[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 83 (Monday, May 16, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2509-S2515]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I move to proceed to legislative
session.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the motion.
The motion was agreed to.
Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, on one more matter that I would like to
address briefly--and I appreciate the indulgence of my friend, the
Senator from Illinois, who has waited.
On one other subject, I want to begin this week by wishing our
colleague and dear friend Senator Van Hollen a smooth and speedy
recovery after his announcement yesterday that he suffered a mild
stroke. Every single one of us is relieved--relieved--to hear he is
doing well; that his incident was minor; and that there are no long-
term effects. We wish our friend recovery and look forward to seeing
him here in the Senate later this week.
H.R. 7691
Madam President, on the floor today, the Senate is going to hold an
important vote to move forward desperately needed aid for the people of
Ukraine as they continue fighting against Russian aggression. We have a
moral obligation--a moral obligation--to pass this assistance as soon
as we can in the Senate.
The vast majority of us in this Chamber is united in getting this aid
done as quickly as possible, including myself and the Republican
leader, but last Thursday, the junior Senator from Kentucky prevented
the Senate from getting Ukraine funding out the door and onto the
President's desk.
The arguments he made on the floor last week made clear that he
outright opposes giving aid to the people of Ukraine as they fight
Russian authoritarianism. Senator Paul's obstruction of Ukraine funding
is totally unacceptable and only serves to strengthen Putin's hand in
the long run. I urge him to drop his opposition so we can reach an
agreement to get this package passed through the Senate as soon as we
can.
But, to be clear, his obstruction will not--will not--prevent Ukraine
aid from ultimately passing the Senate. One way or another, we are
going to get this done and send a clear message to Ukraine and to the
world that America stands on the side of democracy and against Putin's
deeply immoral campaign of violence.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The senior Senator from Illinois.
Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, let me join the majority leader in best
wishes to our colleague Chris Van Hollen.
It came as a surprise this morning, but we are heartened by the news
that he is recovering, and we hope he will be back with us very, very
soon. He is a wonderful Senator, who is representing his State
effectively, and he is very close to Members on both sides of the
aisle. So we wish him and his family all the strength and recovery as
quickly as he can.
Gun Violence
Madam President, this was another weekend of bloodshed and loss in
America.
In Chicago, five people were shot dead, including a 16-year-old boy--
killed near ``The Bean,'' which those of us in Chicago know
automatically as that sight in Millennium Park where people race to
gather and take photographs. It is one of the most popular attractions
in our city, and just this last weekend, it was the scene of a murder,
with one teenager killing another.
In California yesterday, a gunman walked into a church and opened
fire, killing one person and critically wounding four others. That same
afternoon, another gunman opened fire at a flea market in Houston,
killing two and injuring three.
A weekend in America.
But both of these mass shootings happened less than 24 hours after a
White supremacist massacred innocent shoppers at a grocery store in
Buffalo, NY. The shooter was wearing tactical gear and carrying an AR-
15 assault rifle--a weapon designed to kill people. He shot 13 people,
11 of whom were Black, in an act of racist violence; 10 of the victims
died. Each of these 10 people had left home Saturday, maybe to grab
dinner or to buy groceries for the week, and they never returned. Now
their families are facing the unimaginable trauma of loss. In an
instant, they lost a grandparent, a child, a spouse.
To those families, I say: You do not grieve alone. America grieves
with you.
One of the victims was Aaron Salter. He was a retired police officer
who was working as a security guard at the grocery store when it was
attacked. Officer Aaron Salter was a hero. When the gunman entered the
store, Officer Salter didn't flinch; he leapt into action to save the
lives of the shoppers and employees, but there was only so much he
could do. He was armed with a handgun while the person who attacked the
store was wearing a tactical vest and firing an assault rifle. Like so
many of our police who risk their lives for us every day, Officer
Salter was outgunned.
As we mourn Officer Salter's loss this week, our Nation's Capital is
welcoming law enforcement from across the country for Police Week.
To every officer who protects our communities like Officer Salter did
so valiantly, we give our thanks.
No officers should ever find themselves in a situation where they are
outgunned by an assailant, but that is exactly what happened in Buffalo
this weekend, and it happens far too often in cities like Chicago.
For decades, this Senate has failed to pass legislation that would
close the gaping holes in our gun laws and reduce the shootings that
tear apart law enforcement families and families of all kinds across
the country. How many more lives will be lost before we act?
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When will the Members of the Senate finally join together in
recognizing the role that White supremacy and White nationalism have
played in fueling these violent terrorist attacks?
Time and again, I have made my position on violent extremism as clear
as I can: The use of violence to advance political goals is always--
always--unacceptable. No matter the ideology, right or left, it is
wrong, but we need to be clear-eyed about the nature of the threat that
we face. Senior law enforcement and intelligence officials have warned
us on numerous occasions that the biggest terrorism threat in America
today is homegrown. It stems from White supremacists and violent
militia extremists.
I have been sounding this alarm for years. In 2012--2012--10 years
ago--I first held a hearing on domestic terrorism after a White
supremacist murdered seven Sikh worshippers in Oak Creek, WI. Today, a
decade later, the threat is even worse.
