Floor Statements

Madam President, now on nominations, today, we will confirm two more district judges: Tiffany Cartwright to serve in the Western District of Washington and Myong Joun to serve in the District of Massachusetts. We will also move forward on two executive nominations: Kalpana Kotagal to be a member of the EEOC, and David Uhlmann to be an Assistant Administrator of the EPA.

Ms. Kotagal is exceptionally qualified to serve on the EEOC, and, if confirmed, she will shift the balance of the Commission.

So it is going to be a busy day here on the Senate floor with several votes on nominees, and I thank my colleagues for their cooperation.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that, notwithstanding rule XXII, all time on the Joun nomination be considered expired; that the confirmation vote on the Joun nomination occur at 4 p.m.; that the cloture motions on the Kotagal, Uhlmann, and Bloomekatz nominations ripen upon disposition of the Joun nomination; and that the order with respect to the postcloture time on the Kotagal nomination be vitiated.

Madam President, I move to proceed to legislative session.

Madam President, I move to proceed to Calendar No. 119,

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the Kotagal nomination.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that notwithstanding rule XXII, if cloture is invoked on the Kotagal nomination, all postcloture time be considered expired at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday, July 13; further, that if cloture is invoked on the Uhlmann nomination, all postcloture time be considered expired and the vote on the confirmation be at a time to be determined by the majority leader in consultation with the Republican leader; further, that following the cloture vote on the Uhlmann nomination, 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; further, that at 1:45 p.m., the Senate proceed to executive session to vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the Bloomekatz nomination.

For the information of the Senate, the 4 p.m. votes will be the last votes of the day.

Madam President and Madam Vice President, I want to note that this is a history-making moment for the United States Senate.

Today, Vice President Kamala Harris matches the record for the most tie-breaking votes ever passed in the United States by a Vice President.

The Constitution says that ``the Vice President Of The United States shall be the President of the Senate,'' and with that comes the immense burden of casting votes whenever this Chamber is evenly split.

When it has mattered most, Vice President Harris has provided the decisive vote on some of the most historic bills of modern times, from the American Rescue Plan to the Inflation Reduction Act, to so many Federal judges who now preside and provide balance on the Federal bench. She has carried out her duties with supreme excellence, and today, all of us--all of us--thank her for making the work of the Senate possible.

We also thank Vice President Harris for doing all this work despite all the other demands she faces as the Nation's Vice President, from leading the charge on protecting freedom of choice to speaking out on criminal justice reform and gun safety, to pushing for climate justice. Our Nation is stronger, fairer, and more prosperous because of the work of the Vice President.

So, Madam Vice President, on this historic day, thank you. Thank you for your leadership and your service to this institution and to the United States of America.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, for Congress to work on artificial intelligence is to enter unchartered territory. AI is not like other issues Congress deals with. It is not like appropriations or healthcare or defense, where we have decades of experience to lean on; quite the contrary, from a legislative view, we are starting very close to step 1 when it comes to AI.

So today, the Senate is taking the next step in our effort to learn about AI so we can be ready to act. Later this afternoon, we will hold the first-ever classified all-Senate briefing on national security implications of AI. It will be our second all-Senate briefing on this issue. Close to 70 Senators attended the last one, and I hope we will get similar attendance today.

We will be briefed by Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks, and other top experts in AI from our defense and our intelligence Agencies.

Today's classified briefing is crucial because, of all the issues AI would impact, national security may well be the most consequential. In the hands of autocrats or foreign adversaries or domestic rogue actors interested in political chaos or financial gain, the dangers of AI could be extreme.

But AI could also become one of our greatest tools for keeping Americans safe, for predicting and intercepting attacks on the homeland and for adding unprecedented sophistication to our cyber security and for protecting our elections. So we have a responsibility--a real responsibility--to educate ourselves on these matters.

Finally, these briefings are just part of the larger effort to learn more about AI and prepare the Senate to take action. Last month, I laid out my SAFE Innovation Framework for AI, a way for Congress to balance the urgent need to promote American innovation in AI, while making sure it is done in a safe and responsible way.

Last month, I also announced that this fall I will invite the top AI experts to come to Congress and convene a series of first-ever AI insight forums for a new and unique approach to developing legislation.

There is a lot we still don't know about AI. We need outside help if we want to ensure congressional action is effective, responsible, and promotes innovation in a safe way.

So these insight forums will bring the best of the best to Congress. Our

jobs as legislators will be to listen and learn as much as we can so we can translate these ideas into action.

And we are getting a very positive response from those we are asking to participate in the forums, top people in the field and in areas like intellectual property, like facial recognition that we need to look for guardrails.

So the positive response we are getting means that we expect these inside forums to do just what they are intended to do: yield new insights on the issue. And today's briefing likewise represents an important step in our efforts to learn as much about AI as possible.

