[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 99 (Wednesday, June 7, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1995-S1996]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                       Nomination of Dilawar Syed

  Ms. HIRONO. Mr. President, I rise today to reiterate my strong 
support for Dilawar Syed to serve as Deputy Administrator of the U.S. 
Small Business Administration.
  Mr. Syed is highly qualified and widely supported as a nominee who 
has the backing of numerous business groups and organizations. In many 
ways, he is the picture of the American dream. He is a business owner, 
entrepreneur, and job creator who was born in Pakistan and educated in 
the United States. Over the course of his career, Mr. Syed has founded 
and run several companies in the tech and healthcare sectors.
  He also has firsthand experience dealing with challenges small 
businesses faced during this pandemic. During the COVID-19 crisis, Mr. 
Syed chaired a task force to help other businesses in the State of 
California survive and rebuild from the pandemic. His experience in and 
commitment to the small business sector are clear. That is why over the 
past 2 years my Democratic colleagues and I have made a concerted 
effort to get Mr. Syed confirmed.
  As Deputy Administrator, he would largely be responsible for running 
the day-to-day operations of the SBA. Working with Administrator 
Guzman, he will play a critical role in ensuring that small businesses 
across our country have the support they need to continue growing.
  This work is vital to Hawaii's economy. More than 99 percent of the 
businesses in our State are small businesses, and nearly half of all 
employees in Hawaii work for a small business. A strong, fully staffed 
Small Business Administration is essential for these small businesses 
in my home State and millions more across the country.
  Despite his stellar qualifications and the importance of the SBA, for 
nearly 2 years my Republican colleagues have blocked Mr. Syed's 
nomination to serve in this important role. I sit on the Small Business 
Committee, and we have had numerous times where we would call a markup 
in order to enable a vote on Mr. Syed's nomination, and the Republicans 
would simply not bother to show up. They just wouldn't even bother to 
show up.
  My Republican colleagues have at different points wrongly accused Mr. 
Syed of being anti-Israel. They have chastised him for utilizing legal 
SBA pandemic relief loans and raised other baseless objections to his 
nomination. One wonders why the Republicans so eagerly raise objections 
to nominees like Mr. Syed who are obviously qualified for their 
nominated positions. But despite their baseless bluster, the facts are 
clear: Mr. Syed is well qualified to serve as Deputy Administrator of 
the Small Business Administration, and his confirmation will make our 
economy and our country stronger.
  While it never should have taken this long--2 years--I am glad that 
tomorrow this body will vote on Mr. Syed's nomination to serve as 
Deputy Administrator. As I said, it has taken far too long to have 
someone as qualified and as committed--to have his vote occur.
  I look forward to voting to confirm Mr. Syed and to working with him 
to strengthen small businesses in every corner of our country.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Rhode Island.


                251st Anniversary of the ``Gaspee'' Raid

  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, every year, I come to the Senate floor 
around the anniversary of June 9 of 1772 to educate our pages--and 
anyone else listening--about an event that took place that night in 
Rhode Island as the United States moved towards its revolutionary 
conflict with Great Britain.
  And the lead-up to this was that Rhode Island was a shipping and a 
trading State; and Newport, in particular, was an extremely wealthy and 
active trading community. And the British government very much wanted 
to tax all of that trading, and the Rhode Islanders very much wanted 
not to be taxed.
  And so there was considerable back-and-forth between the colonists in 
Rhode Island and what was then the mother country. And when the 
obstreperousness of the Rhode Islanders reached a certain point, a new 
ship and a new captain were detailed to Rhode Island to do a better job 
of collecting taxes from the shipping traffic.
  The captain was named Dudingston--Lieutenant Dudingston--of her 
majesty's royal Navy. And he came in with a rather very poor attitude 
about Rhode Island and behaved quite badly. He seized ships without 
much provocation. He would grab them and send them off to be sold for 
salvage. He would steal cargoes out of ships.
  He made himself extremely unpopular to a point that the chief justice 
of Rhode Island said: Excuse me, you don't get to do this. Under Rhode 
Island law, under our colonial charter, if you want to operate Rhode 
Island waters, you actually have to declare yourself and show your 
commission to our Governor.
  And the rather undiplomatic response of Lieutenant Dudingston was, if 
anybody tries to interfere with my operations, I will hang them.
  So things were not all that great between Lieutenant Dudingston and 
Rhode Island. And his ship, which is this one, was called the Gaspee, 
as in the Gaspe Peninsula up in Canada. She was an armed revenue cutter 
of fairly good size. And it was her job to basically pull over ships, 
search their cargoes, seize their cargoes, demand taxes, if necessary, 
seize the vessel.
  One of his early seizures was a boat called the Fortune, which was 
owned by Nathanael Greene, who had not been particularly active in 
revolutionary matters until he had his fortune seized by Lieutenant 
Dudingston. And after that, he became quite active in revolutionary 
matters to the point of becoming, essentially, the adjutant for George 
Washington and then being sent by George Washington down to run the 
southern campaign of the revolution where the commanding British 
general in the Revolutionary War said: That damn Greene is more 
dangerous than Washington, because he was so successful running the 
southern campaign, much of it provoked by this Lieutenant Dudingston 
and his seizure of Greene's boat, the Fortune.
  On this occasion, June 9, 1772, a boat called the Hannah, captained 
by Benjamin Lindsey, was sailing up Narragansett Bay to deliver cargo 
to Providence. And the Gaspee approached and signaled the Hannah to 
heave to, to be boarded and searched. And the Hannah refused. Captain 
Lindsey kept sailing.
  So the Gaspee gave chase, and the two boats sailed, one after the 
other, with occasional gunfire from the decks of the Gaspee north 
towards Providence.
  Before you get to Providence, there is a point that sticks out. And 
where the river flows in, there is a sand berm that sticks out into the 
bay. And Captain Lindsey, who knew the waters of Narragansett Bay very 
well, sailed over this sandy shallows off of what was called Namquit 
Point and kept going on his merry way up to Providence.
  The Gaspee was a bigger vessel. It drew more water, and it ran into 
the sand berm in a falling tide. It was stuck. It was trapped. It was 
helpless.
  The Hannah kept going up. Captain Lindsey went up to Providence. When 
he got to the Port of Providence, he

