Transcripts For CSPAN2 U.S. Senate 20240712

These spiritual attributes that your name will be glorified throughout our nation and world. As our senators dedicate their lives to obey your precepts, direct them to your desired destination. Lord, give them a faith that will not shrink when at times they cannot see clearly the road ahead. Help them to place their total trust in you. We pray in your holy name. Amen. The president pro tempore please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Mr. Grassley madam president. The presiding officer the senator from iowa. Mr. Grassley i ask for one minute in morning business. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Grassley imagine the people of the United States have been able to follow the demonstrations in bella rouse in opposition to the president declaring victory, since alexer chankov has con sol dated consolidated power and suppressed democratic opposition. So the fact that the belaruse august president ial election was a sham, as we all know, and he once again declared to be the winner by a highly implausible margin should not surprise anyone. However, this the belaruse people have had enough. This time brutal crackdowns by Security Forces have not crushed grassroots demands for democracy. The quest for liberty is embedded in the d. N. A. Of the American Public. The people watch as the people of belaraus demand their rights. The American People stand with the people of belaraus. I also appreciate very much the strong stands taken by european governments supporting the belarausan people. I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Mr. Mcconnell madam president. The presiding officer were in a quorum call. The majority leader is recognized. Mr. Mcconnell i ask that further proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Mcconnell so, madam president , republican senators, like working families all across the country had hoped, hoped the senate would be spending this week completing more bipartisan pandemic relief. We proposed another package of hundreds of billions of dollars to make schools safer for our kids, to help American Workers keep or regain their jobs, and to invest more in testing, treatments, and finding and distributing a vaccine. But, alas, Senate Democrats filibustered it all, apparently intent that working families cannot receive anymore relief until election day. Across the capitol Speaker Pelosis excuses and goldilocks games are even wearing thin on our fellow democrats. A few weeks ago more than 100 House Democrats publicly publicly asked Speaker Pelosi to stop blocking action on any coronavirus legislations besides her multitrillion dollar farleft wish list. She ignored them. She completely ignored them. Yesterday a number of House Democrats tried again. They released a new proposal they had written with some republicans and pleaded with the speaker to allow a vote on it. Again, she shot down any notion whatsoever of compromise. Now, bear in mind the speaker had explained she will block any compromise for kids, jobs, and health care because because passing anything short of multiple trillions of dollars would make her look like, quote, a cheap date a cheap date. The money that k through 12 schools need, that unemployed workers need, that we need for the race towards vaccines, Speaker Pelosi is blocking all of it. Because apparently to the france far left anything short of multiple trillions of dollars would make her, quote, a cheap date. So apparently for the sake of the speakers personal ego, working families continue to suffer with no bipartisan help from congress. Now, since democrats are stonewalling pandemic relief, the senate is spending time qualifying wellqualified is nominating wellqualified judges to the federal judge. This has been a major success over the past four years. Since january 2017, President Trump has nominated, and this Republican Senate has confirmed, 211 article 3 judges, including 53 circuit judges. That is the second most appellate confirmations of any president in American History at this point in their term. This isnt a partisan victory. The president has sent us impressive qualified men and women who understand the radical notion that the job of the judge is to actually follow the law. Follow the law. So its a victory for our constitution itself. But, believe me, this progress has not come easy. Throughout the last four years our Senate Democratic colleagues have visited an historic degree of obstruction upon this president and his efforts to stand up the administration and that the American People actually elected. Senate democrats have forced us to break more filibusters on nominations since 2017 now listen to this than had occurred cumulatively in all of Senate History all of Senate History before President Trump was sworn in. Im going to say that again. Senate democrats have forced us to break more filibusters on nominations since 2017 than had occurred cumulatively in all of Senate History before President Trump was sworn in. Theyve attempted to filibuster more nominations in the last three years than the sum total of all prior senates from 1789 through 2016 added together. What was once a rare roadblock for the most controversial people has now become a daily norm. Before 2017, before this Senate Democrat minority got to work, only 5 of all nominations to District Courts and circuit courts had been subjected to filibusters. Ill say it again. Before 2017, before this Senate Democrat minority got to work, only 5 of all nominations to District Courts and circuit courts had been subjected to filibusters. Under President Trump, the number has been 80 80 . 80 . Our democratic colleagues even obstruct nominees they dont even oppose. Weve taken more than 100 cloture votes on district judges even though District Court nominees with any state from any state with a democratic senator could not have gotten out of Committee Without democrat support. So to summarize, madam president , heres what were doing this week. Were breaking democratic filibusters on nominations because democrats are filibustering coronavirus. And let us not forget the cherry on top because selfawareness apparently no longer exists, our democratic colleagues have chosen this very moment to argue that they shouldnt have to play by any of these rules if they ever get power themselves. President trump calls the filibuster a relic of jim crow, even as Senate Democrats use it over and over and over again. Democrats filibustered police reform, filibustered pandemic relief for working families. Some years back the democratic told a newspaper, quote, im the leader of the Filibuster Movement and im proud of it. That was the democratic leader. But now now they are saying if they ever get power, they intend to tear up the rule book to force radicalism on our country. They want to break the rules to pass the kinds of radical farleft policies that former Vice President biden has rushed rushed to embrace from abortion, to socialism to cracking down on the second amendment. And thats not all. Its not just about bad policies. They want to go even deeper and hot wire hotwire our democracy itself. They are salivating over killing the filibuster in order to pack the Supreme Court and pack the senate with new states, tilt the Playing Field permanently so they can never lose power again. This is not some rightwing Conspiracy Theory. These are the signals they are sending publicly right now. This is what the left is saying outloud. Out loud. Maybe this hardleft hypocrisy plays well in a few big coastal cities. Maybe the angry crowds pulling down statues of our Founding Fathers will want governors who will pull down our institutions as well. Most americans see things differently. Now, on another matter entirely, a few days ago the country got something thats been in too short supply in 2020. Some realt news. Specifically great news on the subject of Public Health. According to a 2020 National Youth Tobacco Survey administered by the f. D. A. And c. D. C. , the number of American Youth using ecigarettes has dropped by 1. 8 million since just last year. 1. 8 million in one year. That means, of course, 1. 