[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 106 (Wednesday, June 22, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3045-S3048]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          MOTION TO DISCHARGE

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, pursuant to S. Res. 27, the Judiciary 
Committee being tied on the question of reporting, I move to discharge 
the Judiciary Committee from further consideration of Arianna J. 
Freeman, of Pennsylvania, to be United States Circuit Judge for the 
Third Circuit.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the provisions of S. Res. 27, there will 
now be up to 4 hours of debate on the motion, equally divided between 
the two leaders or their designees, with no motions, points of order, 
or amendments in order.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
  There appears to be a sufficient second.
  The yeas and nays are ordered.


                    Bipartisan Safer Communities Act

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, on the issue of our actions last night, 
yesterday, Democratic and Republican negotiators at long last released 
what the Nation has been waiting for for a very long time--a gun safety 
bill that can be described with three words: common sense, bipartisan, 
lifesaving.
  As the author of the Brady background checks bill--the last major gun 
safety bill, which passed in 1994--I am pleased Congress is on the path 
to take meaningful action to address gun violence for the first time in 
nearly 30 years. The bill is real progress. It will save lives. It is 
my intention to make sure the Senate passes this bill before the end of 
the week.
  Last night, the process to quickly pass gun safety legislation 
formally

[[Page S3046]]

began here on the floor after 64 Senators agreed to get on the bill. 
Let me emphasize that number again. Sixty-four Members came together 
last night to move forward--an unmistakable sign of the broad support 
and momentum behind this bill. That is good news for American families 
and American communities that have waited for years to see real 
progress against gun violence.
  Once again, it is my intention now to keep the process moving quickly 
and secure final passage before the week's end.
  A little over a month ago, our Nation witnessed two of the most 
traumatic mass shootings seen in years: a racially motivated attack in 
Buffalo and the worst school shooting in years in Uvalde, TX.
  After these shootings, the Senate had a choice: We could succumb to 
gridlock and hold a vote on a bill with many things we would want but 
that had no hope of getting passed or we could try to find a bipartisan 
path forward, as difficult as it seemed to get anything done. Over the 
past 4 weeks, we chose to try to get something done.
  Immediately after Uvalde, I spoke with Senator Murphy, who has been 
our leader on these issues, and he asked me to give negotiators time 
and space to do their work. Given his long experience in this area, he 
thought that they could succeed. I was happy to agree because I knew 
that even if there was a chance to get something positive and tangible 
done on gun safety, it was well worth the effort. So I told Senator 
Murphy I would give him the space he needed.
  That quickly became the consensus of our caucus and the consensus of 
many of our gun safety advocates, who pressed us to secure real 
progress. We were all on the same page: Get something real done even if 
it might not be everything we wanted.
  This proved to be the right decision because today we are only a few 
days away from passing the first major gun safety bill in nearly 30 
years.
  I want to thank all my Democratic and Republican colleagues for 
working together to reach this point. I want to particularly thank 
Senators Murphy and Sinema and all my Democratic colleagues who were 
part of the bipartisan working group. And, of course, I also want to 
thank Senators Cornyn, Tillis, and my Republican colleagues who made 
the decision to tackle this difficult issue.
  Most important of all, I want to thank all the survivors of gun 
violence, all the families and advocates who dedicated years of their 
lives to try to make a difference. This would not be possible without 
their years of work. No matter how many mass shootings have been met 
with gridlock over the years, these families never gave up on their 
hopes of making change happen. As I have told them, rather than curse 
the darkness, they lit a candle. They have turned their grief into 
action, and now their action has brought us to the brink of passing the 
first significant gun safety bill in decades.
  The negotiators have done their work. Now it is time for the Senate 
to complete the job and pass the bill before the end of the week. The 
American people have waited long enough.


                              INSULIN Act

  Mr. President, now on an insulin bill, another bit of good news, a 
bright light. Earlier this morning, my colleagues Senators Shaheen and 
Collins released legislation taking direct aim at one of the most 
confounding problems facing millions of Americans: the skyrocketing 
cost of insulin.
  After months of hard work and good-faith negotiations, the efforts of 
my colleagues Senators Shaheen and Collins have produced the INSULIN 
Act. This bipartisan bill will cap insulin at $35 a month, change the 
system that favors corporations instead of patients by keeping prices 
high, and help lower costs for millions of Americans with diabetes. It 
is my intention to bring the INSULIN Act to the floor of the Senate 
very soon, and it ought to pass this Chamber expeditiously.
  Reducing the price of insulin is not a Democratic issue or a 
Republican issue; it is something that affects millions of Americans in 
every city and every State. In fact, State legislatures across the 
country have passed bills capping the cost of insulin for patients--not 
just blue States but some deeply red States as well.
  Senators Shaheen and Collins approached me earlier in the year and 
said they wanted to draft a bill that not only capped insulin prices at 
$35, but, in addition, they said they also wanted to have a bill that 
goes deeper and goes to the depth of the problem, to change the system 
of high prices that puts profits ahead of patients and lower the cost 
for millions of Americans with diabetes. I agreed that would be 
preferable. I encouraged them. And after a lot of work--hard work, 
diligent work--they have written a very fine bill.

