u.s. senate here on c-span2. the president pro tempore: the senate will come to order. the chaplain, dr. barry black, will lead the senate in prayer. the chaplain: let us pray. eternal god, you have always been our helper. continue to teach our lawmakers to live for your glory. lead them along the paths that will keep our nation strong. give them confidence in your guidance and a passion for your truth. strengthen them so that they will be courageous in defense of righteousness. inspire them to wait patiently for the ultimate triumph of your prevailing providence. may they find spiritual nourishment simply by being kind. -- by being kind to each other. we pray in your merciful name. amen. the president pro tempore: please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. the president pro tempore: under the previous order, leadership time is reserved. ms. rosen: i ask for a quorum call. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: dz quorum call: mr. schumer: madam president. the presiding officer: the democratic leader. mr. schumer: are we in a quorum? the presiding officer: we are. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the quorum be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: now, madam president, yesterday, the senate completed an extremely productive day by confirming three members, three members of president biden's cabinet. today we're going to keep up the pace by moving forward on two more of the president's nominees. first the senate will begin the process of bringing xavier becerra's nomination to serve as h.h.s. secretary to the floor. this is a critical position as we continue to battle the virus, and i'm perplexed that none of my republican colleagues would vote for him. he's a capable man. he's worked hard to make sure that people get health care, and some have said well, he's not a doctor. neither was the previous trump nominee for h.h.s. who happened to be a pharmaceutical company executive. what would americans prefer? second, the senate will move forward with another very historic nominee that makes us so proud. representative deb haaland of new mexico to serve as the next secretary of the interior. she will be confirmed on monday. representative haaland was elected to the congress in 2018. she was the first native american woman, along with representative charice davis from kansas, to ever, ever serve in the people's house. if confirmed, rep haaland would not only become the first native american to lead the department of interior, she would be the first native american to serve in any cabinet position in american history. we have had a vice president with native american roots, but never a cabinet official. given the long and troubled relationship between the federal government and tribal nations, the ascension of rep haaland to the top of the interior department is a profoundly important moment for america, as we advance on the long road, still not fully traveled at all, of equality, or towards equality. for too long, tribal nations have been denied a seat at the table where decisions were made that impacted their lives and their land. not only will secretary haaland ensure that they get a seat, she will bring her own lived experiences to the table alongside them. under president trump, the department of interior became one of the most scandal-riddled agencies in the history of the federal government. it gave oil and mining companies carte blanche to drill in wildlife preserves, rolled back environmental protections, and greatly undermined trust in the federal government in tribal lands. rep haaland will move the department in a dramatically different direction. one of her most important responsibilities will be to restore and uphold the federal government's obligation to sovereign tribal nations. i cannot think of a better candidate to take on this job than rep haaland, and i greatly look forward to confirming her. it will be historic. now, in general, madam president, the senate is making great progress in installing president biden's highly qualified nominees. so far, we've already confirmed 16 cabinet level appointments, we're set to increase that number to 18 after secretaries haaland and becerra are approved. every single one of the president's nominees has been confirmed with a bipartisan vote here on the senate floor. president biden deserves to have his team in place, and the senate is moving quickly to get the job done. now, on the american rescue plan, which finally cleared the hurdle in congress yesterday by passing the house. the plan is now only a signature away, a presidential signature from becoming law. soon, very soon, the most sweeping recovery effort in recent history will get under way. direct checks will be delivered to american families from coast to coast. roughly 85% of all households. the american people can expect those $1,400 checks for each person in the family to be delivered by the end of march. and we're making amazingly good progress on vaccines. vaccines will be available far more quickly to far more people. just this morning, the biden administration announced an expansion of the vaccine program , and i was able to announce that more than 100 community health centers in my home state of new york will be eligible to get their own dedicateed supply of vaccines. there is a brand-new vaccine supercharge for new york and for some of the rest of the nation as well. the crux, more vaccines and more sites to administer them. over 100 sites will be set up across new york state and administer a massive influx of new shot supplies. there is light at the end of this covid tunnel which has always been centered on access to a free vaccine for all new yorkers. more access and more shots means a quicker recovery, and that's what we want, and that is becoming available for my home state of new york and for the entire nation. the c.h.c. sites, community health center sites will be federally funded, organized by the department of health and human services, a huge expansion. we have all heard stories, numerous stories of people having to travel too far to get the vaccine. hampering our ability to recover and return to normal. with this announcement, more vaccines and more new york sites to administer them, new yorkers have something to celebrate, and i thank the president for working with us to make this effort real and to bring it to every state in the nation. now, other things are happening, too. our schools will receive critical assistance to update their infrastructure to