Floor Statements

Mr. President, reserving the right to object.

Mr. President, I have major concerns about this unanimous consent request. But let me start first with the process, whether we should be legislating a policy in regard to the health of our pages. Despite what the Senator from Kentucky has said, the policies concerning our pages' health is not set on a partisan basis; it is set based upon the recommendations of our health professionals. They are not politicians. They are not making partisan decisions. They are making their recommendations based upon what they believe is in the best interests of the health of the people who work in this institution, including our Senate pages.

So I am concerned about the unanimous consent request because it would legislate areas that should be left to the administration based upon the recommendations of our health professionals.

Secondly, as I look at the legislation that the unanimous consent would adopt, it goes well beyond COVID-19 vaccines. It goes to wearing a mask, having a legislative prohibition about requiring a page to wear a mask.

That is pretty broad. We don't know what is coming. We don't know what our requirements are going to be and needs to deal with public health in this institution. Again, that should be left to the health professionals. We shouldn't be micromanaging what the health professionals tell us is in the best interests of the people who work in this institution.

Let just me point out that COVID-19 cases are rising all over. We know that. We don't know what is going to be the best countermeasures in order to deal with that, but we do know that vaccinations, testing, and masking are effective countermeasures to reduce the spread of COVID-19 and other respiratory diseases.

I recognize that Senator Paul has put into his comments studies that he has quoted. The overwhelming evidence that has been presented by the health professionals globally, including here in the United States, is that vaccinations, testing, and masking are effective.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record the listing of those types of studies that would counter what Senator Paul has said.

Mr. President, schools throughout and the Nation implement public health requirements to keep students, teachers, and their communities safe. Let me remind my colleagues, the pages are in the Page School. They should be treated no differently, as far as the protection of their health, than other students around the Nation and those responsible for their safekeeping.

We need to follow science. We need to follow what science tells us we should do. We shouldn't respond to the political whim or the political pressures. We should let science make the judgments that keep our people safe, particularly our Senate pages.

There is no credible evidence that supports a prohibition on requiring COVID-19 vaccinations, testing, or masking. In contrast, overwhelming evidence indicates that they are important tools in helping to deal with these issues.

I will mention one other issue just in passing because I know we are going to get to debate on the floor soon about the spending programs for our country and how we are dealing with the costs. Well, there are a lot of healthcare costs that we would like to get contained. Every time we don't deal with the spread of an illness or a disease, it adds to the costs to the taxpayers of this country.

The Senate has a duty of care with respect to the pages. Their well- being is our responsibility. For those reasons, I object.

Mr. President, 60 years ago last week, on Monday, August 28, hundreds of thousands of men and women descended on our Nation's capital for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

The march has become synonymous with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s ``I

Have a Dream'' speech, which he delivered from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and has become a central rallying theme for the civil rights movement.

Dr. King was prophetic in his remarks, beginning by saying that the day ``will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.''

To this day, it is the standard by which every other march and rally in Washington is judged. I thank all the Marylanders who attended the march and wanted to give a special thanks to those who joined the reenactment last week in Annapolis, which was kicked off by the Morgan State Marching Band. Had he lived to see the progress that has been made, and sometimes lost, six decades later, I am confident that Dr. King would have been uneasy and deeply frustrated that we are still fighting many of the same battles against bigotry and racism as well as economic repression and hate-fueled gun violence. Yet I am sure he would have leaned into the words he spoke on March 31, 1968, just days before his assassination, when he said:

We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is

long, but it bends towards justice.

Of course, Dr. King knew that we cannot leave it to fate to bend the arc of the moral universe on its own. We must work together for justice, equality, and democracy so that all people in this great Nation can be free. As Dr. King said:

All men, yes, black men, as well as white men, would be

guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty and the

pursuit of happiness.

Labor leader A. Philip Randolph's opening speech at the march was also explicit in the broad demands of the moment:

We want a free, democratic society dedicated to the

political, economic, and social advancement of men along

moral lines.

To that end, for many years in the U.S. Senate, I have been humbled to lead the fight for a number of key civil rights measures that would move the arc in the right direction of progress. These are basic measures that rebuke the structural racism that has been so deeply ingrained in our legal, social, and economic system for generations.

All of these legislative measures have healthy Democratic support; but, regrettably, with few exceptions, they are not yet bipartisan.

So let me go through some of these efforts. First, the End Racial and Religious Profiling Act would ban discriminatory profiling by Federal, State, and local law enforcement nationwide. Prohibited behavior would include targeting based on actual or perceived race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, gender, gender identity, or sexual orientation.

