Floor Statements

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

Finally, I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum calls for the cloture motions filed today, September 30, be waived.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate consider the following nominations en bloc: Calendar Nos. 252 and 254; that the Senate vote on the nominations en bloc without intervening action or debate; that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table; and that the President be immediately notified of the Senate's actions.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate consider the following nominations: all nominations placed on the Secretary's desk in the Air Force, Army, Marine Corps, and Navy; 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 for a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.

I understand that there is a bill at the desk, and I ask for its first reading.

I now ask for a second reading and, in order to place the bill on the calendar under the provisions of rule XIV, I object to my own request.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Finance be discharged and the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. 2231.

I further 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, with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation be discharged from further consideration of S. Res. 310 and the Senate now proceed to the en bloc consideration of the following Senate resolutions: S. Res. 310; S. Res. 390; S. Res. 391; and S. Res. 392, the Maui wildfire first responders.

I ask unanimous consent that the resolutions be agreed to, the preambles be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, all en bloc.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 393, which is at the desk.

I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. President, finally, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned under the provisions of S. 393 until 3 p.m. on Tuesday, October 3; that following the prayer and pledge, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be deemed expired, 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 proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the O'Brien nomination; further, that the cloture motions filed during today's session ripen at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

If there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask that it stand adjourned under the previous order following the remarks of Chairman Murray.

Madam President, I ask that the Senate observe a moment of silence in honor of Senator Dianne Feinstein.

(Moment of silence.)

Madam President--the first woman President pro tempore of the U.S. Senate--earlier this morning, we lost a giant in the Senate.

Senator Dianne Feinstein was one of the most amazing people whoever graced the Senate, whoever graced the country. She had so many amazing, wonderful qualities wrapped up in one incredible human being. She was smart. She was strong. She was brave. She was compassionate.

But maybe the trait that stood out most of all was her amazing integrity. Her integrity was a diamond. Her integrity shone like a beacon across the Senate and across the country for all to see and, hopefully, emulate.

Dianne Feinstein would typically say, when you asked her how was she voting on something: Let me study this issue before taking a position. Let me go home and read on it. And when she came back, if she believed the cause or the vote was right and vital to any issue she cared about, she not only voted for it, there was no stopping her in getting it done.

She would take on any force, any special interest, any opponent with relentless integrity and would wear those opponents down until she succeeded. Again, her integrity just shown through them. And she won and she won and she won and each time made the country a better place.

I saw this up close when she passed the assault weapons ban, a passion of hers after what happened to her in California. The NRA was a relentless, often mean-spirited and chauvinistic foe. They oozed vitriol against her. But they didn't scare her. They didn't stop her. And they failed against her. Like most of her opponents, they failed against her. Her perseverance, her strength, and most of all her integrity shown through.

I was privileged to carry the bill in the House after she had passed it in the Senate. She guided me every step of the way, and her strength and her integrity strengthened all of us who were fighting that uphill fight.

As we went through that bill, it became clear to me, Dianne Feinstein is not like the others. She is in a class of her own.

Of course, it wasn't just the assault weapons ban she fought her. Her accomplishments also included championing the Violence Against Women Act, protecting oversight authority during the investigation into U.S. torture, fighting for climate justice, fighting for marriage equality, fighting for reproductive justice--the list goes on and on.

As chair of the Intelligence Committee, Dianne fought for what was right. Even if it was hard and difficult and took months and years to dig in and find out what actually went wrong, she never stopped.

She took on the CIA and inserted Congress's oversight authority during the investigation into the United States' use of torture.

Through all of her accomplishments--this one and all the others--she always displayed quintessential grace and strength. None of these ``sons of guns'' against her ever rattled her.

I remember a few years back, when a particularly nasty Senator tried to put

Senator Feinstein down in a condescending--many would say--chauvinistic way. She reacted not defensively but with strength and poise and integrity. And within 3 minutes, she put this colleague in his place. By the end of it, everyone in the room, on both sides of the aisle, was smiling. That was Dianne to a tee--powerful, prepared, unflappable.

She had to be. Whenever she did something, she was often the first to do it. She was elected as the first woman president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, the first woman to serve as mayor of San Francisco, the first woman to serve as U.S. Senator for California, the first woman to chair both the Senate Rules and Intelligence Committees, the first woman member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The list goes on and on and on and on.

