cbs reported that there were 15,900 kids in custody. that's a record. more than 1,000 migrants were apprehended in february alone. that is a 28% crises since january. all the numbers from m

mr. portman: madam president, i want to start by thanking senator ernst for setting up the sunshine week event and to my colleague from florida to ensure taxpayers know where the money is going. this includes the $150 billion that the u.s. government distributes every year in taxpayer funds for research grants. more transparency will help ensure that research isn't stole bin china and other -- by china and other countries. in 2019 as the chairman of the p.s.i., i led an investigation with ranking member senator carper with u.s. research at our u.s. research institutions and college campuses, china has made no secret that its goal is to surpass america. this is during the covid-19 pandemic as china attempted to get information in the united states to help produce their own vaccines to rival ours. what most don't know is that china has been using our this, china uses talent recruitment programs, most notably, it is to recruit researchers at american universities using taxpayer funded grabts do the same research at shadow labs in china or send it back to china, research used over the past t

mr. portman: mr. president, i'm here on the floor today to talk about the unfolding urgent situation on our southern border. and i do so as the ranking republican on the homeland security and government affairs committee. this includes this unfortunate situation at the border. it includes a lot of kids coming over the border. u.a.c.'s as they call them, unaccompanied children. these children are making a long and dangerous journey north, putting themselves at risk, and bringing our immigration system and our shelter system along the border to a breaking point. you may have heard that the biden administration insists this is not a crisis, but here are the facts. you decide. this chart shows the dire situation that we're in. on tuesday, the most recent confirmed information we have, there were 3,400 of these children in border patrol custody. ten days ago, that number was 1,700. so in ten days, this number has doubled. to put this in perspective, at the very height of the border crisis in 2019 that we a

mr. portman today. 0.4 on head line and up 0.5 all the way to 2012 to find a number higher at 0.6 as we lookerest rates on the ten at 154 if you look at real weekly earnings, year over year for february, moved from 4.1 but at 5.7 sequentially lower year over year, on the hourly side, 3.4 which is a bit lower than 4.9, both have suffered a bit. listen we can summarize inflation in the following fashion, whether it's coming or isn't, the real issue is will be it reflected in rates i s doubtt jay powell and company have gone through what they've gone through to not reflect the tree profile. >> you're looking at the nasdaq chart, rick, you don't think that had anything to do with what happened at 8:30? >> joe, i haven't seen a live nasdaq chart in the last few minutes. i'm sorry, i'm sorry i was waiting for 8:30 to come on and talk to you >> maybe team are holding their breath after a couple of ppi -- it's not a huge move >> atlanta gdp now it's 8.35 they shouldn't hold their breath for long, okay if you believe the dynamics of the correction and nasdaq are real, they're only going to get more r

mr. portman: i'm from california, ma'am -- ms. porter: i'm from california, ma'am. thank you so much. mr. ramakrishna, we're here today to talk about a major security breach. why are security breaches a problem? very briefly, just in a few words. what are we worried about? mr. ramakrishna: they could impact people and companies with breach of sensitive information and data. and they could -- ms. porter: wonderful. mr. ramakrishna, do you want to please provide your home address for the committee today? and the american public? mr. ramakrishna: i'm happy to provide it, representative. i would like to take off the record and provide it online. ms. porter: so you don't want to share it with the whole world, like with russia? mr. ramakrishna: yes. ms. porter: so, you would agree that the information that got hacked is national security information, that it's damaging to national security implications, it could literally put lives at risk? you don't want to even give out your address, much less personal security information. what kind of legal liability is solarwinds taking for this hack? m

mr. chairman. i like to follow up on what senator portman said. i agree with his concerns. but i might ask a question from the appropriations committee. time is limited so these are yes or no answers. the appropriations committee always working in a bipartisan fashion to get money to the police. mr. t12, the appropriations had met your request for salaries the fiscal year is that not correct? >> yes sir. >> on the appropriations committee with your request for salaries and operating expenses during the fiscal year is that correct? i cannot hear an answer. >> so with those operating expenses during the fiscal year to increase your salary is that correct? >> yes. that is correct. >> that is correct. >> thank you very much. i have to think that with the resources to deploy the people that we were supposed to i look at those that would protect the capital and we saw this is a violent and planned and organized attack against the united states government by domestic terrorist they will be prosecuted as fully as they can but when we see people encouraging them including the former

