[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 184 (Tuesday, November 7, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5384-S5386]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             CLOTURE MOTION

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Pursuant to rule XXII, the Chair lays before 
the Senate the pending cloture motion, which the clerk will state.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

                             Cloture Motion

       We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the 
     provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate, 
     do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nomination 
     of Executive Calendar No. 36, Julia E. Kobick, of 
     Massachusetts, to be United States District Judge for the 
     District of Massachusetts.
         Charles E. Schumer, Richard J. Durbin, Alex Padilla, Tim 
           Kaine, Margaret Wood Hassan, Ben Ray Lujan, Raphael G. 
           Warnock, Tammy Duckworth, Jack Reed, John W. 
           Hickenlooper, Catherine Cortez Masto, Tammy Baldwin, 
           Brian Schatz, Christopher Murphy, Tina Smith, Debbie 
           Stabenow, Sheldon Whitehouse.

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. By unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum 
call has been waived.
  The question is, Is it the sense of the Senate that debate on the 
nomination of Julia E. Kobick, of Massachusetts, to be United States 
District Judge for the District of Massachusetts, shall be brought to a 
close?
  The yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator 
from Alabama (Mrs. Britt) and the Senator from South Carolina (Mr. 
Scott).
  The yeas and nays resulted--yeas 52, nays 46, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 296 Ex.]

                                YEAS--52

     Baldwin
     Bennet
     Blumenthal
     Booker
     Brown
     Butler

[[Page S5385]]


     Cantwell
     Cardin
     Carper
     Casey
     Collins
     Coons
     Cortez Masto
     Duckworth
     Durbin
     Fetterman
     Gillibrand
     Hassan
     Heinrich
     Hickenlooper
     Hirono
     Kaine
     Kelly
     King
     Klobuchar
     Lujan
     Markey
     Menendez
     Merkley
     Murkowski
     Murphy
     Murray
     Ossoff
     Padilla
     Peters
     Reed
     Rosen
     Sanders
     Schatz
     Schumer
     Shaheen
     Sinema
     Smith
     Stabenow
     Tester
     Van Hollen
     Warner
     Warnock
     Warren
     Welch
     Whitehouse
     Wyden

                                NAYS--46

     Barrasso
     Blackburn
     Boozman
     Braun
     Budd
     Capito
     Cassidy
     Cornyn
     Cotton
     Cramer
     Crapo
     Cruz
     Daines
     Ernst
     Fischer
     Graham
     Grassley
     Hagerty
     Hawley
     Hoeven
     Hyde-Smith
     Johnson
     Kennedy
     Lankford
     Lee
     Lummis
     Manchin
     Marshall
     McConnell
     Moran
     Mullin
     Paul
     Ricketts
     Risch
     Romney
     Rounds
     Rubio
     Schmitt
     Scott (FL)
     Sullivan
     Thune
     Tillis
     Tuberville
     Vance
     Wicker
     Young

                             NOT VOTING--2

     Britt
     Scott (SC)
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. On this vote, the yeas are 52, the nays are 
46.
  And the motion to invoke cloture is passed.
  The motion was agreed to.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maryland.


                                 Israel

  Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, on October 7, Hamas brutally assaulted 
Israel, killing over 1,000 people--Israelis--and taking 240 hostages. 
On October 22, I was in Israel with 10 Senators--5 Democrats, 5 
Republicans. We were there to see firsthand what Hamas had done.
  To tell you that it was beyond description--it hit each one of us 
extremely hard. We saw the anguish in the country. The most difficult 
meeting we had was not with the war cabinet--and we met with the war 
cabinet, the major members of the war cabinet--but it was meeting with 
the families of the hostages.
  It broke our heart. The hostage families told us: You are not going 
to see tears because there are no tears left in our body.
  Unspeakable things happened, and the horror was beyond description.
  I know my colleague Senator Collins has put up a photo of Abigail, a 
3-year-old--a 3-year-old--who was taken hostage by Hamas.
  We expressed to the Israelis our commitment to stand with Israel, 
Israel's right and obligation to defend itself, the need to take out 
Hamas, and our commitment to do everything we possibly can to bring the 
hostages home safely.
  I want to start by thanking President Biden for his extraordinary 
leadership on behalf of our Nation in that mission. He has held 
meetings with the hostage families, with government leaders from Israel 
and other countries, and so have we.
  We have had numerous meetings here in Washington and in our States 
with families of the hostages. We have had personal meetings and calls 
with leaders of other countries that we think could play a constructive 
role in bringing the hostages home.
  We are committed to always putting a spotlight on the hostages until 
they are brought home safely. We stand ready to do anything we possibly 
can.
  So let me just give you an example of my weekend. On Friday night, 
the Jewish community in Baltimore hosted a Shabbat dinner with 240 
empty seats at a table. My wife Myrna represented me at that gathering, 
reading a letter that I had written in solidarity with the community.
  On Saturday, I attended religious services at B'nai Israel in 
Montgomery County, and I was proud of what that congregation did to put 
a spotlight on the hostages and demanding their safe return. Cantor 
Perlman rendered a beautiful rendition in honor of our continued 
commitment to bring the hostages home.
  And then, on Sunday, on which we normally have morning prayers at our 
congregation at Beth Tfiloh--normally, there might be 15 or 20 who 
might show up for morning prayers on a Sunday morning--we had in excess 
of 240 representing every hostage, remembering their plight in our 
prayers, and making it clear that we are committed to doing everything 
we can to bring them home.
  So that is why I am on the floor, speaking to my colleagues and 
expressing my views as a Senator, as chairman of the Senate Foreign 
Relations Committee, and as a human, that we will not forget the 
hostages, and we will continue to do everything we can to bring them 
home.
  On October 7, for many, the last they heard from their loved ones was 
the moments before the attack began, or, worse, just as they were being 
taken hostage. One woman was texting with her family as Hamas 
terrorists approached. She wrote:

       If I don't live, stay happy in your life and take care of 
     mom and dad all your life.

