[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 112 (Wednesday, June 17, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3046-S3049]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                    Nomination of Justin Reed Walker

  Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, we are in the middle of a pandemic. The 
President of the United States doesn't act like it, but Americans are 
still dying by the hundreds--several hundred almost every day.
  We are in the middle of an economic crisis. Again, the President of 
the United States doesn't act like it. He crows about the unemployment 
numbers when they are the worst since World War II.
  And we are in the middle of a crisis of conscience. Millions of 
Americans have taken to the streets to protest the murders of Black and 
Brown Americans by the people supposed to protect them.
  With all of these challenges, the President of the United States is 
failing. The Senate should be stepping in right now to fill that 
leadership void, to get more help to families and to communities that 
are going bankrupt, to protect workers--to use every tool we have to 
force the administration to get some kind of test trace isolate regime 
in place to truly stop the spread of the coronavirus. We should be 
listening to the protestors demanding justice in communities all across 
the country, large and small.
  They remind us this pandemic isn't a separate issue from racial 
justice--it is all connected. It is not a coincidence that President 
Trump stopped even pretending to try to fight the coronavirus once he 
realized it was disproportionately Black and Brown Americans dying, not 
very often one of his rich friends.
  In the Senate, we have plans to get help and protections to workers; 
we have plans to fund a scale-up of testing that gets us closer to the 
level we need; we have plans to work to hold police accountable; we 
have begun to tackle the systemic racism in our justice system.
  Look at it this way: The last time I was on an airplane was in mid-
March. I live close enough--6-hour drive between Cleveland and 
Washington. In mid-March, there were about 90 coronavirus cases 
diagnosed in the United States--halfway around the world from where the 
Presiding Officer likes to emphasize it came from, Wuhan. About 900 
miles from Wuhan is the capital of South Korea--Seoul. In South Korea, 
around that same time, there were 90 cases. So South Korea had 90 
diagnosed cases; the United States had about 90 diagnosed cases.
  Since that date in March, fewer than 300 Koreans have died of the 
coronavirus; over 110,000 Americans have died of the coronavirus.

[[Page S3047]]

  In Korea, their unemployment rate now is under 4 percent; our 
unemployment rate is somewhere between three and four times that.
  That is clearly the incompetence--this is not a partisan statement. I 
have watched my Republican Governor of Ohio, who has done a good job, 
teamed up with Dr. Amy Acton, the health director, in combating this 
virus early, while the President of the United States was still blaming 
the virus on--saying it was a hoax or not real or whatever he said, and 
then his inept leadership didn't scale up testing, didn't have any 
national program to provide protective equipment to our people.
  So we have seen the bungled leadership out of the White House--
110,000 Americans passed away, an unemployment rate higher than at any 
time in my lifetime--but we are not doing anything about that here in 
this body. Why? Because Leader McConnell doesn't want to do anything 
about it, for whatever reason. Instead of rising to meet the crisis of 
the pandemic or unemployment or the protests on our streets, Senator 
McConnell wants to create a new crisis by confirming more extreme 
judges that are trying to take away America's healthcare.
  The challenges we are facing as a country are bad enough. Imagine if 
Leader McConnell and President Trump get their way--their handpicked 
judges throw tens of millions of Americans off of their health 
insurance in the middle of a pandemic. That sounds farfetched? Well, 
no, it isn't.

