[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 158 (Thursday, September 28, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4729-S4733]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          LEGISLATIVE SESSION

                                 ______
                                 

SECURING GROWTH AND ROBUST LEADERSHIP IN AMERICAN AVIATION ACT--MOTION 
                         TO PROCEED--Continued

  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Under the previous order, the Senate will 
resume consideration of the motion to proceed to H.R. 3935, which the 
clerk will report.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       Motion to proceed to Calendar No. 211, H.R. 3935, a bill to 
     amend title 49, United States Code, to reauthorize and 
     improve the Federal Aviation Administration and other civil 
     aviation programs, and for other purposes.


                   Recognition of the Majority Leader

  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Warnock). The majority leader is 
recognized.


                         Continuing Resolution

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, today, the U.S. Senate will continue its 
pursuit of a bipartisan bridge CR to avoid a devastating government 
shutdown.
  In a little over an hour, we will vote on the motion to proceed to 
the FAA reauthorization, which will serve as a vehicle for the CR I 
announced with Leader McConnell 2 days ago. Once we are on the bill, I 
will be introducing the substitute amendment, which will contain the 
legislative text of the bipartisan bridge CR, which the Appropriations 
Committee worked so hard on. And, again, I salute Senators Murray and 
Collins for the good job they have done. I will file cloture on the 
substitute and the underlying bill. So Members can expect to vote for 
cloture on Saturday, if not sooner.
  Things are coming down to the wire. As I have said for months, 
Congress has only one option--one option--to avoid a shutdown: 
bipartisanship. It was true yesterday. It is true today. It will be 
true tomorrow.
  With bipartisanship, we can responsibly fund the government and avoid 
the sharp and unnecessary pain for the American people and the economy 
that a shutdown will bring. With bipartisanship, we can speed along 
this process here in the Senate. We can come to an agreement on voting 
on amendments and allow the Senate to work its will in a timely 
fashion. With bipartisanship, we can make good on the deal reached 
earlier this summer to avoid default.
  Remember--remember--bipartisan majorities agreed to funding levels 
back in June. The leaders of the House, the Senate, and the White 
House--we all shook hands on this deal, but now the Speaker and only 
the Speaker is going back on his word. He is the only one of the five 
to go back on his word. By being the only one to go back on his word, 
Speaker McCarthy is saying he cares more about the whims of the hard 
right--the hard, hard right--than avoiding a shutdown.
  We cannot have that. We need bipartisanship. If he persists in 
partisanship, which he is doing now, by always looking over his hard-
right shoulder, he will create a shutdown. Sadly, every move the 
Speaker has taken, since the bipartisan deal in June, has been to shred 
any prospects of bipartisanship. By focusing on the views of the 
radical few, instead of the many, Speaker McCarthy has made a shutdown 
far more likely.
  Let me say that again. Let me say that again. By focusing on the 
views of the radical few, instead of the many, Speaker McCarthy has 
made a shutdown far more likely.
  Despite the fact that many on both sides want to work together, 
despite the fact that, here in the Senate, we are pursuing 
bipartisanship, the Speaker has chosen to elevate the whims and desires 
of a handful of hard-right extremists and has nothing to show for it.

[[Page S4730]]

