Floor Statements

Now, Mr. President, on rail, yesterday, the NTSB announced the opening of a special investigation into Norfolk Southern's organization and safety culture in light of multiple derailments, including the toxic derailment in East Palestine last month.

When Norfolk Southern's CEO, Alan Shaw, comes before the Senate tomorrow, I expect him to own up to his company's spotty safety culture, particularly the increasingly apparent pattern of negligence, because you don't need a full investigation to understand that when rail companies willingly neglect safety upgrades, push for looser regulations, and lay off workers, they are asking for disaster.

So, tomorrow, I want to hear from Norfolk Southern's CEO as to why they spent years lobbying for looser regulations designed to prevent accidents like this, particularly when Trump was President. After seeing a record $3.3 billion in profits last year, I want to hear why Norfolk Southern chose to prioritize billions in stock buybacks instead of investing in safety equipment or their workers.

I also expect Mr. Shaw to lay out precisely what steps Norfolk Southern is taking to prevent future disasters like East Palestine. How does Norfolk Southern plan to address rail safety inspections in the future? Will Norfolk Southern commit to having its conductors and other rail employees undergo additional safety and response training? And if, God forbid, another accident happens, how will Norfolk Southern ensure communities get the resources they need to respond to accidents?

These are questions that Mr. Shaw must answer tomorrow: how the railroad will address rail safety inspections in the future, whether they will commit to having their conductors and rail employees undergo additional safety and response training, and how they will help communities if, God forbid, another accident occurs.

Finally, Mr. President, there is Andrew Lloyd Webber. Today, it is my honor to pay tribute to one of the world's alltime greatest composers, Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber.

This month, Mr. Lloyd Webber will turn 75 just as his latest musical, ``Bad Cinderella,'' opens at the Imperial Theatre on Broadway. Boy, it takes your breath away just thinking about his amazing, amazing career. Just listen to this: ``The Phantom of the Opera,'' ``Cats,'' ``Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,'' ``Evita''--all done by just one man. These works stand the test of time already.

For those of us in New York, Mr. Lloyd Webber has often been called the backbone of Broadway, and thank God, because New York would not be the same without Broadway.

It has been a hard time for the performing arts in recent years, and I was proud to work in the Senate to pass Save our Stages, which has provided over $1 billion to thousands of theaters, music venues, jazz and comedy clubs, and more in New York and across our entire country. And allies like Mr. Lloyd Webber have been outstanding to keep the arts going when times have gotten tough.

So, Sir Andrew Lloyd, we wish you a happy 75th. Thank you for everything you have done for our great city and for culture and music in the world, and we just can't wait to see what you have in store for us next.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, first, I want to thank Senators Murray, Baldwin, Blumenthal, and so many of the others who have spoken on this issue. It is so vital to our country, to the women of our country, and to all of us in this country.

For nearly 50 years, Roe v. Wade safeguarded Americans' fundamental right to choose. From the moment Roe was decided in 1973, the most extreme elements of the Republican Party made it their mission to reverse Roe and eliminate the freedom of choice.

Last summer, tragically, that doomsday scenario became true when the MAGA Supreme Court overturned Roe and declared that there was no constitutional right to access abortion. Eight months later, the consequences of the Court's decision have been severe. One in three women has lost abortion access, and over 17 million individuals can no longer access the full range of reproductive care.

The MAGA Supreme Court's decision means our children will grow up in a world where they have fewer liberties than previous generations.

Today, as I mentioned, Senators Baldwin and Blumenthal, along with many others of us, are reintroducing a salve to this terrible injustice: the Women's Health Protection Act.

This legislation only dropped this morning, but Senate Democrats already have a record number of cosponsors, 49 in total. Let me say that again. The legislation only dropped this morning, but Senate Democrats already have a record number of cosponsors, 49 in total. This is the most united Senate Democrats have ever been on pro-choice legislation, while Republicans remain hell-bent on eliminating women's choice.

After Americans rejected MAGA Republicans' anti-choice agenda last fall, you would think they would have gotten the message, but they have not. Today, 14 States have enacted near-total abortion bans. Florida Republicans, meanwhile, introduced a bill this week to ban abortions after just 6 weeks, before many women even know they are pregnant.