8 million fewer Young Americans are using e greats e cigarettes and vaping devices than one year ago. Its no accident. A number of factors are in play but one major contributing factor unfolded right here in the senate. A little under a year ago. Last december the president signed the tobacco free youth act into law. It was a bill i wrote and introduced to stem the tide of what was a rapidly growing Public Health crisis among our nations young people. The bipartisan bill that i wrote with my good friend tim kaine from virginia and with the help of other colleagues, including senator todd young, raced the minute raised the minimum age including ecigarettes and vaping devices from 18 to 21. This is based on clearcut science. Public Health Experts tell us the harmful effects of nicotine are most potent on bodies and brains that are still developing. Nearly nine out of ten adult smokers started by the age of 18. So we knew it was time to take action. Im proud to have led the legislation that took another leap forward in getting nicotine addiction iway from our away from our nations youth. By the looks of these data, it has not taken long for our legislation to begin to pay major dividends. Nearly two million fewer teens in kentucky and virginia and indiana and across the country are having their future put in jeopardy by these products. Thats a win and its happened largely because the senate stepped up. Now, madam president , i understand theres a bill at the desk due a second reading. The presiding officer the clerk will read the title of the bill for the second time. The clerk s. 4 582, a bill to extend temporarily Daylight Saving time and for other murps purposes. Mr. Mcconnell under to place the bill on the calendar i would object to further proceedings. The presiding officer the objection having been heard, the bill will be placed on the calendar. Under the previous order the leadership time is reserved. Morning business is closed. Under the previous order, the senate will proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the nolg from nation which the clerk will report. The clerk nomination, the judiciary, Todd Wallace Robinson of california to be United States district judge for the Southern District of california. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call the presiding officer the democratic leader is recognized. Mr. Schumer i ask unanimous consent the quorumming dispensed with. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Schumer thank you, madam president. In 48 days the American People will head to the polls to cast their ballots in an election that by necessity will be conducted in a much different fashion than nearly any election in our nations history. Because of covid19, there will likely be a historic increase in mailin ballots. Mailin voting is a process that is well established in our country. Several states have conducted elections this way for years without any issue at all. Because of covid19, there may also be some delays in determining the result of the election while every ballot is counted. This, too, has happened before but there is no doubt that this election will be unique and it means that leaders from both sides of the aisle should be joining together now to ensure the integrity of the election and the publics confidence in the result. Sadly, there are some systematically undermining voting confidence and fanning suspicions and conspiracy theories about the legitimacy of Election Results. At the top of the list here is unfortunately the president of the United States who has exploited and capitalized on fears about holding an election in the middle of a covid19 attack, about its mailin voting and comically widespread claims of voter fraud. Hes attacked mailin voting and attacked voter fraud. We are talking about the integrity of our voting. It is something that american soldiers have fought and died for and the president trifles with it and, of course, our Senate Republican colleagues go along. So today were doing two things in this regard because we have a responsibility to do everything we can to see that this election does not mark the beginning of a new age when our Election Results are doubted, conspiracy theories flourish and our grand democracy is tarnished around the world. If we allow this kind of malicious tampering with the wellspring of our democracy in terms of Peoples Trust in it, its the beginning of the end. Donald trump doesnt care. We know he only cares about himself. The Senate Republicans dont say a people. We know they are afraid of donald trump even when they disagree with them, it they remain quiet and too often they agree with him. We cannot we cannot allow our people to lose faith in elections and we must do everything to ensure that they are conducted in a fair way that the American People will accept despite covid and all the problems it creates. So this morning, senator sanders and i have written a letter to the republican leader asking him to work with us to establish a special Bipartisan Committee with equal representation from both parties to guarantee the integrity of our election process. The committee should focus on three issues, one, confirm the security of and confidence in our mailin systems, our vote by mail systems. Two, measures to ensure that every vote is counted. And, three, discuss and prepare for possible postelection scenarios. The function of the committee would be to hold hearings about what is being done around the country to make certain our Public Institutions are prepared to conduct a smooth an reliable election, free from Voter Suppression and intimidation, that every vote will be counted and there will be confidence in the outcome. Senator sanders and i and many in our caucus, including senator klobuchar, who ill mention in a minute, feel very, very strongly that we have to do something. And this Bipartisan Committee can ensure the American People that the senate is on top of this. We hope the republican leader will accept our request. We hope he wont run away from his responsibility to ensure there are fair elections. We hope that he will not go along with Donald Trumps dangerous rhetoric about the fairness of our elections. Now, later today the senator from minnesota and Ranking Member of the rules committee, senator klobuchar and i will be speaking with a Bipartisan Group of secretaries of staift. We will be get state. We will be getting a brief on voter preparedness around the country. I expect they will have another major call that will be blocked by Senate Republicans, election assistance funding. Im hopeful we can find agreement on a bipartisan basis to help our states with critical funding to prepare for this historic election. This issue is above partisan politics. Its the essence of our democracy. It is disgraceful that republicans are playing games with this, perhaps for electoral advantage, perhaps for fear from President Trump. We wont let it happen. We, as a caucus, repeat for the American People the best way to prevent an election from being manipulated or stolen is vote. The more people vote and the earlier they vote, when they can vote early, the better off our democracy will be. Now on russian disinformation and other matters. The chairman of Homeland Security and Government Affairs committee continues to further his probe into the family of the family that is designed to influence the upcoming president ial election. While the rest of the country has been focused on fighting a global pandemic, for the last few months the chairman and republicans of the committee have wasted taxpayer resources to run a hit job on President Trumps political rival. Even worse, it seems that several lines of investigation have echoed materials pushed by the kremlin. In fact, some of the allegations that the Homeland Security chairman pursues are the same one propagated by a known russian agent who was recently sanctioned by President Trumps own Treasury Department for interfering in our election. So here President Trumps Treasury Department sanctions durkach and the chairman of the committee repeats the same kind of allegations that durkach propagates. Its outrageous. Its a disgrace. The hearings and subpoenas that have come out of the Homeland Security committee are also a disgrace by any standard. The more we learn about russian agents like mr. Kurkech, the more it looks likes they are trying to lander information through the United States senate and because moscow prefers to support donald trump as it did in the last election, it finds that there is a sympathetic audience among republican audience along with senators peters around feinstein, i will call for a cessation of any Senate Investigation or activity that allows congress to act as a conduit for russian information. There should not be a single aspect of this chamber that wittingly or unwittingly furthers the Propaganda Machine of Vladimir Putins intelligence services. Ill have more to say on this matter later. But for one of the most important committees to be echoing a kremlinbacked Conspiracy Theory is respond obeyond the beyond the pail. Later today my friends senators durbin, menendez, and van hollen will try to secure temporary protective status for venezuela seeking they are now at risk of being sent back to a failed and dangerous nation rife with political oppression and human suffering. A nation that constitutes the single biggest humanitarian crisis in our hemisphere today. Despite having all the authority that he would need to solve the problem on his own, President Trump wont grant temporary protective status and his enablers have blocked legislation that would provide it. We will try once again to get this passed. Democrats stand with the people of venezuela. Later today my republican colleagues will need to decide if they want to restore the moral leadership of the United States and support the protection of venezuelans fleeing violence and dispair or leave them despair or leave them all in limbo facing humanitarian disaster. I yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call mr. Thune madam president. The presiding officer the majority whip is recognized. Mr. Thune i ask unanimous consent the quorum call be lifted. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Thune madam president , at the beginning of september the Congressional Budget Office issued its latest budget outlook. The news wasnt good. C. B. O. Announced that next year our countrys debt is protected to projected to exceed the amount of our g. P. A. G. P. A. The size of our debt will be greater than the size of our economy. That is a very bad position to be in. Countries with that kind of debt to g. D. P. Ratio faced timesensitive decisions if they want to avert an allout economic crisis. Greece is one recent example. We all know the kind of economic devastation and accompanying turmoil that greece has experienced in recent years. Now, as the United States, we can probably hang on a little longer than most other countries before entering a fullblown debt crisis. Its helpful that our country was surging before the onset of the coronavirus. But even we cant hang on forever. Sooner or later if we dont address the size of our soaring debt, were going to have a problem. A lot 0 of problems in fact. Now, madam president , that is not something most of my colleagues across the aisle want to hear. Theyd like to spend as much as they want whenever they want on whatever new Government Program that they come up with. And they imply that republicans are micerly for not miserly for not wanting to join them. They just dont care about the ordinary americans who would benefit. In fact, madam president , the opposite is true. In the face of the pandemic, republicans have been willing to spend huge sums to help our fellow americans weather this crisis. And republicans are worried about our spending and our debt precisely because we care deeply about ordinary americans. We know what the consequences of unchecked debt and spending can be and we want to protect americans from those consequences. To start with the larger that our debt grows, the more interest were likely to have to pay and were already paying a lot. Right now were paying roughly 484 billion a year in interest on our debt. Thats a substantial chunk of our yearly budget and thats money that could otherwise be going to other priorities, and the problem, madam president , is only snowballing. By 2029, the yearly interest on our debt is expected to reach 807 billion, according to one estimate. Thats going to eat up a lot of money that could otherwise be spent on important investments, health care, veterans, infrastructure, defense, seniors, education. Wed have a lot more money to devote to those priorities if we werent paying hundreds of billions in interest each year on our debt. And then there are the economic consequences of a huge debt. The economy will struggle. Unemployment will grow. Businesses will create fewer jobs if they create jobs at all. Wages and benefits will likely stagnate. The stock market will struggle. Madam president , weve had to borrow a lot of money this year to meet the Coronavirus Crisis and theres no doubt its money we needed to borrow. That happens sometimes during a crisis. But we need to be very aware of the fact that weve driven up our deficit by 3. 3 trillion just this fiscal year. Further increasing our nations debt and we need to be very careful about any additional borrowing and ensure were only borrowing whats absolutely necessary. Madam president , republicans have caught a lot of flak from democrats for not being willing to use the coronavirus for use of unchecked government spending, including for noncoronavirusrelated measures, but we made a priority of scriewt nighing additional is spending because we dont want to get our economy out of one economic crisis only to plunge it into another. Unfortunately thats a lesson lost on many of my democratic colleagues. We think the debt is bad now and it is, but its nothing like what our debt will look like if democrats take congress and the white house in november and put some of their bigger Spending Plans into effect, plans like medicare for all, which would cost, as a conservative estimate, 32 trillion over ten years or the Green New Deal. Democrats 93 trilliondollar boondoggle. Thats right, madam president , you didnt mishear that. The Green New Deal is estimated to cost up to 93 trillion over ten years. To put that in perspective the size of the entire federal jujt in 2018 was 4. 4 trillion or substantially less than the cost of one year of the Green New Deal. Now, madam president , you might think a pie in the sky fantasy like the Green New Deal would have been abandoned by democrats now, but you would be wrong. More than a year after its introduction it is still going strong. I talked about the threat of the democrats to filibustered require bipartisan cooperation. Well shortly before i spoke, the senator from massachusetts who introduced the Green New Deal resolution in the senate appeared on National Public radio where where he was asked whether he thought there any parts of the Green New Deal that could attract bipartisan support. The senators response the whole thing needs to be enacted, and if republicans dont allow that to happen, democrats should change the senate rules to eliminate the legislative filibuster. So apparently democrats arent willing to even moderate their proposal. If the senator from massachusetts has his way, democrats will shove the entire 93 trillion down the throats of the American People. And i guess the American People will just have to survive the resulting debt crisis. Madam president , when you ask about the price tag for democrats socialist fantasies, democrats will make noise about somehow paying for it. We will tax the rich, they say. The rich arent paying their fair share. The problem, of course, is that increasing taxes on the rich isnt going to increase these proposals. You could tack at rates of nearly 100 and not come up anywhere close to getting the 93 trillion that is necessary to pay for the Green New Deal. There is in fact no way to pay for these proposals. They will be financed by enormous additions to our National Debt and ordinary americans will suffer the consequences. A shrinking economy, fewer jobs, lost jobs, lower wages, lack of opportunity, and much more. Madam president , i hope we will take action on our debt before its too late. One thing we have to consider is how to shore up and protect Social Security and medicare which are currently the main drivers of our National Debt. Thanks to an aging baby boomer population, these programs are under a great deal of strain. My colleague from utah, senator romney, recently introduced legislation called the trust act to begin to address these endangered trust funds and start to rein in our National Debt. Bipartisan legislation like this would be a good start to preventing our country from facing an economic crisis in the coming decades. The republican senator sponsoring the legislation were joined by a handful of democrats which gives me hope that perhaps not all of my democrat colleagues are determined to explode our National Debt with their socialist fantasies. Unfortunately, too many democrats, including democrats vicepresident ial candidate, are open to bankrupting americans with the Green New Deal and other plans. Madam president , i hope they wont have a chance to implement their legislation because our economy and the American People might never recover from the consequences. Madam president , i yield the floor. A senator madam president. The presiding officer the senator from ohio is recognized. Mr. Brown it is pretty obvious that my republican colleagues think that the presiding officer is going to lose her race and a number of cumbent senators are going to lose their race, because now unless because it looks like now unless because it looks like there will be a democratic president and a Democratic Senate and a democratic house, all of a sudden my farright colleagues are concerned about the National Deficit and the National Debt. Back in trumps second year in office, Congress Passed a bill that that provided about 1. 