[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 91 (Wednesday, May 25, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2681-S2685]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             CLOTURE MOTION

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Pursuant to rule XXII, the Chair lays before 
the Senate the pending cloture motion, which the clerk will state.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

                             Cloture Motion

       We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the 
     provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate, 
     do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nomination 
     of Executive Calendar No. 806, Sandra L. Thompson, of 
     Maryland, to be Director of the Federal Housing Finance 
     Agency for a term of five years.
         Charles E. Schumer, Sherrod Brown, Tammy Duckworth, Tina 
           Smith, Jacky Rosen, Chris Van Hollen, Elizabeth Warren, 
           Robert Menendez, Christopher Murphy, Jeff Merkley, 
           Thomas R. Carper, Patty Murray, Christopher A. Coons, 
           Catherine Cortez Masto, Richard Blumenthal, Patrick J. 
           Leahy, Mazie K. Hirono.

  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 
nomination of Sandra L. Thompson, of Maryland, to be Director of the 
Federal Housing Finance Agency for a term of five years, shall be 
brought to a close?
  The yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Oregon (Mr. Merkley), 
the Senator from Rhode Island (Mr. Reed), and the Senator from Maryland 
(Mr. Van Hollen) are necessarily absent.
  Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator 
from Texas (Mr. Cornyn), the Senator from Texas (Mr. Cruz), and the 
Senator from Alaska (Ms. Murkowski).
  The yeas and nays resulted--yeas 48, nays 46, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 202 Ex.]

                                YEAS--48

     Baldwin
     Bennet
     Blumenthal
     Booker
     Brown
     Cantwell
     Cardin
     Carper
     Casey
     Coons
     Cortez Masto
     Duckworth
     Durbin
     Feinstein
     Gillibrand
     Hassan
     Heinrich
     Hickenlooper
     Hirono
     Kaine
     Kelly
     King
     Klobuchar
     Leahy
     Lujan
     Manchin
     Markey
     Menendez
     Murphy
     Murray
     Ossoff
     Padilla
     Peters
     Rosen
     Rounds
     Sanders
     Schatz
     Schumer
     Shaheen
     Sinema
     Smith
     Stabenow
     Tester
     Warner
     Warnock
     Warren
     Whitehouse
     Wyden

                                NAYS--46

     Barrasso
     Blackburn
     Blunt
     Boozman
     Braun
     Burr
     Capito
     Cassidy
     Collins
     Cotton
     Cramer
     Crapo
     Daines
     Ernst
     Fischer
     Graham
     Grassley
     Hagerty
     Hawley
     Hoeven
     Hyde-Smith
     Inhofe
     Johnson
     Kennedy
     Lankford
     Lee
     Lummis
     Marshall
     McConnell
     Moran
     Paul
     Portman
     Risch
     Romney
     Rubio
     Sasse
     Scott (FL)
     Scott (SC)
     Shelby
     Sullivan
     Thune
     Tillis
     Toomey
     Tuberville
     Wicker
     Young

                             NOT VOTING--6

     Cornyn
     Cruz
     Merkley
     Murkowski
     Reed
     Van Hollen
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. On this vote, the yeas are 48, the nays are 
46.
  The motion is agreed to.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Ohio.