How can you say the Florida bill is anything but cruel and inhumane?

And for those who think Republicans' abortion hostility is about States' rights, nearly every Republican in the Senate sponsored and voted in favor of a nationwide abortion ban. That is what this is all about. Republicans, deep down, want to ban abortions for everyone, everywhere.

As bad as all this is, the worst injustice is that those who suffer most are often low-income Americans, rural Americans, people of color, LGBTQ Americans, particularly the trans community, and especially Black Americans. In fact, research shows that States with the harshest abortion bans have some of the highest rates of Black maternal death, as much as 38 percent higher in States with abortion restrictions. There is only one word to describe this: shameful. It is a stain, a blot, a blemish on America's soil.

So passing the Women's Health Protection Act is the right thing to do for our country.

I want to thank all of the Senators who helped lead this bill--the women Members of our leadership and all of our women Senators and so many others, including Senator Blumenthal, Senator Whitehouse, and many more who worked so hard on this legislation. I will work with them to push this bill forward.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, last night, millions of Americans tuned into one of the most shameful hours we have ever seen on cable television. With contempt for the facts, disregard of the risks, and knowing full well he was lying--lying--to his audience, FOX News host Tucker Carlson ran a lengthy segment last night arguing the January 6 Capitol attack was not a violent insurrection.

By diving deep into the waters of conspiracy and cherry-picking from thousands of hours of security footage, Mr. Carlson told the bald-faced lie that the Capitol attack--which we all saw with our own eyes--was somehow not an attack at all. He tried to argue it was nothing more than a peaceful sightseeing tour--can you imagine--a nonviolent demonstration, a perfectly fine and appropriate instance of people expressing their opinion.

I and so many others who were here in the Capitol and millions and millions of Americans are just furious with Tucker Carlson and Kevin McCarthy today.

Many of my staff were here at the Capitol on January 6. Their lives were put in danger, as were the lives of many of my colleagues, as well as police, maintenance staff, reporters, countless others.

At one point, I was within 30 feet of the rioters. One of them, I was told, shouted out ``let's get him'' before my detail pulled me away and we ran in the other direction.

To say January 6 was not violent is a lie--a lie, pure and simple. I don't think I have ever seen a prime time cable news anchor manipulate his viewers the way Mr. Carlson did last night. I don't think I have ever seen an anchor treat the American people and American democracy with such disdain.

And he is going to come back tonight with another segment. FOX News should tell him not to.

FOX News, Rupert Murdoch, tell Carlson not to run a second segment of lies. You know it is a lie. He has admitted it is a lie.

And Speaker McCarthy is every bit as culpable as Mr. Carlson. Speaker McCarthy's decision to share security footage with FOX looked like a mistake from the very beginning. But after last night, it looks like a disaster. Speaker McCarthy has played a treacherous game by catering to the

hard right. He has enabled the Big Lie and has further eroded away at our precious democracy. When people don't believe elections are on the level, that is the beginning of the end of this bold experiment in democracy that has gone on for more than 200 years.

It is all the more shameful because Speaker McCarthy knows precisely what kind of customer Mr. Carlson is. He is not surprised by this outcome. What a low point for Speaker McCarthy. What a low point for FOX News.

As reporting on the Dominion lawsuit shows, Mr. Carlson had no problem admitting behind the scenes that the Big Lie is pure garbage. When Sydney Powell went on the air to push the stolen election narrative, Mr. Carlson told fellow anchor Laura Ingraham that ``Sydney Powell is lying''--his words by the deposition. Mr. Carlson's own producer texted him that ``I don't think there is evidence of voter fraud that swung the election.''

They know. They know full well they have been lying, and they are doing it anyway. We all, Americans of all types and stripes and corners of this country--Democrats, Republicans, Independents--need to take a stand and call out Mr. Carlson's conduct for what it is: a dangerous, unforgivable attempt to destabilize our democracy and rewrite the history of the worst attack on our Constitution since the Civil War.

It is an insult to every police officer who was on the scene that terrible, fearful day. It is an insult to the memory of every single person who perished in connection with the attack, especially to the memory of Brian Sicknick.

