[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 83 (Wednesday, May 17, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1698-S1701]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
______
DISAPPROVING OF THE RULE SUBMITTED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND
SECURITY RELATING TO ``PUBLIC CHARGE GROUND OF INADMISSIBILITY''
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will
resume legislative session and proceed to the consideration of S.J.
Res. 18, which the clerk will report.
The bill clerk read as follows:
A joint resolution (S.J. Res. 18) disapproving of the rule
submitted by the Department of Homeland Security relating to
``Public Charge Ground of Inadmissibility''.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Illinois.
Social Media
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, 10 days ago, America lost a visionary
public official, and I lost a friend. He was 97 years old. His name was
Newt Minow.
He was 35 years old in the year 1961 when President John Kennedy
tapped him to chair the Federal Communications Commission. At the time,
Americans were involved in big change--moving from their radios to this
new thing called television.
In his maiden speech as FCC Commissioner, Newt Minow famously
described much of commercial television as a ``vast wasteland.'' He was
especially concerned about the effects of endless commercials and
violent cartoons and other programs on the minds of our children. He
said the public airwaves should serve the public interest and that the
FCC should use its power to ensure that this emerging new technology of
television met that standard.
Fast-forward six decades. Social media now fills the role that
broadcast TV once did in the lives of our kids. Yet Federal laws
currently allow social media companies to endanger our children with
near total immunity. Social media companies can and regularly do sell
children's personal information for profit, allow bullies to hound
children mercilessly, and allow drug dealers and sexual predators to
hunt for child victims on their platforms.
Our laws, as they are currently written--as we have currently written
them--make it nearly impossible for victims to hold these companies
accountable. This has to change, and the Senate Judiciary Committee is
taking bipartisan action to see that it does.
Virtually every parent I know is concerned about how much time their
kids spend online, looking at screens, how it is affecting them, and
the dangers that kids can stumble into. Parents have a right to be
concerned. Look around the next time you are in a grocery store or in a
mall or at a family restaurant. You will see kids who are transfixed by
smartphones and tablets. I have seen this happen. I will bet the
Presiding Officer has seen it. Many kids learn how to scroll before
they learn how to walk.
I know two children in New York who are quite adept at navigating the
online world. They are 11 years old. Their
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parents have talked to them about the dangers lurking online. Both
parents monitor their kids' screen time as much as they can, but they
still worry that they are missing dangers. I know these children
because they are my grandchildren. My wife and I visited them recently.
I sat down with my grandkids, and I asked them: What do you know
about staying safe online?
Well, they both assured me they ``knew all about it, Papa.'' They
knew all the danger signs to steer clear of.
But we cannot continue to place the responsibility for protecting
children online entirely on these children, even their parents, and
even child advocacy groups alone. No matter how concerned and vigilant
they are, parents stand virtually no chance against social media
companies that use powerful algorithms to hook kids and make a profit
off of them but cannot be held accountable in a court of law for the
harm that their products cause.
Well, Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee
want to change that. Over the last 2 weeks, we have voted out of
committee a package of four bipartisan bills that would require
Facebook, Snapchat, and other social media companies to adhere to new
online safety standards for children or pay a price. The price would be
anything from significant fines to civil judgments to criminal
prosecutions. I say enough is enough.
STOP CSAM Act
Mr. President, last Thursday, the Judiciary Committee voted
unanimously to advance a bill I am sponsoring, called the STOP CSAM
Act. CSAM stands for ``Child Sexual Abuse Material.''
Before I go any further, I want to say a word about this 23-member
committee.
We have some pretty strongly held political opinions among the
membership of that committee, both on the Democratic side and on the
Republican side. It is rare, if ever, that we agree on everything, but
these four bills about social media passed with unanimous rollcalls in
the Senate Judiciary Committee. Every Democrat and every Republican
voted for it.
Sadly, the online spread of violent material is exploding, and it is
a call to action for us. It is far beyond the ability of victims, of
child safety organizations, or even of law enforcement to stop it under
current law. The STOP CSAM Act, which I introduced, would protect
victims and promote transparency and accountability for social media
companies.
Here is how it works: Companies that fail to remove child sexual
abuse material and related imagery after being notified about them
would face significant fines, and companies that promote or facilitate
the online sexual exploitation of children or host or store child
sexual abuse material could face new civil and even criminal penalties.
