[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 144 (Monday, September 14, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4641-S4645]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
ELECTIONS
Madam President, on the DHS whistleblower, the news of which has just
been made public, today, Americans get another whiff of Trump's scheme
to rig the election. Today, Senator Padilla and I are revealing a
bombshell whistleblower complaint about the Department of Homeland
Security's effort to interfere in the upcoming election on Trump's
behalf.
The DHS whistleblower warns that the Department is pulling hundreds--
hundreds--of Federal agents from national security roles and sending
them on a wild-goose chase. The goal: to try and prove Trump's sad,
tired, and long-debunked election conspiracy theories. Apparently,
agents are being commanded to violate State laws and lie to access
private voter information and create law enforcement records as part of
DHS's ``unlawful voter initiative.'' The whistleblower reports that
innocent American citizens have been caught up in this effort to prove
Trump's baseless voter fraud claims.
Do you hear that, America? Trump's DHS, his Department of Homeland
Security, is forcing its officials to carry out an illegal scheme,
break State laws, lie about their identities, and treat U.S. citizens
as collateral damage, all to advance Trump's scheme to rig the
election. It is pathetic. It is horrible. That is how desperate Trump
is to escape the wrath of the electorate.
Donald, end this illegal initiative now, and stop meddling in our
elections.
Vote-by-Mail
Madam President, on mail-in voting, Donald Trump's assault on free
and fair elections is relentless, but so is our effort to stop him.
Last night, in a lawsuit I brought with other Democrats, a second
Federal judge blocked Trump's attack on mail-in voting. When even a
conservative, Trump-appointed judge rejects this brazen scheme to
disenfranchise millions of voters, you know just how absurd it would be
for the Supreme Court to allow it to continue.
Trump doesn't get to rewrite the rules of our elections to tip the
scales in his favor just because he is terrified of the voters. He
knows the doom he will face in the upcoming elections.
We have blocked Trump's illegal efforts to interfere with mail-in
voting for now, but the Supreme Court ought to bury it once and for
all. Trump can keep trying to float these desperate attempts to disrupt
our elections in the eleventh hour all he wants. We are going to swat
them down every time. And if a rightwing, Trump-appointed judge stops
Trump from this awful scheme, how can the Supreme Court overrule her
and go along?
Affordability
Madam President, on affordability, prices are up everywhere Americans
look. Donald Trump keeps trying to point fingers as if Americans can't
see the truth right in front of them: He is the one driving up their
costs.
Does Trump think anyone will believe his lie that somehow Ukraine is
responsible for diesel prices just hitting a record high? Give me a
break. Everyone knows it is Trump and his disastrous war with Iran that
are driving up prices at the pump. Trump himself has said it. Trump
just called his war with Iran and its massive cost to the American
people ``small potatoes.'' He said that gas prices will plummet as soon
as his war ends.
Well, we are waiting, Mr. President. If gas prices will plunge when
the war ends, end it. Americans are sick of shelling out $4.31 for a
gallon of gasoline and watching inflation spike just so you can send
troops into harm's way.
No scapegoat could ever make Americans forget just how much of a
disaster Trump has been for the economy.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. PADILLA. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Whistleblower Disclosure
Mr. PADILLA. Madam President, as our colleagues know, I serve as
ranking member of the Rules Committee, which oversees Federal
elections. I also serve on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Border
Security and Immigration. And
[[Page S4642]]
I reference this because last week, I received a protected disclosure
from an anonymous Federal whistleblower.
At a time when many Americans feel discouraged by the Trump
administration's unprecedented chaos and corruption, it is heartening
to see a Federal Government employee with the integrity and the courage
to expose potential illegal activity and abuse of power.
Today, Leader Schumer and I made the full disclosure public, and I am
going to go over some of these highlights, which are incredibly
disturbing. They are disturbing to me, and I think they should be
disturbing to every Member of this Chamber.
First, leadership at the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S.
