Stop Settlement Slush Funds Act of 2021

Mr. President, today, I want to discuss an issue that many folks may not be familiar with, but they should be. After today, they will be. When I first heard about this, I couldn't believe it was true, but I have learned up here that just when you think you have seen or heard the worst, the swamp will always surprise you.

One of the many important roles of the Department of Justice is to represent the United States in civil and criminal trials. Sometimes the DOJ decides that a pretrial monetary settlement for a lawsuit is the best route to take. The DOJ directs the money from the settlement to the victims or to the Treasury. That is the way our system is supposed to work.

But during the Obama administration, the DOJ took a different course. Rather than direct settlement money to victims, the DOJ pushed the defendants to give money instead to third-party organizations favored by the Department. This was a slush fund for groups chosen by the DOJ. What is more, the DOJ would count the dollar amount of any donation as double toward the settlement. Money paid to the victims or the Treasury would only count dollar for dollar. So it was a huge incentive for these defendants to pay a third party, and these third parties often had nothing to do with the lawsuit.

When companies like JPMorgan, Bank of America, or Citigroup had to pay settlements based on mortgage lending practices, the DOJ intentionally directed millions of dollars to liberal activist groups. You don't have to take my word for it; here is an email from the Office of the Associate Attorney General in 2013 talking about the DOJ settlement with JPMorgan:

Can you explain to Tony the best way to allocate some money

toward an organization of our choosing?

Those are the key words there: ``of our choosing.''

Let me continue to quote: We have been discussing having the agreement provide that JPM agreed to pay $9 billion but that, if, by the time we sign the settlement agreement, JPM has given $60 million to X, they will have to pay only 8 billion.

I think that is OK. We understand that we would not have control over what X organization does with the money.

The ``Tony'' referred to there is Tony West, an Associate Attorney General, who was at that time No. 3 in the Department of Justice.

Two days later, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights wrote to the Office of the Associate Attorney General to lobby on behalf of a group called VOICE. The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights includes the biggest activist arms of the political left, including the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, Big Labor's AFL-CIO, and the teachers unions.

On No. 3 here, but when the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights contacted the DOJ, it was because VOICE wanted funds from the JPMorgan settlement. Not surprisingly, VOICE ended up receiving $1 million from JPMorgan.

They had a listening ear in the Obama administration. This is what he wrote to Tony about the settlement with Citigroup. Chart 4.

They were concerned with the possibility of Citi picking a group like, ``The Pacific Legal Foundation does conservative property rights free legal services.'' The DOJ was clear: Conservative groups couldn't have the access to the same funds that liberal groups could. It was obvious.

Here was the result, chart No. 5.

From Bank of America alone, the National Council of La Raza, now known as UnidosUS, received $1.5 million. The National Urban League received $1.2 million. VOICE got another million dollars, on top of the first million.

This won't shock you, but both La Raza and the Urban League were big supporters of President Obama's agenda. They are also both members of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights today. La Raza consistently lobbied Congress to pass President Obama's misguided immigration reform bill. Urban League was a routine cheerleader of the Obama administration's Big Government approach to public housing. They were rewarded for their advocacy with millions of dollars from the DOJ.

In total across the Federal Government, the money directed to third parties added up to a total of $668 million, according to the nonpartisan Regulatory Transparency Project.

On chart No. 6, out of the $668 million, at the end of the day, they could only locate $9.5 million, which is 1.4 percent of the total money given. We don't even know exactly where or how the rest of the money was spent.

Folks, I have one word for you on this. This is called corruption. This is the swamp. The fact that this practice ever existed should make Americans' blood boil. Political appointees at one of the most powerful Departments in the country used their position of power to extract money from companies, and then they gave that money to their like- minded friends. That is what is wrong with Washington, DC.

We have grown used to hearing about this type of behavior from dictatorships around the world, like Russia or Venezuela. We should not, we cannot accept this type of behavior here in the United States of America.

