ms. hirono: i am available. mr. durbin: you have five minutes. ms. hirono: i thought senator blumenthal had been called. you notice that the average length is 2 1/2 year, it's not sustainable. that's why we need to pass the john lewis voting rights act. so perhaps you can tell me, how effective is the current section 2 in protecting people's right to vote in comparison to the preclearance process that was in place under section 5? >> thank you for that question, senator. let me clarify also, just given the last colloquy, the supreme court actually invited congress to update the formula under section 5, it did not strike down section 5. and while i'm very hopeful that senator lee and others are willing to participate in a process to update the formula so we can pass a new preclearance formula under the voting rights act. the difference is that the preclearance formula allows us to stop discrimination before it happens by introducing a federal process that allows for a neutral review, whether the federal authority is republican or democrat in terms of t

ms. hirono: madam president, i ask for the yeas and nays. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote: vote: vote: the presiding officer: the yeas 53 votes, the nays 45. the snogs confirmed. -- nomination is confirmed. mr. durbin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, and the president be immediate lay notified of the senate's action. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture. the clerk: cloture motion: we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on on the motion to proceed to calendar number 13, s. 937, a bill to facilitate the expedited review of the covid-19 hate crimes, signed by 17 senators. the presiding officer: by unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum call has been waived. the question is, is it the sense of the senate th

ms. clarke: nope senator. mr. kim: nope senator. sen. hirono: have you ever faced discipline or entered into a settlement related to this kind of conduct? ms. clarke: nope senator. mr. kim: no, senator. sen. hirono: you were a prosecutor in the civil rights division and you have extensive experience in hate crimes. that has also been a major focus of your work as the committee. attacks against asian americans and pacific islanders have been on the rise, close to 4000 have been in the year. we have heard and seen the tax, a 65-year-old immigrant was walking down the street in times square new york when a man suddenly kicked her in the stomach and as she fell to the ground he continued to kick her and shouted, you do not belong here. several men including a security guard simply watched as this took place. i want to know if later today at the senate will be working on a bill called the covid-19 hate crimes act which i hope will receive bipartisan support as one step towards addressing the hate crimes. i would like to ask you, ms. clarke, what do

ms bickert: we have policies in place to prevent discriminatory targeting. i'm happy to follow-up with you on some of the specifics of these policies. sen. hirono: how does facebook ensure that it does not violate civil rights laws when targeting ads for housing, employment, and financial services? ms bickert: thank you. we have policies around when people can use certain targeting criteria. we do not allow some of the more sensitive targeting criteria that you have mentioned. we don't allow that for certain types of advertisements such as financial services advertisements or housing advertisements. i can follow-up with you on some of those specifics and how we ensure that those are served in a fair way. sen. hirono: you have addressed the concerns raised by the recent report from the technology review that found discrimination on the basis of gender, that you have addressed those concerns raised by this report? ms. bickert: senator, i am not familiar with that specific report, so i cannot comment. i can tell you in my years of being on this job, making sure that we do not have discriminatory ads has been a priority. we have made a number of im

ms. ifill: thank you very much for that question, senator hirono. let me clarify -- the supreme court invited congress to update the formula under section five. it did not strike down section five. i'm hopeful senator lee and others are willing to participate in that process to update the formula so we can pass a new preclearance formula under the voting rights act. the difference is the preclearance formula allows us to stop discrimination before it happens i introducing a federal process that allows for a mutual review, whether the federal authority is republican or democrat in terms of the attorney general, or the district court in d.c. to review an election law to determine what is racial -- what its racial impact would be. that would happen before the law would be passed. every provision of sb 202 would have gone through that process before it became law. instead, the law was rushed through, it now exists, we have filed suit along with other organizations, we will litigate that case, likely for more than a year, and during that time, there will

hirono: it sounds as though it is kind of an experiential diversity, the people came for you and whose lives you can impact with your decisions. would you like to respond msjackson-akiwumi? ms. jackson-akiwumi: what i initially applied, i was looking for a job where i could help protect constitutional rights and work in that realm. i was looking forward to being a trial litigator and public litigator outside of federal -- at the federal level. we represented clients from arrest through appeals even when they wanted to petition in the u.s. supreme court which i did in two cases. i was looking to represent individual clients, i had been a civil litigator for three years and most of my clients were corporations, nonprofit organizations. i was only representing individuals through my extensive pro bono work. i wanted to do it full-time. now with the benefit of 10 times -- 10 years of service, i was correct about the reward that comes from helping our country to live up to its constitutional ideals in the sixth amendment. that everybody should have assistance of counsel. what i did not appreciate when i began but learned was how gratifying it was to walk with