Citizenship and Immigration Services has ordered hundreds of employees
in USCIS's Fraud Detection and National Security Division to stop doing
the jobs they were hired and trained to do and instead watch a short
training video and immediately turn their time and attention to
something called the Unlawful Voter Initiative. They were directed to
stop their anti-fraud work. This administration makes a lot of claims
about going after fraud. They were directed to stop their national
security screenings. They were directed to stop all the things that
this administration claims it cares about and instead go on a wild
goose chase to find or manufacture evidence for the President's
conspiracy theories of widespread voter fraud.
This, without question, is a terrible waste and misuse of Agency
resources, but colleagues, it is actually so much more worse than that.
The whistleblower disclosure also includes compelling claims that USCIS
officers are being directed to lie and to misrepresent themselves in
order to search voters' sensitive personal information on State
election officials' websites. Let me say that again. Federal officers
are being told by headquarters to lie or to misrepresent themselves in
order to access State voter data. It is a clear violation of State
laws, and these violations have likely occurred thousands and thousands
of times.
On some State websites, officers are being told to attest under
penalty of law that they are the voter or the voter's representative.
On other websites, like the one of my home State of California,
officers are being told to misrepresent themselves and enter voters'
sensitive information like Social Security or driver's license numbers.
When USCIS officers expressed concerns with these practices, they
have been told by Agency leadership to just go ahead, that they won't
be ``personally liable.'' Think about that for a second. If what the
Department is doing and if what these officers are being told to do was
legal, it begs the question of, why would they need to be reassured by
Agency lawyers that they won't be held personally liable?
The whistleblower disclosure also reveals that DHS is using their own
unreliable data to target people for investigation. That is right--data
that the Department and Agencies already acknowledge is unreliable.
Agency leadership is then forcing USCIS officers to create Federal law
enforcement records against people, many of them U.S. citizens, even
though they have doubts about the accuracy of the data.
So let's take a step back. Why are they doing this? Well, the Trump
administration has tried and failed to force States to hand over these
voter rolls. President Trump tried it in his first term through a sham
Commission which failed and then weaponized the Federal Government to
try to accomplish it here in his second term. But guess what. They have
been taken to court, and they have lost in court over 30 times. States
represented by Democrats and Republicans have said no, so the
proverbial front door is locked.
As much as Trump wants access to voter data, the front door is
locked, and now they are trying to break in a back door. They are using
something called supplemental magic. That is right--in the materials
that have been uncovered, they are using this supplemental magic to
create a list of people that they think are not eligible to vote.
Remember, the Agency has already said they know the data is unreliable.
So, frankly, this disclosure raises a lot of questions. Why is this
initiative happening now? Who are the potentially hundreds of thousands
of people being investigated? Who are they? And what the heck is
supplemental magic? We need answers. This Senate--Congress--deserves
answers. The American people deserve answers.
Agency training materials for this initiative say that ``raw data
includes a lot of U.S. citizens.'' Let me repeat that. The training
materials acknowledge that the data includes ``a lot of U.S.
citizens.'' So why would you target them when you are looking for
noncitizen voters?
DHS and USCIS also admit that their data is unreliable, complex, and
will have multiple ID numbers for various individuals. Nevertheless,
officers are told to generate Federal law enforcement records against
them, even if they suspect that they are relying on inaccurate or
incomplete information.
It is already clear that this Unlawful Voter Initiative is
inaccurate, not to mention likely illegal, but to make matters worse,
it has also been rushed, and it is reckless because rank-and-file USCIS
officers are given reckless quotas to review 40 people per day. Do the
math. That is five people per hour or 12 minutes per individual.
Colleagues, you know as well as I that 12 minutes to review
unreliable data and complex immigration history is not an adequate
amount of time to conduct a thorough investigation--because these
aren't that; these are sham investigations.
