Floor Statements

Madam President, today I missed the vote on passage of S. 914, as amended, in order to attend an event related to vaccine distribution in Baltimore City with Vice President Kamala Harris. Had I been in attendance, I would have voted yes on this important, bipartisan bill.

Madam President, I rise to voice my strong support for the confirmation of Ambassador Samantha Power to be the next Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development. I am confident that she brings the talent, skill, and experience required of this office and is the right person to lead this pivotal agency at a critical point in America's return to global leadership.

Ambassador Power has worn many different hats throughout her sterling career--advocate, academic, advisor, and diplomat. But that trajectory has been propelled in large part by her time as a journalist, where she saw the day-to-day experiences of those living in places struggling against the tides of war, famine, genocide, and disease. She witnessed, first-hand, the tireless efforts of USAID Foreign Service officers working in partnership with local stakeholders to uplift and empower communities around the world. And those early experiences seeing the work of USAID and the challenges the agency faces continue to guide her path.

Like Ambassador Power, I spent the early part of my career seeing global conflict up close. As a staffer working on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1988, I travelled to Iraq after Saddam Hussein used poison gas against the Kurdish people. It's a trip that Ambassador Power recounts in her first book, A Problem from Hell, which won her the Pulitzer Prize in 2003--and it's a trip that animates so much of the work I do in the United States Senate.

The world witnessed the horrific chemical weapons attacks on the Kurdish people in Halabja in March 1988 and later that year, together with my colleague, Peter Galbraith, I interviewed Kurdish survivors of other chemical attacks that followed. It was a heartrending journey that stays with me to this day. But that experience, like Ambassador Power's experiences in Bosnia, East Timor, Darfur, West Africa, and elsewhere, instilled in me a sense of moral urgency that hasn't tired in the three decades since--and I know hasn't tired in Ambassador Power either.

I'm confident that she'll employ that sense of urgency in her new role as the Administrator of USAID, which bolsters peace and prosperity both in developing nations and here at home. The biggest threats that we face are interconnected and global--from climate change to cybersecurity to pandemics. As we've seen throughout the past year, viruses know no borders, and our ability to defeat COVID-19 depends upon our willingness to partner with other nations to stop the spread and mount a successful recovery. And as we reassert American values at the core of our foreign policy, we will also need to combat the Chinese government's efforts to export its model of authoritarianism to governments in developing countries. USAID will be at forefront of these missions and others. In Ambassador Power's own words, ``Development is critical to America's ability to tackle the toughest problems of our time--economic, humanitarian, and geopolitical.''

Madam President, there is no doubt in my mind that Ambassador Samantha Power will serve our country well as the next Administrator of USAID. I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of her confirmation.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I rise today to recognize my constituent and extraordinary Federal employee, Ms. Barbara Rogers of Chevy Chase, MD, who is retiring from Federal service.

For nearly 20 years, Barbara has worked for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's, CDC, Washington office, advising Agency leadership on critical policy issues, including environmental health and public health preparedness. A graduate of the George Washington University Law School, Barbara prosecuted environmental enforcement cases at the U.S. Attorney's Office and served for 8 years as counsel to committees of both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives. She brought this invaluable experience to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, ATSDR, a Federal public health Agency that protects communities from the harmful health effects related to exposure to natural and manmade hazardous substances. When ATSDR joined CDC's Washington office in 2002, Barbara took on CDC's environmental portfolio in Washington, DC, and helped shape CDC's rapidly growing preparedness work in the era following the attacks of September 11.

Barbara has served as a CDC liaison to Congress, educating policymakers and staff to better understand the Agency on a variety of important matters, including in response to congressional oversight on CDC's laboratories and, more recently, on COVID-19. Barbara's widely sought sage advice and diplomatic skills, combined with a powerful intellect and attention to detail, have been a critical asset to CDC in the Agency's interactions with GAO and Congress.

With Barbara's retirement, her CDC colleagues will miss her warm friendship and wonderful sense of humor. CDC will lose a public servant with a moral and ethical grounding, who has been a fierce advocate for CDC and public health.

I ask my colleagues to join me in thanking Barbara Rogers for her outstanding service to our country and extend to her our very best wishes for an enjoyable and fulfilling retirement.