5 trillion in tax cuts, between 70 and 80 of the tax cuts went to the richest 1 of the people in this country. It pushed the National Debt into much into a whole new stratosphere. It took money we were going to use to build infrastructure, highways, bridges, water and sewer systems and ignored that plan. Now all of a sudden my colleagues are interested in the National Debt. Not when the republicans are in control. They want to give more and more and more tax cuts, but when democrats are in control, democrats who want to invest in infrastructure, democrats who want to save this economy right now, including providing 600 a week for unemployed workers, 680,000 of them in my state, close to 400,000 of them in the presiding officers state, democrats want to invest in infrastructure and job training and protecting medicare and Social Security, but now that republicans think they are going to lose, its all about the National Debt and doing nothing to help workers right now. Madam president , i want to talk today about specifically about workers and how this president and all the president s enablers and they are enablers. They dont even my colleaguen colleagues dont even speak up when the president so dishonors our fallen soldiers. They dont speak up when the president s clearly lied, his own words, about the coronavirus, lied to the American People after he was taped in his own words by a former reporter. And yet, they and absolutely fail to speak up about workers. Every day, we live with the horrific consequences of leadership failures in this country. So Many Americans have lost jobs, they have lost Small Businesses, they have lost their sense of security, and they have lost much of their faith in their own government, and in nearly 200,000 american families, they have lost a loved one. All because President Trump and his enablers here, all because President Trump has failed to get this pandemic under control, he has failed to protect American Workers. A few weeks ago, i was in cincinnati i was talking to a woman in cincinnati. I was actually home. It was a remote call. She told me she is a Grocery Store worker. She said, you know, they call me essential, but i feel i dont feel essential. I feel expendable because they pay me so little and they do so little to protect to keep me safe at work. President trumps administration, get this, has gotten 8,000, 8,000, 8000, 8,000 complaints about unsafe workplaces since the start of this pandemic. And we know how many bus drivers have died, we know how many Grocery Store workers have died, we know how many meatpacking plant workers have died. We know how many hospital workers have died. Not just nurses and doctors, and we grieve for them and their families and applaud and are so grateful to their service, but its orderlies that have died also, the people that change the bed sheets and change the linen in the hospitals who have died. So the president has gotten 8,000 complaints about unsafe workplaces. This summer, we had President Trumps corporate lawyer, secretary of labor scalia before the finance committee. When i say corporate lawyer, i mean corporate lawyer. He represents the president in the department of labor as a corporate lawyer. He always when its a fork in the road, do i support workers or do i support corporate interests, every single time he goes with corporate interests. But its not a surprise because the secretary of labor, madam president , used to be a corporate lawyer who representes and millions of dollars representing corporations against workers. Thats the kind of person that doesnt tell you a whole lot about President Trumps betrayal of workers. He appointed to secretary of labor somebody who has always represented corporations, making millions of dollars against workers. So whats he going to do as department of labor . He is going to do what the president wants him to. He is going to support corporate interests against workers. So i asked secretary scalia in the finance committee, out of the thousands of workers who have come to you for help, how many inperson inspections have you done . Thousands of workers have come to him for help. How many inspections of workplaces have they done . Madam president , zero. Zero in dmant. Zero in savannah. Zero in griffin, georgia. Zero in covington, georgia. Zero in mansfield, georgia. Zero in stone mountain, georgia. Zero in ohio. Hes not i mean, i dont know the presiding officer very well, but she took an oath to represent her state as i took an oath to represent my state, and one of the things we do is should fight for everyday people, for workers. This president , this secretary of labor has done zero. Zero inspections after six months of americans working reporting to work in a pandemic, over 8,000 complaints. 8,000 complaints from workers saying my workplace is not safe, mr. President. There is a pandemic, zero inspections. And you know what . Not one republican member of the finance committee, not one republican senator in the finance committee spoke up and pushed secretary scalia to do inspections or to look out for workers. Why . Because it would have made the president of the United States unhappy if a republican senator had questioned what the president of the United States does. They dont question putting in soldiers who have died when he inspace shuttles soldiers who have lied, they dont question him when he lies about the pandemic, they dont question him in his leadership role to protect workers. Zero inspections to make sure corporations are giving workers the protective equipment and the other safety protocols they need. I demanded secretary scalia at this hearing, demanded he follow up and tell us about any inspections they conducted and what the results of those inspections were. They said he said he couldnt get that information. Hes the secretary of labor. Im not. And guess how many fines they have issued. Five. Five fines. As far as we know, President Trumps administration has only issued five fines out of more than 8,000 workers complaining that their employers are failing to protect them. Last week, a notable week for the Trump Administration. They did something about workers, but listen to what they did. They fine smithfield. Smithfield is a multibilliondollar Company Owned by the Chinese Communist party. They fine smithfield 13,000 after 1,300 workers got sick at just one plant in south dakota and four people died. So lets do the math. 13,000 fine, 1,300 workers got sick. Thats 10 a worker. So they fined this multibilliondollar Company Owned by the Chinese Communist party in the United States in south dakota, they fined this company 10 per infected worker. A multibilliondollar corporation. The idea that 10 a worker will stop these guys from continuing to abuse their workers is absurd. And do you know what . Every other corporate leader around the country, they heard oh, my gosh, President Trump is on our side, hes on our side every single time, madam president , President Trump is on our side when it comes to a complaint from a worker. So we dont have to worry about making sure workers safe because we know the president of the United States, he might fine us 10 per every sick worker. A third of the workers at this plant got sick. A third of the workers. They were not putting all the money they make, the billions of dollars that they pull out of south dakota, this company, and send those dollars probably electronically, i guess not by boat to the communist party in china, all those dollars they take out of that plant, all those dollars they take out of that plant, they cant put any of those dollars to invest in protecting workers to make their company successful. President trump could crack down on these corporations. Hes not going to do that. He comes from corporate america. He inherited billions of dollars. Hes declared lots of a lot of personal bankruptcies. Forget about that. But he is on their side. Politics, government, is about whose side are you on . Are you on the president s side every single time, no matter what he does, or are you on corporations side, every single time, no matter what they do, no matter how many workers they get sick, no matter how many workers they kill, its on their watch, no matter how much workers they kill, youre going to be on the corporations side every single time . And the answer in trumps america is yes. , he could mobilize workers, he could mobilize american manufacturers to get every American Worker a mask and protection they need. He could issue an osha temporary standard to provide clear and forceful requirements for keeping workers safe. He could stand up for workers. He campaigned on it. He could actually stand up for workers, but he wont. Its always the same story with this corporate president. Its always the same story. He wants to protect the big guys. Workers health, workers safety be damned. He campaigned in 2016. In my state, he surprised people by how much he won my state. He campaigned by promising he would look out for workers. He went all over ohio, he went all over the industrial midwest, the great lakes states areas telling workers he would take care of them and he would fight for them. Now we know how much their health, we know how much their health, these workers health, we know how much these workers lives are, how much they mean to this president. About 10 each. He has betrayed these workers over and over. These Corporate Tax cuts senator thune was talking about, about democrats and taxes and the deficit, in an easy to understand way. He betrayed these workers over and over. Corporate tax cuts, 70 of the benefits to the richest 1 . He took away 100,000 ohio workers overtime pay. He pack over overtime pay from workers in savannah and lagrange and Newton County and jasper county, georgia. He took im pay away from my constituents in cleveland and mansfield and shelby and chillicothe. He stacks the courts with corporate lawyers, those lawyers, now judges, that will always decide for corporate interests against workers interests. He specializes in busing unions. He attacks he launched a boycott against goodyear, a unionized tiremaking