[[Page S1996]]

rounded up John Brown, who later became heavily involved in setting up 
Brown University, and another Rhode Island worthy named Abraham 
Whipple, who continued to have an interesting naval career.
  Brown and Whipple and others went to Sabin's Tavern, and people beat 
drums in the street to get attention. People gathered, and a crowd 
assembled. After suitable refreshment, they filled in a number of long 
boats--five or six long boats. And that night, in the dark, with 
muffled oars, they rowed back down to the stranded Gaspee.
  There they challenged Lieutenant Dudingston to surrender his vessel, 
and, when he refused, they rowed to the vessel and, from multiple 
sides, boarded it.
  During the altercation, Lieutenant Dudingston was shot. I am pleased 
to report that he was not killed. He recovered from his wounds, 
retired, ultimately, from naval service, and went back to Scotland and 
raised many children. But the injury that he received, I believe, was 
actually the first blood spilled in what became the Revolutionary 
conflict between the Colonies and Great Britain.
  So after they had seized the vessel, the Rhode Islanders bound up the 
crew and rowed them ashore. There is a pub right up the street, right 
now, from where they were rowed ashore, with a little monument you can 
see that recognizes the evening that they rode ashore, June 9, 1772. 
Then they went back out to the stranded Gaspee and set her afire.
  Now, the Gaspee had cannons, and cannons use powder, and powder is 
kept in a magazine. So when the fire got to the powder magazine, this 
happened. The Gaspee was blown to smithereens, and that was the end of 
her predatory behavior in Rhode Island Sound and Narragansett Bay.
  Now, by way of point of contrast, up in Massachusetts, more than a 
year later, a number of Massachusetts colonists went onboard a British 
ship, and they pushed tea bags off of the boat and into Boston Harbor, 
which, I am sure, was a very brave and wonderful thing to do. But from 
Rhode Island's perspective, we outsmarted the British, we got the boat 
stuck, we seized the boat, we captured the entire crew, and then we 
blew it up, more than a year before the tea bag incident in Boston 
Harbor. I think we are entitled to some credit for that.
  But Massachusetts produced Adamses who became Presidents. They 
produced Harvard, which wrote histories. And the story of the Boston 
Tea Party is now known to--do you guys know the story? Yes, every page 
head nods. They know the Boston Tea Party story.
  I don't know what Rhode Island has to do to get out of the shadow of 
the Boston Tea Party, but we blew the damn boat up and I think that is 
pretty good.
  The final of the story is that King George was furious about this. He 
took this as an enormous insult to his kingdom, to his crown, and to 
himself. And so he decreed that all of the insurgents who had rowed 
down in those boats were to be caught and were to be hanged. And a 
bounty was put for information leading to the identification of the 
Rhode Islanders who participated in the Gaspee raid.
  I will say with some pride that no credible testimony ever emerged. 
The trials never took place. The nooses hung empty. And Rhode Island--
against all of that pressure and with the allure of these bribes and 
bounties from the King--refused to give up their secrets. So it is a 
very strong story in many regards.
  And we now have created a brandnew license plate. It is not out on 
cars yet, I don't believe. This one says ``SAMPLE.'' But there is the 
Rhode Island license plate with the ``Gaspee Days 1772'' logo and the 
exploding Gaspee on it. I can't wait to get one and to drive it up to 
Massachusetts and park it near Boston Harbor and have some tea.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Cortez Masto). The clerk will call the 
roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mrs. CAPITO. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.