[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 121 (Thursday, July 21, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3596-S3600]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  SERGEANT FIRST CLASS HEATH ROBINSON HONORING OUR PROMISE TO ADDRESS 
                    COMPREHENSIVE TOXICS ACT OF 2022

  Mr. Schumer. Mr. President, it is my understanding the Senate has 
received a message from the House of Representatives to accompany S. 
3373.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator is correct.
  Mr. SCHUMER. I ask the Chair to lay before the Senate the message to 
accompany S. 3373.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Chair lays before the Senate the message 
from the House.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       Resolved, That the bill from the Senate (S. 3373) entitled 
     ``An Act to improve the Iraq and Afghanistan Service Grant 
     and the Children of Fallen Heroes Grant.'', do pass with an 
     amendment.


                            Motion to Concur

  Mr. SCHUMER. I move to concur in the House amendment to S. 3373.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the motion.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       The Senator from New York [Mr. Schumer] moves to concur in 
     the House amendment to S. 3373.

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


                Motion to Concur with Amendment No. 5148

  Mr. SCHUMER. I move to concur in the House amendment to S. 3373 with 
an amendment.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the motion with an 
amendment.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       The Senator from New York [Mr. Schumer] moves to concur in 
     the House amendment to S. 3373 with an amendment numbered 
     5148.

  The amendment is as follows:

                  (Purpose: To add an effective date)

       At the end add the following:

     SEC. EFFECTIVE DATE.

       This Act shall take effect on the date that is 1 day after 
     the date of enactment of this Act.

  Mr. SCHUMER. I ask unanimous consent that further reading of the 
amendment be dispensed with.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. SCHUMER. 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.


                Amendment No. 5149 to Amendment No. 5148

  Mr. SCHUMER. I have an amendment at the desk.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       The Senator from New York [Mr. Schumer] proposes an 
     amendment numbered 5149 to amendment No. 5148.

  The amendment is as follows:

                (Purpose: To modify the effective date)

       On page 1, line 3, strike ``1 day'' and insert ``2 days''.

  Mr. SCHUMER. I ask unanimous consent that further reading of the 
amendment be dispensed with.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


                Motion to Refer with Amendment No. 5150

  Mr. SCHUMER. I move to refer S. 3373 to the Committee on Veterans' 
Affairs with instructions to report back forthwith with an amendment.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       The Senator from New York [Mr. Schumer] moves to refer the 
     bill to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs with instructions 
     to report back forthwith with an amendment numbered 5150.

  The amendment is as follows:

                  (Purpose: To add an effective date)

       At the end add the following:

     SEC. EFFECTIVE DATE.

       This Act shall take effect on the date that is 3 days after 
     the date of enactment of this Act.

  Mr. SCHUMER. I ask unanimous consent that further reading of the 
motion be dispensed with.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. SCHUMER. 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.


                   Amendment No. 5151 to Instructions

  Mr. SCHUMER. I have an amendment to the instructions at the desk.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       The Senator from New York [Mr. Schumer] proposes an 
     amendment numbered 5151 to the instructions of the motion to 
     refer.

  The amendment is as follows:

                (Purpose: To modify the effective date)

       On page 1, line 3, strike ``3'' and insert ``4''.

  Mr. SCHUMER. I ask unanimous consent that further reading of the 
amendment be dispensed with.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. SCHUMER. 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.


                Amendment No. 5152 to Amendment No. 5151

  Mr. SCHUMER. I have a second-degree amendment at the desk.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       The Senator from New York [Mr. Schumer] proposes an 
     amendment numbered 5152 to amendment No. 5151.

  The amendment is as follows:

                (Purpose: To modify the effective date)

       On page 1, line 3, strike ``4'' and insert ``5''.

  Mr. SCHUMER. I ask unanimous consent that further reading of the 
amendment be dispensed with.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. SCHUMER. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant executive clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SULLIVAN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Cortez Masto). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.


