[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?

[[Page S2510]]

  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

[[Page S2511]]

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.

[[Page S2513]]

  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.

                          ____________________