According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children--
the recognized national experts--there are an estimated 84 million
images of child sexual abuse material on the internet--84 million. That
figure is increasing exponentially each year. These images are traded,
sold, and shared online around the world.
I have spoken before about a young woman called Charlotte. Like many
naive young people, when Charlotte was 16 years old, she shared
intimate images of herself with a man she met online whom she thought
was a friend. That man then posted those images of Charlotte online.
They have haunted Charlotte ever since--for more than 10 years. She has
attempted suicide three times. She has lost jobs when those images
would appear in communities where she was trying to work. The images of
Charlotte have been shared around the world. She has endured years of
online harassment and abuse because of it.
She and her mom and child advocacy groups have asked social media
companies in dozens of nations to take down the images, with almost no
luck. Charlotte lost a teaching job she loved because of the images.
She attempted suicide, as I mentioned. She says she doubts that she
will ever feel safe.
Other children and teens have been bullied mercilessly online. Sadly,
some have taken their own lives to escape the torment. We had a hearing
at which some of the mothers came in, holding the color photographs of
their kids, some who were induced to try choking exercises in their
closets, ultimately taking their own lives by hanging themselves.
EARN IT Act
Mr. President, 2 weeks ago, our committee passed another child online
safety bill--again, unanimously. It is called the EARN IT Act. It would
modify section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act.
Here is why we need it: Section 230 currently shields media
companies, such as Facebook and Snapchat, with very rare exceptions,
from being held accountable when material that is posted on their
platforms results in harm to kids and others. It gives social media
companies a pass and denies their victims their day in court.
Section 230 was written when Mark Zuckerberg was in the sixth grade,
long before social media existed. It was passed when internet companies
were small and struggling. Today, social media companies are some of
the richest, most powerful companies in the history of the world. Yet
they still benefit from the shield of section 230 to deny victims their
day in court.
The EARN IT Act eliminates immunity and creates accountability. Its
cosponsors are our colleague Senator Blumenthal, from Connecticut, and
Senator Graham.
Big Tech can no longer disregard its role in online child
exploitation. Many of the rest of our committee members, Democrats and
Republicans, are cosponsors. I am happy to be one of them.
We also passed two additional child online safety bills in our
committee, the SHIELD Act and the Project Safe Childhood Act. Senators
Klobuchar and Cornyn are the lead sponsors of both bills, and both of
them have bipartisan sponsorship.
We can, and we will, balance the need to protect free speech with and
the need to protect our kids from harm. What we will not do is accept
the status quo where some social media companies continue to destroy
lives and make vast fortunes by exploiting a legal loophole that can no
longer be justified.
We hope our colleagues will join us in protecting America's children
and teenagers from online horror.
S.J. Res. 18
Mr. President, we are going to vote on a resolution in a few minutes
that I would like to speak to. It is called the ``Public Charge Ground
of Inadmissibility.'' I oppose this resolution, and I urge my
colleagues to join me in voting against it.
This resolution aims to overturn a Biden administration regulation on
the public charge ground of inadmissibility. This regulation provides
immigrant families--especially those with U.S. citizen children--with
stability and certainty.
It does not make a single immigrant eligible for public benefits.
Instead, it restores and qualifies the longstanding practice that an
individual is ineligible for a green card if the individual relies on
public benefits for income.
Four years ago, the Trump administration upended that definition,
creating a new, vague test. For the first time, receiving supplemental
public health benefits like nutritional assistance and Medicaid could
be considered part of a public charge determination. Most immigrants,
even those with lawful status, have been ineligible for means-tested
programs since 1996. Immigrants who apply for these benefits are
usually doing so to obtain central healthcare or food assistance for a
U.S. American citizen child.
In 2016, 5.8 million U.S. citizen children with an immigrant parent
had Medicaid or CHIP coverage, for example. The Trump administration
rule forced these parents to make a choice: Deny their kids essential
services or risk losing their status and being deported.
When that rule was announced, school districts reported massive drops
in school lunch enrollment. Healthcare providers also reported pregnant
women were afraid to receive assistance for fear of losing their status
or putting at risk the immigration status of a loved one.