  In the middle of a pandemic, this President continues his lawsuit to 
try to overturn the Affordable Care Act, even though the voters have 
ratified it through a number of elections in 2012 and 2014 and 2016 and 
2018. It still stands, but the President of the United States is trying 
to take away people's healthcare. They are trying to sneak ACA repeal 
through the courts since they couldn't do it in Congress.
  While the rest of the country is distracted just trying to keep their 
families safe, judges are deciding the fate of America's health 
coverage right now.
  The nomination we are considering this week--right now on the floor--
of Judge Walker is part of that effort. Judge Walker has served in the 
Western District of Kentucky for just 6 months.
  What makes him qualified for the DC Circuit? It is not the 6 months 
he served in Kentucky. In fact, the bar association in Kentucky said he 
wasn't qualified for that job. He has only had it for 6 months. What 
makes him qualified?
  Just go down the hall. I am sure you could have seen many, many times 
Judge Walker when he was Law Clerk Walker or Young Man Walker or 
Grandson of Contributor Walker going in and out of Senator McConnell's 
office. He is a protege of McConnell's. He thinks the way McConnell 
thinks; he acts the way McConnell acts; and that is what it is all 
about.
  Before his nomination to the district court, Walker praised then-
Judge Kavanaugh for providing a roadmap the Supreme Court could use to 
strike down the ACA. So it isn't just that Judge Walker is a young, 
unqualified, extremist, far-right protege of the majority leader. It is 
not just that. I mean, talk about the swamp. That is what that is.
  What it is all about is putting another vote in a key place to 
overturn the Affordable Care Act. He is calling upholding the ACA 
indefensible and catastrophic.
  I don't know how, in the middle of a pandemic, you look at the 
American landscape, you see how many people have been sick--millions of 
Americans have been sick--110,000 Americans have died, hundreds more 
every day, and you think one of the most important things you can do is 
strip millions of Americans of their healthcare.
  He has continued his attacks on American healthcare protections since 
he joined the Federal bench. In March 2020, at his formal swearing-in 
ceremony as district judge, Judge Walker said the worst words he heard 
while clerking for Justice Kennedy on the Supreme Court were the Chief 
Justice's rationale for upholding the ACA. The worst words he heard 
from the man for whom he was working were his words to uphold the ACA, 
the Affordable Care Act.
  Now, what I forgot to mention was that when Judge Walker said that at 
his swearing-in ceremony, there were a couple of important visitors 
there.
  Although the Senate should have been in session and finished our work 
on the first round of the coronavirus, Senator McConnell--his office is 
down the hall. As we know, Senator McConnell decided to adjourn the 
Senate and go back to Kentucky for this swearing-in. Judge Kavanaugh, 
another protege, if you will, of Senator McConnell's was there too.
  So don't forget, Senator McConnell is on the ballot this year. 
Senator McConnell faces an opponent who is running neck and neck with 
him. It is a very Republican State, but Senator McConnell is not a 
particularly well-liked figure in his State, as we have seen through 
many years.
  So Senator McConnell didn't do his job here. It is not just he didn't 
do his job. He stopped us from doing our jobs so he could fly back, be 
with Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh, to remind the voters in Kentucky 
that he is the strong man who got Judge Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court 
and then to celebrate the swearing-in of just another young judge to a 
Federal district court. That is where Senator McConnell's priorities 
are.
  We know Judge Walker is the latest in a long line of judges pushed by 
President Trump, rammed through by Leader McConnell, as his minions, 
shills, obedient junior Senators or sheep--you choose the noun for your 
colleagues--all vote yes so you could put another member on another 
Federal court who is trying to take away Americans' healthcare.
  Chad Readler, from my State, who is now serving on the Sixth Circuit, 
led the Trump administration's efforts to dismantle the entire 
Affordable Care Act, and David Porter, who holds a Pennsylvania seat on 
the Third Circuit, wrote that the ACA ``violates the Framers' 
constitutional design.''
  What kind of law training do you have, and what kind of upbringing do 
you have--what kind of way do you think?--that you would think that 
providing healthcare to citizens is a violation of the Framers' 
constitutional design? Who thinks that way? On and on it goes.
  The American people want to keep their healthcare. They have made 
that clear. They especially want to keep that healthcare in the middle 
of, for gosh sakes, a pandemic. Leader McConnell needs to stop trying 
to take it away through the courts and start letting us actually get to 
work to make people healthier.
  Let's get to work to save lives from the coronavirus. Let's get to 
work to save lives from police violence. Let's get to work to save 
lives from all of the inequities in our healthcare system. Let's get to 
work to put money in people's pockets, help them pay the bills and stay 
in their homes, and help State and local governments from laying off 
thousands and thousands of workers.
  Leader McConnell, let us do our job, the job for which we were 
elected.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Missouri.


