Transcripts For CSPAN2 U.S. Senate U.S. Senate 20220908

inaudible the senate will come to order. The chaplain, dr. Barry black, will lead the senate in prayer. The chaplain the presiding officer let us pray. O rock of our salvation, you alone are our hope for the years to come. Because of your mercies, you have given us the gift of this day. You have been our help in ages past, and we place our future in your hands. Lord, forgive us when we do things our way, refusing to submit to your holy will and seeking to derail your wise and powerful providence. Remind us to seek first to stay within the circle of your divine purposes for you are god and we are not. Today, use our lawmakers for your glory. Give them the unity they need to accomplish your will. Guide them with your wisdom. We pray in your matchless name. Amen. The presiding officer please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance to the flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. The presiding officer the clerk will read a communication to the senate. The clerk washington d. C, september 8, 2022. To the senate under the provisions of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable christopher murphy, a senator from the state of connecticut, to perform the duties of the chair. Signed patrick j. Leahy, president pro tempore. The presiding officer under the previous order, leadership time is reserved. Mr. Schumer mr. President. The presiding officer the majority leader. Mr. Schumer now, mr. President , four words are inscribed in the stone above the United States Supreme Court equal justice under law. Equal justice under law. In many ways the story of america has been about making those words true for all americans. Sometimes we take bold steps forward. Other times, unfortunately, we take disturbing steps backward. We all know when the constitution was written there was not equal justice under law. Thats pretty obvious. So many people were excluded from voting and other rights. But we have tried to move forward, and thats one of the beautiful things about america. We keep moving forward. We push. But unfortunately today america finds its in one of those frightening moments of regregs. Of regression. Months ago tens of millions of women saw their fundamental rights taken away before their very eyes. Justice thomas in a concurring opinion suggested that other rights, like the freedom to marry protecting owe oberfeld might come next. The senate has a responsibility now to act. Because of this threat the senate will hold a vote on the respect for marriage act in the coming weeks so that no american is discriminated against because of whom they love. My colleagues, senator baldwin, sinema, and others, have worked for months to build bipartisan support for this legislation. I applaud them for their efforts. I hope that well get at least ten republicans to join us to pass Marriage Equality through the senate. If the respect for marriage act can win significant republican support in the house, theres no legitimate reason for republicans in this chamber to stand in the way. Over the past few weeks weve heard many on the other side say, well, this vote isnt necessary. They say Marriage Equality is not something americans spend a lot of time thinking about anymore. They want us to believe that the Supreme Court would never do something as reckless as reversing the precedent of Marriage Equality that millions have relied on for years. Well, where oh where have we heard that before . The very same people who suggested that roe was established precedent now want us to think that the Supreme Court wont go further, even though a sitting justice on the highest court on the land openly said something to the contrary, and hes often joined by four others. Mr. President , lest we forget, Marriage Equality was not the law of the land a decade ago. Discrimination against lgbtq Americans Still continues to this day. Now, maga republicans have escalated their rhetoric against samesex marriage and want to normalize gender discrimination. Maga republicans seem to make it their business to pick on certain groups, not to do things that are positive and move things forward, but to point their fingers at someone and blame them for some abstract reason that really doesnt hurt them at all. Thats where this Republican Party, unfortunately too many of them are headed, led by these maga republicans and often fomented by former President Trump. Earlier this year, heres what im talking about, this isnt pie in the sky, the texas republican gop earlier this year even adopted a Party Platform this is of the largest republican state in the country, the one with the most congressional did he go gatt, congressional delegates, congressional representatives, the texas gop adopted this year a Party Platform that said, quote, homosexuality is an abnormal lifestyle choice. Let me repeat that. The largest republican state in the country, its Republican Party captured by maga fervor, absurd fervor, said homosexuality is an abnormal lifestyle choice. Just yesterday we know just yesterday a judge said that employers can deny access to medication if they believe it would encourage hoam homosexuality. And we all know that these maga republicans and their ilk led by leonard leo with dark money moved the courts to move america backward. Moved the courts to move america backward. And thats what happened yesterday with this judge coming up with this absurd, obnoxious, despicable resolution. I trust that that radical view of that judge and of that texas gop is not something many of us embrace here in this chamber. But we cant act as if our fundamental rights will stay safe if we arent willing to safeguard them through legislation. If were going to let these maga judges, rightwing, appointed by leonard leoened a the federalist society, if were not going to let them move america backward, then we have an obligation to act. So let me make clear that a vote on Marriage Equality will happen on the senate floor in the coming weeks, and i hope there will be at least ten republicans to support it. On the related subject obviously of judges, today the senate will continue fulfilling its constitutional duty to confirm more judges to sit on our federal judiciary. Its really been a productive week here on the floor when it comes to judges. Yesterday we confirmed john lee to serve a lifetime appointment appointment, the first Asian American to sit on that court. Today well confirm andre b. Under President Biden. More than President Trump, more than president obama and president bush had at this point. Its a great record. Were proud of it. And we arent done. Later today we will work on our Third Circuit court judge of the week, salvador mendoza jr. To sit on the ninth circuit. Members should expect to vote on his confirmation as early as the beginning of next week. Moving forward, it will be one of our Top Priorities to confirm as many judges as possible. Its one of the best things we can do with our time here on the floor. Especially given how many magatype judges President Trump and the republican majority appointed. The lions share of legal disputes never make it to the Supreme Court, giving those who preside in the lower courts immense power to affect the lives of the American People. And, of course, when they get it wrong, as they have all too frequently recently, the results can be disastrous. Just yesterday, a hardright judge in texas, as i mentioned, stripped away americans rights to access Preventive Care. Over 150 million americans could now be at risk of losing everything from Breast Cancer screenings to free vaccinations, Mental Health assessments, and so much more. Add that to the previous case i mentioned before, and you can see that judges are out of control. Far away from what most americans want, fostered upon us by the Republican Senate majority, President Trump, and a small band of rightwing maga billionaires. In the long rung, long run, this decision could mean more people could get sick or die needlessly because they cant afford Preventive Care to stay healthy. That is the kind of thing that is at stake when it comes to judges. Its a frightening reminder of the difference between our side and the maga hard right, the extreme maga hard right. The hard right remains obsessed with stripping away peoples rights to Affordable Health care. Its dangerous, its malicious, its wildly out of step with the American People. Democrats want something different. We want to protect Peoples Health care, not destroy it. We want judges who will preserve long established precedent, not obliterate it, who will move us forward on our fight to equality, not take steps backward. In the coming weeks and months, we will maintain a laserlike focus on confirming judges who will do the kind of things that must be done in america. I yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call of the heritage foundation, warmer acting assistant secretary in the Treasury Department string to trump administration. Good morning to you both. Its great to be with you. Its great to have you both. I want to start with the latest jobs report from friday and trying to understand a lot of the numbers in these reports. 315,000 jobs added in august, a Labor Force Participation rate that picked up 3. 3 . Average earnings of 3 and is were in a recession, cracked . Explain whats going on. We might not be in a recession. The first two quarters of the year had negative gdp. We are not yet finished with the Third Quarter and this quarter might not show a decline in gdp. We might a gdp growth, no windows. The important thing is not whether were in a recession but whether we policies of Sustainable Growth and with policies to increase employment. Thats what we need to focus on rather than these details are in a recession or not. Host whats most important number from this report we got on friday and is . First of all i was very happy with the large numbers of jobs created because that shows we might not be an recession right now. I was also very happy with the increase in Labor Force Participation rate because we are about one percentage point below where we were before the pandemic. Thats about 3 million workers. We have 11 million unfilled job so we really need those extra workers who want to come into the workforce in order to alleviate some of the supply chain. Host dean baker, the most important number in your mind from that report . Guest i think i agree larger with diana. The Participation Rate is a big deal because many of us have been looking at that wondering why people were not coming back into the labor market. I dont want to get into dirty stuff but oftentimes we do two separate service, one to employers home and job stooge and the other two household, were you working. They often diverge and it did the verge a lot in the spring so we are creating 300, 400,000 jobs a month but finding no more people are saying they were working. A lot of us were saying thats weird. That was largely corrected with the august numbers and thats a really good story. In terms of where we stand in Labor Force Participation, we are all getting older, the baby boom generation is moving into their retirement. Economists tend to look at what we call prime age workers, between 2554 and we 54 and were back to where we were in terms of Labor Force Participation before the pandemic. Our peak before the pandemic was a little higher but right now we are above the average for 2019. We dont have story of a lot of people missing. We are missing more people, people are working later in her life and thats a good thing. This is a great report. If you just looked at that snapshot into wheres the economy in august, that 3. 