                    Nomination of Sandra L. Thompson

  Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I urge my colleagues to support Sandra 
Thompson's historic nomination to be the Director of the Federal 
Housing Finance Agency.
  Ms. Thompson is an exceptional nominee, with decades of experience in 
mortgage markets and Federal financial regulation.
  Since June 2021, Ms. Thompson served as Acting Director at FHFA, 
where she has played a vital role in promoting access to mortgage 
credit, to overseeing and supervising Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the 
11 Federal Home Loan Banks, and to protecting the safety and soundness 
of the housing finance system.
  Before being designated as Acting Director, Ms. Thompson served for 8 
years as a Deputy Director for the Division of Mission and Goals at 
FHFA, so she is clearly very qualified.
  She spent 18 years at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. 
While there, she worked for seven different chairpersons, obviously, 
from both political parties and in senior-level positions.
  She will be the first woman. She will, notably, be the first Black 
woman confirmed to lead FHFA.
  For the first time, we have an administration and a Senate Banking 
and Housing Committee that understand how important it is to have 
economic leaders who reflect the country, who look like the country and 
think like the country--people who make it work.
  She will join a growing list of experienced, talented Black women who 
have come through our committee--Marcia Fudge, who was my Congresswoman 
in Cleveland. She is now Secretary of HUD; Cecilia Rouse, Chair of the 
Council on Economic Advisers at the White House; Reta Jo Lewis, a CEO 
of the Export-Import Bank; Lisa Cook, first Black woman ever in 109 
years--109 years, the first Black woman--at the Federal Reserve; Alanna 
McCargo; Alexia Latortue, just to name a few.
  Ms. Thompson has proven she will work and she will listen to lenders, 
and consumers, and both sides of the aisle.
  Before the pandemic, housing was too expensive and too hard to find, 
even before the pandemic. Whether you are looking to rent or to buy, 
FHFA has an important role to play in bringing

[[Page S2682]]

down housing costs and empowering more families to be able to afford a 
safe and stable home.
  I strongly urge my colleagues in supporting Ms. Thompson's 
nomination.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Booker). The senior Senator from Iowa.


                               Pesticides

  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, farmers across Iowa are finishing their 
planting of corn and soybeans. As for the Grassley farm, Robin and Pat 
Grassley finished planting last Thursday.
  Most people have never stepped foot on a family farm, let alone know 
all about the complexities that go into planting, growing, and 
harvesting a bountiful crop. That is why I often use my social media to 
show my followers what is going on in farming--hashtag ``corn watch,'' 
hashtag ``soybean watch.'' I like to show how only 2 percent of the 
population raises food for the other 98 percent, plus exporting one-
third of our production to feed people overseas. Food doesn't just 
magically appear on grocery store shelves.
  When so few people know what it takes to produce food, we often run 
into obstacles at policymaking tables here in Congress and around 
Washington, DC. I often quote something Dwight Eisenhower said, and he 
said it best:

       Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil, and 
     you're a thousand miles from the corn field.