FBI Director Wray testified at the Judiciary Committee that the
threat of domestic terrorism is ``metastasizing across the country'';
and last year, the FBI reported that our Nation experienced the highest
level of hate crimes in over a decade. These attacks have targeted
Black Americans, who have long been the target of the majority of race-
based hate crimes in America, but they are not limited to just our
Black American neighbors. They have also targeted Muslim Americans,
Japanese Americans, members of the AAPI community, and members of other
marginalized communities as well.
They don't happen in a vacuum, and it is clear that influential
figures on the right have been fanning the flames of hate. The gunman
who attacked the grocery store in Buffalo was an adherent of the great
replacement theory--a conspiracy theory that fuels White supremacy and
White nationalism. It is the same White supremacist conspiracy theory
that inspired those neo-Nazis to march through Charlottesville, VA,
chanting: ``Jews will not replace us.'' You will remember that group.
President Trump said at the time that he wasn't sure that they were out
of line. They have inspired multiple mass shootings, including the
attack of Jewish Americans at a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018, on
Hispanic Americans at a Walmart in El Paso in 2019, and on Muslims at
two New Zealand mosques in 2019 as well.
This once-fringe conspiracy theory--this so-called great replacement
theory--has been dragged into the mainstream by media personalities
like FOX TV's Tucker Carlson. According to The New York Times, more
than 400 episodes--400 episodes--of Tucker Carlson's news program on
FOX TV, which attracts more viewers than any other show in the history
of cable news, have alluded to the great replacement theory. Tucker
Carlson is a leading ideologue in the White supremacist movement. He
has even introduced racist terminology into America's conversation,
like the phrase ``legacy Americans,'' which refers to the idea that
immigrants aren't real Americans. The phrase was first used on White
supremacist forums and websites. Tucker Carlson is right at home with
it.
But here is what is the most shocking to me: the number of elected
officials who will jump at any chance to get featured on Carlson's show
and echo his White supremacist blather--his dark gospel of fear and
hate and racism. We don't have to look far to find those elected
officials. The third-ranking House Republican claimed in a campaign ad
that Democratic immigration policies ``will overthrow our current
electorate.''
What will it finally take for the Republican Party to condemn this
hate once and for all, and what will it take for Members of the Senate
to join together in rooting out White supremacist violence?
As chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I will soon hold a
hearing on domestic terrorism, and the ideologies like the great
replacement conspiracy theory that inspired the acts of hate will be
expounded on at that hearing by experts.
We will also examine a piece of legislation that I introduced 5 years
ago, the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act, which would strengthen
Federal efforts to prevent and address White supremacist violence and
other forms of domestic terrorism. This legislation is an opportunity
for the Members of the Senate to stand united against hate. By passing
it, along with commonsense gun safety measures, we can finally address
the scourge of hate and violence that has claimed far too many American
lives.
Many Americans will be tuned in this week to Tucker Carlson's show to
see if he has any reaction to what happened in Buffalo. Could it be
that, for one shining moment, he will finally realize his complicity in
what happened after 400 shows of spewing fear and hate and in
subscribing to this great replacement theory, resulting in hatred
across this country which is visited on communities every single day?
Ten people died in Buffalo. Will Tucker Carlson take 10 minutes to
say he is sorry for any role he might have played in that outcome?
We will see.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Tennessee.
Border Security
Mrs. BLACKBURN. Madam President, there was some sobering data that
came out from the CDC last week. It was a new set of preliminary data
on overdose deaths. Last year, we lost almost 108,000 people to the
ravages of drug abuse. Almost 4,000 of those 108,000 were Tennesseans.
Those 2021 numbers are the worst that we have ever seen, and I am
concerned because it seems that my Democratic colleagues and their
friends in the White House are not seeing the big picture on this
issue.
Now, the White House claims they have a plan to address the drug
crisis in this country, but they have intentionally ignored a key
vulnerability when they do this. It is as if they are turning a blind
eye to a key component, to a key contributing factor, of this drug
crisis, and they are refusing to talk about it. It is the reason that
crime is on the rise in most of our American communities. It is also
the reason it is easier for drug dealers to get their hands on fentanyl
than on just about anything else, and it is the same reason that human
traffickers now are pushing people--the sex trafficking gangs, the
labor gangs--into communities all across this country. Indeed, every
town is a border town and every State a border State because of this
key vulnerability.
They don't want to talk about this because I don't think they want to
admit that they have been so wrong. Of course, that vulnerability,
whether you are talking about drugs, whether you are talking about
crime in the streets, all comes down to talking about that wide-open
southern border. Don't take my word for it. Go talk to sheriffs in
Tennessee. They will tell you that, with the open border, they are
seeing the results of that on their streets and in their counties.
Indeed, one of the sheriffs I visited with last week said 80 percent
of the drug overdoses, 80 percent of the apprehended drugs in their
county--fentanyl. Why is it there? The southern border being wide open.
This is an area in which Tennesseans are wanting to see something
done, and they can't figure out why the Democrats won't make a priority
of securing the southern border when they want to talk issues that stem
from what is transpiring at the southern border. They feel that the
Democrats are deliberately sabotaging our economic recovery, our
recovery from the pandemic, and they are making bad situations worse
because they won't talk about the root causes.
The Biden administration never was interested in securing the border.
Indeed, he hasn't been to the border. In fact, their official policy
from day one has been: Let's make that southern border more insecure.