                         Tribute to Betsy Lawer

  Mr. SULLIVAN. Madam President, it is Thursday, and we are back at it 
with

[[Page S3597]]

our Alaskan of the Week series. We have been doing this for, geez, 6 
years now, I think.
  For the new pages, this is usually kind of the signal of the end of 
the week but also some really cool stories about Alaska. We know it is 
your favorite.
  We think some of the reporters in town like it because it signals 
kind of the end of the week for them. But I want to talk about, first, 
what is kind of going on in Alaska. Right now, the sun is high in the 
sky through much of the day. Some places up north are getting 24 hours 
of sunlight; midnight sun, we call it.
  In Anchorage, we are getting about 18 hours, but that starts to 
decline real quick. But even when the sun sets, it is more of a 
twilight look than real night. So you have got to come up and visit; 
you will love it. It has been pretty rainy in parts of the State. We 
needed that rain.
  But it can't dampen the magnificent grandeur of Alaska. So, again, if 
you are watching on TV, you want to come up, have the vacation of a 
lifetime, do it. The fish are running. We are having a banner year for 
sockeye salmon. The rivers all across the State are choked with them.
  Last weekend, actually, I partook at a particular unique Alaskan 
tradition with my wife and a couple buddies of mine. We went 
dipnetting--dipnetting. That is on the Kenai River. That is actually 
when there is so much fish you actually put a pole with a net at the 
end, and you just put it in the water--boom. You just start to catch 
them.
  And you know, people go, Well, can you tell if there is a fish in 
your net? I am like, Oh, yeah, you can tell.
  So my wife and I and our friends, we caught 36 beautiful sockeye 
salmon yesterday--or last weekend, about 5 hours of fishing. It was 
great. We just loved it.
  So fishing, hunting, feeding our families from our land and waters is 
a big part of our life in Alaska. These traditions bind us. They keep 
us together as a State, as a community, as families.
  Our longstanding businesses are also part of the fabric of our State, 
particularly the ones that have grown up with our State. When the 
State's done well, they have done well. When the State struggled, they 
struggled; but they have hung in there. And we want to celebrate these 
businesses and the families that have run them.
  And the great Alaskan we are honoring today as our Alaskan of the 
week is Betsy Lawer. And she is part of an amazing family in an amazing 
business in Alaska--First National Bank of Alaska, which this year is 
celebrating its 100th anniversary.
  So it started in 1922. This amazing financial institution has been 
part of the landscape of Alaska--good times, difficult times--for 100 
years. Betsy has been at the helm, a strong, sturdy force helping to 
guide this incredible business and, by extension, other businesses and 
communities throughout the State, part of her family tradition--the 
Cuddy family--for 100 years.
  So let's talk about Betsy and the family. She is the president of the 
First National Bank of Alaska and also part of a really impressive 
family that has run this bank for decades in Alaska.
  So here is the beginning: Literally with a vault full of gold nuggets 
and untanned animal pelts, that was their original deposits. In 1922, 
First National was founded then in what was part of the rough-and-
tumble tent city of Anchorage. Anchorage was referred to as a tent 
city.
  In 1930, the patriarch of the Cuddy family, Warren Cuddy, began 
buying stock in the bank. By 1941, he purchased controlling interest, 
and Warren became the bank's president. Then, one of his sons, at that 
time, joined the bank's board--this is Dan Cuddy, the legendary Dan 
Cuddy, Betsy's dad. His service was remarkable. First, I would like to 
talk briefly about Dan Cuddy's service as an Alaskan veteran in World 
War II.
  He served as a captain in the 1255th Engineer Combat Battalion, which 
was attached to General George Patton's Third Army. Dan fought in the 
Battle of the Bulge in Luxembourg and was one of the troops who 
assisted in the discovery and then closing of the Buchenwald 
concentration camp. This is an American hero.
  And, by the way, throughout his entire career, I was so honored to 
meet with Dan Cuddy before he passed away in 2015. Throughout his 
incredible career, one thing he talked a lot about was the unspeakable 
atrocities that he saw in World War II, so it would never happen again.
  So Dan Cuddy comes back from World War II--warrior patriot, war hero. 
He becomes a lawyer, and in 1951, he becomes the bank president. And 
the Cuddy family's involvement, again, throughout our State is 
legendary.
  The bank thrived after that under Dan's leadership. It grew with the 
State. It helped Alaskans rebuild after the huge 1964 earthquake.
  By the way, do you want to read about a huge earthquake? It was 9.2 
on the Richter scale, one of the biggest earthquakes ever recorded. It 
destroyed cities, tsunamis. It lasted almost 5 minutes. Think about 
that, sitting through an earthquake for 5 minutes.
  And the bank the whole time kept supporting communities, and it 
continues to do that. It was among the first in the Nation to 
distribute check image statements to its customers in the 1990s. The 
only bank in America to welcome dog mushers through drive-throughs. 
Yes, think about that image.
  And it is probably certainly the only bank in America that has a 
branch that is bilingual both in English and Yupik. That is the branch 
in Bethel, 1 of 19 branches across America.
  First National Bank of Alaska--100 years of service--has received so 
many accolades and awards, including being named one of the top banks 
in America, and it was recognized in 2013 as one of America's most 
trustworthy companies by Forbes magazine.
  You can see the Cuddy family integrity in this institution. But the 
most important thing about First National Bank of Alaska's mission 
statement is that it is what drives the bank: Success depends on taking 
care of the community, employees, and customers. If the community isn't 
strong, businesses won't be strong, the bank won't be strong.
  So, Betsy, one of Dan and Betti's six children, was raised on those 
tenets that I just talked about. She saw how they worked firsthand.
  On Saturdays, she would join her father Dan while he went on his 
outings visiting customers. Sometimes those visits happened in 
Anchorage, where she would politely listen to business being discussed 
and then grab a late breakfast at Peggy's, a mainstay in Anchorage. 
Sometimes they would jump into a prop plane and head out to rural 
Alaska, where she learned so much about that part of our great State.
  Betsy said she loved those visits and she learned, in the ways that 
children do, that helping people realize their hopes and their dreams 
is what her father did, what their business did, and why it was so 
important to so many Alaskan communities.
  Jump forward to September 10, 1969. Betsy was a college student at 
Duke, spending her summers, as she always did, working at the bank as a 
secretary at the bank.
  Just down the street from First National in downtown Anchorage, the 
Prudhoe Bay oil lease sale was underway. This is the giant oilfield in 
Alaska--oil and gasfield. The first big lease sale by the State. It was 
a huge event for our Nation, huge event for Alaska.
  Back then, the country needed Alaska oil and gas, just like today our 
country needs Alaska oil and gas.
  On that day in September 1969, Betsy remembers looking out the window 
of the bank. She said the streets were completely empty, like the 
``Twilight Zone.'' Everybody was huddled in front of their radios, 
listening to the lease sale that would change Alaska and, in many ways, 
America forever.
  First National Bank of Alaska--the Cuddy family's bank where she was 
working, her dad was president then--was assisting Bank of America on 
the lease sale.
  After the sale, get this image, Betsy got a ride back to the east 
coast on a jet with bank executives headed to New York to directly 
deposit the $900 million check that was made out to the State of 
Alaska--that is about 7 billion in today's money--that got our State up 
and moving. She was on that plane depositing that money. Imagine the 
excitement that she felt then.
  The first thing Betsy did after that when she got back to Duke was to

