Floor Statements

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 178, S. 2195.

I further ask that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 343, S. 3791.

I further ask that the committee-reported substitute amendment be agreed to.

I ask that the bill be considered read a third time.

The bill, as amended, was ordered to be engrossed for a third reading and was read the third time.

I know of no further debate on the bill, as amended.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs be discharged from further consideration and the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. 2861.

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 a correction to an appointment made on April 30, 2024, be printed in the Record.

For the information of the Senate, the correction is clerical and does not change membership of the United States-China Economic Security Review Commission made by the appointment.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned until 12 noon on Thursday, May 9; 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 use later in the day, and morning business be closed; that upon conclusion of morning business, the Senate resume consideration of Calendar No. 211, H.R. 3935.

For the information of the Senate, Senators should expect a rollcall vote on cloture on the substitute amendment to the FAA bill at approximately 1 p.m.

Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask that it stand adjourned under the previous order.

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, in 1945, Muriel Knox Doherty, of the Royal Australian Air Force Nursing Service, was assigned to the Bergen- Belsen Concentration Camp to provide relief for Holocaust survivors. She preserved her experience in hundreds of letters, which contained passages like this:

On arrival at Belsen, [the prisoners] lay in the open and

were beaten with iron bars. [The] witness' friend was in bed

3 days as a result of these beatings.

``The only reason for this treatment,'' she wrote, ``was that they were Jews.''

``The only reason for this treatment is that they were Jews.''

Yesterday, Jews around the world observed Yom HaShoah--the Holocaust Remembrance Day. I spoke at Temple Emanu-El in New York about it.

This year, Yom HaShoah comes at an especially painful moment for the Jewish people. Seven months ago, over 1,200 innocents were brutally murdered by Hamas in the worst attack against Jews since the Holocaust. In the months since, anti-Semitism has swept our country and the world in ways not seen in generations. Sadly, we see the poison of anti- Semitism amidst some of the protests happening on college campuses today.

This unprecedented rise in anti-Semitism is why I came to the Senate floor last November--to speak at length about the fear that has been growing in the hearts and minds of every Jewish person since October 7. I believe we all have an obligation to call out anti-Semitism wherever we see it arise, be it from the right or from the left.

As I forcefully said in my speech, if anti-Semitism is not repudiated, if it isn't forcefully called out whenever and wherever it arises, it will metastasize into something worse. That is what I wanted to emphasize in my speech.

So, today, I applaud President Biden for taking another strong, decisive step to fight anti-Semitism at the Federal level, with new steps aimed at fighting anti-Semitism in our communities, online, and toward Jewish students.

Among other actions, the President has directed the Department of Education to issue new guidance for college campuses to protect Jewish students and students of all backgrounds so that our universities remain safe havens to learn and grow.

When a Jewish student cannot walk through their quad without fear of harassment or ridicule or something far worse, we have a duty to respond. When swastikas are spray-painted on Jewish gravestones and bomb threats are made against synagogues, it demands action from the government to keep people safe. If ``never again'' is to have any meaning, all of us must own the duty of combating anti-Semitism together at every level of society.

Here in the Senate, I will continue to work with Democrats and Republicans

to protect Jewish synagogues, schools, and organizations of all kinds from violence and hate. It is why I fought to increase funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Fund Program, which provides money for synagogues and shuls and schools and other nonprofit religious organizations, whether they be Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, or anything else, to protect themselves against vandalism and violence and all forms of hate.

As I said in my speech on the floor last November, the best way we can work together against anti-Semitism is to preserve the history of the Jewish experience, to tell the truth about the horrors that took place 80 years ago. Only then can we truly honor the memories of the innocent dead. Only then we can be sure that ``the torturer never tortures again.''

Now, Mr. President, on the border, precisely 3 months ago, something truly stunning happened here on the Senate floor: Senate Republicans filibustered the strongest, most comprehensive border security bill Congress has seen in a generation. They did it for one reason only: Donald Trump--hell-bent on using the border for political gain--told them to do so.