This prohibition covers Federal, State, and local law enforcement agencies carrying out criminal, immigration, or custom laws. Nothing in this bill would keep law enforcement officers from pursuing suspects based on legitimate descriptions--including their race and ethnicity, et cetera--but the days of targeting groups of people solely on how they look would end. My legislation was included in the broader George Floyd Justice and Policing Act, and I was pleased to see the U.S. Department of Justice recently strengthened their guidance against discriminatory profiling.

Next in my efforts, I would like to mention the Democracy Restoration Act, which would finally end the permanent denial of voting rights nationwide for individuals with criminal convictions who have been released from incarceration.

The bill aims to eliminate the complicated patchwork of State laws, many harkening back to the Jim Crow era. The current system worsens racial disparities in access to the ballot box and contributes to confusion and misinformation regarding voting rights.

In early August, a Federal appeals court issued a decision stating that the Mississippi's lifetime ban on voting for individuals convicted on some felonies ``violates the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.''

As described by the Brennan Center For Justice:

The remarkable 2-1 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for

the Fifth Circuit will re-enfranchise tens of thousands of

people.

My legislation was included in the broader For the People and Freedom to Vote Act legislation.

On voting rights, I joined a bipartisan working group to help pass the Electoral Count Reform Act to address some of the tactics used to attempt to overthrow the 2020 elections, which led to the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol.

But Congress still needs to take up and pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Reauthorization Act to begin to repair the damage done by the Supreme Court in curtailing the rights to vote and the use of voter suppression tactics, particularly against minority communities.

And when it comes to the lower Federal courts such as the district and circuit courts, I have continued to work with the Biden administration to recommend highly qualified and diverse Federal judges for lifetime appointments who believe in equal justice under the law that protects all Americans.

In regards to equal rights for women, we still have unfinished business. In May of this year, a bipartisan majority of the U.S. Senate voted to remove the arbitrary deadline for the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment and making it the 28th Amendment to our Constitution.

I was proud to lead the effort on this historic vote, along with my partner in this effort, Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. For more than a decade, I have been working with a full grassroots army of women and men who understand that constitutional equality will not be a reality until the Equal Rights Amendment is recognized and ratified.

I first introduced a similar resolution in 2012. At that time, I had only 17 cosponsors, and we were still three States short of ratification.

Today, we have a bipartisan majority of Senators affirming that 38 States have ratified the ERA thanks to Virginia's ratification as the 38th State in 2020. This vote was decades in the making. I served in the Maryland House of Delegates in 1973 when the Maryland General Assembly voted to ratify the ERA. For my wife, my daughter, and my granddaughters, I have been working to complete the ratification of the ERA to protect their rights and the rights of all people across this Nation.

The ERA simply states that equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State on account of sex. That is it. That is the very straightforward text of what the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution says. Ratification would affirm women's equality by enshrining the principles of women's equality and explicitly prohibiting against sex discrimination in our Nation's founding document.

Most Americans think the ERA already is part of our Constitution, and nearly three-quarters support it. A majority of States covering a supermajority of Americans have equal rights or gender equality provisions in their State constitutions--as does Maryland--but millions are still left behind.

At the Federal level, the only current explicit guaranteed right in the United States Constitution based on sex is the 19th Amendment, which is the right to vote. That amendment was proposed by Congress in 1919, shortly after the end of World War I, and ratified by the States in 1920. Clearly, existing legal protections against sex discrimination fall well short of addressing the systemic sex-based inequality in our society.

Congress ratified the ERA in 1972 and sent it to the States for ratification. But back in 1972, an arbitrary deadline of 7 years was included in the enabling legislation for the ERA. The deadline was not--is not--in the amendment itself.

Congress extended the deadline to a full 10 years when it was clear that 38 States would not complete their ratification in time. What we are now trying to do is follow that precedent and change that deadline again. Actually, we want to remove that deadline.

With Virginia's ratification in 2020, the States completed their work, and it is now up to Congress to remove any doubt about the ERA being part of our Constitution. This has been a struggle, but we must make it to the finish line. Our resolution S.J. Res. 4 would clarify once and for all that the ERA has met all the requirements of article V of our Constitution.

As the 28th Amendment, the ERA would serve as a new tool for Congress, Federal Agencies, and in the courts to advance equality in the fields of workforce and pay, pregnancy discrimination, sexual harassment and violence, reproductive autonomy, and protection of the LGBTQ+ individuals. It is also a signal to the courts that they should apply a more rigorous level of review to laws and government policies that discriminate on the basis of sex.