mr. chairman. >> thank you senator carper. the next to a minor center portman and senator casey.enator portman are you there? if we don't hear from senator portman we will go to senator casey and get senator portman later. >> mr. chairman thanks very much and i want to thank you for this hearing. i just have one question for mr. wrona regarding some of the materials covered today but also referencing the hearing we had earlier this week. we had a hearing on tuesday about the american competitiveness in the context of manufacturing and i know your experience tells the other side of the story. that means illegal subsidies forced labor and illegal capacity have been devastating for u.s. production and manufacturing. it's not simply a matter providing better setups. we have got to have strong ironclad trade enforcement because if we don't we'll we don't we will continue to is foundational in industrial capacity. we know in the united states we can make it here with good-paying jobs family wage jobs, 70,000 up all the way to 100,000 or more but we have heard a lot from this panel toda

portman? >> thank you, mr. chairman. and i know that senator lankford has already asked you guys some pertinent questions, because he was a strong interest in this, given the situation in his state and his expertise on this issue. ohio is one of those states that is negatively impacted, as you know. we have constitutional requirements that may lead us not to be able to use your data, which is just unheard of. so, i guess dr. jarmin, my first question would be, i know that, due to covid-19, you announced the six-month delay. the apportionment data only needed a four-month delay. my question for you, i guess, would be by law, redistricting data should be three months after the apportionment data, but this is five months later. why that delay? >> i think part of that, i was just explaining to senator lankford, was while we were making an effort to make the statutory deadline for the apportionment data, december 31st, we crashed the schedule, put all hands on deck to accomplish that. and that meant that some of the work that

i want to thank senators portman and sasse and cortez for the advancing of this important bill. mr. chairman, i would like request unanimous con sent to insert in the hearing record a letterll of support for this bil from mr. steef ferguson who is ceort of a medical device in bloomington, indiana, and from mike of bosch north america and they have thrive facility in albia -- >> without objection to order. >> mr. jennings since 1954, topanies have been able deduct their r&d expendtures as they incur them. but beginning in 2022, as i know is mentioned erlg earlier companies required to spread out their deductions over a number of years. rather than deduct them all in the current year, if the united states doesn't preserve immediate expensing, it will becomeit one of only two countrs in the industrialized world the other being belgium that require the r inwardization of r&d expenses to continue america global leadership we have to ensure that next generation of cars, computers, med devices and other cutting edge technologies are developed and produced here in the united states. so mr.

mr. chairman. >> thank you, ranking member portman. it is a practice of theng homeland's gritty and government affairs committee to swear in witnesses so if you will stand leaves and raise your right hand.s. do you swear the testimony you will give before the committee will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you god? you may be seated. our first witness today is mr. chris -- he is the u.s. government chief information security officer within the office of management and budget. prior to being named federal assistant to russia he was the security officer for my home state of michigan s and he also has over eight years of federal government experience working at the white house and the u.s. department of homeland security he served as a senior cybersecurity advisor in the obama administration where he led the limitation of the president cybersecurity national action plan and advised white house leadership on cybersecurity programs, investments and policy decisions. welcome to the committee and it's good to s

mr. dodaro and other witnesses and using this g.a.o. data information to help us do our work more effectively. chair peters: thank you, ranking member portman. it is the practice of this committee to swear in witnesses. mr. dodaro, those from the g.a.o. who may be testifying remotely, if you would stand and raise your right-hand, folks who are remotely as well. you may be giving some testimony today. do you swear the testimony you will give before this committee will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you god. everyone has answered in the affirmative. gene dodaro has served as comptroller general of the united states government accountability office since 2010. following two years as acting comptroller general. in his over 45 years of service at the g.a.o., he has held a number of leadership positions, including chief operating officer and head of g.a.o.'s accounting and information management division. mr. dodaro, once again welcome to our committee. you may proceed with your opening remarks. mr. dodaro: thank you very much, mr. chairman. [indiscernible] there have been a few improvements since 2019. chair pe