Isn't that amazing? You have an administration and you have a DHS
Secretary who don't believe in a secure border.
The radical left didn't like the optics of border security, so Joe
Biden stopped building the wall. Even though everything is purchased
and it is there--the wall can be completed--he chose not to secure our
border, and he stopped building the wall.
The radical left wanted to change the definition of ``asylum''
without bothering to change the law, so Joe Biden threw away the
``Remain in Mexico'' policy.
The radical left wanted their sanctuary cities back, so Joe Biden
tied the
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hands of immigration officials. Go talk to them. They will tell you
what they are no longer able to do, which is abide by the rule of law--
the laws that are on the books.
With each Executive order that he signed, Joe Biden sabotaged Border
Patrol and law enforcement, putting Americans in danger, and turned
even more vulnerable women and children into victims of the sex
trafficking trade.
You have to ask yourself whose side the Biden administration is
actually on when it comes to the issues of crime, when it comes to the
issue of protecting women and children, because I can't think of a
single law-abiding American who is better off for all of this. But I do
know that the cartels are happy because they are the ones who control
the southern border on that Mexico side. You cannot cross that border
into the United States unless you have gone through the cartel, so they
are having to work out a way to pay their fee to the cartel,
endangering their lives, seeing drugs pushed into this country.
Last year, Border Patrol intercepted thousands of pounds of deadly
drugs and repeatedly interrupted equally deadly migrant trafficking
operations, but we will never be able to account for the ``got-aways''
who escaped into the country with their drugs and their human cargo
intact.
The level of self-sabotage has a purpose. The Biden administration
has made it clear that they are willing to risk lives and livelihoods
to prove their commitment to what they are calling ``compassion.''
Let me ask you this, Madam President: What is compassionate about
women being pushed into the sex trade, little girls being sex
trafficked, children being thrown into gangs? What is compassionate
about that? That is what is happening because of this open southern
border. This is insanity.
The cartels last year brought people from 160 different countries to
our southern border. Those are stats from the Border Patrol. We know
that, right now, they are anticipating bringing people in at the end of
title 42. They are already working globally--globally--in order to hit
these numbers. This is insanity.
According to the Biden administration, we can't secure the border and
stop the flow of drugs, but the Federal Government can hand out fresh
crack pipes to those with addiction. And as much as they tried to say,
no, that was incorrect, we have all seen the photos.
According to the Biden administration, we can't allow shipments of
perfectly safe, foreign-made baby formula into American communities. We
can't process those waivers, they say. That could possibly be
dangerous. We can't get a baby formula plant open in Michigan because
the FDA is busy; they have other priorities. Meanwhile, parents are
scrambling, trying to find formula for babies who have to have specific
formulas. This is not compassion; this is a tragedy.
I saw a friend this weekend. She calls herself independent-minded,
leans more moderate Democrat. She said: You know, we have always been a
government of, by, and for the people, but right now, what do we see
happening? We see this government using people to get power for
themselves. That is what is going on. People realize this
administration is void of priorities.
The saddest thing about all of this is that the Biden administration,
I think, knows what needs to be done. Many of my colleagues and I have
been talking about it, that there should be priorities to secure this
Nation and our sovereignty. Priority No. 1 right now should be to keep
title 42 in place until three things happen.
First, DHS needs to present a thorough and specific plan that would
enable American officials to handle the anticipated 18,000 people per
day who Border Patrol is saying will come to our border if those
restrictions are lifted. Right now, it is about 6,000 people per day.
Now, 18,000--I looked it up. Illinois has 1,466 cities, and 1,324 of
those cities have 18,000 or fewer citizens. That is their population.
So that is the equivalence that we are talking about. Our friend from
Colorado was just on the floor. There are 482 cities there, and 439 of
them have 18,000 or fewer citizens. We have Alaska. We have 355 cities
in Alaska, and 350 of them have 18,000 or fewer citizens. It is like a
new city in Alaska or Colorado or Illinois or Tennessee every single
day. So DHS needs to come through.
Second, Chairman Durbin must summon Secretary Mayorkas to a hearing
before the Senate Judiciary Committee so that we can subject that plan
that has been missing to scrutiny.
Third, they need to consult with Congress to give Border Patrol and
law enforcement the manpower and resources they need to execute the
plan.
Then and only then should we consider title 42.
Priority No. 2 is to stop playing politics and embrace President
Trump's ``Remain in Mexico'' policy. We know for a fact that it helped
control the influx of asylum seekers, which, in turn, took the pressure
off our limited resources at the border.
Priority No. 3: The Biden administration must stop denying reality.
Finish building the wall, which is what Border Patrol has been asking
for for decades. Give them a physical barrier. Give them more officers
and agents. Give them more technology so they can protect our Nation
and our citizens. That is how we would get that border under control.
As I said, it affects crime in the streets. It affects drugs and
fentanyl. This affects our citizens, our families, who are
heartbroken--heartbroken--by loss of lives to drugs, to crime.
There is a starting point. There is a way to make a difference. But
if this administration wants to do something about crime, if they want
to do something about the drug crisis, they need to start it at the
southern border.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alabama.