That is what the ERA is all about: equality, the most fundamental of American values. I am disappointed by the outcome of the vote this May, but this is not the end. Just before the Senate vote on the measure, I led my colleagues in a vigorous floor debate in support of the ERA and our resolution to affirm the ratification.

Not one opponent showed up to debate the merits of the resolution or equal rights. No one. It tells me that we are on the right side of history, and they know it.

So make no mistake about it, this march towards equality on account of sex continues. We will not rest until the ERA is in the Constitution of the United States. The States have done their job. We will get the necessary votes to make that a reality.

My life of public service was inspired by my faith but also by the civil rights movement and elected leaders of the 1960s. I was first elected to Congress in 1986 and sworn into office in 1987, along with Congressman John Lewis of Georgia, who would become a lifelong friend and mentor.

Years earlier, John was one of the original Freedom Riders and served as chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. He was one of the major organizers of the 1963 March on Washington.

For John, the movement for freedom, justice and equality-- economically, socially, and all aspects of life--was not merely a movement; it was his life's work.

As times changed and as the struggle for equality took on new forms, his commitment never faltered. He marched on Washington through Selma and in the Halls of the U.S. Capitol with the same faith, courage, and conviction.

This past weekend, tens of thousands gathered on the National Mall to continue to march for freedom and justice, hearkening back to those who stood on the same ground six decades earlier. Dr. King's daughter-in- law, Arndrea Waters King, described to the crowd:

We are here to liberate the souls of the Nation, the soul

of democracy from the forces who would have us all go

backwards and perish rather than go forward as sisters and

brothers.

As President Joe Biden said recently, recalling Dr. King's reference to a ``promissory note'' to every American, it is ``a promise derived from the very idea of America, that we are all created equal and deserve to be treated equally throughout our entire lives. While we've never fully lived up to that promise, we've never--thank God--fully walked away from it . . . for our administration and with your help, it means pushing back against voter suppression, election subversion, and hate-fueled violence.''

So, Mr. President, my message to our colleagues is let us work together to do the work necessary to make sure that the moral arc of the universe moves toward justice. We must carry out that mission.

With that, I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs be discharged from further consideration of S. 294, and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

I ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. 2747, introduced by Senators Klobuchar and Fischer.

Mr. President, I ask that the bill be considered read three times.

Mr. President, I know of no further debate on the bill.

Mr. President, I further ask that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I call up my amendment No. 705 and ask that it be reported by number.

Mr. President, first let me thank Senator Young, my coauthor of this amendment that deals with our foreign policy being grounded in our democratic values to fight corruption. I also want to thank Senator Wicker for his help, particularly in the Helsinki Commission where this issue was debated.

I also want to thank Senator Menendez and Senator Risch, the chair and ranking members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. This bill has been reported out by that committee at least twice by near- unanimous or unanimous votes.

I think we all recognize that corruption provides the fuel for Mr. Putin and other corrupt leaders to do their nefarious actions, including the war in Ukraine. It is in our core national security interests to fight corruption, as has been declared by President Biden.

So this bill patterns the efforts we have made in the trafficking of persons to have the State Department evaluate the capacity of what countries are doing to combat corruption using standard evaluations such as criminalizing corruption, investigating and prosecuting, adopting measures to prevent corruption, adequate resources, and protecting victims of corruption.

This amendment will continue the U.S. leadership in fighting corruption globally. I ask my colleagues to support the amendment.

Vote on Amendment No. 705

Mr. President, it is my understanding that we can do this by voice vote. If that is the case, I ask unanimous consent that the 60-vote threshold with respect to this amendment be vitiated.

Mr. President, I rise today to urge my colleagues to join me in recognizing July as National Minority Mental Health Month. Since 2008, Congress has declared this month as National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month in honor of author, journalist and teacher Bebe Moore Campbell, a national agent of change who passed away in 2006.

Thanks to President Biden, through the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, millions of Americans have been able to seek out help with nearly 5 million calls, texts, and chats that have been answered over the past year.

Unfortunately, mental health is a subject that often still has stigma attached to it, even though mental illness touches the lives of millions of Americans each year.