  Now, it is time for Congress to get the job done. If we can pass this 
bill, it will be a win for everyone--most of all, the millions and 
millions of Americans who rely on insulin to manage their diabetes.
  There is no time to waste because the surge of insulin costs is one 
of the most infuriating trends of the past decade. For many people, the 
cost of insulin can climb up to hundreds of dollars a month, sometimes 
as much as $400 or even more. It is horrible and infuriating.
  Skyrocketing insulin costs means that many Americans have to ask some 
soul-wrenching questions: Do I pay for my groceries, or do I pay for my 
medication? Do I have to ration my supply and take maybe half the 
dosage each day--which we know hastens the onset of diabetes and 
hastens the virulence of diabetes; or some ask: Will I have to skip my 
medication altogether?
  These are questions no American should have to ever ask, but this is 
the reality for far too many in this country. No American should have 
to go broke just to access the medicines they need to stay alive. So 
that is why the Senate should make the INSULIN Act a priority in the 
coming months.
  Again, I want to thank Senators Shaheen and Collins for all their 
hard work in bringing this bill together. This has been a passion of 
both of theirs for a very long time. It has been a priority for many of 
us in this Chamber for years, and to have a bipartisan bill like this 
one is truly a breakthrough.
  Very soon, I intend to have this bill come before the Senate so we 
can take decisive, much-needed steps toward lowering the cost of 
insulin for millions who need this drug to stay alive.


                    Nomination of Arianna J. Freeman

  Mr. President, finally on judicial nominees: As we continue moving 
forward on the first major gun bill in decades, the Senate will also 
proceed with confirming even more of President Biden's highly qualified 
judicial nominees. Later today, the Senate will move forward on the 
historic nomination of Arianna Freeman to serve as circuit judge for 
the Third Circuit.
  Ms. Freeman would make history as the first Black woman ever to 
preside as an appellate judge on the Third Circuit, which is home to 
more than 3 million African Americans in the Northeast and the Virgin 
Islands, but which has had only five African-American judges in its 
entire history.
  Her confirmation would be a long overdue step toward a more 
representative bench that is vital for the health of democracy.
  And her qualifications--Yale Law School, clerkships for three Federal 
judges, and extensive experience as a Federal defender--should erase 
any doubt that she merits appointment to the bench. Normally, a nominee 
with Ms. Freeman's resume should command strong bipartisan support, so 
it was deeply regrettable that her nomination was locked in committee 
with an 11-to-11 vote. Nevertheless, we are proceeding with her 
nomination today. I have just moved to discharge her nomination out of 
the Judiciary Committee so we can bring her to a vote on the floor.
  Again, a simple look at her resume shows she has the skills. We know 
she has the temperament and experience to make an excellent judge. And 
despite delays, the Senate is going to move her one step closer to 
confirmation today.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

[[Page S3047]]

  



                     Recognition of Minority Leader

  The Republican leader is recognized.


                    Bipartisan Safer Communities Act

  Mr. McCONNELL. Yesterday, the Senate took a big step toward an 
important bipartisan bill to prevent mass murders, make schools safer, 
and protect the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens. The 
bipartisan group, led by Senator Cornyn, put together a package of 
commonsense and popular solutions to make these horrific incidents less 
likely, and it does not so much as touch the rights of the overwhelming 
majority of American gun owners who are law-abiding citizens of sound 
mind.
  I have spent my career supporting, defending, and expanding law-
abiding citizens' Second Amendment rights. The right to bear arms, the 
right to defend one's self and one's family is a core civil liberty. 
Among other things, Senate Republicans spent years confirming a 
generation of Federal judges who understand that the Constitution and 
the Bill of Rights actually mean what they say.
  The American people know that we don't have to choose between safer 
schools and our constitutional rights. Our country can and should have 
both. But throughout recent years, our Democratic colleagues have 
indicated they were not interested in substantial legislation to create 
safer communities if they didn't get to take massive bites out of the 
Second Amendment in the process. There have been attempts at bipartisan 
talks after horrible incidents in the past, but they fell apart when 
Democrats did not sign on to anything--anything--that did not roll back 
the Bill of Rights for law-abiding Americans.
  Well, this time is different. This time, Democrats came our way and 
agreed to advance some commonsense solutions without rolling back 
rights to law-abiding citizens. The result is a product that I am proud 
to support. It will send more direct funding to community behavioral 
health centers and for mental health in schools. It will send money not 
just to States that decide to implement so-called red flag laws, but to 
every State to fund crisis intervention programs of their own choosing. 
And States that do not use the money for red flag laws will have to 
build in new due-process protections that have never been required 
before.
  The bill also removes the blinders that have prevented the NICS 
background check system from considering young people with preexisting 
juvenile records. If a young teenager has been convicted of a violent 
crime or institutionalized for mental illness, there is no reason why 
that important record should be magically wiped away on their 18th 
birthday for the purpose of buying weapons. That information is clearly 
relevant, and 87 percent of Americans agree.
  To be clear, this legislation has no new restrictions, bans, waiting 
periods, or mandates for law-abiding gun owners of any age--no new 
restrictions, bans, waiting periods or mandates for law-abiding 
citizens of any age, including those aged 18 to 21. Someone who has 
never been convicted of a violent crime or adjudicated as mentally ill 
will not have their rights affected one iota. And a whole lot of 
schools and communities will receive more mental health funding to 
prevent crisis situations before they develop.