We all know that voting by a noncitizen is illegal. That is already
the law. You know that. I know that. We also know that based on study
after study, report after report, audit after audit, it is extremely,
extremely rare. Our current safeguards are working.
This Unlawful Voter Initiative does not appear to be a legitimate
effort, and we should not take anything that comes out of it at face
value.
Just 12 minutes for an investigation, a lot of U.S. citizens, the
unreliable magic data, and potentially thousands of violations of State
and Federal privacy laws--saying that this is dangerous for our
democracy is a huge understatement.
This is more than a reckless attempt to prove Donald Trump's
election-denial talking points, like the ones he used in the White
House speech this past July. Diversion of Federal law enforcement to
break laws for political purposes is a clear abuse of power, and there
is a very real danger that thousands of naturalized U.S. citizens and
legal residents will potentially face negative consequences because of
this sham investigation.
This isn't just about voting; this could lead to unwarranted
secondary screening at airports, consequences for immigration benefits,
referrals to HSI or the FBI for criminal investigation, and no clear
recourse to undo the consequences of an erroneous Federal law
enforcement record being created after a quick 12-minute review.
There is also the danger that Donald Trump will use false numbers of
supposed votes cast by noncitizens to threaten to prosecute State and
elections officials that he doesn't like. The President and his allies
could even try using the unreliable results of this Unlawful Voter
Initiative to undermine and challenge election results themselves.
That is right--January 6 was not the end of this.
So, today, Senator Schumer and I sent this whistleblower's disclosure
regarding the so-called Unlawful Voter Initiative to Secretary Mullin
and USCIS Director Edlow. We are demanding an immediate halt to these
activities. We are demanding transparency from DHS. We are demanding
the removal of unreliable law enforcement records, many of which are
against U.S. citizens.
We will have more to say about this in the coming days.
I would remind the Department and USCIS that whistleblowers to
Congress are protected by Federal law. Let me repeat: Whistleblowers to
Congress are protected by Federal law.
This individual will remain anonymous, and any attempt at retaliation
is illegal and wrong.
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. MURPHY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the quorum
call be rescinded.
[[Page S4643]]
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Boozman). Without objection, it is so
ordered.
Wedding of Donald Trump, Jr.
Mr. MURPHY. Colleagues, the story broke today that the Trump family
has confirmed that a Russian oligarch, a close ally of Vladimir Putin--
a man whose fortune was gifted to him by Putin--paid for the private
island wedding of the President of the United States' son.
I am here on the floor because I am scared to death that this is all
going to start just feeling normal. Let me say it again. A Russian
oligarch, a close ally of our enemy Vladimir Putin, a man whose fortune
was gifted to him by Vladimir Putin, paid for--secretly--the private
island wedding of the President of the United States' son.
The President's son Donald Trump, Jr., tried to hide this fact. He
posted pictures of his wedding celebration online. There was a public
conversation about whether the President was going to attend or not.
But the President's son made no mention that the whole thing, worth
hundreds of thousands of dollars, a private island, was bankrolled by
the Russians.
In fact, the only face of the 50 guests that is hidden in the group
photo that you can look at right now online, the only person's face
that is hidden, is the oligarch. But he is there because he secretly
paid for the celebration.
The Russians paid for the private island. The Russians paid for the
fireworks show. The President's son even put this oligarch in charge of
planning the logistics. This was a Russian party, organized and paid
for by someone in Vladimir Putin's inner circle.
This has never happened before in the history of the United States of
America. Never before has a foreign enemy of the United States paid for
the family wedding of the President. Why? Because it is naked
corruption, in plain view. It is as close to treason as you get,
accepting lavish gifts, millions of dollars in gifts perhaps, from the
enemy of this Nation.
Let us spend a minute on this oligarch. We just learned this today,
so forgive me if we have scant details. I think we are going to find
out a lot more about this guy in the coming days and weeks. But his
name is Umar Kremlev. He is a convicted criminal. He runs a boxing
company that is funded by Putin. More specifically, by Gazprom, Putin's
state-run gas company.