Retirement Savings and Investment Plans
Mr. TUBERVILLE. Madam President, by the time the average American
worker retires, they will have worked over 16,000 days. Put another
way, by the time an individual reaches the average retirement age in
the United States, they will have clocked approximately 133,000 hours--
the point being, Americans work hard to retire comfortably.
To help them reach their retirement goals, many employers offer
retirement savings and investment plans, commonly known as a 401(k). In
fact, 91 million Americans invest in a 401(k). Many of these plans have
what is called a brokerage window, which is a tool used by retirement
savers to self-select some of the things that they buy within their
brokerage account. They can do it themselves. The brokerage company
does not do it. Simply put, they get to choose what their hard-earned
money is invested in.
If someone in Lamar County, AL, is getting up at the crack of dawn,
clocking 14 hours at work, and knows their retirement goals and
personal circumstances very well, who better to decide how to invest
the money they are making? Who better to decide but them? But, as we
have seen time and time again, common sense and individual freedoms are
the enemy of the Biden administration. The Biden administration has
their eyes set on Americans' financial freedom yet again. This time,
the Department of Labor is specifically targeting workers' ability to
invest their 401(k) savings and assets as they see fit.
Recent regulatory guidance released by the Department of Labor's
Employee Benefits Security Administration attempts to bar 401(k)
accounts from investing in cryptocurrency, singling out this specific
investment type. The guidance threatens to investigate plans that allow
participants to select investments in cryptocurrency, including plans
where retirement savers use brokerage windows to self-select
investments in cryptocurrency.
This is inconsistent with longstanding practice. The Department of
Labor has long permitted employers to offer brokerage windows as an
option to employees who prefer to personally invest their own money and
manage their own money within these windows. The Agency's new guidance
ends this tradition of economic empowerment in favor of Big Brother
government control.
The Employee Benefits Security Administration goes a step further by
seeking to place a massive new regulatory burden on 401(k) plan
fiduciaries by requiring them to assess the suitability of investments
accessed using a
[[Page S2512]]
brokerage window. This would undermine the ability of retirement savers
to invest as they see fit. It is their money; they should be able to
invest it how they want to invest it.
The Biden administration's Department of Labor--their guidance
singles out this cryptocurrency for some reason, but it is clear
retirement savers want to have that option to invest their own money.
Fidelity, one of the Nation's No. 1 financial agencies, is the
largest 401(k) provider in the country and recently announced that it
will make Bitcoin available on its platform. They aren't the first
provider to make this move. There are others. And they won't likely be
the last. Sadly, the Department of Labor has already criticized these
plans to empower investors.
But if this is not just about cryptocurrency--and it could not be
just about cryptocurrency. It is bigger than that. Today, the Biden
administration is targeting cryptocurrency. Which investment class is
next? Is it fossil fuels? Is it oil companies? Is it a gun company,
securities, other investments that don't align with the environmental,
social, and corporate governance preferences of President Biden?
This is about Americans' freedom to chart their own financial
destiny. Americans should be able to invest their retirement savings as
they choose. That is why I introduced the Financial Freedom Act. My
bill would prohibit the Department of Labor from issuing any regulation
or guidance limiting the types of investments that self-directed 401(k)
account investors--they do not limit what they can choose through a
brokerage window. It would also push back on the Biden administration's
plan to punish asset managers who authorize individual retirement
savers to self-direct their investment choices using a brokerage
window.
The Financial Freedom Act empowers the American retirement saver and
preserves the precedent of investment freedom. For decades, 401(k)
participants in plans with brokerage windows have been able to buy and
sell investments of their choice. That freedom to choose is the entire
purpose of the brokerage window. The Department of Labor should not be
able to limit the range or types of investments savers can select.
The choice of what you invest your retirement savings in should be
yours, not the government's. The government-knows-best approach being
pushed by the current administration runs counter to the values that
made our country the most prosperous Nation in history.
I urge my colleagues to support financial choice and freedom, to
uphold our tradition of economic empowerment. I hope my fellow Senators
will join me in preserving the choice of every American worker. They
should have their own financial decisions, where they can make those
decisions for their future and for their family's future, chart their
own destiny, and reap the benefits of their hard work.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Colorado.
Immigration
Mr. BENNET. Madam President, I feel as though the Presiding Officer
has the misfortune of being the Presiding Officer every time I come out
here to speak. So I apologize for that, but I thank you for your
patience and for your indulgence.
Madam President, when I was in the second grade, we were asked to
line up in our classroom by the people whose family had been here the
shortest period of time and whose family had been here the longest
period of time, and I turned out to be the answer to both of those
questions. My father's family went all the way back to basically before
the founding of the United States, and my mother had recently arrived,
having survived the Holocaust in and around Warsaw with her parents,
John and Helena Klejman, who came to this country to rebuild their
shattered lives. So one person going back to the beginning; another
person recently arrived.
That is not an unusual story for this country. That is a usual story
for this country. It is an unusual story in the world because a lot of
other countries aren't like the United States of America in this way.
There is literally no other country on the planet for which immigration
is so central to its history and identity as the United States of
America.
People all over the world want to come here because we live in a
country that respects human freedoms and respects human rights. They
want to share in the American dream. They want to be part of the oldest
democracy in human history. We should celebrate that on this floor. We
should celebrate that fact on this floor. People aren't lining up to go
to Russia. They aren't crossing the Gobi Desert to go to China. They
want to come here. That should give us enormous pride as Americans. I
feel proud of that. I am proud of that.