  We saw a glaring example last night. Last night, on the floor of the 
House, the House voted twice, with overwhelming bipartisan majorities, 
to keep Ukraine funding in the House Defense appropriations bill--each 
time with over 330 votes, a majority of both Democratic and Republican 
Members. And yet, after the vote, the Republican leadership in the 
House subverted the will of the House by going to the Rules Committee 
and cut the aid to Ukraine anyway.
  Can you believe that? Ten or so extremists, who don't care at all 
about governing, about preserving democracy or America's strength in 
the world, hold more sway in Speaker McCarthy's mind than the majority 
of his party and the vast majority of the House of Representatives, 
which he leads.
  We need to be showing strength against Putin, not weakness. We need 
to be defending democracy, not abandoning our friends abroad. Speaker 
McCarthy is letting a small band of very extreme Members override the 
views of everyone else. It is the tail wagging the dog.
  That is the crux of the entire shutdown message, and if Speaker 
McCarthy continues on his path, it will have consequences for years to 
come. If we are forced to abandon Ukraine by a handful of extreme 
people who seem to have no sense of the reality of the world, we will 
pay a price for years to come.
  How can Speaker McCarthy let that happen? How can he let that happen?
  A divided government demands compromise. By ignoring this, Speaker 
McCarthy is driving the country straight to a shutdown, and the longer 
he resists bipartisanship, the greater the damage of a shutdown will be 
to the American people.
  It has been alarming over the last few days to listen to some of my 
House colleagues on the hard right talk so casually about shutting the 
government down. Some of them seem proud to do it. They sort of brag 
about it. It is incredible. They seem completely unbothered that, in a 
shutdown, over a million Active-Duty military members won't get their 
pay. A shutdown would degrade troop readiness and devastate our 
southern border--something our friends on the other side, who claim to 
care about border security, conveniently ignore. Small business would 
lose access to capital. Home buyers would be unable to secure loans. 
Our supply chains would be imperiled, and costs for American families 
would go up and up--all because of a needless shutdown caused by a few 
extremists and Speaker McCarthy's obeisance to them.

  This will all become a reality, unfortunately, in less than 3 days, 
unless Speaker McCarthy abandons his doomed mission of succumbing to 
the MAGA radicals. The only way--the only way, once again--and I have 
to keep repeating it because maybe it will sink in over there. The only 
way we prevent a government shutdown is by voting on legislation that 
can get bipartisan support. That is what we will work on here in the 
Senate today.
  As I have said, the bill before us later today is a bridge, not the 
final destination. I urge my colleagues to continue to work to advance 
this bipartisan bridge CR and to avoid a reckless and devastating 
government shutdown.
  The Senate, once again, is called on to lead by example--to lead the 
House and the Speaker by example.


                           SAFER Banking Act

  Mr. President, now on SAFER Banking, yesterday, the SAFER Banking 
Act, I am happy to say, was reported out of the Banking Committee with 
a good bipartisan majority of 14 to 9. The next step is to bring SAFER 
Banking to the floor for a vote, which I will do soon.
  I worked long and hard--for years--to get us to this point, and now 
the Senate is one crucial step closer to helping cannabis businesses 
operate more efficiently, more safely, and more transparently in the 
States that allow cannabis to be sold.
  I brought together a bipartisan coalition, with Senators Merkley and 
Daines, Lummis, Sinema, and Reed, and we committed to reaching a deal 
on the issue; and I am really proud of the bipartisan deal we produced. 
I also want to thank Chairman Brown and Ranking Member Scott for moving 
SAFER Banking through the committee. And, again, let me repeat, my 
other colleagues were heavily involved: Senators Lummis and Sinema and 
Reed and, of course, Merkley and Daines, the lead sponsors of the SAFER 
Banking bill.
  SAFER Banking's bipartisan vote in the Banking Committee underscores 
how much momentum we have right now on cannabis banking and how 
important the issue is for so many business owners and communities 
across the country. No industry has the ability to thrive if its 
businesses can't access basic banking infrastructure, especially not an 
industry growing as quickly and one as new as the cannabis industry.
  Congress must always be in the business of promoting entrepreneurs, 
promoting small businesses, and promoting job growth. SAFER Banking 
will do that precisely in the cannabis industry--connect cannabis 
businesses to resources like bank accounts and small business loans--
creating a safer and more transparent environment in which they can 
grow.
  When I go to the floor, we will add very significant criminal justice 
provisions to the bill as well, and that is important as well, and I 
will talk more about that at a later time.
  So, again, I thank my colleagues on both sides for their cooperation 
on this legislation. We have been working on it for years. Now is the 
time to get it done.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant 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.


                   Recognition of the Minority Leader

  The Republican leader is recognized.


