Understand the unfolding of your providence, we place our trust n you. Show our lawmakers the path they should choose, rescue them from the traps of their enemies, and remove their fears with your might. Continue to renew their strengt. Protect our legislatures with your might, reassure them with your presenc, and comfort them with your goodness. Lord of heavens army, we give our lives to you, for no one who depends on your compassion will ultimately fail. We pray in your merciful name. Amen. The presiding officer please join me in reciting the pledge f allegiance to our 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. , october 25, 2023. To the senate under the provisions of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable peter welch, a senator from the stae of vermont, to perform the dutis of the chair. Signed patty murray, president pro tempore. The presiding officer under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. Morning business is closed. Under the previous order, the senate will resume consideration of h. R. 4366, which the clerk will report. The clerk calendar number 198, h. R. 4366, an act making appropriations for military construction, the department of Veterans Affairs and related agencies for the fiscal year ending september 30, 2024, and for other purposes. Guest at this point in time and, of course, the caveat is things are changing very quickly around this whole situation but at this point in time it does seem johnson has some important momentum right voted the nominee late last night we didnt see quite as many republicans come out saying theyre going to vote against him. As we sing some of the other candidates whether it was scalise or jordan or tom emmer. Looks like things are going well at this point in time but its early in the day. Were expecting about in the early afternoon. Well see things change but johnson is wellliked within the caucus. He also seems be someone who thread the needle where he is someone who is supported by the far conservatives. Hes been a trump defender of former President Trump buddy is also not as kind of typical conservative. He was a lawyer someone who can appeal to moderates as well. Host according to reporting last night in the secret vote, there were 20 people were not present. Amongst those 25 emerge that could sink this nomination . Guest certainly thats the group were looking for. Obvious as members returned to congress today, we are going to be looking for any of those people who were not present who decide to vote against johnson. There hasnt been any want again theres been a handful of people who refuse to vote for johnson last night didnt say they would vote against him. There could be helpful to decide theyre not going to fall in line here but one important thing to note about where we are right now is republicans are frustrated. Understandably. Its been three weeks without a speaker at the house. There are big things and need to get done in congress. We are come close to a Government Shutdown situation once again. Theres 106 billion in emergency funding package that the white house us that the caucus that they have to deal with in some way. We are seeing republicans grow tired of the fight and so there would have to be some real reason, some real personal tension from some big issue to arise for enough republicans do can say no, we dont want johnson and risk there being some kind of a deal with democrats to get someone in that speak of is you. Host democrats are wholeheartedly support the candidate for speaker Hakeem Jeffries how do they do johnson as a potential speaker, generally . Guest im sure theres concerns there. Especially given the fact johnson was one of the leaders who attempted to overturn the 2020 Election Results, that something where certain is a democrats ounce on your weve already seen some raise that point once again reminded people johnson was one of those members in 2020, not only vote to decertify the 2020 Election Results but also present an argument for why republicans could do so beyond some of the more extreme claims being made by former President Trump at the time. So of course were going to expect democrats to support Hakeem Jeffries. There have been some of said there would be willing to work with republicans for some kind of a temporary situation with mr. Canterbury staying on as speaker, but we dont expect them to be excited about johnson and the speaker position. Host our guess is with us until 8 00 and if you want as questions about what you might expect today, 2027488001 republicans. 2027488000 for democrats and independents 2027488002. You can textus at 2027488003. If he does receive the nomination today what of the next steps . Say hes elected what is called is proper to do in light of three weeks of inactivity . Guest first of all the going up to Start Talking about how to avoid aicoa shutdown. Once again i was what led us to the speaker list position in the first place. Mccarthys mccarthyistd velasco shutdown is ultimately what sparked the effort, successful effort to oust him from the speakership. Johnson will have to again deal with the situation, make sure they can get some kind of appropriation bill through, likely have to come up with some kind of a shortterm stopgap funding measure once again to push the deadline back. Johnson doesnt have the counter staff others have picked hes going to have to beat up his own staff in order to respond to some of these pressing issues. He is going to be thrown in the ranks of mcconnell and jeffries, and senator schumer as well as leader schumer ezell and theyll have to start working on both avoiding a Government Shutdown and again dealing with the appropriate or the funding package the white house has sent them. And figure out how congress is going to support israel at this time as we continue to see the situation unfolds. Host shortterm spending what