mr. van hollen: thank you, mr. president. i came to the floor today to make remarks in support of the bipartisan infrastructure modernization plan, but before i do that, i do want to take a moment to remember a real giant of the american working people and that's richard trumka, the head of the afl-cio, somebody who got up every single morning thinking about how to make life better for working people in america. he was passionate about it. he was a fellow marylander. we're going to miss him but i know that we will continue to be inspired by his example and his understanding that when working people ban together to form a union, that is the best way for them to be able to bargain for better wages and better benefits and a better retirement, a better life. and so i know that we will all carry on in his memory. and as we take up this bill to modernize our infrastructure, it was something that he worked with us on to ensure that, as we modernize our infrastructure, we also create good-paying jobs. and i do think that this bill wi

van hollen. >> >> thank you, mr. chairman and thank you for your testimony and your service. i agree with the comments made by my college regarding the importance of security assistance to u.s. interests, national security interest as well as those of our partners. back in the 1980's, i served a short stint at the pentagon in what was called the defense security assistance agency and my job was to write the justification that came to congress for various security assistance programs. i understand the importance and from that experience, i realize that when i started for the next fiscal year justification, i took the previous year justification and made some edits. part of the lesson there is we get in these ruts. it's very easy just to continue in the same course you are already on. we do need to step back and reevaluate lots of these issues. you would both agree i believe that it's not in our security interest when a recipient of u.s. weapons or other form of security assistance, uses them as a tool of repression or to crack down on human rights, would you both agree with th

mr. hsu. chair harper, recently senator reed and and i introduced te veterans and consumers fair credit act with senator van hollen whose are today, store smith and senator warnock there are bill would extend the military lending act 36% apr cap on consumer loans and those left out of the original legislation, veterans, although the consumers. what impact would this have on loan products offered by federally chartered credit unions? >> generally, senator, currently there's a cap on interest rates with federal credit unions. it's 18% for most loans except for our pay the alternative loan project which is short term low dollar loan product and that goes up to 28% picked both of those figures are below the 36%, some answer is, not not at all. >> thank you, thank yo. the fdic has the authority to take action against anyone who misrepresents its an fdic insured bank. i understand chair mcwilliams that fdic resort proposed a rule because this is been happening more often, is that correct. >> was that is correct. there's a lot of confusion -- >> thank thank you, good. i hope the fdic crackdown non-bank companies and misl

mr. van hollen: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. mr. van hollen: thank you, madam president. i want to start by thanking some of our colleagues -- the presiding officer: the senate is in a quorum call. mr. van hollen: madam president, i ask that the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. van hollen: thank you. madam president, i want to start by thanking some of our colleagues. senator rounds, senator ernst, and senator kelly for cosponsoring the provisions of this amendment and thank the chairman and ranking member of the environment and public works committee, senators carper and capito, for their support as well. i also want to acknowledge the good work of our house colleague congressman steve lynch on championing this issue. so what is this amendment about? it's a commonsense amendment, madam president, to ensure that as we work on a bipartisan basis to modernize our infrastructure for the 21st century, we also work together to ensure that new infrastructure projects that flow from this bill and others a