7 unemployment near 50 year low, hireling force participation, good wage growth, not crazy. In other words, not inflationary, it was really a great report. Host by the way we are all about nerdy stuff so dont be afraid to talk about nerdy stuff. What brought people back for the late force participation and how many more workers do you think can be brought back here . Guest just to be clear, i dont think the was a big change in august. I i did a blog post on this, we see times where you have the Household Survey show either large increases or large decreases and Labor Force Participation that dont correspond to anything in the economy. We dont seem to be creating more jobs. We dont seem to and prior months i should say or the economy doesnt seem the growing facet of the times you see drops that dont make sense and thats what we saw in the spring. I dont think theres a question we just saw a lot of people come back in august. I think that was a quirk in our survey. Its good news. You have to work with the data you have, but i dont think that was his big change in august. For whatever reason that survey was understating Labor Force Participation. Guest could be because of the increase in prices can increase inflation come people feel a little squeezed. Theyre running down their savings. Some of the might feel the need to be back in the labor force. And with covid going away some parents might feel as though they could get back in the workforce, go back to work and be confident that kids wont be suddenly pulled out of school. Which was a big issue for a lot of parents not wanting to have both of them go back. Host inflation, a topic we talked about for months here, are we headed in the right direction . When will we get that next report to tell us where we are on inflation . Guest the next report will come out september 13 and we think that inflation is going to show downward progression because Energy Prices are a large share of the Consumer Price index, and gasoline prices went down this month. Were hoping to get good news on the inflation front. People of course are concerned about what chairman powell is going to do around the 21st when he announces the increase in the federal funds rate and most people think hes going to raise the federal funds rate by 75 basis points which will exert even more downward pressure on inflation. Host the lead story in todays wall street journal, the fed sets the path for another. 75 rate increase and the vice chair of the fed signaling that seems to be on the way. Dean baker, on that and what it means for inflation right now. Guest i took the more ambiguous because she did say they would be look at the data. So in other words, they have decided. Based on your comments, i have no inside knowledge there looking for another rate hike but she made it clear they would be looking at the data, the cpi report the diana referred to coming out next tuesday. Like her i think that would be very close to zero. Its possible to be negative because its not just were seeing falling gas prices. Gas prices plummeted, down 25 of last two and half months so theyre getting back to more normal levels. We are seeing some drops in food prices, beef prices have been dropping, milk prices have been dropping. Then all the supply chain problems that led inflation earlier this year. Those are getting larger and resolved. Shipping costs are plummeting. The backlogs at the ports are largely gone. Retailers are reporting lots, their complaint. They will have to include sales. I dont follow a closing notes i dont know what walmart is doing and target any other big retailers but they are complaining about it. Whether that shows up in august or not im not sure. We are going to see it showing up soon. I should mention car production. The Federal Reserve board puts out monthly data on our production and its data for july which is the most recent month we have shows we were somewhat above prepandemic levels. Most people realize we had a real shortage of autos because of the auto and semiconductor problems in japan. We need semi conductors for autos. We seem to be getting back online. We are likely to see auto prices at least not rising if not actually falling in the coming months. We are looking at a situation where a lot of the problems that created inflation earlier in this recovery are going away. Whats the fed going to do . I mean, i dont take for granted it will be. 75, i can going what vice chair brainard said, that she is very where they could go too far too fast and it might be i think they would be wise to be cautious here because were not in a recession. Its kind of nuts as they were in a recession, greeting to hundred thousand jobs a month, but if you keep raising rates they surely can put us in a recession. Host let me invite viewers to join this discussion, about 50 minutes in. It will be an hourlong discussion as were talking about the economy, about manufacturing and the United States. Diana furchtgottroth is our guest from the heritage foundation, the director, former acting assistant secretary in the top administration. Dean baker from the center for economic and policy research. Its 2027488000 for democrats to join. Republicans its 2027488001 and independence 2027488002. As folks are calling in dean baker on what to come back to a comment you made about the problems that cause inflation in the first place. I want to be clear. What do you think is a bigger problem that caused inflation in the first place, supply chain issues because of covid, because of the war in ukraine, or do you think its the amount of money that has been pumped into the u. S. Economy because of Covid Recovery and covid stimulus . Which one of those two things were a bigger cause of inflation . Guest i would say it was supply chain. Again, almost philosophical story, if we didnt have the demand, the boost to the economy from the cares packages and then President Bidens recovery package, well then that would have been inflation thats probably true. We wouldve had a bad recession but that would have been inflation because people couldnt afford to buy anything. So thats true. On the other hand, if we had the same spending but we didnt have the supply chain disruptions, to my view we wouldve had some inflation but nothing like what we saw. The overwhelming story was the problem that we had with the supply chain disruptions is part of the reason for my saying this. We look at the rest of the world. England has a higher inflation rate. Europe is about the same, some countries higher, some countries lore. It was just our big stimulus packages, economic support packages, that wouldnt explain whether having comparable inflation in england, europe, other countries. I think covid and the war in ukraine is the overwhelming part of the story. Guest we had accommodation from the fed pick the fed was saying inflation was transitory. In the First Quarter of 2021 the economy was growing around 6 , and yet we had massive additional stimulus. So all that was throwing fuel on the fire. It exacerbated the supply chain issues, john, because people were being paid to stay home at the same time as employers wanted them back in the workforce. They wanted him to come back because demand was picking up and yet they couldnt find anyone because they were being paid to stay home by another round of stimulus checks. I think its clear looking back that we did not need that march 2021 massive multiple trillion dollar package. And the reason that there has been inflation all over the world is because there has been great monetary accommodation by the bank of england, European Central bank as well as the Federal Reserve. Its not Just Supply Chain but we see that the fed now with this positive jobs report now has the ability to raise another. 75 basis points of they can feel confident they can do that, still preserving their option without driving the economy into recession. The first jobs report is more evidence that the fed will rais. Host bring in callers for the both of you as were about 20 minutes in to this hourlong economic roundtable this morning. Nelson in hollywood, florida, is a frozen on the the line, republican. Good morning. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. I really just have a couple of questions for your guests. Im 73 and its my understanding the percentage of workers who are in the working age years is a lowest in history of the country. Something like 64 of those who would normally be working and that is one of the reasons why there are so many jobs that are unfulfilled. I am wondering if this mr. Mcconnell mr. President. The presiding officer the republican leader. Mr. Mcconnell i ask consent further proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Mcconnell first this morning, the senate and the American People are watching the news regarding our friends in the United Kingdom and the health of their beloved Queen Elizabeth. The queen is an exemplar of steady leadership and a beloved figure around the world. Shes been a historic friend of the United States. The decades of her reign have seen a profound deepening of the special relationship between our two countries that has literally changed the world. The queen, the royal family, and all our friends in the United Kingdom have our thoughts and our prayers. On a completely different matter, ive been talking all week about the ways that liberal policies hurt American Families in their daily lives. After two years of total democrat control in washington, weve seen how reckless spending comes home to roost in the form of decadeshigh inflation and shrinking paychecks for working americans. Weve seen what happens when one of our two Major Political parties decides in its rhetoric and its personnel and in its policies, keeping our streets safe, our borders secure, and criminals behind bars are simply not their priorities. And despite multiple glaring Cautionary Tales both at home and abroad, were seeing the Early Warning signs of our democratic colleagues hostility to an alloftheabove American Energy strategy. In europe, some of americas closest allies are reaping the painful effects of years of shortsighted green policies, by swapping affordable and reliable domestic power for halfbaked fads, our friends have placed themselves at the mercy of Vladimir Putin to meet demand ahead of another cold winter. Working families and Small Businesses are taking this tradeoff on the chin. I saw one shop owner in ireland explain shes just had to pay almost as much for two months of electricity as she did throughout all of last year. Unfortunately, millions of americans can sympathize. An estimated 20 million u. S. Households are behind on their energy bills. In california, state and local democrats have wasted no time taking things even further, even further in the wrong direction. Democrats have made californias electrical grid into a giant experiment to try out all of their misunderstandings about energy policy. Its not going well. With hotweather demand surging, california authorities are sweating political shortfalls of up to 5,000 megawatts. Californias love affair with fickle, unreliable green energy could force its residents to put up with rolling blackouts just to conform to wealthy liberals preferences. The government had to send out an emergency message begging citizens to ration power. Ironically just weeks after announcing a future ban on gaspowered automobiles, the state is now begging folks not to charge their expensive electric cars to avoid crashing the grid. So California Democrats dont want you putting gas in your car. They dont want you to plug in your car either. Thats exactly where their war on energy would lead the American People, going nowhere fast. President bidens secretary of energy, secretary granholm literally said a week ago, quote, california is in the lead, in the lead, and can show the rest of the nation how its done. So, mr. President , at home and abroad our democratic colleagues have been given sobering warnings of whatnot to do on energy. Theyve seen what happens when you wage war on abundant fossil fuels, abandon Nuclear Power and go all in on the least, the least Reliable Energy sources. But this alldemocratic government has spent two straight years running head on toward these bright red flashing warning signals. Theyve frozen new Domestic Energy leasing, canceled new pipelines, and reinstated a maze, a maze of red tape designed to strangle entire domestic industries. As gas prices skyrocketed on President Bidens watch, his administration approved less new oil drilling than any since harry truman was in office. Our democratic colleagues have doubled and tripled down. Last month while they rammed through their reckless taxingandspending spree, they voted lock step against american policies that would have shored up American Energy and rebuild our independence. Europe, enthralled to putins gas supply, california talking about rolling blackouts, exactly what further warning to our democratic colleagues actually need. Now on another matter, in january 2019, a bipartisan supermajority of the senate voted for an amendment i authored warning that the precipitous withdrawal of United States forces from afghanistan could put at risk hardwon gains and United States National Security. Two years later senior experts and advisors repeated the same warning to President Biden. His own experts made it clear that a hasty retreat from Counterterrorism Operations in afghanistan would lead to the collapse of the afghan government. Those warnings of course fell on deaf ears. 13 american servicemembers died fulfilling the Biden Administrations rush to evacuation. The taliban now rules again in kabul, as it did before u. S. Forces arrived. Now one year on from last augusts disaster, the devastating scale from the fallout of President Bidens decision has come into sharper