Floor Statements

I will be very brief. I wanted to come to the floor to thank all of my colleagues for coming to the floor and talking about this issue. Our Democratic caucus has been persistent champions in the fight to lower drug costs for Americans.

I want to thank Senator Klobuchar, who has been such a leader on this issue, for calling us together tonight.

It was said year after year, decade after decade: They are never going to take on the big drug companies. They are never going to get those high costs--in some cases, outrageously high costs--down.

But last summer, we did, and we won. Now millions of Americans are seeing their drug costs go down as the Inflation Reduction Act goes into effect. The 10 prescription drugs which my colleagues have talked about are not drugs used by a rare few but are used by millions that affect so many different illnesses, and they will treat things like diabetes and heart failure and cancer and kidney disease and blood clots and more.

The pain you feel when you talk to a parent who says: My child has been diagnosed with cancer, but it costs $1,000

a month for the drug, and I can't afford it. What am I going to do?

What pain. Well, that pain is going to be greatly reduced in hundreds of thousands of cases now that we have done this.

We are not stopping. We are going to keep going. It is a huge deal. We are capping the price of insulin at $35. We did it for seniors on Medicare, and now we are going to fight to get it for everybody else. The Presiding Officer is helping to lead that charge. The cost of all drugs, which once was unlimited, will start at $3,000 a year in January and go to $2,000 in 2025.

The No. 1 thing our constituents are asking about is high costs. The No. 1 thing that bugs them about the government is that no one seems to get a handle on those high costs. Well, this is a shining example where we are reducing their costs by taking on the special interests. We are not stopping here.

I yield the floor and thank my colleagues for being here.

Mr. President, there is one day of the year that for me will always embody what is most admirable and most enduring about the human spirit, and that day is today.

Twenty-two years after the towers fell in New York, after a plane crashed into the Pentagon, after United No. 93 came down in Pennsylvania, we pay our respects to those we lost on September 11. We mourn their loss--every last soul taken from us too early. We honor and thank every single American who became an unassuming hero in the aftermath of the attack: the first responders, the legions of volunteers and blood donors, the nameless many who did their part.

I will never forget so many scenes. One of them was a guy who owned a shoe store a few blocks north of the World Trade Center, who was just handing out shoes to everybody because many people had lost their shoes as they tried to escape from the towers. But there were so many different things.

Everywhere I go, I always wear this pin on my lapel as a reminder of our

sacred promise to never forget. I called on Americans the day after to wear and display the flag. Just about everybody did as a sign of unity, of our coming together after an awful day. I wear it every day, and every time I look at this flag, I think about so many who were lost.

I was at Ground Zero this morning. I mean, you just hear the names that were read, those of every different background. They had people come up who had lost loved ones of every different background, of every different philosophy, race, creed, color, religion, origin, talking about the people they had lost.

I remember, when I went down the day after when President Bush sent a plane for then-Senator Clinton and me to come up, there were 1,000 people on line, holding up little signs--``Have you seen my brother, Bill?'' ``Have you seen my daughter, Mary?''--because when people were missing that first day, people had hoped and prayed that maybe they were still alive, but, of course, very few were.

So a lifetime can pass, but, to me, it always feels like yesterday. I look out my window, and I see the Freedom Tower--a symbol of resilience in New York--and I can see it from my window in Brooklyn, but I also think of the Twin Towers that were there and of so many who were lost.

I remember that day: the smell of the pile, human flesh; the noise from the chaos of the aftermath; the images of destruction that New Yorkers and Americans had never seen. I remember three friends of mine who perished--a guy I played basketball with in high school, a businessman who helped me on the way up, and a firefighter I went around New York City and did blood drives with. They are gone 22 years ago.

