Transcripts For CSPAN2 U.S. Senate U.S. Senate 20240712

Achieve, to participate in and contribute to society violates the equal protection clause. 81, massive victory. I thought it was very interesting her points she often made in the dissent. The Supreme Court argued in the 2007 case ledbetter versus Goodyear Tire and rubber company, the majority saitd, you know what . If you have been discriminated against in pay in your job, and you learn about it years later, you can no longer appeal for redress because you had to have come to the court at the moment the discrimination first occurred. Of course, that was a catch22, an impossible situation. If you didnt know about it, you couldnt possibly come to the court. And she addressed this, and she said comprehend she said the majority does not comprehend or is indifferent to the insidious way in which women can be victims of pay discrimination. So she called on congress to act to address really this mistaken opinion of the court, and we did in 2009, the first year i came to the senate. And another dissent that i think was powerful, Shelby County versus holder. So the majority struck down Voting Rights act protections against voter sup pregnancy and intimidation, arguing that those things no longer exist. Its as if you had a penalty for robbery and it was so effective that everyone quit robbing so you get rid of the law, the Supreme Court strikes down the law that says robbery is an offense. It made no logical sense. However, she described it this way in a way we can all understand in her dissent. She called the ruling is like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet. The foundation she laid on gender discrimination created the foundation for similar arguments to end lgbtq discrimination. It came to play in roemer versus evans where the court overturned laws around the country that criminalized gay sex or bergefeld versus hodges, the case that established marriage equality. The case of bosstock versus clayton county, the case that banned employment discrimination against lgbtq workers. So her arguments reverberate in continuous ways. You know, we losing her is a very powerful and difficult moment because of her championship of opportunity in this country. So on sunday night, i went down to the Supreme Court and i had thought about it on friday night when she first word passed of her dying, i thought about it on sunday night, but i thought its going to be a scene of confrontation, of people with bullhorns yelling at each other and confronting each other. That doesnt fit how i want to honor her. And i thought on sunday night i need to go and be there at the Supreme Court, and i was so relieved to find that there was not a scene of confrontation. There was a scene of hundreds of people coming to honor her championship of opportunity in our country, the role that she played for so many so often as an advocate and as a justice. This is a piece of what it looked like, although you have to kind of multiply the flowers and the and everything you see over a huge expanse. Its just a small portion of it. And i was very struck by watching people kneel down to write with chalk. Women, men, boys, and girls, to say what she meant to them, what she meant to this country, what she meant to striking open the doors of opportunity. And then i started reading some of the things that were being written. This is one of them. This says we can because she did. Thank you, r. B. G. And in another written sign, there was a quote. I ask no favors for my sex. All i ask of our brethren is that they will take their feet from off our neck. Give us opportunities. Now, this is actually Ruth Bader Ginsburg quoting sara greinke of charleston, south carolina, born in 1792. Sara became the countrys first female abolitionist, an early pioneer of the Womens Movement. And when Ruth Bader Ginsburg quoted her in the notorious r. B. G. Documentary, it made this quote famous for a generation. And i was struck by this sign which i thought summed up basically her entire efforts on womens rights. Its a quote of hers that says women belong in all places decisions are being made. And you can see again the massive number of flowers and signs that people have left in front of the Supreme Court. And then i saw this which summed up a young womans commentary on that principle. I grew up never knowing there was a Glass Ceiling because of you. Thank you, r. B. G. So we mourn her loss. She was a champion for opportunity for all. She was a champion for so much that goes to making this world a better place for ordinary people, ordinary people, which brings us to the challenge we have before the court, because realize that the Supreme Court has become a very powerful, ninemember, appointedforlife superlegislature. Its not calling balls and strikes any longer. No, its a setting for a pitched battle between the original vision of our country we the people government, or as lincoln said, government of, by, and for the people and a different vision for our country, a Federalist Society vision for our country, a vision of we the powerful minority want to control the government for our own benefit. Thats the battle thats being waged on the court. Is it government by and for the people or government by and for the powerful . You know, this has been a battle that has been waged since our 1787 constitution. In 1781 we had our first constitution, the articles of confederation. And the minority view of the white, wealthy power of the south was protected by the requirement for a supermajority in that first constitution, the articles of confederation. And the founders said, this isnt government by and for the people. This is not government by and for the people. No, the majority will is the power of government by and for the people. So that was embodied in the constitution we have now, that vision of we the people. And that minority from the south, wanting to protect slavery, said we need strategies to prevent the majority from eliminating slavery. And we have to make sure that there are no civil rights granted to individuals of color in our nation that might undermine our complete control of the governments at the state level. And that minority said, we are very wealthy and we dont want any laws that undermine our wealth. So we need a strategy to control and prevent the people from getting fair wages and fair working conditions, because that means we make less money ourselves. So they pursued a strategy called nullification, a strategy that said, no federal law will have any impact on our state unless we endorse it at the state level. And eventually that fell before the court. So then they pursued the development of the supermajority blockade of decisions being made in this very chamber on behalf of racism. The supermajority was forged in the fires of racism for 87 years. No law was blocked by this chamber by the supermajority except civil rights. Then this battle expanded. It expanded to the issues of Corporate Power versus consumer rights, Corporate Power versus working conditions. And this is where we come to the current balance between the Federalists Society weighed in on before of the government by and for the powerful versus those who believe in the vision of our constitution of government by and for the people. So we have lost Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who honored our constitutional vision. And we have a president and a majority in this chamber that are intent in packing the court on behalf of the wealthy and powerful. And there is at this moment just a tremendous damage being done to the integrity of this body because the same party in the majority four years ago said, we have a principle the mcconnell rule that if a seat becomes vacant during an Election Year, we must listen to the people and let them decide whether the current president or a different president decides. Will it be the republican nominee or the democratic nominee . And they took that vote and they went with it. Many spoke out in favor of the principle. Many said this is the absolute right thing to do even though it was the first time in u. S. History that this body did not debate on a nomination, or vote on a nomination. Breakingthe protocol of our entire history in order to steal a Supreme Court seat from president obama and pass it on to the next president. So here we are four years later, much deeper into the Election Year in fact the election has already started with many absentee ballots having been delivered, having been voted, having been returned. And so any form of integrity would be to honor the mcconnell rule from four years ago and say, what we did four years ago was principled, we said we believed in it, it helped out the republicans enormously, but you know what . Were principled individuals. And so were going to stick with the same frame that we argued before the public four years earlier. So i ask my colleagues, are there not a whole number of you that will come together and say, yes, we have integrity with the decision we made four years ago, the mcconnell rule we argued four years ago, the rule that gave a Supreme Court seat to President Trump and took it away from president obama, for the first time stealing a Supreme Court seat in our history, that were going to honor that same principle today . I ask my colleagues, search your hearts, ask ask, do you want to be remembered in this role of so fiercely advocating a principle that benefited you then and so fiercely violating it now to your own benefit once again, doing so much damage to the integrity of this chamber and so much damage to the vision and principle of government of, by, and for the people . Let that not be the case. Let every member come here to the floor and together actually hold a debate. Weve seen all members on the floor today, republican colleagues, having many of them stated that they are quite ready to violate the principle they argued so strongly four years ago. We dont know where they went. Theyre gone. Theyre not here. So sila let the American People call attention because so ill let the American People call attention. Because the American People love our constitution. The American People love we the people. The American People love the principle of government of, by, and for the people and do not want to see it trampled in an effort to sustain a massive amount of Corporate Power against the consumer, wealthy power against the worker, and racist power against civil rights. Thank you, mr. President. I yield the floor. Mr. Bennet mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from colorado. Mr. Bennet thank you, mr. President. In the summer of 1920, america ratified the 19th amendment. This breakthrough in our history, born of decades much setback and struggle by many unremembered women who never lived to actually cast a vote, for what to us now is a selfevident proposition that women in this country should have the right to vote, moved this country one step closer to equality. Thats why i think its so fitting that a century later we pay our respects to the late justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who more than anyone advanced the cause of equality between men and women over her remarkable career. Justice ginsburgs commitment to equality was not the result of laufty idealism. But the hard experience of her life. 13 years after ratification of the 19th amendment, joan Ruth Bader Ginsburg was born to a workingclass family in brooklyn. It was the middle of the great depression. Her father sold if you ares at a time when no one would buy them. Tragically, her mother died of cancer before ruth graduated from school. But she is challenges, like others she would face, did not defeat her. They didnt prevent her from graduating first in her class at cornell. They didnt exclude her from harvard law school, where she was one of only nine women in a class of 550 and had to justify to the dean why she had taken the place of a man. She finished her law degree at columbia, where she once again was first in her class and not a Single Law Firm would hire her. She applied to clerk for Justice Felix frank furtherert on the Supreme Court who said although she was an impressive candidate, he wasnt ready to hire a woman. She understood these early firsthand experiences with discrimination, not merely as barriers to her obvious talents and potential but as a vicious threat to our countrys full potential. She knew that any country that would deny a single persons chance to make a contribution on account of their race or their gender or their religion or whom they loved will never fully flourish. Tearing down these barriers became the cause of her career. She rose to become a full professor at Rutgers Law School and founded americas first law journal on gender issues. Later she returned to columbia law school, where she became the first woman to hold a full professorship. She worked pro bono for the aclu, cofounding their womens rights project. She quickly became one of the most accomplished litigators in the country, writing a brief the Supreme Court cited in reed against reed to rule for the first time that discrimination on the basis of sex violated the 14th amendment. Ruth Bader Ginsburgs arguments led the court to overcome centuries of narrow views about the proper role of women in american life. As a result, the Courts Holding redefined american law. Ruths accomplishments led to an appointment to the prestigious United States court of appeals for the d. C. Circuit. And in 1993, president clinton named her to the Supreme Court. Her nomination sailed through this body with 98 votes. A reminder of a time not so very long ago when the senate actually understood its constitutional responsibility to advise and consent and what that actually meant. For more than a quarter century on the court, Justice Ginsburg authored rulings that promoted fairness, advanced equality, and secured hardwon rights. They upheld affirmative action and protected a womans right to choose. Her dissent in one gender discrimination case was so powerful, mr. President , it inspired the Lilly Ledbetter fair pay act, the very first legislation president obama signed. At the same time, she could never accept decisions that nullified the right to vote or otherwise limited our democratic values. Even when it was hard for some of her colleagues to perceive the systemic racism in our country. When they were gutting critical protections to the Voting Rights act, she had the common sense to tell them that, youre, quote, throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because youre not getting wet. As always, she cut through Legal Convention and saw with clear eyes the enduring threat discrimination poses to our elections. She knew voters still deserved the protection of the law and all these years later after state after state after state have passed laws dispossessing people of important rights with respect to the right to vote, shes been proven right. As we reflect on her legacy in a real sense, i would say Justice Ginsburg herself should be thought of as a founder of our country, not because she is this an important title or war she is this an important title or wore a black robe, although she worry it as well as anyone. Bute she knew where we had fallen short and dedicated her life to calling America Closer to our best traditions of equality, liberty, and opportunity for all. Because the young joan ruth bad bader knew america would be worse without her, Justice Ginsburg made america more democratic, more fair, and more free. Mr. President , id ask that my next remarks appear separate in the record from the last. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Bennet thank you, mr. President. Before i turn over to my, the hardworking colleague from michigan who is here later than he should be only because thats the kind of person that he is, working so tremendously hard on behalf of the people of michigan and the people of this country, let me just say one word about where we find ourselves in the senate. Im just going to take two minutes to do this. But i believe that American History can be best understood from the very founding of our country until now as an epic battle between the highest ideals that humanity has ever expressed in our founding documents and the worst instincts of human beings. The founding that took the form of the institution of slavery. You can draw a Straight Line from those days to these days. There is no doubt in my mind which side of that line Ruth Bader Ginsburg was on. And theres no guarantee that this country is going to become more democratic, more fair and more free. That took the work of suffragettes, took the work of enslaved people like Frederick Douglass, another founder of this country who in his lifetime changed the entire approach of the Abolitionist Movement to argue it was not a proslavery document but it was an antidlaifer document and that antislavery document and we werent living up to the ideals of the constitution. Thats another selfevident fact today to us but it wasnt at the time that Frederick Douglass made those arguments. And there is no doubt in my mind that if we find ourselves with a new Supreme Court and we find someone who replaces Ruth Bader Ginsburg not with someone who allows us to participate justly and fairly in this society but one where the well connected are able to get the courts to Pay Attention to them while working people in this country cant have the basic Health Insurance that everyone else in the industrialized world has come to expect, were going to be a poorer country for it. And my final point is before i turn it over to the senator from michigan, the fact that we got here with a majority leader who has completely undermined any sense of integrity in this body with respect to the rules not speaking personally about him is a real problem, because its hard for me to see how this place will ever make enduring change that we need to make if the American People have completely lost faith. In Mitch Mcconnells senate, words have lost their meaning. And the rules are what you can get away with politically. Thats the outer boundary of where you can go. And its moments like this that i remind them, this is not the First Republic thats failed. And when words lose their meaning, when promises mean nothing, when commitments mean nothing, thats when institutions fail. I for one hope that well put this era behind us and not return to some old era. Im not interested in that. But build a senate thats actually worthy of the 21st century, worthy of the example Ruth Bader Ginsburg set, worthy of the expectations orchids and grandchildren expectations our kids and grandchildren have of us and we have of them and americas place in the world. And were not going to do it this way. We cant do it this way. And we have a chance to make a change, and i hope that we will. Mr. President , i yield the floor. I ask or i say to my friend from michigan, thank you for your patience and indulgence. Mr. Peters mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from michigan. Mr. Peters mr. President , like countless americans, im grieving of the loss of justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. As the second woman to serve on the Supreme Court, the first jewish woman to do so, she was a pioneer, a brilliant jurist and an historical giant who blazed a trail for many. When i reflect on her lifes work, i think of her tireless efforts for women. I think of her tireless efforts to end discrimination of any kind, and i think of her tireless work to give a voice to all of those who do not have a voice. She was fiercely committed to ensuring that justice, fairness, and equality would reign across our country. She was loyal not only to the constitution, but to the people whose lives she knew would be affected by her rulings. Within hours of the announcement of her death, as americans across the country mourned her loss and paid homage to her legacy, some unfortunately turned their attention immediately to filling a vacancy and also started to scheme on how to ram through a nominee before election day only a little over 40 days from now. It is important to remember that our constitutional democracy is built upon a system of checks and balances. Through our three coequal bramption of government. The branches of government. The Supreme Court plays an Important Role in determining and deciding important questions of law. And it represents a core pillar of our democracy. Its rulings profoundly shape the rights and the lives of michiganders and all americans. For example, later this fall the court will be taking up a case pushed by the Trump Administration to completely eliminate the Affordable Care act. The courts ultimate decision will effectively determine the fate of health care for millions of michiganders and americans. If the Supreme Court strikes down protections in the Affordable Care act, people with preexisting conditions will be at risk of losing protections provided under the law. Insurance companies will again be able to go back to the days of discriminating against people with preexisting conditions or even dropping a Persons Health coverage entirely at a time when people need health care the most. Sadly, being a woman could also again become a preexisting health condition, leading to higher costs and limited options. Insurance companies will once again be able to impose annual or lifetime limits for coverage, raising costs and making health care unaffordable and inaccessible for many michiganders. We also know that seniors on medicare could pay more for Prescription Drugs. And anyone who has arthritis, diabetes, or cancer or anyone who gets sick will see their Health Care Costs go up, and far too many people may be forced into financial ruin and bankruptcy if they get sick. In all, 23 million americans could lose their current Health Insurance. In sum, i think it is unconscionable that President Trump along with Senate Republicans are attempting to undermine Critical Health care in the midst of a onceinacentury Public Health crisis. And its not Just Health Care thats on the line when filling this Supreme Court vacancy. Women may lose their right to their reproductive freedom if the seminal decision of roe v. Wade is overruled. The court may further erode protections for workers and continue to undermine unions, and the Court May Side with large corporate special interests rather than ensure a level Playing Field for workers. The appointment of a Supreme Court nominee puts an awful lot on the line. Voting rights and the core principle of oneperson,onevote are on the line. Upholding basic critical civil rights are on the line. Equality for millions of lgbtq americans who seek nondiscrimination protections is on the line. And at stake is whether the court will protect our air and our water. Simply put, the Supreme Court has the final word on how we address the major challenges of our time. In a powerful sense, it is the last line of defense for Everyday Americans. With so much on the line, we should not rush a Supreme Court nominee through what should be a deliberative process. Jamming this Supreme Court nomination through now will, without question, further divide our country and disregard the fact that the American People are now voting, or soon will be in many states. In fact, later this week voters in michigan will begin casting their ballots. Issues before the court are lifechanging, and americans should have a voice in selecting who will choose the next nominee, a nominee if confirmed will served for a lifetime. We can certainly wait for the American People to be heard. The selection of a Supreme Court nominee can certainly wait until after inauguration day. Mr. President , what can not wait is to help millions of michiganders and americans suffering as a result of the covid crisis. There is no question that the senate has an important duty to advice and consent on nominations, but this body must first effectively address the unprecedented Public Health and economic crisis now confronting this nation. To do so, we need to come together in a bipartisan manner. And i know its possible. We were able to come together and pass robust bipartisan Coronavirus Relief legislation in march and in april, and i remain ready to work in a bipartisan manner again to pass meaningful legislation again. More than 200,000 americans have lost their lives from this pandemic, including approximately 7,000 in michigan. The numbers are staggering, and behind these devastating statistics are people, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, husbands, wives, and children. Tragically, some are projecting that we could see a total of 400,000 americans die by january. There are steps that Congress Must take right now to stem the tide of this pandemic. Not acting now in a bipartisan way to save more lives is an unconscionable betrayal of our duty to protect the American People. We must provide relief to families and workers who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own and worry every single day about how to keep food on the table and a roof over their heads. We must support Small Businesses that need federal funding to stay afloat and to rebuild our economy after we defeat this covid virus. We must support parents and schools trying to ensure students can learn in a safe environment and keep up with their studies. We must step up for communities across michigan and the United States that have been on the front line of Coronavirus Response efforts. Our communities are facing massive budget challenges that could force deep cuts to essential services or layoffs of teachers, of First Responders and Law Enforcement officials. Now is the time for us to rise to the challenge. Americans are losing their lives and their livelihoods to believing cruel pandemic to this cruel pandemic. I know we can turn the tide, but it will take political will. And its not too late to save hundreds of thousands of lives and countless jobs. But we must focus on effectively confronting the coronavirus together, and we must do it now. Our focus should not be on rushing to fill a court vacancy. That can and should wait until michiganders and the American People have had an opportunity for their voices to be heard and a new president ial term to begin. The covid crisis is urgent, and it must be our priority first and foremost. Filling a Supreme Court vacancy can certainly wait, with voting already underway and election day only 42 days away. Mr. President , lets come together in a bipartisan way and together do the right thing. Mr. President , i yield my time. Mr. Casey mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from pennsylvania. Mr. Casey thank you, mr. President. I want to thank my colleague from michigan for outlining the stakes for the American People. Ill start tonight with the two principal reasons we gather tonight on the senate floor. We gather on this floor tonight to reflect upon the life of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, to pay tribute to her life of Public Service, and to outline, as so many of our colleagues have outlined tonight, what is at stake for American Families in a debate about the next Supreme Court justice. Let me start with the life of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and nothing that we could say tonight will do justice to her story. But her story is an american story, the story of hard work and struggle, a story of overcoming discrimination, discrimination that i and so many others have never faced. Its also a story of knocking down barriers for women, a story of defending workers fiercely, a story of defending Voting Rights and so much more that we will talk about in the next number of days. Its also a very human story as much as it is an american story. Its a human story about her heroic battles, plural, many battles with cancer. At least two kinds of cancer over the course of 20 years. This struggle, this heroic struggle, this battle helped to transform Ruth Bader Ginsburg, thenjustice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, into an American Icon and an inspiration to millions of americans. So we mourn her passing and we will in the days ahead continue to laud her extraordinary accomplishments. Her achievements as a lawyer, a federal Appeals Court judge, and of course her 27 years as an associate justice on the United States Supreme Court. At the same time, as we pay tribute to her, we have, i believe, an obligation to make it clear what is at stake, what is on the line for tens of millions of americans. Ill focus on one subject hear tonight, health care. We know that after failing to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care act numerous times and numerous is an underestimate after failing that many times, Senate Republicans, along with the president , will try now to ram through a Supreme Court nomination that could and very likely will be the deciding vote to destroy, to destroy the Affordable Care act and all of its protections. I wont dwell tonight on the blatant hypocrisy of this action. Ill talk mostly about health care. But the hypocrisy i think is well known all these days since Justice Ginsburgs passing by so many republicans who said just four years ago that it was the wrong thing to do. Even within ten months in a president ial Election Year to confirm a new justice. But here we are that same party, those same senators on tape over and over again saying that they would not do this. And here they are trying to ram through another nomination. By the way, when you consider the last number of months, the months of may, june, july, and august, this body, the United States senate did little else but nomination after nomination and a defense bill, and very little else. No action, no substantial action on a covid19 relief bill despite the challenges our nation faces. So i guess nominations is all were supposed to do in the United States senate. And here we go again on the most consequential nomination that a senate could consider. We know that the Supreme Court of the United States has a case before it that will be argued in early november that could be the end of the Affordable Care act. In may, President Trump laid out in no Uncertain Terms what he wants to do to this health care law. Quote, we want to terminate health care under obamacare, unquote. Terminate health care is his goal. In the middle of the worst Public Health crisis in 100 years, a worldwide pandemic that were still suffering the effects of, and we just crossed the 200,000death total just hours or a few days ago at the most, 8,000 of those in pennsylvania. At a time when so many families have been devastated either by the virus and the suffering that comes with contracting the virus or a death in the family, family members, deaths of friends and people that folks have worked with. In the midst of an economic crisis, a jobs crisis, in the midst of all that, were supposed to go along with a process to ram through a new Supreme Court justice and take no substantial action on a covid19 relief bill. Whats at stake in the Affordable Care act so much . I will try to go through a long list as fast as i can. We know that more than 20 million can lose coverage, who gained coverage as a result of that act. We know that 135 million would lose their protections for a preexisting condition. In pennsylvania, those numbers translate into 1. 1 and 5. 5. 1. 1 Million People gained coverage, although that number is down now because of republican efforts over the last couple of years here in washington, but 1. 1 million gained coverage, 5. 