focus. Afghanistan has become once again a global pariah. Its economy has shrunk by nearly a third. Half of its population is now suffering critical levels of food insecurity. Afghan women and girls have had their rights to work, attend school, and live independently torn away under taliban rule. And just as we feared, just as was predicted, afghanistan is again becoming a serious haven for terrorists. The recent American Strike that took out al qaedas leader, zawahiri, is a credit to decades of work by the professionals of our intelligence community. Ah, but the fact that a terrorist kingpin felt comfortable in kabul months after americas withdrawal is a damning condemnation of the Biden Administrations unjustified confidence that the taliban could be trusted not to lay out the welcome mat for our most consequential terrorist enemies. The strike was a success, but the underlying fact that President Bidens policies led this top terrorist to set up shop with impunity right in downtown kabul is a colossal failure. In fact, just weeks before the strike that killed zawahiri, when the administration already knew full well that the taliban government and senior terrorists were harboring him, the Administration Still, still released another hardened terrorist from guantanamo and returned him into the talibans waiting arms. So al qaeda is rebuilding under the patronage of the taliban and haqqanis. There is no question that it is becoming much more difficult. Senior Administration Officials have acknowledged our intelligence about the growing threat is drying up. So is our ability to combat it. And the damage, the fallout isnt limited just to afghanistan itself. Americas reckless abandonment has done lasting damage to the Coalition Partnerships that had made our operations there so successful. President biden showed americas allies we couldnt be trusted or reasoned with, and he showed our adversaries the weakness of our resolve. Theres no question in my mind that russian, chinese, and iranian leaders watched us retreat from afghanistan and of course were emboldened. I advised three consecutive president s not to withdraw from afghanistan. Three of them. I believed a small residual presence was sustainable, would help us keep pressure on the terrorists, and protect us here at home. General frank mckenzie, centcom commander during the withdrawal has said repeatedly that he voiced the very same view to President Biden. But even now, a year after the president s orders were carried out, the Biden Administration continues to shirk accountability and responsibility. In fact, their happen hazard scramble of the airlift was not a success, it was ale failure. The fact that over a year later, the Administration Still cannot account for who they brought into our country while both americans and vulnerable afghan partners remain in afghanistan as we speak, is not a success. Its a failure. President biden has rejected frack particularly every part of his predecessors agenda, foreign and domestic, but he pretends he was powerless to offer the previous administrations after the previous administrations doha agreement to pull out of afghanistan. The one time that President Biden decided the previous president had it right. Of course the truth is that President Biden wanted to withdraw from afghanistan. He campaigned on it. According to public reports, he spent the he did he pushed ahead. Senate republicans have continued to press for accountability, will continue to pursue answers to tough questions about why the Biden Administration ran head first head first into this national embarrassment. And just as importantly, well keep pushing to rebuild americas military, both to meet major flets from russia and china and to defend the terrorist challenges President Biden had left to fester. I suggest the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call mr. Thune mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from south dakota. Mr. Thune mr. President , are we in a quorum call . The presiding officer we are. Mr. Thune i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be lifted. The presiding officer without objection, morning business is closed. Under the previous order, the senate will proceed to executive session and resume consideration of the following nomination, which the clerk will report. The clerk nomination, the judiciary, andre b. Mathis, of tennessee, to be United States circuit judge for the sixth circuit. The presiding officer the senator is recognized. Mr. Thune a month ago yesterday, Senate Democrats pushed another bill inaccurately named the Inflation Reduction Act. It will do nothing to reduce inflation. The socalled Inflation Reduction Act will not actually reduce inflation and you dont have to take my word for it. The nonpartisan penn what theon model penn wharton model said this, it is indistwishable from zero. End quote. Democrats also claim that the bill will lead to deficit reduction, but thats not really true either. In the first place, democrats arrive at their deficit reduction assumptions using extremely fuzzy math. A substantial part of their deficit reduction claims depend on not extending a program they already called for extending. And on supposedly eliminating a rule that at this point was never going to be implemented anyway. Even using their rossieest rosiest assumptions, it was wiped out eight days after the president s costly, reckless student loan giveaway. Mr. President , democrats have clearly been seeing the polling on the americans opinion of the economy and their lack of faith for President Biden and democrats to deal with the economic challenge were facing, thats why the democrats named it the deficit reduction act in an attempt to suggest fiscal responsibility. The problem, of course, is that their commitment to deficit reduction, inflation reduction and fiscal responsibility was and continues to be nothing more than window drefg. Add its at its core, the Inflation Reduction Act like the socalled rescue plan before it is another Big Government, big spending piece of legislation. It will do nothing to address the real economic challenges facing our nation. Instead it will waste taxpayer dollars on democrats Big Government fantasy, will drive up energy costs and the service of the Green New Deal agenda and it will push people into governmentrun health care, driving up the cost to taxpayers. The legislation imposes socialiststyle price controls that will reduce the number of new treatments an cures. It opposes new taxes on businesses that will slow Economic Growth and result in lower wages and fewer jobs. And the list goes on. Mr. President , in case there was any doubt about their intentions with this bill, democrats made their priorities very clear when the Senate Considered amendments. Democrats socalled Inflation Reduction Act hikes taxes on domestic oil and Gas Production, something in a will unquestionably result in higher Energy Prices for American Families who are already facing highenergy bills in the biden economy. During the amendment vota rahma on this legislation votearama, democrats made it clear they are fine with restricting american reduction and seeing Americas Energy bills soar. They did not ease tax hikes. They rejected amendments to make it easier for companies to develop american oil and gas. They also rejected a comprehensive amendment to avoid the burdensome permitting processes which is one of the biggest obstacles to new energy investment. They rejected an amendment for the new electric tax credit from going to wealthy americans. So apparently its just fine to support measures that would drive up Americans Energy bills but electric vehicle tax breaks for wealthy americans have to be preserved. Not to mention the irony of u. S. Automakers recently hiking prices on certain electric vehicles by 6,500 to 8,000 which roughly matches the 7,500 tax credit in the democrats inflation reduction bill. Now, mr. President , ive been a longtime supporter of clean energy, but the fact of the matter is Clean Energy Technology has not advanced to the point where we can solely rely on alternative energy. We need oil, we need natural gas and we will continue to need them for a while yet. And efforts to discourage Domestic Production of Domestic Energy will drive up energy costs for hardworking americans and force our country to rely on unstable foreign sources of oil and gas. Now, that may very well be the democrats plan in hopes of hastening the arrival of their Green New Deal future. But, mr. President , democrats like to build themselves as the party for the little guy, but their track record gives the lie to that. Democrats couldnt bring themselves to support measures to lower Americans Energy bills by increasing domestic oil and Gas Production because it inflicts with their Green New Deal ideology. And they did all unite to protect a Tax Deduction that mainly goes to wealthy measures in hightax states. And to make sure, as i mentioned, that wealthy americans are able to access tax credits for electric vehicles, and of course they opposed a measure to have audits for americans making less than 400,000. Thats right. Democrats legislation includes tens of billions of dollars for new i. R. S. Agents and increased audits. Democrats hope is that more audits of americans will help spend for spending measures like the Green New Deal priorities. The Biden Administration put out a statement claiming that this wouldnt mean increased audits of americans making less than 400,000 a year. But when democrats had the opportunity to confirm that by supporting an amendment that would have prevented the new enforcement funds from being used to audit americans making less than 400,000 a year, they unanimously unanimously voted against it. Mr. President , i could go on. I havent even talked about the Border Security amendments that democrats opposed. Republicans thought that perhaps while democrats were throwing money at Environmental Justice and climate slush funds and identifying gaps in free canopy coverage, perhaps they could spare money for the crisis at our sou southern border than democrats have chosen to pretend doesnt exist. Democrats quashed any attempt to address money for the border crisis. Apparently identifying gaps in tree canopy coverage is more important than securing our southern border. Democrats went so far as to oppose oppose an amendment that would have prohibited hiring additional i. R. S. Agents until additional cuss tom and Border Agents are helped to hire and secure the border. Mr. President , im pretty sure americans are more worried about our border crisis than what democrats apparently think is an i. R. S. Enforcement crisis. But clearly democrats dont want to let Border Security get in the way of funding for the Green New Deal priorities or super sizing the i. R. S. Mr. President , it may have an appealing name, but as the substance of the bill demonstrates, the socalled Inflation Reduction Act is nothing more than the latest installment of democrats big spending agenda. It will do nothing to address the real economic challenges facing americans and it will do nothing to address americans priorities. What it will do is spend hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars on democrats socialist, big Big Government fantasies and raise taxes to help pay for it. Meanwhile, our inflation crisis and our border crisis and rising crime will continue. Mr. President , i yield the floor. The presiding officer the senator from vermont. Mr. Sanders thank you, mr. President. Mr. President , i rise this morning to express my strong opposition to the socalled side deal that the fossil fuel industry is pushing to make it easier for them to pollute the environment and destroy our planet. But before i do, let me put my opposition to this disastrous side deal into a broader context. Mr. President , as the father of four kids and the grandfather of seven, i very much wish that i did not have to say what i am going to say. But the most serious challenge facing our country and the entire world far and away is in fact the existential threat of Climate Change. That is not the opinion of bernie sanders, who failed physics in college. That is the, what the Scientific Community is telling us in a virtually unanimous voice. The latest report from the United Nations and the Governmental Panel on Climate Change, the ipcc, is very clear and it is very foreboding. If the United States, china, russia, and the rest of the world do not act extremely aggressively in cutting Carbon Emissions, our planet will face enormous and irreversible damage in fact, the world that we will be leaving to our kids and to future generations will become increasingly unhealthy and uninhabitable. Thats not bernie sanders. That is the virtual