                           Judicial Security

  Mr. President, now on a related matter, speaking of safer 
communities, it would be nice if Attorney General Garland and the 
Department of Justice could do their jobs and enforce the Federal laws 
that Congress actually already has on the books.
  For example, it is currently--right now--illegal to join a mob 
protesting outside the private family home of a Federal judge, 
including Supreme Court Justices. It is illegal right now to try to 
replace the rule of law with harassment and intimidation. What has been 
going on outside Justices' homes for weeks now is a Federal crime right 
now. But you wouldn't know it from the Justice Department's inaction.
  First, the most prominent Democrats in America fan dangerous flames 
with intemperate rhetoric about the Court. Then House Democrats 
blockade a noncontroversial Supreme Court security bill for weeks--
weeks--until a literal assassination plot came to light. And all the 
while, Attorney General Garland still refuses to enforce existing 
Federal law and put a stop to these illegal pressure campaigns.
  As Washington Democrats continue to stage hearings about political 
violence that took place a year and a half ago, their own side of the 
aisle is engaging in ongoing political violence as we speak.
  In recent weeks, the entire country has been swept with vandalism, 
arson, and attacks directed at churches, pro-life organizations, and 
crisis pregnancy centers that serve and help women--going on all across 
the country. By one count, there have been more than four dozen 
incidents of vandalism, harassment, or violence committed by pro-
abortion advocates since the shameful leak of a Supreme Court draft 
opinion.
  The Department of Justice will not even condemn or stop illegal 
intimidation mobs today, leading to ask: Are they really prepared to 
protect the safety and civil rights of American citizens after the 
Court issues high-profile rulings?
  Are local authorities here in Washington and around the country ready 
for what one far-left group is promising will be ``a night of rage''--
``a night of rage''?
  Well, they had better be. I understand, yesterday, Attorney General 
Garland caught a flight to Ukraine. Now, I certainly support our 
efforts in Ukraine and was proud to meet with President Zelenskyy 
myself a month ago. As a U.S. Senator, I work directly on foreign 
policy, but our head of domestic law enforcement ought to be a little 
more concerned with his day job.


                            Gas Tax Holiday

  Now, Mr. President, on one final matter, this morning, the Biden 
administration announced another ineffective stunt to mask the effects 
of Democrats' war on affordable American energy: calling for a holiday 
on the Federal gas tax.
  This ineffective stunt will join President Biden's other ineffective 
stunt on gas prices: emptying out the Strategic Petroleum Reserve that 
we need in the event of a true national security crisis, not just a 
Democratic-fueled inflation crisis. This ineffective administration's 
big, new idea is a silly proposal that senior members of their own 
party have already shot down well in advance.
  Earlier this year, Speaker Pelosi said President Biden's idea 
``[wouldn't] even [be] going to the consumers.'' She called it ``very 
showbiz.''
  Larry Summers, a top economist to multiple Democratic Presidents, 
said the idea would be ``shortsighted, ineffective, goofy, and 
gimmicky.'' That is Larry Summers.
  Jason Furman, President Obama's former head of the Council of 
Economic Advisers, said just yesterday--yesterday:

       Whatever you thought of the merits of a gas tax holiday in 
     February, it is a worse idea now . . . A gas tax holiday 
     would also add to inflation.

