[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 92 (Thursday, May 26, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2721-S2723]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  PROVIDING FOR CONGRESSIONAL DISAPPROVAL UNDER CHAPTER 8 OF TITLE 5, 
UNITED STATES CODE, OF THE RULE SUBMITTED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE 
 AND THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY RELATING TO ``PROCEDURES FOR 
  CREDIBLE FEAR SCREENING AND CONSIDERATION OF ASYLUM, WITHHOLDING OF 
        REMOVAL, AND CAT PROTECTION CLAIMS BY ASYLUM OFFICERS''

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will 
proceed to the consideration of S.J. Res. 46, which the clerk will 
report.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       A joint resolution (S.J. Res. 46) providing for 
     congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United 
     States Code, of the rule submitted by the Department of 
     Justice and the Department of Homeland Security relating to 
     ``Procedures for Credible Fear Screening and Consideration of 
     Asylum, Withholding of Removal, and CAT Protection Claims by 
     Asylum Officers''.

  The joint resolution was ordered to be engrossed for a third reading 
and was read the third time.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the joint resolution 
having been read the third time, the question is, Shall the joint 
resolution pass?
  Mr. BROWN. 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.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk called 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 Tennessee (Mrs. Blackburn), the Senator from North Dakota (Mr. 
Cramer), the Senator from Texas (Mr. Cruz), and the Senator from Alaska 
(Ms. Murkowski).
  The result was announced--yeas 46, nays 48, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 211 Leg.]

                                YEAS--46

     Barrasso
     Blunt
     Boozman
     Braun
     Burr
     Capito
     Cassidy
     Collins
     Cornyn
     Cotton
     Crapo
     Daines
     Ernst
     Fischer
     Graham
     Grassley
     Hagerty
     Hawley
     Hoeven
     Hyde-Smith
     Inhofe
     Johnson
     Kennedy
     Lankford
     Lee
     Lummis
     Manchin

[[Page S2722]]


     Marshall
     Moran
     Paul
     Portman
     Risch
     Romney
     Rounds
     Rubio
     Sasse
     Scott (FL)
     Scott (SC)
     Shelby
     Sullivan
     Thune
     Tillis
     Toomey
     Tuberville
     Wicker
     Young

                                NAYS--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
     Markey
     McConnell
     Menendez
     Murphy
     Murray
     Ossoff
     Padilla
     Peters
     Reed
     Rosen
     Sanders
     Schatz
     Schumer
     Shaheen
     Sinema
     Smith
     Stabenow
     Tester
     Warner
     Warnock
     Warren
     Whitehouse
     Wyden

                             NOT VOTING--6

     Blackburn
     Cramer
     Cruz
     Merkley
     Murkowski
     Van Hollen
  The joint resolution (S.J. Res. 46) was rejected.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. King). The Republican leader.


                          Motion to Reconsider

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I enter a motion to reconsider the 
vote.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The motion is entered.
  The Senator from New Jersey.


