[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 11 (Tuesday, January 18, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S229-S231]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          LEGISLATIVE SESSION

                                 ______
                                 

            NASA ENHANCED USE LEASING EXTENSION ACT OF 2021

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President--of the Senate pro tempore, as well--Mr. 
President, it is my understanding the Senate has received a message 
from the House of Representatives to accompany H.R. 5746.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator is correct.
  Mr. SCHUMER. I ask that the Chair lay before the Senate the House 
message to accompany H.R. 5746.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The question is on agreeing to the motion 
to lay before the Senate the message from the House.
  The motion was agreed to.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will report the bill by title.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore laid before the Senate the following 
message from the House of Representatives.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       Resolved, That the House agree to the amendment of the 
     Senate to the bill (H.R. 5746) entitled ``An Act to amend 
     title 51, United States Code, to extend the authority of the 
     National Aeronautics and Space Administration to enter into 
     leases of nonexcess property of the Administration.'', with 
     an amendment.


                            Motion to Concur

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I move to concur in the House amendment 
to the Senate amendment to H.R. 5746.


                Motion to Concur with Amendment No. 4903

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I move to concur in the House amendment 
to the Senate amendment to H.R. 5746 with an amendment.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will report.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       The Senator from New York [Mr. Schumer] moves to concur in 
     the House amendment to the Senate amendment with an amendment 
     numbered 4903.

  Mr. SCHUMER. I ask that further reading of the amendment be waived.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The amendment is as follows:

                  (Purpose: To add an effective date)

       At the end add the following:

     SEC. __. EFFECTIVE DATE.

       This Act shall take effect on the date that is 1 day after 
     the date of enactment of this Act.

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays on the motion 
to concur with an amendment.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Is there a sufficient second?
  There appears to be a sufficient second.
  The yeas and nays were ordered.


                Amendment No. 4904 to Amendment No. 4903

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I have an amendment to the amendment, 
which is at the desk.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will report.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       The Senator from New York [Mr. Schumer] proposes an 
     amendment numbered 4904 to amendment No. 4903.

  Mr. SCHUMER. I ask that further reading of the amendment be dispensed 
with.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The amendment is as follows:

                (Purpose: To modify the effective date)

        On page 1, line 3, strike ``1 day'' and insert ``2 days''.


                   Motion to Refer Amendment No. 4905

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I move to refer the House message to 
accompany H.R. 5746 to the Committee on Rules, with instructions to 
report back forthwith with an amendment.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will report the motion.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       The Senator from New York [Mr. Schumer] refers the House 
     message to accompany H.R. 5746 to the Committee on Rules with 
     instructions to report back forthwith with an amendment 
     numbered 4905.

  Mr. SCHUMER. I ask that further reading be dispensed with.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The amendment is as follows:

[[Page S230]]

  


                  (Purpose: To add an effective date)

       At the end add the following:

     SEC. __. EFFECTIVE DATE.

       This Act shall take effect on the date that is 4 days after 
     the date of enactment of this Act.

  Mr. SCHUMER. I ask for the yeas and nays.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Is there a sufficient second?
  There appears to be a sufficient second.
  The yeas and nays were ordered.


                           Amendment No. 4906

  Mr. SCHUMER. I have an amendment to the instructions, which is at the 
desk.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will report.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       The Senator from New York [Mr. Schumer] proposes an 
     amendment numbered 4906 to the instructions with the motion 
     to concur.

  Mr. SCHUMER. I ask that further reading be dispensed with.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The amendment is as follows:

                (Purpose: To modify the effective date)

        On page 1, line 3, strike ``4'' and insert ``5''.

  Mr. SCHUMER. I ask for the yeas and nays.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Is there a sufficient second?
  There appears to be a sufficient second.
  The yeas and nays were ordered.


                Amendment No. 4907 to Amendment No. 4906

  Mr. SCHUMER. I have an amendment to the amendment, which is at the 
desk.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will report.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       The Senator from New York [Mr. Schumer] proposes an 
     amendment numbered 4907 to amendment No. 4906.