[[Page S3598]]

change majors from interior design to economics, which was probably a 
good move for a future bank president.
  Two years later--she didn't even wait for her graduation ceremony--
she came back to Alaska and immediately got to work. Now, because 
management programs back then were mostly for men, Betsy started from 
the bottom up--teller, clerk, secretary--which she said later in life 
gave her an advantage when she began processing loans for the bank 
because she knew exactly how it all worked and the people at every 
level in that bank. She knew the bones of the bank and the banking 
industry.
  Throughout the years, as the bank has grown, our Alaskan of the Week, 
Betsy, has grown with it. She became president of the bank in 2013, CEO 
in 2018, and she is also the board president.
  She is a mother, a wife, an active member of the community. She is a 
great community banker, and I will tell you this. During the pandemic, 
there was no financial institution that was more dedicated to getting 
the PPP loans out to small businesses in Alaska than First National 
Bank of Alaska and Betsy Lawer. They did an incredible job.
  Betsy helps people in our State realize their hopes and dreams, and 
for Betsy, it all comes down to having a deep understanding and caring 
for the community--the many communities that they serve. ``You can't 
automate those relationships,'' she said.
  So I want to thank Betsy, the Cuddy family, congratulate the First 
National Bank of Alaska--100 years of service to our great State, what 
an amazing record. And I want to congratulate Betsy on perhaps one of 
her most prestigious awards ever: being Alaskan of the Week.