5 Million People in the state with a preexisting condition. And if you go down the list of counties, which i wont do all 67 tonight, but just to give you some some sense of what it means by county. In terms of pennsylvanians who gained coverage, you would expect that the big cities had a lot of coverage gains. Thats true. Philadelphia at last count had 225,000 peoplewho gained coverage. But if you go from philly to fulton, Fulton County just happens to be a small county of about 14,000 people on the maryland border, pennsylvaniamaryland border. A small county, but they have more than 1,000 people. At last county, 1,028 people who got health care through the Affordable Care act. From pike county to green county, thousands of people gaining health care. Chester county to crawford county. Chester in the southeast, crawford way up in the northwest, just south of erie. 29,000 people, almost 30,000 in chester. Crawford county, more than 6,200. My home county of lackawanna, almost 20,000 people got health care. Luzerne county next door, almost 30,000. So just in those two counties, almost 50,000 people got health care. All of that is at risk in pennsylvania and a countless number of counties all across our country. Medicaid expansion which has enabled people to gain access to treatment for an opioid addiction or other Substance Use disorder issues, that would be destroyed. Medicaid expansion would be begun. It also ensured, Medicaid Expansion ensured that women can receive post part i am care and provide coverage for americans who are not yet eligible for medicare. Prescription drug costs would skyrocket for 12 million seniors and people with disabilities. Thats because the a. C. A. Closed medicaids dreaded Prescription Drug doughnut hole. The a. C. A. Closed the doughnut hole. As i indicated earlier, 135 million americans with preexisting conditions, their coverage now in jeopardy if the Supreme Court decision went the wrong way. Insurers would be able to drop them. Insurers will be able to refuse to cover them. Or Insurance Companies would be able to charge them more because of common diagnoses like depression, anxiety, asthma, diabetes, sleep apnea. The list goes on from there. All the things the Insurance Companies were able to do for at least a generation or more in the dark days before we had an Affordable Care act. Insurers would also be able to charge you more because youre a woman. Allowed prior to the a. C. A. Or they could charge you more because of your age. That also could come back. Insurers would be able to reinstate annual and lifetime caps on coverage that they provide. If your health care is too expensive, the Insurance Companies could just stop paying for it, even if youre a preemie, a tiny little baby in the nicu or an adult with a terminal diagnosis. The essential Health Benefits would also go away. Insurers would be able to carve out benefits you need like Maternity Care or Mental Health care. As a woman, you might not be able to find a plan to provide care during your pregnancy unless, unless you have insurance through your employer. For people with disabilities, the a. C. A. Is obviously essential. A court that would destroy the a. C. A. Would allow for discrimination against the 61 million americans with disabilities. Let me say that again. The 61 million americans with disabilities that have preexisting conditions. Prior to the a. C. A. , it was routine that people with disabilities could not get Health Insurance coverage. Prior to the a. C. A. , if you had epilepsy or autism or spina bifida or any other disability, you could be denied coverage or be charged much higher costs. A court that strikes down the a. C. A. Will be a court that directly attacks the disability community. Thats why so many members of that Community Came to washington in 2017 and fought valiantly to uphold the Affordable Care act. They knew that their life was on the line. It wasnt just an issue for them. Their life was on the line. Prior to the a. C. A. , there were stories i have heard from pennsylvanians every day, and im sure other senators have well. Stories about people who are living with the disabilities they are facing with a serious illness or medical needs are worried about paying their bills. For so many families, this isnt an issue that were going to be debating in washington. Some faroff, abstract issue. This is real life for people. Mothers and fathers who will be worried that their children wont have the coverage that they need, that their family wont be covered, worries that if not have been eliminated have been greatly mitigated by the coverage and the protections of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care act. And we have to ask ourselves a question. As the Court Considers this case just a few days after election day, we have to ask ourselves a number of questions, but certainly we should ask ourselves will america, will the United States of america turn the clock back on insurance, turn the clock back on health care for so many millions of americans . Will we allow the federal government, either through the congress, which so far weve prevented, or through the Supreme Court or any federal court, will we allow a federal Government Entity to rob people of the protection that they got through the Affordable Care act like protections for a preexisting condition . Will we allow all of this in the middle of a pandemic, the worst Public Health crisis in a century here in america and around the world . Will we allow any agency or any official to turn back the clock on health care in the middle of a jobs crisis . Weve had doubledigit unemployment in pennsylvania for months now. The highest unemployment rates weve seen since 1983, and for a period of time this summer, the highest unemployment rates we had seen in more than 50 years. A jobs crisis in the middle of a pandemic, which has caused a lot of people already to lose their health care. Mr. President , thats not who we are, if we say were america. America at its best is the country that is always trying to make progress, trying to expand protections. And weve done that for generations. We made an advancement in 2010 when we passed the Patient Protection Affordable Care act. We cannot allow this institution, the institution of congress, or the Supreme Court to destroy that act and to undermine that american progress. Mr. President , i would yield the floor. Mr. Brown mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from ohio. Mr. Brown my favorite my favorite Abraham Lincoln quotation. One day he was in the white house and his family, his staff his staff said, you got to stay . The white house and win the war and free the slaves and save the union. And lincoln said, no, i got to go out and get my Public Opinion bath. I dont think that too many people on in this body are getting their Public Opinion baths. Theyre just not hearing theyre not seeing the pain out there. They dont seem to have absorbed that in august in my state, as an example, 600,000 people one day in august lost their 600 a month their 600 week Unemployment Insurance, just like that. In wisconsin, in rhode island, tens of thousands hundreds of thousands of people just like that, their 600 a week Unemployment Insurance expired. They didnt they couldnt find jobs. Theres massive unemployment in our states. There are people that are hurting. There are people that what are they to do . If youre just getting by on that 600 a week, the money doesnt come, you cant find a job, what are you to do . How are you to feed your families . Well, there is there is so much anger out there and frustration and futility. People are hurting. Yet President Trump and leader mcconnell refuse to do their jobs. Weve asked them for weeks, for months, come back here, help us open the schools safely, help local communities, local governments, help unemployed workers, help people that are about to lose their apartments, that are about to be evicted. Leader mcconnell says he doesnt see a sense of urgency. President trump just turns his back, makes another speech. Schools and lowincome schools cant open. Parents and teachers are under an overwhelming amount of stress. School districts and families dont have the resources for the Additional Technology or the safety precautions they need. So schools either open unsafely or schools students need to do distance learning. None of that works for people. Yet state governments, local communities are looking at massive layoffs. Small businesses close in larger and larger numbers. Leader mcconnell, President Trump refuse to lift a finger. The stock market is back up, so they seem to think everything is fine. Theyre oblivious theyre just oblivious to the families. Theyre oblivious to the families staring at stacks of bills, who dont know what to do, who have no good option. But now, after months of inaction, after months of inaction where leader mcconnell gets comes gets out of his office down hall, walks down here, makes a speech, doesnt actually do anything except confirm young rightwing judges, doesnt do anything to help people who have lost their unemployment, he walks down here through these doors, doesnt do anything to help schools open safely, doesnt do anything to prevent layoffs in state and local governments, doesnt do anything to help these Small Businesses which are closing and some now have made a decision to close permanently. But, mr. President , leader mcconnell is willing to drop everything and move heaven and earth to put another corporate shill on the Supreme Court. Leader mcconnell spent the last six months ignoring the pandemic, ignoring the economic crisis. Now he wants to pack the court, a court that is supposed to serve the American People, with another judge who always rules for corporate special interests and always rules against workers. Another judge who will take away, as senator casey said is Americans Health care in the middle of a pandemic. My state, 900,000 people have Health Insurance in my state today because of the Affordable Care act. 600,000 people because governor kasich, a governor, and i as a democrat helped to expand medicaid in ohio. 600,000 people have insurance because of that. Yet we know this court will be hearing a case to overturn the entire Affordable Care act in just a few weeks. That insurance can be gone like that. Leader mcconnell and President Trump, their special interest friends are trying to do what the American People rejected over and over they want to take away preexisting condition protections, as in pennsylvania where senator casey said 5. 5 Million People have a preexisting condition, in ohio 5 million adults, 5 Million People, essentially half the adult population, have a preexisting condition. And that was before the pandemic. So we know in this court does what its like lay to do, especially likely to do, especially if leader mcconnell and President Trump can pack the Supreme Court the way they want to with another special interest, corporate judge, we know those peoples preexisting condition protections will be gone. American health care is at stake. The American People deserve to have their voices heard. People are already voting, as senator peters said. As we speak, theyre casting ballots. These ballots should count. We know what trump and mcconnell and their wealthy friends want to do. We simply cant stand by and watch a bunch of millionaires with Good Health Care for all, all paid for by taxpayers, who still have comfortable jobs and their paychecks, while millions are out of work, we cant stand by and watch them try to take away Peoples Health care and take away their voice in their own government. Think about whats at stake. If President Trump gets his way and if the republican majority obediently obeys senator mcconnell, as they always do, and senator mcconnell down the hall obediently obeys President Trump, if President Trump gets his way and then mcconnell and then almost all of the, shall we say, spineless members of this senate, they put in place a judge that will take away the entire health care law, take away the tax credits to help afford Health Insurance, protections for preexisting conditions gone. Ohio entire Medicaid Expansion, 600,000 people, gone. The ability to stay on your parents Health Insurance until youre 26, gone. More affordable Prescription Drugs through closing the doughnut hole, gone. Limits ons how much you pay out of pocket each year, gone. In south dakota and wisconsin and connecticut, and rhode island, ohio, all over. Mammograms and bone density screenings gone. The American People said to their elected officials, dont repeal it. But now were going to have legislation from the bench. All of these conservatives on the court, they love to say were traditionalists, no, they want to legislate from the court. They want town do what this body did and then refuse to undo. Thats whats at stake. 5 million americans under age 65 5 million ohioans under age 65. Its not Just Health Care. Its the ability to vote. Its workers exprosecutes on the job. We know in packing plants in the presiding officers state, in his state, smithfield, a company, multibillion Dollar Company owned by the Chinese Communist party, smithfield had 1,200 workers 1,290some workers diagnosed with the coronavirus. The administration, the first time theyve done anything to any Company Whose workers got sick from the coronavirus, they fined this multibilliondollar Chinese Communist company, smithfield, they find them 13,000. Thats 10 for every sick person, every sick worker. Thats the kind of people youll see on the Supreme Court, protecting those companies. So the freedom to organize a union is at stake. The progress weve made on equality, on civil rights, on lgbtq equality is at stake. Whether we can bring Racial Justice through our Justice System is at stake. Womens freedom to make their own Health Care Decisions is at stake. Earlier today, one of my colleagues came to the floor not to try to help get the 600 for unemployment for people who are laid off, not to try to pass more help for our schools so they could open safely, not to get more money for testing they tried to pass yet another restriction on womens ability to get safe, Effective Health care. It is pretty clear where their priorities lie. And we know what we need to do. All americans need to speak out and share their stories. Make the people who are supposed to serve understand whats at stake for you and your family. Whats at stake by senator mcconnell,s, President Trumps inaction, no help for unemployment workers, no help for the schools, no help for the local communities, the post office, no help to run our elections safely and honestly. Tell meme whats at stake tell people whats at stake. It is the public that saved the a. C. A. In 2017. The public can do it again. For us in the senate, it comes back to one question, mr. President are we going to put money whos side are you on . Whos side are you on . Are we going to put money into peoples pockets . Are we going to help people pay the rent . Finally mobilize americas vast manufacturing talent and ingenuity to produce the tests and n95 masks and other equipment we need and buy america with these products . Are we going to get support to our schools and Small Businesses and our local communities . Or is the senate going to follow the trumpmcconnell plan which means come out of the your office, walk down the hall, open these doors, go to your chair, make a speech, try to confirm another conservative lifetime judge but dont worry about unemployment. There is a only 600,000 people in my state, there is a only millions around the country that dont know what theyre going to do because they lost their unemployment. Dont do anything about opening schools safely. Dont provide any dollars for local school districts. Dont help Small Businesses. Is that what were going to do . Is the senate going to follow that trumpmcconnell plan . But then drop everything to grab more power for our wealthy friend. People are tired of feeling like no one is on their side. Lets make sure their votes count. I yield the floor. Mr. Whitehouse mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from rhode island. Mr. Whitehouse mr. President , i stand in the distressing place of speaking after senator brown of ohio and before senator blumenthal of connecticut. But im delighted to be here tonight because the issues are so important. We are in a place in the senate that is, frankly, weird. And i dont know if people around here have gotten used to this being weird, but it is weird. It is not normal. In the senate, we have essentially eliminated legislation. We dont do that any longer. The house sends over legislation and it piles up in stocks on Mitch Mcconnells desk. We dont legislate. Maybe four or five things in an entire session of congress. Thats weird. Were a legislative body. Were supposed to legislate. Why the elimination of legislation . We have smashed through and destroyed norm after norm, tradition after tradition, rule after rule. Why is that . Do people get some perverse glee in smashing norms and traditions . Do people get some perverse glee in not passioning legislation when theyre in not passing legislation when theyre sent here to legislate . It doesnt make any sense. Then you look at the other sides 180, the 180 reversal, when they wanted to stop a Supreme Court judge, we heard about how important it was that before an election the American People get to weigh in through their votes, and you shouldnt have a nominee appointed to the court in the months before an alexander. Here we are weeks before an election and suddenly, whoops 180. Why the hypocrisy . Did someone come and do one of those hypnosis parlor tricks on people so they would suddenly dot opposite thing from what they want to do . What is the explanation for the elimination of legislation . For the smashing of norms and traditions . For the reversal of the precedent on immediately preelection confirmations . And were even seeing intense support for a Supreme Court nominee when we dont even have a nominee. Theres a phrase about a pig in a he can to. Youre not supposed to buy a pig in a poke when you havent had a look at the piglet to see whats in there. We havent seen the look at whatever to use the analogy what the piglet in the bag would be. Yet everybody is lined up to support getting that person through quick, quick, quick. Thats