mrs. shaheen: is the senate in a quorum call? the presiding officer: it is not. mrs. shaheen: i'm here to speak in support of the infrastructure and jobs act, which is the bipartisan legislation that's before the chamber. that will make historic investment in our nation's core infrastructure, and i'm pleased to follow my colleague and friend from utah, senator romney, who was one of those who i worked with to help negotiate this package. this is historic legislation that provides $550 billion in new federal investments over the next five years to respond to the needs that are facing our country. this bill will rebuild crumbling roads and bridges and tunnels across the country. it will provide clean drinking water in american homes and address harmful contaminants. it will increase connectivity in our communities to bring broadband to even the most rural parts of our country. it will prioritize sustainable solutions to improve our infrastructure systems for future generations and it will combat climate change by making the monumental investments in our clean energy grid

not much open that since however been started giving these statements which we just heard from mr. shaheen that are presented again, i'm not saying you should borrow and believe in all of that, but the thing we want to be different. we will allow the minorities to operate in what they were saying to some of the the she must them saying, allowing them to continue with their activities during the month of month autumn. in some areas they said go and don't go to the school. the point again is enough negative data, there are some positive limited time that we have since and again, i just want to give an idea that maybe if, but there are some of those that relatively moderate. and i know this is a controversial point. i'm making some moderate elements, entirely bonds if they become dominant and capital b, because they need international money. they need international support. they don't want to go the order out and below, but other is normally if i mean to say that. so i'm just trying to give some hope or making an argument. it's possible, or let's see what they do. if they do a pick of what st

mr. shaheen: with respect to poll watchers and concern of them interrupting the process is it true on pagepoll watchers must take an oath not to disrupt the poll process or harass voters? mr. murr: the legislation describes a express oath that a poll watcher must take as part of the process of being a poll watcher and being appointed by an appointing authority to represent them essentially as their eyes and ears at a voting location. eyes and years. >> and didn't you point out during this topic that current strawt forbids a poll watcher going through the process? >> current law and this was brought up several times during key discussion and listening to and section 33.0757 prohibits a poll watcher from being present or is being assisted by the voters eve choice and section 33.758 of current law and election officer and prohibits them from communicating with them. >> so let's talk about the actual process for mail-in ballots. there is a lot of discussion on that topic. can you give us the changes that that were made with respect to the mail-in ballots? >> presently in the state of texas, te

mrs. shaheen: thank you. mr. president, i ask that the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. shaheen: thank you. i had intended to come to the floor earlier today with senator grassley so that we could talk about our legislation that we are introducing this week that would build upon our efforts to protect the survivors of sexual assault in the criminal justice system. unfortunately i got delayed but senator grassley was here on the floor and i just want to recognize all of his efforts to address this critical issue and appreciate, again, his willingness to work with me. the effort to extend rights for sexual assault survivors across the country is critically important and i'm hopeful that when the bill that we've introduced gets to the floor that all of our colleagues will join us in passing this bipartisan legislation. i first became involved in the precursor to this legislation in 2015 when a young woman named amanda nguyen of the rise organization contacted my office. she had been traveling from office to office here in the s

mr. chairman. >> thank you, senator shaheen. let me recognize senator wicker. >> thank you, mr. chairman. we had a subcommittee hearing just this week, and the navy's vice admiral witness before that subcommittee said this, and i quote, we've done many studies over the last five years that say we need a larger navy. the navy we can afford now is roughly 300 to 305 ships. so if we're going to pace the adversary, we need to have a bigger navy. mr. secretary, did the vice admiral misspeak in saying that? >> what i would say, senator, and, you know, i think certainly we have the most capable and dominant navy in the world, and it will continue to be so going guard. when you talk about naval power, certainly size matters. but what also matters is having the right mix of capabilities in the force. and so, our goal is to make sure that we remain -- that we maintain a ready, capable and sustainable force in the future. >> okay. did the navy vice admiral misspeak in saying that we need a larger navy? he said that two days ago in testimony before the subcommittee. can you just answer that

mr. sam at all was a pleasure to get your context and your experience of your country here on out to 0 . we do appreciate your time. so shaheen is the international media spokesman for the taliban. he says fighters have taken most city surrounding the capital, but have not entered cobble as yet through our forces have not entered the city. and we just issued a statement saying that our forces will not enter the city. we are talking in the waiting piece for transfer, a transition, awful capital city. so, and also there will be spatial, i didn't mean for the maintenance of security of the city. so that personal property and i got a borman installation offices are not hot on the 4th. if they have going that we see they have stopped the fighting and they have joined us and all probably says an all majority of the problems that. 1 they have joined. 1 forces and they have handed or they come with the way and it will thing and they are their names. 1 are just that, so the proper steps will be taken in pure job order for how they will be invaded in the government. the people will coming to us in all the provincial centers, will, our