  There has never been a more important time than right now for farmers 
to have a successful year. We are facing a world threatened by food 
shortages and food insecurity the likes of which we haven't seen since 
the Arab Spring a decade ago, in large part today because of Putin's 
unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
  The productivity of the American farmers and ranchers this crop 
season will have a big impact on the security and prosperity of 
countries around the world, as well as to make sure we don't get into a 
devastating shortage of food.
  With so much at stake, Washington, DC, must provide farmers across 
the country a consistent policy when it comes to regulation of inputs 
and crop protection products. One State out of fifty can't go another 
direction without bringing harm to food production.
  When it comes to the regulation of these products, public policy must 
be based on the best science available to make informed decisions. 
Science-based decisions shouldn't surprise anybody in this town because 
science was the Golden Rule in every coronavirus decision made in the 
Trump administration and still being made in the Biden administration.
  The best science is why Congress enacted, in 1972, the regulation 
that goes by the title of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and 
Rodenticide Act or FIFRA for short. Since 1972, FIFRA has expressly 
preempted State law, vested the EPA with final authority over pesticide 
labeling and the usage of that pesticide. Specifically, FIFRA gave the 
EPA authority over pesticide labeling and the usage of that pesticide. 
Under FIFRA, it is the EPA's responsibility to undertake very extensive 
scientific review of regulated products and then determine what 
disclosures, if any, must be on the product labels. FIFRA provides that 
EPA conduct studies to determine product safety.
  Congress intended that there be a Federal regulatory regime that 
would impose warnings, impose disclosures, and impose restrictions on 
the use of products under FIFRA. Congress made it very clear that 
Congress wanted science-based certainty and predictability for farmers 
and the resulting benefit that is to the farm entire economy.
  Unfortunately, we have seen politically motivated environmentalists 
pushing for restrictions on regulated products that the EPA has 
determined are not necessary. This fundamentally undermines trust in 
the EPA and trust in Federal regulation of these products used in 
farming.
  Make no doubt about my stand or anybody's stand here in the U.S. 
Senate, we all strongly support thorough vetting of regulated products 
to ensure public safety. However, I strongly support ensuring Iowa 
farmers have the supplies they need to feed families across America.
  I hope President Biden would agree with me. His administration should 
be putting forward policies and taking positions that protect public 
safety, while ensuring farmers can produce the food that we need here 
in America and that we are able to supply one-third of our production 
for overseas. As we look at the world with a growing shortage of food--
as I emphasized, partly because of what is going on in Ukraine--we must 
then ask ourselves what more we can be doing to support farmers.
  Unfortunately, some recent decisions just made by this administration 
do just exactly the opposite. I said ``just made by this 
administration'' because 2 weeks ago, President Biden's Solicitor 
General filed a brief in a case involving widely used pesticides. In 
that brief, the Solicitor General flipped the government's long-held 
position that FIFRA preempts State law and instead argued against EPA's 
authority. So it looks to me like politics overcomes science.
  You would think such a significant change would be firmly based on 
the law and science, just as I said. However, the Solicitor General 
explained this astounding change wasn't based on science because it was 
based on politics. Perhaps that is why the EPA general counsel's name 
doesn't appear on the brief.
  I heard from many constituents about how serious of an impact the 
position taken by Biden's Solicitor General would have on the farming 
industry at-large. If the Court, meaning the Supreme Court, effectively 
adopts the Solicitor General's position and that of the lower court 
decision, it will fundamentally disrupt the Federal regulation of use 
and of warnings under FIFRA related to substances such as these that 
farmers rely on every day in production agriculture.
  It is clear that it wasn't the intent of Congress when it enacted 
FIFRA for there to be 50 State standards in addition to Federal 
standards because we all know the purpose of FIFRA was to create a 
uniform regime with authority vested in the EPA to set such standards, 
and that has never been questioned until now.
  It is shocking that President Biden chose to put forward an argument 
that undermines the public trust in the EPA by putting politics ahead 
of the longstanding and consistent EPA regulation that enables farmers 
to grow the food that we and the world need. This abrupt change in the 
administration's position will have serious implications for the farm 
economy and our food supply.
  Again, there needs to be a consistent regulatory regime to ensure the 
public's trust and to support U.S. agriculture so farmers can produce 
food, again, I say, that the Nation needs and the world needs.
  So I hope the Solicitor General reverses her position, and even if 
she doesn't reverse her position, I hope the Supreme Court of the 
United States will be willing to hear this case.

  I want to now quote Dr. Norman Borlaug, the Nobel Peace Prize winner, 
I think, in 1970. This winner was born and raised in Iowa:

       If you desire peace, cultivate justice, but at the same 
     time cultivate the fields to produce more bread; otherwise 
     there will be no peace.

  I think what he is referring to there is--at least what I believe and 
I have heard--that societies are only nine meals away from revolution. 
In other words, if you are a father and a mother and you can't feed 
your kids for 3 days, you will go to almost any end to make sure they 
get the food. So if you want social cohesion in America and around the 
world, we have to have enough food to feed our people.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The senior Senator from Delaware.


                              Gun Violence

  Mr. CARPER. Mr. President, like a lot of other Americans, I didn't 
sleep much last night, didn't sleep much at all. I couldn't shake the 
overwhelming feeling of sorrow that I felt for the community of Uvalde, 
TX. Nineteen innocent children, fourth graders, were gunned down in 
their classroom 3 days before summer break--3 days. Two teachers were 
murdered as well. Countless children witnessed their classmates and 
teachers shot and killed as they climbed through windows to try to 
escape the massacre. Twenty-one families are living every parents' 
worst nightmare--the loss of a child. Instead