  Mr. SCHUMER. I ask that further reading be dispensed with.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The amendment is as follows:

                (Purpose: To modify the effective date)

        On page 1, line 1, strike ``5'' and insert ``6''.

                             Cloture Motion

  Mr. SCHUMER. I send a cloture motion to the motion to concur to the 
desk.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The clerk will report the cloture motion.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

                             Cloture Motion

       We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the 
     provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate, 
     do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the motion to 
     concur in the House amendment to the Senate amendment to H.R. 
     5746, a bill to amend title 51, United States Code, to extend 
     the authority of the National Aeronautics and Space 
     Administration to enter into leases of non-excess property of 
     the Administration.
         Charles E. Schumer, Jacky Rosen, Cory A. Booker, Richard 
           J. Durbin, Jack Reed, Amy Klobuchar, Jeff Merkley, 
           Tammy Duckworth, Robert Menendez, Chris Van Hollen, 
           Richard Blumenthal, Sheldon Whitehouse, Patty Murray, 
           Benjamin L. Cardin, Elizabeth Warren, Christopher 
           Murphy, Ben Ray Lujan.

  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from New York.


                   Congregation Beth Israel Shooting

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, before I begin the substance of my 
remarks, I want to offer a few words in reaction to the terrible 
hostage situation this weekend in Texas.
  Saturday's hostage crisis at Congregation Beth Israel was a 
horrifying reminder that the ancient poison of anti-Semitism continues 
to this day. I am relieved that all of the hostages made it out alive, 
and I commend the quick thinking of the first responders and of Rabbi 
Charlie Citron-Walker, who acted valiantly, and all those present for 
bringing this crisis to an end.
  Moving forward, we must get to the bottom of what inspired the 
terrorist attack on Saturday but increase our vigilance against all 
forms of anti-Semitism and racially motivated violence.
  Here in Congress, we must continue working to increase our investment 
in nonprofit security grants to groups that are targets of hate. We 
need to give our communities the tools they need to protect themselves 
so they can live without fear of being targeted for just who they are.
  On this day, I stand in solidarity with the congregation of Beth 
Israel, the Jewish community of Greater Dallas-Ft. Worth, and with all 
Jewish Americans for whom Saturday's attack was a traumatic reminder of 
the hate we have yet to overcome.


                             Voting Rights

  Mr. President, this is on defending democracy. The eyes of the Nation 
will be watching what happens this week in the U.S. Senate.
  Just a few days removed from what would have been Dr. Martin Luther 
King, Jr.'s 93rd birthday, the Senate has begun debate on the Freedom 
to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act--for the 
first time, the first time in this Congress.
  Democrats have tried for months to hold a voting rights debate on the 
floor, but we have been blocked each time by Republicans. We brought 
commonsense proposals four times on the floor of the Senate and only 
once did one Senator--Lisa Murkowski, to her credit--agree to even 
begin debate on voting rights. On all three other votes, not a single 
Republican joined us. Every one of them voted to block even a debate on 
voting rights.
  So, today, we are taking this step by using a message from the House. 
Now, it is just a step, but an important step moving forward, in that 
we will finally debate this one issue that is so central to the 
American people, to our history, and to our democracy.
  As we debate these measures, the Senate will confront a critical 
question: Shall the Members of this Chamber do what is necessary to 
pass these bills and bring them closer to the President's desk?
  Today, we have just taken the first steps that will put everyone--
everyone--on the record. Much has been said over the past few days 
about the prospects of passing voting rights legislation in this 
Chamber. Senate Democrats are under no illusion that we face difficult 
odds, especially when virtually every Senate Republican--every Senate 
Republican--is staunchly against legislation protecting the right to 
vote.
  But I want to be clear. When this Chamber confronts a question this 
important--one so vital to our country, so vital to our ideals, so 
vital to the future of our democracy--you don't slide it off the table 
and say, ``Never mind.'' Win, lose, or draw, Members of this Chamber 
were elected to debate and to vote, especially on an issue as vital to 
the beating heart of our democracy as voting rights. The public is 
entitled to know where each Senator stands on an issue as sacrosanct as 
defending our democracy. The American people deserve to see their 
Senators go on record on whether they will support these bills or 
oppose them. Indeed, that may be the only way to make progress on this 
issue now, for the public to see where each of us in this Chamber 
stands. The public deserves to see it, and that is exactly, precisely, 
what the Senate is going to do this week.