This month provides an opportunity to bring awareness and recommit us to tackling longstanding health disparities and improve the public's awareness of the health challenges that disproportionately affect racial and ethnic minorities in the United States. Mental illness can have a devastating impact on an individual's overall health and quality of life. Racial and ethnic minorities often suffer from poor mental health outcomes due to multiple factors, including lack of access to quality mental health care services, cultural stigma surrounding mental health care, discrimination, and overall lack of awareness about mental health.

Today, because of historical injustices across our society, including those in the healthcare system, communities of color continue to face health disparities that result in poorer quality of life and lower life expectancies when compared to their White counterparts. For people of color who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender--LGBT-- these disparities are often exacerbated. In 2021, according to estimates, only 39 percent of Black or African-American adults, 25 percent of Asian adults, and 36 percent of Hispanic/Latino adults with any mental illness were treated, compared to 52 percent of non-Hispanic White adults.

According to the Department of Veterans Affairs' Veterans Health Administration, American Indian and Alaska Native Veterans report experiencing posttraumatic stress disorder--PTSD--at double the rate of non-Hispanic White Veterans--20.5 percent compared to 11.6 percent.

In 2020, suicide was the leading cause of death among Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders aged 10 to 19; it was the second leading cause of death among those aged 20 to 34.

Mental illness also has a significant impact on our country's economy. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-- CDC--the economic cost of mental illness in the United States was more than $300 billion in 2021. Fewer than half of those in need, however, receive any mental health care in the United States. This is simply unacceptable. Stigma, cost, and other barriers, such as limited capacity in some areas to serve all those in need, prevent many individuals from receiving necessary mental health care. It is imperative that we act to improve access to high-quality, evidence- based mental health care services in our country.

Maternal mental health has been an enduring issue that has stricken women across the Nation. The types of disorders are vast, though the most common include depression, anxiety, and psychosis. The consequences of leaving such disorders untreated are dire, as they impact not only the mother, but her child, and the community, as well. While all women are potentially susceptible to maternal mental health disorders, there is an evident disparity in the rates at which certain racial and ethnic groups are affected. Around one in seven women suffers specifically from postpartum depression, though mothers of color possess rates at around 38 percent, nearly double that of White mothers. Despite this alarming statistic, these mothers of color are still less likely to receive

both a diagnosis and treatment for their disorder.

Too many children and their families do not have adequate access to high-quality specialty child and adolescent behavioral health care. Child and adolescent psychiatrists practice in a wide range of settings and further facilitate access to treatment through telehealth and collaborative care arrangements with primary care providers, schools, and other systems. And yet, there is still a shortage of inpatient child and adolescent psychiatric beds. According to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, there are 1,341,682 children under the age of 18 in Maryland, but only 365 practicing child and adolescent psychiatrists, or 1 for every 3,676 children. There are six counties in Maryland that have no child and adolescent psychiatrists available at all. This is simply unacceptable. Children should have access to a full array of prevention, early intervention, and treatment options within all child-facing systems. We need to act now and improve services with integrated care models, including collaborative care arrangements.

Several weeks ago, I had the opportunity to tour Brooke's House, a community-based sober living environment for women in Hagerstown, MD. I had the pleasure of attending the graduation of a resident who has completed treatment and is transitioning out of the residential treatment environment. Brooke's House was the dream of a young Maryland girl who struggled opioid addiction. It provides a community-based, safe, stable, and emotionally supportive living environment for adult women in the early stages of substance abuse recovery. This model of care ensures a tranquil, home-like facility to provide state-of-the-art treatment and recovery services with resources to help residents achieve their dreams of living drug-free and productive lives. This year, Brooke's House will use an ARC INSPIRE grant to expand support and engagement services, specifically by hiring a coordinator for a commercial driver's license--CDL--program to help more women access job training and placement while in recovery. The addition of this coordinator will help expand the CDL program to serve 12 participants.

Behavioral health equity is the right of all individuals--regardless of race, age, ethnicity, gender, disability, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, or ZIP Code--to access high-quality and affordable healthcare support.

I am excited to see reforms such as the SUPPORT Act, enacted in 2018 with overwhelming bipartisan support, which addresses the opioid epidemic and tackles many aspects of the epidemic, including treatment, prevention, recovery, and enforcement. This year, we begin work to reauthorize key programs within the SUPPORT Act. This bipartisan legislation takes an important step forward in providing additional tools to battle the opioid crisis. It is imperative we work toward advancing access to high-quality behavioral health care.

The United States is an ever-changing cultural landscape that shapes the way we experience diversity. Cultural values and beliefs not only affect our daily activities, but also influence the way we perceive physical and emotional distress and the need for interventions to deal with them. Mental illness is perceived differently by various cultures, as is the ability to express certain symptoms. Emotional distress and mental health problems occur in all socio-cultural backgrounds as well as ages.