plant headquartered in akron, one of the greatest companies in our state, one of the most renowned, iconic companies, because somebody made a decision or something about one of his make America Great hats, so he launched a boycott against costing who knows how many jobs to that company. Hes we trayed workers by his failure to fight for auto workers and their jobs. He promised workers in ohio dont sell your homes. This plant may close but dont sell your shoams and well bring the jobs back. Then he did nothing when we asked him to help. Then most recently he and senator mcconnell and all their minions who follow senator mcconnells lead took away 600 a week in Unemployment Benefits. What are those workers to do . What are those workers to do in georgia . What are those workers to do in ohio . What are those workers to do in illinois or delaware when their 600 a week just disappears . I know on this side of the aisle both sides of the aisle, there are a lot of really wealthy people here. There are a lot of millionaire members of the senate. When i hear millionaire senators and billionaires in the administration say that 600 a week, thats too much money, we cant give these unemployed workers that much money, 600 a week. Thats too much money. Theyre going to get lazy. Theyre not going to, would. Whether i hear millionaire members of the senate say such things, it just sickens me. This 600 a week is the reason that millions of americans didnt fall into poverty during this terrible, terrible recession. But lo and behold, madam president , the administration is happy. The republican senators are happy because the stock market is recovered. I know a lot of you, a lot of you in this institution have a lot of money in the stock market. I wont even get into that. You have conflicts of interest when you own it stock and vote this away. But forget about that. You have a lot of money in the stock market. So i know youre really happy. I know the presiding officer and the members of the republican members of the senate are really happy the stock market recovered in the spring. So donald trump doesnt have to pretend to care about getting this pandemic under control. Corporations are doing fine. Never mind the workers who are getting sick. Never mind the essential workers. The essential workers, bus drivers, people that food service people, custodians, security people, people that work in Grocery Stores and drug stores, the essential workers who are mostly women, disproportionately people of color, mostly barely adequately paid, the essential workers, they face something most of us dont. They work all day exposed to the public. They wear masks. Theyre safe, most of them. They do things safely. They work all day. Then they go home always anxious. Imagine this, madam president , imagine to feel every day when you go home, you might have contracted coronavirus and you might pass it on to your family. Imagine the anxiety these generally lowpaid workers face every day when they go home. We dont think about them around here because corporations are doing fine. The stock market is recovered. The workers go home every night worried theyll infect their families. Most of them wont. Theyll get along just fine. American workers are tired of this, sick of this. Theyre intierd of the empty tired of the empty promises, tired of feeling like no one in this government, in this senate, in this white house is on their side. We madam president , we if all of you would, could actually lead when the president doesnt. We could pass a bill forcing him to issue an osha temporary standard to protect people, occupation, safety and health administration, osha. We could force him to issue a temporary standard to protect people. Pass premium pay. Its what the house of representatives down the hall did. Unfortunately, madam president , when the house of representatives, when that bill passed and they took that bill down the hall and put it in senator mcconnells office there, i guess that bill got lost. But that bill, madam president , one of the things it did have, it had pandemic premium pay. If youre one of those workers i know this amount of money doesnt mean much to the presiding officer or most of my senate colleagues, but they could get up to 10,000 pandemic pay because they expose themselves in workplaces as essential workers to this illness. It would actually to pay these essential workers for putting their health and their lives on the line to serve us. Its time for us to step up. Its time for us to fight for the people if you love this country, you fight for the people who make it work. Its time we fought for the people who made this country work. Its time that instead of always siding with u. S. Corporations, with the wealthiest people in the society, we decide in this body to actually fight for workers. I note the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call quorum call the presiding officer the senator from texas. Mr. Cornyn i ask unanimous consent to vitiate the quorum call. The presiding officer without objection. Under the previous order, all postcloture time is expired. The cle is on the nomination. The question is on the nomination. Is there a sufficient second . There appears to be. The clerk will call the roll. Vote vote vote vote the presiding officer have all senators voted . Does any senators wish to change their vote . The yeas are 86, the nays are 10. The nomination is confirmed. Under the previous order, the motion to reconsider is considered made made. The president will be immediately notified of the senates action. 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 the nomination of david w. Dugan of illinois to be United States district judge for the Southern District of illinois, 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 that debate on the nomination of david d. Dugan of illinois to be United States district judge for the Southern District of illinois shall be brought to a close. The yeas and nays are mandatory. Under the rule, the clerk will call the roll. Vote vote vote the presiding officer have all senators voted . Any senator wishing to change their vote . On this vote the yeas are 56, the nays are 40. The motion is agreed to. 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 the nomination of stephen p. Mcglynn of illinois to be United States district judge for the Southern District of illinois. The presiding officer by unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum call has been waived. The question is, is it the sense of the senate that debate on the nomination of stephen p. Mcglynn of illinois to be United States district judge for the Southern District of illinois shall be brought to a close. The yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. The clerk will call the roll. Vote vote vote the presiding officer are there any senators in the chamber wishing to vote or wishing to change their vote . If not, the ayes are 55, the nays are 42. The motion is agreed to. The clerk will report the nomination. The clerk nomination, the judiciary, stephen p. Mcglynn of illinois to be United States district judge for the Southern District of illinois. The presiding officer the senator from iowa. Mr. Grassley its probably not surprising to the American People, particularly those who are very cynical about politics, that weve recently seen yet another manufactured crisis by the democrats for the benefit of the upcoming election, and this is in regard to scaring the people about only republicans would think about taking away Social Security and medicare, which is not true that any member of this congress is going to to do that. But it always comes up in tv advertising against republicans, youre going to scare old people into the fact that Social Security is going to be gone if you vote republican. So this is another election season. If there arent any real issues regarding Social Security, democrats make one up, and they do it of course to scare the people into believing that some people want to destroy the program, not realizing that its such a part of the social fabric of the american population, nobody would think of doing that. We saw it in the last president ial election, where secretary clinton didnt have a basis to attack thencandidate trump on Social Security because trump campaigned on the basis that he wasnt going to cut Social Security. But that doesnt stop them from making up things. Lacking any real ammunition, clinton allies here in the United States senate decided to manufacture a crisis. Now why does something happen in 2016 coming up now . Because its an example that this is an ongoing situation, and its happening in 2020. Back in 2016, three prominent democrat senators conjured up false claims about a nominee for the position of Public Trustee of the Social Security and Medicare Trust funds. That nominee happened to be a republican who was nominated can you imagine this by a democrat president. And he was already on there, nominated for another term. The false claims published in the Huffington Post were that this nominee promoted by president obama was a koch brotherfunded individual