[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 160 (Wednesday, September 16, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5619-S5620]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                               Venezuela

  Madam President, finally, later today my friends Senators Durbin, 
Menendez, and Van Hollen will come to the floor to try again to secure 
temporary protected status for Venezuelans seeking refuge here in the 
United States. There are roughly 200,000 eligible Venezuelans in the 
United States who are now at risk of being sent back to a failed and 
dangerous nation, rife with political repression and human suffering--a 
nation that, under Maduro's regime, constitutes the single biggest 
humanitarian crisis in our hemisphere today.
  Despite having all the authority that he needs to solve this problem 
on his own, President Trump will not grant temporary protected status, 
and his enablers in the Senate have repeatedly blocked passage of House 
legislation that would provide it. So we are going to try once again to 
get this passed.
  Democrats stand with the people of Venezuela. Later today, my 
Republican colleagues will need to decide if they want to restore the 
moral leadership of the United States and support the protection of 
Venezuelans fleeing violence and despair or leave them all in limbo, 
facing deportation to a humanitarian disaster.

[[Page S5620]]

  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. THUNE. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.