Floor Statements

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. Res. 799, submitted earlier today.

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of H.R. 468, which was received from House and is at the desk.

Mr. President, 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.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on the Judiciary be discharged from further consideration of S. 4673 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read a third time.

I know of no further debate on the bill.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. President, finally, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 10 a.m., on Wednesday, September 28; 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 the motion to proceed to Calendar No. 389, H.R. 6833, postcloture; further, that the Senate recess between 12:30 and 2:15 p.m. to allow for the weekly caucus meetings; finally, that all time during adjournment, recess, morning business, and leader remarks count postcloture.

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

When five conservative Justices handed down their opinion in Citizens United 12 years ago, the dissenters warned:

The Court's ruling threatens to undermine the integrity of

elected institutions across the Nation.

Sadly, they turned out to be right. By giving massive corporations the same rights as individual citizens--multibillionaires being able to have their voices shouted out, drowning out the views of citizens--and by casting aside decades of campaign finance law and by paving the way for powerful elites to anonymously pump endless cash into elections, Citizens United has disfigured our democracy almost beyond recognition.

Today, the Senate will vote to begin curing our Nation of this cancer when we take the first procedural vote on the DISCLOSE Act. Democrats are ready to move forward. Republicans today must face the music: either vote to bring transparency and fairness back to our elections-- as the vast majority of Americans want--or block this measure and cast their lot with the forces of dark money.

So today is a very important day that would not be possible without the work of my friend and colleague, the Senator from Rhode Island, Senator Whitehouse. More than anyone in this Chamber, Senator Whitehouse has labored relentlessly to shine a light on the link between dark money and so many of the ills that plague our politics, from the radicalization of our courts to the rise of climate deniers and more.

I thank him for his work. Our entire caucus does. We stand with him, strongly, fervently, in supporting this bill. The need for the DISCLOSE Act is great. The past decade has been the most expensive in the history of American elections. Billions have been raised and spent in super PAC and dark money. Because of Citizens United, a person's ability to affect the democratic process has largely become a function of their net worth in gross violation--gross violation--of what the Framers intended when they believed in one person, one vote.

The DISCLOSE Act will remedy these ills with a very simple notion

that sunlight is the greatest of disinfectants. It will require super PACs and other dark money groups to support anyone contributing $10,000 or more during an election cycle.

The same goes for any group spending money in support or in opposition to judicial nominees. In other words, it would apply familiar forms of transparency that traditional campaigns and candidates already face when accepting political contributions.

I urge my colleagues to vote yes--all of us should vote yes; every single one of us should vote yes--because so many of the ills in our democracy are rooted in the primacy of dark money. We must rid ourselves of this foulness before it is too late, and our democracy could well become beyond saving.

Over the past few days, the Republican leader has come to the floor and repeated the same timeworn, misleading arguments he has used for years when trying to discredit campaign finance reform. I mean, part of his arguments just get to the point of absurdity. Without a shred of irony, the Republican leader, for instance, has claimed that the DISCLOSE Act is equivalent to threatening the privacy of individuals who want to make political contributions.

I would ask the Republican leader: What about the privacy of tens of millions of women across the country? Those rights are now gone because radical Justices were put on the Court because of dark money in the first place.

Does the Republican leader really think the supposed privacy of the billionaire donor class trumps the rights of women who have suffered the consequences of dark money spending?

He would also have us think that transparency requirements would add a burden to average Americans who want nothing more than to simply exercise their political opinions.

That is bunkum. Those with the power to cut $10,000 or million-dollar checks can tilt the tide of an entire election with a single donation. These are individuals with outsized influence that average Americans simply don't have.

And when the Supreme Court extended the First Amendment to absurd lengths in Citizens United, they went way beyond what the Founding Fathers would have intended and what most Americans--the vast overwhelming majority of Americans--believe.

At a bare minimum, the public has a right to know--simply to know-- who is behind these massive donations because at the end of the day, it is their rights that are on the line.

And all of these arguments are really just done to obscure the issue. I mean, it is hard to believe. It is hard to believe that people will be--multibillionaires will be intimidated if they have to disclose their attempts to influence elections. It is just incredible that someone could argue that.

But all these arguments are made for one purpose by the Republican leader and others, in my judgment, and that is to obscure what is really at issue: The Republican Party for years has been built on a foundation of dark money.

It is how they have hijacked our courts. It is how they have promoted groups that push for voter suppression. It is how they have killed climate policies for years before Democrats finally pushed through our climate investments earlier this year.