Our Nation will be forever thankful to Senator Feinstein for the accomplishments she fought for.

I, too, am personally indebted to Dianne, not just as a colleague-- which, of course, I am in so many ways as a colleague--but as a friend and as a father of two daughters.

Dianne's work extended far beyond the U.S. Senate floor, as she gave a voice, a platform, and a leader to women throughout the country for decades.

Dianne didn't just push down doors that were closed for women, she held them open for generations of women after her to follow her.

She gave a voice, a platform, and a model for women across the country who aspire to roles in leadership in public service who want to leave their own mark on the world, who want to make this country a better place for others.

Today, there are 25 women serving in this Chamber, and every one of them will admit they stand on Dianne's shoulders.

So Dianne's impact extended far beyond the Senate floor and far beyond politics itself.

Today, we grieve. We look at that desk, and we know what we have lost. But we also give thanks--thanks to someone so rarefied, so brave, so graceful a presence that someone like that served in this Chamber for so many years.

In closing, let me just say this: The sign of a leader is someone who dedicates the whole of their spirit for a cause greater than themselves; the sign of a hero is someone who fights for others, who endures for others no matter the cost, no matter the odds; and the sign of a friend is someone who stands by your side to fight the good fight on good days and on the bad.

Dianne Feinstein was all of this and more, a friend, a hero for so many, a leader who changed the nature of the Senate and who changed the fabric of the Nation--America--for the better.

As the Nation mourns this tremendous loss, we are comforted in knowing how many mountains Dianne moved, how many lives she impacted, how many glass ceilings she shattered along the way. America--America-- is a better place because of Senator Dianne Feinstein.

Today, I join with my colleagues in mourning our beloved friend and colleague.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, before I yield to the President pro tempore, I would like to acknowledge Dianne's daughter Katherine with Speaker Pelosi in the Gallery.

I always wave with friendship and affection to my friend, the Senator from Louisiana.

I was going to speak for a few minutes; is that OK?

Mr. President, I am going to speak on two topics; first, what is happening in my hometown of New York and then, second, what is going on over there in the House of Representatives.

As we speak, my hometown of New York is experiencing some of the most frightening rainfall and flooding we have seen since Hurricane Sandy. About a month's worth of rain has inundated Brooklyn in just a matter of

hours, and some parts of the city have experienced up to 5 inches of rain. Flash floods remain in effect from Manhattan to Queens to Brooklyn.

And we are not through the danger yet. Another powerful storm is expected over the next day, and the situation remains dangerous.

I will continue closely monitoring the otherworldly flooding we are seeing in New York.

A little while ago, I spoke to the Governor to tell her that I will do everything on the Federal level to get New York the help it needs.

Earlier today, I sent a letter to FEMA and a few minutes ago spoke to the FEMA Administrator, telling her New York needs help.

FEMA has promised me two things; one, to deal with the immediate effects of the flood, any equipment and other types of resources they need; and, second, later, to provide resources New Yorkers will need to rebuild and recover.

And here in the Senate, I will work to secure any Federal assistance possible to fund relief efforts and aid those who need to rebuild from the flood damage.

Again, I cannot stress enough that we are not through these storms just yet. Everyone please follow emergency guidance and stay safe.

Continuing Resolution

Mr. President, now on the CR and the shutdown, we stand now at the precipice of an unnecessary, reckless, and entirely Republican- manufactured shutdown.

In less than 48 hours, funding that pays the salaries of our troops for border enforcement, for TSA operations, nutrition programs, food inspections, all--all--will come to a halt.

As I have said for months, Congress has only one option to avoid a shutdown, bipartisanship. We needed bipartisanship yesterday. We need it today. We will need it tomorrow. It was true yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

But in the House, sadly, unlike the Senate, we have not seen bipartisanship. We have only seen chaos. We have only seen paralysis.

A few hours ago, Speaker McCarthy held a vote on a truly radical CR proposal everyone knew never stood a chance of passing the Senate.

And now, the House Republicans' CR has failed to even pass the House by an unexpectedly large and decisive margin, 34 votes--much more than most expected.

The Speaker has spent weeks catering to the hard right, and now he finds himself in the exact same position he has been in since the beginning: no plan forward, no closer to passing something that avoids a shutdown.

The Speaker needs to abandon his doomed mission of trying to please MAGA extremists, and, instead, he needs to work across the aisle to keep the government open.