hire more teachers and tutors and prepare to reopen as fast and as safe as possible. there's going to be money for broadband. there's going to be dollars for rural hospitals. there's going to be dollars to help our tribal nations, all who are suffering. the new restaurants act, so important to so many of our states, is becoming law. more money for save our stages to help our arts institutions is coming. and perhaps the thing that we are most proud of, although there are so many in this bill, helping people with their pensions, making sure those who are laid off still get health care by funding cobra, so many good things for average working families, but maybe the most important of all, who knows? there are so many good things in this bill, but maybe it's the child tax credit which will cut childhood poverty in half. when a child is born into poverty, no fault of his or her own, they don't get adequate nutrition. they don't get adequate health care. they don't get adequate housing. they don't get adequate education. then when they go into young adulthood, they have nowhere to go. and then they get blamed for their plight. the better, smarter, more effective thing to do is help them get out of poverty early so they can lead good, productive lives, as citizens and as taxpayers. we're doing that for the first time here, and i hope it's something that we can continue. simply put, the american rescue plan is one of the most significant pieces of legislation to pass the congress in recent history. yesterday, i started describing in more detail some of the lesser known aspects of the plan. everyone knows the vaccines are coming. $1,400 checks are coming. the money for schools is coming. and now people know of the child tax credit. but there are lots of other things in this bill. today i want to continue by talking about another unheralded provision, assistance to native communities, a topic very much on theme today, given the nomination of secretary haaland. one of the most tragic features of the covid-19 pandemic is how destructive it has been for america's tribal nations. native americans have faced the highest risk of infections, hospitalizations, and deaths due to covid-19, bar none the highest. early in the crisis, the navajo nation, to take one example, saw more cases per capita than any other state in the country. decades, decades of an unraveling social safety net, declining economic opportunity, an overburdened health system and the failure of the federal government to honor its trust obligations to american tribes left native communities unequipped, unequipped to handle the crisis, but in the american rescue plan, democrats will deliver the single largest investment in native programs in our nation's history. we are very proud of that. it is historic. the single largest investment in native communities in our nation's history. more than $31.2 billion in direct funding will go to the tribes and communities to defeat this pandemic and rebuild their communities. $20 billion directly to tribal government so they can stabilize essential services, $6 billion to the indian health service, not just for vaccines and testing and tracing, but to improve and restore these rural long-neglected hospitals. hundreds of millions more for native education. $10 million will go to just make sure communities can access clean water. listen to the items i just mentioned. clean water, keeping hospitals running, connecting kids to broadband, these are absolute necessities, and the american rescue plan is going to dedicate resources to all of them for indian country. i want to thank a whole bunch of my colleagues, so many contributed, but the chair of the indian affairs committee, senator schatz, senators tester, cantwell, smith, kelly, lujan, heinrich, very, very important. heinrich particularly pushed for broadband. so it's a team effort, and i'm proud of my colleagues. the american rescue plan takes us a giant step closer to fulfilling our trust responsibilities to all native americans, alaska natives, and native hawaiians. this is just one example, an important one, how the rescue plan will dramatically improve the lives of millions of people in this great country of ours. i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: quorum call: mr. mcconnell: madam president. the presiding officer: republican leader. mr. mcconnell: i ask consent that further proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: madam president, a year ago coronavirus cases were beginning to climb on u.s. soil. shutdown measures were starting to take effect. americans have endured one of the strangest and most painful years in living memory. nearly two million americans have been hospitalized with serious cases of the virus. more than half a million have lost their lives. millions of students and workers have had their lives completely thrown off course. but these dark times have also spotlighted some of the best of america. heroism, selflessness, ingenuity. last march, the night we passed the cares act without a single dissenting vote, i said we'd see a new generation of american heroes, and so we have. doctors and nurses and first responders have worked tirelessly to help their fellow americans. essential workers kept manning their posts and prevented economic collapse. neighbors looked out for neighbors and small businesses shifted gears almost overnight. children and parents have fought to adapt to extraordinary disruptions. and incredible heroes in lab coats in america and worldwide worked at life steam to decode this new enemy and create lifesaving vaccines in record time. today together we're standing on the cusp of a new springtime for our country, not like anything we've experienced in our lifetimes. more than 95 million vaccine doses have reached american arms. another two million every single day. covid-related deaths have plummeted, now less than half of their high, particularly for the elderly and the vulnerable. science reaffirms kids can be safely in the classroom right now. states are starting to lift blanket restrictions freeing citizens and small businesses to follow smart precautions themselves. and for weeks every indicator has suggested our economy is poised to come roaring back with more job openings for americans who need work. none of these trends began on january 20. president biden and his democratic government inherited a tide that had already begun to turn toward decisive victory. in 2020 congress passed five historic bipartisan bills to save our health