Floor Statements

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 12 noon, Monday, August 9--that is tomorrow, in case you have forgotten the days--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 H.R. 3684; finally, that all time during recess, adjournment, or period of morning business count postcloture-- the clock is ticking--on H.R. 3684.

If there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that it stand adjourned under the previous order.

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, first, I am going to do the administrative stuff.

Mr. President, I understand there are two bills at the desk due for a second reading en bloc.

Mr. President, in order to place the bills on the calendar under provisions of rule XIV, I would object to further proceedings en bloc.

Mr. President, this morning, we resume consideration of the bipartisan infrastructure bill. There will be a vote at noon to invoke cloture on the substitute amendment, which will move the process forward by the book.

Democrats are very eager to start voting on further amendments, but we need consent from the Chamber to schedule those amendment votes. We worked all day Thursday to come up with an agreement with our Republican colleagues on such a package but unfortunately were not able to. So we can get this done the easy way or the hard way. In either case, the Senate will stay in session until we finish our work. It is up to my Republican colleagues how long it takes.

I yield the floor.

Well, I thank my good friend from Maryland for offering this UC, and strongly and fervently support it.

I have been proud to join Senators Cardin and Sinema in leading the fight to provide direct relief to this industry. We all know restaurants were particularly hard hit during COVID, and the idea that they have all recovered is just so far from the truth.

You know, any business where people had to gather were hit hard--hit the hardest; restaurants at the very top of the list, and they are a lifeblood to our cities and our communities. They, of course, are a place where people get food, but they get community. They join together. They feel roots. Whether it is a small town or a large city, restaurants in neighborhood after neighborhood, community after community, are often the glue that make communities tick; and they were hurt.

The funds that we provided, provided a lifeline to 100,000 applicants across the country. In my State of New York, $3.6 billion went to 9,775 restaurants. But the job wasn't done. They ran out of money long before restaurants were helped.

And anyone who thinks our restaurants are out of trouble, I just ate at one last night--a Polish couple in Greenpoint--lovely little restaurant: Are you hurting? Yes; we might go under.

And this story could be repeated in restaurant after restaurant after restaurant.

In New York, 27,000 restaurants are waiting in desperation. These are hard-working people--very hard-working people. They struggle. They put their all, their whole heart and soul, into the business and provide, as I said, often the glue for our communities.

This legislation is fair. It is smart. It is right. We will get economic payback over and over and over again from keeping these restaurants going because they employ so many people, contract with so many independent suppliers and others. It just makes such sense

It is almost cruel to tell these restaurants, ``You are on your own now,'' when, through no fault of their own, they have suffered through with COVID.

So I strongly support this proposal by Senator Cardin. We are going to keep at it and keep at it and keep at it because our restaurants so desperately need the help.

It was bipartisan in the past. Let's keep it bipartisan, but let's get the job done. Our restaurants need help, and our communities, our cities, our rural towns, our suburbs will be so rewarded when these restaurants are allowed to continue to stay open and to flourish.

I thank the Senator for his leadership.

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

Mr. President, in a minute, I am going to ask to vote on confirmation for Eunice Lee to be a U.S. circuit judge on the Second Circuit. She is an amazing person. I interviewed her and recommended her to the President. She will be the only public defender on the Second Circuit. We have had very, very few public defenders on that circuit and largely on our Federal bench. They tend to be prosecutors, partners in big law firms. We are changing all of that and getting people who have different walks of life--like public defenders, like people from the ACLU, like people from different organizations--so we have a new perspective on the bench. She is a phenomenal person. I am so proud that she will now get on the bench.

I ask that the Senate now vote on confirmation of the Lee nomination to be a U.S. circuit judge.

I ask for the yeas and nays.

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the time during any recess, adjournment, or period of morning business count postclosure.

For the information of all Senators, the Senate will convene at noon tomorrow and resume consideration of the infrastructure bill.

We have been working hard all day on amendments, and, hopefully, we can come to some agreement tomorrow, but time is burning as we go forward.

So for the information of Members, keep working, and we will resume at 12 noon.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Madam President, before my remarks, I ask unanimous consent that the cloture vote on the Lee nomination occur at a time to be determined today by the majority leader following consultation with the Republican leader.

Madam President, all week, as we all know, Senators have worked together to move forward on the bipartisan infrastructure bill. Since the text of the bipartisan proposal was finalized on Sunday, both sides have had extensive opportunities to offer amendments. Senators have certainly taken advantage.

So far, the Senate has considered 22 amendments on this bipartisan piece of legislation. We considered 14 amendments yesterday alone. Of the 22 total amendments, more than half have been offered by our Republican colleagues. Clearly, the Democratic majority has given Members who were not part of the bipartisan group a chance to make their mark on this important bill.