unanimous conclusion of the scientists who study this issue. But the truth is we dont need the scientists or another study to tell us whats happening. We see it with our own eyes here in the United States and all over the world. The American People today, and people throughout the globe, are seeing the devastating impact Climate Change is having on their communities and their families with their own eyes. That is what they are seeing right now as i speak. And, please understand, and maybe the most important point i want to make this morning is that everything being equal, what is happening right now will become worse and worse and worse. This is not oh boy, we had a torrential rain. Oh boy, aint it hot . Everything being equal, what we are seeing today will become worse in years to come. Lets just take a brief look at whats happening right now in the United States and around the world. The past eight years have been the hottest years in recorded history. Right now the western half of the United States is experiencing its worst drought in over 1,200 years. Right now in california, nevada, and utah, they are experiencing recordbreaking heat waves, historic rainfall and devastating floods took place over a fiveweek stretch this summer in eastern kentucky, eastern illinois, st. Louis, missouri, death valley, california; and dallas, texas. These are supposed to be a onceinathousandyear torrential rainfalls, and were seeing them coming all together within a few weeks. Right now europe is experiencing its worst drought in over 500 years. And lets remember, when we talk about drought, its not only boy, is it hot, it impacts Agricultural Production and the quantity and quality of food that we eat. Mr. President , a massive heat wave in spain and portugal killed more than 2,000 people in july. Historically hot weather in london and china literally melted bridges, airplane runways, and rooftops. Let me repeat that. The extremely hot weather in london and in china this summer literally melted bridges, rooftops, and airplane runways with all of the consequences that that has. Mr. President , recordbreaking forest fires in europe have already burned 1. 6 million acres of land, 56 more than the previous record set in 2017, and that is a size that is over eight times bigger than new york city. Recordbreaking drought in china has caused parts of the yangzhi river to completely dry up. The yangzhi river is the thirdlargest river in the world. It is the source of Drinking Water for 400 Million People. Catastrophic rainfall and massive floods have been going on for weeks in pakistan, killing at least 1,200 people and displacing another ten million as onethird of pakistan is now under water. And if all of this is not sobering enough, its not frightening enough, a glacier in antarctica that scientists is dubbed the doomsday glacier has been in Rapid Retreat and is melting much faster than previous predictions. Without in glacier and its supporting ice shelves, sea levels could rise by three to ten feet, which would cause entire coastal communities to flood and go under water forever. We are talking about major cities here in the United States and across the world that could be under water in the coming decades. Just think for a moment about the massive dislocation, turmoil, and International Tensions that will occur when millions of people migrate from where they have lived into new areas. And the tragedies and disturbances and destruction goes on and on and on. Mr. President , in the past, a series of climate disasters like these might have seemed like a silly plot in a bad movie about the appok apok apocalypse. This is not a movie but a reality. This is what were experiencing right now in front of us. Again, this entire scenario, what we are seeing now will almost definitely become worse in years to come. If the United States, china, and the rest of the world do not get our act together and break our dependency on fossil fuels. And one of the strange ironies about this moment is that if the United States did all of the right things tomorrow, it would not be enough. We need the cooperation of china and of countries throughout the world. We as a planet are in this together, and were going to have to act decisively and, in my view, the largest economy in the world, which is the United States of america, must lead this effort. If we retreat, it sends a terrible message to countries all over the world. And if we retreat, clearly what we will be seeing are more floods, more rising sea levels, more extreme weather disturbances, more ocean acidification, more drought, more famine, more disease, and more human suffering. And today, today, to all of my colleagues here in the senate who have kids and grandchildren i think thats almost everybody i just ask you to think ahead 10, 15, 20 years. Think about the discussion youll be having with your kids or your grandchildren when that young person looks you in the eye and says dad, grandma, what did you do to save the planet . And i want you to think about that. We all know that Climate Change is real. We know that Climate Change is caused by Carbon Emissions. No one disagrees with that. We know that Climate Change is already causing devastating destruction throughout the world. We know that if we dont rapidly transform our Energy System away from fossil fuels toward Energy Efficiency and renewable energy, the situation will only become much worse and our planet will face irreparable and irreversible harm. Thats the simple reality. And yet, given all that we know, given all that the scientists are telling us, what is the United States congress about to do . Well, mr. President , the United States congress is seriously considering legislation to provide a huge giveaway to the fossil fuel industry to drill, produce, and sell more oil and gas. Really. At a time when Climate Change is threatening the very existence of our planet, why would anybody be talking about substantially increasing Carbon Emissions and expanding fossil fuel production in the United States . What kind of message does this send to the people of our own country to the young people and to suffering people all over the world, that in the midst of this horrific crisis caused by fossil fuel emissions, were about to pass legislation to increase fossil fuel production. Mr. President , like every other member of the senate, i have a pretty good understanding of how politics works in our corrupt political system. Like every other senator, i understand what Campaign Contributions are about. I understand what the thousands of lobbyists all over capitol hill do. And i surely understand the extraordinary power of the fossil fuel industry to push the legislation that they want. In fact, they were successful for decades in lying to the American People about the reality of Climate Change. So i know about the power of the fossil fuel industry. But today i beg of my colleagues that at this moment, when the future of the world is literally at stake, that at this moment we have the courage to stand up to the fossil fuel industry and to tell them and the politicians that they sponsor that the future of the planet is more important than their shortterm profits. Mr. President , in the coming weeks and months, the senate has a fundamental choice to make we can listen to the fossil fuel industry and the politicians they pay who are spending huge amounts of money on lobbying and Campaign Contributions to pass this dirty side deal, or we can listen to the scientists and the Environmental Community who are telling us loudly and clearly to reject the side deal and eliminate the 15 billion in tax breaks and subsidies congress is already providing to big oil and Gas Companies each and every year. Mr. President , while the legislative text of the side deal has not been made public, according to a onepage summary that was released last month, this bill would make it easier for the fossil fuel industry to receive permits, to complete some of the dirtiest and mostly polluting oil and gas projects in america. Specifically this deal would approve a 6. 6 billion mountain pipeline spanning from West Virginia to virginia and potentially on to north carolina. Were talking about a pipeline that would generate emissions equivalent to 37 coal plants or over 27 million cars each and every year. Mr. President , it is hard for me to understand why anyone anyone who is concerned about Climate Change would consider for one second voting to approve a pipeline that would be equivalent to putting 27 million more cars on the road each and every year, especially at a time were trying to transition into electric vehicles. Mr. President , on august 24, over 650 environmental and civil rights organizations wrote a letter to majority leader schumer and Speaker Pelosi urging them to reject this idea. It was supported by friends of the earth, physicians for social responsibility, 350, public action and the naacp, and here is a summary of the letter. This is a letter signed by 650 environmental and civil rights groups. Quote, on behalf of 653 front line communities and environmental organizations representing millions of members and supporters nationwide, we are writing to express our strenuous opposition to any additional fossil fuel giveaways, alarming proposals have been referenced by senator manchin in a short memo and in legislative language that was clearly drafted in consultation with the American Petroleum institute. It has been reported that manchin has demanded these handouts to the fossil fuel industry for a further price for his vote on the Inflation Reduction Act. We call on you to unequivocally reject any effort to promote fossil fuels, advance unproven technologies and weaken our core environmental laws. This fossil fuel fuel wish list is a fossil fuel wish list is a cruel attack on environmental communities and the environment. It would truncate and hollow out the Environmental Review process and make it far hard fer for frontline communities to have their voices heard by gutting bedrock protections in the environmental act and clean water act. Supporting this legislation would represent a profound betrayal of frontline communities and constituents across the country who called on you to have a just future. That is from 650 environmental organizations. Mr. President , i could not agree more and i ask unanimous consent to include this in the record. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Sanders i would also add at least 59 of our colleagues in the house of representatives will soon release a letter expressing strong on sig to this opposition to this side deal. Quote, there is an agreement to advance antienvironmental and antiEnvironmental Justice provisions through the house at the behest of the American Petroleum institute. These destructive provisions will allow manufacturing and energydevelopment projects to be rushed through before the families who live them are made aware of the plans. We understand it will significantly and disproportionately impact lowincome communities, indigenous communities and communities of color. The inclusion of these provisions and continuing resolution or any other mustpass legislation would silence the voices of environmental communities by insulating them from scrutiny. This would cause members to choose between protecting Environmental Justice communities from further pollution or funding the government. We urge you to ensure these provisions are kept out of a continuing resolution or any other mustpass legislation this year. End of quote. That is a letter that comes from over 50 of our colleagues in the house of representatives. Mr. President , i would ask unanimous consent to insert that letter in the congressional record. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Sanders so there we are, mr. President. Youve got 650 environmental and social justice organizations representing millions of people. Youve got the entire Scientific Community saying weve got to cut Carbon Emissions and then on the other side, we have a fossil fuel industry and all of their Campaign Contributions. Thats what it is. So today i ask my colleagues to stand up for our kids, for our grandchildren, and for future generations. We have got to have the courage to finely tell the fossil fuel industry that the future of this planet is more important than their shortterm pockets. Mr. President , i thank you and i yield the floor. A senator mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from michigan. Mr. Peters mr. President , i ask unanimous consent that the 11 3. The presiding officer without objection. The question is on the nomination. Mr. Peters i ask for the yeas and nays. The presiding officer is there a sufficient second . There appears to be. The clerk will call the roll. Vote vote vote vote the presiding officer on this vote the yeas are 48. The nays are 47. The nomination is confirmed. Under the previous order, the motion to reconsider is considered made and laid upon the table and the president will be immediately notified of the senates action. Under the previous order, the senate will resume consideration of the following nomination which the clerk will report. The clerk nomination, the judiciary, salvador mendoza jr. , of washington to be United States circuit judge for the ninth circuit. Mr. Cornyn mr. President . The presiding officer the senior senator from texas. Mr. Cornyn mr. President , are we in a quorum call . The presiding officer we are not. Mr. Cornyn i appreciate it. Thank you. Mr. President , im a Firm Believer in the American Dream. People come to this country perhaps as legal immigrants, start with little, invest themselves in a lot of hard work because they dont have anything else to invest, provide for their families, maybe even eventually start a Small Business of their own, create jobs and a means to earn a livelihood for their employees. Thats what i think most people think of when they think about the American Dream. And its built on an Economic System known as capitalism, as distinguished from socialism. And capitalism has lifted more people out of poverty than any other Economic System known to humankind. There are those that have a different point of view. They call themselves democrat socialists. I actually have here before me the democratic socialists of america web page that asks the question, what is democratic socialism . They start first with a criticism of capitalism. They say, capitalism is a system designed by the owning class to exploit the rest of us for their own profit. That is an incredibly cynical and i think misguided view. But thats their opinion. They go on to say, we must replace it with democratic socialism. And there are a umin of members of congress and there are a number of members of congress, notably the junior senator from vermont, he gave a speech explaining why thats a better way to go. And then there are a number of members of the house known colloquially as the squad who are members of the democratic socialists of america and advocate their particular point of view. Even though joe biden was elected president of the United States in 2020, he essentially is has embraced the democratic socialist agenda. The Green New Deal, medicare for all, free college, free child care, free everything. Well, to no ones surprise, once people called it what it was and what it is, it didnt make it very far. The American People experienced a severe sticker shock when they heard the cost of these proposals. One estimate pegged the cost of the Green New Deal at a whopping 93 trillion. An absolutely unfathomable amount of money. And much of our democratic much to our democratic colleagues surprise, families do not want the federal government managing every little detail of their lives, from making their child care arrangements to determining which doctors they can see or, rather, which doctors they cant see. Our democratic friends found that socialism wasnt as popular as theyd hoped. But they werent ready to give up on the bigger government dream, so they made a few marketing changes. They switched branding. They adopted a new strategy. And now what we are seeing, i believe, is the new socialism. Now, its not as in your face, not as startling as what we saw a couple of years ago when people openly advocated democratic socialism, but the new socialism i believe is just as bad and even more dangerous because this time its actually coming to fruition. You dont need to look very far. Just look at President Bidens claimed authority to, quote, forgive, close quote, Student Loans. The president announced that he would cancel Student Loans for millions of borrowers. Any family with a mortgage or car payment or Credit Card Debt knows theres no such thing as canceling debt. Every dollar that was borrowed will have to be paid back by somebody. Traditionally that and legally, that responsibility lies with the borrower, the person who took out the tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in Student Loans without a thought about how they might eventually pay it back. But the president decided to throw tradition, personal responsibility, and, i would argue, the law out the window in favor of a socialist approach where everybody chips in. To state the obvious, no every taxpayer has outstanding student debt. Many of our fellow americans never went to college. Many have very goodpaying jobs because theyve pursued a trade carpentry, plumbing, or the like or they may decide they want to be a teacher or perform some other work that doesnt pay perhaps as well as a wall street job. Many people who did get a degree decided they needed to work, at least part time, to help pay for their bills. And then many, perhaps most, decided they had to pay the loans back after they graduated, just as they had agreed to do. Still, every person without a college debt will be expected to shoulder the cost under President Bidens proposal for someone elses degree, regardless of their ability to pay it back. College degrees are not a public good that should be covered by tax dollars. We provide a lot of generous support for higher education, and we should pell grants, many colleges and universities have huge endowments that they use to give scholarships and Financial Aid to students. But this is not something that ought to be placed at the step at the foot of the american taxpayer in this form certainly. Once somebody has agreed to pay back their student debt, to be able to just walk away from it, to me, encourages all sorts of irresponsible conduct and expectations. These arent shared expenses like commonly used roads, hospitals, or police departments. The individual who decides to borrow the money so they can attend college alone reaps the benefits of that degree. And, in fact, if you do go to college, your chances of earning more income tend to go up. But the real kicker here is that student loan socialism will cost the american taxpayer roughly half a trillion dollars. All to pay off the debt that the individuals involved knowingly and willingly took on. Of course, President Biden isnt the only one forcing more socialism on the American People. Our democratic colleagues have gotten into the action, too. Last month they passed a reckless taxandspending spree that included enough handouts to make fidel castro proud. First there are the expanded Affordable Care act subsidies. Originally the subsidies were provided back when obamacare passed to provide subsidies for people earning less than 400 of the federal poverty level. But our democratic colleagues last month not only increased the amount of assistance people can receive, they also expanded eligibility. In short, giving more people more money, regardless of their ability to pay for their own expenses. Shifting that, again, out of the pockets of middleclass taxpayers into the pockets of those who dont need the subsidies and especially those who can pay for their expenses themselves. Our colleagues said this was a temporary provision that was critical to the pandemic response. But here we are a year and a half later, and theyve already extended it. The people who gain Insurance Coverage because of this proposal arent lowincome families. Those individuals have already been eligible for obamacare. Assistance now extends to people earning 750 of the federal poverty level, sixfigure earners. So here again our democratic colleagues are taking money out of the pocket of middleclass taxpayers who are struggling with inflation and trying to make ends meet and providing enhanced generous subsidies to people making 750 of the federal poverty level. So even as this started out as a temporary fix, i dont have any reason to believe that our democratic colleagues will ever allow these subsidies to expire. In the words of ronald reagan, the closest thing to eternal life on earth is a temporary government program, and our democratic colleagues seem to be intent on proving the accuracy of that statement. The Congressional Budget Office and the joint committee on taxation estimated that the cost of permanent expansion and its pretty jarring for a number of reasons. First is the financial cost. By expanding the obamacare premium tax credits and making them permanent, our democratic colleagues would add 248 billion to the federal debt over the next decade. And of course this will have an adverse effect on people with private insurance. Under permanent expansion, some 2. 3 Million People will lose their current employerprovided coverage. So our country would end up basically paying wealthy people to lose their employersponsored health care so they can end up on a taxpayerfunded plan. This isnt about helping the uninsured. Its just a backdoor way to implement medicare for all, another democratic socialist objective. Our democratic colleagues couldnt get enough support for this radical plan by trying to bill consensus, so they passed it with 50 votes plus the tiebreaking vote of Vice President harris. So bit by bit our colleagues are pushing americans closer to a singlepayer Health Care System that they did not want. And then theres electric vehicle socialism. Taxpayer handouts for wealthy car owners who buy fancy, stateoftheart electric vehicles. A couple earning up to 300,000 a year can now count on taxpayers to chip in for their bigticket purchase. 7,500 for a new electric vehicle or 4,000 for a new one. Families already being crushed by inflation, high grocery costs up 13 over last year alone, high gasoline prices, housing prices that are going up dramatically. These families are now being asked to burden being burdened with the expense of helping wealthy car owners buy fancy, new electric vehicles when they cant even afford to buy one on their own. Sun who can only someone who can only afford a quarter tank of gas because they cant afford to fill up the whole tank doesnt have 80,000 to spend on a fancy, new electric vehicle. Still, thanks to our colleagues electric vehicle socialism, middle and lowincome families are getting stuck with the bill, which always seems to be the punch line. In order to finance this new socialist redistribution, our democratic colleagues need more money on top of the debt that they are adding to. They needed a cash cow, so what they did is they turned to everybodys favorite, the Internal Revenue service. Our colleagues voted and passed a bill that will double the size of the irs by adding 87,000 new agents to ensure that those irs agents can squeeze every last penny out of hardworking American Families. This isnt going to have an impact on the top 1 . It will unleash a tidal wave of audits on middleclass families and Small Businesses. Families earning less than 25,000 a year are already five times as likely to be audited, already, and this will just make it even worse. The independent Congressional Budget Office confirmed that lower and middleincome taxpayers will see more irs audits as a result of this move. The government is about to squeeze once again working families like a piece of coal while our democratic friends say, well, were just making diamonds. I must add, mr. President , i live in a border state, texas, where weve seen 2. 