          Unanimous Consent Requests--S. Res. 596 and S. 3798

  Mr. HAWLEY. Mr. President, I am here today to talk about the death of 
democracy, and I am here today to talk about how we can stand with 
those who are fighting to preserve it.
  In the United States, the death of democracy might seem like a 
distant and unfamiliar thing. We study examples in the history books. 
We read of nations and peoples who are forced, through no choice of 
their own, to surrender their basic liberties. We remind ourselves of 
the need always to stay vigilant, to stay aware, but we are seeing 
today the death of democracy unfold in realtime, right before our eyes, 
in the city of Hong Kong.
  A diverse and global city, rich in culture and arts and commerce and 
people, Hong Kong is an outpost of liberty. For decades, under a 
special set of laws and protections, it has stood as a haven of 
liberty--a beacon, a light--but I fear that light is fast dimming, 
nearly overcome by darkness and by tyranny.
  This body, along with all free peoples, has a special responsibility 
to take a stand for the freedom-loving people of Hong Kong. We must 
take a stand to ensure that the light of Hong Kong does not go out 
forever. We must take a stand to ensure that this outpost of liberty 
lives on. We must take

[[Page S3048]]

a stand so that the flame of freedom is not extinguished forever by the 
Chinese Communist Party.
  On May 28, Beijing announced that it would adopt legislation that 
will essentially jettison the basic law under which Hong Kong has been 
governed for decades. It is legislation that will trample upon 
Beijing's own treaty commitments in the 1984 Sino-British Treaty, 
legislation--they call it legislation, but, of course, what it really 
is is just fiat, fiat by the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing--that 
will strip Hong Kong of its basic liberties, strip Hongkongers of the 
right to freedom of speech, strip Hongkongers of the right to 
peacefully assemble, strip Hongkongers of their rights to redress in 
fair and open courts with some process of law.
  Beijing wants to deny the people of Hong Kong all of these things 
because liberty is a threat to the authoritarian Communist regime in 
Beijing. Oh, it fears that more than anything else. It fears the 
people. It fears the will of the people, and it fears the liberty of 
the people. It is trying to destroy the last outpost of liberty in its 
nation--the great city of Hong Kong.
  Now, we were promised that it would not come to this. We were told, 
when China joined the World Trade Organization, when China was given 
permanent normal trade relations, when China was ushered into this so-
called community of nations, that it would liberalize China and that it 
would make the Chinese Communist Party more moderate. Well, I think we 
know how that has turned out.
  After decades now of stealing our jobs, decades of ripping us off in 
trade, decades of impoverishing our own workers here in this country 
while stealing our intellectual property, decades of building its 
military on the backs of our middle class and our working people, now 
Beijing wants to dominate its region, snuff out Hong Kong, and then 
turn to the rest of the world.

