A joint resolution providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security relating to "Procedures for Credible Fear Screening and Consideration of Asylum, Withholding of Removal, and CAT Protection Claims by Asylum Officers".

Mr. President, I am rising to ask unanimous consent to consider the nomination of Leopoldo Martinez. This body should confirm him today to serve as Executive Director of the Inter-American Development Bank.

From the world's highest per capita COVID infection and death rates to the largest economic contraction anywhere in the world, Latin America and the Caribbean are still struggling to recover from devastating waves of the pandemic.

The region also faces historic refugee and migration movements that stretch across the continent. And added to this, many of these nations must confront longstanding poverty and inequality as well as climate change and threats to the environment.

Given the significant economic social and development challenges in Latin America and the Caribbean, we urgently need Senate-confirmed leadership at our hemisphere's most important multilateral development bank. The Inter-American Development Bank is essential to addressing these issues.

It is critical that we have strong U.S. leadership at the Bank. Mr. Martinez brings decades of experience in the public and private sector, as well as academia, and he will provide exactly that.

He has advised Fortune 500 companies and private equity funds. He has helped international business and nongovernmental organizations, and he has committed to work with the Senate to support a much needed capital increase for the Bank, which we approved as part of the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act last year.

This nomination has been pending for 9 months--9 months. It is time for the Senate to act, especially when we have China--and I know my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have spent a lot of time talking about China and whether we were strong enough in meeting the China threat. Well, China is all over the Western Hemisphere making huge investments.

I talked to one foreign leader this past week from the hemisphere. He said to me: Listen, what is the United States offering? Because I am being offered $800 million, 1 percent, over 30 years. I am not taking it, but at some point, we need to have engagement in the hemisphere economically.

That is what the Inter-American Development Bank can do without costing U.S. taxpayers money. But for that, you need leadership that is focused on getting the IDB to build the partnerships and the programs that can help us have a presence to counter China in the first place and also to promote prosperity, security, and stability.

And for all of those of my colleagues who are concerned about the southern border, well, let's get an organization that can help create greater prosperity and stability in the hemisphere so people won't be fleeing from the circumstances.

I don't understand why this has taken 9 months, but that is what draws me to come to the floor. So I ask unanimous consent that the Senate Foreign Relations Committee be discharged and the Senate proceed to the following nomination: PN1028, Leopoldo Martinez Nucete, to be United States Executive Director of the Inter-American Development Bank for a term of three years, vice Eliot Pedrosa; that the Senate vote on the nomination with no intervening action or debate; that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table; that no further motions be made in order to the nomination; and that any related statements be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I am going to be honest here. This isn't really about Mr. Martinez, his experience, his views. It is just another thinly veiled attempt to block another of the President's nominees and to do so at a time in which China is eating our lunch.

So the next time one of my colleagues gets up and talks about China, I am going to remind them of the position that they have taken to block one of the critical nominees who could help us meet that challenge in the Western Hemisphere.

Mr. President, let me turn to another nominee who has been pending before the Senate, who did pass the committee, by the way, favorably-- not on a tie vote but favorably. I am going to, in a moment, ask unanimous consent to confirm Dr. Monde Muyangwa to serve as Assistant Administrator for USAID's Africa Bureau. This body should confirm her without delay.

The promotion of democracy, a key goal for USAID, is threatened throughout Africa. In just the past 2 years, there have been coups in Sudan, Chad, Guinea, Burkina Faso, and two in Mali.

Authoritarians across Africa have new tactics to subvert democratic movements. They have modern tools to silence dissenting voices. They deploy disinformation campaigns and sophisticated surveillance technology coming from China to stay in power. And from Mali to the Central African Republic, dictators are turning to Russian mercenaries for support.

Democracy advocates, human rights offenders, and civil society leaders across the continent are courageously working to realize their aspirations and goals. They need a reliable partner at USAID to keep the struggle for democracy in their countries, and that is why we have to advance this nominee today.

Dr. Muyangwa is eminently qualified to lead USAID's Africa Bureau. She brings extensive professional and academic experience in Africa. She is a Zambian-born immigrant to the United States, where she has held senior positions at the Wilson Center, the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, and the National Summit on Africa. She was a Rhodes Scholar, a Wingate Scholar for her scholarship at Oxford, the valedictorian for her graduating class at the University of Zambia, and she holds a doctorate in international relations from the University of Oxford. Do you think she is well qualified? In short, her qualifications are exceptional.