                           Government Funding

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, well, Congress has 3 days left to pass 
straightforward, short-term funding legislation to prevent the Federal 
Government from shutting down. That is 3 more days to provide essential 
resources at the current rate of operations before critical government 
functions come to a screeching halt.
  Let's be absolutely clear about what is at stake. Shutting down the 
government is not like pressing ``pause.'' It is not an interlude that 
lets us pick up where we left off. It is an actively harmful 
proposition. Instead of producing any meaningful policy outcomes, it 
would actually take the important progress being made on a number of 
key issues and drag it backward.
  Back in 2019, our colleagues on the Homeland Security and 
Governmental Affairs Committee found that over the previous 5 years, 
government shutdowns had cost the taxpayer nearly $4 billion--$4 
billion. The American people covered at least $3.7 billion in backpay 
for Federal workers. Some went to servicemembers, law enforcement 
officers, and other frontline personnel who actually stayed on duty. 
But some went to cover the equivalent of nearly 57,000 years of work 
that Federal employees hadn't even been allowed to complete. And that 
is not to mention hundreds of millions of dollars in extra 
administrative costs.
  America cannot afford for Congress to take government shutdowns 
lightly. That is especially true of the crisis at our Nation's southern 
border.
  The Biden administration's utter failure to secure the border has 
been recordbreaking in the worst possible ways. Functionally open 
borders have led to alltime high migration and stretched border 
security resources literally to a breaking point.
  Meanwhile, flows of deadly drugs have made every State actually a 
border State. In fact, the Border Patrol reported recently that in the 
past year, agents have seized enough fentanyl alone to kill the entire 
population of the United States.
  Time and again, government shutdowns have made the essential work of 
the Border Patrol and ICE even harder.
  Many of our colleagues have pointed out how border security 
personnel, like the Armed Forces, would work through a shutdown without 
pay, but the full consequences go beyond financial hardship. As our 
colleagues' 2019 report found, past shutdowns have delayed important 
maintenance and repair

[[Page S4731]]

work that ``endangered the lives of law enforcement officers and 
created significant border security vulnerabilities.'' They have forced 
officials to cancel tens of thousands of immigration hearings, and they 
have taken the Department of Homeland Security's employee E-Verify 
system completely offline.
  Shutting down the government is a choice, and it is a choice that 
would make the crisis at the southern border even worse.
  I am encouraged that many of our colleagues who share my concerns are 
working to ensure that the short-term funding measure we pass this week 
gives the men and women of Border Patrol and ICE critical resources 
while we continue our work to clean up Washington Democrats' mess.


                          Biden Administration

  Mr. President, on an entirely different matter, this week, the Senate 
will have the opportunity to push back one more time on a pair of 
shortsighted Biden administrative policies with major consequences for 
small businesses and landowners across America.
  Earlier this year, thanks to the leadership of our colleagues, the 
junior Senator for Kansas and the junior Senator for Oklahoma, the 
Senate passed two resolutions disapproving of President Biden's 
decision to up-list two creatures--the lesser prairie-chicken and the 
northern long-eared bat--as endangered species.
  As is so often the case under the Endangered Species Act, this move 
by Washington bureaucrats would encroach on private property rights and 
block infrastructure and economic development in the name of preserving 
habitat. As many as 37 States would be affected by the designation of 
the northern long-eared bat as ``endangered,'' and nearly $14 billion 
in agricultural production would be affected by the designation of the 
lesser prairie-chicken.
  Now, in reality, aerial estimates show that numbers of lesser 
prairie-chickens have grown from less than 17,000 in 2013 to over 
26,000 in 2022, and the President's own experts admit that the 
declining population of northern long-eared bats is mostly explained by 
disease, not humans. Of course, that hasn't stopped the Biden 
administration from pushing ahead with a plan to infringe on property 
rights, impede urgent infrastructure, and put even more of America's 
energy abundance literally out of reach.
  So I would like to thank Senator Marshall and Senator Mullin for 
their leadership on this resolution, and I would like to urge each of 
our colleagues to join me in voting to override the President's veto.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority whip.