[[Page S2683]]

of planning their summer vacations, those families are now planning 
their children's funerals. Their nightmare is our national nightmare.
  Though my own boys are now grown adults, I can't help but think when 
my wife and I used to help them with their homework and tuck them into 
bed at night. I can't help but think of when they were the same age of 
the 19 elementary children gunned down at their school yesterday. Like 
millions of American parents across our country, my wife and I are 
brokenhearted today.
  Millions of Americans dropped their children off at school this 
morning, and my guess is they probably hugged them extra tightly. They 
said goodbye and watched those kids walk into school. And they left to 
hope and pray today that their children will be there, alive, at pickup 
at the end of the day or that they will be on the bus ride coming home 
at night. They are left to hope and pray that they never get the 
shattering call that those families in Uvalde received yesterday.
  We are the only country in the world where parents have to hope and 
pray that their children will not be murdered at school by a gunman. We 
are the only country in the world where a fourth grade classroom can be 
turned into a battlefield by a madman with an assault weapon.
  This has to stop. We can't go on this way. We are mourning this 
tragedy, and I refuse to accept inaction. I refuse to accept that the 
mass slaughter of children in their fourth grade classroom is somehow 
normal. This has to stop. We can't go on this way.
  For as long as I have been in this Chamber--that is some 21 years--we 
have been failing to address the epidemic of gun violence in this 
country. This has to stop. We can't go on this way. I refuse to believe 
that Congress can't reform our gun laws in a way that the American 
public broadly support. I refuse to believe that changing our laws 
won't reduce gun violence and make these tragedies less likely from 
recurring in the future.
  We are long overdue to make commonsense reforms to our Nation's gun 
laws. To put it bluntly, this is not going to be easy. I know it. I 
think we all realize that.
  Many of our friends in this Chamber revere the Second Amendment and 
respect the tradition of lawful gun ownership in this country. I myself 
am a gun owner and have been one since I was 12 years old when I bought 
my first BB gun. However, the Second Amendment does not give us the 
right to murder children at school or gun down worshippers at church or 
kill African Americans at a grocery store.
  In our Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson wrote these 
words that we all remember. He wrote:

       All men [and women] are created equal, that they are 
     endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, 
     that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of 
     Happiness.

  These 19 children were denied the right to life, to liberty, and the 
pursuit of happiness.
  So in Uvalde, there is no little league game this weekend. There is 
no fifth grade next year. They will never get to be teenagers, go to 
the prom, graduate, go on to college, have a career, or have children 
of their own, and, if lucky, maybe grandchildren someday. Their lives 
were stolen from them by a gunman; and, tragically, we can never bring 
them back.
  What we can do though--what we can do though--is to try hard, really 
hard to prevent this from ever happening again.
  We need to be able to say to the American people: We have had enough. 
This has to stop. We can't go on this way. We won't go on this way.
  Today, we are a nation in mourning. We also need to be a nation 
working together to address this epidemic, working to reform our gun 
laws, and doing whatever it takes to prevent another massacre in an 
American school, in a place of worship, or in a grocery store.
  May God bless the community of Uvalde. May the Lord be with those 21 
families during this time of unfathomable heartache and anguish.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Rosen). The Senator from Wisconsin.