3 million migrants come to the border in this last year and a half during President Bidens administration. Weve seen 108,000 americans die of drug overdoses with most of those drugs coming across the southwestern border because the criminal organizations that move people and drugs across the border understand if they flood the border with people, with migrants, it will divert the border patrols attention so the drugs can come flowing into our country, distributed by criminal networks of street gangs who are responsible for most of the crime and gun violence in our local communities. Dont you think some of the money that our colleagues would have, or have spent to try to build an army of i are also agents over the next ten years, that some of that could have been spent to help secure the border, to stop some of those drugs . Well, h unfortunately the Biden Administration has an open borders policy. They dont actually believe in enforcing our immigration laws. And what weve seen as a result is a consequences, as a result of that. Mr. President , thanks to our democratic colleagues new socialist policies, texans who are trying to save money to go to college or buy a home or prepare for retirement are about to get stuck with the bill for massive government expansion. And whats this going to do to inflation which is already at a 40year high . Its going to make it worse. And as the Federal Reserve ratchets up the discount rate or Interest Rates in order to slow inflation, its going to slow our entire economy and make it harder on middleclass families just trying to get by. Margaret thatcher, the former Prime Minister of england, once wisely said the problem with socialism is eventually you run out of other peoples money. Again, thats true. Weve seen approaches of socialism fail over and over and over again, and weve seen its leaders oppress their people and send their country into ruin. Right now weve seen the new socialism rooted in american soil, gaining ground in congress and the white house every day. This new socialism may look a little bit different, but the goal is the same. To grow the role of government in the lives of Everyday Americans and to burden them with additional taxes to pay for this bigger and bigger government and to take money from people who by virtue of their hard work, who are pursuing the American Dream and transfer that money to someone whos well off in order to advance misguided policies like 7,500 taxpayer subsidies for rich people for electric vehicles. Part of it is an attitude or perspective that our democratic colleagues seem to have. They seem to think we know better, we know better whats good for people than they do themselves. Thats why they want to choose what kind of Health Care Plan they get or what kind of child care facilities families get to use. They want to take money out of your pocket and redistribute it to the chosen wealthy few. They want to denigrate the concept of hard work, personal responsibility that have made america the economic success that it is, because of our capitalist system, because of the American Dream, again, where people can come here, lets say as a liam immigrant with as a legal immigrant with very little but by virtue of hard work, commitment and dedication, they can achieve their dream and help others achieve their dreams at the same time. But not if you eliminate the concept of hard work, accountability, and personal responsibility, and just continue to dole out government handouts. So it doesnt really make any difference what our colleagues try to call it. They call it the Inflation Reduction Act, the bill they just passed, the reckless taxandspending bill, when virtually all of the outside experts said, nah, really wont reduce inflation, certainly not in the near term. So it doesnt make any difference how they try to brand it. Socialism is socialism, and its leading our country down the road to a dangerous destination. I yield the floor. The presiding officer the majority whip. Mr. Durbin i have two requests for committees to meet during todays session. They have the approval of the majority and minority leaders. The presiding officer duly noted. Mr. Durbin socialism, this is all about socialism. I listened very carefully to my friend from texas and he is my friend. We worked together on many things. And he believes the downfall of america is the advent of socialism. Well, im not sure what that label means to him, but i want to take a look at some of the areas that he made comment on. He thinks its socialist for us to expand the coverage of the Affordable Care act. Mr. President , were down to 8 of americans without Health Insurance. 8 . The goal is zero. We may never reach it. We have dramatically decreased the number of americans without Health Insurance. Have you ever lived in a situation where you didnt have Health Insurance, where youre a new father with a baby with a Health Problem and no Health Insurance . Ive been there. You dont want to go to that place. We want to give everybody the peace of mind that they have Quality Health care available to them. Is that socialism . Is that the government making the decision that youre going to have Health Insurance . I dont think so. Rightthinking people across this country, regardless of political stripe, believe that Health Insurance is critical for a happy and a healthy family. And he used the term, he said medicare is a socialist objective. Try that one on for size in any state. Run your campaign on getting rid of medicare and see how it works. I can tell you what the result will be. Medicare in the last 60 years has liberated Senior Citizens in america so they can live longer and live independently and have quality care through the later years of their life. Socialism, government knows better, its a program which people value just like social security, and i hope that people wont brand that as socialism. Many did when it was created. These programs that families count on, real families, these are programs that are not socialist. They are as american as can be. And the student loan program, i support what President Biden did. I might have done it a little differently. But the fact that he is tagging at that student loan forgiveness to the wealth of the individual and family is the right thing to do. 10,000 Student Loans forgiven for those with individual income below 125,000 a year, thats not unreasonable. That means that middle class and lower kids are going to have 10,000 in their student loan forgiven. If they happen to be on pell grants, which means they really were lowincome families when they went to school, they get an additional 10,000. I hear all this lamenting and wining and crying of socialism. Where in the heck was this comment about socialism when we were giving out ppp loans all across america by the thousands . And it turns out some of the harshest republican critics of student loan forgiveness took out ppp loans. You know what that meant . They were forgiven. They didnt have to pay them back. It was okay when they were receiving the money, these conservative republicans. But the idea of some student burdened with Student Loans having lone forgiven is having loan forgivenness is socialism. I want to Say Something about fiscal responsibility. After the Inflation Reduction Act, how much we will reduce the deficit this year . 1. 7 trillion. How did we achieve this . We achieved it by saying were going to establish a minimum tax for certain corporations. Which ones . Corporations that showed an average of 1 billion a year in net profit. Average 1 billion net profit a year over a threeyear period of time will finally have to pay some federal income tax. Is that too much to ask . Is that socialism . No. Its fairness. And in terms of the e. V. Socialism, this is one where senators ought to take care. When they give speeches on the floor about electric vehicles and electrification, they are basically betting that the future is going to be a lot different than i see it. Why do we have so many electric vehicles . It must be a federal mandate. No, it wasnt. It was a decision by the private sector to build electric vehicles and make that the future of transportation in america. Take a look at ford motor company. We had one of the ford family come and tell us a story. They made a decision that electric vehicles were a big part of their future and they made a marketing move that i thought was genius. What were the first two vehicles they electrified, the ford f150, the most popular pickup truck in america. I drive one myself. And they going to electrify that vehicle and they cant produce them fast enough to meet the demand. So the people who many republicans feel are the natural allies on this subject are waiting in line to buy a lightning. What else . The mustang. Certain age groups still dream about mustangs and i remember in 1964 when they put them on the market the first time. The republicans are betting this is fad and it will go away. They are dead wrong on this. The private sector is moving toward electrical vehicles. For those who say it is pure socialism to have electric vehicles, get out of the way, because those electric vehicles will run over you in no time at all. This idea of 87,000 i. R. S. Agents, this was invented by one senator who made his calculation, its like death squads. They pick up a phrase and say this is a reality. That is not close to the truth. What we know is this, the vast majority of americans an American Families pay their taxes legally on time. And they should be respected respected for doing that. We look for those who dont do that, dont pay their taxes or what they owe and theyre not setting their fair share. The i. R. S. Has been starved in the past of basic things like computerization an agents to do audits, you but the president made clear his target is those defying the law and the system of taxation. He believes they should pay their fair share and i couldnt agree with him more. In terms of this idea that socialist mantra as we know better, government knows better, its interesting when it comes to personal liberty and freedom and when you get into an area of reproductive freedom for women, the exact opposite position is taken on the other side of the aisle. We considered the reconciliation bill a few weeks ago, we had 41 straight roll call votes and at the end of the day we passed the reconciliation bill, Inflation Reduction Act. What has happened since . If you want to call it socialism, let me tell you what it has done so far. Joe biden is going to join the c. E. O. Of intel to break ground on a new multidollar semiconductor plan and it will create thousands of goodpaying jobs, construction woarks and workers and engineers, they plan to transfer it into one of the Major Semiconductor manufacturing sites in the world, that is a big change from when we shipped this manufacturing over to asia. Socialism. Is this joe bidens plan of socialism to open up a plant that is essential for the growth of our economy. And this was made possible by the chips and science act and i want to give credit where its due. There were some republicans who stepped forward and joined us. I wish they all would have been with us on this effort. We believe and the president backed us up, if we were going to make this investment in Semiconductor Chips for the future, america would be there. That of i dont think that is inspired by socialism, but by common sense. The weeks since the Inflation Reduction Act was signed into law, companies throughout the country have unveiled, quote, a series of big ticket projects to kick start our clean energy future. Socialism, a future that will be made in america by American Workers. I would like to remind everyone we passed that law without a single republican vote. Not one republican senator would join us in this effort. What happened in the four weeks since we passed it . Well, toit quota announced toyota will manufacture batteries for the electric and hybrid vehicles here in america. That happened since we passed the bill. One Solar Company named first solar announced another billiondollar investment to be built in the southeast, honda, l. G. , samsung anowdgessed making announced making components for electric vehicles here in america. In West Virginia one Company Plans to build a nearly 500,000 electric factory and they are targeting laid off coal miners. Thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act, these jobs arent going overseas anymore. Theyre staying right here in america. New manufacturing projects are lighting up across the country. Like a constellation of hope, making a new renaissance for American Families and a big piece is taking place in the midwest. In my home state of illinois, the company tcci announced it will retool its facility in illinois to make compressors for electric vehicles. Here they come again. And our governor announced the state will work alongside a Community College to establish a Climate Center for innovation and research, an innovation hub. Socialism . This is a chance for the Decatur Community to play its part in electric vehicle revolution and once again these investments will create goodpaying jobs right here in america. Cities like decatur, this is a lifeline. This wasnt that long ago the city was struggling with population decline. Now its a new story. We are leaving no town behind. We are investing in the future of every community from chicago to decatur and we are honoring americas history as a land of opportunity. There is a statue in downtown decatur, mr. President , its a site that says a 21yearold bare foot Abraham Lincoln made his first speech. As we celebrate the new jobs for decatur, one of the first as follows that lincoln supported was internal improvement. He announced time and experience has verified the public utility of internal the most opoorest countries would have good roads and that no person will decide. The challenges we face in America Today are more sophisticated but we also passed an infrastructure bill, the largest in the history of the United States. Under the previous president , donald trump, he promised every week was going to be infrastructure week. Unfortunately, his response was so weak there