But most of all, that day stays with me because on that day and on the days that followed, I saw countless ordinary Americans do extraordinary things. Taxi drivers and store managers and businessmen and city workers and so many others dropped what they were doing and became heroes. They gave blood, organized prayer vigils, helped neighbors track down family members, and visited with loved ones and friends who had lost loved ones. I saw firefighters and policemen and union workers and rescue workers cast aside any concern for their own safety as they worked the pile. Many of them--far too many--became sick and even died because of their illnesses.

Our obligation to care for these first responders continues to this day. It is why I worked hard, along with Senator Gillibrand, to add $450 million for the World Trade Center Health Program to the NDAA. It is why I fought and successfully added another $1 billion for that program in last year's omnibus as well as the Fairness for 9/11 Families Act. And it is why, last summer, Congress enacted the largest expansion of veterans' health benefits in the PACT Act, because we learned what these carcinogens could do to people whether it was over in Iraq or down in the pile in Lower New York--because the phrase ``never forget'' is not just about remembering what happened two decades ago; it is all about taking action today to honor and care for all of those who made ultimate sacrifices in the defense of our beautiful Nation.

So may God bless the memories of all of those who perished on 9/11. May God bless our first responders, our servicemembers, and their families. May God bless our great democracy, and may we keep it.

Mr. President, on the AI Insight Forum this Wednesday, I will join with Senators Rounds, Young, and Heinrich in hosting one of the most important meetings Congress has held in years as we welcome the top minds in AI for the Senate's first-ever AI Insight Forum.

Our inaugural forum will convene leaders from business, civil rights, defense, research, labor, the arts, and more--all for a candid debate about how Congress can tackle AI's opportunities and AI's challenges. These forums will provide the nutrient agar--the basis of knowledge and insight--essential for our committees to draft smart and effective legislation.

Wednesday's inaugural forum can be boiled down to three words: bipartisan, diverse, and above all, balanced. We will have AI advocates and critics, CEOs and unions, leading experts and researchers all together in one room, talking about where Congress should start, what questions to ask, and how to build a consensus for SAFE innovation. We will need every sector of the workforce, every side of the political spectrum, all part of the process if we are to succeed. I am proud that the participants for the first forum achieve that balance really well.

That is what any action on AI must be, balanced and bipartisan-- balanced in a way that gives everyone a seat at the table and prioritizes both innovation, the kind of transformational innovation that AI can bring, whether it is curing disease or improving education or making businesses more efficient or protecting our security. But there is also innovation in keeping guardrails, the kind of essential innovation that is needed to prevent AI from going off track, and we might lose it all--and bipartisan because if AI becomes a partisan issue, it will paralyze any chance for progress. So I am glad that the Senate's interest in AI has been decidedly bipartisan.

As I said, these forums will be vital for helping our committees do the real legislative work of drafting AI policy. They will provide the nutrient agar to help the committees draft smart, effective legislation.

The good news is that many of the committees are already hard at work on this issue in a truly bipartisan way. I believe our hearing has increased the interest of committees to do work here, but it has also made it clear that we cannot run away from this issue and put our heads in the sand like ostriches even though the issue is so difficult and changing and wide-reaching. I want to thank Senators Rounds, Heinrich, and Young, as well as committee chairs and ranking members, for their work thus far on AI.

Our subcommittees and committees have already held no fewer than nine hearings on AI this year on issues like national security, intellectual property, human rights, and more. This week, the Commerce Committee, the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and the Judiciary Committee are scheduled to hold more hearings on AI transparency and oversight, which is just what our insight forums are intended to promote.

I am hopeful that our AI Insight Forums will supercharge the work already happening in the Senate by bringing outside voices to give their insights, their expertise, and their perspectives on how Congress can best proceed.

So, once again, I thank Senators Rounds, Heinrich, and Young for helping to organize this inaugural forum, and I encourage all Senators to attend our forum on Wednesday.

Mr. President, yesterday, Appropriations Chair Patty Murray and Vice Chair Susan Collins announced they are ready to move ahead with the first three appropriations bills here on the Senate floor: MILCON-VA, Agriculture, and Transportation HUD.