  Make no mistake about it. Using Dr. King as an inspiration, Democrats 
will continue to fight on this issue until we succeed, and I believe 
history will vindicate us.
  Mr. President, the fight over voting rights is as old as the Republic 
itself. Recently--well, let me say, when the Republic was founded, in 
many States you had to be a White male Protestant property owner to 
vote. As is obvious by who is in this Chamber, we have made progress--
inexorable progress--in expanding that franchise.
  History does not regard those restrictions that occurred early on as 
worthy, but we must continue the fight. We have not reached the place 
where every person can vote easily and openly and honestly. So we have 
to keep it up.
  I have been reading the biography of Ulysses S. Grant by Ron Chernow. 
The No. 1 thing the southern segregationists wanted to take away from 
the newly freed slaves was the right to vote. Segregationists back then 
knew that if recently freed Black slaves didn't have the right to vote 
in the South, they would have no power at all: no power over laws, over 
resources, over the future of the country. And that was the No. 1 thing 
segregationists wanted to prevent: the right of the newly freed slaves 
to vote.
  It is why, a century later, Dr. King made a direct appeal to Congress 
for acting on voting rights: ``Give us the

[[Page S231]]

ballot,'' he said in 1957, ``and we will no longer have to worry the 
federal government about our basic rights.'' ``Give us the ballot'' and 
all other rights will follow. With the ballot, he argued, voters could 
end the worst of racial segregation. They could elect good men and good 
women to government. They could subdue the dangers of the mob and keep 
democracy alive. But the ballot had to come first. The ballot had to 
come first.
  Dr. King might as well have been speaking to us, because across the 
United States, in 2022, ballot access is not being expanded; it is 
being repressed. And our democracy is not safe; it is under attack.
  A year ago, a violent mob incited by the President and his Big Lie 
attacked this very building in order to reverse the results of a free 
and fair election. Last week, for the first time, the Department of 
Justice announced sedition charges against a number of the rioters who 
were here that day.
  A year later, at least 19 States have passed 33 laws that make it 
harder for people to vote, using the Big Lie--the Big Lie, as false as 
it is--as a justification. Those States together are home to 55 million 
Americans, and new laws are certainly coming once the State 
legislatures return to session this year. And the kind of violence--the 
threats of violence--we saw on January 6 by that insurrectionist mob is 
now being threatened increasingly against countless election workers 
across the country.
  Just this weekend, the Houston Chronicle reported that ``County 
officials in urban areas across the State [of Texas] say they've been 
forced to reject an unprecedented number of mail ballot applications 
[thanks to the new Republican voter suppression law.]
  And this past Saturday, Donald Trump once again repeated the same 
conspiracy theories about the 2020 election that have paved the way for 
voter suppression at the State level.
  So, unfortunately, the dangers that face our democracy are alive and 
well, and the laws that suppress the vote at the State level are being 
enacted on a partisan basis.
  We have seen periods of regression, in terms of voting rights and 
equality and fairness to people of color. We have seen regression 
occur. And this seems to be a period of regression in what the 
legislatures are doing, and fight it we must.
  So the Senate must act. We must step in and act. We must do 
everything to pass voting rights legislation, just as this Chamber has 
done in the past, just as the Constitution permits us to do. That is 
why we will vote this week on the Freedom to Vote Act and the John 
Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. And if Republicans choose to 
continue their filibuster of voting rights legislation, we must 
consider and vote on the rule changes that are appropriate and 
necessary to restore the Senate and make voting legislation possible.
  As I have recounted already, these laws are urgently needed. We must 
not--we cannot--allow another period of that regression, which we have 
seen throughout American history.
  Here is what some of the laws would do--our two laws would do:
  They would set basic commonsense standards for all Americans for 
access to the ballot as well as restore preclearance provisions that 
were passed by this Chamber for decades on a bipartisan basis. They 
would establish clear and consistent standards for early voting across 