Nonviolent? Ask the Sicknick family. It makes me sick just thinking about what his family must be going through this morning.

And it is an insult to everyone who cares about our democracy and wishes to preserve the dream of our Founders in our day, in our age. I hope every Member of this Chamber will call out FOX and Mr. Carlson for defending the insurrectionists.

And, again, I am disappointed and angered in Speaker McCarthy's decision to share sensitive security footage with Mr. Carlson. Speaker McCarthy was here that day. He knows what actually happened. His staff and members suffered like everyone else, but he chose cheap political expediency over truth and preservation of democracy.

I condemn Mr. Carlson for siding with the enemies of democracy. I strongly condemn Speaker McCarthy's actions and fiercely oppose his decision to share this footage with Carlson. I urge FOX News to order Carlson to cease propagating the Big Lie on his network and to level with their viewers about the truth--the truth--behind the efforts to mislead the public. Conduct like theirs is just asking for another January 6 to happen.

Mr. President, on another subject, as East Palestine continues grappling with the aftermath of last month's derailment and after a second derailment in Ohio last weekend, Norfolk Southern announced yesterday a new six-point plan they claim will ``immediately enhance the safety of its operations.''

But here is the question all of us should be asking: Why weren't these protocols already in place?

When Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw comes before the Senate on Thursday, this is just one of the important questions he must answer. Here are a few others: What steps is Norfolk Southern taking to prevent future disasters like the one in East Palestine? Why did Norfolk Southern spend years lobbying against safety regulations intended to prevent accidents like the one last month? How will Norfolk Southern ensure communities along train routes with hazardous materials get the resources they need to respond to accidents--the resources and the information they need? Why did Norfolk Southern launch a $10 billion stock buyback program last year when that money could have gone to upgrading safety equipment, hiring more workers, or paying their workers better wages?

We need answers to these questions. We need an honest, candid discussion how we can prevent accidents like this in the future. Part of that discussion must acknowledge the plain truth: Republicans have spent years listening to the rail lobby and opposing safety rules in the name of boosting rail company profits. I am talking about the Trump administration loosening brake maintenance and inspection regulations, attempting to deregulate freight train crew size, and nullifying a rule that implemented safety programs. I am talking about Republicans in this Chamber pushing for the ``self-regulation'' of railroads and leaving safety up to the whims of the free market, to allow for the transportation of more hazardous materials without proper oversight, and to encourage the automation of track inspection at the expense of safety. All of these create dangers.

We don't know yet all the details of what exactly happened in East Palestine, but we know these deregulatory actions make things less safe.

I hope that we can work together, Democrats and Republicans, to put a much-needed, long-overdue check on big rail and make sure another East Palestine never happens. And I commend the bipartisan legislation led by the Senators from Ohio--Senator Brown, a Democrat and Senator Vance, a Republican--to move things forward.

Mr. President, the budget. For the last 2 months, Democrats have highlighted the contrast between our vision and the Republican vision for our country. Republicans, meanwhile, have spent all this time trying to prove us right.

In a few days, President Biden will release his budget for the 2024 fiscal year. Americans can expect the President to present a bold, optimistic, and responsible path for the Nation. The President's plan is going to show how we can lower the deficit in a responsible manner. His plan will strengthen Social Security and keep Medicare solvent for another 2 decades. And the President's plan will preserve his promise not to raise taxes on anyone making less than $400,000 a year.

This isn't just talk because Democrats have already shown we can do these things. We already lowered the deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars. We already lowered the cost of prescription drugs, like insulin, and we hope to build on that promise in the near future. And the President explained this morning in an op-ed in the New York Times that he plans to build on the progress we made last year in the Inflation Reduction Act by making Medicare solvent through the year 2050. Isn't that great news for the American people, even younger people who will need it before 2050?

He will expand the list of drugs Medicare can renegotiate. He will take profits that used to go to Big Pharma and put it toward deficit reduction. Many Americans think it would be just a great idea to take the money that normally goes to Big Pharma and put it towards deficit reduction and towards keeping Medicare solvent longer. This commonsense step will help millions of ordinary Americans.