Mr. President, I want to thank Senator Blumenthal, Senator Murphy, and everybody who has been brought together by this tragedy that we witnessed in our country--first a few days ago in Atlanta and then Boulder.

The tragedy is that these are not isolated events; these are the kinds of tragedies we see all too often and, indeed, every day in neighborhoods and streets around our country. So it is important that we come together to talk about the horror of the daily toll of gun violence and also highlight the horror of the fact that this body and the Federal Government have not taken action to stop those daily horrors.

Mr. President, I want to begin by joining my colleagues in reading out loud the names of 20 of our fellow Americans who have perished from gun violence just this year, 15 from across the country and 5 from my home State of Maryland. This is just this year, and this is just a few of those who have been shot down through gun violence: Caleb Day of Ohio, age 19; Cody Nichols Campbell of Indiana, age 27; Alex Jackson of New Mexico, age 15; Gregory Dewayne Lynn Chandler of Texas, age 32; Debra Derrick of New Jersey, age 63; Jason B. West, of North Carolina, age 36; Jeremiah Lowery of Louisiana, age 17; Caleb Martin of South Carolina, age 18; Lavontae Sharron Johnson of Virginia, age 23; Holly Elizabeth Beard Montana of Alabama, March 11, 2021, age 51; Jessica Ruiz of Texas, age 20; Najeebat Sule of Pennsylvania, age 24; Ricardo M. Lopez of New York, age 37; Richard Douglas Sloane of Kentucky, age 33; and Tyree Riley of Indiana, age 18.

In Maryland, my State of Maryland, just this year: April Renee Lawson, age

18; Genesis Garrett, age 22; Terry Williams, age 18; Ken Gerstley, age 50; and Guy Thomas, age 52.

We read these names tonight and remember these lives because it is important to pay tribute to those whom we have lost, but it is also to make sure that tonight is not the end of their story and that we dedicate ourselves to turning words into action here in the Senate.

Our country is now experiencing an upswing in gun violence, the largest increase in gun violence since 1960. Between the years 2019 and 2020, we have seen that big jump, and it should horrify everyone and give us pause and cause us to reflect.

I have been texting back and forth in the last few days after the shootings in Atlanta and Boulder with a friend of mine whom I first met two decades ago. Her name is Carole Price. I met her under the most tragic of circumstances. Carole and her husband John lost their beloved 13-year-old son John to gun violence. Their beautiful 13-year-old boy John went next door to play at a neighbor's house. There was a loose gun, and it was an accidental shooting. John died. He was 13 years old.

Like so many other parents or loved ones of victims of shooting deaths, Carole had the courage to take her pain, take her tragedy and work to try to make sure that kind of pain and tragedy didn't happen to another family in the State of Maryland or in the country. She did what was within her power.

At the time, I was in the Maryland Legislature, and she came and implored the Maryland Legislature to do something--something to prevent this kind of horrible tragedy from being experienced by other Maryland families, and the legislature acted. Maryland became the first State in the country at that time to require that guns sold in our State have embedded trigger locks, safety locks, so that if they were left lying around, it would be less likely that some 13-year-old boy or girl would pick it up and shoot their friend. That bill saved lives in Maryland, and that is because of Carole Price.

Think of what is happening today in our country. The pandemic hit. What did we do? We worked to follow the advice of public health experts--social distance, wear masks--and we went into overdrive. We went into overdrive to develop a vaccine to stop the deaths. When it comes to the epidemic of gun violence, we see no such actions being taken here at the Federal level. The normal thing to do would be to do what the Maryland State Legislature did in response to that tragedy Carole Price went through--try to take some action to prevent other families from experiencing that tragedy.

When Carole texted me the other day, it was just another reminder that the pain of losing a loved one to gun violence never goes away. In fact, that pain comes back again and again when we see these mass shootings, and it comes back and again when Carole Price reads about another boy or girl or another person who died from gun violence in their home. Again, we see it on a daily basis.