                           Government Funding

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, it is that time of year again--ending the 
month of September, starting a new fiscal year. We have a 
responsibility we accept as Members of Congress to do some things: 
Answer rollcalls, respond to our constituents, keep the lights on in 
the Federal Government. The third issue is one which we are contesting 
this week.
  The Senate, I believe, has taken a responsible, thoughtful approach 
to this. It gets down to basics. There are 51 Democrats, 49 
Republicans, effectively, and most measures of consequence require more 
than a majority vote. So the decision was made by both Senator Schumer 
and Senator McConnell to put together a continuing resolution, which is 
a stopgap spending measure, on a bipartisan basis so that we would have 
bipartisanship as the starting point. They achieved that. They achieved 
that in a way that surprised a lot of people because we had a 
procedural vote in the Senate on the Senate bipartisan continuing 
resolution and 77 Senators voted in favor. Now, 77 Senators in the U.S. 
Senate is more than just a supermajority; it is a pretty impressive 
number, and it doesn't happen very often.
  On Tuesday evening, the Senate Appropriations Committee chair, 
Senator Patty Murray of Washington, working with Republican Senator 
Susan Collins of Maine, released a text of the bipartisan continuing 
resolution. It spelled out what we think needs to be done to keep the 
government open and functioning for about 6 or 7 weeks, until November 
17, giving us time to negotiate a budget for remainder of the year.
  I would quickly add that the efforts of Senator Murray and Senator 
Collins in the Appropriations Committee leading up to this moment were 
historic in nature. It has been more than 5 years, I believe, since we 
have come to the floor and actually debated spending bills and actually 
amended spending bills on the floor. We usually are faced with short-
term spending bills or omnibus bills that combine the entire budget in 
one massive piece of legislation. But Senators Murray and Collins had 
us moving in the right direction, a bipartisan direction, and that is 
evidenced as well in their efforts in this continuing resolution.
  This continuing resolution does more than keep the lights on. It 
includes crucial emergency assistance and program extensions.
  It includes $6.5 billion to maintain our commitment to Ukraine and $6 
billion to help FEMA respond to federally declared disasters, including 
one in my State of Illinois, where 20 counties are working to recover 
from the impact of summer storms.
  It would prevent a lapse in funding for critical healthcare efforts, 
like community healthcare centers. I am sure the Presiding Officer has 
visited many of these centers in his State. I have in my State.
  It really is one of the more amazing products coming out of the 
Affordable Care Act. I can remember when Senators met at the last 
minute and demanded that we fund these community healthcare clinics as 
part of the bill. It was a stroke of genius. It meant that people of 
limited means would have access to quality medical care. I have said, 
and it is not political puffery, that if I were seriously ill, I would 
gladly visit one of these clinics and seek treatment because I think 
they are that good.

  Also, there is the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, 
Infants, and Children. It is one thing to give a speech about families 
and mothers, mothers surviving pregnancy, and about children, young 
children, getting off to a strong start in life; it is another thing to 
put bread on the table. The WIC Program puts bread on the table. In our 
continuing resolution, we keep the lights on at that Agency. It is the 
right thing to do.
  We would also extend the authorization to the Federal Aviation 
Administration through December 31. How important is safety in airline 
travel? Critically important. If you remember the last time there was a 
threat of shutting down the government, it was the people responsible 
for regulating and keeping our planes safe that convinced us we could 
no longer play that game. I hope we don't have to go through that 
experience again.
  This week, 77 Senators recognized that bipartisanship was the 
solution to avoiding a shutdown. That includes the leaders of both 
parties, the Democratic chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee 
and the ranking member, whom I have noted.
  Unfortunately, over in the House, it is just an exercise in chaos. 
Speaker McCarthy has declared the bipartisan Senate continuing 
resolution is dead on arrival. Our bipartisan bill, worked out with 
both sides of the aisle, that won 77 votes, he has dismissed as 
unacceptable. For reasons beyond my understanding, he has chosen the 
far-right rebellion of a few MAGA House Republicans over the continued, 
orderly function of our government. He has chosen to put bipartisanship 
and politics above the American people.
  For however long it takes the Speaker to gain control of this small 
faction of his party, essential social services will be slowed, Federal 
employees and military servicemembers will go without paychecks for 
their families.
  This group of extreme Republicans is intent on slashing millions from 
social programs, attaching their political agenda for our border before 
they will even begin to discuss keeping the government open. The 
American people deserve better.
  I just left a meeting of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary where 
Senator Graham raised the legitimate concern about what is happening at 
our border. We are being swamped with people seeking entry into the 
United States. This is not unusual. If you look around the world, that 
is happening in many places. There are so many people now who have been 
dislocated from