                           CHIPS Act of 2022

  Madam President, we have been discussing on the Senate floor the 
USICA bill, the America Competes bill, the bill that is supposed to 
focus on our ability to outcompete the Chinese communist economy, and I 
can think of very little legislation more important than this.
  This is an issue that since I arrived in the Senate in 2015, I 
started talking about the importance of a broad-based strategy as it 
relates to China and outcompeting China and recognizing that they don't 
play fair, that they steal, that they subsidize, that they coerce, and 
yet they are a huge entity in the global economy so we need a 
strategy to deal with them.

  And this bill that we are now debating on the Senate floor, the U.S. 
Innovation and Competition Act of 2021, USICA is something that I, with 
a number of other Senators, have worked hard on for literally over the 
last year and a half, and I want to thank a number of Senators who have 
put their heart and soul into this legislation, commend them: Senators 
Young, Schumer, Wicker, Cantwell, Warner, Cornyn.
  This is important legislation. As I mentioned, I have supported it 
and its Senate iterations when we passed it out of the Senate, out of 
committee in the Commerce Committee, but I have concerns. I have 
concerns, and I am going to mention a few of them briefly and then one 
concern that permeates so much of what has been happening here in the 
U.S. Senate over the last year and a half that is really important to 
me and my constituents. And I am asking my Senate colleagues--my 
Democratic Senate colleagues--to help me on something that I don't 
think a lot of them maybe even know that they are doing, but let me get 
to the concerns.
  First, on the chips provision--this isn't a concern. This is what 
Senator Warner, Senator Cornyn, and many others have focused on--really 
important to shore up semiconductor manufacturing in America.
  Now, look, my State, unfortunately, is not one that is competing 
right now hard for a big fabrication plant. I understand that. We have 
other assets like energy I am going to talk about here in a minute, but 
wherever this government support for the chips industry is going to go 
in America, I think it is really important because this industry is 
like energy. It is so important to America, and we can't let China 
outcompete us in that area.
  But let me talk about a couple concerns. First, on energy, one of the 
biggest areas that we can compete against China that they are scared 
about competing with us is our incredible natural resources, ``all of 
the above'' resources, all of our energy.
  If you read the intel and you see what China's leadership is worried 
about, one thing they are worried about is American energy dominance.
  So I have worked hard on this legislation for a year and a half to 
make sure that when we are looking at research--advanced research that 
this legislation is going to fund--it needs to include all energy.
  It has been a struggle, I will admit. Some of my Democratic 
colleagues, certainly the Biden administration, have this thing where 
they don't like certain areas of energy--oil and gas in particular. 
They have targeted it. They want to put it out of business. It makes no 
sense. It is probably the biggest strategic blunder of the Biden 
administration across so many areas--targeting and unilaterally 
disarming American energy, when it is one of our greatest comparative 
advantages.
  Unfortunately, some of the language coming back over from the House 
continues this trend, and I am very concerned that we would have a bill 
that could give Federal bureaucrats the opportunity to continue to 
target American energy, as opposed to help bolster it in our 
competition with China.
  So that is one concern. It wasn't in the Senate bill. I made sure of 
that. But now after some of the far-left Members in the House got to 
put language in that came back over here, it is a concern, and it 
should concern every single American, every single Senator.
  We need all of our strengths to compete with China, and to not use 
the strength of American energy--``all of the above'' energy--is nuts. 
Hopefully, this administration is waking up to that, but it hasn't been 
a great record at all in terms of that.
  There is another provision, something that built on a provision that 
I tried to get that I did get in the original USICA bill that Senator 
Portman has now put forward with Democrats and Republicans, a provision 
to make sure that all of these Federal dollars that are going to be in 
this bill do not go to Chinese researchers working in our facilities--
in research facilities, in university facilities--and then take them 
back to China.
  At a recent hearing, FBI Director Wray said this is one of the 
biggest threats our country faces, the counterintelligence perspective 
with regard to the Chinese Communist Party. He said:

       They are targeting our innovation, our trade secrets, our 
     intellectual property on a scale that's unprecedented in 
     history.

