Floor Statements

Mr. President, now, in addition to keeping our government open and maintaining our government's full faith and credit, Senate Democrats will also continue working this week on confirming even more of President Biden's nominees to the bench and to his administration.

For the information of my colleagues, later today, I will move to file a discharge petition on the nomination of Rohit Chopra to serve as Director of the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau. In the wake of the financial crisis of 2008, the CFPB was created under the Obama administration with a simple mandate: protect American consumers from predatory financial practices.

Rohit Chopra is the right man to lead this Agency after it languished under the Presidency of Donald Trump. Trump didn't really care about the average person being taken advantage of by the big financial institutions, despite his claim he is a working-class President. Mr. Chopra, on the other hand, has a long history of defending student loan borrowers from unscrupulous for-profit colleges and already served in the CFPB under President Obama, where he was defending the rights of middle-class people who might be taken advantage of by rapacious financial institutions. He has the experience; he has the dedication; and he will have the support of Senate Democrats when his nomination is brought to the floor this afternoon or later this week.

Mr. President, over the next few weeks, Senate Democrats will also move forward on a number of noncontroversial nominees critical to keeping our country safe and advancing American diplomacy abroad.

Over the last few months, there has been a growing backlog on these nominees due to Republican obstructionism, and it is our hope, starting this week, we can move to secure their confirmation.

But, last week, a number of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle announced they will seek to delay these nominees for no other reason than to score cheap political points in an effort to win fans on the far right. It is no secret. People leading this are all competing to run for President on the Republican side in 2024, and they are in feverish--feverish--pursuit of the extreme right in this country, which they think will help them win a primary. So they tie this Chamber in a knot but, more importantly, jeopardize the security of Americans.

This is unacceptable. Every one of these nominees won bipartisan, if not unanimous, support in committee. That same level of support should continue on the floor. The Republicans who are delaying the confirmation of these nominees are deliberately making the American people less safe--less safe on the foreign policy side, where we need nominees to the Defense and State Departments, and less safe on the domestic side as well, where there is talk of holding up U.S. attorneys who are in charge of prosecuting Federal laws in all the States.

Under normal circumstances, all of these nominees should be dispensed with speedily and without controversy, but because of the self-interest of a few obstructionists, the Senate could be forced to drag out what is normally a simple process.

I urge these colleagues to drop their theatrics immediately and allow these nominees to these critical Agencies to go through.

Mr. President, now a quick update on voting rights. Last week, several of my colleagues introduced the Freedom to Vote Act, a powerful new bill that would tackle head-on voter suppression, partisan gerrymandering, and the scourge of dark money.

The legislation also responds to recommendations from election officials and includes new provisions to boost confidence in our elections, including critical anti-election subversion reforms, a flexible voter ID standard, and commonsense voter list maintenance requirements. This legislation will promote greater confidence in our elections, and I believe all Senators--Democrat, Republican, and Independent alike--should support the package.

At the end of last week, I moved to place the Freedom to Vote Act on the legislative calendar, enabling me to schedule a vote on this bill in the immediate future.

This week, my colleague Senator Manchin, who helped craft this legislation and relied on many of the good practices in West Virginia to do so--Senator Manchin, this week, is making an effort, a good-faith effort, to reach colleagues on the other side of the aisle to win support of the Freedom to Vote Act, and, in fact, he has been meeting with a number of Republican colleagues.

We are committed to finding common ground, if there is common ground to be found. We look forward to hearing what changes Republicans might want to make. And if Republicans engage earnestly and honestly, we will work with them. The voting rights working group I convened earlier this year is prepared to help in that effort, but we need to move quickly. Time is of the essence.

As Senator Manchin said earlier this year regarding congressional action on voting rights, ``Inaction is not an option.'' I agree with Senator Manchin in that regard.

To that end, it is my intention to hold a vote for the Freedom to Vote Act here on the Senate floor. If Republicans are unwilling to move forward, Democrats will have to move on our own. Inaction from Republicans on voting rights is not an excuse to do nothing. We are going to take action to make sure we protect our democracy and fight back against the disease of voter suppression, partisan gerrymandering, and election subversion that is metastasizing at the State level.

Mr. President, and finally on Haiti, we have all seen these horrible images coming from our southern border as Haitian asylum seekers, simply looking to escape tyranny and the problems, that they have sought--have been met at our doorstep with unimaginable indignity.

Images of Haitian migrants being hit with whips and other forms of physical violence is completely unacceptable. This behavior must be addressed, and we must provide accountability. The images turn your stomach. It must be stopped, this kind of violence.

Right now, I am told there are four flights scheduled to deport these asylum seekers back to a country that cannot receive them. Such a decision defies common sense. It also defies common decency and what America is all about. Remember that lady in the harbor in the city in which I live.

So I urge President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas to immediately put a stop to these expulsions and to end this

title 42 policy at our southern border. We cannot continue these hateful and xenophobic Trump policies that disregard our refugee laws. We must allow asylum seekers to present their claims at our ports of entry and be afforded due process.

I commit to work with this administration to provide resources so that we can establish safe, orderly, and humane processes for those seeking protections. Again, the policies that are being enacted now and the horrible treatment of these innocent people who have come to the border must stop immediately.

Mr. President, I understand there is a bill at the desk that is due for a second reading.

In order to place the bill on the calendar under the provisions of rule XIV, I would object to further proceeding.

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

Madam President, pursuant to S. Res. 27, the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs being tied on the question of reporting, I move to discharge the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs from further consideration of the nomination of Rohit Chopra, of the District of Columbia, to be Director, Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection for a term of five years.

Madam President, for the information of all Senators, we expect the vote on the motion to discharge to occur around 5:40 p.m.

I yield the floor to my friend from Louisiana.

Madam President, I move to proceed to legislative session.

Madam President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 244.

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

Madam President, I move to proceed to legislative session.

Madam President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 241.

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

Madam President, I move to proceed to legislative session.

Madam President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 333.