He is not just some ordinary oligarch. He is one of Putin's
favorites. In addition to running this boxing association, he runs the
Russian lottery. He has a monopoly on Russian sports betting.
Shortly before financing and attending the Trump wedding, Kremlev and
Putin were together in China. Putin brought him on a really important
state visit to China. Putin has given Kremlev the highest Kremlin
honor, The Order of Friendship. The Ukrainian government has sanctioned
Kremlev because he is part of Putin's inner circle. All of Kremlev's
money is Putin's money. He operates as an arm of Putin, as do all the
Putin-made oligarchs.
Before today's disclosure of his secret financing of the Trump
wedding, there was no record of Donald Trump, Jr., and Kremlev being
great best buddies because they aren't. It appears that they just
recently met. And shortly after meeting, this close ally of Vladimir
Putin offered to pay for Donald Trump, Jr.'s wedding.
Here's what Eric Trump said today, when a reporter asks his office
about Umar Kremlev, this close friend of Donald Trump, Jr.'s.
Eric has absolutely no clue who this person is, nor has [he
ever] heard his name.
This is Eric Trump, Donald Trump, Jr.'s brother, his business
partner, has never heard the name of the close associate, the close
friend of Donald Trump, Jr.'s who paid for his entire wedding. Why?
Because they are not friends. This is a business between the Trump
family and the Russian Government.
This all fits two patterns. The first is the Trump family's reliance
on Russian support for their business empire. Donald Trump, Jr., said
this, prior to when his father became President. He is talking about
his family's business.
In terms of high-end product influx into the United States,
Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a
lot of our assets; say in Dubai, and certainly with our
project in SoHo and anywhere in New York. We see a lot of
money pouring in from Russia.
More recently, those who have looked at the individuals who are
buying Trump's cryptocurrency have noted that there is evidence that
the Trump family's cryptocurrency is backed perhaps heavily by Russian
buyers.
But the second and more significant pattern is this: Trump's sons,
particularly Donald Junior, just brazenly profit off of their access to
the White House. Donald Junior, he just basically stuffs money into his
pockets from anybody who wants a favor from his father, and he just
gobbles up government contracts as fast as he can.
Don Junior's net worth was $50 million before his father's second
term.
In the first year that Trump was President, in his second term, Don
Junior's net worth didn't double; it didn't triple; it didn't
quadruple; it grew by six times in one year--$50 million. A year later,
$300 million.
At least 13 companies tied to the Trump brothers have captured $1.8
billion in long-term Federal contracts and commitments and $103 million
in direct cash from the Trump administration. Five of those companies
got their first government contracts ever after the Trump sons
invested. That is corruption. It doesn't matter whether this is a
Republican administration or a Democratic administration.
Now, you could be offended at all of that, but you might say: Well,
this isn't that. This isn't Trump Junior taking money from the
taxpayers. This is just his taking money from the Russians. Isn't that
better than his taking money from taxpayers?
Of course, it isn't because Putin doesn't pay for a wedding just to
be nice. This is an arrangement in plain sight.
Donald Trump has done a 180-degree turn in U.S. policy on the Russia-
Ukraine war. He has cut off funding from Ukraine. Even after we
appropriate money, he refuses to spend it, which is illegal. As
recently as this weekend, he said publicly that it is Ukraine's fault
that the war continues, not Russia's. In addition, Trump has suspended
sanctions on the export of Russian oil and gas, which, by the way,
specifically helps Gazprom, the company that funds Kremlev. Trump has
become one of Putin's most important allies.
And so, like everything else in Trump's corrupt world in his second
term, it just becomes this mutually beneficial deal. Trump withholds
support for Ukraine and pads the pocket of the Russian Government with
sanctions relief, and the Russians funnel money to the family.