             Unanimous Consent Requests--Executive Calendar

  Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. President, I am rising to ask unanimous consent to 
consider the nomination of Leopoldo Martinez. This body should confirm 
him today to serve as Executive Director of the Inter-American 
Development Bank.
  From the world's highest per capita COVID infection and death rates 
to the largest economic contraction anywhere in the world, Latin 
America and the Caribbean are still struggling to recover from 
devastating waves of the pandemic.
  The region also faces historic refugee and migration movements that 
stretch across the continent. And added to this, many of these nations 
must confront longstanding poverty and inequality as well as climate 
change and threats to the environment.
  Given the significant economic social and development challenges in 
Latin America and the Caribbean, we urgently need Senate-confirmed 
leadership at our hemisphere's most important multilateral development 
bank. The Inter-American Development Bank is essential to addressing 
these issues.
  It is critical that we have strong U.S. leadership at the Bank. Mr. 
Martinez brings decades of experience in the public and private sector, 
as well as academia, and he will provide exactly that.
  He has advised Fortune 500 companies and private equity funds. He has 
helped international business and nongovernmental organizations, and he 
has committed to work with the Senate to support a much needed capital 
increase for the Bank, which we approved as part of the U.S. Innovation 
and Competition Act last year.
  This nomination has been pending for 9 months--9 months. It is time 
for the Senate to act, especially when we have China--and I know my 
colleagues on the other side of the aisle have spent a lot of time 
talking about China and whether we were strong enough in meeting the 
China threat. Well, China is all over the Western Hemisphere making 
huge investments.
  I talked to one foreign leader this past week from the hemisphere. He 
said to me: Listen, what is the United States offering? Because I am 
being offered $800 million, 1 percent, over 30 years. I am not taking 
it, but at some point, we need to have engagement in the hemisphere 
economically.
  That is what the Inter-American Development Bank can do without 
costing U.S. taxpayers money. But for that, you need leadership that is 
focused on getting the IDB to build the partnerships and the programs 
that can help us have a presence to counter China in the first place 
and also to promote prosperity, security, and stability.
  And for all of those of my colleagues who are concerned about the 
southern border, well, let's get an organization that can help create 
greater prosperity and stability in the hemisphere so people won't be 
fleeing from the circumstances.
  I don't understand why this has taken 9 months, but that is what 
draws me to come to the floor. So I ask unanimous consent that the 
Senate Foreign Relations Committee be discharged and the Senate proceed 
to the following nomination: PN1028, Leopoldo Martinez Nucete, to be 
United States Executive Director of the Inter-American Development Bank 
for a term of three years, vice Eliot Pedrosa; that the Senate vote on 
the nomination with no intervening action or debate; that the motion to 
reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table; that no further 
motions be made in order to the nomination; and that any related 
statements be printed in the Record.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Mr. MARSHALL. Mr. President, reserving the right to object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Kansas.
  Mr. MARSHALL. This nominee received a tie vote in the Senate Foreign 
Relations Committee, meaning that he failed to be reported favorably to 
the floor. This tie vote indicates that the Senate Foreign Relations 
Committee Republicans have significant concerns with this nominee; 
therefore, he should be discharged per the process laid out in the 
Senate power-sharing agreement for this Congress, not passed by 
unanimous consent. Therefore, I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. President, I am going to be honest here. This isn't 
really about Mr. Martinez, his experience, his views. It is just 
another thinly veiled attempt to block another of the President's 
nominees and to do so at a time in which China is eating our lunch.
  So the next time one of my colleagues gets up and talks about China, 
I am going to remind them of the position that they have taken to block 
one of the critical nominees who could help us meet that challenge in 
the Western Hemisphere.
  Mr. President, let me turn to another nominee who has been pending 
before the Senate, who did pass the committee, by the way, favorably--
not on a tie vote but favorably. I am going to, in a moment, ask 
unanimous consent to confirm Dr. Monde Muyangwa to serve as Assistant 
Administrator for USAID's Africa Bureau. This body should confirm her 
without delay.
  The promotion of democracy, a key goal for USAID, is threatened 
throughout Africa. In just the past 2 years, there have been coups in 
Sudan, Chad, Guinea, Burkina Faso, and two in Mali.
  Authoritarians across Africa have new tactics to subvert democratic 
movements. They have modern tools to silence dissenting voices. They 
deploy disinformation campaigns and sophisticated surveillance 
technology coming from China to stay in power. And from Mali to the 
Central African Republic, dictators are turning to Russian mercenaries 
for support.
  Democracy advocates, human rights offenders, and civil society 
leaders across the continent are courageously working to realize their 
aspirations and goals. They need a reliable partner at USAID to keep 
the struggle for democracy in their countries, and that is why we have 
to advance this nominee today.