not normal. Thats weird. People dont ordinarily express their support for nonexistent nominees. So what explains all this weirdness . What i think explains all this weirdness is that a very, very powerful group of very, very big special interests has glommed itself together and over years, over decades has built up an apparatus specifically to control the court. Specifically. If you look at the Washington Post report on leonard leo and his Federalist Society perch and the bizarre little web of front groups that he has woven around that perch, you will see that theyve documented more than 200 million flowing through that setup. More than 200 million. So heres how it works right now. When you have a republican president , the president doesnt pick the nominee. A special Interest Group picks the nominee, the Federalist Society. Trump said so. Thats where he got his list. His lawyer don mcgahn said so. He said he was insourced from the Federalist Society. Over and over again people involved in the process say we take our judicial selection picks from the Federalist Society. When they say that, what do they mean . The Federalist Society is a corporate screen, its an entity. It does things on college campuses, has think tanks here. But what does it mean . It means the people who are putting tens of millions, hundreds of millions of dollars anonomously into that organization are getting a voice or a veto in the makeup of the Supreme Court. Theyre not even having to show who they are. And the Federalist Society does the screening for them. You dont put tens of millions of dollars into a group and not expect a result. If you give tens of millions of dollars to a university, not only do you expect your idiot kid to get into the university, but you also expect him to name a building after you. So if youre going to put that kind of money into the Federalist Society, youre going to want something for it. To say that thats not rational makes no sense at all. Its inconsistent with human behavior. And i will tell you that if you took the names off the players and asked people in this room, should anonymous special interests with tens of millions of dollars to spend be able to have a voice or a veto in who gets selected to be a federal judge or a u. S. Supreme court justice, screened through a partisan private organization, anybody in their right mind would say no, thats unacceptable. That is preposterous. Of course you wouldnt want that. If this were a liberal organization, my republican colleagues would be running around here with their hair on fire about the scandal of secret donors deciding whos going to be on the Supreme Court and masking themselves behind a front group. And its not just the Federalist Society money. Its not just the 100 million, 200 million that flow through that network. Look at the Judicial Crisis Network which runs the ads for these nominees once the Federalist Society has selected them. It gets contributions to pay for the ads. You know who pays for it . One person gave a 17 millionplus contribution in the garland vs. Gorsuch row. Somebody else just gave 15 million. I say somebody else, but do we know a somebody else, or is there a perfectly logical case to be made that the same person gave 17 million and 17 million and 15 million. Thats 50 million. You dont think that in their secret back room, wherever they arrange that, they cut a deal that they would have a veto or a voice in who got on the Supreme Court . That is a ridiculous proposition. And it doesnt end there. Once the Federalist Society has selected the nominee and once the Judicial Crisis Network has done its thing to support them with millions of dollars in tv ads and then they get confirmed, then come the Pacific Legal foundation or the washington Legal Foundation or the mountain states Legal Foundation or one of innumerable phony baloney which are supported by dark money, the anonymous money behind the Judicial Crisis Network and the anonymous money behind these groups which then bring carefully strategized cases before the judges who have been selected and campaigned for by dark money. Then the dark money groups bring the case in, and so far the five republicans on the court have been very good about lowering the standing requirements so that those cases get right in and they can hear them. And then the case is before them, and what do you see . You see a dozen phony front groups with anonymous funding all show up as friends of the court, amicus curiae they call it in court speak. I did a brief on the Consumer Financial protection board case, and we showed the common funding of the other amicus who showed up, a dozen of them funded by the same organizations. Theyre not separate. And a group called the center for media democracy took a look at our brief and graph and said we can improve on that and they put their researchers on it and did way better. They showed much deeper connections between the funders and the phony baloney amicus groups. Now what if, what if its the same small group of funders who are running money through the Federalist Society to select the judges, running money through the Judicial Crisis Network to campaign for them, running money through these Legal Foundations to tee up the right cases to bring before the judges and then running anonymous money into these, amicae. What if its the same beast . Theyre perfectly capable of doing it. With that kind of money behind it, you cant bet they will line people up in this building. And that explains the bizarre behavior. Were not seeing bizarre behavior because we have bizarre colleagues. Were seeing bizarre behavior because we have a bizarre force being applied in this whole judicial selection process. It is an apparatus. And the reason they want to do this is because if they control courts, they can make courts do Things Congress would never do. Even republicans in congress would never do the things that these special interests can get courts to do. Do you think you could get a bill through the house and senate even controlled by republicans that allowed unlimited corporate special interest spending in elections . Of course you couldnt. It would be a ridiculous proposition. People would get laughed at when they went home. There would be town meetings. People would throw tomatoes at them. But you put five of the right judges on the Supreme Court, and theyll make it the law of the land for you. Unlimited special interest funding. Sure, were for that. What a great idea. Getting rid of Voting Rights, disabling the Voting Rights act. We voted in enormous bipartisan numbers to reauthorize the Voting Rights act. It took five unelected lifetime tenured Supreme Court republican justices to say no, no, no, we know better. Racism is over. We know that racism is over because were such brilliant people up in our little preserve in the Supreme Court. They found that racism was over, we didnt have to worry about any more, preclearance didnt have to happen, could never have passed. But get five on the court, and they did it. And then of course terminating the Affordable Care act. We know that cant be done by republicancontrolled bodies because this republicancontrolled body failed to do it. So where do you go . Oh, right, to the court where we can get a 54 decision that does things that legislators wouldnt do, wouldnt hold their nose and do. And sure enough whats up . November 10, argument on the case against the Affordable Care act. And this isnt just a theory. This is real people. Ive got 34,000 Rhode Islanders who have insurance through Health Source rhode island, the market that got set up pursuant to the Affordable Care act. 34,000 who get their insurance there. Ive got 72,000 Rhode Islanders who get their insurance because we took the Medicaid Expansion. They wouldnt have insurance except for the Medicaid Expansion. I can fight in every way i can to try to protect their rights here in this building. But you go over there to the Supreme Court, over there to the Supreme Court, i should say, and five and now maybe six republican judges can decide we know better. Were going to undo the Affordable Care act and take away all their protections. And this is going to hurt. Weve got all those Rhode Islanders, weve got two of the best a. C. O. s in rhode island, Accountable Care organization set up under the Affordable Care act, new way to deliver primary care practice. They are lowering costs, improving care, they are driving down their numbers. Their patients are happier than ever. Theyre changing the way theyre doing care. They are making their patients healthier at less cost with more attention. And its a great experiment. Its going to be undone by this. Not because anybody voted for it, but because weve put, crammed with this powerful special apparatus interest behind us people on the court who will obediently do these things when you trot a dozen phony baloney amicus curiae in front of the court to all in chorus tell us what theyre supposed to do. Were a nation of 330 Million People . Were a nation of 166 million preexisting conditions. Of course were not going to throw out preeps. Even the president , while hes litigating to throw out preexisting conditions says i dont want to throw out preexisting conditions. He knows he cant get away with it. We know that its stupid, wrong, and cruel. But pack the court with people who are listening to these big special interest types, poof, go goes preexisting conditions. 11. 8 Million People on medicare have saved 26. 8 billion on prescriptions thanks to the savings in the Affordable Care act. Youd have to be nuts to take that away from seniors. But put the right people on that court over there, tell them what to do through this big donor apparatus, and suddenly boom, poof, gone. Because theyre accountable to nobody once theyre over there. Its a lifetime appointment. Bridgem and tiverton is a rhode islander. She is in her 20. She has a hip dysplasia that led to premature arthritis. She was in constant pain. In her 20s she had to have a hip replacement. Thanks to the Affordable Care act, because her dysplasia and arthritis were a preexisting condition, she was able to get her hip replaced. She is now for the first time in her life fully employed, painfree. She is happy. She is a obamacare success story. Why would you want to undo that . Because youre a huge special interest and you want things your way. Martha from cranston was uninsured. She had to have gallbladder surgery. She ran up a 60,000 bill with no insurance and had to declare bankruptcy. Thats going to haunt her for awhile because we wont let her clean up after that even if its a medical bankruptcy. But now she can get insurance for 283 a month, which she can afford, rather than over 500, which she could not afford. So she is now an insured person and doesnt have to worry about that kind of unexpected bill and bankruptcy. These are real people. And whats happening with these special interests, i just dont get it. I just dont see how it is that people in this body can say that it is okay to have huge special interests that will spend 17 million at a lick, 15 million at a lick, 10 million at a lick, secretly control who gets picked to be on the Supreme Court. In what world is that a sensible or even fair or even decent way to do business . It just isnt. It is indefensible. And yet that is exactly what is happening. And its the same special interests that fund the Republican Party. Its the same special interests that are behind the big super pacs and the big dark money spends. Thats why everybody has to hop around here, because if we say no to them on their selected nominee, then theyll say were cutting you off then. Youre all done. And when they spend tens of millions of dollars on politics, its pretty hard to tell them, well, we dont care. Were going to stand up to you anyway. Were not going to to take your money any longer. Thats the pickle were in right here. That is the mess that we are in, and weve got to fix it. And its wrong to be in this position. It is wrong to be using this space on the court to send somebody over who is going to attack basic health care that we fought for and that congress could not undo because the American People want it. And with that, i yield the floor. Mr. Blumenthal mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from connecticut. Mr. Blumenthal thank you, mr. President. Im really delighted and honored to follow my great colleague from neighboring rhode island after that feisty, fighting speech which also captured the spirit of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She was deeply concerned about the corrupting impact of money on our political system. She was a longstanding critic of Citizens United. The Supreme Court decision that opened the way for that dark money that has so corrupted our system. She was a believer in closing the gaps and loopholes because she was smart enough and curious enough to learn what the real facts are, as opposed to her colleagues on the Supreme Court who relied on the stereotypes of the political system that were outdated even when Citizens United was adopted. We live in a democracy that is threatened by exactly that dark money in every sphere of the Public Square and public office, and never more than in our judicial system because it is even less visible and more easily disguised. In part, the reason is that people pay less attention to it. Another reason may be that the amounts of money by comparison seem smaller. The amounts of 100 millions of dollars seem small compared to the billions involved in legislative or executive races, but Ruth Bader Ginsburg knew the power of the dollar, whether it is judicial selection or legislative campaigns can be deeply corrupted on a system that lacks limits. So i thank my colleague from rhode island for reminding us about part of the legacy of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, which was to stand for principle and people. The constitutional principles that animated her whole life and gave breath to her matchless advocacy. The sense of righteousness that could capture attention in a courtroom even though it seemed to be surrounded by technical legal language. She made that language accessible to Everyday Americans and she chose her plaintiffs wisely when she was arguing a case or mounting against gender discrimination, she chose a male plaintiff who was denied Social Security simply because his wife, a woman, was the one in the military. And she knew the power of hard work. Her work ethic was second to none. But her commitment to her family and most especially to her husband, marty, also a brilliant lawyer. A wonderful, warm human being, was legendary. I was really privileged and honored to know Justice Ginsburg casually and informally. I knew her warmth and compassion and caring, sometimes to her law clerks or other friends. And i was also privileged to argue three cases before her on the United States Supreme Court. I argued four as attorney general of connecticut. And i can tell you that i feared nobody more on that court because her incisive, piercing, penetrating questions cut to the core of the issue, and sometimes they actually could rescue an arguer from a radical that some other justice that drew the plaintiff or appellant or appellee down because she would go to the heart of what the case concerned. She was straight to the point. And thats why straight to the point now, we need to carry on the fight on so many of those principles. Yes, she was an icon. And a giant. She broke barriers, from the classroom to the courtroom. She demonstrated courage and conviction in her career that was unexcelled, but she stood for principle, and that is ultimately her legacy. Maybe its no coincidence, a sad and tragic coincidence that this nation has just passed the 200,000 mark in the number of americans who have died from covid19. That number is due to the administrations callous indifference to science, its cruel disregard for human life. Donald trumps selfabsorption has led to countless lies about the dangers of this pandemic. The latest and most outrageous being that it has affected nobody. Well, it has affected everyone in this chamber. Think about it for a moment. Every one of you knows someone, has worked with someone, has a loved one or friend who has been affected. A friend of mine whose children grew up playing with mine passed away five days from this virus. And yet, at this moment when we are threatened with continuing raging pandemic in this country, a Public Health crisis greater than any in our lifetime, an economic crisis that prevents people from putting food on their family table and Small Businesses going under. We are going