  So if we are going to spend all these Federal dollars on American 
research at American research institutions and American universities, 
we need strong guardrails to make sure it doesn't fall into Chinese 
hands.
  Senator Portman has done a great job on this. It is a commonsense 
amendment. Apparently, some have had concerns that this amendment would 
be ``racist.'' That is ridiculous. We need to prevent China from 
stealing our intellectual property. Period. It is not racist; it is 
common sense. I hope we can make sure that amendment gets in.
  But I want to go into a little detail on the final issue that I have 
with this bill. And to be honest, it is kind of shocking that a bill 
focused on competing with China--once again, from the Democratic side 
of the Senate or the House, I don't know where it comes from--has 
provisions that actually target in a negative way Alaska Natives. OK?
  This is an issue that, to be honest, I am kind of flabbergasted. It 
comes up everywhere. It is discrimination. It is racial 
discrimination--good old-fashioned racial discrimination--that I 
thought we tried to get rid of in this country a long time ago, and it 
keeps popping up.
  I am tired of it, and, remarkably, it popped up in the bill that 
competes against China. So I am sure a lot of you are saying: Well, 
jeez, how did that happen? I want to explain because I really want my 
colleagues, many of whom I am convinced have no idea what is going on, 
to understand what is happening. And it happens again and again, and to 
be honest, it shouldn't.
  I hope some people in our media finally write about this. I think it 
is shameful.

[[Page S3599]]

  But I am going to explain it here right now. Here is the issue. In 
Alaska, we have a very big indigenous population--wonderful people, 
incredible people, amazing people. It is almost 20 percent of the 
population of my State. They bring culture, heritage, values. By the 
way, they have been there for tens of thousands of years. This is 
really important to me and to Senator Murkowski. Congress--Congress, 
not the Native people, the Congress of the United States--over the 
course of many years, essentially, has classified--we in the U.S. 
Senate have classified--Alaska Natives into two broad categories. There 
are Tribal members, which is this circle here, and there are members of 
Alaska Native Corporations. They are in this circle here.
  Now, a lot of the indigenous people of Alaska are both Tribal members 
and an ANC members. Some are not both. Some are just Tribal members. 
Some are ANC members.
  But we are talking about tens of thousands of indigenous people. So 
whenever we work on legislation that benefits the Alaska Native 
people--but American Indians, writ large--what we always try to do is 
say: Remember, Congress did this. The Native people didn't do this. So 
let's make sure that we cover everybody. Let's make sure everybody is 
included. You wouldn't want to discriminate against one of these 
groups. They are all indigenous people.
  So that is what me, Senator Murkowski, Ted Stevens--every Senator, 
every great Congressman, our great Congressman Don Young, whom we just 
lost--we have been doing that for decades.
  All of a sudden this has become controversial to some Members, to 
some groups. This group, the ANC members, these are indigenous people 
of Alaska designated as ANC members, not by themselves but by the 
Congress, OK?
  So here is what happened. Here is the beginning. It is sad, and I am 
going to talk about it. It shouldn't happen, and I really want my 
Democratic colleagues to help me stop this because if you put another 
minority group in and talked about what is happening to the Native 
people of Alaska, people would be shocked. The New York Times and the 
Washington Post would write front pages stories about official 
discrimination by the U.S. Senate against a minority population. But 
for whatever reason, it seems to be OK to do it against Alaska Natives. 
But it is not OK.
  Here is what happened. In the CARES Act we had this historic funding, 
$8 billion for the Native people of America. We wrote a definition. I 
was very involved with it. Everybody cleared on it--Indian Affairs, 
majority, minority. That included all indigenous people of Alaska--OK, 
just like we include all indigenous people of Nevada and New Mexico. We 
wanted to cover with $8 billion in the CARES Act the very vulnerable 
populations, all the Native people.
  Unfortunately--unfortunately--as opposed to being viewed as $8 
billion, the biggest historic investment in Indian communities in 
history, there was a dispute, and certain groups said: Hey, we got this 
$8 billion, but we don't want this group to get anything. We don't want 
this group, ANC members, to get any of that $8 billion.
  Remarkably, the majority leader in a tweet attacked the Assistant 
Secretary of the Interior, an Alaska Native woman of impeccable 
integrity, saying somehow that these members getting any of that money 
was corrupt. Of course, that was ridiculous. One of the Senate 
Democrats here, Senator Udall, launched an investigation of this 
incredible Assistant Secretary of the Interior, an Alaska Native woman, 
on this charge. It was refuted. It was ridiculous. It was sad.
  By the way, Senator Udall apologized to her. Our Ambassador to New 
Zealand right now apologized to this incredible Alaska Native woman, 
saying: Do you know what? That was probably really bad. I am sorry.
  It was bad.
  So what happened is that you had a group saying: Let's exclude this 
group of tens of thousands of Alaska Natives from getting any CARES 
money.
  Well, look, we wrote the language. We knew that the language was 
inclusive of everybody. So that, unfortunately, went all the way to the 
U.S. Supreme Court. The Trump administration and, to its credit, the 
Biden administration said: No, the language of the CARES Act included 
all Alaska Natives. Why would we discriminate one against the other?
  So we won that. That was the way it was written. I had a lot to do 
with writing it. So I know. But that is just fair. OK, so that is what 
happened.
  So then my Democratic colleagues write the American Recovery Act. The 
$2 trillion relief package, with $20 billion for American Tribes. But 
do you know what came out of that package? Express language written by 
my Democratic colleagues saying that of the $20 billion, every Native 
group in America gets some of that money, but this group--tens of 
thousands of ANC members in Alaska--we are going to make sure they 
don't get any of that.
  That happened, right here on the Senate floor. I have no idea why.
  Let me just pose a counterfactual. Imagine you had Congress say there 
are two groups of minorities. Let's say not two groups but Asian 
American minorities in New York, group A, group B--Congress categorized 
them, not themselves--or African Americans, group A, group B; or 
Hispanic Americans, group A, group B, in the State of New York--just in 
the State of New York. And a Republican Congress said we are going to 
do a giant relief package for that minority group across the country. 
But, group B in New York, we are going to expressly exclude you from 
getting any money.
  What would you call that?
  I would call that good old-fashioned racial discrimination.
  If that happened, if a Republican Congress did that, to say a group 
of African Americans or Hispanic Americans or Asian Americans, the New 
York Times and the Washington Post would be going crazy--rightfully so, 
by the way.
  This happened. This happened.
  OK, I don't know why. I would love it if one of my Senate colleagues 
came down and said: Hey, Dan, here is why we went to great lengths to 
exclude tens of thousands of Alaska Native indigenous people from 
getting relief. Here is why we did that to you.
  I would love for somebody to tell me that.
  They haven't.
  I think it is wrong. I think most people who know about it probably 
would be like: Jeez, I didn't know we had $20 billion for Tribes, but 
we specifically excluded this group. Was it because we were mad about 
the Supreme Court case?