In a healthy democracy, American voters alone should have the power to determine the Nation's leaders without fear that their voices will be drowned out by powerful elites or special interests. Whether you are rich or poor, young or old, well connected or otherwise, it shouldn't matter. We should all be equal in our exercise of the franchise. That doesn't happen now. We all know that. The American people know it. Over 80 percent despise dark money.

The DISCLOSE Act will help us restore that norm back into our politics by instilling transparency that we desperately need. Americans are tired of the corrosive power of dark money in our politics. They know something has been deeply amiss for a long time and that we need reforms to bring democracy back into balance.

So I urge my colleagues to support this measure. I urge my Republican colleagues to work with us to break the stranglehold that dark money has in our elections. This bill would be a very important and much needed start.

Democracy can't prosper without transparency. I strongly support passing this legislation so we can safeguard our electoral process and keep the dream of our Founders alive in this century.

GOP Agenda

Madam President, now on another issue, tomorrow, a cohort of House Republicans will travel to western Pennsylvania to roll out what they claim is their GOP agenda.

I want to skip right to the punch line. The GOP has made its agenda perfectly clear for months: a nationwide ban on abortion, Medicare and Social Security on the chopping block, raising taxes on working families.

While Democrats continue to fight to defend a woman's right to choose, a central feature of the Republican agenda is eliminating abortions once and for all. Many of them will deny it, but, not 2 weeks ago, the Senator from South Carolina introduced a nationwide abortion ban here in the Senate. And the American people should not forget that nearly every Senate Republican is on record as sponsoring and voting for nationwide abortion bans.

So if Americans want to know what the GOP agenda is, look no further.

Also, while Democrats passed legislation to lower prescription drug costs and extend affordable healthcare, every single Republican voted against legislation that would lower insulin costs for seniors on Medicare and have openly called for putting Medicare and Social Security on the chopping block.

They seem to think tax cuts for the rich is good policy, but argue that Medicare and Social Security should no longer be guaranteed.

And let's not forget, when they had the House, the Senate, and the Presidency, their major, major accomplishment was cutting taxes on the rich--cutting taxes on the rich. Is that what the American people want? Well, if you do, elect these Republicans.

Finally, while Democrats want to keep taxes down for the middle class and working families and we want to help Americans save on their electric bills and healthcare, the Senator from Florida, who chairs the Republican Senate campaign arm, has already released a GOP agenda that calls for raising taxes on working people.

It is amazing that the election is around the corner, and Republicans are still struggling to show a united front that appeals to the American people. Their fundamental problem is that the GOP is now the party of MAGA extremism, and there aren't enough press conferences in the world to change that fact.

Treaty Document No. 117-1

Madam President, finally, on Kigali, yesterday was truly a high point for the U.S. Senate. After years of bipartisan work, the Chamber ratified one of the most significant pro-climate, pro-job measures that has ever come to the floor, the Kigali Amendment.

I thank the Senators from Delaware and New Jersey and Senators from so many other States who worked so hard to make this happen.

Ratifying the Kigali Amendment, along with passing the Inflation Reduction Act, is the strongest one-two punch against climate change any Congress has ever taken. Thanks to our commitment to phase out HFCs, we will put ourselves in a position to lower global temperatures by half a degree Celsius by the end of the decade. So many people have overlooked this, but it is truly a significant milestone. Half a degree will have an enormous--an enormous--impact on the global scale.

And the Kigali Amendment will also help American businesses secure an edge against China in the emerging industry of next-generation refrigerants. This market will see most of its growth outside the United States, and Kigali will make sure that U.S. businesses will be able to take advantage of new opportunities that will yield billions in investments and, best of all, will create tens of thousands of good- paying jobs along the way.

So, once again, ratifying Kigali is a win-win-win--a win for U.S. jobs, a win for U.S. investment, and a win for U.S. leadership to protect the planet.

I thank my colleagues for their excellent work in pushing Kigali finally over the finish line.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak prior to the vote.

Mr. President, let me just give as many kudo--because he taught me the word was ``kudo,'' not ``kudos''--as I can, to our wonderful Senator from Rhode Island.

There is no one--I don't think in America, let alone just in the Senate--who has done more to highlight the evil scourge of dark money that just plagues our Republic. It degrades our democracy. One of the reasons that people are so upset with what is going on in this country is because of the dark money. And no one has shined that spotlight on it like Senator Whitehouse. Hats off to him.

Now, the choice before the Senate is simple: Will Members vote today to cure our democracy of the cancer of dark money or will they stand in the way and let this disease metastasize beyond control?