                   Unanimous Consent Request--S. 111

  Mr. JOHNSON. Madam President, today America grieves. There is nothing 
partisan about being a parent and grandparent. I cannot imagine--I 
cannot imagine--the grief felt by the parents of those children. Unless 
you have experienced it, none of us can.
  What is the solution? There is no one solution. Let's be honest about 
that. Following Sandy Hook, following Parkland, I met with the parents 
of those horrific and senseless tragedies. I have been blessed to get 
to know three parents quite well: Tom and Gina Hoyer, and Max 
Schachter. Tom and Gina are the parents of Luke Hoyer; Max is the 
father of Alex Schachter--two of the 17 victims of the Marjory Stoneman 
Douglas High School slaughter in Parkland, FL, that occurred on 
February 14, 2018.
  In getting to know Tom and Gina and Max, you get some sense of the 
level of grief. I mentioned there is nothing partisan about grief. I 
listened to President Biden's remarks last night, I think the point he 
made that pierced my heart, because President Biden has known tragedy, 
is when he said that those parents in Texas, they are asking themselves 
will they ever sleep again.
  So we all grieve. We are all looking for solutions. The good Senator 
from Delaware said: ``We must take action.''
  So what I have always valued about Tom and Gina and Max is these are 
three individuals, parents who do know the pain, that still grieve the 
loss of their sons, and yet they have not approached trying to find 
solutions in any partisan way whatsoever. They are trying to find areas 
of agreement.
  They advised the Federal Commission on School Safety. They came up 
with a pretty commonsense action. It may not solve all the problems, 
but it is a good idea. It is such a good idea that as chairman of the 
committee--Subcommittee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, 
we codified it, we passed it unanimously out of our committee in 
November of 2019. It is called the Luke and Alex School Safety Act. It 
is pretty simple. It just creates a clearinghouse of information of the 
best practices for school safety.
  It involves numerous Departments--Department of Health and Human 
Services, Justice, Homeland Security. All must approve what these best 
practices are. It ensures the parents, teachers, school officials, 
other stakeholders have input into what those best practices are. It 
doesn't allow the clearinghouse to mandate any school take any certain 
action.
  And maybe, most importantly, it publishes the available grant 
programs and Federal resources available for school safety. Again, it 
passed out of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental 
Affairs twice, unanimously, once under my chairmanship, once under the 
chairmanship of Senator Peters. There is nothing partisan about this 
bill whatsoever. It is just a good idea that can save lives.
  It was such a good idea that under the previous administration, they 
set up that clearinghouse. It is up and it is operating. So all this 
bill does at this point is serve as a model for what is happening. All 
this bill does now is codify it, to make sure this clearinghouse stands 
the test of time, that it will always be there to provide those best 
practices on school safety.
  Now, I am very sensitive to the moment in time we are sitting here 
right now. We should let the Nation and those parents grieve. I don't 
want to politicize anything about this moment.
  So I called up Max, I called up Tom and Gina and asked them what 
would you like me to do? They have been trying to get this codified, 
passed into law for 4 years. I can't explain why it is not law. Just 
last month, the Senate passed the Pray Safe Act, which was basically it 
took that bill, the Luke and Alex School Safety Act and just applied it 
to churches. That passed by unanimous consent--no objection.
  I tried to attach this bill to that bill, but for whatever reason, 
somebody is objecting. I have no idea why. None.
  Again, it passed our committee unanimously twice. It is a good idea. 
It could save lives. It is an action when people are calling for action 
following this tragedy.
  So I know I see the Senator from Florida that would also like to 
speak to this bill before I ask consent.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Florida.
  Mr. SCOTT of Florida. When I heard the horrific news from Uvalde, TX, 
yesterday, I immediately thought of two things, my grandchildren, most 
of

[[Page S2684]]