because he worked at an Educational Institution that received grants from the koch foundation. I dont know whether he even made an attempt to connect this individual to the koch funds, but thats irrelevant at this point. And the democrats claim that this single individual somehow duped all the other trustees, including all the other Obama Administration officials, into buying off on assumptions that would lead to an overstatement of the financial crisis facing Social Security, this according to the three democrats senators, was so bad that the chief actuary of Social Security felt compelled to write special notes to trustee reports identifying how shocking the assumptions were. Of course that would have meant that one single Public Trustee who happened to be a republican was duped by outstanding democrats like this who were also Trustees Treasury secretary jack lew, h. H. Secretary sylvia burwell, secretary thomas perez and the additional democrat Public Trustee. If youre if you bought into the democrats allegations at the time, it would have meant that all of those obama officials were duped and too inept to see what was going on. And only the chief actuary could see the light. Well, the chairman of the Senate Finance committee at that time investigated those allegations and showed that they were flatout lies. Even the Washington Post identified the lies in an oped titled the showdown democrats need to have. The post concluded that the ultimate victories of what they called, quote, petty politicalization, unquote, will be, then quote again, the perceived nonpartisanship and objectivity of key government reports. That is the very values Senate Democrats claim to be upholding upholding, end of quote. Democrats use their Misinformation Campaign to run a smear job on every qualified and wellrespected nominee. They also used it to run ads against anyone who voted in favor of that nominee, including ads against me in my most recent reelection. Unfortunately, even though the Social Security chief actuary was clearly implicated in the democrat lies, he remained silent, as thenchairman hatch and even the Washington Post identified how ridiculous and false the democrats claims were. The chief actuarys position apparently is that even if his office is being implicated to support clearly false and very public claims during an election season, hell just sit quiet and let it go by because he wouldnt want to admit that hes being used. So then rather than apologizing for being used, once it was pointed out to him that he was being used, all of that was four years ago. 2020 now its happening all again. Well, here we are in another l president ial election season, and of course like clockwork, were getting around, another round of misinformation from the democrat candidate and his supporters in the senate. Heres how the Washington Post factchecker label the current scheme in a headline that says, quote, bidens campaign attacks a trump Social Security plan that doesnt exist, end of quote. Now thats a Washington Post article. Not often does the Washington Post talk about things that might defend republican position against the democrats. So this time around the misinformation stems from a letter written to Social Security chief actuary by four democrat senators, including the minority leader, the Ranking Member of the finance committee, and senator sanders, whos been constantly for Vice President biden. In a letter these democrat senators asked the chief actuary to analyze hypothetical legislation. Now those words hypothetical legislation have to be emphasized. What they say, even they wouldnt support to eliminate payroll taxes. Of course those senators could easily find the information that they were seeking by looking at the latest Social Security trustees report. Instead, for purely political reasons, they wanted to draw in the chief actuary once again, the same actuary as four years ago here being used once again. And the chief actuary of Social Security seems to gladly have played along and wrote a response. He said that his office was not aware that anyone had proposed a hypothetical legislation. Nonetheless, he identified that without payroll tax revenue and no replacement from the general fund, the trust funds would run out of money pretty quickly. Now of course thats obvious to anyone, even with a slight knowledge of these programs. But information was not the aim of the democrat senators letters. Instead it was to put forward a silly hypothetical case that doesnt correspond to anything that anyone has or is proposing. And of course attribute it to the president of the United States. I know you all now see the purpose of this replay because its an election year. They used the chief p actuarys response to claim that authoritative sources have shown that President Trump has a plan to essentially defund Social Security. And in due course, they engaged in the Cottage Industry of groups that exist here in washington, d. C. Who regularly scare seniors and the disabled, especially before an election, about some sort of backdoor plan or trojan horse plan to destroy Social Security. And the democrat senators used the chief actuarys response to feed the Biden Campaign with a false talking point about Social Security. So you see the motives of these senators using the chief actuary as their tool. You see it pretty clearly. The Biden Campaign ran ads stating, among other mistruths, that, quote, if trump gets his way, Social Security benefits will run out in just three years from now. Now lets go back to the Washington Post. Even the post factchecker gave those ads four pinocchios, meaning that they contain a whoper of a lie. The factchecker also concluded that, quote, to make a long story short, democrats ginned up a letter from the chief actuary to describe a plan that does not currently exist, end of quote. In a followup letter that Ranking Member kevin brady of the house ways and Means Committee and i wrote to Social Security chief actuary, we expressed our concerns about the democrats once again using his office for political purposes and once again refers back to the 2016 era that ive already talked about. From his response, we learned a few things. First, we got confirmation that no one has a plan to defund Social Security, including the president of the United States. That confirms that the democrats letter was just pretty silly, but more oddly or not oddly, pure politics. Second, we got confirmation that the democrat senators during the 2016 election published lies in the Huffington Post article in invoking the chief actuary in an effort to smear the nominee. Third, we learned the chief actuary feels compelled to respond to any hypothetical posed to him by any senator, independent of how silly or blatantly political that would be. And of course the chief actuary shouldnt be so compelled. With that latter lesson, it would be easy for a republican senator to ask the chief actuary to analyze hypotheticals corresponding to the allegations made by senator sanders, one of the authors of the letter concerning the, quoteunquote, hypothetical legislation about Vice President bidens history on Social Security. Because you know, senator sanders, during the primary, has run political ads characterizing bidens record on Social Security saying that bidens claim that he has always protected Social Security are, quote, unquote, patently false. It wouldnt be hard to send a hypothetical in for an analysis to get an answer to reinforce senator sanders views that former Vice President biden has not acted to protect Social Security. It wouldnt be hard to send a letter to the chief actuary asking about how senator sanders plans to reform Social Security, which senator harris has cosponsored, would harm the middle class with payroll taxes with no correspondence on people with incomes below the 400,000 400,000 threshold. It wouldnt be hard to construct politically charged legislation and ask the chief actuary about it in order to make political points and use the actuarys position for political purposes. It happens that the chief actuary doesnt exist for the purpose of political interference. In my view, though, none of those would be a proper use of Social Security taxpayers resources in the same way that the democrats are wasting resources using the chief actuary for political purposes. So democrats should stop wasting Social Securitys resources trying to construct false and misleading political points to use in elections to feed their political basin dark money groups base and dark money groups who then use the points and social media and attack ads against republicans. Thats how they wasted the taxpayer money by writing a letter to the chief actuary for nothing other than pure politics. They should also stop politicizing Social Securitys actuaries and the Social Security trustees position in the transparent attempt to mislead the public and try to score political points about Social Security. And the American Public should, especially during even years in the runup to elections, turn a deaf ear to scare tactics that democrats continue to use for Social Security