was never an infrastructure week, never during his presidency and thats be a fact. President biden turned that around and we passed an infrastructure bill that is putting america back to work, as it should. Its about time. For decades republicans have preyed to the altar of trickledown economics, they called every initiative we have on the democratic side socialism, social security, socialism, medicare, socialism. This idea of leading into the electric vehicle revolution, socialism. The government knows best. Well, ill tell you, theyre wrong. What we see is leadership an leadership that is long overdue and leadership that is long overdue. We cant leave working families behind in this country. Four decades of cutting taxes for the rich on some wild theory this is going to lift all boats turned out to be false. Tile you this. Roads and bridges crumble being beneath our feet, generations of goodpaying jobs going overseas, the worlds wealthiest trying to save a few bucks is not american. Fixing it it is not socialism. It is fairness. The last president spent four years declaring infrastructure week had nothing to show for it. In less than two years President Biden and the democrats delivered on their promise of rebuilding and putting American Workers back to work. Weve had the largest growth in job creation ever in the history of the United States in the last year and a half under President Biden and 660,000 of those jobs are manufacturing jobs, real jobs with a good paycheck. Were investing in the industries of the future, more important, were investing in American Families. The policies we enacted during this congress will help move america forward. Together they represent a new vision for americas future. Roads and bridges, microchips, wind turbines, Wind Research into advanced technologies. What does it mean for the American People . Look at the a auto industry. Today the industry, which president obama saved, is an industry that major manufacturers are betting big on the future. Members of the Republican Caucus may not see electric vehicles in the future but they closed their eyes. With the infrastructure package, we will create good jobs, union jobs, fixing and building our roads, installing charging stations all across america. With the chips and science act were shoring up domestic supply of semiconductors so we can assemble next generation vehicles in american factories and that chips bill authorized billions of dollars for research. This lee search has the poe this research will unlock new discoveries in battery technology. Now we are making life more affordable for working families, thats not just to bring down costs on prescription drugs and energy bills, it will lower the cost of americanmade electric vehicles so more families can buy one. This is the democratic platform in action. Building products and components we depend on here at home, Pioneering Technology breakthroughs and leveling the economy so every family has a fighting chance. Thanks to the policies we passed so far under the Biden Administration, we are rolling, and i do want to tell you this for the record, mr. President. On my way to catch the plane at the airport in st. Louis earlier this week, i saw gasoline for sale at 3. 46 per gallon. Thats still high but it is better than the 5 plus a few weeks ago. Is that socialism . I think its the government at work and the president has brought to bring down the costs that American Families are facing. We are moving in the right direction and the economy is moving in the right direction and i wish we had some republicans support this legislation. I yield the floor. Mr. Lankford mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from oklahoma. Mr. Lankford mr. President , i want to go into some comments about some things i heard from oklahomans in august appeared and thankfully we were not in session here for a brief while. I needed to make a couple of quick comments for those who heard my colleague from illinois say that republicans believe that electric vehicles are socialism if you promote electric vehicles and we oppose electric vehicles an electfication. I have to make a quick comment on that. I dont hear republicans in opposition to electric vehicles. I hear republicans in opposition to handing companies billions and billions of dollars of taxpayer money and saying, if you will produce electric vehicles, then were going to give you these billions of dollars to be able to do it. And i also hear republicans like myself in opposition say that 80 of the lithium to lun the electric to run the electric vehicles come from china. Until we get our own supply of lithium, we shouldnt run toward electric vehicles and then if you are dependent on communist china for fuel. Thats a bad idea. I hear they say that our infrastructure is not ready for this. Today in california, theyre telling people to turn up their therm stats because they dont have enough electric and dont charge your electric vehicles. So what i hear is a little bit of common sense on our side of the aisle to say we dont have a problem with electric vehicles, people should be able to choose to drive whatever vehicle they want to be able to drive and that the consumer will actually purchase. But when you Hand Companies billions of dollars and say you only get this money if and if you push people to use a fuel thats dominantly coming from a communist nation and we dont have the infrastructure to actually support it but say you need to get it anyway, we think thats a challenge. The market is going to drive this. People will make choices. And the market will be able to keep up but when government arbitrarily pushes that forward faster, that causes a problem in our economy and weve seen it already. Now, as i traveled around the state, our state like several other states go back to school early. Its always funny to me when i return after labor day and people are talking about their kids going to school this week and i always smile and say our kids returned to school three weeks ago, actually. August is a great time to be able to see families getting organized, people heading back to school, talking to teachers and superintendents, and talking about their hope and prayer for a Normal School year where there arent mask mandates and all the things coming down on them. Its time for me to actually some evenings to be able to stand out in the yard and be able to talk to my neighborhoods. Its great to be able to visit and catch up. Chat with someone in my sunday school class and be able to hold their young child and to bel to look in the face of a enough be able to look in the face of a new baby. To have the opportunity to be home and stand in a funeral home with a Law Enforcement officer who was murdered in the line of duty. Its an opportunity to be able to talk to some ever our electric cooperatives, getting power to our rural areas and making such a difference. An opportunity to stand and pray with a cancer survivor in guyman who has had a really pass couple of years. Its been tough. Be able to visit in oklahoma, several doing the technology and innovation that are making a difference in our National Security and aerospace safety. To visit with Small Business owners who are making things work in a very tough economic based on their work, not based on whats happening in washington, d. C. Based on their work. August is an opportunity to go visit stockyards, feed lots, get a chance to be able to talk to folks that are everyday every day making our food supply work. An opportunity to be able to visit with Big Companies based in oklahoma, have large facilities like amazon, macys, Major Companies that are out there. , that are doing business across our state and quite frankly to be able to interact with companies that are just as large that are also coming towards my great state in oklahoma because its a great place to be able to do business. Individuals that i got a chance to be able to visit with at the Fire Training center. Many of them volunteers that many of them volunteers that jot world that we will be leaving to our kids and to future generations will become increasingly unhealthy and uninhabitable. Thats not bernie sanders. Thats the virtual unanimous conclusion of the scientist that studied this issue. But the truth is we dont need the scientists or another study to tell us whats happening. We see it with our own eyes here in the United States and all overs the world. The American People today and people throughout the globe are seeing the devastating impact Climate Change is having on their communities and their families with their own eyes. Thats what they are seeing right now as i speak. Please understand it may be the most important point i want to make this morning is that everything being equal what is happening right now will become worse and worse and worse. This is not oh, boy, we had a torrential rain. Oh, boy, aint it hot . Everything being equal what we are seeing today will become worse in years to come. Lets take a brief look at whats happening right now in the United States and around the world. The past eight years have been the hottest years in recorded history. Right now the western half of the United States is experiencing its worst drought in over 1200 years. Right now in california, nevada, utah, theyre experiencing record breaking heat waves. Historic rain fall and devastating floods took place over a five week stretch this summer in eastern kentucky, eastern illinois, st. Louis, missouri, death valley, california, and dallas, texas. These are supposed to be a once in a thousand year torrential rain falls, and were seeing them coming all together within a few weeks. Right now europe is experiencing its worst drought in over 500 years. Lets remember, when we talk about drought, its not only, boy, is it hot. It impacts agricultural product. And the quantity and quality of food we eat. The massive heat wave in spain and portugal killed more than 2,000 people in july. Historically hot weather in london and china, literally melted bridges, airplane runways, and rooftops. Let me repeat that. The extremely hot weather in london and in china this summer literally melted bridges, rooftops, and airplane runways with all of the consequences that that has. Mr. President , record breaking forest fires have burned 56 more than the previous record set in 2017 and that is a size that is over eight times bigger than new york city. Record breaking drought in china has caused parts of the yang xi river to dry up. Its the Third Largest river in the world. It is the source of Drinking Water for 400 Million People. Catastrophic rain falls and massive floods going on in pakistan killing 1200 people and displacing another 10 million as onethird of pakistan is now under water. If all of this is not soakerring enough, not sobering enough, not frightening enough, a glacer in antarctica dubbed the doomsday glacer is deteriorating in rapid speed and without this glacer and supporting ice shelves, sea levels could rise by 3 to 10 feet, which would cause entire coastal communities to flood and go under water forever. We are talking about major cities here in the United States and across the world that could be under water in the coming decade. Just think for a moment about the massive dislocation and turmoil and National Tensions that will occur when millions and millions of people migrate from where theyve lived into new areas and the tragedies, disturbance, destruction goes on and on and on. President , in the past a series of climate disasters like these might have seen like a plotted in a bad movie about the acobb apocalypse. Whatever were living through now is not a movie, it is reality. This is what we are experiencing right now in front of us. And again, this entire scenario that were seeing now will become worse in the years to come if the United States, china, and the rest of the world do not get our act together and bring our depend seizure disorders on fossil fuels. One of the strange ironies about this moment is that if the United States did all of the right things tomorrow, it would not be enough. We as a planet are in this together and have to act together and the largest economy in the world is the unit of america and we must lead this effort. If we retreat, it sends a terrible message to countries all over the world. If we retreat, what well be seeing are more floods, more rising sea levels, more extreme weather disturbances, more ocean acidification, more drought, more famine, for disease, and more human suffering. I ask you to think ahead the next 10, 15 years with discussions with your kids, grandchildren when that young person looks you in the eye saying, dad, grandma, what did you do to save the planet. I want you to think about that. Climate change is real and