whom are in elementary school, and the 17 lives we lost in Parkland, 
FL, 4 years ago. Our hearts are shattered at the loss of these small 
children--19 children that are just in fourth grade and two teachers. 
It is infuriating and heart-wrenching.
  I can't imagine losing a child or a loved one. Unfortunately, there 
are 17 families in Florida who don't have to imagine it. They know that 
pain and live it each and every day. There is seldom a day that goes by 
that I don't think about the families that lost their children and 
loved ones that day. No community should feel the pain that families in 
Parkland and Uvalde now feel. We will never be able to prevent every 
vicious crime, but we can and must act.
  There are solutions to be found at the State level and the Federal 
level, and today, we can take action in the Senate to make our schools 
safer.
  I want to thank Senator Johnson for leading this bill and Senators 
Rubio, Risch, and Grassley for their strong support of this legislation 
and other efforts to keep our kids safe.
  This bill, the Luke and Alex School Safety Act was named in honor of 
Luke Hoyer and Alex Schachter. Luke and Alex were taken from us in the 
shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14, 2018, 
in Parkland, FL.
  Since that horrible day, I have worked closely with many of the 
victims' families as Governor and now as Senator to do everything 
possible so that no child, educator, or family has to experience that 
again.
  There is clearly a lot more work to do. This legislation, the Luke 
and Alex School Safety Act, codifies a Federal school safety 
clearinghouse by informing parents and educators on expert 
recommendations and best practices that schools can implement to 
improve school security. This bill builds on our work to keep schools 
safe and prevent another tragedy.
  Today, we can get something done that creates safer schools for our 
kids and our teachers. I appreciate the work again of Senators Johnson, 
Rubio, Risch, and Grassley and all of our colleagues.
  As we continue to pray for Uvalde and the families that have suffered 
this tremendous loss, I urge the Senate to pass this good bill and take 
a step in the right direction that keeps our kids and teachers safe.
  Mr. JOHNSON. I thank the Senator from Florida for those comments.
  I just want to again emphasize the fact that I just spoke with Max 
and Gina and Tom. These are parents of children who lost their lives in 
a school shooting. These are parents that have come up with a 
solution--a nonpartisan solution--got it recommended by the Federal 
Commission on School Safety.
  They told me that the day after Parkland, had a parent from Sandy 
Hook had a piece of legislation that they had been trying to get passed 
but couldn't, it would help. They would have been 100 percent 
supportive of that piece of legislation, come to the floor, and pass it 
by unanimous consent, irrespective of the timing.
  They asked me to come to the floor today to ask my colleagues to lay 
aside partisanship, to do something for these families, provide them 
some measure of comfort by passing a completely nonpartisan bill that 
could make a difference, that could save a life. There is no reason not 
to pass this bill today in this Chamber at this hour.
  So, as if in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent that the 
Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 102, S. 
111.
  I further ask that the bill be considered read a third time and 
passed and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon 
the table.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Mr. SCHUMER. Reserving the right to object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, the American people have had to endure 
two of the worst mass shootings in recent history in just the span of 
10 days. One of them happened to be in my home State of New York in the 
dear city of Buffalo; the other happened yesterday in Texas, the worst 
school shooting since Sandy Hook, and we can't get out of our minds--I 
can't--the picture of 10, 11, and 9-year-olds being shot, killed, just 
ready to burst into the adolescent and adult phases of their lives.
  What the American people want is real solutions to our Nation's gun 
violence epidemic. We have had too many moments of silence, too many 
thoughts and prayers. Americans are sick of it. Many in this Chamber 
are sick of it.
  Here is the sad truth about what happened yesterday and why I plan to 
object to my colleague's UC: hardening schools would have done nothing 
to prevent this shooting. In fact, there were guards and police 
officers already at the school yesterday when the shooter showed up. 
One was a school police officer, two were from the Uvalde Police 
Department. The shooter got past all of them with two assault weapons 
that he purchased. They couldn't stop him.
  The bill would not have protected those children. More guns won't 
protect our children. That is the wrong answer. There are too many guns 
and too many options for the wrong people to get guns.
  So I plan to object to passing this measure today through consent, 
but I would tell my colleague from Wisconsin, tomorrow we can begin 
voting on a bill that will take us--that will let us take action on 
guns, and we could consider amendments like this then, along with 
others.
  Tomorrow, the Senate is scheduled to take the first step--the first 
step--in responding to the shooting that happened in my home State of 
New York 2 weeks ago and so many other mass shootings over the years 
that have been motivated by race.
  The Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act, which I set in motion earlier 
this week, is a necessary and timely step to honor the memories of the 
dead in Buffalo and to make sure mass shootings motivated by race don't 
happen again.
  I urge all my Republican colleagues to vote to get on the bill. All 
we are asking is a vote ``yes'' on the motion to proceed.
  I urge my colleague from Wisconsin to vote yes on that bill.
  If Senator Johnson helps us get on the domestic terrorism bill, we 
could consider amendments related to guns--his and others' who have a 
different point of view. If Republicans can vote with us to get on that 
bill, we can have a debate on considering commonsense, strong gun 
safety amendments, hopefully with bipartisan support. The Senator from 
Wisconsin says his bill is bipartisan. There are five Republican 
sponsors.
  The bottom line is, if you want to have bipartisan debates, you don't 
just say: My bill must pass by unanimous consent, and no other bill can 
pass. I am providing a path that we can have a debate on these 
amendments.
  Let me be clear. We are going to vote on gun legislation, and the 
Republicans could let us start doing that as soon as tomorrow if they 
simply vote yes on the motion to proceed, and I give them a pledge that 
we will then start debating gun amendments--Senator Johnson's and many 
others' who have a different point of view. I repeat, though, we are 
going to vote on gun legislation. The American people are tired of 
moments of silence, tired of the kind words offering thoughts and 
prayers.
  We can use the domestic terrorism bill tomorrow to begin--I repeat, 
to begin--considering gun safety amendments, and we can consider the 
proposal he brings to the floor today. So we won't just have this 
amendment; we will have a lot of amendments to debate. That seems 
perfectly fair and, in fact, bipartisan. Alone, the Johnson bill is not 
in any way, shape, or form a sufficient solution, and so I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  The Senator from Wisconsin.
  Mr. JOHNSON. As chairman of Homeland Security, I have passed more 
than 300 pieces of legislation out of committee, and over 130 of those 
became law. Very few of those--almost none--were partisan in any way, 
shape, or form. The approach I used to have that kind of legislative 
success is, rather than focus on issues that divide us, I concentrated 
on areas of agreement.
  Today, I brought to the Senate floor a nonpartisan bill, a bill 
crafted by the parents--the parents--who lost their sons in one of 
these horrific tragedies. It passed out of our committee twice 
unanimously. Those parents asked me