Taking a step back, this Senate has operated much differently under Democratic leadership this year than it did under Republican leadership over the past 6. We have had bipartisan bills on the floor, open for amendment, and all 100 Senators are participating in the legislative process. The anti-Asian hate crimes bill and the USICA bill were both major bills that worked in a bipartisan way with amendments, as is this bill.

We have taken more amendment votes this year than nearly any year in recent memory. In fact, we have had more rollcall votes on amendments this year, only halfway through, than during the past 2 years, where the Republicans were in charge, combined. In other words, in one-half of the year in 2021, where Democrats got in charge, we have had more amendments than in all of 2019 and 2020. So any talk that we

are not working the Senate, whenever we can, in a fair, bipartisan way is just wrong--just wrong.

Consider this: At this point in the calendar year in 2017, the first year of a Republican President and a Republican Senate majority--a one- to-one comparison to our current political configuration--the Senate held rollcall votes on 10 amendments--10--at this point in the first year of the Trump Presidency. On this bipartisan infrastructure bill alone, the Senate has held rollcall votes on 17 amendments. In 7 months, the 2017 Republican majority allowed rollcall votes on only 10 amendments, and we have done almost double that number in the past 7 days alone.

This is how I promised the Chamber would function under a Democratic majority. I promised it while we were fighting to get that majority, and we are fulfilling that promise now that we have it Legislators should actually have a chance to legislate. No one can deny that we kept our word here in the Democratic majority.

Today, we will consider even more amendments, and then, hopefully, we can bring this bill to a close very shortly. Our goal is to pass both a bipartisan infrastructure bill and a budget resolution during this work period, and we will stay here to get both done.

On another matter, climate. President Biden announced this morning that he will sign an Executive order to significantly escalate our country's fight against climate change.

Specifically, President Biden's Executive order will set an ambitious goal to make half of all new cars sold in America zero emissions by the end of the decade. He will announce further steps to address several of the worst climate-warming rules that were put in place under the Trump administration.

I applaud President Biden for taking necessary steps to put our country on a path to substantially reduce our carbon pollution. Climate change is the defining challenge of our times. We have no choice but to reduce our country's greenhouse gas emissions very quickly to reach the targets that will spare our country and our planet the worst effects of climate change, and we cannot do it without dealing with carbon pollution from cars we drive. Transportation is the biggest source of carbon pollution, accounting for roughly one-third of America's carbon output.

President Biden's Executive order is an important step in the right direction, and I am happy and proud to say it dovetails with an effort I have long advocated here in the Congress, even before the Biden Presidency. It is called Clean Cars for America. In fact, President Biden generously adopted our Clean Cars for America plan and placed it in his Build Back Better.

My Clean Cars for America proposal--and I have worked closely with Senator Stabenow, Senator Peters, and others on this proposal--would help our country make the transition that President Biden is talking about today by making electric cars more affordable, expanding our charging infrastructure, and creating incentives to manufacture batteries and electric vehicles here in America. It is good for climate. It good for jobs. And it is good for America to become the center of electric car manufacturing in the world, as we have been with the traditional type of automobile.

The proposal--I am proud to say we worked hard to make this happen. Clean Cars for America is now, as I said, largely adopted in the Build Back Better plan and is supported not only by the environmental community, but by the major labor unions and several of the major car manufacturers as well. It is the first time on a major piece of climate legislation we have gotten such broad support.

The transition to electric vehicles, of course, is already underway, but it is not happening fast enough to reach the targets that President Biden announced today. Clean Cars for America is the way to supercharge the transition to electric vehicles, and large parts of it will be-- some of it was put in the bipartisan infrastructure bill, but large parts of it we hope to add in the reconciliation process.

Put another way: If President Biden's Executive order represents the destination we need to reach on the horizon, our Clean Cars for America is the road to get there.

President Biden's announcement, combined with our Clean Cars proposal, represents the bold level of action we need to tackling carbon pollution from cars.

When Democrats assumed the majority, I instructed my committee chairs to find climate-reducing policies to incorporate into the legislation we work on. Earlier this year, the Senate passed the first major climate legislation in years when we reversed the Trump administration's methane emissions rule. And as we continue working on a bipartisan infrastructure bill and a budget resolution, I have committed that we will make historic investments in reversing climate change. I am proud to say our Clean Cars for America is going to be a very big part of that.

Democrats promised action on climate, and we are going to make it a vital part of the legislation we work on in the weeks to come. It is a big challenge, but one we must meet. It is so important for the future of our planet, for our children, and our grandchildren even more than for us

One final matter, evictions. Earlier this week, the Biden administration announced that the CDC will adopt an eviction moratorium to provide critical protections for another 60 days as our country continues its path towards full recovery.

