but, to be clear, this isn't about senator schatz. i would give an hour's long speech going through all of the floppers in this chamber who had one position 48 months ago and now have a completely different position. i don't need to name all of .they we should just say what changed. we know what changed. the only thing that changed in the last two years is who's in power. when democrats were in the minority, you were fierce defenders of this indispensable senator prerogative. the filibuster was standing between america and facsism, we heard. but now, when you've got the slimmest majority. actually it's just 50-50 and you need the v.p.'s motorcade to break the tie. now the filibuster is standing between you and some of your legislative goals and therefore it needs to be tossed out. when you were using the filibuster to halt senator scott's police reform bill, the filibuster was an essential institution that forced compromise. now that it can be used to resist a 51-50 power, it is a relic of slavery and a tool of jim crow. it's nonsense

schatz? mr. schatz, aye. mr. schumer. mr. schumer, aye. mr. scott of florida. mr. of florida, no. mr. scott of. mr. scott of south carolina, no. griff: now, one senator you won't hear from is republican senator from dan sullivan -- from alaska dan sullivan, had a family member pass away, i believe it's his father-in-law. he's gone back. that's why we believe that this vote will be roughly 50-49 and pass narrowly. i want to bring our congressional correspondent chad pell grim back in. chad, it's a very historic vote, but it's predictable. >> reporter: right. they thought they would be a able to get everybody onboard here, and this is why chuck schumer, the democratic leader, worked so hard with joe manchin yesterday trying to make sure he had him onboard. again, it probably helped democrats a little bit, the fact that under very unfortunate circumstances dan sullivan, the republican senator from alaska, had to go back because his father-in-law died. that means the math was 50-49 if they got manchin onboard. otherwise you had manchin maybe on the other side of the is

heritage capital president, and their cio, paul schatz.top is getting, this spac situation is the ultimately money job. there are some good names in there but how do you pick them out? >> you're right. people get mad when i say the dot-com bubble 2.0. this is exactly what happened back then. celebrities getting involved with dot-coms, where they have didn't have revenue, they didn't have sales, they have an requested. they have an idea. it's a blank check. there are a lot of good spacs but usually the first in, first in the game, the first to get a deal done. what is happening now, what did we do so far this year? $50 billion in two months which is more than every other spac year in the history of the world combined? so what is going to happen is, deals will have to get pushed through, when the clock runs out on those spacs at the two yearish mark, what will they do, return the mooney? no. they will push crummy deals. number two, who is frothing at the mouth? the private equity companies can't wait to unload garbage in portfolios to spac r

madam president, i'm grateful to senator schatz for partnering with me on this legislation. our bill is a serious, bipartisan approach to the issue of section 230 reform. and it would go a long way toward making social media platforms more accountable to consumers and increasing transparency around the content moderation process. i invite our colleagues on both sides of the aisle to join us in advancing this legislation. madam president, i yield the floor. a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from washington. mrs. murray: thank you, mr. president. i ask unanimous consent to complete my remarks before the vote is called. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. murray: for the information of senators, i will speak for about seven minutes. madam president, i'd like to start by taking a moment to address the awful violence we saw in georgia yesterday. everyone, especially elected officials, needs to not just speak out, but to act against this deadly display of hate. to the victims and their families and to the asian american and pacific islander

schatz i address the nation directly when it was something important. such as the recession in 1938, or our efforts to prepare the defenses before the second world war. i think my favorite fireside chat occurred on the night of d-day. june 4th, 1944, in which i lead the nation in prayer. it was my way of connecting with the american public as individuals. i had been told the people would gather around their radios at home, and they felt as if i was speaking directlylp■ to them. and i was. that was my intent. i should mention, i would be remiss that my wife, eleanor, actually communicated more effectively with america, she wrote a column called my day, sixties a week from 1935 until 1962. i have often felt that she was a much better communicator than i was. >> thank you about. thank you both for keeping in touch with the american people and also to pray. very, very important. thank you for that. so president washington. if you don't mind, a very personal question. can you tell us a little bit about your teeth. i have often wondered, where they actually m