Mental illness affects the lives of so many Americans. We have made great strides as a nation to better support individuals and communities, which is why we recently celebrated the anniversary of the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. This July, in honor of National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month, let us commit to continue working together on both sides of the aisle to improve mental health care in our country by building on the success of integrated care models and innovative systems.

Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to Wendy Sherman, a fellow native Marylander and a distinguished daughter of Baltimore--and a true friend of mine--as she retires tomorrow from her position as Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of State.

As Deputy Secretary of State since the start of the Biden administration, Ms. Sherman has been entrusted with handling some of the most intractable diplomatic engagements our country has to manage. It is no wonder that one of her senior colleagues in the administration told the New York Times recently that she is the one most often deployed to have ``hard conversations in hard places.'' This included a vital meeting with her Russian counterpart in Geneva in January of 2022 where she delivered the U.S. Government's final warnings to the Kremlin about the high costs they would incur should they invade Ukraine.

Wendy's early career was built around assisting women who had been abused and people in poverty, helping them to succeed despite underprivileged circumstances. The circle of people benefiting from her sharp intelligence and good heart widened quickly over the years. Advancing from her early career as a social worker, she became the executive director of EMILY's List, an important organization for the advancement of women in American politics, to the director of Maryland's office of child welfare, and later to become the founding president of the Fannie Mae Foundation.

Along the way, Ms. Sherman also worked closely with our former colleague Senator Barbara Mikulski as her chief of staff during her time in the House of Representatives, and so she worked on many legislative issues and constituent services that were important for the people of Maryland.

Ms. Sherman later served during the Clinton administration as an Assistant Secretary and then counselor at the U.S. Department of State and then as special adviser to President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright as North Korea policy coordinator. She was instrumental in negotiations related to North Korea's nuclear weapon and ballistic missile programs. Wendy directly contributed to our country's national security, as she secured a deal in which North Korea agreed not to produce, test, or deploy missiles with a range of more than 300 miles, preventing North Korea from fielding missiles that could strike the United States.

Working closely with Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton and John Kerry, Wendy returned to the Department during the Obama administration and continued her work to further our international goals as Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, the fourth-ranking official in the U.S. Department of State, and the first women to rise to that rank.

As the lead negotiator for the Iran nuclear deal, Wendy led six arduous negotiating rounds between Iran and six world powers to reach consensus on Tehran's nuclear program. As leader of a special task force following 2012 Benghazi attack, Wendy leveraged her experience to help implement recommendations to improve protections for Foreign Service personnel, bolstering the safety and security of our diplomats serving our countries overseas. For these and many other diplomatic accomplishments requiring toughness, fortitude, and diplomatic savvy, she was awarded the National Security Medal by President Barack Obama.

Out of government, Wendy continued to work closely with Madeline Albright as vice president and senior counselor at Albright Stonebridge Group, before returning to the national security sector again in her present capacity.

Wendy has further leveraged her diplomatic experience to the benefit of academia and the nonprofit world, serving as professor of the practice of public leadership and director of the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard's Kennedy School. She was also a senior fellow at the School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. She has served on the President's Intelligence Advisory Board, as chair of the Board of Directors of Oxfam America, and on the DOD's Defense Policy Board and the Congressional Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction, Proliferation, and Terrorism. Through these diverse roles, Wendy has helped to not only shape the next generation of diplomats and foreign affairs professionals, but the future of diplomacy.

This month, Wendy Sherman retires as one of the most accomplished diplomats in American history. Wendy will be missed by me and by her wide circle of professional colleagues and admirers. I have no doubt that she will continue to impart her wisdom and experience even as she returns to the private sector.

Wendy Sherman is the embodiment of a fine public servant and a true stateswoman, by turns persuasive and toughminded as the situation calls for, inspiring future generations to follow in her footsteps. I wish her all the best for her future endeavors.

Mr. President, I rise today to speak of the importance of Holocaust education and engagement that can help us push back against the rising tide of anti-Semitism we are seeing nowadays, in our country and across the world.

As the Special Representative on Anti-Semitism, Racism and Intolerance for the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, as many of my colleagues know, I have made it a personal priority to address the rise of anti-Semitism. As anti-Semitism is increasing at home and abroad, it is important to come together to address anti-Semitism, and call out the hate when we see or hear it before it becomes more ingrained in our society.