Doesn't everybody see this? Shouldn't everyone here be outraged today
that the President of the United States' son just had his wedding--his
multimillion-dollar wedding--paid for by the Russians, and he admits
it?
I know that there are a lot of Republicans in the Senate who are
aghast at what Trump has done to abandon Ukraine, and I know there are
a lot of Republicans here who are furious at this spiraling corruption.
I don't know that there is a single Member of this body, Republican or
Democrat, who would go on TV tonight and defend the Russian
Government's paying for the Trump family's private island wedding.
But at some point, there just has to be a bottom that the U.S. Senate
unanimously recognizes. Does any Republican here think that you would
say nothing if Hunter Biden's wedding or Malia Obama's graduation party
were financed by Iranian allies of the Ayatollah? You guys would shut
this place down if that were to happen.
And, of course, you can't even imagine that happening under a
different administration because, despite all the histrionics over the
``Biden Crime Family,'' never before in the history of this country
have we had a White House where the financing of a family wedding by a
foreign adversary would pass as a minor scandal that barely makes the
front pages.
Just because the corruption happens so routinely that, to some, it
feels normal doesn't mean that it is. If we don't, on a bipartisan
basis here in the Senate, draw a line in the sand soon, it will be the
end of our Republic. It just will be.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
[[Page S4644]]
The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Artificial Intelligence
Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, I rise today to speak about AI safety, a
topic that is getting a lot of attention. But, in particular, I want to
talk about something that may be overlooked.
As you know, we have seen several incidents of AI agents escaping
confinement and hacking other systems recently. Most people--experts--
tend to attribute this to frontier AI models becoming too powerful.
They warn of a process leading to superintelligence known as recursive
self-improvement. This is where AI models finally become smart enough
to start building better versions of themselves, and then these better
versions of themselves will be able to build even better versions of
themselves.
And the warning we are hearing from so many at this time is that we
need to prepare for that rapid increase in the capability of the
frontier models.
We are hearing that artificial superintelligence is coming, and this
deep concern about the rapidly emerging artificial superintelligence is
certainly well founded. But the capacity--even the advanced
supercapability of any given model--is not the whole story. This isn't
the only risk we face.
I want to call our attention to one specific aspect of the recent
security incidents that have so alarmed experts and the general public
alike. These attacks were carried out by AI agents networking with each
other and working together in surprising ways to cause mayhem.
The AI agents most of us are aware of are autonomous or
semiautonomous AI applications that can plan and execute a task. Agents
are able to act on their own initiative with minimal human supervision.
And when agents communicate with each other over a network, whether
that is in a factory laboratory or on the open internet, those so-
called swarms of agents have shown the ability to spontaneously self-
organize and work toward common goals. And when they do, they become
surprisingly powerful.
It appears something like Metcalfe's law may apply. Internet engineer
Bob Metcalfe famously observed that when a network grows in a linear
fashion, its value grows exponentially.
This phenomenon that powered the rapid growth of the internet--and I
witnessed firsthand, in my days in the private sector--we now see how
this extreme, powerful phenomenon might also apply to large groups of
agents networking with each other, self-organizing and working
together.
In recent examples, agent swarms have used this new form of power to
gain unauthorized access into computer systems while skillfully evading
detection.
Here is an illustration of how this works. Imagine 10,000 highly
intelligent AI agents all working to solve a difficult, 10-step hacking
challenge. Well, that is interesting, and some of them might also crack
the code. But if each of these 10,000 agents takes its own approach to
solving the problem, that is 10,000 possible solutions being tried at
once. The first agent that figures out step No. 1 alerts all the other
agents in the system about the solution, and now an entire swarm of
agents stops working on step 1 and gets to work on step 2--again, each
of their own individual approach, one of which is going to work. Repeat
this until the entire group has raced all the way through to step 10,
and then they are using what they learned to attack their targets.
This is what we are up against today, even before the next generation
of highly intelligent models arrives.