My grandparents were filled with joy to be Americans. I have never
met anybody--I have traveled my State extensively and the United States
extensively. I have never met a person who has a stronger accent than
my grandparents had. And they are the greatest patriots I ever knew--
not because they thought this country was perfect but because they
believed we had a way of correcting our imperfections and that they
could be part of that even though they came from someplace else and
spoke a different language.
Over our history, immigration has been a uniquely American strength.
Today, immigrants lead one in four startups. They are more than half of
all STEM workers with Ph.Ds. They are nearly 3 in 10 physicians in this
country and nearly 4 in 10 home healthcare aides. And they are more
than 70 percent--70 percent--of all farmworkers, the men and women who
work tirelessly day after day after day, late into the night, to keep
us fed and were doing that during the pandemic without rest.
While other industrialized nations have seen their populations
decline and their economies stagnate, immigration has been vital to the
American economy. If you look at the history of the United States for
the last 150 years or so, what you see is that there are variations.
Sometimes we grow; sometimes we don't. But, roughly, it is 3 percent a
year of economic growth. Two percent of that is organic. One percent of
that is immigration. If you cut off immigration, that is a third of our
economic growth over the years.
I think most of America understands this. I think people in Colorado
understand this well. They know that immigration is fundamental to our
history and to our identity, to our economy, but they also have a
reasonable expectation that the government is managing immigration in a
responsible way, in a way that is consistent with our best traditions
as a nation and upholds the rule of law.
After I was first elected to the Senate, one of the first things I
worked on was something we called the Colorado Compact. I stole the
idea from a Republican. I think he was the attorney general of the
State of Utah. He created the Utah Compact. I went out with my friend,
a former Senator, a Republican from Colorado named Hank Brown, and we
developed something called the Colorado Compact. I spent 18 months
working on it. We traveled 6,300 miles around the State of Colorado. We
had 230 meetings. We talked to farmers and business owners, with law
enforcement, educators, faith leaders, ski resorts, Latino leaders. All
of them were struggling with different pieces of our broken immigration
system.
Not surprisingly when you have conversations like that around
people's kitchen tables or in the county courthouses, we found that
there was a lot more agreement on what immigration reform should look
like than you would ever think possible if all you did was listen to
the cable television at night or read your social media feed--neither
of which I recommend anybody spend their time doing.
We developed a set of principles in a bipartisan way, in rural parts
of Colorado as well as urban and suburban parts of the State. We had
some of the most conservative organizations in Colorado--Club 20 comes
to mind--that endorsed this and some of the most aggressive immigrant
rights groups who supported this. And the principles that we developed
included a commitment to the rule of law, our heritage as a nation of
immigrants, and a secure border. That is how you get a broad coalition
together on immigration.
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One thing we agreed on was that the issue needs more than piecemeal
reforms. No State effort is a substitute for a commonsense national
strategy to overhaul our immigration system. That is why, a few years
later, I was one of four Democrats who served on the Gang of 8 here in
2013. We had four Republicans and we had four Democrats, and we worked
for months on a piece of legislation that became known, I guess, as the
Gang of 8 bill. It was the first comprehensive immigration bill in
years in this place, and the elements of it were aligned exactly with
what we had said in the Colorado Compact: the tough but fair pathway to
citizenship; the most progressive Dream Act that had ever been
conceived, much less written or voted on, on the floor of the Senate; a
massive overhaul of our visa system; $46 billion of border security--
not a medieval wall but state-of-the-art military technology so we
could see every inch of the border. We doubled the number of border
agents in that bill. We had 300 miles--I think even more than that--of
new fencing as a result of that bill.
In a moment that today almost seems unimaginable--but this is why I
wanted to come to the floor today, really, was to remind people of
this; the pages who are here won't even believe it--this came to the
floor, and it passed with 68 votes. It almost got 70 votes in 2013.
Then it went over to the House of Representatives, and tragically--
tragically--instead of just putting the bill on the floor and letting
the House work its will, the Freedom Caucus got to exercise a veto, and
they said: If you can't get a majority of the majority, we are not
going to let you pass this bill--even though a majority of the House of
Representatives wanted to pass the bill because there were enough
people from both parties who could see the benefit of this
comprehensive immigration bill.
And I realize, you know, now we are in a different day. That was
then; this is now. It was a different negotiation, a different deal.
And it was a different Senate, for that matter. It was a Senate, thanks
to John McCain, that occasionally worked--and others like him.
I think that we have got to figure out a way to get past this logjam
and toward a solution where we honor our heritage as a nation of
immigrants, we secure the benefits to our economy of a working
immigration system, we comply with the rule of law, and we give the
American people confidence that our border is secure. None of that is
an unreasonable expectation, but we are nowhere near meeting that
expectation today. Instead, politicians have used our broken
immigration system as one more issue to bludgeon the other side, to not
make progress. That was the theory of the people who killed the bill in
2013, was that they could get more out of the politics of not passing
the bill than they would by passing the bill.
I actually think--I think they got more than they were even
bargaining for. They couldn't have imagined when they voted against
that bill that they would end up nominating a Presidential candidate
who rode an escalator down in his building talking about how Mexicans
are rapists and that that guy not only was nominated; he went on to
become President of the United States. Staggering. Staggering.
