[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 96 (Thursday, May 21, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Page S2578]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                       Senate Legislative Agenda

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, a few announcements for the information 
of all of our colleagues.
  When we reconvene after meeting with our constituents and monitoring 
the pandemic response in our States, the Senate will first continue to 
fill critical vacancies in the executive branch.
  This week, we confirmed a new Director of National Intelligence. In 
just a moment, we will confirm a new Secretary of the Navy.
  But our Democratic colleagues would not let the Senate fill several 
more posts over at the Pentagon. So, as has sadly become the norm over 
the last 3 years, the Senate will be spending floor time and multiple 
rollcall votes on each of the following: an Assistant Secretary of 
Defense and the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy.
  If you can believe this, I also had to file cloture on the incoming 
Special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery. If we had a nickel for 
every time our Democratic colleagues have claimed that congressional 
oversight of the recovery programs was important, the CARES Act would 
have paid for itself. Yet Democrats blocked the confirmation of the 
special inspector general to look over the program this week.
  The Senate will prepare to confirm these qualified people the hard 
way. Three years and counting of Democratic heel-dragging continues.
  Of course, there will be plenty of legislative business before us as 
well. Senators will continue to monitor the pandemic response and 
discuss ways to help the Nation pivot toward reopening and economic 
recovery.
  In addition, thanks to the hard work of Senators Gardner and Daines, 
we will be able to take up their bipartisan Great American Outdoors Act 
in the next work period. It is a milestone achievement to secure public 
lands and ensure their upkeep well into the future.
  We will have the National Defense Authorization Act so that we do not 
let this pandemic take our eye off the ball of our Nation's security.
  We will have much work to do in our home States next week. We will 
have much to do when we get back here after that. All around the 
Nation, Americans are taking precautions, but they are continuing to 
show up to do essential jobs and keep the Nation going. The Senate is 
not going to be any exception to showing up.

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