Finally, let me say that while Africa faces many challenges, it is also a land of tremendous opportunity. But here, again, China is all over Africa in precious minerals and other precious materials, in subverting nascent democracies by their debt-trap diplomacy. And where are we? Absent, because we don't even have somebody who can focus on the hemisphere--a hemisphere that we should have gotten a lot more votes at the United Nations when we were pursuing the sanctions against Russia. But guess what. We don't have anybody talking to these countries. So I see no reason, with somebody with

such a stellar background, to ultimately be objected to.

So I will I ask unanimous consent that the Senate consider the following nomination: Calendar No. 815, Monde Muyangwa, to be an Assistant Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development; that the Senate vote on the nomination without intervening action or debate; that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table; and that any statements related to the nomination be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, through the Chair, would my colleague say that--have you not been provided three rounds of documents that have been requested?

Through the Presiding Officer, has my colleague not been offered a briefing by USAID to try to answer the rest of his questions?

This is an extraordinary amount of information being offered for someone who is not even a member of the Foreign Relations Committee. But, nonetheless, in order to accommodate him, we want to get to a point that he feels comfortable to do so. Have you not been offered a briefing, which you have not yet accepted?

Well, my understanding is that there has been, Mr. President, an offer of a briefing made to the Senator.

And, by the way, this has nothing to do with Dr. Muyangwa. She has nothing to do with any of this. She is nominated to be the Assistant Administrator for Africa, nothing to do with China, nothing to do with Wuhan, nothing to do with anything else.

I would urge my colleague, if you have all this information about illicit activities, please bring it forward. The committee would like to consider it. But I haven't seen any of it. It is time to put up or shut up.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, like millions of my fellow Americans, I contracted COVID-19 from a close contact. Fortunately, because I am vaccinated and boosted, my symptoms were mostly mild. However, as a growing number have also experienced, after taking Paxlovid and recovering, I then experienced what is known as ``Covid-19 Rebound.'' I again had to isolate, per CDC guidance, and was not able to make a number of votes as I could not travel back to Washington, DC, to be present on the Senate floor.

On May 24, 2022, I missed rollcall vote No. 194, confirmation of Executive Calendar No. 855, Stephanie Dawkins Davis, of Michigan, to be United States Circuit Judge for the Sixth Circuit. Had I been in attendance, I would have voted yea.

On May 24, 2022, I missed rollcall vote No. 196, confirmation of Executive Calendar No. 896, Dara Lindenbaum, of Virginia, to be a Member of the Federal Election Commission. Had I been in attendance, I would have voted yea.

On May 25, 2022, I missed rollcall vote No. 200, confirmation of Executive Calendar No. 857, Evelyn Padin, of New Jersey, to be U.S. District Judge for the District of New Jersey. Had I been in attendance, I would have voted yea.

On May 25, 2022, I missed rollcall vote No. 201, confirmation of Executive Calendar No. 915, Charlotte Sweeney, of Colorado, to be U.S. District Judge for the District of Colorado. Had I been in attendance, I would have voted yea.

On May 25, 2022, I missed rollcall vote No. 203, confirmation of Executive Calendar No. 806, Sandra Thompson, of Maryland, to be Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Had I been in attendance, I would have voted yea.

On May 25, 2022, I missed rollcall vote No. 205, confirmation of Executive Calendar No. 651, Henry Christopher Frey, of North Carolina, to be an Assistant Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. Had I been in attendance, I would have voted yea.

On May 25, 2022, I missed rollcall vote No. 209, confirmation of Executive Calendar No. 717, Cathy Ann Harris, of Maryland, to be a Member of the Merit Systems Protection Board. Had I been in attendance, I would have voted yea.

On May 26, 2022, I missed rollcall vote No. 210, motion to invoke cloture on the Motion to Proceed to H.R. 350, a bill to authorize dedicated domestic terrorism offices within the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to analyze and monitor domestic terrorist activity and require the Federal Government to take steps to prevent domestic terrorism. Had I been in attendance, I would have voted yea.

As recent, unthinkably tragic events at a grocery store in Buffalo, NY, a Taiwanese church in Laguna Woods, CA, and now an elementary school in Uvalde, TX, have shown, we need to be doing much more to protect our fellow Americans. Every man, woman, and child has the fundamental human right to live their life; to be and feel safe in their classrooms, house of worship, and within their communities. White supremacy and gun violence are crises that are plaguing our Nation, and inaction is unacceptable. I am disappointed that the Senate failed to advance this important legislation, and I will continue working to pass it in the future.