Members must pick a side. Which side are you on--the side of American voters and one person, one vote or the side of super PACs and the billionaire donor class rigging the game in their favor?

Sometimes the contrast is really that simple. Today is about standing either with the American people or the dark money donor class.

And the DISCLOSE Act itself is simple to its core. It says that a healthy democracy is a transparent democracy--a healthy democracy is a transparent democracy--one where all of us can exercise our right to the franchise on an equal playing field, without regard to our wealth or our connections or lot in life. It is a quintessentially American ideal.

In the 12 years since the conservatives on the Supreme Court ruled in Citizens United, our elections have become rank with the stench of dark money. You can smell it in every corner of this country--and particularly in Washington. We must fix that. In free and fair elections--one person, one vote--American voters should have the power to determine our Nation's leaders without fear that their voices will be drowned out by powerful elites or special interests. That is simply what the DISCLOSE Act would do.

For the sake of our democracy, for the sake of transparency in elections, for the sake of breaking the wretched stranglehold that dark money has on our country, I urge my colleagues, plead with my colleagues, to rise to this occasion to protect our democracy and vote yes.

I yield the floor.

Cloture Motion

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

I move to proceed to Calendar No. 389, H.R. 6833.

I send a cloture motion to the desk.

I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum call for the cloture motion filed today, Thursday, September 22, be waived.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate be in a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. President, before I yield, I want to join the Senate in offering condolences to the family of Officer William Thomas of the U.S. Capitol Police. Officer Thomas had been battling cancer and died in his home on Tuesday, September 20. It breaks my heart. He was only 38 years old.

My thoughts go out to his entire extended family, especially because I understand, this week, Officer Thomas's father also passed away. May they find some comfort in knowing Officer Thomas devoted himself to serving others for nearly 14 years. He was a member of the Capitol Police Force, a beloved presence here in the Capitol Complex. Staff and Members alike saw him every day. He dedicated his life to protecting this great institution, and all of us in the Senate mourn his loss today.

May he rest in peace. May his father rest in peace as well.

To all members of the U.S. Capitol Police Force struggling with this awful loss, we are with you in this difficult time.

I yield the floor.

Mr. 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.

Pursuant to rule XXVI, paragraph 5(a), of the Standing Rules of the Senate, the following committees are authorized to meet during today's session of the Senate:

Mr. President, 35 years ago this month, every nation on Earth came together for the first time in human history to sign onto a global accord to save the planet's dying ozone layer. It was a convergence unlike any before, uniting not just every member of the United Nations but, in time, also the European Union and even the Holy See.

That accord, of course, was the Montreal Protocol, hailed by then-UN Secretary General Kofi Annan as ``perhaps the single most successful international agreement to date.''

Today, the Senate will finish the work of ratifying the Kigali Amendment to the protocol when we vote later today here on the floor.

Ratifying the Kigali Amendment will require two-thirds of the Senate, and I want to thank every single Member, Democratic and Republican alike, who voted yesterday to move forward on this measure. Our country, our businesses, and our planet will benefit because of it. I hope we can see that same level of support today.

In a year where we have already seen plenty of major bipartisan bills become law, the Kigali Amendment might just be one of the most important bipartisan achievements to date--less heralded, but maybe more important--because this measure will go a long way to lowering global temperatures while also creating tens of thousands of American jobs and deal with the fact that China rarely participates in global cooperation when it comes to putting their own economy and jobs ahead of ours.

As I have explained, the Kigali Amendment will signal the commitment of the United States to phase down the use of dangerous industrial chemicals known as HFCs by 80 percent over the next 15 years. HFCs are found practically in every home in America and around the world, inside the vast majority of refrigerators, air-conditioner units, aerosols, insulating foams, and more.

Experts say that if we can meet the goals set forth by the Kigali Amendment, we can reduce global temperatures by about half a degree Celsius by the end of the century. That is huge. We struggle to get that reduction

down, to get that increase down. And this is a big, big step forward for that. Half a degree might sound like a rounding error to some, but in truth, it is very, very, very significant.

But equally significant, however, are the tens of billions in new investments that will be up for grabs if we ratify this amendment.

Every year, millions and millions of refrigerators and AC units are sold around the world, and the United States ranks near the top of refrigerator exports. All of these products will need viable HFC refrigerant alternatives moving forward, and we need to take every step available to make sure those alternatives are provided by American companies and American workers, driven by American ingenuity.

