ms. hirono: mr. president, actions speak louder than words and by their actions, it's clear that the majority leader and senate republicans have not been serious about passing another covid relief bill that matches the urgency of this moment. first, the majority wanted to take a pause. then he sat on the house-passed heroes act for months. then? july he introduced a series of inadequate piecemeal bills that went absolutely nowhere. and now the majority leader and senate republicans show their priorities yet again by rushing to confirm five more trump judges and offering an anemic, weak covid bill aimed at appeasing the most conservative members of their caucus. and we just voted on that bill. so while senate republicans have been waiting for a good dough on the next covid bill, senate democrats have been listening to our constituents and have a sense of urgency. we've had the sense of urgency for -- well, the four months that we've been waiting for us to deal with the heroes act. so we've been waitin

ms. hirono: mr. president, actions speak louder than words and by their actions, it's clear that the majority leader and senate republicans have

ms. hirono: madam president, this past friday, our nation lost a giant of a jurist and a champion of gender equality, workers' rights, voting rights, and civil rights. justice ruth bader ginsburg understood the critical importance of the supreme court in safeguarding our constitutional individual rights. about two years ago, i was sitting next to justice ginsburg at a dinner and we were talking about the concerns we had about a very divided supreme court. she shared her concerns that we would see many more 5-4 decisions coming in the future, decisions that would roll back civil rights, protections, workers' rights, individual rights, efforts to address climate change and clearly a woman's right to choose. decisions that would harm everyday americans. as someone who has been on the court for more than a quarter of a century, justice ginsburg understood the dangers of partisan decisions. she spent more than two decades standing up for gender equality, voting rights, workers' rights, and civil rights. she was also often a key vote to uphold critical rights for everyday americans such as clean

ms. hirono: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent to vitiate the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. hirono: mr. president, actions speak louder than words and by their actions, it's clear that the majority leader and senate republicans have not been serious about passing another covid relief bill that matches the urgency of this moment. first, the majority wanted to take a pause. then he sat on the house-passed heroes act for months. then? july he introduced a series of inadequate piecemeal bills that went absolutely nowhere. and now the majority leader and senate republicans show their priorities yet again by rushing to confirm five more trump judges and offering an anemic, weak covid bill aimed at appeasing the most conservative members of their caucus. and we just voted on that bill. so while senate republicans have been waiting for a good dough on the next covid bill, senate democrats have been listening to our constituents and have a sense of urgency. we've had the sense