to rush to a nominee who would decimate protection for preexisting conditions. Which, by the way, now include covid19 because covid19 does great damage, even to survivors lungs and heart and brains and other organs. Its a preexisting condition, and along with other benefits in the Affordable Care act like the ability to stay on a parents coverage for 26 for a young person up to 26 years old, all will be decimated because the Trump Administration, its in the Supreme Court and a case that will be argued on november 10 seeking to destroy it. And that protection for preexisting conditions will be gone, in part because this new justice we know is committed to eliminate it. How do we know . Because the president himself has said a strong test will be applied. And so those groups like the Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation and the other less visible ones who do the vetting and the screening for this administration, the choice has been outsourced to them. Have vetted and screened that short list and every one of them you can bet has passed that test. And the second part of that test is womens reproductive rights. Donald trump has said, another part of that, quoteunquote, strong test will be overturning roe v. Wade. Now, i was a law clerk to Justice Harry blackmun in the 19741975 term right after roe was decided. So i have lived with the efforts to overturn roe, i have fought against those efforts, i have seen the campaigns in the state legislatures, and they are even more present and threatening than ever before. The threat to roe v. Wade is very much with us. In fact, we were concerned even after the last Supreme Court decision on reproductive rights that, in fact, roe was in danger. Just three months ago, we held our breath waiting for the Supreme Courts decision. In june, Vector Services versus russo, the latest attack on reproductive rights to reach the court because we knew there was more than a chance that the court would strip women strip away those rights from women across the country. The court on the slimmest of margins upheld roe, the nay owest of legal reasoning. It was the narrowest of legal reasoning. It was a Landmark Legal victory against the radical politicians who continue to attack reproductive rights, notwithstanding roe v. Wade, but those principles of roe are now in danger more in danger than ever before. And the administration and the republican majority, instead of dealing with this pandemic, are rushing to approve a nominee who would decimate protection for reproductive rights, and there will be real consequences for real people, as there are in many other rights that would be at stake and at risk, Voting Rights, marriage equality, gun violence protections. Civil rights and Civil Liberties, protection against gender discrimination. But but the threat to preexisting conditions like cancer, Substance Abuse disorder, diabetes, kidney disease, parkinsons or pregnancy, and now for an increasing number of americans, covid, is most striking. And example is connor from ridgefield, connecticut. I have spoken about him previously on the floor. Several years ago, connor was diagnosed with due chains muscular dystrophy. Its a degenerative lifethreatening disease with no cure. He was 4 years old when it was diagnosed. His parents sought treatment. And learned it would cost tens of thousands of dollars each year, which they couldnt afford, but because of the protection for people who suffer from preexisting conditions, connor is alive today. Connor is in school. Connor is thriving. Connor is a fighter. Just as Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a fighter. Connor never gave up. Neither did Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Connor endured the harsh reality of physical illness and emotional trauma, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg reached out to people like connor and offered them hope. She reached out to women, and she inspired a whole new generation of women, and many of us know them because they are women in our families who decided to pursue a career in law because of her example. She was small in stature, soft of voice, but she packed a powerful punch, even before she was a rock star and a pop icon because she never gave up. She was a fighter. And we cannot give up now. We must fight for a process that is fair and gives the next president and the next senate the choice about the next Supreme Court justice. That was Ruth Bader Ginsburgs dying wish. We should fight for that principle because it is a matter of fairness. It is a matter of people keeping their word. In this place, there are almost no unwritten rules. There are no written rules. There are more unwritten rules, and one of those rules is people keep their word. So we need to fight and make sure that the legacy of Ruth Bader Ginsburg is upheld, that these constitutional principles that matter in the real lives of real people are upheld, and we cannot give up. And her memory should always inspire us. Thank you, mr. President. I yield the floor. A senator mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from iowa. Ms. Ernst i understand there is a bill at the desk and i ask for its first reading. The presiding officer the clerk will report the title of the bill for the first time. The clerk h. R. 8337, an act making continuing appropriations for fiscal year 2021 and for other purposes. Ers. Ms. Ms. Ernst mr. President , i now ask for a second readings and in order to place the bill on the calendar under the provisions of rule 14, i object to my own request. The presiding officer objection having been heard, the bill will receive its second reading on the next day. Ms. Baldwin mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from wisconsin. Ms. Baldwin i rise today to join my colleagues in mourning an american hero, justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. We called Ruth Bader Ginsburg the notorious r. B. G. , and we called her that for a reason. She lived an inspiring and historic life, and her advocacy and Public Service changed america for the better. As a lawyer and a Public Servant and as a woman, i owe so much to Justice Ginsburg, and i know i am not alone. I join so many women in this body and across this nation who will simply not allow for Ruth Bader Ginsburgs legacy to be diminished or disrespected. Today that means standing up and speaking out about whats at stake right now in this country. We are eight months into a Global Pandemic, the worst Public Health crisis of our lifetimes. It has taken 200,000 american souls and cost millions of americans their jobs and their economic security. Now, President Trump knew that this pandemic was deadly, and he refused to take Decisive Action early in order to control the virus. He still has no plan to this day, and he has refused to lead. He has continued to put politics over science, and he still insists the virus will just go away. In fact, this pandemic will not just go away. And in wisconsin and in states across our country, things continue to get worse. As our nation fights this unprecedented Public Health crisis, President Trump continues his efforts spanning the past four years to sabotage our Health Care System and make it harder for people to get the coverage that they want and that they desperately need. Since the president took office, more and more americans are going without Health Insurance with each passing year. More than six million American Workers have lost access to their employersponsored Health Insurance since the very beginning of this pandemic. Thanks to the Affordable Care act, they have a safety net in place that allows them to sign up for a Health Care Plan while theyre unemployed. But right now we should be making it easier, not harder, for people to get health care, and we should be building on the progress that we made with the Affordable Care act by providing Additional Support for the navigators and those who provide enrollment assistance. And we should be extending open enrollment and making sure that americans know that they have options for comprehensive coverage. But instead, President Trump has doubled down in his support for a federal lawsuit to eliminate the Affordable Care act completely, including the protections for millions upon millions of americans who have preexisting health conditions. And, mind you, a positive test for covid19 is a preexisting condition. Let me say that again. During the worst Public Health crisis of our lifetimes, President Trump and republicans support a federal lawsuit to eliminate the Affordable Care act completely, taking Health Care Away from millions of americans, including those with preexisting conditions. And that, plain and simple, is the republican Health Care Plan. Eliminating the Affordable Care act. If Senate Republicans disregard the very precedent that they set, ignore the fact that there is an election in six weeks where Many Americans are already voting, and push to fill this Supreme Court vacancy with a judge committed to furthering their antihealth care agenda, it will mean the end of the Affordable Care act and the end of guaranteed protections for people with preexisting health conditions. Just like that, our nation will be thrust back to the time when the Insurance Companies wrote the rules, when a cancer diagnosis or diabetes or asthma meant Insurance Companies could drop e. R. Coverage, charge you astronomical premiums for the coverage, or, worse, could decline to cover you at all and leave you with a bill. Ive stood in this chamber and told story after story of wisconsinites who depend upon the Affordable Care act and are worried about what a future without it might look like. Stories of mothers who lie awake at night wondering how they will be able to afford lifesaving procedure for a child, stories of fathers who dont know if theyll be able to afford the insulin that a son may need. I have shared my own story. As a 9yearold, i got sick, really sick. I was hospitalized but ultimately i fully recovered. But then i was denied Health Insurance for much of my youth because i had been labeled as a child with a preexisting health condition. These stories are real, and there isnt a senator in this body who hasnt heard one or dozens or hundreds of stories just like this from their own constituents. I implore my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to listen to your constituents now. Justice ginsburg was one of the deciding votes to Save Health Care each time it had been challenged in the Supreme Court. She was one of the deciding votes on case after case threatening a womans right to make her own Health Care Decisions about her own body. Justice ginsburg was protecting our health care and womens reproductive freedom, and she bore the weight of that for the last years of her life through her own battles with cancer. She fought for as long as she could because she knew what was at stake. Justice ginsburg has earned the right to rest now. And my deepest condolences go out to her children, her grandchildren, her family, her friends for their loss. I urge my republican colleagues not to diminish her tremendous contributions to our nation and not to respect her decades of service by casting aside her dying wishes and their own precedent in forcing through a nomination with only 42 days before the election. I urge my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to instead of suing in court to overturn the Affordable Care act, work with us on a real Health Care Plan, work with us to protect quality, Affordable Health care that American Families need. Thats why were here. My promise today to my constituents and my colleagues is that i will not stop fighting to Save Health Care for millions of americans. This is the fight that brought me to Public Service in the first place. And i will not stop now. I will keep working to protect access to quality, Affordable Health care for all, and i will keep fighting on behalf of the many, many wisconsinites who depend on it. I yield the floor. Mr. Murphy madam president . The presiding officer the senator from connecticut. Mr. Murphy thank you, madam president. Madam president , the Russian Federation has a constitution, and if you read russias constitution, youd know that russia is a democracy. Why . Because their constitution guarantees the existence of a vibrants, multiparty political system. The russian constitution prohibits the use of extra judicial force or torture by the government. Their constitution says, and i quote, censorship of the media is prohibited. Russia is a democracy, if you read their constitution. But russia isnt a democracy, of course. It is a dictatorship, one man rules. No one has the right to dissent. There is no freedom of the press. All of that is under the penalty of death. Why is this . Well, its because democracies arent made by their founding document. Because the document is just a piece of paper, parchment in our case. With words written on it. And these words are just that theyre words. Democracy doesnt work unless its leaders choose to follow the words that those words proscribe but also operate in the spirit of the values that undergird those words. Municipality putin would probably tell you that technically Vladimir Putin would probably tell you that technically russia adheres to its constitution. Thats not true. But what putin has done over the years is to slowly erode the democratic system by using every single inch of discretion allowed to him by that constitution, to make democracy functionally impossible. He will he say that censorship doesnt exist because there isnt a explicit censorship law. But hes used every mechanism available to him to make sure there is no room for the independence of the press. Something stunning happened here four years ago. A Supreme Court vacancy arose due to the death of Justice Scalia. The constitution says is that a new Supreme Court justice cant be seated unless he or she gets an affirmative vote from the senate. And every single nominee at least those who werent withdrawn by the president , essentially got a vote from the senate before 2016. Because, you see, the Founding Fathers didnt actually require the senate to vote. They didnt because they assumed that leaders of good faith would, of course, fulfill that responsibility to hold a vote. They never considered that the senate might stretch its discretion under the constitution so broadly to refuse to consider a nominee simply because they didnt like the president who made the nomination. The founders, they didnt actually micromanage democracy. They set these broad rules and they trusted that we would all act in good faith toward each other and with a patriotism toward our nation. In filling in the details. But thats not how 2016 went down. Senate republicans said they were setting a new precedent. When a nomination is made in a last year of a president s term, the senate shouldnt act on t the senate in that case, the republicans said, should wait for the outcome of the election and let the president who wins make the selection. What senator mcconnell and senator graham have said is pretty definitive. It is well covered. But there were lots of Senate Republicans who are still here who were equally definitive about the rules they were establishing. For instance, the senior senator from florida said i dont think we should be moving forward on a nominee in the last year of a president s term. I would say that if it was a republican president. That was the rule that republicans repeated over and over and over and over and over and over and over. And they are not telling the truth if they try to spin it differently, and we all know this. And so you may ask, why does it matter that they werent telling the truth . Why does it matter that republicans didnt honor their word . Why does it matter that theyre willing to bend the rules no matter the promises theyve made in the past whenever it suits them in order to gain political advantage . Well, its back to the bet that the Founding Fathers made. They didnt anticipate a moment like today when truth doesnt matter, when lying is normal, when honor is dead. They left us a bunch of wiggle room in the constitution knowing that we had to treat each other well, with respect, with a concern for precedent in order to have a functional democracy. Senator alexander said if his statement the other day that nobody should be surprised that republicans are going to confirm a Supreme Court nominee before the election notwithstanding the fact that the election has already started and it also wipes out the precedent that they just claimed was so sacred four years ago. That statement is really