  Jason Furman, yesterday.
  Back in 2008, then-Candidate Obama called the idea ``a gimmick [that 
would] save you half a tank of gas over the course of the entire summer 
so that everyone in Washington can pat themselves on the back and say 
they did something.''
  Look, a recent study of past gas tax holidays found that less than 20 
percent of the amount ends up actually lowering prices at the pump. In 
other words, lifting an 18.4-cent gas tax would mean lowering 
Americans' gas prices by just 3 or 4 cents--3 or 4 cents.
  The price of gas has risen $2.60 since the Biden administration took 
office and launched its holy war on affordable American energy. There 
had already been a substantial increase before the conflict in Ukraine 
escalated. Now the President wants to trim 3 cents--3 cents--off the 
top and take a bow? I don't think so.
  Tomorrow, Secretary Granholm will continue the empty theater by 
holding an ``emergency meeting'' with domestic energy refiners. 
Presumably, this will involve another leftwing browbeating like the 
accusatory letter President Biden sent to domestic producers just last 
week. The same administration--the same one--that hasn't awarded a 
single offshore energy lease, that hasn't offered an onshore lease sale 
in five straight quarters, and that has taken every single opportunity 
to slow-walk new energy infrastructure into submission appears to have 
found

[[Page S3048]]

a convenient scapegoat for the consequences of its own actions.
  Actually, I have a better idea: Democrats could stop setting off 
inflationary spirals, stop proposing massive tax hikes on the brink of 
a recession, stop waging a holy war against American fossil fuels, and 
stop applauding the pain that working families are feeling as part of 
some grand, leftwing ``transition.''
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Hawaii.


                    Native American Boarding Schools

  Mr. SCHATZ. Mr. President, last month, the U.S. Department of the 
Interior released an investigative report on our country's Indian 
boarding school system. From 1819 to 1969, more than 400 of these 
schools operated across what today are 37 States. The Indian boarding 
school era is one of the darkest periods in American history and one 
that we as a nation have not properly reckoned with.

  For nearly two centuries, the U.S. Government took Native American 
children as young as 6 from their families and sent them to boarding 
schools, but these schools were not solely for the purpose of teaching 
the children. They humiliated these children, and they harmed them. 
Indian children were forced to change their names, to cut their hair, 
to stop speaking their Native languages. They did military drills three 
times a week. Every day, they were assigned hours of grueling work that 
violated child labor laws: They had to raise livestock, sew clothes, 
work on the railroads. Those who resisted were punished with whippings 
and solitary confinement. Those who resisted were punished with 
whippings and solitary confinement. Often, older children were forced 
to punish the younger ones.
  The conditions of these schools were awful: three to a bed, dirty 
water, no working plumbing. Disease and malnourishment were common. 
Physical and sexual abuse was rampant. We don't know how many children 
died at these U.S. Government-funded and -run schools, but the Interior 
Department estimates that the number is in the tens of thousands.
  And all of this occurred for one reason--to steal Native land.
  As far back as the 1700s, U.S. Government policy was officially to 
dispossess and break Tribes so their territories could be taken for 
American expansion. Erasing Native culture through assimilation was key 
to this.
  As one official said, ``The love of home and the warm, reciprocal 
affection existing between parents and children are among the strongest 
characteristics of the Indian nature.''
  So the Federal Government acted accordingly. The Departments of War 
and Interior oversaw this forced assimilation. Congress passed laws 
appropriating school funding to ``civilize'' Native children. When 
families refused to send their kids to these schools, Congress made the 
food rations that were negotiated in treaties contingent on their doing 
so. To fill the schools, the government enlisted religious 
organizations, paying them on a per-child basis. A majority of this 
money came from Federal Indian trusts--money that was supposed to help 
the Tribes--and the Supreme Court ruled that all of this was legal at 
the time.
  The result of these actions was a multi-generational trauma for 
American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian communities and 
families that continue to this day. Adults who attended boarding 
schools are more likely to have everything from arthritis to 
depression. They are three times as likely to have cancer. Studies have 
found worse health outcomes for the ancestors of people who went to 
these schools, and there are 53 known child burial sites and an unknown 
number yet to be discovered.
  We can't undo this history, but we have to acknowledge it. That 
starts with examining the full scope of this atrocity unflinchingly, 
with clear minds and with fresh eyes. We need to keep investigating 
Indian boarding schools, and the findings should be taught in every 
school and be known by every future generation of Americans. As 
recommended in the report from the Department of the Interior, we must 
also support Native language revitalization. We cannot continue to 
neglect these programs and further erase Native culture.
  We have to understand and undertake a path toward healing, not in the 
abstract but in a concrete and meaningful way. We must work hand in 
hand with Native communities on a respectful and restorative process. 
We have to empower these communities through increased Federal 
investments in Native healthcare and housing and economic development. 
We must reject our centuries-long pattern of Native suppression and, 
instead, begin one of reconciliation. We owe the survivors of the 
Indian boarding school era, their families, and their communities 
nothing less.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

                          ____________________