mr. chair. i want to and senator portman for convening this hearing. i also want to thank ms. criswell for coming before the committee today, for the service you have already provided for this country and to your community and for your continued interest in doing this kind of work. as our country grapples with the covid-19 pandemic, it is critical that this committee and the senate worked quickly to confirm a fema administrator so that the agency has the leadership it needs to make our country more resilient to all hazards and threats, including pandemics, natural disasters and terrorist incidents. before i proceed, i want to say that i echo senator portman's sentiments about ensuring that schools may receive fema funds for ppe dating back to the beginning of the pandemic. this is a bipartisan issue and i look forward to working with fema on it. now turning to my questions, to put an end to this pandemic, the federal government must, in partnership with state governments, quickly and comprehensively distribute vaccines to all parts of the country. to that end, i am pleased tha

mr. chairman, i'll yield back my time. >> thank you, senator. >> senator portman is with us virtually, i understand. >> thank you, mr. chairman and thank you, ambassador power and your willingness again and let me follow up on what senator cardin talked to you about, we spent billions in northern triangle country, el salvador, honduras, and it's not -- natural hurricanes added to this. but i got the number 550 kids per day came into the united states, mostly from the northern triangle countries, which is five or six times more than in january when there was less than 100 families and 300 in february so we're going up and up and up. there's a family, 1500 per day last week as compared to a thousand in february, on average less than 1,000 in january, 15 times increase. so, the push factors are not being addressed effectively. people are coming. the pull factors are that the changes were made in policies to allow people to come and they're responding and the traffickers are responding. so, i guess what i would ask you, how you would do it differently? senator cardin rightly asked you about corruption and i think insisti

mr. speaker i look forward to hearing to other witnesses today, and look forward to using this gao data information -- to help uss do our work more effectively. >> thank you, thank you ranking member portman. it is the practice of this committee to swear in witnesses, mr. dadaro those from the go who may be testifying remotely. if you would stand and raise your right hand folks who are remotely as well if you may be giving some testimony today. so do you wear the testimony you will give before this committee will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so help you god? >> i do. everyone has answered in the affirmative. >> we have serve comptroller general of the united states government accountability office since 2010. following two years as acting comptroller general and in his over 45 years of service at the gao, he has held a number of leadership positions including chief operating officer, and head of gao accounting and information management division. once again, welcome to our committee, you may proceed with yourma opening remarks. >> thank you mr. chairman -- where sorry i didn't have the right touch for that. well -- you may continue you don't have to go back to

portman: great. thank you. sen. peters: senator hawley, you are recognized for your questions. >> thank you, mr. chairman. commissioner, i appreciated our phone conversation. we discussed yesterday when we talked on the phone, the historic flooding in the state of missouri. in those early, very badly in the spring of 2019. one of the things we talked about was the difficulty that many residents of my state had in applying for and receiving assistance and heat inconsistent rule, the lack of information for local residents on the ground -- will you work with me and members of this committee if you are confirmed to get rid of the bureaucratic red tape, to streamline this process and make sure local residents in the midst of a disaster, and the worst part is they are not sitting at home with time on their hands, they are out of their homes, they have lost their farms and they have no idea where to go and they are getting conflating information. will you work to remedy that and streamline this process? ms. criswell: senator, i understand being a local emergency manager, as well as in a larger area, the complex

thank you to senators portman and sasse cortez master for joining to advance this important bill. mr. chairman i like to request them is consent in the hearing record a letter of support for mr. steve ferguson who is ceo medical device manufacturer in bloomington indiana and from mike man study. >> without objection so ordered. >> thank you. >> mr. jennings, since 1954 companies have been able to deduct r&d expenditures as they occur but beginning in 2022 is as mentioned earlier companies will be required to spread out deductions over a number of years rather than deducting in the current year. united states doesn't reserve immediate expensing it's only one of two countries in the industrialized world, the other belgium to require the amortization of r&d expenses we have to ensure the next generation of cars and computers and devices and other cutting-edge technologies are developed and produced here in the united states. mr. jennings, if companies are unable to expense r&d cost in the year occurred how to set of facts forward ability to invest in tomorrow's technologies? >> sorry i

mr. wells and you now may proceed withan your opening statement. >> good morning chairman peter's ranking member portman and members the committee thank you for the opportunity to testify regarding cybersecurity in infrastructure security agency response to the solar winds of light chain compromise. sipa leads the nation's efforts to advance the cybersecurity physical security and resilience of our critical infrastructure could we share information and enable operational collaboration within the federal government state and local governments the private sector international partners and law enforcement intelligence and defense communities. this role has proven invaluable in managing recent cyber incident and i cannot understate the importance of collective defense for cybersecurity. we also know that more work must be done. today we will focus primarily on the solar wind supply chain compromise and much of what i discuss can be applied such as c the recently announced exploitation and vulnerabilities in microsoft exchange products. these incidents highlight the necessities of modernizing our cybersecuri