[[Page S4732]]

their homes that the refugee experts tell us there is no record of such 
a number in the modern history of the world. It is no surprise that the 
United States, as a prize destination, is feeling that pressure.
  Why would it make sense, I would say to Speaker McCarthy, for us to 
shut down the government and take the men and women who are along the 
border now, trying to keep us safe, and make a dramatic budget cut in 
their Agency? It is just the opposite of what we need. We need the 
resources and the personnel to have an orderly process at our border. 
Shutting down the government fails to meet that responsibility.
  The group of extreme Republicans intent on slashing millions on 
social programs and attaching their political agenda to the border say 
that they want to discuss these issues before any serious measure is 
considered. The American people deserve better. We are not a bargaining 
chip.
  A shutdown would harm every American who relies on government 
services. It would halt small business loans and, if you can imagine, 
stall medical research at the National Institutes of Health and 
jeopardize nutrition assistance for low-income women, infants, and 
children. It would delay food safety inspection and deprive children 
access to Head Start. It would likely cause travel delays because more 
than 13,000 air traffic controllers and 50,000 TSA officers would be 
forced to work without pay. It would also furlough 1,000 air traffic 
controllers who are now being trained for filling the vacancies 
critically important at that Agency.
  Shutdowns are slowing down our economy progress and jeopardizing jobs 
and future economic growth. They also tell the world that, in America, 
politics can rule. It can get in the way of basically paying our bills, 
providing service to our people, and conducting day-to-day business 
that keeps our Nation afloat.
  The last three government shutdowns led to 56,940 years in lost 
productivity and cost the government at least $338 million in 
additional costs and late fees. That is American taxpayer dollars that 
are being wasted because of this shutdown.
  The last full shutdown in 2013 reduced gross domestic product growth 
by $20 billion, and a 5-week partial shutdown in 2018 reduced economic 
output by $11 billion.
  I urge my House Republican colleagues to resist making shutdowns a 5-
year tradition in their party. If we have the option of keeping the 
government funded while we continue to negotiate a longer term funding 
plan, why put the Nation through this pain?
  Funding the government is one of the essential parts of this job. It 
is time that we meet our responsibility and do it in a way that doesn't 
disrupt America's livelihood and well-being. We need to finish the 
full-year appropriations process and do it in a responsible way.
  I urge my colleagues in both Chambers to choose bipartisanship and 
pass the Senate continuing resolution so we can continue the important 
process of funding the government in a grownup, responsible way for the 
year 2024.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Republican whip.


                                 Energy

  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, the Biden administration's war on 
affordable and reliable energy continues.
  Three weeks ago, the administration announced a cancellation of seven 
oil and gas leases in the small portion of ANWR, the Arctic National 
Wildlife Refuge, that is available for energy exploration and 
development.
  It was just the latest move by the Biden administration to stifle 
conventional energy production. In his State of the Union Address this 
year, the President acknowledged that ``[w]e're going to need oil for 
at least another decade . . . and beyond that.'' Let me just repeat 
that. Again, these are President Biden's own words:

       We're going to need oil for at least another decade . . . 
     and beyond that.