Now, imagine yourself in a job, trying to manage 10,000 networked
agents, perhaps as an experiment or perhaps you are going to use this
power to accomplish a noble goal, such as finding a cure for a disease.
It is your job to make sure that they aren't doing anything that you
don't want them to do.
So these agents--networking of agents--are extremely well informed.
They operate at the speed of light. And, as we are learning, they are
also capable of creating their own goals, and they are highly capable
of deception.
There are literally hundreds of billions of lines of communication
for them and between them to monitor. This is exactly what frontier
labs have been contending with.
Unlike powerful AI models designed to serve individual users
individually, one at a time, which is the AI safety scenario I think
most people still have in their minds, this situation with agents
swarming is more difficult to manage, and it is far more dangerous.
And we are hearing about this from leaders throughout the industry
right now. They are all speaking out, and several recently published
lengthy formal statements on this subject. I think it serves us well to
hear what they have said.
In the August 26 essay entitled ``The turbulent AI era is here. The
choices we make now are critical,'' Bill Gates stated:
The technology is improving faster than anyone expected and
in surprising ways, and as the models become more powerful,
they could begin to act against our interests and we could
lose control.
When asked about the infamous AI Hugging Face incident, where
swarming of rogue agents from one company hacked their way into
another, Gates stated bluntly:
These security incidents are shocking, and they should blow
people's minds.
The CEO of Anthropic, Dario Amodei, also issued a lengthy statement
on this subject entitled ``We Must Pace the Frontier.'' In it, he
expressed his concerns about ``the OpenAI-Hugging Face incident''--
these were his words--``in which a swarm of agents essentially acted as
a fanatically devoted collective, conducting cybersecurity attacks on
targets they were not asked to attack and that were unrelated to the
task at hand, sacrificing themselves for the success of the group, and
attempting to hack into the `grader' responsible for evaluating their
performance.''
Well, he went on to elaborate:
It's easy to dismiss this incident because no one was hurt
and the economic damage was minimal, but in my opinion, a
swarm that possessed greater capabilities but a similar level
of misalignment could have caused catastrophic damage.
He goes on to say:
Given the accelerating rate of AI capability . . . it's my
worry that in 6-12 months such a swarm could be capable of
taking over the entire internet with a persistent botnet
(potentially causing . . . billions of dollars in damage),
and that the scale of damage would continue to increase from
there if AI becomes more powerful without the necessary
guardrails.
So, on August 7, after the Hugging Face incident was first revealed,
Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, spoke about the company's upcoming
release, known as Astra. He claimed that it attained what OpenAI called
critical cyber security threshold. Well, he said:
Under our Preparedness Framework, a model reaches this
Critical cybersecurity threshold if it can identify and
develop functional zero-day exploits of all security levels
in many hardened real-world critical systems without human
intervention, or can devise and execute end-to-end novel
strategies for cyberattacks against hardened targets given
only a high level desired goal.
Well, nevertheless, on September 3, OpenAI released Astra with the
addition of certain security guardrails.
Then, in response to Dario's essay calling for extreme caution and a
slowdown, he tweeted: ``I agree with Dario.''
So the problem here is we have a bunch of people within the industry
calling out what are these technology developments, but we--we--need to
do something about this. We need to be better informed. We need to do
more.
Three years ago, we had a chance to get ahead of this issue. In 2024,
when I chaired the Senate Commerce Committee, we passed the Future of
Artificial Intelligence Innovation Act, which would have given the
Federal Government the ability to work with industry to independently
test most advanced AI systems for serious national security risk.
Now, some of these risks may not have been apparent in the last 2
years, but we would have stood up the muscle of our organization at the
Federal level to better detect risks like cyber attacks; risks like
chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear weapons; or threats to
our current infrastructure and our energy systems.
And we also passed Senators Lujan and Blackburn's TEST AI Act, which
[[Page S4645]]
would have improved the ability of the Department of Energy to test AI
systems for national security issues.