  We have to send a clear message that we will not stand idly by. We 
will not allow Beijing to erase the history of its misdeeds. We will 
not allow it to erase the history of Tiananmen. We will not allow it to 
erase the history of the concentration camps it is running at this very 
moment, and we will not stand by while it destroys the liberties and 
the rights of the people of Hong Kong.
  It is time now for this body to stand and send a clear message that 
will call the other free nations to stand in support of the values we 
hold dear, in support of all that this country stands for, in support 
of the liberty of the people of Hong Kong.
  I yield to my colleague Senator Blackburn of Tennessee.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Tennessee.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Missouri for 
the work he is doing as he brings forward this resolution for Hong 
Kong.
  I want to take just a couple of minutes to remind those of us who 
have been watching this issue and have concerns about this resolution 
that the aggression we are seeing now is not something that is new. 
This is newly realized.
  As those of us who have followed this and followed the dealings of 
the Chinese Communist Party know, the newest so-called national 
security law is nothing more than the party's response to the threat 
that uprisings and protests in Hong Kong pose to its hold on power. It 
just can't stand it. It watches the freedom fighters in Hong Kong, and 
it thinks: What if it gets away from us?
  Hong Kong is our financial center, and it is watching what is 
happening in the rest of the free world. Australia, Canada, and the UK 
all have signed the official joint statement with us, the United States 
of America, expressing deep concern with this so-called national 
security legislation, which really is the Communist Party's way of 
stepping into Hong Kong and usurping the power--of going back on a deal 
it made long ago.
  Beijing claims that it needs this law to control against ``subversion 
of state power,'' but, again, anyone who has been paying attention 
knows that it will use this standard as an excuse to redefine 
``subversion'' and engage in the violent repression of speech, 
association, and movement--with no cause and without mercy. This is how 
it has kept control. It is a pattern, and there is no reason to believe 
it is going to do anything differently this time around.
  Over the past year, we have seen how willing Chinese officials are to 
trample every international norm, every law, every principle of 
diplomacy to force their hand on their own people and on other 
countries. Now, against all odds, forces in Beijing have found a way to 
make life in Hong Kong more dangerous than it has been by 
delegitimizing peaceful and nonviolent protests and journalism that 
doesn't mirror party propaganda. They have seized even more hope away 
from the freedom fighters who have captured the world's attention in 
their stunning displays of defiance.
  It is really quite a battle that is taking place, and I thank my 
colleagues for the good work they have done in standing against the 
Chinese Communist Party's aggression.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Missouri.
  Mr. HAWLEY. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Tennessee for her 
tremendous work on this issue. I thank her for her leadership and for 
her strong stance in favor of the people of Hong Kong and their basic 
liberties, guaranteed to them by the international treaty commitments 
that Beijing has ascribed to, that Beijing has signed up for, and that 
it now seeks to violate with impunity.
  Let's be clear about what Beijing wants. It says that Hong Kong is 
its plaything to do with as it chooses. That is not the case. Beijing 
has undertaken internationally binding commitments, agreements, by 
which it has agreed to protect and honor the basic liberties of the 
people of Hong Kong, and it is those commitments that it is seeking to 
violate today with impunity. It is those commitments Beijing is seeking 
to wriggle out of just as it has, time and again, violated its 
agreements with this country, just as it has, time and again, cheated 
on its obligations to Americans.
  That is another reason I am calling on the Senate today to pass a 
resolution that makes it our position that China has gone too far. We 
must go on record and tell the world that this new national security 
law--this fiat that has been issued by Beijing--is a violation of what 
Beijing has committed to. It is a violation of the fundamental 
liberties of the people of Hong Kong, and nothing less than freedom is 
at stake.
  My resolution also calls on this administration to use every 
diplomatic means available to stay Beijing's hand. The President has 
already begun the process of downgrading Hong Kong's special trade 
status. We must build on that effort now by rallying nations--the free 
nations of the world--to pressure China to back down from their attempt 
to strip away the basic liberties of the people of Hong Kong because, 
in the end, Hong Kong's struggle is the struggle of all free people.

  Do you know what I said when I had the chance to visit the city, see 
the protests, and be out on the streets myself last fall? That 
sometimes the fate of one city defines the struggle of a generation. In 
the 1960s, that city was Berlin. Today, that city is Hong Kong, and it 
is time for this body to take a stand.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. Blackburn). The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. HAWLEY. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. HAWLEY. Madam President, as if in legislative session, I now ask 
unanimous consent that the Committee on Foreign Relations be discharged 
from further consideration and the Senate now proceed to S. Res. 596. I 
further ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the 
preamble be agreed to, and that the motions to reconsider be considered 
made and laid upon the table.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  The Senator from Maryland.
  Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Madam President, I am reserving the right to object.
  As I listened carefully to the statements made by the Senator from 
Missouri about the aggressive and unacceptable conduct of the 
Government of

[[Page S3049]]

