Congressional Record, Volume 168 Issue 91 (Wednesday, May 25, 2022)

[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

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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

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.

____________________