[[Page S2685]]

to come today to please pass this bill; take some action; provide some 
comfort to all the parents who are grieving, to a nation that is 
grieving.
  So I came to the floor today, and I will not engage in partisanship 
other than to say it is just sad--it is just sad that this body can't 
pass this bill when, about a month ago, they passed an identical bill 
that applied to churches. This one applies to schools. Yet it is 
inappropriate, according to the majority leader, to pass this 
nonpartisan bill by unanimous consent? This is a very sad day for the 
U.S. Senate.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Republican leader.


                  Nomination of Henry Christopher Frey

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, gas prices have set new alltime 
record highs every day for more than 2 weeks. Overall inflation is the 
worst it has been in more than 40 years. And the Biden administration 
is preparing to follow their botched Afghanistan retreat with a 
disastrous nuclear deal that would help Iran and hurt America.
  But this week, the Senate Democrat majority is not taking action on 
any of those things; the Senate is instead spending the week cramming 
more far-left bureaucrats into the executive branch, where they will 
keep making these problems even worse.
  Later today, Senate Democrats want to confirm as Assistant 
Administrator for EPA someone who has previously researched the 
environmental impact of football tailgating and concluding it would be 
best for the environment if the authorities--listen to this--banned 
charcoal grills and gas generators. This is no joke. Dr. Christopher 
Frey literally coauthored a research paper that argued that ``the most 
environmentally responsible policy would be . . . a universal ban on 
idling, charcoal grills, and old generators''--just the nominee the 
American people need confirmed by Memorial Day weekend.
  So, honestly, where do they find these people? The same nominee wrote 
in defense of the illegal, job-killing so-called Clean Power Plan. As a 
past chairman of the EPA's Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee, he 
worked to politicize its work from outside.
  Things aren't going any better at the committee level. This morning, 
the HELP Committee deadlocked on the nomination of Kalpana Kotagal, 
whom President Biden wants to put on the Equal Employment Opportunity 
Commission. Ms. Kotagal is a liberal plaintiff's lawyer who is best 
known for rewriting Hollywood legal contracts to push movie casting 
toward racial quotas, gender quotas, and sexual orientation quotas. The 
President has found the one person in America who thinks liberal 
Hollywood is not woke enough.
  The nominee also has a record of hostility to American energy. She 
has been both an official spokeswoman and a registered lobbyist for a 
far-left group that wants to eliminate fossil fuels. She is on the 
board of another organization that has frivolously sued the State of 
West Virginia over energy issues.
  The American people know Washington Democrats' policies hurt working 
families. They have seen that in our colleagues' legislation. And it is 
more of the same when it comes to the nominees they are picking to 
design and carry out their tsunami of regulations.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from West Virginia.
  Mrs. CAPITO. Madam President, as ranking member of the Committee on 
Environment and Public Works, I rise to oppose the nomination of Dr. 
Chris Frey due to the consistent lack of responsiveness from the EPA on 
our critical oversight matters.
  The Republican leader, Senator McConnell, just talked about Dr. 
Frey's research on gas grills and grilling out, but over the past 16 
months, my objections are that the Biden EPA has repeatedly slow-walked 
responses to reasonable oversight requests for Agency briefings and 
documents related to implementation of policies with huge, huge 
implications for our economy and our constituents' lives.
  We cannot adequately oversee the Agency's programs--including 
historic levels of drinking water infrastructure funding made possible 
by the bipartisan IIJA--without this transparency. Until the EPA heeds 
congressional oversight requests, I urge my colleagues to join me in 
opposing Dr. Frey's nomination.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Delaware.
  Mr. CARPER. Madam President, as we heard from previous speakers, we 
will shortly vote to invoke cloture on the nomination of Dr. 
Christopher Frey to be Assistant Administrator for EPA's Office of 
Research and Development. I rise today in strong support of his 
nomination.
  Chris Frey, as he is known to his friends and colleagues, is an 
outstanding public servant, a deeply respected scientist, and an 
excellent choice to fill this leadership role at EPA.
  The Office of Research and Development provides the bedrock of 
scientific analysis upon which we establish our Nation's critical 
environmental protection regulations. The EPA is able to fulfill its 
responsibilities to protect our air that we breathe, to protect the 
water that we drink, and the land we build our communities upon because 
of the robust scientific research provided by what is called O-R-D, the 
Office of Research and Development.
  Dr. Frey's nomination received a bipartisan vote in the Committee on 
Environment and Public Works. He has the experience, intellect, and 
integrity to lead this indispensable office. I am eager to see him 
confirmed.
  I encourage my colleagues to join me in supporting cloture on his 
nomination. This is about restoring science as the guiding force in 
EPA's work.
  I yield the floor.