  Then:

       They're here.

  One man's wife and children were missing after the attack. The 
soldiers could not identify them among the dead. But then they learned 
that someone had seen them being led off away alive, being taken 
hostage. The person said: Well, it sort of felt like winning the 
lottery.
  Winning the lottery because your loved one was abducted and not 
murdered? Such painful combinations of hope and dread, but this is the 
unspeakable shock and grief being felt by so many since October 7, 
because, for every hostage, there are family members and loved ones 
praying that they are still alive, who cannot sleep at night as they 
imagine the pain and danger the hostages are facing in the tunnels of 
Gaza right now, who have been enduring a nightmare since October 7.
  On my trip to Israel we met with the families of the hostages, like 
the family of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was last seen loaded into a 
truck by Hamas after losing his arm in a grenade attack.
  I am on the floor today because I want to tell just a few of the 
stories of those Hamas abducted and represent all the families of the 
hostages, families whose young children are being held by terrorists. 
Their stories are moving not only because of their suffering but 
because of their bravery.
  I heard about a family that Hamas captured at gunpoint. In a moment 
of incredible heroism, the mother handed her toddler to her husband 
because he was a faster runner. He ran with bullets flying overhead so 
their daughter could be safe.
  Yarden, the mother, is still in captivity. The families of the 
hostages will not give up. Their grace and bravery in the face of such 
horror is an inspiration.
  The father of Itay, the father of Edan, the parents of Omer--all 
three of whom are from the New York area and even live near each 
other--they didn't know one another until this terrible tragedy 
unfolded and which now has brought them together.
  Many of the families are communicating with each other, working 
together through WhatsApp groups. Within hours of the attack, they have 
created a website called ``Bring Them Home Now.'' They are making sure 
the world hears their pleas. I want to make one thing crystal clear: We 
hear you. We stand with you in your effort to return your family 
members home safely. And I can assure you the Biden administration is 
working around the clock to help bring them home. They are working with 
governments who have the ability to negotiate using all the leverage 
they have to release them.

  American personnel from the FBI and the Pentagon are working to 
support Israeli special operators. U.S. Special Forces are offering 
their expertise on hostage situations. Secretary Blinken said that 
``the entire United States Government will work every minute of every 
day'' to bring them home. ``Working as though these family members are 
our own,'' as I am.
  President Biden has spoken repeatedly with Prime Minister Netanyahu. 
They have discussed efforts to locate and secure the release of 
hostages, including American citizens. On behalf of the Foreign 
Relations Committee, I want to assure you that we in the United States 
Senate stand with you as well. We must keep up the effort for the sake 
of those being held in Gaza. Don't forget they can come home safely. I 
am not naive. It will be tough, but it can happen.
  One of the hostages that has already been released is an 85-year-old 
woman from a kibbutz in southern Israel, whose husband remains in Hamas 
captivity. She described her experience in

[[Page S5386]]

Gaza, being beaten while lying on a motorcycle and going through 
tunnels. Like many of the hostages, she lived near the Palestinians in 
the kibbutzim outside of Gaza. They would regularly drive Palestinian 
patients from Gaza to the hospitals in Israel for treatment.
  Like Lilach, a woman that Hamas murdered, who actually worked in the 
field of trauma relief focusing mainly on children, she was a longtime 
activist of Women in Black, an anti-war movement that was established 
by Israeli women after the first intifada. Seven of her family are 
still being held hostage, including a 3-year-old.
  The cruel irony of the Hamas terrorist attack is that those who face 
the worst of October 7 believe the most in peace. They cared for their 
Palestinian neighbors. They believed in the two-state solution. This 
attack has changed their community and all of Israel forever.
  I know that the kind of sheer evil we saw in the attack on October 7 
is shocking and horrible. I was 15 months old when the Auschwitz-
Birkenau and other concentration camps were liberated. I was too young 
to understand the headlines. But when I grew up, I heard the stories of 
life and death from survivors firsthand.
  This experience of the Holocaust was imprinted on me and on an entire 
generation of Jews. It shaped our values in how we work, how we enact 
policy, and how we live with our families. It guides me today here on 
the floor of the Senate. It tells me that, despite this being the 
darkest days for Jews since the Holocaust, we must have faith. Despite 
bearing witness to some of the most horrific evil acts ever committed, 
we must find a way to reserve hope.
  So, in closing, to the families of loved ones who are being held by 
Hamas: Do not lose hope. We will never stop standing with you. To the 
hostages themselves, you are not alone. We will not stop working for 
your safe return. I pray that you will be back home soon playing 
soccer, practicing piano, celebrating your birthdays, living life in 
Israel that is safe and secure and at peace.
  That is our prayer, but it is also our mission. We will not rest 
until we do everything we can for the safe return of the hostages.
  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. DURBIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

                          ____________________