At the same time, we should celebrate those occasions when a person with a history of making anti-Semitic statements sees the light and realizes the error of his ways, renounces his past statements, and vows never to repeat them. Happily, we have an example of just such a case that I would like to bring to the attention of Senate and the American people.

I would like to submit into the Congressional Record a noteworthy letter from Salah el Deen Soltan, a U.S. person, who wrote last month to his newest grandson, to be shared with other grandchildren, most of whom he hasn't met after a decade in wrongful detention in Egypt.

As Human Rights Watch stated in a report published on May 3, 2023, calling for Soltan to be released from his unjust imprisonment in one of Cairo's most notorious jails:

Before moving to the United States, Soltan was a professor

of Islamic Law at Cairo University. He later founded and

served as the president of the Islamic American University in

Dearborn, Michigan from 1999 to 2004. As a legal US permanent

resident, Soltan lived and worked in the US for over a decade

before his arrest in Egypt in September 2013 for opposing the

military's ousting of elected president Mohamed Morsi. A

court sentenced Soltan to life in prison in September 2017 in

a mass trial marred by extensive due process and fair trial

violations. The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary

Detention determined in 2018 that his arrest was arbitrary,

as the authorities failed to provide credible evidence of

wrongdoing, and that his prosecution violated the right to

political participation and freedoms of peaceful assembly and

expression.

In the coming weeks, Soltan will have served a full decade in Egyptian jails. During this time, he had time to reflect on his personal history of making crude and cruel anti-Semitic statements to his students and followers over the years. So he wrote a letter, that has been smuggled out of prison and delivered to his family.

In this letter, Soltan addresses his previously held anti-Semitic positions and remarks, apologizes for them and disavows them. In solitary confinement, Soltan reflects on his past, corrects the record for his grandson, and lays out how would like to be remembered in case he never gets the opportunity to meet his grandchildren.

As he writes:

My previous statements and stances are wrong and the best

of us are those who reflect, hold oneself accountable and

repent. Here I am, reflecting and seeking forgiveness from

God for the harm that may have been inflicted upon anyone. I

apologize to everyone harmed by what I said and called for. I

leave behind these prison walls all forms of anger, hate and

coarseness. I bear the burden of upholding the sanctity of

human life, speaking truth and defending it wherever it may

be. I had only intended to stand up for justice but what I

did resulted in the exact opposite of the intent; and became

a reason for further oppression, suffering and

marginalization of the innocent. In fact, my oppressors used

my decade-old stances to justify and fend off pressure from

concerned western parties about my release.

It is never too late for remorse and redemption.

In 2020, we saw several Muslim-majority Middle Eastern governments normalize diplomatic relations with Israel with the historic announcement of the Abraham Accords. And in the years since, there has been a real thawing of the hostility toward the Jewish state in some of the neighboring countries. Overcoming decades of official hostility toward the government and people of Israel, broadcast through official media outlets, and often imbued with blatant anti-Semitism, will take time. But a journey begins with a single step. And the reconciliation of the peoples of the region begins with one person.

Together, we can choose peace and forgiveness, rather than be prisoners of past differences. In that spirit and consistent with the Jewish tradition of Teshuva, in which people can see the error of their ways and vow never to repeat that which has offended the Creator, I welcome and embrace Salah Soltan's change of heart. Especially given his difficult circumstances, I find it refreshing and notable that he has taken the time and the trouble to send a heartfelt message to his grandchildren. He has accepted responsibility for his previous hateful words and is seeking forgiveness from those harmed by it.

This September, Soltan will have been imprisoned for a decade in Egyptian prisons where human rights organizations have estimated there to be over 60,000 political prisoners. Last May, more than 50 human rights organizations released a joint statement noting that Soltan is at serious risk of death due to deteriorating health conditions.

In recent weeks, Egypt has started to correct course with the release of two high-profile detainees. I urge President Sisi to extend his Presidential pardon to Soltan, so that he may leave Egypt and be reunited with his family.

I ask unanimous consent that the complete text of the letter written by Salah el Deen Soltan to his grandchildren be printed in full at this point in the Congressional Record.

Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, yesterday was the last work day for Tricia Engle, our beloved assistant Democratic secretary. Tricia is leaving the Senate after 26 years of devoted service. I would like to take this opportunity to thank her and wish her well as she embarks on the next adventure in her life.