Well, President Trump didn't. His administration, very early in his tenure, put a stop to this practice. They were right to do so. It should never have happened in the first place. But now, with a new President in office and with so many high-profile Obama administration retreads throughout the administration and in the White House, this corrupt practice could and probably will return. Congress cannot allow this to happen. I don't care if it is a Republican or a Democrat or an Independent in the White House; the power of the purse lies with us, the folks in this building. It is called the 117th U.S. Congress-- elected officials, not bureaucrats.

We need a permanent fix. If the Federal Government is diverting settlement funds away from victims into politically connected groups, they are undermining Congress's role. There is a way to stop this. Earlier today, I introduced the Stop Settlement Slush Funds Act. This bill would ensure that all settlement funds would go first to the victims and then to the Treasury--no third party. No administration should be allowed to force donations to politically connected groups at the direct expense of victims.

I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this commonsense solution. Let's ensure our Federal Government works on behalf of all of its citizens, not just the ones with connections to people in power.

Mr. President, I rise today to express significant concern about the Biden administration's decision to file an amicus brief in the case of Ramona Matos Rodriguez v. Pan American Health Organization.

This case involves serious allegations that the Pan American Health Organization facilitated human trafficking and regrettably places the administration in a position in which it is undercutting efforts by the victims of the Cuban dictatorship's forced labor schemes.

Now, let me be clear, I am a strong advocate for the Pan American Health Organization and its mission strengthening health systems across Latin America and the Caribbean. Given the significant impact of COVID- 19 on the region, PAHO's efforts are needed now more than ever, and I have fought to ensure that the Pan American Health Organization has the resources it needs to carry out its lifesaving work during the pandemic and throughout a good period of time of my congressional career. However, I also firmly believe that the Pan American Health Organization must be held accountable for its past transgressions, including the unacceptable role that it played facilitating a program that subjected more than 10,000 Cuban medical professionals to forced labor conditions in Brazil.

From 2013 to 2019, the Pan American Health Organization profited from its participation in Brazil's Mais Medicos Program, an initiative that allowed Cuba's dictatorship to earn income from trafficking doctors.

The Cuban regime's so-called foreign medical missions are nothing more than human trafficking. In November of 2019, the United Nation's Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery and the United Nation's Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons raised concerns that the Cuban regime's trafficking of medical professionals constitutes forced labor and modern slavery.

In fact, the Department of State's last ``Trafficking in Persons'' report found the Cuban regime garnishes the wages of its medical professionals that serve overseas, surveils them, confiscates their passports so they can't

leave anywhere, and retaliates against family members in Cuba if they leave from the program. So if you send me abroad, don't pay me, get money from the country that you send me from, take away my passport, and retaliate against my family, that is the ultimate forced labor. Cuba's dictatorship generated more than $6 billion in profit from its forced labor schemes in 2018 alone as it trafficked tens of thousands of Cuban medical professionals to some 60 countries.

The Pan American Health Organization's participation in the Cuban dictatorship's human trafficking programs cannot be overlooked, and accountability is urgently needed.

It is against this backdrop that I have reviewed the Biden administration's amicus brief in Rodriguez v. Pan American Health Organization. And while the brief addresses some of the technical aspects of the case, it effectively does nothing--nothing--to condemn Cuba's dictatorship for human trafficking or the Pan American Health Organization's participation in those programs that were human trafficking.

For over two decades, the United States has led the international community in combating human trafficking. In 2000, the United States enacted the Trafficking Victims Protection Act--something I was involved with in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee--which has set a standard for countries around the world to strengthen efforts to prosecute traffickers, increase protection for victims, and expand foreign assistance programs. We have built a range of financial tools to combat the human trafficking industry and its illicit profits. We have spearheaded efforts to ensure that slavery-free supply chains-- slavery-free supply chains--that respect workers' rights and prevent against forced labor conditions around the world become more and more a reality.

The Biden administration squandered an opportunity in this brief, an opportunity to support Cuban trafficking victims and an opportunity to advance our extraordinary American leadership in combating all forms of human trafficking and modern slavery. It is a major disappointment.

I urge the President and the Secretary of State to redouble efforts to pressure Cuba to end this medical trafficking program and the many other abuses it perpetrates against the Cuban people.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.