are the issues they kicked off this whole process and first place. Now the possibility of another cr to keep the government funding i could find it. Is her appetite when then the caucus to allow that in the short term . Guest there are conservatives who are not happy about the idea of kicking the can down the road once again. They want to see actual appropriation bills passed that allowed them to cut funding for particular agencies, agencies Like Department of justice, the fbi was in that. Well see whether having johnson their changes the dynamic at all whether we again see a fight over even any kind of a stopgap measure. But also given how much time has been wasted trying to come up with the right speaker, theres not going to be a lot of time to get these kinds of complicated appropriation bills done in the house, whether they tried to do so anyways is still something where watching. Host what faces johnson, what of bills he will have to learn in a fast manner do you think . Guest obviously there is like theres a procedural thing he will be responsible for as speaker opening faust Floor Covering the votes to the for deciding what the conference will be voting on and, of course, most difficult dynamic right now is just managing his own party which is been so fractured. That was always the Biggest Issue mccarthy faced throughout these past few months. He may have won the speakership eventually after 15 rounds of voting but he still had to contend with this divide within the party and that divide is not going to go away, no matter who is speaker of the current speaker of the house here johnson is going have to both rankle the far right conservatives who have again and again republicans reached an important agreement to move forward on three bipartisan, underline bipartisan, appropriations bills. Milcon v. A. , agriculture, transportationhud. Well begin voting on amendments as soon as this afternoon, and go through the rest of the week and into the next. It is my hope that with bipartisan cooperation, we can wrap up our work on these bipartisan appropriation bills sometime next week. This will be the Senate Working as it should, both parties cooperating, debating amendments, working through differences, without grinding the legislative process to a halt. Democrats promised our republican colleagues that their voices would be heard, and were making good on that promise. 40 amendments will be considered, many of them bipartisan. On issues ranging from telehealth, funding for veterans, fixing infrastructure hit by natural disasters, to investments in rural america. We worked closely with republicans to put these appropriation bills together. If passed, the bills will make a huge difference for american farmers, our infrastructure, for housing, and for our military bases and veterans. Bipartisanship isnt easy. On the contrary. These days, its exceedingly difficult. But were moving forward, thanks to the good work of our appropriators, especially chair murray and vice chair collins. They have set the tone from the start in the . Reat, that bipartisan shl in the senate that bipartisanship should lead the way. It was true in the Appropriations Committee. I hope it remains true here on the floor. Were going to need bipartisanship in all that we do during this time of divided government. Bipartisanship will be essential for passing these appropriation bills. Bipartisanship will be essential for keeping the government open in less than a month. And bipartisanship will be essential for passing the president S National Security request. I would say to my colleagues in the house, my republican colleagues, if you try to do things not in a bipartisan way, its going to lead to cult sacks and other things that hurt the American People. Both parties recognize we must support our allies in israel against hamas. Both parties recognize that we must support our friends in ukraine against putin. Both parties know that we must fight the scourge of fentanyl coming through the border, outcompete the chinese government, and support taiwan. So to my republican colleagues, house and senate, lets Work Together to ensure that passing the supplemental remains bipartisan, because only things that win support from both sides will make it to the president s desk. I thank my colleagues on both sides who have shown that bipartisanship is still the key to getting things done here in the senate, and now, because of that bipartisanship, the appropriations process is finally, finally moving forward. On our a. I. Insight forum, yesterday the senate held our second bipartisan a. I. Insight forum. This one was focused on our north star for a. I. , and that is innovation. It was an amazing three hours. We learned so much about all the things we need to know to do on a. I. , as well as things we still dont know. The biggest takeaway from our a. I. Insight forum so far is that government has to be involved on a. I. , and that was the consensus among everybody yesterday, just as it was a few weeks ago. Democrats, republicans, liberals, conservatives everyone in between knew that government had to be involved. But after yesterdays conversation, ill add a few more things we agreed to. First, as you know, at the last forum everyone agreed that the government had to be involved, but after todays forum, there was universal agreement that congress had to be prepared, not just to be involved, but to invest significant resources in a. I. Innovation, both inside the government and outside, helping companies and universities and others. Because the government cant do things in terms of dollar investments because the government can do things in terms of dollar investments that others simply cant. The awesome power of the federal government and its ability to provide resources is way beyond the capability of any one company, university, etc. One number mentioned yesterday was