  I don't know. But here is the thing. Back to the USICA bill, there is 
a lot of money going to universities.
  Mr. CARDIN. Madam President, I am wondering if my colleague would 
yield for 1 minute.
  Mr. SULLIVAN. I am finishing up. So I am not going to yield. It is 
important to me, to my colleague from Maryland.
  There is a lot of money going to universities.
  This is really important to me, and I have been wanting to give this 
speech for a long time.
  There is a lot of money going to institutions for research to compete 
against China. There are specific provisions that say: Hey, there is 
going to be money that goes to Native American groups. That is great. 
They have a lot to bring to this battle with China.
  But that provision that came over from the House--guess what it did. 
It said: Not to this group. Not to this group.
  So do you see where I am going with this?
  I have no idea why Democrats in the House and Senate want to keep 
targeting this group of indigenous people. Imagine if Republicans did 
this to a minority group in Maryland or New York.
  But it is happening, and it is happening even in this bill. So that 
is another big concern I have of this bill, this continuation of--I 
have no idea. I would love it for someone to come down and say: Hey, 
Dan, here is why we discriminate against tens of thousands of 
indigenous people in your State.
  But it is happening. I sure hope my colleagues listen to this. Maybe 
the New York Times or the Washington Post would write about it once.
  But just a ceasefire--when we are trying to help Native people in 
America, in Alaska we want to help them all. Remember, this is how 
Congress set up these groups, not the people. So all I ask is let's 
kind of do what we did

[[Page S3600]]

in the CARES Act for all legislation. But I and Senator Murkowski are 
going to scrub every piece of darn legislation that comes out of here, 
and we are going to start calling out people, asking: Why are you 
discriminating against tens of thousands of people in my State who are 
indigenous?
  Wrong. It is inexplicable, and it is even in the darn bill to compete 
with China. And I sure hope my colleagues will work with me to start 
making sure this doesn't happen anymore.
  I yield the floor.

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