I think there is some question about whether American history would
have changed in really profound ways if we had been able to pass that
comprehensive bill, and the cost has been just terrible for the country
for our inability to do it.
Our businesses are desperate to hire computer scientists and
engineers, but because our visa system is broken, we are literally
training Ph.Ds and sending them back to countries like India or China
or to Canada. We have Dreamers who are living in perpetual fear, unable
to plan for their future in the only country they have ever known. This
Senate has been unable to deal with the issue of the Afghan
interpreters who are people who fought side by side, worked side by
side with our soldiers in Afghanistan because of our broken system and
the politics around immigration.
In Colorado, we have a $47 billion agriculture industry. It is
lifeblood of our State. I have met vegetable growers in Brighton and
peach growers in Palisade who don't have enough labor to harvest the
crops. And the system is broken.
We fixed that in 2013, too. I negotiated that with Orrin Hatch, God
rest his soul, and Marco Rubio and Dianne Feinstein. That is who
negotiated the agriculture provisions of the bill.
In Colorado, it is not just farmers. We don't have enough workers for
our steer. Across the country, we don't have enough doctors. We don't
have enough nurses or childcare providers or home health aides. We have
11 million unfilled jobs in this country right now because the economy
has come back, but we haven't been able to fill these vacancies. You
can draw a straight line from our broken immigration system to the
country's labor shortages to some of the high prices that we see in
this economy.
So Americans--once again, no one around here bears the burden of not
getting the job done, but Americans are paying the price for an
immigration system that doesn't work. The last time we reformed our
immigration system in a comprehensive way was 1986. For those keeping
score, I was a junior in college then; I am 57 today. So that is an
incredibly long period of time, and that was when Ronald Reagan was
President.
But a lot has changed in 36 years. Today, we are in an era of mass
migration propelled by COVID, global instability, and climate change.
And it is only going to get worse. Our immigration system, including
our asylum system, isn't built for today's conditions. It is one reason
why we have a perpetual humanitarian crisis at our southern border. And
that crisis should not be an excuse to not act. That crisis should be a
reason for us to act.
Right now, the administration has the resources to process 3,500
migrants a day at the border, but they are receiving 8,000 a day, and
we could see up to 18,000 a day by this summer. If that happens, the
money is going to run out in July, overwhelming any border
infrastructure and deepening the humanitarian crisis that is there.
None of this should surprise us. There is a surge at the border every
summer; and since we know it is coming, we need a plan. I am sorry to
say this, but the administration doesn't have one. I read what they put
out last month. I didn't see any benchmarks, any timelines, any
accountability on implementation. I did see a lot of what I think is
wishful thinking about everything being under control when they aren't
under control. That is not what the American people believe. That is
not what public servants and organizations at the border report.
And now the administration wants to lift title 42, which is going to
make a bad situation even worse. We can't keep title 42 forever. It is
no substitute for a comprehensive plan, but lifting it now before we
have a plan, I think is a mistake and it is going to erode the American
people's confidence that we have the situation at the border under
control. And it is going to deepen the humanitarian crisis at the
border. It is going to deepen the humanitarian crisis at the border.
By the way, part of that plan--if we had a plan--should be having a
conversation--leading a conversation--with leaders across Latin America
to see how we can come together as a region to help people that have
been dislocated by violence and by corruption.
Until we solve this in a comprehensive way, these issues are going to
keep coming up and they are going to keep dividing us here. Today, it
is title 42. And in the last administration, we literally shut the
government down--literally shut the government down--over a debate
about whether Mexico would pay for the wall, which, by the way, they
were never going to do and they never did. We created DACA under one
President only to see it canceled in the next Presidency.
We could have spared America all of this. We could have spared
America all of this if we had passed the Gang of 8 bill in 2013. We
could have spared the harm to our communities and our economy, but also
the harm to our democracy from the mindless political fights over the
past decade when people in the Senate turned immigration into political
napalm instead of lifting it up as part of our history, a central part
of who we are.
If there is any silver lining to our failure to pass comprehensive
reform in 2013, it is that we clearly demonstrated that Democrats
cannot fix
[[Page S2514]]
this by themselves. We are going to need two parties working together
to do it. The good thing about immigration is that there are a lot of
different issues, there are a lot of different constituencies, and
there are a lot of ways to construct a deal.
The former chairman of the Judiciary Committee is on the floor,
Senator Leahy, from Vermont. If I am not mistaken, Senator Leahy would
chair the Judiciary Committee when we were considering the 2013 Gang of
8 bill. That was an extraordinary process, an open amendment process--I
will yield for the chairman to speak.
Mr. LEAHY. If I might say, the Senator was absolutely right. He was
central in putting that together.
Unfortunately, it passed here; would have passed the House. They had
enough votes--enough votes, Republicans and Democrats. But the then-
Speaker said he couldn't bring it up because it didn't have a majority
of his party and it would violate the sacred Dennis Hastert rule. I
don't think they follow that rule after former-Speaker Hastert went to
jail.
Mr. BENNET. I thank the chairman for his historical recollection,
which is 100 percent correct. I just want to make it clear, again, how
extraordinary the process was.