about 32 billion in nondefense federal spending, which is what the bipartisan National Security commission on a. I. Said we need in their 2021 report. It doesnt have to happen all at once, but its important we prioritize these investments now and continue over time. Just about everybody in the room agreed that 32 billion is really a floor, not a ceiling. So were going to need, if away want to stay number one in a. I. And get our arms around it and make sure the good is maximized and the bad minimized, were going to need significant federal dollars. A. I. Is another reason that we must fully appropriate the funds authorized in the chips and science acts. And that came up many times. There are many things that we authorized in the chips and science act that havent been appropriated. We have to do those things. If we want to stay in the lead economically and in a. I. The second point that was made was that congress doesnt have a lot of time to act, because a. I. Moves so fast and is growing in its complexity. We need to be proactive, not reactive. Thats one reason weve made these a. I. Insight forums a priority. A third point was made was our race against the chinese government. China is not waiting to invest in a. I. , just as they didnt wait on science and chips. With the science and chips bill, we met them, maybe even exceeded them, by putting in some real investments. We must do the same thing with a. I. Or we will fall behind. Many of the speakers noted that if china gains the read in the loo ed in a. I. , they will become the the lead in a. I. , they will become the number one economy in the world and set the values, authoritarian, not democratic, and americans will suffer. This investment in a. I. Must be done. Otherwise, we will fall behind china, something we dont want to do, and both parties agreed thats the case. Particularly a point made by some of my republican colleagues, well fall behind on National Security. If china gets ahead of us in a. I. And applies that to National Security and we dont do what were supposed to do, we will really have some problems. It so, thats point three. Point four, just to reiterate, we need innovation, we need the government to help create innovation, both on the transformational side, creating new vistas, unelectroniccing new cures, im unlocking new cures, pro teskting food plys protecting food supplies, this is harder, on sustainable innovation. That means to minimize the harms from a. I. Like job loss, racial and gender bias, economic displacement, because if we dont have some guardrails, the whole thing, the whole a. I. Enterprise could go off the rails. And that would be a real detriment to this country and to our world. The private sector does a good job on positive transformational innovation. They need some help. Government needs to be involved, particularly in setting an ecosystem that works, in providing some of the resources to Smaller Companies so theyre not outdwarfed not dwarfed by the larger companies. But only the government can provide the guardrails for sustainable innovation. Its not reasonable to expected all companies to act op their own on their own, even less reasonable that theyd act in concert, even if a few do. The challenge will be a balance between placing guardrails and preserving innovation. Its a tough challenge, but you know, as Theodore Roosevelt said, were in the arena. If not us, who . No one will do it. So again, yesterday was an exciting, illuminating, eyeopening conversation. Thank you to all the senators who came yesterday, from both sides of the aisle. And lets note, were still at the beginning. We will continue to hold bipartisan a. I. Insight forums in the weeks and months to come, and encourage the relevant committees to begin drawing up bipartisan legislation. Second avenue subway, mr. President , new york city is in the midst of an infrastructure renaissance. From the gateway tunnel to east side access to penn station access. Today, i have even more great news for new york im proud to announce that the Second Avenue subway will receive 3. 4 billion in federal funding to advance to phase two of its construction. I have worked myself to the bone for years fighting for federal funding for the Second Avenue subway, and i want to thank my colleague, who has been along my side as we do that, that is Congress Member adriana wesbiat who recommends the air doctor in congress. He has been a champion for funding. Thanks to the investments we made in our bipartisan infrastructure law, Second Avenue subway has now received the largest Capital Investment grant in the history of the cig program. These are no longer abstract. Billions of dollars passed in congress. Now its across the country, like leer in new york and in east harlem in particular, its becoming real, real in terms of jobs and real in terms of better transportation. The federal funding will mean tens of thousands of goodpaying jobs in new york, expanded services will benefit more than 300,000 riders on the Second Avenue subway every day. Thats more people than most cities have. Its important to do. Most importantly is it the subway will now expand into east harlem, which has desperately needed better access to public transportation. When work on the Second Avenue new subway is complete, people already have a better time getting to work, doctors office, school and more. The studies show when theres transit. People get better and more highpaying jobs, because they can find these jobs and get to them easily, and dont say its such a long commute, i cant work. There thanks to President Biden, and our democratic and republican bipartisanship action in the senate, which i was so proud to help lead, new york continues to reap the benefits of our agenda stronger infrastructure, more maufacturing jobs, lower Prescription Drug costs and more opportunity. I thank the administration for awardi