mr. wyden: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. wyden: i ask unanimous consent to vacate the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. wyden: in a few minutes, i'll be putting forward an unanimous consent request asking the senate to take up and improve a highly qualified and noncontroversial nominee. i'll just take a couple of minutes at this point to talk about maria pagan, nominated to be the next deputy u.s. trade representative in geneva. there are a few key points to make about the nominee as well as the critical role she'll serve representing the united states at the world trade organization to get a better deal for american workers, farmers, and businesses. to start, ms. pagan isn't new to high pressure, high-profile negotiations. she's currently deputy general counsel at the u.s. trade's office, the person called in with particularly challenging issues. she's taken on these difficult issues during numerous trade agreement negotiations, inc

mr. wyden: reserving the right to object, madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. wyden: madam president and colleagues, i yield to no senator in my support of this country's senior citizens. i was director of the gray panthers before i went into public life and i know that there is no senator here who doesn't support senior citizens, farmers, the extraordinarily important americans that my colleagues have been talking about. but what really has not been explained here, because we all kind of talk this special lingo around here, is what my colleagues really seek to do in the kennedy amendment. what my colleague from louisiana wishes to do is rip up an agreement reached between democrats and republicans, specific colleagues, senator schumer and mcconnell. so what they did is reach a bipartisan agreement to diffuse an economic time bomb by creating a process to avoid default. senator kennedy's proposal sticks a flame right back under that fuse. now the two parties obv

mr. wyden: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. wyden: mr. president, the senate will soon vote on president biden's nomination of my neighbor and fellow oregonian jennifer sung to serve on the u.s. court of appeals for the ninth circuit. i guess i ought to say to everybody -- save everybody the suspense. i am proud to support her nomination and i just want to take a few minutes to talk about why she deserves the support of all senators. first with respect to her qualifications. ms. sung is a graduate of overland college and yale law school. as a student she volunteered to represent low-income patients at a local hospital. as a legal fellow at the brennan center for justice, she fought on behalf of workers who toiled in poor conditionings for little pay -- conditions to little pay. in private practice she defended the rights of all people in our country to work in safe and fair conditions to get the health care they need, and to freely exercise their constitutional rights. currently, ms. sung serves as a member of or gone's employment -- oreg

. >> senator wyden. >> mr. chairman, i want to thank you and mr.rasso for holding this important hearing. the finance committee, i've been juggling a lot and i've been watching parts of the discussion, it's been terrific. here is my interest here. so many of the rules as relate to rural america and in particular, recreation, have not kept up with the times. i mean, we know recreation now is a major economic engine for rural america and i'm always struck by areas where basically the federal government just has missed the need to modernize systems. i see a number of my colleagues on the dias today are co-sponsored of authorizing the craft beverage beverage act. huge for breweries in rural america, and we've gotten it. and those rural businesses that are dependent on recreation, and they say that law basically helped me survive the pandemic so i'm so pleased you're interested in working with us on these issues and i know a number of my colleagues have been outlining the important measures. well, this morning, i want to talk about the other big initiat

mr. wyden: mr. president, the senate will soon vote on the nomination of chief chris magnus to lead the u.s. customs and border protection office, and i was pleased that the senate finance committee could advance this nomination. i wanted to give the senate a brief assessment of why i think chief magnus is going to handle this job very well. he brings a unique combination of smarts, common sense, and fairness. and that is really what this job is all about. for example, having talked to the chief now at some length, he understands that strongly enforcing our immigration laws and treating immigrants and asylum seekers humanly are not mutually exclusive. you can do both. they are not incompatible. and it's a perspective, in my view, on immigration that is going to help our communities, help public safety, and help our economy all at the same time. now, there is no doubt in my mind that chief magnus has the right qualifications for this positions. he is highly experienced. he started out in lansing, mic

mr. wydenmadam president, before my colleague leaves, let me just tell him what a wonderful speech he gave. that was the kind of talk we dreamed of back in the days when i was director of the oregon gray panthers. because what senator king had basically laid out much more eloquently than i could is that what senator casey's legislation is doing is giving older americans the opportunity to get more of what they want -- good-quality care at home at a price that doesn't begin to approach the alternative that senator king is talking about, institutional care. so i want to commend him for it. it reminded me of my gray panther days. that's a terrific speech. and for my friend, senator casey, i have been so proud to be part of this effort because, as you and i have talked about, this is what we always hoped for. this was always the long-term agenda of advocates for seniors. and i just want to tell the president of the body and colleagues who are following this, senator casey has been everywhere on beh