By one measure, ratifying the Kigali Amendment will generate nearly $39 billion in investments here in America in the next 5 years when combined with other steps we have taken to transition away from HFCs. It will create tens of thousands of new American jobs and increase U.S. heating, ventilation, and refrigeration exports by 25 percent in a few short years, by 2027.

Let me say that all again. Tens of thousands in new American jobs, nearly 39 billion in new investments, a surge in U.S. exports--all of that is on the table if we finish our work to ratify this amendment today. There is every reason in the world to say yes.

There is really no down side to ratification. The Kigali Amendment will not overrule or change any current U.S. law. It will require no one to replace their appliances at home. The United States will be able to lead the international process of implementing Kigali, ensuring U.S. businesses will set the terms of implementation that benefit them. And Congress will be perfectly free to change domestic policy to adapt to new technologies without having to worry about this agreement.

Even without the Kigali Amendment, the United States has already taken steps to transition away from HFCs, and U.S. businesses have been the ones leading the way. So it is no surprise that groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the American Chemistry Council, the Air- Conditioning, Heating & Refrigeration Institute, and even companies like Walmart and Honeywell all support the Kigali Amendment.

So in many ways, this is sort of a legislative layup. It is low- hanging fruit to secure billions in growth and tens of thousands of good-paying jobs. Again, there is every reason in the world to say yes and practically no reason to say no.

So for the sake of U.S. businesses, for the sake of U.S. workers, for the sake of U.S. exporters and U.S. investment, and for the sake of leadership in safeguarding our planet, I urge my colleagues to vote yes on ratifying Kigali later today.

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that at 2:30 p.m. today, Wednesday, September 21, all postcloture time in relation to Treaty Document No. 117-1 be considered expired; that the Schumer amendment No. 5503 be withdrawn; that the Sullivan-Lee amendment No. 5518 be the only amendment in order to the resolution of ratification and the Senate vote on adoption of the amendment; that upon disposition of the Sullivan-Lee amendment, the Senate vote on adoption of the resolution of ratification, as amended, if amended, all without intervening action or debate; further, that upon disposition of the treaty, the Senate proceed to the consideration of the Bennett nomination and that at 5:30 p.m. the Senate vote on the motions to invoke cloture on the Bennett and Prabhakar nominations in the order listed; that if cloture is invoked on either of the nominations, the confirmation votes be at a time to be determined by the majority leader in consultation with the Republican leader; further, that the cloture vote on the motion to proceed to Calendar No. 484, S. 4822, be at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday, September 22.

Mr. President, this is a very good day. We have just passed the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol on a strong bipartisan basis. This is a win-win-win: win for U.S. jobs, win for U.S. investment, and win for U.S. leadership in the fight against climate change.

We have talked a lot about how this amendment will help U.S. businesses, U.S. jobs, and U.S. competitiveness overseas, but let's talk about how important this amendment will be for protecting our planet.

Ratifying the Kigali Amendment, along with passing the Inflation Reduction Act, is the strongest one-two punch against climate change any Congress has ever undertaken.

Let me say that again: Ratifying the Kigali Amendment, along with passing the Inflation Reduction Act, is the strongest one-two punch against climate change any Congress has ever taken.

In fact--amazing statistic, folks--people don't pay attention to this one, but it is vital. Experts say that phasing out our use of HFCs will help prevent up to half a degree Celsius of warming by the end of the century.

That is worth repeating as well. Experts say that phasing out our use of HFCs will help prevent up to half a degree Celsius of warming by the end of the century.

It is an easily overlooked victory, but a massive one, all coming from eliminating this family of dangerous chemicals, which are a thousand times more deadly per molecule than carbon dioxide.

And on top of it all, ratifying this amendment will give U.S. businesses a huge leg up. It will open exports to new international markets, generate tens of billions in new investments and help create tens of thousands of good-paying jobs, and we will get a much needed edge against Chinese businesses that still lag behind in developing viable HFC alternatives.

Under Kigali, our exports will increase while China will lose out. So, once again, ratifying the Kigali Amendment is a win-win-win: a win for U.S. jobs, a win for U.S. investment, and, most of all, a win for our global campaign to defeat the climate crisis and preserve our planet for future generations.

I want to thank my colleague from Delaware who has been such a persistent advocate on this legislation. And there are so many others-- the Senators from New Mexico and Hawaii and Delaware--who have worked so hard on it as well. I thank them for their steadfastness. The globe, our globe, is rejoicing today because of this legislation.

I yield the floor.