The reason it is so important that we come together and focus on this is that there are some, I think, in our country who have lost the capacity to be surprised. I know we were all shocked and surprised after Columbine, after Sandy Hook, after the Pulse nightclub and the Mother Emanuel AME shootings, maybe the shooting in Las Vegas. We were shocked at some point in the past that people would indiscriminately take the lives of others. We were shocked at the daily toll of gun violence. Even if it was in a place like Baltimore or another city in Maryland and it didn't make the national news, it still was a shocking thing that somebody would just gun down a fellow human being. But now when we see it happen time and again, mass shootings and the daily toll, nobody can claim surprise. What is surprising is that, as a nation, we haven't summoned the will to do something about it the same way we have worked to summon the will to defeat the coronavirus pandemic.

In 2019, 757 Marylanders died from gun violence. In fact, it has become so routine that by this time tomorrow, on the current trajectory, 2 more--2 more Marylanders will have died from gun violence. That is 1 State out of our 50 States. This is something that tears at the fabric of communities in our country. It has had a disproportionate impact and pain on communities of color.

I want to tell my colleagues about Denise Reid, who knows what it is like to carry the burden and pain of losing loved ones to gun violence. Denise grew up in Baltimore. She lost her uncle to gun violence. She lost her cousin to gun violence. She lost her cousin's girlfriend to gun violence. Her mother was shot standing in the doorway of their Baltimore home. Thankfully, she survived. In October 2006, Denise's son Tavon was shot and gravely wounded, paralyzed from the neck down. He survived his injury for 3 years but passed away after that.

So tonight, I ask all of us to pay tribute to Denise and to her son Tavon Terrell Water, Sr., who was gone too soon, but I want to tell you about Denise because she is an inspiration to us all. She still lives in Baltimore. She works as the chaplain with the Baltimore City Police, working every day to serve her community and give back to the city she loves but wants to make better and safer.

My State of Maryland has thankfully joined Denise and Carole Price and all those who have lost someone to gun violence by passing commonsense measures in our State of Maryland. But the State of Maryland, like every other State, is not an island. We can't do it alone. We need for the Congress to take action.

If you look at guns that were used in Maryland in crimes, 54 percent of them come from outside of the State of Maryland, from States that do not have those kinds of commonsense gun laws that make people safe.

So, Maryland, like so many other States, is calling upon our brothers and sisters from across the Union to help us take action, and we know that the public believes and understands that too. Some of my colleagues have said 90 percent of the American public supports basic background checks for people purchasing guns.

I want to tell my colleagues about Michael Derrick Baughan, who was born March 18, 1983, excelled in school throughout his life. He went to college in Maryland, and then he moved to Delaware. His mother Cheryl remembers picking up the phone one day and hearing her son at other end of the line saying: Mom, I went to Walmart and got a gun in 15 minutes. I can't get a driver's license that fast, but I got a gun because I am feeling pain, and I have a gun to my head.

Cheryl and Michael spoke on the phone for 2 hours before Michael agreed to take the bullets out of his gun. But that wasn't the last time he made an attempt, and Michael died of suicide, gunshot, February 2014.

Whether it is the ease of getting a gun to commit suicide or the ease of getting a gun to shoot down others, what we have in the country today is simply unacceptable. As Daniel Webster, who is a public health researcher at Johns Hopkins University of Maryland, said: Gun violence is not inevitable. It is very preventable.

We know that. We know there are things we can do to prevent gun violence. I am not going to go into a litany of legislation that we could pass to make things better. I do want to point out, though, that we have an organization, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives--the ATF, as it is commonly referred to--whose job it is, who is charged with protecting the public from the illegal use of trafficking of firearms. And yet, while we give them that charge, we give them that responsibility, the House and the Senate, over the years, have tied their hands. We have handcuffed them. We made it very difficult for them to do their job. We prevent them from sharing trace crime gun data on firearms with the public and on people doing research into the gun violence epidemic. We bar the ATF from legally requiring gun dealers to keep accurate inventories of their guns and report lost or stolen firearms. Simple things like that that we say they can't do.

I want to end by talking about an initiative of the mayor of Baltimore City, Mayor Brandon Scott, who has worked with Everytown, the organization, to create a cutting-edge internal system to help law enforcement track and understand and disrupt the stream of firearms entering the city of Baltimore. They have worked hard to try to

overcome these obstacles that we put in the way of ATF. But that is a challenge, and it shouldn't be so hard.

We had a program in the city of Baltimore--still do. It is called Safe Streets. It is headed by a person called Dante Barksdale. He went by the name of ``Tater.'' He was known throughout Baltimore as the smiling face of Safe Streets, which was a gun violence prevention program.