The situation at the border is unacceptable. Everyone knows that. Senate Democrats know it, the President knows it, and the American people know it too. So, a few months ago, as Senators worked on the supplemental, Democrats tried to find a long-sought solution to America's broken immigration system. Again, Democrats have made clear the situation at the border is unacceptable. That is why, for months, we sat down with Republicans to craft the strongest border security bill in a generation, endorsed by the Border Patrol union--very conservative.

I salute Senators Murphy and Sinema and Lankford for working so hard on that bill. But Donald Trump told Republicans to kill the bill because--and he was explicit--he wants to exploit the chaos at the border for political gain.

He even said:

Please blame it on me.

He explicitly took credit for this tough border bill to go down, a bill that the Wall Street Journal's editorial page called ``a border bill worth passing''--they are hardly leftwing liberals--that the Chamber of Commerce said was a ``commonsense measure''; and which the President of the National Border Patrol Council called ``far better than the status quo.''

You would think, given the chance to pass the strongest border bill in decades, that Republicans would have pounced at the opportunity. After all, how many times have we heard our Republican colleagues give speeches here on the floor about the emergency at the border? How many times have we heard Republicans say, year after year, that Congress must act? How many times have we seen Republicans take field trips down to the border, taking pictures with the fence towering behind them, while bemoaning that the problem is only getting worse?

Apparently, that was all for show--all for show--because precisely 3 months ago, right here on the floor, Senate Republicans, in obeisance to Donald Trump--and I believe many of them knew he was wrong--but Senate Republicans on the Senate floor killed the best chance--the best chance--we have seen in decades to provide a solution to the border.

It is pretty simple: Republicans can't say that the border is an emergency but then refuse to take action. Republicans cannot claim to care about fixing asylum but then block the biggest changes to asylum law in decades. Republicans cannot claim to care about our Border Patrol agents but then deprive them of the very tools and funding the Border Patrol has been asking for.

Our Republican colleagues may have given up on taking real action on the border, but Democrats have not. Democrats will make it clear which party is working to fix our broken border and which party is conspiring to make the border worse.

We will challenge our Republican colleagues to join us once again on the border reforms Americans demand to stop the flow of fentanyl, to improve asylum and vetting, and to ensure our border agents have the tools that they need.

Mr. President, on the FAA, this week, the Senate will continue working on the FAA reauthorization. The deadline is 3 days away. It is going to take a lot of cooperation to get this complicated bill done. Thankfully, we have made some good progress over the last few days on germane amendments, and we hope to finish our work in time for the House to act on our bill.

I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to prioritize reaching an outcome so we prevent slipping past the deadline.

I move to table the pending motion to commit with amendment.

I move to table pending substitute amendment No. 1292.

I call up substitute amendment No. 1911, as modified.

I ask to dispense with further reading of the amendment.

I ask for the yeas and nays.

I have an amendment at the desk.

I ask to dispense with further reading of the amendment.

I move to commit H.R. 3935 to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation with instructions to report back forthwith with an amendment.

I ask to dispense with further reading.

I ask for the yeas and nays.

I have an amendment to the instructions at the desk.

I ask to dispense with further reading of the amendment.

I ask for the yeas and nays.

I have a second-degree amendment at the desk.

I ask to dispense with further reading of the amendment.

I send a cloture motion to the substitute to the desk.

I send a cloture motion to H.R. 3935 to the desk.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that at a time to be determined by the majority leader, in consultation with the Republican leader, the Senate proceed to executive session to consider the following nominations: Calendar No. 572 and Calendar No. 573; that there be 2 minutes for debate equally divided in the usual form on each nomination; that upon the use or yielding back of time, the Senate vote without intervening action or debate on the nominations; 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; that the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action and the Senate then resume legislative session.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned until 10 a.m. on Wednesday, May 8; 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; that upon the conclusion of morning business, the Senate resume consideration of Calendar No. 211, H.R. 3935; further, that the Senate recess from 1 p.m. until 2:15 to allow for the weekly caucus meetings.

Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask that it stand adjourned under the previous order.

Mr. President, after spending decades pushing for a national abortion ban, packing our courts with rightwing, extreme judges, and annihilating Roe v. Wade, hard-right Republicans have created a race to the bottom when it comes to reproductive rights.

This week, Florida outlawed abortion after just 6 weeks, before many women even know they are pregnant. The Arizona Supreme Court recently upheld a Civil War-era law from 1864 banning abortion almost entirely, without exception for rape or incest. And 19 other States across America now have near-total bans or severe restrictions on abortions, beyond the standards set by Roe.

Let's not forget how we got here, because the extreme abortion bans in Florida and Arizona didn't happen in a vacuum. They are the result of MAGA Republicans' decades-long campaign to annihilate Roe and plunge our country into chaos. Remember, Donald Trump boasted he was ``proudly the person responsible''--those are his words--for the disastrous decision to end Roe.

The extreme abortion bans are also a direct consequence of the Senate Republican agenda to install rightwing, anti-abortion judges at every level of the Federal court system, including the hard-right Supreme Court Justices who voted to end Roe. Remember, most of the same Republicans are on record supporting a national abortion ban.

The bottom line is that the extreme abortion bans are a direct consequence of Republicans getting into power. That is precisely what Republicans will do, given the chance to govern. They will try to take us back to 1864, with draconian abortion bans and attacks on Americans' personal freedoms.

And, make no mistake, Republicans in Arizona will have to answer for their anti-abortion record in November. Republicans in Florida will have to answer for their anti-abortion record in November. Republicans across America will still have to answer for their anti-abortion record in November.

Federal Aviation Administration Authorization

Mr. President, on the FAA, today, the Senate will continue to move forward on FAA reauthorization. We just have 8 days to go before the current FAA authorization expires. So it will take bipartisan cooperation to get this done before the deadline.

Both parties have every reason in the world to get FAA done as quickly as possible and as smoothly as possible to keep our skies safe, our airports safe, and our Federal employees taken care of. I hope the Senate can come together to get this important legislation finished.

Federal Judiciary

Mr. President, on judge shopping, the central principle of America's justice system can be boiled down to four words we all know so well: ``equal justice under law.'' When you go to court, a judge's personal preferences should make no difference in the outcome.

But, recently, the hard right has turned ``equal justice under law'' on its head with the gross practice of judge shopping. Ideologues from across the country bring their cases to courts of their choosing, to pick and choose judges they know are friendly to their cause. Judge shopping is how the hard right successfully revoked the FDA approval of mifepristone nationwide a year ago.

Yesterday, MAGA Republicans took aim at President Biden's new background check rules by flocking yet again to their favorite MAGA judge in the country, Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in the Northern District of Texas. Judge Kacsmaryk has not even been a judge for 5 years--not for 5 years--and already he has heard cases with nationwide implications on things like reproductive care and Federal LGBTQ protections and the ACA. There is a very clear reason why this single Texas judge hears so many controversial cases. He is a living, breathing rubberstamp for the hard-right agenda, and MAGA extremists know he is friendly to their cause.

As I said before, and I will say it again, judge shopping jaundices our legal system like few other abuses do. Picking and choosing a judge to get a predetermined outcome is the definition of unfairness, and Congress should fix this abuse with appropriate legislation. Even the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, hardly a liberal, has acknowledged that judge shopping is a problem that ought to be addressed.

A few weeks ago, I led a group of 40 Senators introducing a bill that would curtail judge shopping and restore fairness to the judicial system. I would hope both sides can work together on this bill to make sure nobody gets an unfair advantage in a court of law, simply based on a judge's personal preferences.

Some of my colleagues on the other side have suggested that Congress shouldn't do anything to improve how our courts work. That is plainly ridiculous. When the Federal judiciary is being exploited by practices like judge shopping, it is both proper and appropriate for Congress to exercise its oversight authority.