You know, when people--I think people in this country are entitled to
believe that the way this place works is the way that old ``Schoolhouse
Rock'' cartoon said it worked about how a bill becomes a law. I think
people ought to be entitled to believe this is the way this place
works. It almost never works that way, but it did in the case of this
bill and in the case of the chairman's leadership in the Judiciary.
We just need people who are willing to work together here. I have
continued to work with Mike Crapo from Idaho, a Republican, working on
a deal to try to create a pathway to legalization for farmworkers. If
we can do that, I don't see a reason why we can't raise our sights and
come together as a Senate to finally fix our broken immigration system.
There is no one else to address this but the 100 Senators that are in
this Chamber. I am prepared to work with any one of them--anybody
here--to get it done because we don't have to choose between our
heritage as a Nation of immigrants and our commitment to the rule of
law. We do not have to choose between a medieval wall and the Statue of
Liberty.
We can end the partisan warfare over immigration that has hurt our
economy, our communities, and our standing in the world. We can give a
real pathway to citizenship for those willing to invest in the American
dream. We can secure the border. We can make immigration the wind in
our sails once again and give the American people confidence that we
have a fair system in place to welcome people--like my mom and her
parents--who want nothing more than to contribute to this Nation and to
our democracy.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Vermont.
Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that I be allowed
to finish my statement prior to the vote.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
H.R. 7691
Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, the horrors we have witnessed in the weeks
and months following Vladimir Putin's unprovoked attack on Ukraine are
an abomination and an affront to all civilized people--entire
communities wiped from the face of the earth; countless lives ruined;
unarmed civilians summarily executed randomly in the street; millions
of desperate people fleeing everything they have ever known because of
one man's zeal to destroy whatever is necessary to realize his own
twisted vision of the world--all of this while fueling a broader
humanitarian crisis across the region, spiraling costs, and sparking a
global hunger crisis.
The need is clear for this Congress to act decisively and to act now
to reaffirm our unwavering support for the Ukrainian people in
protecting their lives and their country and to stem this global
crisis. The United States stands against the atrocities inflicted upon
the free people of Ukraine, an independent country with a
democratically elected government.
Last Tuesday, the House passed H.R. 7691, providing more than $40
billion in emergency funding, with overwhelming bipartisan support. The
Senate should have done the same, sending this bill to the President so
that he could immediately execute on it and get this much-needed aid
into Ukrainian hands. Unfortunately, one Member has decided to slow
this process down. One Member has caused needless delay. In a few
moments, we will vote to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to
H.R. 7691. Because of Senator Paul's objection, we must go through this
step just to bring up the bill for debate. I urge everyone to vote yes.
And I would urge the Senator from Kentucky to reconsider his objections
and help us move quickly to get this bill to the President.
This emergency bill provides $40.1 billion--$7.1 billion more than
the administration requested--in critical military and humanitarian
assistance for Ukraine, to help defend democracy abroad and to address
the rising, global hunger crisis that the world is facing in large part
due to Russia's aggression.
This includes $8.5 billion in additional Presidential drawdown
authority for critical weapons transfers and $6 billion for the Ukraine
Security Assistance Initiative. This will allow us to continue to
supply the Ukrainians with the tools they need to defend themselves,
their country, and their freedom. The urgent need for these resources
cannot be overstated. As we stand here today, the administration is
raising the alarm that if we do not act, the resources we provided in
March--which have been critical to Ukraine's success on the
battlefield--will be exhausted in a matter of days.
It includes more than $8.5 billion for the economic support fund to
respond to emerging needs in the country and ensure the continuing
operation of the government. It provides needed resources for temporary
housing, medical care, food, and other basic services for Ukrainian's
displaced in their own country and refugees fleeing the violence and
devastation Vladimir Putin has inflicted on them and their communities.
The humanitarian crisis instigated at the hands of Vladimir Putin is
not limited to within Ukraine's borders or even within the borders of
Eastern Europe. It has triggered a global hunger crisis. Last year,
before Putin's war, Ukraine grew enough food to feed 400 million
people. Today, Ukraine cannot even feed its own people. As David
Beasley, the Executive Director of the UN World Food Programme--WFP--
testified before the Appropriations Committee last week, war has forced
Ukraine from being a global bread basket to being on the bread lines.
Tens of millions of tons of wheat, barley, maize, vegetable oil, and
other Ukrainian produce are currently locked in warehouses and
languishing in ports occupied by Russian forces. If the ports are not
opened, this food will either be stolen or go to waste, leading to
skyrocketing prices and regional shortages. The WFP estimates that this
will have a ripple effect, increasing the number facing acute hunger by
47 million. This would bring the estimated global total to 323 million
people suffering from acute hunger in the 81 countries WFP operates in
alone.
It is important to remember that hunger is not a moment in time; it
has lasting consequences for families, communities, and whole
societies. This is why we cannot wait to act on this crisis. As noted
in one recent Washington Post editorial; preventing a looming, global
famine is ``as urgent and morally necessary as sending tanks to
Ukraine.''
This bill provides over $5 billion for global food aid. If those
funds are programmed quickly, they will save millions of lives.
Vladimir Putin's war is exacerbating a global crisis of food
insecurity already set in motion by the COVID pandemic and successive
years of severe drought in Africa. I am extremely disappointed that
this bill does not include new resources to address the ongoing COVID
pandemic.