  Well, in this case, the President is right. While alternative energy 
is powering an increasing share of American energy production, we are 
nowhere near being able to rely exclusively on alternative energy 
technologies. We are going to need conventional energy for quite a 
while yet.
  The best way to get that conventional energy is by developing the 
United States' abundant domestic resources in an environmentally 
responsible way. But the President's anti-development strategy seems 
designed to force us to remain at the mercy of producers like OPEC and 
to rely on expensive imports from sometimes dangerous or unstable 
countries and regions.
  There are multiple problems with relying on foreign sources of oil, 
not the least of which is the potential for our oil dollars to fund 
oppressive regimes. But even leaving that aside, depending on foreign 
oil sources threatens the stability and affordability of our oil 
supply. You only need to look at the energy challenges and soaring 
costs countries like Germany have faced in the wake of Russia's 
invasion of Ukraine to recognize how perilous it can be to rely on 
another country for energy.
  Anyone who is concerned about the environment should recognize that 
oil and gas production here in the United States is likely to be 
substantially more environmentally friendly than a lot of foreign 
production.
  The President's war on domestic production isn't the only dangerous 
element of his energy strategy. Also of deep concern is the President's 
apparent determination to force Americans to adopt electric vehicles on 
a broad scale within the next decade. Why is this so concerning? 
Because our electric grid is nowhere near capable of supporting that 
kind of widespread transition to electric vehicles.
  Rising electricity demand is already stretching our grid, which has 
been weakened by the move away from conventional energy sources. In an 
apparent response to the impact of overreaching Green New Deal-style 
politics, NERC, which is the North American Electric Reliability 
Corporation, for the first time identified energy policy as a risk to 
grid reliability in its recent biennial report.
  Discussing the move away from conventional sources of electricity, 
NERC found that ``[c]ollectively, the new resource mix can be more 
susceptible to long-term, widespread Extreme Events, such as extreme 
temperatures or sustained loss of wind/solar, that can impact the 
ability to provide sufficient energy as the fuel supply is less 
certain.''
  In February, the PJM Interconnection, which manages a substantial 
part of Eastern America's electric grid, released a report warning that 
fossil fuel plants are being forced to retire at a faster rate than new 
renewables can be brought online at a rate of roughly 2 to 1.
  In other words, we are rapidly approaching a situation which we 
simply don't have the ability to keep up with current electricity 
demand. Add charging for tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of 
electric vehicles on top of that, and we could be looking at a future 
of widespread blackouts and brownouts, to say nothing of soaring 
electricity prices.
  I should also mention that the Biden administration's proposed 
distribution transformer rule, which would require a move to amorphous 
steel cores for more distribution transformers--what that would do to 
the grid is simply no favors whatsoever. In fact, it would be almost 
guaranteed to worsen supply chain issues and seriously slow grid 
maintenance and upgrades.
  And the supply chain backlog is a top concern for utilities and 
electric cooperatives, which are already facing headwinds from 
overreaching EPA regulations. I don't need to tell anyone that utility 
bills for electricity and natural gas have risen dramatically since 
President Biden took office, as have gas prices. It is a predictable 
outcome of the economic and energy policies that President Biden has 
pursued. If his war on conventional energy continues, today's high 
prices could look cheap next to the energy prices of the future.
  I am a strong and longtime supporter of renewable energy, and I am 
proud to be from a State that is a top producer of ethanol and that 
derives a substantial portion of its electricity generation from 
renewable resources like wind and hydroelectric.
  But the fact of the matter is, energy technology has simply not 
advanced to the point where we can rely solely or even, for that 
matter, mostly on renewables. While the President may sometimes pay lip 
service to our continuing need for conventional energy,

[[Page S4733]]

his actual policies seem to ignore this fact and are setting us up for 
a future of higher prices, grid instability, and insufficient supply.
  The President's policies have already resulted in a 2-year-plus 
inflation crisis.
  If he keeps going the way he has been going, his legacy may include 
an energy crisis as well.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Lujan). The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


Unanimous Consent Agreement--Veto Messages on S.J. Res. 9 and S.J. Res. 
                                   24

  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to modify the 
previous order in relation to the veto messages on S.J. Res. 9 and S.J. 
Res. 24 so that, beginning at 2:20 p.m. today, there be up to 20 
minutes for debate, concurrently and equally divided between the two 
leaders or their designees, prior to rollcall votes on the passage of 
S.J. Res. 9 and S.J. Res. 24 in the order listed, the objections of the 
President to the contrary notwithstanding.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Without objection, it is so ordered.