hirono is not available. >> i am. mr. chairman? i'm so sorry. i saw the -- i thought senator blumenthal had been called. i'm sorry. i'm here. this is for ms. ifill. the average is two and a half year not sustainable. how effective is the current dissection protecting the right to vote and a comparison to the preclearance process that was in place under section five? >> thank you very much for that question. let me clarify the supreme court invited congress to update the formula under section five. it didn't strike down and so while i'm hopeful senator lee and others are willing to participate in the process to update the formula so we can pass a new preclearance formula under the voting rights act, the preclearance formula allows us to stop discrimination before it happens by introducing a federal process that allows for initial review, whether the federal authority is republican or democrat in terms of the general or the district court in dc to review and determine what the racial impact would be. and that is before the law is passed. we have filed suit along with other organizations and likely more than a year during that time as i said

hirono: it sounds as though it is kind of an experiential diversity, the people came for you and whose lives you can impact with your decisions. would you like to respond ms. jackson-akiwumi? ms. jackson-akiwumi: what i initially applied, i was looking for a job where i could help protect constitutional rights and work in that realm. i was looking forward to being a trial litigator and public litigator outside of federal -- at the federal level. we represented clients from arrest through appeals even when they wanted to petition in the u.s. supreme court which i did in two cases. i was looking to represent individual clients, i had been a civil litigator for three years and most of my clients were corporations, nonprofit organizations. i was only representing individuals through my extensive pro bono work. i wanted to do it full-time. now with the benefit of 10 times -- 10 years of service, i was correct about the reward that comes from helping our country to live up to its constitutional ideals in the sixth amendment. that everybody should have assistance of counsel. what i did not appreciate when i began but learned was how gratifying it was to walk wit

ms. hirono: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from hawaii. ms. hirono: mr. president, as the author of this bill, i totally disagree with characterizing this bill as a bitter partisan beginning, as having a bitter partisan beginning, but my colleague is exercising her free speech rights, so there you go. mr. president, after two weeks of hard work and bipartisan collaboration, the united states senate is poised to take real action to confront the wave of anti-asian hate sweeping our country. although we still have some damaging amendments to defeat, i'm confident in a few hours the senate will pass the covid-19 hate crimes act, as amended, with the substitute hirono-collins amendment. we will send a solid message of solidarity that the senate will not be a bystander as anti-asian violence surges in our country. over the past years hate crimes targeting aapi has risen 150%, as noted. more than 3,800 incidents have been reported across all 50 states and the district of columbia. these statistics paint a disturbing picture of what's happening in our

ms. hirono: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from hawaii. ms. hirono: i echo the sentiments expressed by my colleague from minnesota, and i rise today in support of the nomination of vanita gupta to be associate attorney general of the united states. today i am focusing my remarks on ms. gunpoint ttackers but i will -- on ms. gupta, but i will have some word of support for kristen clarke later. for four years donald trump treated the justice department like his personal law firm. he ordered that the department's attorneys drop charges or reduce sentencing recommendations against his friends and cronies. he ordered investigations and prosecutions against his political enemies. he even had the department step in to defend him against a defamation claim relating to an allegation of rape. by the end of the trump administration, the justice department's reputation was tarnished and the morale of its employees was lower than at any point since watergate. thankfully, president biden has named a professional, highly qualified team to lead the justice dep

ms. hirono and ms. collins has an amendment, number 1445. mr. schumer: i ask to dispense with further reading of the amendment. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: the car was running. the superseding cause that was discussed is a cause that comes after altering the natural sequence of events and let's look at the medical timeline and we know that it was 8:21:05. we know that they responded to cub foods at 8:27:27. we know that they call for fire at 8:29:36. it takes approximately three minutes to put him into the ambulance and the amulets pulled away at 8:30 p.m. then fire response, that is four minutes 15 seconds after they were called. that is pretty close if you consider the three minute expectation. but they had driven several blocks away, arriving sometime between 8:31 and 8:33. we know that because there is 62 and 63 so somewhere between a man and a half they were began the process dictated efforts. the first air is pumped