For example, one healthcare center reported that immigrant parents
here on a student visa were afraid to obtain Medicaid for their
disabled child. Although the child was a U.S. citizen and it was
perfectly legal for the child to receive Medicaid, the parents worried
that they could lose their status and be
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separated from their child if they applied for this assistance.
A 2021 report found that even after the Trump rule was rescinded,
nearly 50 percent of Americans with an immigrant family member believed
that applying for assistance for any family member could cause
immigration problems.
The Biden administration tried to resolve this. Their regulation
makes it clear that an immigrant cannot be eligible for a green card
simply for receiving healthcare or food assistance for their U.S.
citizen child. That is why the American Hospital Association, the
American Academy of Pediatrics, the Illinois Department of Human
Services, and countless other healthcare organizations support the
Biden rule. These experts believe that the rule provides clarity and
certainty to immigrants, as well as medical professionals, ensuring
that kids get the basic access to food and healthcare they need.
I urge my colleagues to join me in voting against this harmful
resolution and protecting families and children.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. MARSHALL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
S.J. Res. 18
Mr. MARSHALL. Mr. President, I rise in support of our CRA disapproval
of the Department of Homeland Security's public charge inadmissibility
rule.
Last week, I had the honor of leading a trip with several of my
fellow Senators to Brownsville, TX, to see the border crisis up front
and firsthand for myself--the border crisis created by Joe Biden--as
title 42 was coming to an end. We met a lot of people on the trip, and
I want to share some of their thoughts, some of their concerns.
We met a young former marine officer who said he felt safer in
Afghanistan than he did in southern Texas right now.
Local residents were bracing for the impact, with 170,000 people just
across the border waiting to come across with the end of title 42.
Families are gearing up to protect their families against the cartels,
very specifically.
We met a fifth-generation rancher who was leaving his family ranch
and moving his family into town, and even that night, he was teaching
his wife how to load a 410-gauge shotgun to protect their family.
We met officers. Many of these officers were multigenerational--their
fathers, their grandparents had served on the border--and they said it
was worse than they have ever seen in their lifetime.
Something new on this trip: We were told that 90 Chinese military-age
nationalists are entering illegally every day in South Texas.
As we all know, over 6 million people have entered the country
illegally since President Biden took office--6 million people. That is
twice the size of my home State of Kansas. Another 1.5 million people
have evaded apprehension and entered the country--``got-aways,'' as
they call them on the border.
Thousands upon thousands more continue to overwhelm the borders. I
think we all realize our immigration system is broken, but rather than
fix the problem, this administration continues to point fingers and
find ways to ignore or abuse our laws to provide pathways for illegal
immigrants to come here.
Many of the people crossing our border will get to roam freely
throughout our country. They leave our intake facilities with a cell
phone and a court date, a court date that is 4 to 5 years from the date
they entered. I think we are all kidding ourselves if we think these
folks will ever show up for those dates in 5 years. Despite breaking
our laws, they will be long gone, settled into communities across the
country. In fact, on our trip, law enforcement officers told me 90
percent of the migrants are not showing up for these court dates so
far.
Sure, they are going to seek citizenship down the road. There is no
doubt about that. And open border colleagues across the aisle will no
doubt call for amnesty for all of them. We expect President Biden will
support that. He has said that as much himself, broadcasting across the
globe that you can take advantage of the benefits we provide, despite
breaking our laws.
I think it is fair to say Americans have the most generous legal
immigration standards in the world, but we have to draw the line
somewhere.
Since the 1800s, our Nation has required foreign nationals seeking
admission to the United States to show that they can care for
themselves without becoming a public charge or burdening the taxpayers.
Most nations require you to have a job before you come into their
country. We just don't want you to become a public charge if you want
to become a permanent citizen. Being a public charge is a ground of
inadmissibility under our immigration laws.
Let me say that again. Being a public charge is a ground of
inadmissibility under our immigration laws.
Congress specifically directed the executive branch to consider
various factors when allowing people into this great Nation. These
factors include: age, health, family status, assets, resources, and
financial status, along with education and skills.
Indeed, as recently as 1996, Congress clearly declared in a policy
statement included in the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity
Reconciliation Act of 1996 that self-sufficiency is a basic principle
of U.S. immigration law and should continue to be a governing principle
in the United States.