  Dr. Muyangwa is eminently qualified to lead USAID's Africa Bureau. 
She brings extensive professional and academic experience in Africa. 
She is a Zambian-born immigrant to the United States, where she has 
held senior positions at the Wilson Center, the Africa Center for 
Strategic Studies, and the National Summit on Africa. She was a Rhodes 
Scholar, a Wingate Scholar for her scholarship at Oxford, the 
valedictorian for her graduating class at the University of Zambia, and 
she holds a doctorate in international relations from the University of 
Oxford. Do you think she is well qualified? In short, her 
qualifications are exceptional.
  Finally, let me say that while Africa faces many challenges, it is 
also a land of tremendous opportunity. But here, again, China is all 
over Africa in precious minerals and other precious materials, in 
subverting nascent democracies by their debt-trap diplomacy. And where 
are we? Absent, because we don't even have somebody who can focus on 
the hemisphere--a hemisphere that we should have gotten a lot more 
votes at the United Nations when we were pursuing the sanctions against 
Russia. But guess what. We don't have anybody talking to these 
countries. So I see no reason, with somebody with

[[Page S2723]]

such a stellar background, to ultimately be objected to.
  So I will I ask unanimous consent that the Senate consider the 
following nomination: Calendar No. 815, Monde Muyangwa, to be an 
Assistant Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International 
Development; that the Senate vote on the nomination without intervening 
action or debate; that the motion to reconsider be considered made and 
laid upon the table; and that any statements related to the nomination 
be printed in the Record.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Mr. MARSHALL. Mr. President.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Kansas.
  Mr. MARSHALL. Reserving the right to object, USAID awarded a $200 
million grant for a 10-year viral emergence early warning project known 
as PREDICT.
  We have uncovered evidence of possible embezzlement, possible money 
laundering, and insider threats, as well as other concerns related to 
the PREDICT and other USAID grant awards.
  PREDICT was led by a consortium spearheaded by UC Davis and EcoHealth 
Alliance, which funneled taxpayer dollars to the Wuhan Institute of 
Virology to conduct risky research on potential pandemic pathogens, 
including bat coronavirus research.
  USAID and NIH both awarded multimillion dollar grants to EcoHealth 
Alliance during the same 5-year period leading up to and immediately 
preceding the COVID-19 outbreak.
  EcoHealth is unable to produce to NIH proof of its research, such as 
lab notebooks and virus samples, so we are simply asking USAID for 
proof of the EcoHealth research they funded. We requested records from 
USAID that grant recipients are legally required to maintain. Our 
requests are, indeed, fact-based.
  At this point, we believe either the USAID staff is withholding the 
records from Congress or they have failed to access them through the UC 
Davis and EcoHealth Alliance. Either option is unacceptable. As such, I 
object to the unanimous consent motion but look forward to working with 
the chairman to address these issues.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. President, through the Chair, would my colleague 
say that--have you not been provided three rounds of documents that 
have been requested?
  Mr. MARSHALL. Mr. President.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Kansas.
  Mr. MARSHALL. Unfortunately, the documents were not what we asked 
for. They are incomplete. They don't give us what we are looking for. 
But we would welcome the opportunity to sit down with the chairman and 
try to address--
  Mr. MENENDEZ. Through the Presiding Officer, has my colleague not 
been offered a briefing by USAID to try to answer the rest of his 
questions?
  This is an extraordinary amount of information being offered for 
someone who is not even a member of the Foreign Relations Committee. 
But, nonetheless, in order to accommodate him, we want to get to a 
point that he feels comfortable to do so. Have you not been offered a 
briefing, which you have not yet accepted?
  Mr. MARSHALL. Not that I am aware of.
  Mr. MENENDEZ. Well, my understanding is that there has been, Mr. 
President, an offer of a briefing made to the Senator.
  And, by the way, this has nothing to do with Dr. Muyangwa. She has 
nothing to do with any of this. She is nominated to be the Assistant 
Administrator for Africa, nothing to do with China, nothing to do with 
Wuhan, nothing to do with anything else.
  I would urge my colleague, if you have all this information about 
illicit activities, please bring it forward. The committee would like 
to consider it. But I haven't seen any of it. It is time to put up or 
shut up.
  I yield the floor.

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