Republicans, to their credit, are being very helpful about erasing any doubt about which party is fighting for the working people and the middle class. While Democrats are for keeping taxes low for most Americans, Republicans tried to push a national sales tax that would have sent taxes surging by 30 percent for millions. While Democrats want to make the wealthy pay their fair share, House Republicans passed their first bill, a proposal to carve out the IRS and make it easier for wealthy tax cheats to avoid detection.

While Democrats will protect Social Security, Republicans, like the senior Senator from Wisconsin, decided to go on the radio the day after the State of the Union and call Social Security a ``Ponzi scheme.'' Can you imagine?

If my Republican colleagues have a problem with what I am saying, there is an easy solution. Speaker McCarthy needs to stop dodging and show us the Republican plan. It is now March 7. Two months have passed already in this year. The debt ceiling X date is approaching. Republicans have said they will release a plan. They say they want spending cuts in return for just paying our debts which we already incurred. Where is their plan? What is the holdup?

The President will release his budget very soon, and the onus is on Speaker McCarthy to respond with a serious plan of his own that is a budget plan

that deals with deficit reduction, because we think that should occur without hostage-taking, without any brinkmanship, as it has been done three times in the past few years.

So, Speaker McCarthy, respond with a plan, one that can unite the fractured and chaotic factions of the Republican Congress.

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

Mr. President, today, the Senate confirms a first-rate legal mind, someone I was proud to champion to the President for a lifetime appointment to the Federal bench, Arun Subramanian of New York.

Mr. Subramanian is the epitome of the American dream and a historymaker: The child of hard-working immigrants from India, he will become the first South Asian to preside in the Southern District, which has one of the largest South Asian populations in the country.

Mr. Subramanian's resume tells a very clear story. He is excellent. He is accomplished. He has dedicated his entire career fighting for average Americans. He served as a law clerk to Judge Dennis Jacobs on the Second Circuit, Judge Gerard Lynch in the Southern District of New York, and the late, great Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

He is an expert in consumer protection, with years of experience defending those injured by unfair, illegal practices. He also defended victims of child trafficking and pornography.

Our courts need more people like Arun Subramanian. I am proud to support his confirmation. I thank my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for supporting him today.

Once we confirm Mr. Subramanian, this U.S. Senate majority will have confirmed 114 judges to the bench: 30 circuit court judges, 83 district court judges, and 1 incredible Supreme Court Justice in Ketanji Brown Jackson. Of those 114 nominations, 82 are women, 78 are people of color, and, again, Mr. Subramanian is the first South Asian judge confirmed to the Southern District of New York.

Because of the work done by this majority, our Federal judiciary is far more balanced, far more diverse, far more experienced than the one we just had 2 years ago. It is something every American can be proud of.

I yield the floor.

I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate consider the following nominations en bloc: Calendar Nos. 58 and 59; that the Senate vote on the nominations en bloc without intervening action or debate, the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, and the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that 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.

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned until 10 a.m., Wednesday, March 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 following the conclusion of morning business, the Senate proceed to executive session and resume consideration of the Kunesh nomination postcloture; further, that all postcloture time be considered expired at 10:45 a.m. and the Senate vote on the confirmation of the nomination, followed by the motion to invoke cloture on the Werfel nomination; that if cloture is invoked on the Werfel nomination, the vote on 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 Werfel nomination and notwithstanding rule XXII, the Senate resume legislative session and Senator Hagerty or his designee be recognized to make a motion to discharge the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs from further consideration of H.J. Res. 26; that if the motion is made, all the time on the motion be considered yielded back and the Senate vote on the motion to discharge; that if the motion is agreed to, Senator Hagerty or his designee be recognized to make a motion to proceed; finally, that if any nominations are confirmed during Wednesday's session, the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table and the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action.

For the information of the Senate, the confirmation vote on the Werfel nomination is expected to occur immediately upon the disposition of the joint resolution. Therefore, Senators should expect two rollcall votes at 10:45 a.m. and two votes later in the day.

Mr. President, 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 Senators Graham, Boozman, and Lankford.

Madam President, I move to proceed to legislative session.