Floor Statements

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions be discharged from further consideration of S. 5046 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

I ask unanimous consent that the Booker-Schmitt substitute amendment at the desk be considered and agreed to; that the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time and passed; and 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 stand adjourned until 3 p.m. on Monday, December 16; that following the prayer and pledge, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be deemed expired, 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 resume consideration of the House message to accompany H.R. 5009; further, that the cloture motion with respect to the motion to concur ripen at 5:30 p.m.

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

Mr. President, later this morning, the Senate will vote to advance the nomination of Lauren McFerran to serve another term as a member of the National Labor Relations Board.

Ms. McFerran has served admirably on the NLRB for many years, where she is known for her fairness, deep expertise, and guiding the Board to deal with the challenges of the contemporary workplace. She worked in the Senate for our former colleagues Tom Harkin and the late Ted Kennedy.

If you truly care about working families, if you care about fixing income inequality in America, then you should be in favor of advancing today's NLRB nominee. You can't say you are for working families and then go and vote no today, because the NLRB protects workers from mistreatment on the job and from overreaching employers.

hearts act

Mr. President, on the HEARTS Act passage, last night, in a great moment, the Senate finally reached the end zone of the HEARTS Act, a bill I have worked on for months with Damar Hamlin of the Buffalo Bills to better prepare schools against cardiac emergencies. The HEARTS Act is now on the way to President Biden's desk. By doing so, we are ensuring that every school has access to AEDs and the ability to teach

Mr. President, later today, I will meet with the President-elect's pick to serve as the next Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick of New York. I look forward to a fruitful and positive discussion. I have known Howard Lutnick for many years. He is an intelligent and capable man.

I think it is very important for New York and every other State and for America that the next Commerce Secretary is willing to build on the progress of the last few years and help the United States outcompete the Chinese Communist Party on AI, chip manufacturing, and in many other areas as well. It is especially important for States like New York and many others where we are bringing manufacturing back from overseas to strengthen domestic supply chains and our national security.

I can assure Howard Lutnick and all of the President-elect's nominees that we will give them fair and thorough consideration in the Senate. As I said in my letter to Senator Thune last week, it is important that everyone goes through the standard process nominees have always had, including access to full FBI investigation materials, hearings with questions, and a vote on the floor.

I look forward to my conversation with Howard Lutnick later today.

Water Resources Development Act

Mr. President, when we passed the bipartisan Chips and Science Act 2 years ago, we promised to bring semiconductor manufacturing back to our shores, to strengthen our national security, and shore up our domestic supply chains. Today, that promise is coming to fruition in Upstate New York.

Micron just finalized, this morning--early this morning--a $6.1 billion--that is billion, $6.1 billion--award that was made possible by the bipartisan Chips and Science law, to bring advanced memory chip manufacturing to Upstate New York and to America. Most importantly, Micron's Chips award is now locked in. It is signed, sealed, and ready to deliver for Central New York, all of Upstate New York, and for America.

Micron's Chips award is more than just a once-in-a-generation investment in Upstate New York. It is an investment that will span multiple generations, create over 50,000 jobs, and spur historic amounts of private investment in the region.

And the chips Micron will make are essential--essential--for America's future. They are critical for our national security, for AI, our smart phones, our cars, our computers, and so much else. And the benefits go beyond New York.

This award is also fueling expansion of Micron in Idaho, and, today, the Commerce Department has struck yet another deal with Micron to expand their Virginia facility. So Micron is investing and expanding in States big and small, from coast to coast. This is just the latest in a flurry of good news, showing that chip production is expanding in America from New Hampshire and New York to Arizona; New Mexico to Ohio.

That is what Chips and Science is all about: making sure that America harnesses all our potential to stay No. 1 in chip manufacturing.

And when I conceived the Chips and Science bill, I had Upstate New York in mind. We knew that manufacturing had left New York, and we wanted it to return. And that is now coming to fruition from one end of the State to the other. And the I-90 corridor, from Buffalo to Albany, will be known as the ``semiconductor superhighway,'' where close to a quarter of all chips made in America will be made.

It is great news, not only for this generation but for future generations, whose kids and grandkids will want to live in Upstate New York.

Mr. President, on Senate business, we will continue the work of confirming more nominations this week. Last night, I filed cloture on the nominations of Lauren McFerran and Joshua Ditelberg to sit on the NLRB, the National Labor Relations Board.

Ms. McFerran is a current member of the NLRB, but her term will expire soon, unless she is reconfirmed for another 5 years.

The Senate will take the first votes to advance these NLRB nominees on Wednesday. If you truly care about working families, then you should be in favor of advancing the NLRB nominees. The NLRB is essential for protecting workers' rights so employees can speak up for better pay, stronger protections, and the right to organize without retaliation.

If we are worried about income inequality and too much of a gap between working people and those who are very, very wealthy, the NLRB is a great, great way to deal with that problem because, again, it strengthens the worker's hand.

So anyone who says they stand with working Americans should care immensely about getting these NLRB nominees done.

Mr. President, on Senator Rubio, on the topic of nominees, today, I will later sit down with the President-elect's nominee for Secretary of State, our longtime colleague Senator Marco Rubio. I have known Senator Rubio for many years and have worked with him on many issues. So I expect we will have a good and productive conversation.

I look forward to giving him the same fair chance to make his case that all nominees, regardless of party, deserve.