I look forward to today's briefing. I want to thank Senator Rounds, Senator Heinrich, and Senator Young for their help in making them possible.

Mr. President, now, on White nationalism, for the past few months, the senior Senator from Alabama has embarked on a one-man mission to excuse and even defend the meaning of White nationalism. He did it back in May when he bemoaned efforts in our military to root out dangerous White nationalism from our records:

I call them Americans.

Those were his words, his words.

A week later, he was asked to clarify his comments, and here is how he replied:

What is a White nationalist?

You would think he would learn, from the overwhelming negative reaction he has received from one end of the country to the other--that he would learn from that reaction and might maybe modify his comments, but no.

Last night, given another chance to clear the air, he suggested that, no, White nationalists aren't inherently racist; that, yes, White nationalism is American; and that the definition of ``White nationalism'' is a matter of opinion.

It is hard to believe that the Senator from Alabama has to be corrected again. The Senator from Alabama is wrong, wrong, wrong. The definition of ``White nationalism'' is not a matter of opinion. White nationalism--the ideology that one race is inherently superior to others; that people of color should be segregated, subjected, and relegated to second-class citizenship--is racist down to its rotten core.

And for the Senator from Alabama to obscure the racist nature of White nationalism, it is indeed very, very dangerous. His words have power and carry weight with the fringe of his constituency--just the fringe. But if the fringe listens to him excuse and defend White nationalism, he is fanning the flames of bigotry and intolerance.

Last week, the gunman who killed 23 people at an El Paso Walmart was sentenced to 90 life terms in prison. He was a self-described White nationalist. The man who murdered 10 people at Tops Supermarket in my home State of New York, in Buffalo, was a White nationalist.

And if those examples aren't clear enough, let's not forget Charlottesville, where neofascists, alt-right radicals, and far-right militias paraded through the streets, carrying torches and chanting: ``Jews will not replace us.'' Those were White nationalists.

This isn't a joke. This is deadly serious stuff. And for a Member of the U.S. Senate to speculate about what ``White nationalism'' means, as if it is some benign little thought experiment, is deeply and terribly disturbing.

I urge my Republican colleagues to impress upon the Senator from Alabama the destructive impact of his words and urge him to apologize.

Mr. President, now, on Senate business, today the Senate will continue working to confirm two district judges and two Executive nominations. Last night, I filed cloture on four additional nominations: another circuit court judge, another district judge, a Commissioner of the EEOC, and an EPA Assistant Administrator. This sets up a busy rest of the week here on the Senate floor.

And at the same time, the Senate will continue to move forward on the annual National Defense Authorization Act, known as the NDAA. Passing the NDAA is important for many reasons: to strengthen our defense and keep our country safe, to outcompete the Chinese Government, and to give our troops well-deserved pay raises.

The NDAA has routinely been a bipartisan effort, with both sides working in good faith, and that has been the case so far this year too.

I want to thank Chairman Reed and Ranking Member Wicker for moving the NDAA through committee quickly on the bipartisan cooperation. As we turn to the NDAA, I am hopeful we can come together here in the Senate on legislation related to our ongoing competition with the Chinese Government, on artificial intelligence, and perhaps some other important issues.

I hope we can see that bipartisanship continues here on the floor and that we can pass the bill quickly without being dilatory. The House is having a whole lot of trouble moving on this must needed legislation, something I believe we can and should avoid in the Senate.

Finally, as Americans' faith in the Judiciary is at an alltime low, thanks to the MAGA-majority Supreme Court, Senate Democrats will continue to move forward on legislation to restore trust in our Court. Supreme Court Justices should not be accepting lavish gifts and vacations from billionaire MAGA extremists who bankroll hard-right causes and taint our judicial system by bringing those same cases before the same judges.

The highest Court in the land must be held to equally high ethical standards. I support the efforts of Chairman Durbin and the Judiciary Committee to advance ethics reform in committee, and I hope we can move on such legislation in this Chamber.

I announce that the Senator from Illinois (Mr. Durbin), the Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. Fetterman), the Senator from Maine (Mr. King), and the Senator from New Hampshire (Mrs. Shaheen) are necessarily absent.

I announce that the Senator from Illinois (Mr. Durbin), the Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. Fetterman), the Senator from Maine (Mr. King), and the Senator from New Hampshire (Mrs. Shaheen) are necessarily absent.

I announce that the Senator from Illinois (Mr. Durbin), the Senator from Maine (Mr. King), and the Senator from New Hampshire (Mrs. Shaheen) are necessarily absent.

I announce that the Senator from Illinois (Mr. Durbin), the Senator from Maine (Mr. King), and the Senator from New Hampshire (Mrs. Shaheen) are necessarily absent.

I announce that the Senator from Illinois (Mr. Durbin), the Senator from Colorado (Mr. Hickenlooper), the Senator from Maine (Mr. King), and the Senator from New Hampshire (Mrs. Shaheen) are necessarily absent.