system, protect our economic foundations, and fund operation warp speed to find vaccines. senate republicans led the bipartisan cares act that got our country through the last year. the american people already built a parade that's been marching toward victory. democrats just want to sprint in front of the parade and claim credit. so when ten republican senator, went to the white house to suggest working together, a democrat said no. both the democratic leader and the white house chief of staff now indicate they think president obama's problem was that he was too bipartisan. this time as one journalist put it, the situation was, quote, democrats to g.o.p., take it or leave it. end quote. the it that we're talking about here was a bill that only spent about 1% on vaccines and about 9% on the entire health fight. the rest of the tab went to things like this. a $350 billion bailout for state and local budgets unrelated to pandemic needs with strings teached to stop states from cutting taxes on their own citizens down the road. take the money. you don't get to cut taxes. massive federal school funding spread over several years without requiring quick reopening. sweeping new government benefits with no work requirements whatsoever. a time to the bad times before welfare reform which democrats already say they want to make permanent. and agricultural assistance conditioned not on specific financial need but solely on the demographics of the farmer with some liberal activists celebrating as reparations. only about 20% of the spending went to $1,400 direct checks to try and keep all of the unrelated socialism out of the spotlight. this wasn't a bill to finish off the pandemic. it was a multitrillion dollar trojan horse full of bad, old liberal ideas. president biden's own staff keep calling this legislation, quote, the most progressive bill in american history. hardly the commonsense bipartisanship that the president promised. so we pause today at the one-year mark to remember and to mourn, but we also look with great optimism toward the future. 2021 is set to be a historic comeback year not because of the far-left legislation that was passed after the tide had already turned but because of the resilience of the american people. now, mr. president, on a completely different matter, at noon today the senate will vote on whether to pluck the becerra nomination out of committee after it failed to garner enough support to advance. every one of president biden's nominations the senate has considered so far has received bipartisan support for confirmation. there's a reason mr. becerra could not get one single republican vote to move out of committee. it's because he's such a thoroughly partisan actor with so little subject matter expertise and such a demonstrated history of hostility toward basic values like the freedom of science -- the freedom of conscience. there's nothing about mr. becerra's record in congress or california to suggest he's the best possible person to run the department of health and human services in the middle of a once once-in-a-generation virl pandemic. not even close. this is too important a job, too important a time for this administration to put raw partisanship ahead of qualifications. so i would strongly urge all senators to vote against rescuing this nomination from committee. let's give the president the opportunity to make a better selection. now, mr. president, on one final matter, as i've mentioned, it's customary for some top senate staff positions to \see you in\see new faces when party control changes hands. today it's my honor to pay tribute to mary suit jones, a huge asset to this institution. it's become an institution herself. tomorrow mary will finish her second separate run as assistant secretary of the senate and conclude a senate career that has spanned more than a quarter of a century. i first met mary jones in the mid-1990's when we brought her on board to help manage my offices. neither i nor mary's colleagues back then could have predicted that nearly 30 years later she'd depart as one of the most senior officers in the entire place. but the truth is if you had told us nobody would have been even a little surprised either. i've entrusted mary with a lot of different responsibilities over the years. she served as our officer manager just a few years out of college. she came with me to the rules committee first as deputy staff director and then the top job. senator frisk had the good judgment to ask her to be assistant secretary in the early 2,000's. then she returned to rules and resumed serving as our side staff director under senators bob bennett, lamar alexander, and then pat roberts. and finally, she generously brought all of her expertise and institutional knowledge back to the assistant secretary role six years ago. in her first job in my office, mary organized one team of people and our infrastructure. in her current job she's overseen 26 departments and scores of senate staff, pushing resources and guidance down and pushing information up. in between at rules she tackled things like helping run presidential inaugurations. through it all, i cannot name one time when mary jones did not deliver. she is consistent, competent, and completely reliable. no wonder her name has become a kind of catch phrase around the senate when anyone is trying to track down some key piece of wisdom or is puzzling over how to get something done. well, let's ask mary jones. have you checked with mary jones? i think mary knows all about that. everyone from junior staff to senior senators, republicans and democrats have been able to count on mary for expertise and execution. on a million different subjects she knows the answer to the question you're going to answer before you even finished asking it. a rock solid administrator, a consummate professional, she is just that good. so i'm sorry to see mary depart the senate but she's given generously to this place. she certainly earned the opportunity to apply her many talents to some new challenges and perhaps knock a few miles off of her famously epic commute while she's at it. the whole senate thanks mary for her excellent service. we wish her, her husband, and their kids all the best in the exciting new chapters that lie ahead. the presiding officer: morning business is closed. under the previous order the senate will resume consideration of the motion to discharge the nomination of xavier becerra from the committee on finance. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the s