Dante was committed to the mission. He helped others learn to put down their guns. Dante was shot to death on January 17 of this year. In that moment, Maryland lost a son, a mentor, a hero, and as Mayor Scott called him, a man who saved thousands of lives in our city, thousands of lives, and yet his was taken by gun violence--gun violence that is preventable.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I rise today to honor the life and legacy of Alexander Fuld Frazier, a remarkable constituent who tirelessly advocated for disability rights for himself and on behalf of others.

Alec emerged as a leader and powerful advocate for disability rights and inclusion early in life. When he was 13, he spoke before sessions of Colorado's House and Senate Education Committees about the importance of special education funding. Thanks to his efforts, Colorado ultimately lifted the cap on funds for special education through a State constitutional amendment. At an early age, Alec was successful in pushing for change that meaningfully improved the lives of others.

I first met Alec in 2017 through his advocacy on Capitol Hill. He shared firsthand how Medicaid made it possible for him to lead a complete, fulfilling life. Alec was diagnosed with autism at a young age, and some professionals suggested institutionalization as he grew up. With the help of Medicaid, he benefitted from many services including therapy and an emergency brain surgery that saved his life. Through his advocacy, he stood up for the millions of people who would have been severely harmed by past legislative proposals to slash Medicaid.

Alec was a man of many talents and pursuits. He attained his bachelor's degree in political science and master's degree in disability studies. In 2014, he founded his own advocacy firm called Autistic Reality and served as a powerful peer advocate, mentor, and advisor to others. Alec also published two books, ``Without Fear: The First Autistic Superhero'' and ``Veni! Vidi! Autism!,'' that shape how we think about the representation of people with autism and disabilities in the arts. Through his written and spoken words, Alec sought to deepen others' understanding and appreciation of the varied experiences of people living with autism and disabilities.

Alec believed in and exemplified the motto, ``nothing about us without us.'' Any individual or group of people deserve to shape the decisions made about them. Alec shaped his own path and destiny, and he empowered others to do the same along the way.

I ask my colleagues to join me in sending our gratitude for Alec Frazier's life, as well as our condolences to his father Donald Frazier, his mother Danielle Fuld, and his brother Nicholas Fuld Frazier. May we carry on his work to build a more inclusive society where all Americans can thrive and reach their highest potential.

Mr. President, first, I thank my colleagues who have gathered here on the floor to help pass and urge the passage of this very important piece of legislation, the For the People Act.

Our Constitution begins with three words that ring in the minds of each and every American, ``We the People.''

Seventy-six years after those words were written, President Lincoln resolved, in 1863, that those who had lost their lives on the battlefield at Gettysburg ``shall not have died in vain and that the government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the Earth.''

One hundred two years after Gettysburg, our beloved former colleague, Congressman John Lewis--then a civil rights activist and leader-- together with nonviolent marchers, was beaten bloody by Alabama State Troopers in 1965 as they crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge while demanding voting rights. Later that year in 1965, Congress acted and did pass the Voting Rights Act, and it was reauthorized regularly thereafter, most recently in 2006 by a vote of 90 to 0 here in the U.S. Senate

and 390 to 33 in the House, where I served at that time.

Then, in 2013, in the case of Shelby County v. Holder, the Supreme Court, in a notorious 5-to-4 decision, stripped away a key enforcement provision from the Voting Rights Act: the requirement that the Department of Justice approve changes to voting rights laws in States that had histories of discriminating against African-American voters and others in their past laws.

Almost immediately, like within 24 hours, you saw States that had been covered by that act begin to move to erect barriers to the ballot box, making it more difficult for people of color to vote. Indeed, in the case of the North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP v. McCrory, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit said that the voting provisions passed by the North Carolina legislature, in the aftermath of the rollback of the Voting Rights Act, were designed to ``target African-Americans with almost surgical precision.''

Now we come to 2021. On January 6, we witnessed a violent mob, incited by the former President of the United States, attack this Capitol in order to overturn the results of a democratic election. The mob came because of the big lie--the big lie told by Donald Trump and fueled by some of his allies here on Capitol Hill--that he had been cheated out of an election victory. It is a pernicious and insidious lie that has caused Republican State legislatures across the country to try to build up barriers to voting: limiting vote-by-mail, reducing the number of days for early voting, even making it illegal in Georgia for anyone to provide water to someone who is waiting in line to vote--a real provision that has already passed the Georgia House and that is on its way to the Senate. These are all measures designed to make it harder for American citizens to exercise their right to vote.

