Floor Statements

Mr. President, tonight, the Senate is passing bipartisan legislation that will keep America's schoolkids fed for the summer.

A hungry child is a horrible thing to see, and because of the amazing, persistent work of a great team, a great bipartisan team-- Senator Stabenow, chairman of the Agriculture Committee and Senator Boozman, ranking member of the Agriculture Committee--that won't happen.

The worst of the pandemic is hopefully behind us, but schools across the country are still suffering from the challenges that COVID created--supply chain issues making it harder to provide students free meals they need to stay healthy over the summer.

It would have been just awful--awful--for the Senate to leave without taking action to make sure we provided the waivers necessary to make sure kids can get the free meals they need over the summer.

Kids deserve to be healthy. They deserve to be well fed. And by extending these nutrition waivers before they expire, we can make sure that no student will have to worry about where they are going to get their lunch during the summer.

There is no justification in the world for letting these waivers come to an end, and the good, persistent, steady hard work of Senators Stabenow and Boozman made sure that didn't happen.

Madam President, first, let me thank Senator Murphy for his amazing work and that powerful speech. He did a great, great job, as did many others.

Now, tonight, the U.S. Senate is doing something many believed was impossible even a few weeks ago: We are passing the first significant gun safety bill in nearly 30 years.

The gun safety bill we are passing tonight can be described with three adjectives: bipartisan, commonsense, lifesaving.

As the author of the Brady bill in 1994--the last legislative effort to fight gun violence in Congress--I am pleased that this moment has finally come and that we are finally taking meaningful action to keep our communities safe. I hope it paves the way for future action on guns in Congress and at all levels of government.

As I said, this is not a cure-all for all the ways gun violence affects our Nation, but it is a long-overdue step in the right direction. Passing this gun safety bill is truly significant, and it is going to save lives. It was so, so significant that we let the process work instead of just having one vote, which would divide us and not accomplish anything. And I hope that portends doing it again on guns and on other issues as well.

I want to thank my colleagues for their incredible work. This was a great moment here on a very, very difficult issue. I want to thank Senators Murphy and Sinema; Senators Cornyn and Tillis, who showed amazing courage; and all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for working together to break this logjam. The American people have waited long enough. Let's finally take action to pass this lifesaving gun safety bill.

Amendment Withdrawn

Now, Madam President, I withdraw amendment No. 5100.

I know of no further debate on the motion to concur with an amendment.

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

Mr. President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 599.

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 legislative session.

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

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to executive session to consider the following nominations: Calendar Nos. 998 through 1030 and all nominations on the Secretary's desk in the Air Force, Army, Foreign Service, Marine Corps, Navy, and Space Force; 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; and no further motions be in order to any of the nominations; that the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action and the Senate then resume legislative session.

Mr. President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 1037.

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. 975.

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. 976.