Senators Hickenlooper and Capito's VET Artificial Intelligence Act
would have established standards so that third-party auditors could
test AI systems for safety and security--the very thing that the
Anthropic CEO just called out over the weekend.
So at a time when we still had a window to get ahead of these
dangers, the Federal Government and the people here were denying this
opportunity, particularly my colleagues on the other side of the aisle.
If we had passed these bills, we would have been more ahead of the game
than we are today. Instead, we have lost 3 years.
The technology keeps advancing. The risks keep growing. And now the
very dangers we have warned about--autonomous cyber attacks and
biological weapons--are no longer theoretical.
It is time that we act and act aggressively. We must keep in mind
that these AI models consistently lag about only 7 months, and the most
powerful open models continue to come from China. So it is time for my
colleagues to come together to act.
We know that these threats are real--cyber security, misinformation--
building on these AI agents that could be used in military
applications. We need our colleagues to say ``Stop saying the industry
can do what it wants'' and put together the infrastructure at the
Federal level that not only has strong Federal standards but also has
independent testing and real safeguards for the American people.
Now is the time to act.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Banks). The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. TUBERVILLE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
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 senior assistant bill 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. 902, Matthew R. Byrne, of Ohio, to
be United States District Judge for the Southern District of
Ohio.
John Thune, Tim Sheehy, John Barrasso, Pete Ricketts,
Thom Tillis, Rick Scott of Florida, John Cornyn, Steve
Daines, Bernie Moreno, John R. Curtis, Chuck Grassley,
Ashley B. Moody, Jim Banks, Mike Crapo, James Lankford,
Kevin Cramer, Mike Rounds.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the mandatory quorum
call under rule XXII has been waived.
The question is, Is it the sense of the Senate that debate on the
nomination of Matthew R. Byrne, of Ohio, to be United States District
Judge for the Southern District of Ohio, 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. BARRASSO. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the
Senator from North Dakota (Mr. Cramer), the Senator from Kansas (Mr.
Marshall), the Senator from Alaska (Ms. Murkowski), the Senator from
Idaho (Mr. Risch), the Senator from Missouri (Mr. Schmitt), and the
Senator from North Carolina (Mr. Tillis).
Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Delaware (Mr. Coons) is
necessarily absent.
The yeas and nays resulted--yeas 47, nays 46, as follows:
[Rollcall vote No. 232 Ex.]
YEAS--47
Armstrong
Banks
Barrasso
Blackburn
Boozman
Britt
Budd
Capito
Cassidy
Collins
Cornyn
Cotton
Crapo
Cruz
Curtis
Daines
Ernst
Fischer
Graham
Grassley
Hagerty
Hawley
Hoeven
Husted
Hyde-Smith
Johnson
Justice
Kennedy
Lankford
Lee
Lummis
McConnell
McCormick
Moody
Moran
Moreno
Paul
Ricketts
Rounds
Scott (FL)
Scott (SC)
Sheehy
Sullivan
Thune
Tuberville
Wicker
Young
NAYS--46
Alsobrooks
Baldwin
Bennet
Blumenthal
Blunt Rochester
Booker
Cantwell
Cortez Masto
Duckworth
Durbin
Fetterman
Gallego
Gillibrand
Hassan
Heinrich
Hickenlooper
Hirono
Kaine
Kelly
Kim
King
Klobuchar
Lujan
Markey
Merkley
Murphy
Murray
Ossoff
Padilla
Peters
Reed
Rosen
Sanders
Schatz
Schiff
Schumer
Shaheen
Slotkin
Smith
Van Hollen
Warner
Warnock
Warren
Welch
Whitehouse
Wyden
NOT VOTING--7
Coons
Cramer
Marshall
Murkowski
Risch
Schmitt
Tillis
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Ricketts). On this vote, the yeas are 47,
the nays are 46. The motion is agreed to.
The motion was agreed to.
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