benefits. But when Senior Citizen that arent sophisticated in the operation of the federal government or the uses of politics to scare people, they might believe this stuff so youre doing a disservice to a lot of people that shouldnt have to worry about where the next meals coming from. As well i think journalists should be more responsible when reporting on these political sha shenanigans, though i will note the most recent employee was called out by Fact Checkers and given four pinocchios. Rather than acting like demagogues on Social Security, we should do what we can to improve these programs. Social Security Trustees across administrations have continually and consistently recommended addressing the projected trustee the trust fund shortfalls since projected benefits will continue to outpace revenues. So some sort of reform is inevitable but outside of broad reform, there are many Program Improvements that can help make the programs work better for beneficiaries and todays workers. While not as encompassing as the broad reforms, there are plenty of areas that we and the Social Security commissioner could resolve and continue to monitor and work to reduce back lotion and backlogs and improve services. Just recently the Senate Passed by unanimous consent a bill that we entitled improving Social Security services to to victims of Identity Theft act. And that was sponsored by this senator and senator sinema. This bipartisan effort will help people who fall victims of Identity Theft by providing improved services from Social Security with a single point of contact. In my view, more bipartisan work to improve the programs is the way that we should go. Bipartisan attacks to scare beneficiaries into believing that people are out to destroy peoples retirement and disability benefits do nothing to help working, disabled, and retired americans. I yield the floor. A senator mr. President. The presiding officer the senator for New Hampshire. Mrs. Shaheen mr. President , i come to the floor today to urge that we come together and resume negotiations on a comprehensive bipartisan covid relief package, the kind of package that this country has been calling for. To date, nearly 200,000 americans, including 436 granite staters have died from covid19, and we still have as many as 40,000 new cases each day in this country, enough people to fill a baseball stadium each day. And as a result, our economy continues to struggle with nearly 30 million Americans Still out of work and more than one million filing new applications for unemployment each week. Many americans have been forced to raid their Retirement Savings just to pay rent and put food on the table, and thats for those people who actually have Retirement Savings. Sadly, too many people do not and the president s recent executive orders have many state unemployment offices tied up in knots. Those orders affect Social Security and medicare and they provide no new help for the nearly 13 million households who could be at risk of eviction in the coming months. Unfortunately the Trump Administration and majority leader mcconnell have refused to recognize that too Many Americans are still suffering and still need help. Its been four months since the house of representatives passed the heroes act, a bill to provide assistance to americans who are in need. And instead of negotiating a bipartisan bill, as we did with the cares act back in march, leader mcconnell has released partisan legislation written in secret that is woefully inadequate and ignores many of the problems that im hearing from granite staters. Not surprisingly the bill that was put on the floor last week, the socalled skinny bill because it didnt provide the kind of help that so many people need, that bill failed. I opposed that skinny bill because i didnt believe it came close to addressing the Public Health and Economic Issues that our country is facing. It provided no funding for hospitals or Health Care Providers on the front lines and the nursing home an hospital staff that i talked to in New Hampshire told me that more Financial Support is needed to stem the financial losses from this pandemic. New Hampshire Hospitals have already experienced more than 550 million in lost revenue statewide and they dont see an end this year. Losses of that magnitude are unsustainable and the skinny bill that we voted on last week would not have addressed those losses. That proposal provided no support for state and local governments who are facing severe budgetary shortfalls. The state of New Hampshire expects to experience a budget shortfall of nearly 540 million, over a half a billion dollars. Thats about a 20 drop in state revenues. And in the city of manchester, which is our largest city, they expect to spend 11 million between this year and next related to covid19 expenses. Money they hadnt budgeted for and they had hoped that some of those expenses would get reimbursed by fema, but under the recent order from the administration, fema is being told to no longer reimburse those expenses. So what im hearing from mayors and municipal leaders in New Hampshire is that they are soon going to have to face some very difficult choices about whether they are going to have to cut essential Services Like trash collection and water and sewer. Whether they are going to have to lay off teachers and firefighters and police officers. The bill we voted on last week, that skinny bill, it provided no financial help for families struggling to pay the bills and put food on the table. There was no help in there to feed kids. Nothing to address broadband needs, the needs that weve seen in New Hampshire for telehealth and for Remote Learning where we have significant parts of our state and significant communities where we have students who dont have access to technology to do Remote Learning. There wasnt nearly enough to help with testing and Contact Tracing and no real assistance for the Postal Service, even as it faces bankruptcy. And funding for schools in that skinny bill, that was tied to whether the students were going in person or remotely. Well, in New Hampshire we believe those kinds of decisions should not be made in washington but they should be made by states and local School Districts. If local School Districts dont feel like they can bring kids back safely, then they shouldnt be forced to do that just to get the help they need to ensure that kids can go to school safely. I think the American Public wants results. They want a bipartisan, comprehensive bill so we can address the needs of granite staters and the people of this country. Thats what im fighting for and i believe its past time for people to come to the negotiating table so we can get that done. What weve seen during this pandemic is unemployment levels that we have not had in this country since the great depression. We need to provide additional Unemployment Benefits for people who need those dollars so that they can continue to pay their rent, their mortgages, put food on the table, and pay their bills. And we need to make sure that this emergency relief continues to be available to granite staters. And Small Businesses need a second round of p. P. E. Loans which would prioritize those smallest businesses and those industries that have been hardest hit by this pandemic, Industries Like tourism and the hospitality sector. We need to provide support to our live venues. I recently visited the bank of New Hampshire stage in concord. I heard first hand how their business has been affected by the pandemic and the Ripple Effect that has on all Live Entertainment venues on the performers who depend on those venues to be able to support themselves and the other members who are part of their performances. And we need to make sure that Child Care Centers are supported. I was visiting a small business, a restaurant that has two locations in New Hampshire, one in portsmouth and one in epping, the business is called popovers. Its very popular. What i heard from them is that the p. P. E. Loans made a huge difference. They were able to keep some of their employees on. But as they are looking into the fall, they are worried about whether those employees will be able to come back full time because they dont have access to child kier and they are child care and they dont know if the schools will be provided remotely or in person. We need to provide help so people can get their employees back and support their families. We need a comprehensive bill to provide emergency relief to granite staters. We should support our counties and towns who are experiencing historic drop in revenues and who desperately need help to continue providing the most basic services, schools, firefighters, police and trash collection, water and sewer and Wastewater Treatment because those have been dramatically affected by a loss in revenue. And, of course, we urgently need assistance for our nursing homes, for our longterm care facilities which in New Hampshire account for more than 80 of the covid19 deaths. The highest percentage in the country. And we need answers from the administration as to why they are not dispersing