revealing. Whether he meant it or not, what hes saying is nobody should be surprised by now that republicans are just willing to do whatever it takes, even making up complete fabrications like a new rule against confirming justices in an Election Year in order to accumulate more power. And thats a really dangerous place for this body to head, because the constitution does provide all sorts of room to push that document to its limits, to dispense with all fairness and honor and fair play and to just seek power no matter the cost. I know this sounds silly, but its not. Theres nothing in the constitution that prohibits the Majority Party in this body from, for instance, denying all staff to minority members. Theres nothing stopping the Majority Party from banning all Minority Party members from speaking on the floor. And once you dont care about fairness, once you can just change precedent on a dime just to accumulate power, then theres really no end. I get it that in comparison to russia, it seems a little towered, tortured, strained but this is how democracy false apart. When your word means nothing, when you can count on, when no one can count on anyone to stay true to what they say, when knee nihilism trumps patriotism, there are new rules in the senate now. This breaks the glass like nothing else did before it. Finally let me ask this, to what end . Why is it so important that republicans so nakedly grab for power and reset the senate rules, rules that were so important four years ago . Well, it is not coincidental that the case that the Supreme Court is due to hear days after the election is a case that has to do with something that republicans have been trying so desperately and unsuccessfully to do for ten years repeal the Affordable Care act and end health care for 20 million americans and protections against rate gouging for 130 million americans with preexisting conditions. It is worth repeating this. I know my colleagues have said this before and they will say it after, but if republicans are successful in appointing an antia. C. A. Judge to the Supreme Court, and President Trump has made it clear he is not putting anyone up for the Supreme Court that isnt willing to strike down the Affordable Care act then we will have a humanitarian catastrophe on our hands in this country. Because days after the election, a case is to be heard that will be heard by that new justice that asks to invalidate the entirety of the Affordable Care act. Not in pieces, not over time. Immediately, the whole thing. That is 25 Million People losing access to health care, medicaid and the state and federal exchanges. In the middle of a pandemic. Think about that. Think about 25 Million People, the equivalency of Something Like 10 to 15 different states all losing health care right off the bat. When covid is raging in this country. As senator baldwin said, covid is a preexisting condition. We are just learning what it does to your body, but it may ravage it. And ultimately everyone in this country who knows they have covid or finds out about it through antibody tests down the line will have their rates jacked up if the Affordable Care act goes away. Spare me the talk of a replacement coming. Ive been in this body long enough to know that there is no replacement coming. Republicans have been talking about it for ten years. The Affordable Care act will be invalidated by this court with this new nominee. Nothing will replace it. Millions of people will lose their health care. And the reason that this nomination is being pushed through is, yes, because republicans care about power more than anything else. But also to make sure that the court around the corner from here does what the American People wouldnt let congress do. Remember, congress could not repeal the Affordable Care act because the people wouldnt let congress do it. But nobodys going to be fooled about this end around. By the time this nominee comes before this body nobody is going to be mistaken about the consequences for Americans Health care. I know, madam president , that a lot of people think democrats are foolishly naive. How could we be surprised by this treachery, this aboutface of precedent on Election Year confirmations when republicans have been changing the rules of the senate for five years. First it was the denial of a Supreme Court nominee, never happened before in American History. Then the restriction of debate on judges and political appointees so nobody could actually see how wildly unqualified the people donald trump was appointing to office were. Then the end to blue slips so more radicals could be put on the benchl. One power grab after another, so yes, we probably should have seen this coming and we probably should have known that a party so committed to ending Health Insurance for 20 million americans would do anything to make that happen. But i was naive. I still had hope. I still believed that honor was alive nblg place. Alive in this place. I still thought when people said things they meant it and they would stick to it. I still thought that we could save the senate. And i believe in my heart that republicans are going to rue the day that they made nakedly clear that a senators word means nothing, where this place is simply a vehicle to compile as much power as quickly as possible no matter the cost. American democracy is not just the constitution. Its us. Its the decisions we make every single day. Its the way we treat each other. Its the decision as to whether we care about our word mattering. And this month as it stands tonight democracys flicker just got a whole lot duller. I yield the floor. A senator madam president. The presiding officer the senator from massachusetts. Ms. Warren thank you, mr. President , madam president. Trailblazer, icon, titan, notorious r. B. G. Those are just a few of the words that describe the honorable Ruth Bader Ginsburg who passed away last friday. But there is another of Justice Ginsburgs titles that i will always hold dear friend. As a young mother and a baby law student at Rutgers Law School, i had almost no examples of female lawyers or female law professors. And like so many young women who were trying to do something as seemingly outlandish as going to law school, it was a really lonely undertaking. Ruth was one of the few women that we could see, a woman who had made it and even better a woman who was fighting for other women. As i arrived at rutgers, ruth had left rutgers for columbia law school. But rutgers was a small family, and all the women and all the men knew about her. She was putting together the womens rights projects at the aclu to give her a way to fight for equality in the courts. Her sharp legal mind and stubborn determination were already legendary, and we were sure she would change the world. And she did. I am forever grateful for her example. To me and to millions of young women who saw her as a role model. I am also forever grateful that she made real change, Opening Doors that had remained stubbornly closed. Justice ginsburg may have been tiny, but she stands among the greatest fighters for justice our nation has ever seen. She turned every barrier into an opportunity for change. And when she became the second woman in our nations history to sit on the Supreme Court, she continued her fight for justice, blazing a trail for womens rights, laying out the framework for protecting our democracy, and helping to secure justice for the most vulnerable. Ruth Bader Ginsburg changed the world, and i will miss her. While i mourn her loss, i also hold close one of the things i loved most about ruth. She was a fighter. We honor her memory by fighting for the things that Ruth Bader Ginsburg fought for during her long career, a womans right to make decisions about her own body, health care for millions of americans, dreamers who have made a home here, Voting Rights, lgbtq rights, workers rights, union rights, making our nation a place where no one is more likely to be murdered or imprisoned or discriminated against because of the color of their skin, how they worship, or who they love. Yes, its a long list. Ruth defended it all. And now she is gone. And because she is gone, these rights and values are all on the line. Vulnerable to being snatched away by another rightwing tilt of the Supreme Court. Justice ginsburgs replacements will determine who the highest court in the land works for. Women and sick kids and workers and immigrants or billionaires and giant companies and rightwing politicians who want to shrink our democracy in order to stay in power. Ruth left our nation a note before she died, and her words were clear. She said that her most fervent wish was that her replacement not be named until a new president is installed. Now, senator mcconnell has already told us how to deal with the death of a Supreme Court justice in an Election Year. A justice whom senator mcconnell treated with respect in 2016 Justice Scalia died a full 269 days before the president ial election, months before any american would be able to cast a vote. But in 2016, that didnt matter to senator mcconnell and his republican hench men. They locked arms and insisted there could be no confirmation until after the next president had been elected and sworn in. Now in 2020 the world is evidently different. Senator mcconnell has made it clear that the practice he used when Justice Scalia died would not be used when Justice Ginsburg died. On the very same night that Justice Ginsburg passed, Mitch Mcconnell an announced that he and donald trump would move immediately to name a new Supreme Court justice despite the fact that voting is already underway across the country and there are only 42 days before the election is completed. Democrat or republican, the American People know that is not right. Democrat or republican, the American People know that treating a Supreme Court vacancy as an opportunity for a naked partisan noholdsbarred power grab is burning down the pillars of integrity that support our senate, our courts, and our democracy. Democrat or republican, the American People will judge these choices for what they are shameful. If this feels personal, thats because it is. Ruth ginsburg was a personal hero for me and for millions of other women. Ruth ginsburg was a woman who never let any man silence her. The most fitting tribute to her is to refuse to be silenced and to name exactly what donald trump and Senate Republicans are trying to do steal another Supreme Court seat. This kind of sleazy doubledealing is the last gasp of a Desperate Party that is undemocratically overrepresented in congress and in the halls of power across our country. The last gasp of a corrupt Republican Leadership numb to its own hypocrisy that doesnt reflect the views of the majority of americans or the values that we hold dear. The last gasp of a rightwing billionairefueled party that wants to hold onto power a little longer in order to oppose its extremist agenda on the entire country. And if Mitch Mcconnell and the Senate Republicans ram this nomination through, it is our duty to explore every option we have to restore the courts credibility and integrity. Every option to expand our democracy, not shrink it every option to ensure that working single parent and a millionaire Corporate Executive have equal justice in our courts, and every option to ensure that all americans are represented in our institutions. The list of what is at stake if republicans get their way and their extremist agenda finds a home in the nations highest court is truly staggering. Ruth Bader Ginsburg voted to protect the health care for millions of americans in a 54 decision. Health care was saved for millions of people. But in the midst of a Global Pandemic with more than 200,000 of our loved ones dead from a virus raging out of control, Mitch Mcconnell and Senate Republicans want to install a justice who will rip that Health Care Away. The Supreme Court will hear arguments just days after the election on whether the Affordable Care act should be overturned. If Justice Ginsburg is replaced with a mcconnelltrump choice, the 54 decision that saved health care by a single vote could be overturned. That would strip away protection from anyone with preexisting conditions. It would tell people with diabetes or high Blood Pressure or cancer, people who have had strokes, people who have had hundreds of other diseases, conditions, and events, youre on your own. No protection from an Insurance Company that just wants to cut off your insurance policies. It would let Insurance Companies charge women more simply because theyre women. It would end the requirement that Insurance Companies cover young people up to the age of 26. It would gut medicaid. And if you are one of the millions of americans who has had covid and survived, well, gutting the a. C. A. Would allow Insurance Companies to deny coverage because of it. Covid could become more preexisting condition. Three years ago, Mitch Mcconnell couldnt get the votes to repeal the Affordable Care act, even in his own republicancontrolled senate. And why . Because this is not what the American People want. They want access to health care and protection for people with preexisting conditions, but Mitch Mcconnell and donald trump have a plan b, a plan to advance their rightwing agenda, even if most americans dont want it, and mcconnell and trump seem to think that if they can steal another Supreme Court seat, they will get it. And there is more at stake. Ruth Bader Ginsburg voted to protect the rights of all women to make their own decisions about their bodies. Just a few months ago in another 54 decision, Ruth Bader Ginsburgs vote was crucial to the Supreme Court overturning a louisiana law designed to make it harder for women to access abortion care. Trump promised to appoint a Supreme Court justice who will overturn roe, and his two Supreme Court picks have already delivered, agreeing to let louisiana restrict a womans right to choose. 19 states now stand ready to gut abortion protections if the Supreme Court overturns roe. And now senator mcconnell and Senate Republicans want to hand them one more justice so they can get the job done. Ruth Bader Ginsburg also voted over and over for the principle that american citizens should have an equal right to vote and an equal voice in our democracy. She issued a scathing dissent in Shelby County versus holder. The Supreme Court decision overturning the part of the Voting Rights act. As the pandemic continues to sweep the nation, the Supreme Court has blocked attempts to make it easier for americans to safely cast their vote. Just in april, a 54 decision with Justice Ginsburg dissenting, the Court Reversed a lower federal courts decision to expand the deadline for absentee voting in wisconsin by six days. Republicans know that to stay in power, they need to make it harder for all americans to participate in the democratic process, and they want a Supreme Court justice who will be committed to rolling back Voting Rights for decades to come. Ruth Bader Ginsburg understood the threat that climbing poses to our childrens and our grandchildrens futures. She joined in the opinion in massachusetts versus the e. P. A. , another 54 ruling, which required the e. P. A. To regulate Greenhouse Gas emissions from automobiles. The Trump Administration and Congressional Republicans have actively rolled back regulations that keep our air clean and our water safe, and they are committed to putting another justice on the Supreme Court who will help advance their antienvironment agenda and block any government attempts to tackle the dangers of climbing. Ruth Bader Ginsburg understood the importance of protecting the rights of workers to join together and fight for fair pay and working conditions. In epic systems versus lewis, she joined the minority in a 54 decision, dissenting from the courts ruling that employers can ban workers from joining together to demand protections against wage theft and other abuses. A Supreme Court justice handpicked by trump and mcconnell could turn back the clock even more on workers rights. Throughout her life, Ruth Bader Ginsburg fought for justice and equality for all americans, and now americans across this country are following in Justice Ginsburgs footsteps. Americans are speaking out and demanding change, and they are voting. With a pandemic raging out of control thanks to the incompetence and the corruption of donald trump and his republican enablers, with a battered economy and millions of people out of work, with americans across the country calling for an end to the systemic racism that has cut short the lives of countless black men and women, americans understand