Mr. President, on disaster aid, in 2024, at least 24 major disasters have battered communities across the United States, killing--killing-- over 400 Americans, costing over $60 billion in damages. The true cost is certainly higher. These disasters and disasters of recent years have left the Federal Government's emergency resources all but depleted.

So, for the last month, I have worked with my colleagues to try and get a comprehensive disaster aid package done before the end of the year. I believe we must try as much as possible to get it done, and we on the Democratic side have been persistent in getting as many dollars as possible to help both blue and red States affected by the disasters.

I remain hopeful and determined that we can reach a deal with our Republican counterparts, but the only way we are going to get a disaster package done is with a serious show of bipartisan cooperation. That is how the CRs work. Disaster aid is not a Democratic or Republican issue whatsoever. Mother Nature comes for us all, as we have seen in every part of the country, time and time again.

Mr. President, on artificial intelligence, for more than a year, I have worked relentlessly with Senators on both sides of the aisle to find a way forward on strong bipartisan AI legislation. I created a bipartisan working group with Senators Heinrich, Brown, and Young. With the help of many of our chairs and ranking members, we created a never- before-seen, bipartisan AI Insight Forum--many forums, nine of them--to bring top experts from across the country.

Democrats and Republicans also worked together on writing bills, and through hard work, we came to significant compromises that would have led to meaningful AI legislation and kept America No. 1 on AI, both in keeping innovation our North Star, but making sure there were safeguards so that the worst could not happen.

In fact, Speaker Johnson and I agreed that all our committees should keep working together to figure out a way to get AI legislation done before the end of the year. We were feeling quite good about that until, unfortunately, the November elections occurred, and following those elections, Senate Republicans chose to walk away from the bipartisan negotiations, abandoning over a year of good-faith hard work.

This is deeply unfortunate because, if we want America to remain the technological leader of the 21st Century, we can't turn a blind eye to the changes AI will bring, nor can we let AI become a partisan issue. That is why I will never walk away from AI talks. I remain committed to working with both sides to make AI a top priority here in the Senate.

As I said, Speaker Johnson and I have had productive talks on AI for months, and I am glad to say we are still having those talks with the hope of finding opportunities for action in the future. It is not going to be easy. It isn't. It is a difficult issue, but we have some opportunities to move the ball forward on AI next year.

I know that many of my Republican colleagues here in this Chamber are just as committed as I am to finish the job. There are two Senators I would like to thank in particular on the Republican side, Senators Young and Rounds, who have been excellent bipartisan partners with Senator Heinrich and myself for over a year. I thank them for their hard work. I thank their staffs for their hard work and tell them we must keep going. We can't let a handful few on this Senate Republican side stop us from moving forward on AI.

Again, no matter how difficult it may be, my commitment to Members in both Chambers remains steadfast. I will work with anyone, regardless of party, to get meaningful, sustainable, and transformational AI done-- transformational because of what AI could do to cure heart disease, to educate young people around the globe, to deal with our climate crisis; and sustainable so that we have guardrails that prevent AI if some bad force, whether it is a country or a rogue group, get hold of it. We would prevent them from doing bad things and keep AI sustainable.

We must get both done. Our outline and our work are a good step in that direction. We must continue to move forward.

Madam President, I thank my friend Senator Wyden for coming to the floor to champion something I have been very supportive of and he has carried, the bipartisan PRESS Act, a bill every person in this room--whether they are Senators, journalists, citizens--should want to see become law.

No democracy can survive without a free and open and thriving press. The free press keeps governments accountable to the people, exposes abuse and wrongdoing, informs the public about what is happening in government.

But if government can unduly harass the press or when leaders smear journalists as enemies of the people and when there are too few protections for journalists, our democracy is at the very real risk of eroding away.

We have seen in some countries--in Hungary, Orban--a dictator tells his friends to buy the press so there can be no real freedom and no real counterargument. And they do. They buy newspapers, televisions, et cetera.

And so we have to protect the press. It is sacred--sacred--to America. The PRESS Act is a commonsense and strongly bipartisan bill to ensure journalists can do their job without with facing undue harassment.

I am so proud to support this act. Senate Democrats all support this bill. And the bill has already passed the House unanimously. I hope every single Senate Republican joins us to pass it today. I know many of them are ready to do the right thing. I think it has a majority support in both parties.

This bill, again, is common sense and balanced. It would prohibit the Federal Government from using subpoenas or search warrants or other measures to force journalists or third parties to reveal confidential information without their knowledge. It has exceptions carefully tailored to address matters of national security. And it would ensure that the decision to seize journalists' records and compel them to reveal sources falls to the Federal courts, not to the Department of Justice. It is more important now than ever before, when we have heard so many in the incoming administration talk about going after the press one way or another.

And 99 percent of the work to enact the PRESS Act into law is already done; all we need is for no Senator to stand in the way today.

So thank you, Senator Wyden, for championing this bill. Thank you to the many reporters, news organizations, press leaders, and press associations for championing this bill.

Being a journalist is a hard job. It is hard enough. Journalists shouldn't have to fear baseless government harassment on top of that for just doing their jobs. So let's pass the bipartisan PRESS Act and send it to the President's desk.

Again, let me thank the Senator from Oregon for his leadership. Thank you.

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

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

Mr. President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 835.

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