Specifically, the Immigration and Nationality Act makes an alien who
is an applicant for a visa, admission, or adjustment of status
inadmissible if he or she is likely at any time to become a public
charge. The public charge ground of inadmissibility, therefore, applies
to aliens applying for a visa to come to the United States temporarily
or permanently for admission or adjust their status to that of a lawful
permanent resident, with some limited exceptions.
We need an immigration system that welcomes the best and the
brightest, but we need to limit the cycle of chain migration. Again, we
need some type of guardrails. While we open our hearts to asylum
seekers, we must also build a merit-based immigration system that
considers that immigrants' potential contributions to our economy, to
our communities, and our future. We don't want a system that rewards
idleness and reliance on taxpayer-funded benefits.
Under the previous administration, the Department of Homeland
Security issued a rule that would have required immigrants seeking to
remain in the country to be self-sufficient. But under President Biden,
the regulations have changed.
Now, my hope is to override the Biden public charge rule today with a
vote here in the Senate. The Biden administration's public charge rule
makes a mockery of the law and the intent of Congress to ensure that
immigrants are self-sufficient.
According to an estimate by the Federation of Americans for
Immigration Reform, at the start of 2023, the net cost of illegal
immigration for the United States at the Federal, State, and local
levels was at least $150 billion.
Again, since the start of 2023, the cost to taxpayers, $150 billion.
Now, this number is going to increase drastically if this rule
stands. Our resolution of disapproval would rescind the Biden public
charge rule and, hopefully, spur this administration to come to the
table and craft a solution that will ensure the self-sufficiency of
immigrants and protect American taxpayers.
I encourage my colleagues to vote to support this CRA of disapproval,
to introduce some sanity into our immigration system.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Montana.
Mr. TESTER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the scheduled
vote start immediately.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The question is on passage of the joint resolution.
Mr. TESTER. I ask for the yeas and nays.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
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There appears to be a sufficient second.
The yeas and nays are ordered.
Under the previous order, the joint resolution is considered read a
third time.
The joint resolution was ordered to be engrossed for a third reading
and was read the third time.
Vote on S.J. Res 18
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The joint resolution having been read the
third time, the question is, Shall the joint resolution pass?
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Delaware (Mr. Coons) and
the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Menendez) are necessarily absent.
Mr. THUNE. The following Senator is necessarily absent: The Senator
from Oklahoma (Mr. Mullin).
The result was announced--yeas 50, nays 47, as follows:
[Rollcall Vote No. 130 Leg.]
YEAS--50
Barrasso
Blackburn
Boozman
Braun
Britt
Budd
Capito
Cassidy
Collins
Cornyn
Cotton
Cramer
Crapo
Cruz
Daines
Ernst
Fischer
Graham
Grassley
Hagerty
Hawley
Hoeven
Hyde-Smith
Johnson
Kennedy
Lankford
Lee
Lummis
Manchin
Marshall
McConnell
Moran
Murkowski
Paul
Ricketts
Risch
Romney
Rounds
Rubio
Schmitt
Scott (FL)
Scott (SC)
Sullivan
Tester
Thune
Tillis
Tuberville
Vance
Wicker
Young
NAYS--47
Baldwin
Bennet
Blumenthal
Booker
Brown
Cantwell
Cardin
Carper
Casey
Cortez Masto
Duckworth
Durbin
Feinstein
Fetterman
Gillibrand
Hassan
Heinrich
Hickenlooper
Hirono
Kaine
Kelly
King
Klobuchar
Lujan
Markey
Merkley
Murphy
Murray
Ossoff
Padilla
Peters
Reed
Rosen
Sanders
Schatz
Schumer
Shaheen
Sinema
Smith
Stabenow
Van Hollen
Warner
Warnock
Warren
Welch
Whitehouse
Wyden
NOT VOTING--3
Coons
Menendez
Mullin
The joint resolution (S.J. Res. 18) was passed, as follows:
S.J. Res. 18
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled, That Congress
disapproves the final rule submitted by the Department of
Homeland Security relating to ``Public Charge Ground of
Inadmissibility'' (87 Fed. Reg. 55472 (September 9, 2022)),
and such rule shall have no force or effect.
____________________