Things seem to be getting worse for the Speaker rather than better, and it is time for him to try bipartisanship.

Here in the Senate, bipartisanship is precisely what we are pursuing by working on our CR.

Just yesterday, I am proud to say, 76 Senators voted in favor of proceeding to the CR.

I salute not only Chairman Murray, but Ranking Member Collins, and Leader McConnell, and the so many others on the other side of the aisle who joined us in moving forward.

We will continue working on the CR over the course of today and see if we can find some agreement to pass it quickly.

I note that these 76 Senators are voting in favor of proceeding to the CR even as we work through debates about the final content of the bill. That is what bipartisanship means--not that we agree on everything but that disagreements do not paralyze the process.

When the Senate finishes its work, it is imperative the House move on the Senate-passed, bipartisan CR. It will be our last chance to ensuring that a shutdown is avoided. Any more time the Speaker spends trying to cobble together hard-right wish lists that can't even pass the House would be a grievous mistake.

So to Speaker McCarthy, let me be clear. If you don't want our troops to go without pay, work in a bipartisan way. If you don't want to see border funding endangered, work in a bipartisan way. If you don't want to see seniors lose access to Meals on Wheels or cuts to nutrition for women, infants, and children or holds on small business loans, work in a bipartisan way.

At the end of the day, these MAGA extremists who are the ones responsible for bringing us to the brink fundamentally do not care about funding the government. Some of them are actually gleeful about a shutdown. Coddling the hard right is as futile as trying to nail Jell-O to a wall, and the harder the Speaker tries, the bigger mess he makes. And that mess is going to hurt the American people the most.

I hope the Speaker snaps out of the vice grip he has put himself in and stops succumbing to the 30 or so extremists who are running the show in the House.

Mr. Speaker, time has almost run out.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, today, the U.S. Senate will continue its pursuit of a bipartisan bridge CR to avoid a devastating government shutdown.

In a little over an hour, we will vote on the motion to proceed to the FAA reauthorization, which will serve as a vehicle for the CR I announced with Leader McConnell 2 days ago. Once we are on the bill, I will be introducing the substitute amendment, which will contain the legislative text of the bipartisan bridge CR, which the Appropriations Committee worked so hard on. And, again, I salute Senators Murray and Collins for the good job they have done. I will file cloture on the substitute and the underlying bill. So Members can expect to vote for cloture on Saturday, if not sooner.

Things are coming down to the wire. As I have said for months, Congress has only one option--one option--to avoid a shutdown: bipartisanship. It was true yesterday. It is true today. It will be true tomorrow.

With bipartisanship, we can responsibly fund the government and avoid the sharp and unnecessary pain for the American people and the economy that a shutdown will bring. With bipartisanship, we can speed along this process here in the Senate. We can come to an agreement on voting on amendments and allow the Senate to work its will in a timely fashion. With bipartisanship, we can make good on the deal reached earlier this summer to avoid default.

Remember--remember--bipartisan majorities agreed to funding levels back in June. The leaders of the House, the Senate, and the White House--we all shook hands on this deal, but now the Speaker and only the Speaker is going back on his word. He is the only one of the five to go back on his word. By being the only one to go back on his word, Speaker McCarthy is saying he cares more about the whims of the hard right--the hard, hard right--than avoiding a shutdown.

We cannot have that. We need bipartisanship. If he persists in partisanship, which he is doing now, by always looking over his hard- right shoulder, he will create a shutdown. Sadly, every move the Speaker has taken, since the bipartisan deal in June, has been to shred any prospects of bipartisanship. By focusing on the views of the radical few, instead of the many, Speaker McCarthy has made a shutdown far more likely.

Let me say that again. Let me say that again. By focusing on the views of the radical few, instead of the many, Speaker McCarthy has made a shutdown far more likely.

Despite the fact that many on both sides want to work together, despite the fact that, here in the Senate, we are pursuing bipartisanship, the Speaker has chosen to elevate the whims and desires of a handful of hard-right extremists and has nothing to show for it.

We saw a glaring example last night. Last night, on the floor of the House, the House voted twice, with overwhelming bipartisan majorities, to keep Ukraine funding in the House Defense appropriations bill--each time with over 330 votes, a majority of both Democratic and Republican Members. And yet, after the vote, the Republican leadership in the House subverted the will of the House by going to the Rules Committee and cut the aid to Ukraine anyway.