On May 26, 2022, I missed rollcall vote No. 211, S.J. Res. 46, a joint resolution providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security relating to ``Procedures for Credible Fear Screening and Consideration of Asylum, Withholding of Removal, and CAT Protection Claims by Asylum Officers.'' Had I been in attendance, I would have voted nay.

On May 26, 2022, I missed rollcall vote No. 212, confirmation of Executive Calendar No. 461, Marcia Stephens Bloom Bernicat, of New Jersey, to be Director General of the Foreign Service. Had I been in attendance, I would have voted yea.

On June 7, 2022, I missed rollcall vote No. 214, confirmation of Executive Calendar No. 477, Alex Wagner, of the District of Columbia, to be an Assistant Secretary of the Air Force. Had I been in attendance, I would have voted yea.

On June 7, 2022, I missed rollcall vote No. 216, confirmation of Executive Calendar No. 652, Chavonda J. Jacobs-Young, of Georgia, to be Under Secretary of Agriculture for Research, Education, and Economics. Had I been in attendance, I would have voted yea.

On June 7, 2022, I missed rollcall vote No. 217, confirmation of Executive Calendar No. 792, Kenneth L. Wainstein, of Virginia, to be Under Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis, Department of Homeland Security. Had I been in attendance, I would have voted yea.

On June 7, 2022, I missed rollcall vote No. 218, confirmation of Executive Calendar No. 772, Shalanda H. Baker, of Texas, to be Director of the Office of Minority Economic Impact, Department of Energy. Had I been in attendance, I would have voted yea.

Mr. President, reserving the right to object.

This nominee received a tie vote in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, meaning that he failed to be reported favorably to the floor. This tie vote indicates that the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Republicans have significant concerns with this nominee; therefore, he should be discharged per the process laid out in the Senate power-sharing agreement for this Congress, not passed by unanimous consent. Therefore, I object.

Mr. President.

Reserving the right to object, USAID awarded a $200 million grant for a 10-year viral emergence early warning project known as PREDICT.

We have uncovered evidence of possible embezzlement, possible money laundering, and insider threats, as well as other concerns related to the PREDICT and other USAID grant awards.

PREDICT was led by a consortium spearheaded by UC Davis and EcoHealth Alliance, which funneled taxpayer dollars to the Wuhan Institute of Virology to conduct risky research on potential pandemic pathogens, including bat coronavirus research.

USAID and NIH both awarded multimillion dollar grants to EcoHealth Alliance during the same 5-year period leading up to and immediately preceding the COVID-19 outbreak.

EcoHealth is unable to produce to NIH proof of its research, such as lab notebooks and virus samples, so we are simply asking USAID for proof of the EcoHealth research they funded. We requested records from USAID that grant recipients are legally required to maintain. Our requests are, indeed, fact-based.

At this point, we believe either the USAID staff is withholding the records from Congress or they have failed to access them through the UC Davis and EcoHealth Alliance. Either option is unacceptable. As such, I object to the unanimous consent motion but look forward to working with the chairman to address these issues.

Unfortunately, the documents were not what we asked for. They are incomplete. They don't give us what we are looking for. But we would welcome the opportunity to sit down with the chairman and try to address--

Not that I am aware of.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 10 a.m., Thursday, May 26, and that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and morning business be closed; further, that upon the conclusion of morning business, the Senate resume consideration of the motion to proceed to Calendar No. 371, H.R. 350, Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act; further, that at 11:30 a.m., the Senate vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to H.R. 350; that if cloture is not invoked, the Senate proceed to the consideration of Calendar No. 396, S.J. Res. 46; that the joint resolution be considered read a third time and the Senate vote on passage of the joint resolution; that upon disposition of the joint resolution, the Senate proceed to executive session to consider the Bernicat nomination, as under the previous order; that the Senate vote on confirmation of the nomination at 1:45 p.m.; finally, that if any nominations are confirmed during Thursday's session, the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table and the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action.

The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Tennessee (Mrs. Blackburn), the Senator from North Dakota (Mr. Cramer), the Senator from Texas (Mr. Cruz), and the Senator from Alaska (Ms. Murkowski).