This is extremely good news for what has already been a fruitful and bipartisan Senate appropriations process. Chair and Vice Chair Murray and Collins have done an outstanding job negotiating this difficult work, so I thank them, as well as my other colleagues, particularly those on Appropriations, on both sides of the aisle.

To keep the bipartisan momentum alive, I will file cloture on this package today, with a plan to hold our first vote early next week. The Senate appropriations process is a lesson in how governing should work. All 12 appropriations bills have been passed with bipartisan support through regular order. Nine of them were either unanimous or just had one ``no'' vote.

That doesn't mean the parties have to agree on everything--we know that won't happen. But what it means is that our disagreements have not paralyzed the process. That is the mark of good governance.

Of course, the work is far from over. When the House gavels back into session next week, time will be short for both parties in both Chambers to unite around a plan to keep the government open beyond September 30.

There is only one way--one way--that this will happen: through bipartisanship. Neither party can afford to go at it alone if we want to avoid a shutdown. We are going to have to work together, just as we have done in the Senate, without resorting to extremism and unseemly tactics. And that message is intended for the House, the House Republicans, and the House Republican leadership, in particular.

When I last met with the Speaker at the end of July, we had a good conversation on the matter, so I hope he

sticks to his guns as this process begins in earnest. Both parties in both Chambers must come together on passing emergency supplemental funding to help our fellow Americans reeling from natural disasters, to stand with our friends in Ukraine fighting against Putin, and to fight against the fentanyl crisis, among other priorities.

Later this morning, I will attend a classified briefing on the state of the war in Ukraine, where I expect we will see precisely why, now more than ever, our friends abroad need our help. We must continue to show Putin and the forces of autocracy that the United States stands firmly behind Ukraine. The worst thing we could do right now for our own national security and for our democratic values is to waver or hesitate in our support.

What is the point in cutting off support now when we are at a turning point in the war--an inflection point--after we have invested such a large amount of resources to get us to this inflection point? It is a crucial moment right now.

So one more time, let me implore my House colleagues: Follow in the Senate's example when you return next week and work with Democrats in a bipartisan way so we can avoid a costly, pointless, and very harmful and unnecessary government shutdown. We do not need to go down that road, and we cannot follow the lead of a mindless few who believe a shutdown is a good thing and who want it and who openly admit they want it. They are hurting the American people, plain and simple. We should not follow them.

Democrats and Republicans in both the House and Senate should not follow this small band of people who are at the extreme. Instead, let's keep our economic recovery going. Let's keep our investments in infrastructure and manufacturing flowing, and let's make sure we help Americans with disaster aid, help our friends in Ukraine, deal with fentanyl, and fulfill our other needs too.

The Senate, as I said, is off to a very good start. I hope the House gets off to a good start next week as well by embracing bipartisanship. We will know very soon whether they are ready or not to follow through on this very important responsibility they have to the American people.

Mr. President, nominations, well, it has been a productive first week back here on the Senate floor for nominations. Yesterday, I am proud to say, we confirmed Gwynne Wilcox to a second term on the NLRB, the National Labor Relations Board. I am happy she passed, just as she did 2 years ago when she became the first Black woman ever to be confirmed to the NLRB. Confirming highly qualified nominees like Ms. Wilcox to the NLRB is a top priority for Democrats and for all working Americans, because it is one of the most important proworker Agencies in the country.

Under the Biden administration, the NLRB has been hard at work overturning Trump-era rulings that harmed workers and unions. They have been at work expanding protections in the workplace and safeguarding the right to organize. All important to maintaining the middle class and growing the middle class; because after all, it was the union movement that really created the broad American middle class in the first place. And when unions were attacked, the middle class declined.

During her first term on the NLRB, Ms. Wilcox was a fervent champion of the labor movement, so I am pleased that she will be back on the board again.