Can you believe that? Ten or so extremists, who don't care at all about governing, about preserving democracy or America's strength in the world, hold more sway in Speaker McCarthy's mind than the majority of his party and the vast majority of the House of Representatives, which he leads.

We need to be showing strength against Putin, not weakness. We need to be defending democracy, not abandoning our friends abroad. Speaker McCarthy is letting a small band of very extreme Members override the views of everyone else. It is the tail wagging the dog.

That is the crux of the entire shutdown message, and if Speaker McCarthy continues on his path, it will have consequences for years to come. If we are forced to abandon Ukraine by a handful of extreme people who seem to have no sense of the reality of the world, we will pay a price for years to come.

How can Speaker McCarthy let that happen? How can he let that happen?

A divided government demands compromise. By ignoring this, Speaker McCarthy is driving the country straight to a shutdown, and the longer he resists bipartisanship, the greater the damage of a shutdown will be to the American people.

It has been alarming over the last few days to listen to some of my House colleagues on the hard right talk so casually about shutting the government down. Some of them seem proud to do it. They sort of brag about it. It is incredible. They seem completely unbothered that, in a shutdown, over a million Active-Duty military members won't get their pay. A shutdown would degrade troop readiness and devastate our southern border--something our friends on the other side, who claim to care about border security, conveniently ignore. Small business would lose access to capital. Home buyers would be unable to secure loans. Our supply chains would be imperiled, and costs for American families would go up and up--all because of a needless shutdown caused by a few extremists and Speaker McCarthy's obeisance to them.

This will all become a reality, unfortunately, in less than 3 days, unless Speaker McCarthy abandons his doomed mission of succumbing to the MAGA radicals. The only way--the only way, once again--and I have to keep repeating it because maybe it will sink in over there. The only way we prevent a government shutdown is by voting on legislation that can get bipartisan support. That is what we will work on here in the Senate today.

As I have said, the bill before us later today is a bridge, not the final destination. I urge my colleagues to continue to work to advance this bipartisan bridge CR and to avoid a reckless and devastating government shutdown.

The Senate, once again, is called on to lead by example--to lead the House and the Speaker by example.

SAFER Banking Act

Mr. President, now on SAFER Banking, yesterday, the SAFER Banking Act, I am happy to say, was reported out of the Banking Committee with a good bipartisan majority of 14 to 9. The next step is to bring SAFER Banking to the floor for a vote, which I will do soon.

I worked long and hard--for years--to get us to this point, and now the Senate is one crucial step closer to helping cannabis businesses operate more efficiently, more safely, and more transparently in the States that allow cannabis to be sold.

I brought together a bipartisan coalition, with Senators Merkley and Daines, Lummis, Sinema, and Reed, and we committed to reaching a deal on the issue; and I am really proud of the bipartisan deal we produced. I also want to thank Chairman Brown and Ranking Member Scott for moving SAFER Banking through the committee. And, again, let me repeat, my other colleagues were heavily involved: Senators Lummis and Sinema and Reed and, of course, Merkley and Daines, the lead sponsors of the SAFER Banking bill.

SAFER Banking's bipartisan vote in the Banking Committee underscores how much momentum we have right now on cannabis banking and how important the issue is for so many business owners and communities across the country. No industry has the ability to thrive if its businesses can't access basic banking infrastructure, especially not an industry growing as quickly and one as new as the cannabis industry.

Congress must always be in the business of promoting entrepreneurs, promoting small businesses, and promoting job growth. SAFER Banking will do that precisely in the cannabis industry--connect cannabis businesses to resources like bank accounts and small business loans-- creating a safer and more transparent environment in which they can grow.

When I go to the floor, we will add very significant criminal justice provisions to the bill as well, and that is important as well, and I will talk more about that at a later time.

So, again, I thank my colleagues on both sides for their cooperation on this legislation. We have been working on it for years. Now is the time to get it done.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I call up my amendment No. 1292 and ask that it be reported by number.

I ask unanimous consent that the reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, I call up my amendment No. 1293 and ask that it be reported by number.

I ask unanimous consent that the reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

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 unanimous consent that the reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, I have an amendment to the instructions at the desk.

I ask to dispense with further reading of the amendment.

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

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

Finally, I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum calls for the cloture motions filed today, September 28, be waived.