Last week, we passed the grim toll of 1 million recorded COVID deaths
in our country and estimates as high as 20 million deaths worldwide. If
we fail to prepare for anticipated surges in the fall and winter, as
immunity from existing vaccines wanes and the virus continues to
mutate, the death toll will rise, potentially exponentially.
[[Page S2515]]
For months--for months--the administration has warned that we do not
have the necessary vaccines, therapeutics, tests, and other resources
to stay ahead of this virus. We do not have enough funding to purchase
new shots for everybody in the fall, and we already will be forced to
ration the next generation of vaccines--more suited to variants like
Omicron--to only those at the highest risk.
This is not a problem that can be solved by flipping a switch. We
cannot just say that we will appropriate the money later in the fall if
it is needed. In order to produce the tens of millions of doses of
vaccine that will be necessary, biotech companies need to begin to
purchase supplies and start production before July. This means we only
have weeks to provide the funding to secure these shots in time.
The same can be said of our testing capacity. Unless we act, domestic
manufacturing will continue to shut down, shifting production to
countries like China. This will leave us flat-footed once again should
another COVID variant wave crash over our country in the fall.
The virus traveled to this country from abroad, and that is where new
variants have also originated. The U.S. Agency for International
Development, which manages our global response to the COVID pandemic,
has obligated 95 percent of the funds they have available. They are
running on fumes, and they will have no choice but to start shutting
down their vaccine delivery operations if additional funds are not
forthcoming soon. That means more mutations, more variants, more
infections, and more death.
It is extremely frustrating that, time and again, Members on the
other side of the aisle have pushed this responsibility off. We are out
of time. We cannot defeat this virus with complacency or by burying our
heads in the sand. It remains a global health emergency. According to
the experts, it is entirely possible that we have not seen the worst
yet. As chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, I will
continue to fight for these urgently needed resources in the coming
weeks.
However, the people of Ukraine and the millions facing acute food
insecurity require the funds in this bill today, and I strongly urge
the Senate to pass it without further delay.
I yield the floor.
Cloture Motion
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Bennet). Pursuant to rule XXII, the Chair
lays before the Senate the pending cloture motion, which the clerk will
state.
The 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
proceed to Calendar No. 368, H.R. 7691, a bill making
emergency supplemental appropriations for assistance for the
situation in Ukraine for the fiscal year ending September 30,
2022, and for other purposes.
Charles E. Schumer, Tina Smith, Christopher Murphy, Tim
Kaine, Patrick J. Leahy, Jack Reed, Benjamin L. Cardin,
Richard J. Durbin, Brian Schatz, Jacky Rosen, Catherine
Cortez Masto, Margaret Wood Hassan, Martin Heinrich,
Sheldon Whitehouse, Richard Blumenthal, Christopher A.
Coons, Tammy Baldwin.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. By unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum
call has been waived.
The question is, Is it the sense of the Senate that debate on the
motion to proceed to H.R. 7691, a bill making emergency supplemental
appropriations for assistance for the situation in Ukraine for the
fiscal year ending September 30, 2022, and for other purposes, shall be
brought to a close?
The yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule.
The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant executive clerk called the roll.
Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Delaware (Mr. Coons),
the Senator from Nevada (Ms. Cortez Masto), the Senator from New Mexico
(Mr. Heinrich), the Senator from Massachusetts (Mr. Markey), the
Senator from New Hampshire (Mrs. Shaheen), and the Senator from
Maryland (Mr. Van Hollen) are necessarily absent.
Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator
from North Carolina (Mr. Burr) and the Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr.
Toomey).
The yeas and nays resulted--yeas 81, nays 11, as follows:
[Rollcall Vote No. 177 Leg.]
YEAS--81
Baldwin
Barrasso
Bennet
Blumenthal
Blunt
Booker
Brown
Cantwell
Capito
Cardin
Carper
Casey
Cassidy
Collins
Cornyn
Cotton
Cramer
Cruz
Daines
Duckworth
Durbin
Ernst
Feinstein
Fischer
Gillibrand
Graham
Grassley
Hassan
Hickenlooper
Hirono
Hoeven
Hyde-Smith
Inhofe
Johnson
Kaine
Kelly
Kennedy
King
Klobuchar
Lankford
Leahy
Lujan
Manchin
McConnell
Menendez
Merkley
Moran
Murkowski
Murphy
Murray
Ossoff
Padilla
Peters
Portman
Reed
Risch
Romney
Rosen
Rounds
Rubio
Sanders
Sasse
Schatz
Schumer
Scott (FL)
Scott (SC)
Shelby
Sinema
Smith
Stabenow
Sullivan
Tester
Thune
Tillis
Warner
Warnock
Warren
Whitehouse
Wicker
Wyden
Young
NAYS--11
Blackburn
Boozman
Braun
Crapo
Hagerty
Hawley
Lee
Lummis
Marshall
Paul
Tuberville
NOT VOTING--8
Burr
Coons
Cortez Masto
Heinrich
Markey
Shaheen
Toomey
Van Hollen
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Booker). On this vote, the yeas are 81,
the nays are 11.
Three-fifths of the Senators, duly chosen and sworn, having voted in
the affirmative, this motion is agreed to.
The majority leader.
____________________