now more than ever that this years elections will determine the direction of our nation for generations to come. Today, ruth is gone, but her lifes work endures. She will honor her with action and channel our grief into change. We are at the cusp of a brighter day in our nation, and this is the moment we must tap into the reserves that we didnt know we had. We tap into the reserves bequeathed to us from fighters we have recently lost like Justice Ginsburg, and congressman Elijah Cummings and congressman john lewis, and from the knowledge that we cannot, we will not leave our children worse off. Three years ago, i watched our nation rise up in the face of impossible odds and defend health care when donald trump and Mitch Mcconnell wanted to strip away care from millions of americans. We face those same odds today as we again fight to protect the health care of those same americans and to protect so much more. But i have hope because i know that this is a righteous fight, and i know that millions of other americans are also in this fight. Before she died, ruth gave us our marching orders. Do not fill this Supreme Court seat until after the election when the next president is installed. We have our call to action. We honor her legacy by continuing the fight for justice, for equality, and for dignity. The fight for a world where we finally make those words equal justice under law real. And now id like to spend just a little bit of time focusing on Justice Ginsburgs legacy by reading just a few of the statements by her that really stood out to me as i reflected on her work. At a 2012 symposium to honor the 40th anniversary of Justice Ginsburg being hired as the first woman with full tenure at columbia law school, two of Justice Ginsburgs former clerks, abby gluck, and jill yn metzger, now both law professionals themselves, had a conversation with their former boss. They asked Justice Ginsburg how she ended up working with the aclu which became a major part of her legendary career, and she began her answer by discussing the time that she lived in sweden. Heres what she said. My eyes were opened up in sweden. This was 1962, 1963. Women were about a quarter of the law students there, perhaps 3 in the United States. It was already well accepted that a family should have two wage earners. A woman named eva moburg wrote a column in the stock home daily paper with the headline why should the woman have two jobs and the man only one . And the thrust of it was, yes, she is expected to have a paying job, but she should also have dinner on the table at 7 00, take her children to buy new shoes, to their medical checkups, and all the rest. The notion that he should do more than take out the garbage sparked debates that were very interesting to me. Also, in the months i spent there, a woman came to sweden from arizona to have an abortion. Her name was sherry finkbein. She had taken thalidomide and there was a great risk that the fetus if it spiefd would be terribly deformed. So she came to sweden and there was publicity that she was there because she had no access to legal abortion in her home state. Well, that was at the start of the 1960s. I put it all on a back burner until the late 1960s when the Womens Movement came alive in the United States. My students, then at rutgers, asked for a course on sex discrimination and the law. I went to the library, and inside of a month, i read every federal Court Decision on gender discrimination. No mean feat at all because there were so few, so very few. Also, i had signed up as a volunteer lawyer with the aclu of new jersey, more because it was a respectable way of getting litigation experience than out of ideological reasons, i will admit. Complaints from women began trickling into the office. New kinds of complaints. For example, women who were schoolteachers were required to leave the classroom the minute their pregnancy began to show because, after all, the children shouldnt be led to think that their teachers swallowed a watermelon. Anyway, these were women ready, willing, and able to work but forced out on socalled maternity leave, which meant youre out, and if we want you back, well call. Another group of new complainants were women who had bluecollar jobs and wanted the same Health Insurance package for their family that a man would get. A woman could get Health Insurance for herself, but she wasnt considered the breadwinner in the family. Only the man got family benefits. And just to indicate the variety, there was a wonderful Summer Program at princeton. The National Organization for women complained about it. Princeton had already become coeducational. The Summer Program was for students at the end of sixth grade. It was a summer in engineering program. The children came on campus. They had an enriched program in math and science. There was just one problem. It was for boys, not for girls. I should also mention one other complainant. Addie seldon was her name. She was the best tennis player in her teaneck, new jersey, high school, but she couldnt be on the varsity team. There was no team for girls, and although she could beat all the boys, she couldnt be on their team. So all this was under way. People were lodging complaints. They were either too timid to make before or they were sure they would lose, but in the 1970s, they could become winners because there was a spirit in the land, a growing understanding that the way things had been was not right and should be changed. Yeah, they brought those complaints, and Ruthie Ginsburg is one of the people who helped make those changes. As we all know, Justice Ginsburg went on to become one of the fiercest advocates for womens rights our nation has ever seen. On the Supreme Court, Justice Ginsburg became famous for her dissents. She was asked about this, and i think her response is worth sharing. You can let out all the stops when you are a he a dissenter. I would distinguish two kinds of dissent. Theres the great dissent written for the future age, the brandeis and holmes free speech dissents are exemplary. They are the law of the land today. Another kind of dissent aims to prompt immediate action from the legislature. The Lilly Ledbetter case is a recent example. I should tell Lilly Ledbetters story because some of you may not know it. Lilly ledbetter worked as an area manager for Goodyear Tire plant. She was hired in the 1970s, then the only woman doing that job, and was initially paid the same as her male colleagues. Over time, her pay slipped. She might have suspected it, but she didnt know for sure because goodyear, like most employers, didnt give out its wage records. One day she found a little slip in her box at the plant. It listed the salaries of the men employed as area managers. Compared to ledbetters salary, the disparity was startling. As much as 40 . In the years of her employment at goodyear, shed done a pretty good job, earning satisfactory performance ratings, so she thought she had a winnable case. She filed suit and won in the district court, gaining a substantial jury verdict. On appeal, goodyear argued that ledbetter sued too late. She should have sued within the 180 days that title 7 days, within 180 days of the discriminatory incident. So if you count back from the very first time her pay slipped, that would have been back in the 1970s. The Supreme Court agreed that her claim was untimely, which meant the jurys verdict for damages was overturned. My dissenting opinion pointed out that a woman in ledbetters position, the only woman doing a job up till then done only by men, doesnt want to rock the boat. She is unlikely to complain the first time she suspects something is awry. She will wait until she has a secure case. My opinion suggested that if she had sued the first time her paycheck was lower, had shed found out about it, she probably would have lost because the excuse would have been, she doesnt do the job as well as men. But after 20 years, that argument cant be made with a straight face. By then, she has a winnable case. The courts answer she sued too late. She argued that every paycheck renewed the discrimination, and i agreed. My dissenting opinion concluded, the ball is now in Congress Court to amend title 7, to say what i thought congress meant all along. Within two years, the Lilly Ledbetter fair pay act was passed. It was the first piece of legislation signed by president obama. The audience to which my dissent appealed was congress. Congress picked up the ball with a little help from many groups that prodded the legislators to amend title 7. A reminder that Justice Ginsburg used all of her tools to make change. And speaking of dissents, in 2014, Justice Ginsburg was asked about the worst ruling this Current Court had produced. Her unambiguous answer foreshadows the dangers we face today. This is what she said. If there was one decision i would overrule, it would be Citizens United. I think the notion that we have all the democracy that money can die strays so far from what our democracy is supposed to be. So thats number one on my list. Number two would be the part of the Health Care Decision that concerns the commerce clause. Since 1937, the court has allowed congress a very free hand in enacting social and economic legislation. I thought that the attempt of the court to intrude on congress domain in that area had stopped by the end of the 1930s. Of course, health care involves commerce. Perhaps number three would be Shelby County, involving essentially the destruction of the Voting Rights act. That act had a voluminous legislative history. The bill extending the Voting Rights act was passed overwhelmingly by both houses, republicans and democrats everyone was on board. The courts interference with that decision of the political branches seemed to me to be out of order. The court should have respected the legislative judgment. Legislators know much more about elections than the court does. And the same was true of Citizens United. I think members of the legislature, people who have to run for office, know the connection between money and influence on what laws get passed. And one last note. Almost a year later Justice Ginsburgs opinion hadnt changed. Let me read from a New York Times report about the remarks she delivered at duke law school. An expanse of her remarks on wednesday evening, justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg named, quote, the most disappointing, close quote, Supreme Court decision in her 22year tenure, discussed the future of the Death Penalty and abortion rights and talked about her lover of opera and a passing interest in rapp music. The courts worst blunder was its 2010 decision in Citizens United, quote, because of what has happened to elections in the United States and the huge amount of money it takes to run for office. She was in dissent in the 54 decision. The evening was sponsored by Duke University school of law and Justice Ginsburg answered questions from kneel s. Seagull and from students and alumni. She suggested that she was prepared to vote to strike down the Death Penalty saying that the capital Justice System is riddled with errors, playinged by bad lawyers and subject to racial and geographic disparities. She added that she despaired over the state of abortion rights. Quote, reproductive freedom is in a sorry situation in the United States, she said. Poor women dont have a choice. That was our Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Concerned to the very end about how law affects all of the people it touches. Ruthie, we will miss you. Madam president , i yield the floor. The presiding officer the senator from washington. Ms. Cantwell madam president , i come to the floor tonight to join my colleagues to honor the life of justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Before i do, though, i would like to first of all thank my colleague from massachusetts for reviewing the many legal decisions that Justice Ginsburg had been involved in and their significance. And im so glad to be out here tonight as you took time in her perspective on the importance of those cases. Definitely need to remember that these decisions, these words set the stage for so many things to come for the American People and for working families. Thank you for that. But before i do, i wanted to say just a word about savannahs act, which is, i can tell you, Justice Ginsburg would probably be happy that the house and previously the senate has previously passed savannas act, legislation that helped move forward on changes to Law Enforcement that would better protect missing and murdered indigenous women. This legislation originally sponsored by my colleague, heidi heitkamp, and lease is murkowski, most recently sponsored by senator murkowski and senator masto and myself, i believe is on its way to the president s desk, and im hoping that the president will sign this important legislation as soon as possible. Indigenous Women Deserve to have the same rights and same protections under the law, but they need to have people who are tracking these heinous crimes that are happening because they are the victims of these crimes at a much higher rate than the general population. Ask you yourself, well, how can that be . When you think about these women being abducted and murdered and missing, you have to have Law Enforcement who are going to follow these cases, track individuals, track the court process, and this is what better protocols, better statistics and a better system is going to do with the passage of savannas act, is give us those tools that we need for inch dith us in women. I thank all of my colleagues for helping us with the passage of that legislation and on its way to the president s he candom of i again hope he will sign it as soon as possible. Ms. Cantwell so i join my colleagues tonight to come here and honor the life of justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. As many people have said tonight, what an unbelievable hero she was, a trailblazer, a deep thinker, the things that she did on the court to do so many important things for the rights of americans. I think of her when i first met her in 2001, i just came to washington, d. C. , my first year here in the United States senate, and just happened to go to a play at the shakespeare theater here near the capitol and had seats right next to her in the theater. And i had probably already heard about her and knew of her, of course. Her great significance even in 2001. But during the play, i noticed just as i do in a dark situation oftentimes fall asleep a little bit, and i thought, wow, i dont know. This woman is so petite and so tiny, and i had heard that she had been sick. I had literally sat there in the dark concerned for her future. Well, what a lesson about Ruth Bader Ginsburg because that was 2001, and in 2020 she was going strong. This is not a woman to ever, ever, ever underestimate. She took her tools and applied them for the betterment of american women and American Society overall. And people across the United States of america are reeling from her passing because they want to know whos going to stand up for their rights now that shes gone. Theres something about that diminutive figure with so much might and wisdom that succeeded on that group of a court with all those men and had the courage and the tenacity to read her dissent in the Lilly Ledbetter legislation from the bench, the unusual move of saying, i might not have the decision i want today, but, by god, youre going to listen to what is wrong with gender inequality in america, and we are going to get on a path to fix it. When i think about that, that unbelievable moment that in her quiet, soft voice set the stage that we heard our colleague, senator warren, talk about tonight, its pretty amazing. Because thatsia we need to have women in these places. We need to have them so you have the voice of diverse think to tell you what its like. And i guarantee you, when she said that statement, i dont ask anything from my brethren other than to get your foot off my neck i guarantee you she knew what that was like, and that is why she says it with such conviction. And thats what she represented. Thats what she represented as an icon to so many people, and now they are mourning. Ive had 2,000 calls in just a few days to our office about her passing. One constituent, lynn from shelton, washington, said, quote, im old enough to have grown up experiencing the subtle and notsosubtle discrimination aimed at girls and women that have limited our selfexpression, our participation in sports, in politics, college, accessibility and workplace and even in family life and reproduction. She continues, its been slow