this quote by citizens against government waste president tom schatz said -- in this publication, "just the news" makes a strong argument for not lifting the earmark ban. he said earmarks are the most corrupt, costly, and inequitable practice in the history of congress. they led to members, staff, lobbyists being incarcerated. you know, there are people who went to jail because of how some of this stuff was handled. in the form of legalized bribery, members of congress vote for tens or hundreds of billions of dollars in appropriations bill in return for a few billion -- million dollars in earmarks for their state or congressional district. earmarks go to those in power, as shown during the 111th congress, when the 81 members of the house and senate appropriations committees who constituted 15% of the congress, got 511% of -- got 51% of the earmarks and 61% of the money. restoring earmarks will lead to the same result. i have heard the argument that earmarks are needed to pass bills in a bipartisan manner. i have consistently been ranked among the most bipartisan senators by the georgeto

leahy, brian schatz, a senator from the state of hawaii, to perform the duties of the chair. signed: patrick j. leahy, president pro tempore. mr. schumer: mr. president. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. schumer: i move to proceed to calendar number 1, smst 11. the clerk: prp the clerk will report. the clerk: a bill to provide for exception to limitation against apappointment of persons as secretary of defense and so forth. mr. schumer: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate be in a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: mr. president, as the senate prepares to take up the american rescue plan today, i want to remind everyone why we're here. this country is in the midst of a once-in-a-century crisis. not once in a decade, not once in every 50 years. once in a century. it's a crisis that is still very much with us, and it is deadly, deadly serious. it has claimed more than 515,000 precious lives across every part of the nation. for the b

we could pass section 230 reform like the bipartisan bill i've introduced with senator schatz yesterday could pass police reform legislation, expand domestic manufacturing capacity, protect election integrity. we could do all of that and more if democrats would engage in genuine bipartisan negotiation. is it really too much to ask that democrats find ten republicans to work with on major legislative items. mr. president, everyone would like to passion their unedited agenda, just like they want it. but that's not how things are supposed to work, at least not in the united states senate. and it's certainly not how it's supposed to work when like democrats you barely have a majority. the senate and indeed our whole system of government was designed to prevent a partisan majority from steamrolling through its unedited, unchecked agenda. let's just talk for a minute about the purpose of the senate, mr. president. actually, let me take a step back and talk about the purpose of our whole system of government. our founders established not a pure democracy where the will of the majority reins un

i understand that senator schatz is next, virtually. >> thank you mister chairman and thank you to bothof you for being willing to serve, again. my first question is for ambassador sherman. as people think of asia, the mind races sort of across the pacific to china and not the nations in between us and them. so i want to talk a little bit about oceania, it's got 12 million people, 12 violent states, 17 territories and 6% of the votes that we may need at the united nations. so, how do we step up engagement in oceania? >> it's a great question, senator. and you probably understand is part of the world better than most of us do, representing hawaii where it's more very much a part of your neighborhood in many ways. i think that it is critical to engage with oceania and with the islands and as you point out, critical votes at the united nations and certainly at the general assembly. and i know that in the obama administration, we in fact created a special forum to have those conversations and to ensure that we had diplomats who traveled to those island nations that are often doesn't happen,

bunch of my colleagues, so many contributed, but the chair of the indian affairs committee, senator schatz, senators tester, cantwell, smith, kelly, lujan, heinrich, very, very important. heinrich particularly pushed for broadband. so it's a team effort, and i'm proud of my colleagues. the american rescue plan takes us a giant step closer to fulfilling our trust responsibilities to all native americans, alaska natives, and native hawaiians. this is just one example, an important one, how the rescue plan will dramatically improve the lives of millions of people in this great country of ours. i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: quorum call: mr. mcconnell: madam president. the presiding officer: republican leader. mr. mcconnell: i ask consent that further proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: madam president, a year ago coronavirus cases were beginning to climb on u.s. soil. shutdown measures were starting to take effect. americans have endured one of the strangest and most