mr. chairman. i want to start by thanking you and ranking member blunt and ranking member portman. for the bipartisan and constructive hearing we had last week. i want to thank the many that -- members that that participated last week. importantly, there were a number of areas of agreement, we heard all of our witnesses last week make clear there is no evidence that the insurrection was delivered and coordinated, that it involved white supremacist and extremist groups and that it was highly dangerous but could have been so much worse if it was not for the actions of brave law enforcement on the frontline. we also heard consensus from witnesses that held key leadership positions. in charge of the capital security. they did not agree on everything but they said there was -- there was consensus, there were breakdowns in intelligence in bringing in the national guard. and issues concerning the capitol police board and the decision-making process that it is our unique responsibility to change. i hope this spirit of bipartisanship and cooperation will continue today with respect to intel

mr. portman, for himself and others, proposes an amendment numbered 1092 to amendment numbered 891. mr. portman: i ask that there be six minutes of debate equally divided. the president pro tempore: is there objection? hearing none. so ordered. mr. portman: everybody around here agrees that the u.s. economy is getting better. there is no argument about that. and that workers are needed. and yet, in this massive partisan spending bill, a lot of which is not even about covid-19, democrats are insisting on a substantial increase to the already extraordinary federal government add-on to state unemployment payments, making it harder to get people who can go back to work. just this morning, we learned that the economy added 379,000 jobs in february and the unemployment rate dropped to 6.2%. the nonpartisan congressional budget office and the consensus of economists is that unemployment will continue to trend lower. it underscores what c.b.o. has said recently, which is that without any additional stimulus, the economy will recover to pre-pandemic levels by midyear, this year. that's june 30. n

mr. portman: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from ohio is recognized. mr. portman: the republicans have offered a very generous unemployment system, including $300 per week, as is the current law. after march 15 when it otherwise would expire. and taking it to july 18. now, there is nobody in this chamber that doesn't see that the economy is improving. and the congressional budget office, which is a nonpartisan group here, has hold us that by the middle of the year we're going to be back to the prepandemic level according to our economy. every economist says that unemployment is going down. my colleague from oregon said that claims were higher last week in terms of unemployment. the four-week average is actually down considerable bring. so let me tell you what happened today because i just looked it up. new york opened its movie theaters, virginia announced it is opening their schools. west virginia opened its bars, all businesses. connecticut, indoor dining. this is happening every day. the economy is getting better. and everybody says, including by the way

mr. portman -- for hearse and mr. portman proposes amendment 1233. ms. murkowski: i ask for two minutes of debate equally divided. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. murkowski: this is the amendment we're waiting for, this is so bipartisan we've already agreed fo a voice vote, so listen carefully. thank you for that. pre-pandemic, our public schools identified about 1.5 million kids who experience homelessness. that's 2.7% of all public school students. so think about what that means. that was pre-pandemic. we know that that number is higher now. so our amendment is pretty simple here. we reallocate less than 1% of the funding for the elementary and secondary school emergency relief fund to ensure that homeless youth and kids have the resources that they need to get into and succeed in school. in alaska and around the country the covid-19 pandemic and the economic downturn increased the strain on our families and the need for services. too many of the kids have left their homes, been pushed out of their homes, sometimes many of them to escape

mr. portman, for himself and others, proposes an amendment numbered 1092 to amendment numbered 891. >> senator from ohio, 2891. >> is their objection, hearing none so ordered. >> everybody agrees the economy is getting better, no argument about that and workers needed in this massive partisan spending bill, democrats are insisting on a substantial increase to the extraordinary federal government at on to state unemployment payments making it harder to get people who can go back to work. the economy added 379,000 jobs in february and the unemployment rate dropped to 6.2%. the nonpartisan congressional budget office and consensus of economists is unemployment will continue to trend lower. it underscores that without any additional stimulus the economy will recover to pre-pandemic levels by midyear. this year. june 30th. not in september as the democrats suggest. employers looking to hire people. as the economy starts to improve we want to get people back to work. president biden tells us vaccines will be available for all who want them by the end of may. that kickstart the economy. despite the b