China, or Hong Kong, he is absolutely right, I believe, that it is 
important that the U.S. Senate--in fact, that the U.S. Government take 
action strongly expressing our disapproval but also take action to 
actually show the Government of China that there will be a price to pay 
if they continue down that path of aggression and try to snuff out the 
freedoms of the people of Hong Kong.
  That is why, immediately after the Government of China announced its 
intentions to move in that direction, we introduced a bipartisan bill. 
Senator Toomey introduced the bill. I am proud to join him as a 
cosponsor. We have other Democratic and Republican cosponsors to the 
bill. I am pleased to see the Senator from North Dakota on the floor. 
He is a cosponsor of that bill. It is called the Hong Kong Autonomy 
Act.
  In addition to expressing the sentiments that the Senator from 
Missouri lays out in his Senate resolution, it proposes that we take 
action as the Government of the United States. While we have heard 
statements from Secretary Pompeo, the reality is that this 
administration has not exercised any of its existing sanctions 
authority that it could take to express our strong disapproval of the 
actions the Government of China is proposing to take with respect to 
Hong Kong. That is why we introduced the bipartisan bill, again, 
outlining all the transgressions the Senator from Missouri talked about 
but actually doing something about them by requiring that the 
administration impose sanctions on individuals in the Government of 
China who are undermining the rights of the people in Hong Kong and 
requiring them to impose sanctions on Chinese Government entities that 
are depriving the people of Hong Kong of the freedoms the Senator 
talked about. It goes beyond that. It says that any bank that is aiding 
and abetting the Government of China in snuffing out the rights of the 
people of Hong Kong can be subject to sanctions.
  Now, I know the Senator from Missouri knows the Government of China 
well enough to understand that the Senate passing a resolution and 
leaving it at that is not going to change their conduct. I think the 
Senator is enough of a student of the Chinese Communist Government to 
recognize that. So that is exactly why we introduced this bipartisan 
legislation because if we want to have any chance of influencing the 
conduct of the Government of China, we have to make it clear there will 
be a price to pay. There is no price to be paid in the Senate passing a 
resolution. It is a nice statement. I support the statement, but I am 
also a little tired of this body passing a lot of resolutions, 
sometimes thinking we have actually done something when we haven't 
changed a thing.
  That is why I am here on the Senate floor to ask my colleagues to 
support what is a bipartisan bill that actually has some teeth in it. 
It is not just a statement from the Senate. It is an action that will 
be taken by the Senate and the House and, hopefully, by this 
administration, which apparently doesn't want to take action. We have 
heard them already express concerns about this legislation.
  I would hope that if our colleagues on the Republican side feel as 
strongly as the Senator from Missouri does, they would want to back up 
those words with legislative action, and they would want to back up 
those words with something that is more meaningful and something that 
tells the Government of China that we stand together in making sure 
there is a price to pay.
  I know the Senator from Missouri has worked on other bills making it 
clear that we do not find acceptable all sorts of conduct by China. I 
have as well--bipartisan bills. I hope we can join together right here, 
right now, to support the expression--the statement--that the Senator 
from Missouri has brought to us but also go beyond that and send a 
signal right now that we, the U.S. Senate, want to be joined by the 
House and by the administration in putting action behind those words. 
That is exactly what the bipartisan Hong Kong Autonomy Act does.
  So I would respectfully request that the Senator from Missouri modify 
his request to ask, in addition to what he proposed, that the Banking 
Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. 3798, a bill 
to impose sanctions with respect to foreign persons involved in the 
erosion of certain obligations of China with respect to Hong Kong; that 
the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration; that the bill be 
considered read a third time and passed; and that the motion to 
reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no 
intervening action or debate.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Does the Senator from Missouri so modify his 
request?
  Mr. HAWLEY. I do.
  Is there objection to the request as modified?
  Mr. CRAMER. Madam President.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Dakota.
  Mr. CRAMER. Madam President, reserving the right to object, it is 
clear to the five or six of us Senators who are in the room right now 
that there is passion, that it is an important issue, and that there 
may even be unanimous consent in the hearts and minds, certainly, of 
the Senators with regard to both the spirit of the resolution and 
perhaps the letter of the bill, of which I am a cosponsor, that has 
been introduced by UC by the Senator from Maryland.
  I think it is clear that we all have the same objective here, but I 
also know there is just a handful of us in the room talking about a 
very important issue that may seem simple but we know is very 
complicated.
  We know that the administration has provided both technical and 
policy views on the bill, and I think with such an important issue that 
so many of us care deeply about, it deserves a little more discussion 
and debate than just to come to the floor with a UC.
  I am committed, as a member of the Banking Committee and as a 
cosponsor, to working with both committees and with the chairs of both 
committees of jurisdiction over the resolution and the bill to make 
sure we get it right as opposed to this UC.
  I want to work hard. I know you all do. I think we should work at 
looking at the comments from the administration, working together as 
Republicans and Democrats who care about this country, care about the 
people of Hong Kong, and who are concerned about the behavior of China. 
So I object to adoption of this bill before we have a chance to do 
exactly that.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  The Senator from Minnesota