the funds as congress directed. For instance, the cares act provided up to 200 million for nursing home Infection Control efforts. To date only 17 17 million of that has been spent, sent out to those longterm care facilities that need it. On top of that, h. H. S. Has only spent about half of the 16 billion that congress provided for the acquisition of personal protective equipment and other medical supplies. Nursing facilities and providers across the cares system in New Hampshire desperately need this help and they need it now. We had a hearing this morning in the h. H. S. Appropriations subcommittee. I had a chance to ask some of the officials from h. H. S. About why have they not distributed these funds. And of course the answer they gave me was, well, we dont know. Thats not part of our responsibility. Well thats part of everybodys responsibility to ensure that the funds that congress has provided get distributed in the way that congress has said they should be distributed. Because we have people across this kung who need across this country who need that help and they need it now. We need a comprehensive bill to help treatment and Recovery Centers who are still struggling with Substance Use disorders because weve seen this crisis worsen during the pandemic. We have been seeing deaths go down from overdoses in New Hampshire. And since the pandemic, were beginning to see those numbers go up again. And this isnt a problem thats unique to New Hampshire. I heard senator capito in the hearing earlier this morning talking about the challenges that West Virginia is facing. Its become more critical than ever that congress provide substantial funding for Substance Use disorder for treatment and prevention. And we need real support for the post office, which was lacking from that skinny bill last week. The Postal Service is the only federal agency mentioned in the constitution and every community in the u. S. And in New Hampshire relies on its essential services, especially those communities, those states that have Rural Communities, a lot of Rural Communities where people in New Hampshire many of those communities dont have access to the internet. They depend on the post office for Communications Going in and out, for packages that go in and out. And what im hearing from granite staters is that there are Postal Service delays that are affecting their ability to pay their bills, to receive medications, that Small Businesses are not able to complete their transactions. Congress has a responsibility to act on legislation that would restore Timely Delivery and fully fund the Postal Service. And finally, we need to ensure that the Census Bureau has the time necessary to execute after complete and accurate 2020 count. And, you know, its been interesting to me to see the efforts of this administration to try and politicize the census. Because this isnt a red state or a blue state problem. The states with the lowest percentage of households that have been counted during the census are alabama, montana, mississippi, louisiana, georgia, and south carolina. States mostly in the south but not all. We must give the Census Bureau time to make a complete and accurate count by including a statutory delay for the apportionment and redistricting counts as part of any package before we go home. This is something that the Census Bureau asked us for last spring, and its something that we should make sure they receive even though under political pressure theyve changed their request. Bipartisanship on these pray quarts is possible on these priorities is possible. We were able to negotiate the cares act legislation that passed the senate by a vote of 960. We did it before. We can do this again. Because thats how government is supposed to work. Were supposed to come together and negotiate and deliver for the American People. Probably the most often heard remark that i have in New Hampshire is why cant you all just Work Together to address the needs of this country . Thats what we should be doing around everything, and its what we should be doing around responding to this coronavirus. And we should not recess until we can get a bill to the president s desk. We were sent here to do a job. We have an obligation to get it done. The foot dragging has gone on for far too long. The brinkmanship to end because time is running out on the needs of the American People. Thank you, mr. President. I yield the floor. The presiding officer the democratic leader. Mr. Schumer well, this morning the republican majority on the Homeland Security committee authorized another smattering of subpoenas in which seems to be an ongoing effort to disparage the former Vice President and his family. While the rest of the country was busy fighting covid, this is what the republican majority on the Homeland Security has been up to. Using the powers of the senate to, in effect, conduct Opposition Research for President Trumps campaign. The republican chairman has said he plans to release the report about it next week, next week. Merely a month before election day. Theres a dark similarity here to the republican effort in the house in the previous election to discredit the democratic president ial candidate with the select committee on benghazi. You may remember now, minority leader of the House Republican caucus bragging the republicans created the committee to bring downhillrys poll numbers. You know what they say about a political gaffe. Its when politicians tell the truth. Well, it seems like the republican Homeland Security committee has made the same gaffe that minority leader mccarthy made in 2016. In a little interview with a wisconsin Radio Station last month, senator johnson said that his probe would, quote, help donald trump win reelection. And yet somehow the current activities of the republican majority on the Homeland Security committee are even worse than what the House Republicans did in 2016. Because in the rush to find scraps of information for these investigations, Senate Republicans may have collected and promulgated disinformation that came from putins intelligence agents. Some of the allegations that the Homeland Security chairman is now pursuing are the same ones pushed by andre durkhax, a known agent sanctioned by President Trumps own Treasury Department for interfering in our elections. Powerful Senate Republicans are echoing the same claims that the russians are pushing, the same nonsense that ukraine interfered in the 2016 elections, not just putin. Weve all become so inoured to scandal during the scandalous administration but the fact that a powerful Senate Committee may have fallen victim to misinformation from moscow is appalling. So this the presiding officer would the senator yield . Mr. Schumer i would yield. The presiding officer the chair would remind senators that rule 19 provides no senator in debate shall directly or indirectly by any form of words impugn to another senator or to other senators any conduct or motive unworthy or unbecoming a senator. Mr. Schumer im aware of it. Everything ive stated here is factual, everything. Every single thing. So this afternoon my colleagues and i have drafted a simple resolution. It calls for the cessation of any Senate Investigation or activity that allows congress, the United States congress to act as a conduit for russian disinformation. I cannot fathom how any member of this chamber could justify blocking such a resolution. There must not be a single aspect of this chamber that wittingly or unwittingly furthers the Propaganda Machine of vladimir putin. Now, i know what my friend from wisconsin might say. Hell deny receiving information from a particular russian agent ive mentioned. But chairman johnson has never provided a full accounting of all the russian and ukrainianlinked individuals he sought information from. One of the chairmans subpoenas targeted a Ukrainian National who is an associate of mr. Durchax. So anticipating his objection to this resolution, id simply ask the chairman to provide a full accounting of who he sought information from so we can know who they are, what their motives are, and, therefore, the senate can see if they are trying to interfere with our elections. The chairman should have no issue furthering a complete accounting of his contacts with russian and ukrainian sources. And the American People ought to know whether or not the United States senate has been sullied by potentially receiving information from discredited russian agents. And the American People should expect that the Senate Passes this resolution today. What were our Founding Fathers most worried about . One of the top things top things was interference by foreign powers in our elections. Back then their concerns were about bieb ri bribery or treason. Today in our information age, the methods of foreign interference are different but the risks are the same. Our chief adversaries, russia, china, iran, north korea found that disinformation and misinformation are a weak point in opened societies like ours. That makes it incumbent on all of us here in the congress to be careful about the information we receive and repeat