Congress has clear authority under the Constitution to exercise oversight of the courts. So we will continue weighing legislative options to ensure that the Federal judiciary is committed to equal justice under law.

Farm Bill

Mr. President, on the farm bill, again, I would like to applaud my good friend and colleague Chairwoman Stabenow of the Agriculture Committee, who yesterday released the substance of her farm bill.

Chair Stabenow's farm bill supports our farmers, feeds our families, and bolsters our rural communities. By focusing on bipartisanship, rather than playing partisan games with our farmers and families like House Republicans, the bill she put together, the Rural Prosperity and Food Security Act, holds the broad coalition needed to pass the farm bill. I am proud of the chairwoman's dogged work on this legislation.

The bill includes more than 100 bipartisan priority pieces of legislation, from improving rural healthcare and education to foreign ownership of farm land. It ensures that SNAP reflects the reality of how Americans buy and prepare food and keeps kids fed by making significant investments to end childhood hunger. And it defends the historic climate-smart agricultural investments that I fought so hard to secure on the Inflation Reduction Act last summer.

We all know that about 10 percent of the carbon that is emitted into the atmosphere comes from agriculture, and the bill does a good job by reducing that amount, but still making sure farmers, particularly small farmers, don't pay the price.

Tribute to Mike Kuiken

Finally, Mr. President, I want to close my remarks with one of my least favorite words, but one which I say with immense gratitude: Farewell.

I am sad, grateful, verklempt, happy, moved--all of the above--to pay tribute this morning to one of the best staffers I have ever had, Mike Kuiken, my national security adviser for over 5 years.

He has been an invaluable adviser, an extremely gifted thinker, and a straight shooter for all the years he has been part of my team. I want to say thank you.

Members from around the Senate, Democrats and Republicans alike, have come to rely on his knowledge and his judgment. And, in many ways, he has made the world a better and safer place--made America a better and safer place--by his dedication to this field, to intelligence, and to the military. He has done a great job.

I will so badly miss him. But like when many of my staffers leave when they are going on to bigger and better things, I rejoice, as well. So it is with mixed emotions that I say goodbye to Mike, and an enormous thank you from me, the people of New York, and the people of America for being so strong and firm in protecting America's interests with balance, with care, with intelligence.

Mike leaves the Senate with a legacy he can truly be proud of. If he did nothing else in his life, he can rest assured--he will do plenty more, I know--but he can rest assured that he has been a great, great contributor to this society. He has been on the forefront of every major national security event America has experienced in two decades.

He joined Carl Levin's staff a few months before 9/11 and played a hand in legislation protecting our troops during deployment in the Middle East, expanding sanctions against Iran, responding to the Arab Spring, strengthening counterterrorism efforts, resisting Russian interference in the 2016 elections, outcompeting the Chinese Government, and so much more. Whether in a war zone or inside the SCIF, where he spends a lot of time learning all about classified information, he has been invaluable.

Without Mike, I can say we would never have gotten the Chips and Science Act done. He--with several other of my staffers--was there shepherding this bill, all the way back to the days when I first called it the Endless Frontier Act.

Without Mike, we wouldn't have gotten the NDAA done for so many years. Without Mike, we would be nowhere in preparing for the future of AI in the sphere of national security.

So, for sure, as I said, he can be really proud of what he has done.

Anyone who knows him well knows all these incredible things are secondary to what matters most to him: his two kids. The number of times I called him and he was at a swim meet or track meet or some event for one of his kids, just reveling in their successes, I can't count. He is always there. His wife Emily and his children, I am sure, are excited they will be able to see a little more of him around the House, at least for now.

Mike, thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you so much, and my best wishes on the road ahead. You will always have a place here in the Senate and in what we call the ``Schumer family.'' You are part of our family and always will be.

He is not here. He is probably in the SCIF or in a swim meet for one of his kids.

I yield the floor.

Recognition of the Minority Leader