mr. grassley: i'm reducing the survivors bill of rights in the states act of 2021, this measure, which senator shaheen has joined me in sponsoring, builds on an initiative in which the two of us worked together in 2016. entitled the survivors bill of rights act that earlier legislation cleared the senate judiciary committee in june of 2016 during my tenure as a chairman. the house of representatives introduced a similar package of rights some months later and that version was enacted in the fall of 2016 with my strong support. the 2016 statute provides very important rights for victims of sexual violence, but that act only accomplishes those cases that are federal. such rights include, for example, the right to know the results of your forensic exam, the right to have evidence preserved for a certain period, and lastly, the right to knots before your forensic -- right to notice before your forensic kit is destroyed. amanda wynn is leading the effort to persuade other jurisdictions to adopt the same rights for all sexual assault victims. one of those jurisdictions is my home state of iowa which this su

mrs. shaheen: thank you. ms. lummis: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from wyoming is recognized. wyoming thank you, mr. president. i want to say a few words about the wyden-lummis-toomey amendment that is ready for the senate to vote on tonight. america is at its core a country of innovators. it's written into our d.n.a. it's why we were the first country to develop a computer, land on the moon, and develop the internet. right now our financial system is evolving before our eyes, much in the same way that the internet first began to find a foothold in the mid-1990's. distributed ledgers, digital assets and other forms of financial technology are in the early stages of transforming the way we share and store value. these technologies have the potential, if implemented properly, to create a vast, new economic opportunity, reduce systemic risk in our economy, and provide for faster payments and create a more inclusive financial system. these are principles that all americans can agree on. america has a heritage of being

mrs. shaheen: thank you. as many of my colleagues know, it is unprecedented to get the american gas association, the national association of homebuilders, and the energy efficiency advocates all in agreement, and that is the result of the extensive negotiations that went into this section of the bill that senator barrasso would overturn. now, energy chairman manchin wasn't able to get here to speak to this provision and this amendment, but he opposes it, and if he were here, he would say, let's not mess with a good thing. this provision doesn't ban -- it doesn't mean touch natural gas. so i strongly support the bill as written and urge my colleagues to vote no on this amendment. madam president, can i ask that the vote that's scheduled begin immediately? the presiding officer: is there 0,? seeing none, without objection. under the previous order, there will now be two minutes of debate equally divided prior to a vote in relation to barrasso amendment number 2180. mr. barrasso: i yield back. i yield back all t

mrs. shaheen: is the senate in a quorum call? the presiding officer: it is not. mrs. shaheen: i'm here to speak in support of the infrastructure and jobs act, which is the bipartisan legislation that's before the chamber. that will make historic investment in our nation's core infrastructure, and i'm pleased to follow my colleague and friend from utah, senator romney, who was one of those who i worked with to help negotiate this package. this is historic legislation that provides $550 billion in new federal investments over the next five years to respond to the needs that are facing our country. this bill will rebuild crumbling roads and bridges and tunnels across the country. it will provide clean drinking water in american homes and address harmful contaminants. it will increase connectivity in our communities to bring broadband to even the most rural parts of our country. it will prioritize sustainable solutions to improve our infrastructure systems for future generations and it will combat climate change by making the monumental investments in our clean energy grid

mrs. shaheen: thank you very much. i am very proud to be here with the rest of my colleagues to present this bill that will make the biggest investment in infrastructure, as senator collins said so well, since the interstate highway system back in the 1950's, and this is really an extraordinary work product that results from the leadership of senators sinema and portman from the cooperation of everybody on this floor. there were an equal number of democrats and republicans. a number who were not here tonight who have worked on this bill. the work of committee chairs and ranking members in the senate who have done so much to put together underlying bills that we used in moving this forward. and, of course, all of the staff, from our personal offices, from the appropriations committee, from all of the committees that worked on this bill. as has been said, this is the biggest investment in infrastructure with $550 billion in new spending over the next five years. it builds on annual appropriations. it's an investment in r

mr. president, i would like now to turn to briefly speak about the broadband provisions that are included in the infrastructure package. my friend and colleague, senator jeanne shaheen, from new hampshire, and i worked with a number of our colleagues on both sides of the aisle to craft this package. mr. president, the pandemic that we have endured for more than a year laid bare the disparities in access to high-speed internet. it made it difficult for children to be educated online, impossible for some individuals to work at home, and removed the possibility of telemedicine consultations for some of our sick and seniors. mr. president, the fact is that approximately 19 million americans still lacked access to high-speed internet. we talk a lot in this bill about bridges and building bridges, and we do need to do that. well, mr. president, it is time for us to bridge america's digital divide and build a 21st century broadband infrastructure that will need our -- that will meet our country's needs not only today but for years to come, to be futureproof, if you will. the bipartisan infrastructure plan invests $65 billion to address our nation's digital divide once and