progress for each of us for achieve increased equality and so we have so much to thank Ruth Bader Ginsburg for. Im deeply saddened and frightened by her passing. As you know, our democracy, freedom, integrity, and the rule of law are threatened and are even at greater rick. End quote. Ilene wrote, Justice Ginsburgs fought so violentant lay for our rights as valiantly for our rights as women. As women we provide so much for the washington economy. I agree with her. Women provide a lot for our economy in the state of washington. She continues, quote, i am a Business Owner myself, and i am terrified that gender protections are in grave danger. Ensuring Civil Liberties is not just the moral thing to do, but it makes sound Economic Policy as well. Allowing more people more opportunities does not take away from those with power, but it grows our economy as a state and as a country and allowing all of us to be more prosperous together. That includes reproductive rights, which is the keystone to allowing women full Economic Opportunity as men men, end quote. You know, i have to say that letter basically just sums it all up. That is what the fight with Lilly Ledbetter was. And i thank Lilly Ledbetter. I thank Lilly Ledbetter for having the cucialg to file that case having the courage to file that case and stand up to that discrimination and basically fight a long process that people dont understand, we do not have pay equity in america yet. We still are not making the same amount as men. Ruth ginsburg made a decision that set the course for the Lilly Ledbetter law, which is just basically saying instead of saying our time to file a case for discrimination runs out after a year, when we dont even know weve been discriminated against, we should have a longer period of time to file that case. So all were going to get is our day in court. But i thank both Lilly Ledbetter and Justice Ginsburg for that because they were women standing up in an incredible environment with men surrounding them and speaking truth to power about what needed to happen for, as my constituent says here, for full Economic Opportunities for all people. I cant tell you how many men i have heard say i want equal pay for women. I want equal pay for women because i want my wife to make a decent salary. I want her to bring home as much as she can bring home. I dont want her discriminated against. And yet, when Justice Ginsburg set us up for the Lilly Ledbetter legislation, and we came here to the senate floor, i heard the most unbelievable speeches here on the senate floor. Colleagues of ours basically said things like well, if you will just be as qualified as a man, well pay you as much as a man. The disconnect still exists. The pay equity still exists. But the course of action has been set by Justice Ginsburg, and we have just got to pick up the torch and carry this to the finish line because its good for our economy. It is good for our society. It is good for women to have the type of participation that when you are paid equally to a man, you can continue to contribute in society. Two thousand people have written to me already. Its unbelievable what she has done to touch the hearts of americans. A father from bellingham wrote, quote, mostly i mourn for the future of my fouryearold daughter. The prospects of women losing their right to choose and an erosion of gender equality is frightening. End quote. And another constituent, katie, wrote, quote, even though the air this morning looks relatively clear again in seattle a little reference to all our fire and smoke she continues, our future is foggier than ever. While i mourn the death of Justice Ginsburg, i cannot help but feel tremendous anxiety about the future of existing laws in effect that protect all peoples rights from legal abortions to access to health care to laws that protect our votes and our freedom of speech and laws that Justice Ginsburg protected. Thats really whats going on here in america, this movement about r. B. G. Is you stood up to protect us, and now youre gone, and what is going to happen . Definitely a pause in this for a little comment about our senate schedule. I dont get it. We can sit here and argue back and forth about what people said when and how and all of that. What i dont understand, it takes time to review the record of someone for a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court in which these important issues to working families, and whether they have as much power and as much clout and as much standing as a corporation in america, people want to know where they stand. And somehow people are already talking about schedules. I dont understand. Like how can you decide what the schedule is when you havent even heard the name of a person . How do you move forward with a schedule when you dont even know . Maybe this person is going to end up being harriet miers. Maybe youre going to look at their record and say its Harriet Meyers and i dont want to move forward because i decided this is not the jurist i want at this point in time. All im saying is i dont understand how somebody can set a course of action in and a schedule when you dont even know who the person is, what the process is going to be or the length of time. You are setting a horrible precedent. Youre suggesting to people that it doesnt even matter what the name is. You already have a schedule. It doesnt matter how long its going to take to review. So very hard here to not have frustration when my citizens have fought so hard for these rights, and Justice Ginsburgs passing has upset them so much that they need to hear from us about how a fair and deliberative process, the last wishes of Justice Ginsburg are going to be honored. So, mr. President , i would like to add for the record the full dissent that was read from the bench from Justice Ginsburg in the Lilly Ledbetter case. The presiding officer without objection. Ms. Cantwell in that dissent, Justice Ginsburg said, quote, the problem of concealed pay discrimination is particularly acute where the disparities arise not because the female employee is flatly denied a raise, but because male counterparts are given larger raises. Having received a pay increase, the female employee is likely to discern at once that she was experienced an adverse employment decision. She may have little reason even to suspect discrimination until a pattern develops incrementally and she ultimately becomes aware of the disparity. End quote. Again, i think of what bravery Justice Ginsburg showed in saying to our colleagues that believing dissent was so important to read it from the bench. Not everything in the legislative or Legal Process is easy. It takes bringing awareness to our colleagues, and clearly theres a lot of awareness that needs to continue to happen here. Working families and their desire to have health care, coverage for preexisting conditions, protection of reproductive rights, and hundreds of thousands of dreamers wanting to know what the future looks like, and obviously lgbtq rights and whether they are going to be set back. I think of the other time that i had a great interaction with Justice Ginsburg. You know, when i also first got here, we did this dinner every year. My colleague from hawaii will find this interesting. We in the senate would be invited, democrats and republicans, to have dinner with the Supreme Court. It was a great night. We would go over to the court. Wed have dinner. Actually the justices would open up their offices, and we could tour around. I thought it was really interesting, because if you know anything about people, you can almost see how their mind works by the desk they keep. Some people keep a messy desk but they know where every piece of paper is on the desk. Other people have very neat desks. The whole thing. They let us into their chambers, talking about the decorum of the Supreme Court, how they shook hands every day, how they all worked with each other to try to keep comity among the decisions when youre going to disagree every day. It was just very interesting. We usually had some entertainment. But you know, it was kind of a moment where we all said were in this together and were going to keep moving forward. And several years later, im not even sure whose decision it was. I think maybe around 2000 im not even sure what year it was, what year, they disbanded that. They decided were not doing that anymore. I asked, why arent we doing this . This was like one of the greatest things weve done around here, because democrats and republicans would get together with the members of the court and other people relevant to our associations, and we would share a meal and talk and say that this was about civility and working together. Obviously very divided branch as it relates to the senate and the judiciary, but nonetheless. So i so appreciated the fact that even though that was disbanded, Justice Ginsburg invited the women for dinner. She invited the women senators to come over for dinner, and i think we might have invited a few of our excolleagues. I think olympia snowe, former congresswoman from maine might have been there. So we invited some of our old colleagues. And it might have been dinner for a newly added justice to the court. But nonetheless, guess what we got with dinner . Great opera. Great opera. In fact, she had, i think, two singers there that evening and san and entertained us. Its that kind of spirit of people working together and showing that, i think that was probably what her relationship was withant with scalia. It was probably yes were not always going to agree but were going to Work Together and were going to figure out how to make the best of this situation and move forward. So so i remember that even though this thing has been disbanded, she still took the time, at least with the women, to say, you know what . We can all still Work Together. So whoever said that statement, good things come in small packages, they had it down when they came to Justice Ginsburg, because nbltions very small package in that very small package came a lot of wisdom that got applied to the rights particularly of women in the United States of america with a calm but forceful voice that has moved this ball down the road. It is up to all of us to continue her legacy and get equal pay for equal work and continue to protect these rights that are well established in the United States of america. I thank the president , and i yield the floor. And my thoughts and prayers are with the ginsburg family. A senator mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from hawaii. Mr. Schatz thank you, mr. President. We know that on saturday the president is likely to announce his nominee for the Supreme Court, and we dont know who thats going to be, but we do know a couple of things. We know, according to the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, that they already have the votes. And what an extraordinary thing to already know how youre going to vote on a nominee who has not yet been nominated. What an extraordinary thing to turn advise and consent into agreeing in advance. What an extraordinary thing. Theres another thing that we know about this nominee. No matter who it is, we know that this person is going to come from a list provided by the Federalist Society. An organization that has worked for decades to remake the federal judiciary in its image. It has a long history of advancing a certain agenda, seeking to roll back progress on civil rights, diminish environmental protections, and eliminate a womans right to choose. Its an organization that believes in the power of executive authority and advances a particular unique, novel theory called the unitary executive, something that Alan Dershowitz proffered on the senate floor during the impeachment trial, which essentially says that the executive branch is the president , that extensions of the president s authority can only go so far because the president is a whole branch of government unto himself or herself, and the Federalist Society also fights for the corporations and the rich individual donors that quietly fund their work. As amanda hollies reskey, a professor who studies this organization from a nonpartisan academic perspective said, the idea of the Federalist Society was to train, credential, and socialize a generation of alternative elites. And thats how we know that any nominee they put forth will have used so far out of the mainstream and far from the right of even the existing Supreme Court. And so its not a rhetorical flourish, its not a partisan statement to say that trumps nominee will not be committed to ensuring our most basic and fundamental rights the right to privacy, reproductive rights, the right to vote, the right to marry who you love, and even equal justice under the law. Perhaps whats most worrisome is that the president has made clear that whomever he nominates to the Supreme Court would be in favor of striking down the Affordable Care act, that the Court Hearing yet another challenge to the a. C. A. On november 10. Its not an exaggeration to say that the law will likely be gutted. It is a real risk. And lets be clear about what this means. The whole architecture of our Health Care System could be destroyed during the worst Public Health crisis in a century. This will, of course, disproportionately impact our most vulnerable communities, communities of color, low income, indigenous alaska natives, and native hawaiian communities. Were talking about repealing Medicaid Expansion, the policy that allows people under the age of 26 to stay on their parents Health Insurance, and most importantly protections for preexisting conditions. Now, lets be clear about this, too. If you got covid, you now have a preexisting condition. So if you got covid because of President Trumps inaction and if his nominee is confirmed to the Supreme Court, your Insurance Company will be permitted to kick you off of your Health Care Plan, or at least increase your rates so high that you cant afford coverage. Ripping away health care from at least 20 million americans and denying coverage to people with preexisting conditions is a crazy and horrific thing to do in normal times, but its particularly cruel during a pandemic thats already claimed the lives of more than 200,000 americans, especially because despite the recent promises and despite the endless promises from both the president and members of the Republican Party, they have no alternative Health Care Plan. We cannot and must not impose this catastrophe on the American People. Mr. President , moments where our country feels torn apart, the traditional role of the senate was supposed to be to calm tensions and solve our problems, but instead of dealing with the tough issues, the majority leader and the Republican Party are going to inflict procedural violence on the legislative branch. Many republicans preannouncing their support for their nominee without even knowing who she or he may be. Quote, President Trump will nominate a wellqualified justice and will uphold our constitution and our freedoms. Senator from montana, quote, i will support President Trump in any effort to move forward regarding the recent vacancy. Chairman of the Judiciary Committee it is critical that the senate take up and confirm a successor before election day, junior senator from texas. What makes this coordinated effort to stack the Supreme Court even worse is that we have heard the majority leader say specifically that he felt no sense of urgency to move on covid relief. He felt no sense of urgency to move on covid relief. This, i believe, was may. I think it was may when the house passed the heroes act. The house passes a bill, republicans say its too much. The majority leader decides, you know what . Were the cooling of the saucer. Were the upper chamber. Were just going to chill out here during this pandemic and see how things play out economically and in terms of Public Health. Well, things have played out pretty badly economically and in terms of Public Health. And yet, no sense of urgency. No deal, no negotiation. Forget a deal for a second. Not even a serious attempt to negotiate between the parties, between the branches of government, nothing. But when the Supreme Court vacancy happens when Justice Ginsburg tragically passes, a tremendous sense of clarity, a tremendous sense of alacrity, a determination to fill that seat so that on november 10, they can take your Health Care Away. That is the sense of urgency that the majority leader feels in the middle of a pandemic, and it is a shame. I yield the floor. The presiding officer under the previous order, the Senate Stands adjourned until 10 00 a. M. Tomorrow. Adjourn