the country and make it easier for voters to access absentee ballots. 
They would protect election workers from unlawful intimidation. We are 
seeing so much of that now. It is disgraceful--disgraceful. They would 
end the toxic practice of partisan gerrymandering, and they would take 
new steps to fight the power of dark money corroding our elections. 
Senate Democrats repeatedly tried, over the last year, to bring 
Republicans to the table to debate these issues.
  I will remind my colleagues that this is not the old Republican 
Party. I would remind the American people how dramatically the 
Republican Party has regressed. The Republican Party used to be one 
that supported voting rights. Presidents Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and 
George W. Bush worked to renew voting rights bills.
  No, sadly, unfortunately, this is Donald Trump's Republican Party. 
And it is the one now trying to take away the vote from younger Black 
and Brown, elderly, minority, and low-income voters.
  And yet every time we try to engage our Senate Republican colleagues, 
they resist it. So we have no choice. We are moving ahead on our own.
  Once again, no one denies the path ahead is an uphill struggle. 
Republicans have been clear, they will entertain no bipartisan 
compromise on voting rights, but long odds are no excuse for this 
Chamber to avoid this important issue.
  Again, Members of this Chamber were elected to debate and to vote. We 
are going to vote. We are all going to go on the record. And 
Republicans will have to choose which side they stand on--protecting 
democracy or offering their implicit endorsement of Donald Trump's Big 
Lie.
  For months, Senate Republicans have come up with excuses and 
subterfuges to avoid doing what they know is the right thing, just like 
so many others have come up with similar lame excuses and subterfuges 
in the past. But as history shows, doing the right thing will 
eventually prevail. Justice will flow like mighty waters, as the 
Prophet Amos has said.
  The direction of voting rights in America is enough to have shaken 
the faith of even the most optimistic champion of America--of 
democracy. Sometimes it seems like for each step forward, the country 
takes two steps back, but fights like this are not unusual in American 
history.
  The story of our country has been a long, arduous march toward 
expanding the promise of freedom for all Americans. We find ourselves 
in such a struggle today.
  Dr. King had simple, powerful advice for his followers during moments 
like this: Keep moving. Keep fighting. The road to justice is often 
painful and full of setback, but we must keep moving. We must keep 
moving, he said, against every obstacle and prodigious hilltop and 
mountain of opposition. Let nothing slow you down. And even after you 
cross the Red Sea only to find yourself in the desert, just keep moving 
forward through the wilderness. ``And if you will do that with 
dignity,'' he said, ``when the history books are written in the future, 
the historians will have to look back and say, `There lived a great 
people.'''
  We will keep fighting in the same spirit to protect our democracy in 
this day and age. And if we do that, I have faith that one day the 
history books will likewise look back at this generation of Americans 
and conclude, ``There lived a great people,'' too.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Lujan). The Senator from Vermont.


                   Congregation Beth Israel Shooting

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I applaud the remarks of our distinguished 
majority leader, and I know it comes from the heart because what he is 
saying publicly, he has also always said both publicly and privately. 
And I also join with him in the condemnation of the attack on the 
synagogue this weekend.
  I know, in my State of Vermont, the faith community--the Jewish, 
Protestant, Catholic--all came together with prayers for the safety of 
the people in the synagogue. But more than just the safety of what 
happened then, let us pray, all of us, whatever faith we have, that 
such attacks do not continue in our country.
  We have seen too many attacks against people based on their religion 
or based on their race or based on their country of origin. That is 
wrong.
  In this country, in this country, especially--I was thinking of this 
when I led the Senate this morning in the Pledge of Allegiance, and I 
thought, ``[O]ne nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and 
justice for all.'' Well, it is a constant battle to make sure that we 
have liberty and justice for all, and we have to do that.

                          ____________________