Now, later this morning we will confirm Adriana Kugler to be on the Federal Reserve Board. I was proud to champion this historic nomination of Ms. Kugler, a Colombian-American economist who will make history as the first--the first--Latina in the Fed Board's 109-year history. And I want to thank Chairman Menendez for championing this outstanding nominee.

Ms. Kugler's historic confirmation will be a great moment for the Fed and for America, as we elevate fresh, diverse perspectives to our Nation's central bank and continue our strong economic recovery.

We also confirmed two other very impressive nominees to the Federal Reserve this week: Philip Jefferson and Lisa Cook, another historic nominee, as Ms. Cook became the first Black woman confirmed to a full term on the Fed. Both of them again passed with bipartisan support.

And, finally, today we will vote to confirm Anna Gomez as a Commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission. Ms. Gomez is an exceptional nominee with considerable telecom experience and broad support from groups on both sides of the aisle. And if confirmed, she will be the first Latina on the Commission in over 20 years, another glass ceiling broken. And these are so important to getting a full, diverse view on important governing Agencies like the Fed, like the

Mr. President, now, finally, on AI. Next week the Senate will host one of the most important conversations of the year when the top minds in artificial intelligence convene for our first AI Insight Forum. It will be a meeting unlike any other that we have seen in the Senate in a very long time--perhaps ever. A coming together of top voices in business, civil rights, defense, research, labor, the arts-- all together in one room having a much needed discussion, conversation, about how Congress can tackle AI.

Both parties recognize that AI is something we can't ignore, but we need a lot of help understanding the best way forward. Different countries are taking such different approaches to AI, and some are more successful than others.

We have to learn from their mistakes and learn from this panel, illustrious as it is. We need to find an approach that balances both innovation and savings. That means both creative innovation to develop new applications, new technologies, new breakthroughs so we can advance in science and in medicine and in education and in health and in so many other areas--communications. But we also need innovation on guardrails so we can find creative and new ways to protect our kids, our privacy, prevent racial bias, prevent doomsday scenarios. Innovation must apply to both sides of the equation, innovating so we can move the advantages of AI forward but innovating so we can deal with the problems that AI might create and lessen them as much as we can.

It will not be easy, not easy at all. In fact, it will be one of the hardest things we undertake in Congress, the hardest thing we probably ever have undertaken. That is why next week's conversation will be so important because it will be the first of a series of forums that will give our committees the knowledge base and thought insights to draft the right kind of policies. Already our committees have done some outstanding work on this topic, holding no less than eight hearings on AI on matters related to national security, intellectual property, human rights, and more. In fact, as we speak, the Energy and Natural Resources Committee is holding a hearing on AI and the Department of Energy's role in preserving competition and new technologies.

One thing I want to underscore before I finish my speech here on my little talk here on AI is that we are doing this in a bipartisan way. Senator Rounds, Senator Young, Senator Heinrich, and myself are sort of steering this effort. We are having this be done in a bipartisan way, and we expect the committees to work in a bipartisan way because if this becomes a partisan issue, nothing will happen, and that could create real problems in our society. So the Senate is ready and engaging on this most important issue.

I want to thank my colleagues for their work. I want to thank Senators Rounds, Young, and Heinrich for helping organize these forums, and I look forward to our conversation, our very

important conversation, next week. We hope Senators will come--Senators and their staffs will come, listen, learn, and then act.

I yield the floor.

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

Mr. President, I move to proceed to legislative session.

Mr. President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 261.

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

Mr. President, I move to proceed to legislative session.

Mr. President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 124.

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

Mr. President, I move to proceed to legislative session.

Mr. President, I move to proceed to Calendar No. 198,

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

I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum calls for the cloture motions filed today, September 7, be waived.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned until 3 p.m. Monday, September 11; that following the prayer and pledge, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, 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 conclusion of morning business, the Senate proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the Bradsher nomination; further, that the cloture motions filed during today's session ripen at 5:30 p.m.