Floor Statements

Mr. President, just a few years ago, it would have been unthinkable--unimaginable, even--that access to a safe and widely used reproductive service like IVF would be put at risk. But, sadly, after frightening decisions like the one from Alabama, not even IVF is safe in the aftermath of Roe.

Today, women and families across America are rightfully worried that this basic service could be jeopardized, leaving them without an avenue to start a family. So, this week, the Senate will act to put these worries to rest and to protect the reproductive freedoms of Americans through legislation.

Tomorrow, the Senate will vote on the Right to IVF Act, led by Senators Duckworth, Murray, and Booker. This legislation is simple. It establishes a nationwide right to IVF and eliminates barriers for the millions of families looking to use IVF to start and grow a family.

Protecting IVF should be the definition of an easy vote for Senators on both sides of the aisle. Nearly everyone knows someone who used IVF to start a family.

I have seen it with my own family. One of my grandkids was conceived with the help of IVF, and we are grateful we have had access to this service to grow our family.

My family's story is not unique at all. Millions and millions of Americans across the country have the joy of children, thanks to IVF.

I will be meeting today with a few families and advocates from New York who have benefited from IVF. That is why the vast majority of Americans--86 percent--support IVF, and only 14 percent oppose it.

So despite some claims from my colleagues on the other side, protecting IVF is not a show vote at all; it is a ``show us who you are'' vote.

This will be a chance for Senators on both sides to show their support for strengthening treatments for people to start families. Surely--surely--the opportunity to start a family is something that all Senators can and should agree on.

Mr. President, I ask consent to speak for 3 minutes.

Mr. President, I come to the floor this morning sick to my stomach and profoundly disturbed

by pictures that were shared with me this morning of yet another anti- Semitic act in New York.

A few hours ago, the director of the Brooklyn Museum and several members of the board of directors had their homes vandalized with revolting anti-Semitic images, with images of fake blood, symbolism used by Hamas. I have a picture of some of the vandalism right here outside the home of one of the directors.

This is not New York. This is not America. And we must confront this bigotry and vicious intolerance with courage, with perseverance.

Every single American needs to see this. This is the home of a woman on the board of directors. It has her name. It says ``Brooklyn Museum,'' and then it says ``White Supremacist Zionist.'' And her home is smeared with blood.

Every single American needs to see these pictures. This is the face of hatred--Jewish Americans made to feel unsafe in their own home just because they are Jewish.

This is not even close to free speech. It is intimidation. It is scapegoating. It is dehumanization--invasive attacks loaded with the threat of looming violence. It is vile. It is nasty. It is un-American.

And, sadly, this kind of evil is something every Jew on Earth can recognize in an instant. Images like this remind us of evils our families endured for generations, evils that paved the way for unimaginable violence.

I cannot believe we are seeing this here in America, here in New York. Targeting someone for simply being Jewish, smearing their front door with fake blood, and calling them White supremacist is beyond the pale. Vandalism like this is a crime and should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

And it sickens me that, of all the targets these anti-Semites could have chosen, it was the leadership of the Brooklyn Museum. The Brooklyn Museum is deeply concerned with issues of social justice--I would say, more than most museums. Its doors are always open to all.

I have visited the Brooklyn Museum many times with my children and my grandchildren. I have spoken at their great ``First Saturday'' events. I have even voted there.

The best antidote for the poison of ignorance is, of course, knowledge, and that is precisely what we find in our museums-- knowledge.

These images break my heart. They fill me with both deep grief and profound anger. I condemn the actions of those who smeared these hateful images of the leadership of the Brooklyn Museum. The perpetrators must be held accountable for this hateful vandalism. These hateful actions--make no mistake about it--do nothing, nothing at all, to advance the cause these individuals profess to care about.

Again, this is not New York. This is not America. And we must confront this intolerance and bigotry with courage, with perseverance, and with common cause with all those who wish to promote tolerance and acceptance here in America.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, I have 16 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, last Friday, I had the opportunity to visit the Nova exhibit in New York City, downtown on Wall Street.

The exhibit documents what happened on October 7. Thousands of beautiful young people gathered, as the Sun was setting, at a music festival. When you go into the exhibit, the first thing you see is thousands of young people dancing, embracing each other, and as happy as can be--young people, beautiful, in the prime of their lives, the Sun shining on them as it was setting--only to realize what had happened.

The rest of the exhibit documents the brutal murder of these young people--innocent, happy, young people with so much of their lives in front of them. We see vicious Hamas terrorists machine-gunning, brutalizing, and we hear interviews that are done by the families and those who were there.

So it was a wrenching experience, the contrast--this exhibit was so well done--of those beautiful young people, happily enjoying life and then knowing that hundreds of them would be slain brutally and scores of them would be kidnapped by terrorists, running away in fear.

What was even worse--or at least adding salt into the wound--was that just a day or two after I visited the exhibit, protesters gathered outside the exhibit, chanting repugnant anti-Semitic phrases, donning banners that read: ``Long Live October 7th,'' and ``The Zionists are not Jews and not humans.'' How low can you go?