                      Vote on Thompson Nomination

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Delaware.
  Mr. CARPER. Madam President, I know of no further debate on the 
nomination.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. If there is no further debate, the question 
is, Will the Senate advise and consent to the Thompson nomination?
  Mr. CARPER. I ask for the yeas and nays.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
  There appears to be a sufficient second.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Oregon (Mr. Merkley) and 
the Senator from Maryland (Mr. Van Hollen) are necessarily absent.
  Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator 
from Texas (Mr. Cornyn), the Senator from Texas (Mr. Cruz), and the 
Senator from Alaska (Ms. Murkowski).
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Baldwin). Are there any other Senators in 
the Chamber desiring to vote?
  The result was announced--yeas 49, nays 46, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 203 Ex.]

                                YEAS--49

     Baldwin
     Bennet
     Blumenthal
     Booker
     Brown
     Cantwell
     Cardin
     Carper
     Casey
     Coons
     Cortez Masto
     Duckworth
     Durbin
     Feinstein
     Gillibrand
     Hassan
     Heinrich
     Hickenlooper
     Hirono
     Kaine
     Kelly
     King
     Klobuchar
     Leahy
     Lujan
     Manchin
     Markey
     Menendez
     Murphy
     Murray
     Ossoff
     Padilla
     Peters
     Reed
     Rosen
     Rounds
     Sanders
     Schatz
     Schumer
     Shaheen
     Sinema
     Smith
     Stabenow
     Tester
     Warner
     Warnock
     Warren
     Whitehouse
     Wyden

                                NAYS--46

     Barrasso
     Blackburn
     Blunt
     Boozman
     Braun
     Burr
     Capito
     Cassidy
     Collins
     Cotton
     Cramer
     Crapo
     Daines
     Ernst
     Fischer
     Graham
     Grassley
     Hagerty
     Hawley
     Hoeven
     Hyde-Smith
     Inhofe
     Johnson
     Kennedy
     Lankford
     Lee
     Lummis
     Marshall
     McConnell
     Moran
     Paul
     Portman
     Risch
     Romney
     Rubio
     Sasse
     Scott (FL)
     Scott (SC)
     Shelby
     Sullivan
     Thune
     Tillis
     Toomey
     Tuberville
     Wicker
     Young

                             NOT VOTING--5

     Cornyn
     Cruz
     Merkley
     Murkowski
     Van Hollen
  The nomination was confirmed.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the motion to 
reconsider is considered made and laid upon the table, and the 
President will be immediately notified of the Senate's action.

                          ____________________