                         Continuing Resolution

  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, we all know we are down to the wire right 
now, so we need to keep moving with this CR so we can avoid a damaging 
and completely unnecessary shutdown.
  This is a straightforward, bipartisan CR that simply keeps the 
government funded so we can continue work on our full-year bills. It 
includes absolutely essential, time-sensitive reauthorizations for the 
FAA and others and extends urgently needed funding for disaster relief 
and our allies in Ukraine.
  I worked closely with the Senator from Maine and leadership in both 
parties to put together a truly straightforward bill that can pass the 
Senate, pass the House, and be signed into law. I am confident there is 
enough support for this to pass the Senate and the House just as soon 
as we put it up for a vote. The question is how quickly we can all work 
to get this done.
  I understand there are Senators who don't think there is enough in 
this bill, but this is not meant to be the end-all, be-all when it 
comes to legislating; it is meant to prevent a devastating shutdown. I 
think we all understand there is more work to do on many of these 
issues.
  Many of you want to do more on disaster relief--something we must do 
after we prevent a shutdown that cuts off relief to communities in the 
middle of a recovery. I want to address the childcare funding cliff 
head on, which we have got to do after we pass this so we can save 
parents and kids from a shutdown that would mean they would lose their 
access to Head Start. I know there are colleagues concerned about doing 
more on border security--something I am willing to continue to 
discuss--but time is of the absolute essence here, and a shutdown would 
mean the folks who are working at our southern border would be forced 
to work without paychecks.
  A shutdown is no solution to anything. We have got 12 bipartisan 
appropriations bills I have worked with many Members on both sides of 
the aisle to pull together, and I want to get them passed and address 
all of these critical issues, but we need to prevent a shutdown first.
  So let's not act like this CR is the last bill Congress is ever going 
to pass. Let's get this done so we can avoid a shutdown that hurts our 
families, hurts our economy, hurts our national security, and more. 
Then let's get back to work on the other issues that are important to 
everyone here and to the folks we work for back home. I urge all of our 
colleagues to vote yes now on the motion to proceed.
  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.
  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I urge that we go to the vote.


                       Vote on Motion to Proceed

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the question is on 
agreeing to the motion to proceed.
  Mrs. MURRAY. 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 clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Minnesota (Ms. Smith) is 
necessarily absent.
  Mr. THUNE. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator 
from South Carolina (Mr. Scott).
  The result was announced--yeas 76, nays 22, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 241 Leg.]

                                YEAS--76

     Baldwin
     Barrasso
     Bennet
     Blumenthal
     Booker
     Boozman
     Brown
     Cantwell
     Capito
     Cardin
     Carper
     Casey
     Cassidy
     Collins
     Coons
     Cornyn
     Cortez Masto
     Cotton
     Cramer
     Duckworth
     Durbin
     Ernst
     Feinstein
     Fetterman
     Gillibrand
     Graham
     Grassley
     Hassan
     Heinrich
     Hickenlooper
     Hirono
     Hoeven
     Hyde-Smith
     Kaine
     Kelly
     Kennedy
     King
     Klobuchar
     Lankford
     Lujan
     Manchin
     Markey
     McConnell
     Menendez
     Merkley
     Moran
     Mullin
     Murkowski
     Murphy
     Murray
     Ossoff
     Padilla
     Peters
     Reed
     Romney
     Rosen
     Rounds
     Rubio
     Sanders
     Schatz
     Schumer
     Shaheen
     Sinema
     Stabenow
     Tester
     Thune
     Tillis
     Van Hollen
     Warner
     Warnock
     Warren
     Welch
     Whitehouse
     Wicker
     Wyden
     Young

                                NAYS--22

     Blackburn
     Braun
     Britt
     Budd
     Crapo
     Cruz
     Daines
     Fischer
     Hagerty
     Hawley
     Johnson
     Lee
     Lummis
     Marshall
     Paul
     Ricketts
     Risch
     Schmitt
     Scott (FL)
     Sullivan
     Tuberville
     Vance

                             NOT VOTING--2

     Scott (SC)
     Smith
       
       
  The motion was agreed to.

                          ____________________