I applaud everyone who made it happen, from the President to the CDC, to Speaker Pelosi, to Senator Brown, as well as several of my Democratic colleagues in the House, including a brave band of New Yorkers, including Congress Member Ocasio-Cortez and Congressman Jones. Above all, Representative Cori Bush gets huge credit--one person who changed things for tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of people, and everyone who stood with her as well.

As I explained yesterday, while this moratorium is an important safeguard to protect millions of American families in danger of evictions, it is not the only piece of the puzzle. Once the moratorium comes to an end--whenever that is--there is still a fundamental challenge of making up for a year of lost rent and lost mortgage payments.

Congress considered this problem very early this year. I pushed for, and we passed, along with Senator Brown and so many others, substantial rental and mortgage assistance in the American Rescue Plan.

Unfortunately, State governments have been really uneven about distributing that crucial assistance. A few States--the State of Illinois, the State of Texas--have done a pretty good job, but many have not. Unfortunately, one of those that has done a very poor job distributing this money is my home State of New York.

Simply put: State governments, especially New York, must do a better job of distributing the $47 billion Congress appropriated for emergency rental assistance. The money is there, but far too little has gone out the door.

In New York specifically, Congress sent more than $2 billion to help renters in New York; and, inexplicably, some reports indicate less than 0.5 percent of New York's allocation had been received by tenants and landlords as of a week ago.

Today, I am sending a letter with colleagues in the New York delegation to the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, calling on that office to hurry up to fix the inexcusable delays in rental assistance and immediately begin disbursing these funds.

We need to understand why New Yorkers are having such trouble navigating the process to get the money they need. There have been reports of frustrating crashes and glitches on the online application process, confusing instructions, and very little support to help the applicants, even though the money has been there for several months.

The clock is ticking to fix this mess. The State moratorium expires in less than a month, and the CDC's moratorium will give only one more month of protection after that. New York State needs to act quickly, and we expect a response by August 9 as to how we can

get a handle on these delays and, most importantly, get the money to New Yorkers faster so they can pay the rent.

By the way, many landlords, particularly small landlords, depend on this as well. If you worked hard--let's say you are a bus driver and you own a three-family house. When the tenants in your house don't pay you, you don't have any cushion and you have to pay the mortgage. So this bill will help with that as well, this proposal.

Right now, there are 6\1/2\ million Americans who are behind in their rent. According to the New York Times, over 400,000 renters in New York City alone owe a collective debt of $2 billion.

Congress did its job by making sure that we have money in place to help these Americans avoid evictions. Now the States need to step it up to make sure that this money gets into the hands of renters as soon as possible.

I yield the floor.

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

Mr. President, I rise today with some sad, some horrible news about the passing of a great friend, Rich Trumka, who left us this morning.

The working people of America have lost a fierce warrior at a time when we needed him most. Just yesterday, Rich was lending his support to the striking miners in Alabama.

Following in his father's footsteps, he worked in the mines. He went to Penn State, earned his law degree. He didn't practice. He didn't go to some fancy place. He went right to work for the United Mine Workers, which he lead for so many years, and then he became head--first, secretary-treasurer--of the AFL-CIO.

He had in his veins and every atom of his body the heart, the thoughts, the needs of the working people of America. He was them. Rich Trumka was the working people of America. He never had any airs. He never put it on, and he cared about his fellow workers so.

He was a great leader. He knew that the labor movement and working people had to expand and be diverse. One of his passions as a labor leader was immigration reform, which I talked to him about repeatedly because they were working people, too, no matter where they came from or what they looked like.

It is just horrible news. I will have more to say about it later, but I wanted to inform my colleagues that we have just lost a giant, and we need him so.

We will remember him forever, and his memory will, I know, importune all of us to do more, even more, for the working people of America, who Rich Trumka so dearly and deeply loved.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, we are working on an agreement. As you know, we have been working all day, but we aren't there yet as work continues on the agreement. I am filing cloture on both the substitute and the underlying bill for a Saturday vote. If we come to an agreement yet tonight, which is our preference, we will have additional votes on amendments. I believe we are very close to an agreement and see no reason why we can't complete this important bipartisan bill. I urge both sides to continue working diligently to make it happen.

Cloture Motion

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

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum calls for the cloture motions filed today, Thursday, August 5, be waived.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that if cloture is invoked on Executive Calendar No. 50, the Lee nomination, all postcloture time be yielded back and that notwithstanding rule XXII, the Senate vote on confirmation at a time to be determined by the majority leader in consultation with the Republican leader, not before Saturday, August 7, 2021; that if confirmed, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon

the table, the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action, and the Senate then resume legislative session.