If Tricia were a Senator, she would rank ninth in Senate seniority, in-between Senator Collins and Leader Schumer. She arrived here in July 1997, shortly after graduating from South Dakota State University. She started in the Senate as a staff assistant for her home State Senator, then-Democratic Leader Tom Daschle. Within a few months, she went to work in the Democratic cloakroom and then became a floor assistant for Leaders Daschle, Reid, and Schumer before becoming assistant secretary in 2019.

The Senate, as we all know, is not the most ``family-friendly'' institution, but Tricia has managed to raise two fine boys, William and Garrison, while working here. And she managed to earn her M.A. and M.B.A. from Johns Hopkins University Carey Business School in 2010, an extraordinary accomplishment when you consider the long hours and unpredictability of the Senate schedule.

Tricia knows Senate rules and procedure as well as anyone and has been indispensable to me and so many other Senators. Our landmark legislation such as the Affordable Care Act, COVID-19 pandemic relief, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the Inflation Reduction Act, and so many other bills have Tricia's fingerprints on them. Day after day, month after month, year after year, Tricia has been in the cloakroom, on the floor, or in the well, deftly negotiating unanimous consent agreements, figuring out how to get amendments up or cleared, and working with her Republican counterparts to help the Senate function. Through it all--from all-night votearamas to the January 6 insurrection--Tricia has been cool, calm and collected, never losing her temper even in the most heated moments, always offering the best advice any Senator or staffer could ask for with regard to Senate procedure and precedents. She is always friendly, quick to help, and reassuring.

We Senators are the focus of public attention, but there are so many staffers like Tricia who make the Senate run. They work hard and mostly anonymously, driven by a strong sense of public service and love for our country and this institution. I have said many times that our Federal workforce, which includes congressional staff, is one of our Nation's most important--and least appreciated--assets. It consists of people like Tricia. I am grateful for her wise counsel and friendship over the years. I am also grateful to her family for allowing Tricia to be part of the Senate family for the last 26 years. She leaves us universally well-liked, respected, and accomplished--a testament to her many fine qualities. Senators and staff--Republicans and Democrats-- will miss her, but she certainly has earned a respite from life here in the Senate. I know all my colleagues join me in thanking her for her extraordinary service and wishing her and her family all the best moving forward.

Mr. President, as our Nation celebrated on July 4th, our birthday, with festive block parties, in one example in Baltimore, it turned into tragic gun violence in our own backyards and across the country.

It has been a deadly summer so far, and we have only made it to the middle of July. In my home State of Maryland, in Salisbury, 14-year-old Xavier Cordei Maddox was killed and six others injured during an overnight July 4th block party.

It came just after a horrific mass shooting on July 1st at an annual block party in the South Baltimore Brooklyn neighborhood, which claimed the lives of a young man and a young woman, while injuring 28 others, many of whom are teenagers. Twenty-year-old Kylis Fagbemi died at an area hospital, and 18-year-old Aaliyah Gonzalez was pronounced dead at the scene.

Just weeks before the shooting, Gonzalez graduated from Glen Burnie High School in Anne Arundel County. Gonzalez had recently decided to enroll at Anne Arundel Community College to stay closer to her family, according to news reports. Now she is dead.

I joined Governor Wes Moore and Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott in a visit to the Brooklyn neighborhood on Independence Day. As I said at that time, this is a dark moment for our community and our country. People who shouldn't have guns have guns, and they are causing irreversible harm.

Public safety always must be our top priority. Sympathy and words are not enough. A comprehensive approach to reducing violence includes cracking down on illegal guns, many of which flow from other States into Maryland. We must also enact stricter regulations on legal gun purchases.

Mayor Scott of Baltimore summarized the need for action:

You're talking about a country where it's easier for a 14-

year-old kid to order pieces to put a gun together and go out

and use it and commit a crime than it is for me to get

Claritin D from CVS. That's what we should be talking about

every day in this country.

Maryland has been working on this. The general assembly, with Governor Moore's signature, recently enacted legislation in Annapolis to strengthen gun safety rules regarding carrying concealed weapons, restrict the carrying of firearms in sensitive locations such as schools and healthcare facilities, strengthen safe storage requirements for firearms, and raise the age from 18 to 21 to qualify for a handgun permit.

Following the Brooklyn shooting, Mayor Scott stood up a coordinated neighborhood stabilization response within the community under the auspices of the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement. This response focused on addressing trauma and stabilizing the neighborhood, in partnership with community-based organizations and city agencies.