Having visited the exhibit and seeing those young people, then knowing and seeing on film what happened to them at the vicious hands of Hamas, and then having people come outside and protest and say ``Long Live October 7th''; ``The Zionists are not Jews and not humans''--how repugnant, how despicable, how terribly unnerving that humanity could sink that low.

It is the lowest of low for anyone to protest an exhibit dedicated to honoring the memory of precious lives that were brutally murdered by Hamas. It is sick that anyone should show up at an exhibit like this to protest.

The protest and the vitriolic rhetoric outside the Nova exhibit were nothing short of despicable, inhumane, and anti-Semitic. Anti-Semitism, like what occurred outside the Nova Music Festival Exhibition, has no place in our city, in our State, or in America.

Now, Mr. President, it has been 2 years since Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans succeeded in eliminating Roe, ripping away the right to choose and jeopardizing reproductive care for millions upon millions of women.

Today, women and families across America are worried about more than Roe's demise. They are worried about what comes next, including the erosion of reproductive freedoms nobody thought were at risk. This includes access to services like IVF.

Eighty-six percent of Americans support IVF. But in the aftermath of Roe and after frightening decisions like the one from Alabama, many families fear that this basic service cannot be taken for granted.

That is not theoretical. Here in Congress, some on the hard right are already trying to restrict IVF access. The Senate can ease people's worries and protect their freedoms through legislation.

This week, the Senate will vote on the Right to IVF Act, led by my colleagues Senators Duckworth, Murray, and Booker. The Right to IVF Act establishes a nationwide right to IVF and eliminates barriers for millions of families looking to use IVF to start and grow a family.

Protecting IVF should be one of the easiest votes the Senate has taken all year. The vast majority of Senators should agree that strengthening treatments that help people start a family is a good thing.

In fact, I have seen personally the immense good IVF can do. I have seen it in my own family. One of my grandkids was conceived with the help of IVF treatment, and we are immensely grateful we had access to this service. I can't imagine what we would have done if they had told us: Sorry, we are no longer offering this treatment. Thank God we never had to deal with that.

My family's story can be repeated over and over and over again in the country, millions of times. Millions of Americans have the joy of children, thanks to IVF.

So in no way, shape, or form is protecting IVF a show vote. It is a ``show us who you are'' vote. Remember what some Senators said when we first pushed marriage equality 2 years ago. They called that a ``show vote,'' ``gimmicky,'' and a ``waste.'' And, lo and behold, after a lot of hard work, enough Senators on both sides worked together, and marriage equality became a law. That bill certainly wasn't a show vote, and neither is this one.

So let me say this again: 86 percent of Americans support protecting IVF, and just 14 percent of Americans say it shouldn't be legal.

Supporting this bill should be a no-brainer here in the Senate, and it is all the more urgent, given what House Republican extremists are doing right now to attack women's healthcare through the appropriations process.

Just last week, the hard right stuffed the VA funding bill with poison pills that would rip away reproductive care for our veterans.

And let's not forget, 3 months ago, the Republicans Study Committee, which includes 80 percent of House Republicans--an overwhelming majority of them--pushed a radical new agenda that would endanger IVF treatment, along with a national abortion ban with zero exceptions for rape and incest--80 percent of House Republicans, an abortion ban with no exceptions for rape or incest. That is how far right that group has become on this issue. What a nasty and awful and out-of-touch message to send to the American people.

Instead of pushing policies that the vast majority of Americans support, House Republicans continue to focus only on their most extreme constituencies.

Here in the Senate, we should choose a different path, one where we show the American people that we protect the rights they care about. And this IVF bill would be a good way to do that.

Mr. President, on the FERC nominations, this week, the Senate has several important nominees to confirm to one of the most important Agencies, with a daunting-sounding name: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

FERC, as it is usually called, rarely shows up on people's radar screens, but its mission is essential. Every time you turn on the light or touch the thermostat or see new powerlines go up, the rules and regulations and policies of FERC are at work. FERC ensures the rates of electricity remain just and reasonable. That is their job, to do that. It regulates the transmission of power across State lines. It ensures our power grid is safe and reliable.

But if the Senate does not act soon, FERC could soon lose its quorum, and much of its work could come to a halt. If these vacancies go on for too long, it would create serious backlog and delay, potentially slowing down new projects that power people's homes and cities.

So I am glad to move forward on three new FERC nominations here on the Senate floor. I hope we can confirm all three by the end of the week so FERC can keep its quorum and continue its mission of providing Americans with affordable, reliable, and safe energy.

I thank Chairman Manchin and Ranking Member Barrasso for working together in a bipartisan way and in good faith to bring these nominees through.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum call with respect to the Rosner cloture motion be waived.

I yield the floor.

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

Pursuant 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, let me begin with a disturbing statistic. According to a recent poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation, one in five U.S. adults worries that the right to contraception is under threat-- one in five U.S. adults. That is more people than live in Florida or Texas or California. In the same poll, less than half of the adults said they felt the right to use birth control was secure.