caused by Carbon Emissions and nobody disagree withs that and its causing devastating destruction throughout the world. We know that if we dont rapidly transform our Energy System away from fossil fuels toward Energy Efficiency and renewable energy, the situation will only become much worse and our planet will pacer representable and irreversible harm. Thats the reality. And yet given all that we know, given all that the scientists are telling us, what is the United States congress about to do . Well, mr. President , United States congress is seriously considering legislation to provide a huge give away to the fossil fuel industry to drill, produce, and sell more oil and gas. Why would anybody talk about expanding Carbon Emissions and expanding fossil fuel production in the United States . What kind of message does this send to the people of our own country to the young people . And to suffering people all over the world that in the midst of this horrific crisis caused by fossil fuel emissions, were about to pass legislation to increase fossil fuel production. Mr. President , like every other member of the senate, i have a pretty good understanding of how politics works in our crops political system. Like every other senator, i understand what Campaign Contributions are about. I understand what the thousands of lobbyists all over capitol hill do, and i surely understand the extraordinary power of the fossil fuel industry to push the outcome they want and they were lying to people for decades about the reality of Climate Change. I know about the power of the fossil fuel industry. But today i beg of my colleagues that at this moment vote vote vote the presiding officer on this vote, the yeas are 48. The nays are 43. And the motion is agreed to. Mr. Schumer mr. President. The presiding officer the majority leader is recognized. Mr. Schumer mr. President , today we take a solemn and somber pause. A few minutes ago we learned the sad news of the passing of her majesty Queen Elizabeth ii, the longest reigning monarch in history. I join with leader mcconnell, with my Senate Colleagues and with all americans to offer deepest sympathies and prayers to the royal family and to the people of the United Kingdom. I never had the honor of meeting her majesty the queen myself but i admired much about her until the very end. Its hard to fathom that today we have to say goodbye because after all, most americans to say nothing of the british people have never lived in a World Without her majesty the queen. It is a marvel to think that on the day of her majestys coronation, harry truman was in the white house. The world was still coming out of the shadow of the Second World War entering a bold, uncertain, unchartered future. In her time she came to know 15 different Prime Ministers, 14 u. S. President s, traveled to well over a hundred countries and made over 200 official state visits. She was the first british monarch ever to address a joint session of congress and thanks to her, the special relationship between the United States and the u. K. Gained even more special significance. Her reign saw the dawn of the atomic age, the age of the internet, the fall of the soviet union, an unprecedented global pandemic. She didnt just witness the great turns of history. She helped shape them over the seven decades, seven decades of her reign. And every step of the way she was precisely the kind of leader the moment demanded. In times of hardship, she was both strong and comforting. In times of joy she was gracious and dignified. She was a rock, the living embodiment of the virtues that lie at the core of the nation she so proudly led. I dare say we will never see a leader quite like her for as long as we live. So today we join the people of the u. K. And the royal family in mourning the loss of her majesty the queen. May she rest in peace. Mr. President , i ask unanimous consent that all postcloture time on the mendoza nomination be considered expired and that the senate vote on the confirmation of the nomination at 5 30 p. M. On monday, september 12, and that following the disposition of the mendoza nomination, the senate vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the freeman nomination. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Schumer mr. President , i ask unanimous consent that the senate consider the following nominations en bloc, 727, 858, 1110, 1134, that the senate vote on the nominations en bloc without intervening action or debate, the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, that the president be immediately notified of the senates action. The presiding officer without objection. The question occurs on the nominations en bloc. All those in favor say aye. All opposed nay. The ayes appear to have it. The ayes do have it. The nominations are confirmed en bloc. Mr. Schumer mr. President , i ask unanimous consent that at a time to be determined by the majority leader in consultation with the republican leader, the senate proceed to executive session to consider calendar 1096, David Pekoske to be administrator of the transportation security administration, that there be ten minutes equally divided in the usual form of the nomination, that upon the use or yielding back of the time, the senate vote on the nomination without intervening action or debate, that if confirmed, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, that any statements related to the nomination be printed in the record, that the president be immediately notified of the senates action, and the senate resume legislative session. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Schumer i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to legislative session and be in a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Schumer i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of calendar 478, s. 1198. The presiding officer the clerk will report. The clerk calendar number 478, s. 1198, a bill to amend title 38 United States code to improve and expand the Solid Start Program of the department of Veterans Affairs and for other purposes. The presiding officer without objection, the senate will proceed. Mr. Schumer i ask unanimous consent that the committeereported substitute be agreed to. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Schumer i ask that the bill as amended be considered read a third time. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Schumer i know of no further debate on the bill as amended. The presiding officer theres no further debate . The question is on the passage of the bill as amended. All those in favor say aye. All opposed nay. The ayes appear to have it. The ayes do have it. The bill as amended is passed. Mr. Schumer finally, i ask unanimous consent that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Schumer mr. President , i ask unanimous consent that the senate Veterans Affairs committee be discharged from further consideration of h. R. 5754 and the senate proceed to its immediate consideration. The presiding officer the clerk will report. The clerk h. R. 5754, an act to amend title 38 United States code to improve the ability of veterans to electronically submit complaints about the delivery of Health Care Services by the department of Veterans Affairs. The presiding officer without objection, the committee is discharged. The senate will proceed. Mr. Schumer i ask unanimous consent the bill be considered read a third time and passed and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Schumer i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of h. R. 8656 which was received from the house and is at the desk. The presiding officer the clerk will report. The clerk h. R. 8656, an act to designate the clinic of the department of Veterans Affairs in mish was came, indiana as the Jackie Walorski v. A. Clinic. The presiding officer without objection, the senate will proceed. Mr. Schumer i ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read three times and passed and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Schumer mr. President , i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 3 00 p. M. On monday, september 12, that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the journal of proceedings be be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day and morning business be closed. Upon the conclusion of morning business, the senate proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the montecalvo nomination. Finally if any nominations are confirmed during mondays session, motions to be considered be considered made and laid uponned table and the president be immediately notified of the senates action. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Schumer if there is no further business to come before the senate, i ask that it stand adjourned under the previous order following the remarks of senator mcconnell. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Schumer i yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call quorum call mr. Mcconnell mr. President. The presiding officer the republican leader is recognized. Mr. Mcconnell i i ask consent further proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Mcconnell today all americans stand with our great friends across the atlantic in mourning the passing of her majesty, Queen Elizabeth ii. Our deepest sympathies are with the royal family and the many millions of people across the United Kingdom and the commonwealth and the entire world who have drawn reassurance and inspiration from her historic reign, sterling character, and shining example. For 70 long years, from the aftermath of world war 2 well into the 21st century, across 15 different Prime Ministers, through great triumphs and great challenges, the queens steady leadership safeguarded the land she loved. Despite spending nearly threequarters of a century as one of the most famous and admired individuals on the entire planet, the queen made sure her reign was never really about herself, not about her fame or her feelings or her personal wants or needs. She guided venerable institutions through modern times using timeless virtues like duty, dignity, and sacrifice. She offered our contemporary world a living master class that it needed badly. Of particular importance to all americans, the decades of her majestys reign saw an intense deepening of the special relationship and close bond between the United States and the United Kingdom. The queen met sitting president harry s. Truman when she was a 25yearold princess. She went on to meet with a dozen more of our president s during her reign. She presided over a period of historic strengthening of the alliance between our nations that has changed the course of World History for the better. So, madam president , today the senate and the American People are joined with our dear friends across the ocean. We join in prayer, we join in grief and gratitude for such a remarkable leader and such a successful reign. The presiding officer under the previous order, the Senate Stands adjourned until 3 00 p. M. Senators first confirmed andre mathis to the sixth circuit court. Looking ahead over the next couple of weeks, senators will vote on a spending bill to keep the federal government open past september 30, and a measure reauthorizing pda programs and user fees which also expires at the end of the month. As always, live coverage of the senate on cspan2. Cspan is your ununfiltered view of government. Were funded by these Television Companies and more, including wow. The world has changeed. Today the fast, reliable Internet Connection is something no one can live without, so wow is there for our customers with speed, reliability, value and choice. Now more than ever, it all starts with great internet. Wow wow supports cspan as a Public Service along with these other its providers. Giving you television providers. Giving you a front row seat to democracy. Education secretary Miguel Cardona spoke on student loan forgiveness, teacher shortages and other topics at a recent Christian Science monitor event. Watch tonight at eight eastern on cspan2, also on the free cspan now video app or online at cspan. Org. Queen elizabeth ii has died. She was born on april 21st, 1926, in maypair, london, u. K. She was the daughter of King George Vi and Queen Elizabeth. Following her fathers death, she became queen, ascending to the throne in 1952. She married prince philip, duke of eden door row, in 1947. Queen elizabeth was the longest lived and longest serving british monarch, sur is passing Queen Victoria in 2015 who reigned for 63 years. Prince charles, her first born, is heir to the throne. Queen elizabeth was 96 years old. Up next on cspan, defense secretary lloyd austin and the chair of the joint chiefs of staff, general mark