Our Federal partners also have been working to make Baltimore safer, with a focus on reducing violent crime and the homicide rate, particularly gun crime. U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland Erek Barron recently noted that overall homicides and nonfatal shootings in Baltimore are continuing to trend down significantly. While this is little consolation to the victims of the recent shootings and their families, as of the half-year mark in 2023, homicides were down over 22 percent and nonfatal shootings were down over 12 percent.

In Congress, our Maryland delegation has worked to increase resources and investments to improve public safety in Baltimore and throughout our State. This has included direct resources to local governments, community organizations, colleges, universities, and others.

I have introduced bipartisan legislation to end cyclical violence and protect crime victims and have sponsored legislation that boosts Federal assistance for State and local witness protection programs. I continue to urge the U.S. Justice Department to provide additional resources to combat violent crime in Baltimore and throughout the State of Maryland.

It is important to understand that the horrific and seemingly endless instances of gun violence are not limited to our State. Sadly, over the July 4th holiday, there were at least 538 shootings, in which 199 people were shot and killed, and 520 were shot and wounded, across a total of 43 States and the District of Columbia. This is a national problem that must be addressed at the Federal level in conjunction with State and local measures.

President Biden is correct that we have the power to make a change and end the cycle of violence caused by guns in our society. He recently stated that ``as we have seen over the last few days, much more must be done . . . across America to address the epidemic of gun violence that is tearing our communities apart.''

When I heard that half the victims in the Brooklyn shooting were under 18 years old, it bought back memories of last summer when a masked shooter in Uvalde, TX, killed 19 children and 2 teachers.

Following that tragedy, Congress formed a bipartisan working group and within a month of the shooting passed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. President Biden signed this legislation

into law, which finally broke the decades-long gridlock on gun safety legislation. It is already making a difference with increased funding for community violence intervention and prevention initiatives, including some underway in Baltimore.

The new law strengthens protections for victims of domestic violence by adding convicted domestic violence abusers to background checks. It creates a new source of funding for States to implement ``red flag'' laws, which help to keep weapons out of the hands of dangerous individuals who should not have access to a firearm. It cracks down on criminals who try to evade licensing requirements and makes clear which gun sellers need to register, conduct background checks, and keep appropriate records. It also strengthens the background check process for those under 21 years of age seeking to buy firearms by ensuring that officials have access to juvenile and mental health records.

Importantly, in July 2022, shortly after the passing of this historic gun safety legislation, the Senate--I will acknowledge that unfortunately it was on a party-line vote--finally confirmed Steven Dettelbach to be the Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, ATF. The ATF had not had a permanent Senate- confirmed Director since 2015, due in part to lobbying by the National Rifle Association to keep this position vacant. The ATF now has a permanent leader in place who can carry out its critical mission to stem the illegal use and trafficking of firearms among other important priorities.

There is no single solution to this deadly problem. We have to attack this from all directions until our children and our neighbors stop being shot. In addition to battling the scourge of illegal weapons and changing the mindset at the community level, there has to be--we have to end the knee-jerk reaction of every disagreement trying to be settled by the use of handguns.

It is time--way past time--for Congress to pass commonsense additional legislation, such as renewing the assault weapons ban; requiring background checks for all gun sales, including unlicensed sellers; eliminating the Charleston loophole that allows for a sale to go forward if a check is not completed in 3 days; banning the importation, sale, manufacture, transfer, or possession of magazines that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition; raising the minimum age for assault weapon purchases from 18 to 21; requiring the safe storage of guns; and ending gun manufacturers' immunity from liability.

These are just a few additional examples we could do right here in the U.S. Congress and make a difference. As a community and as a Nation, we are not powerless to act. In fact, we have a responsibility to do something meaningful to save lives.

Most Americans support commonsense gun safety action. Saving lives is the right thing to do, and it should never be partisan. Gun violence affects both urban and rural communities, and daily gun violence affects both large and small communities, even when it doesn't make the headlines.

I urge my colleagues to take action now--not wait for another mass shooting--to break this ongoing cycle of violence in so many of our neighborhoods and communities.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate consider the following nominations: All nominations placed on the Secretary's desk in the Coast Guard; that the nominations be confirmed en bloc; that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate; that no further motions be in order to any of the nominations; and that the President be immediately notified of the Senate's actions.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to legislative session and be in a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.

Madam President, I have seven requests for committees to meet during today's session of the Senate. They have the approval of the Majority and Minority Leaders.

Pursuant to rule XXVI, paragraph 5(a) of the Standing Rules of the Senate, the following committees are authorized to meet during today's session of the Senate:

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 83, S. 932.

I ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.