Americans' uncertainty about using birth control is one of the many shameful consequences of overturning Roe v. Wade. This is the mess Donald Trump, the MAGA Supreme Court, and the Republican-led Senate has created.

Today, we live in a country where not only tens of millions of women have been robbed of their reproductive freedoms, we also live in a country where tens of millions more worry about something as basic as birth control. That is utterly medieval. It is sickening. It should never happen here in the United States. But because of Donald Trump and the hard right, it is reality.

Today, the Senate has the chance to protect reproductive rights by advancing the Right to Contraception Act. I thank my good friends Senators Hirono and Markey for championing this bill. I thank every Senator and every advocate and every concerned citizen who has raised their voice supporting this bill.

In a perfect world, a bill saying you can access birth control without government interference should not be necessary, but given the erosion of reproductive rights in America, today, it is absolutely vital. So I will be proud to vote yes today. I urge all my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to do the same.

Sometimes the right answer is the obvious one. If Republicans truly support protecting access to birth control, then they should vote yes on moving this bill forward.

Now, we have heard a number of very anxious arguments from the other side against moving forward on the Right to Contraception Act. We have heard that it radically expands access to

abortion. We have been told it stomps all over religious liberties. We have heard that this issue is much ado about nothing. At best, these retorts are feeble and predictable, and at worst, they are dangerous. So let's set the record straight.

To those who claim the Right to Contraception Act undermines religious liberties, if anything, the opposite is true. This bill absolutely protects religious liberties. There is nothing in the text forcing anyone to provide contraception if it contradicts their own beliefs. Should this bill pass, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act would remain the law of the land.

To those who say outlandishly that this bill expands abortion access, that is false, full stop. I invite Americans to read this bill for themselves. There is nothing--nothing--in this bill about abortion. To suggest this bill expands abortion is vulgar fearmongering, plain and simple.

The reason we hear these claims is because Republican colleagues don't want to say the quiet part out loud: The GOP, the Republican Party here in the Senate, has been totally captured by the radical MAGA right, which is totally opposed to protecting reproductive rights, even birth control, which, of course, 90 percent of Americans support.

Make no mistake, if Republicans get into power, the MAGA right will push for a national abortion ban and the total elimination of reproductive care.

Finally, of course, there is the more devious claim that the Right to Contraception Act is much ado about nothing, that it is unnecessary, that birth control could never possibly fall under risk. Well, remember, people said the same thing about Roe--that it could never be overturned--and then tragically, unfortunately, it was because Donald Trump and the Republican Senate filled the Supreme Court with MAGA radicals who followed through with the hard right's goal of eliminating freedom of choice.

And who knows how far the hard right will go. A few years ago, it was Roe. A few years from now, it could be something else. Justice Thomas himself opened the door to undoing protections for birth control in his dissenting opinion in Dobbs. We are kidding ourselves if we think the hard right is done with their attacks on reproductive rights.

Let's be perfectly clear: Attacks against birth control aren't theoretical bugaboos; it is already happening at the State level.

To those who argue Federal protections for birth controls are unnecessary, go ask the people of Virginia what they think after their Republican Governor vetoed--vetoed--a bill that would have protected contraceptives at the State level. Go ask the people of Nevada what they think after their Republican Governor also vetoed a bill to protect access to birth control.

To those who say birth control will never fall at risk, go ask the people of Arizona or Florida or Idaho or Iowa or Missouri. In each of these States, Republican Governors or Republican State legislators are on record blocking protections for birth control access in one form or another.

So let there be no mistake: In the aftermath after Roe's demise, the threat to birth control is very, very real, and that is why it is so important for the Senate to act.

This is a simple bill and a simple vote. If you believe all women deserve to have contraception, then you should vote for this bill. That is all there is to it.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Madam President, today, every Senator must take a stand: If you agree all Americans deserve access to contraception, then vote yes on the Right to Contraception Act.

This bill simply says that if you want to access birth control or if you are a healthcare provider wanting to prescribe birth control, the government has no right to interfere. This is not a show vote; it is a ``show us who you are'' vote. And the American people are watching.

Up to 90 percent of Americans support access to contraceptives, but today one in five adults are worried that birth control is under threat. This is just one of the consequences of overturning Roe, so we have every reason in the world to vote yes today.

We should all agree that in America nobody should ever question if their ability to access contraceptives will be taken away. Sadly, that is precisely the fear more and more people feel today. Passing this bill will put those fears to rest and protect people's basic civil liberties.

So, again, it is all very simple: If you agree all Americans deserve to have access to contraception, then you should support the bill.

Thank you to Senators Markey, Hirono, and others for championing this legislation, and let us all vote yes.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum call, with respect to the cloture vote on the motion to proceed, be waived.

I ask unanimous consent that the vote begin now.

Madam President, I enter a motion to reconsider the failed cloture vote.

Just so the public should know, I switched my vote so we might reconsider and possibly vote on this again.

Madam President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 669.

Madam President, I send a cloture motion to the desk.

Madam President, I move to proceed to legislative session.

Madam President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 670.