We needed the For the People Act before January 6, but we need it more than ever now to establish some minimum national standards to ensure that every American's right to vote is secure.

In addition to the barriers being erected around the country to voting, our democracy faces another real and present danger: the flood of cash from Big Money and special interests--invading the airwaves and invading the internet--that seeks to drown out the voices of everyday Americans.

In 2010, in another notorious 5-to-4 Supreme Court decision, Citizens United, the Court opened the floodgates to unlimited amounts of corporate special interest money flowing into our elections. Over $14 billion was spent in the 2020 election cycle, much of it secret. In fact, one of the consequences of that decision, coupled with already existing laws, was that more money flowed secretly into our elections-- the dark money, the dark money trying to hijack our democracy for the highest bidder.

As my colleagues have said, the American people have a right to know who is spending all of this money to try to influence their votes. That is why, back in 2010, I authored and the House passed the DISCLOSE Act--to require that the information be available to voters and the American people. In fact, had that House bill become law, we wouldn't have secret money today. While it was overwhelmingly popular in the country and supported by an overwhelming majority of Senators at the time, because of fate and a quirk of history in the death of Ted Kennedy, the Senate was not able to secure the 60 votes necessary to overcome a filibuster. Ted Kennedy passed away, and his replacement was a Republican. This Senate voted with 59 votes--a big majority--to pass the DISCLOSE Act, but because of the filibuster rule, it couldn't get over that hurdle.

The DISCLOSE Act is part of S. 1. Senator Whitehouse and all of the Senators here have been part of that effort. It is part of S. 1.

We cannot afford to repeat the history of 2010. We cannot allow a minority of Senators who represent a minority of the public in this country and the people of this country to stop the For the People Act. We have a duty to every patriotic American who has worked hard--and the many who have spilled blood--for the right to vote. We have a duty to pass the For the People Act.

I yield the floor

Madam President, I rise to support the nomination of Marty Walsh to be our Nation's next Secretary of Labor. Mr. Walsh is an experienced leader who has always been a fighter for working families as the mayor of Boston, a State legislator, and as a union president. We need a Secretary of Labor who will make workplaces safer and prevent the spread of COVID-19 on the job, ensure that unemployed workers get the benefits they need and deserve, and support workers exercising their rights to form a union and bargain collectively.

Only 11.6 percent of workers were represented by a union in 2019, down from 27 percent in 1979. The decline in unionization has coincided with a marked divergence between overall productivity growth in our economy and paychecks for workers. While productivity has grown significantly, hourly compensation for rank-and-file workers has been nearly stagnant once inflation is taken into account.

In a January 22 Executive order on protecting the Federal workforce which faced especially harsh attacks from the Trump administration, President Biden reaffirmed that it is ``the policy of the United States to encourage union organizing and collective bargaining.'' Strengthening and enforcing the laws that enable workers to do so must be at the core of our efforts to build an economy that works for all Americans, and Marty Walsh is the right person for the job.

Madam President, I rise today in strong support for the confirmation of California's attorney general, Xavier Becerra, to be the next Secretary of Health and Human Services.

I am absolutely confident that Mr. Becerra has the knowledge, the experience, the skills, and, just as importantly, the values and principles required of this job--a job that will play a key role in beating the coronavirus and tackling the urgent issues of equity and affordability now facing our healthcare system.

I am especially confident in my assessment of Xavier Becerra because I have known him personally for years, both as a former colleague and as a

friend. I first met then-Congressman Becerra in the House of Representatives, where he served for over two decades with myself and the Presiding Officer and others, and where he was a champion for the healthcare rights of the American people, working overtime to make sure that every American had access to quality, affordable healthcare.

We served together in the House Democratic leadership, and we served together on the House Ways and Means Committee. So I have had an opportunity to see his legislative talents up front and also to witness his love of service to our country.

We worked together to halt a number of proposals that maybe some of our Republican colleagues here in the Senate were pushing for, including the proposal that continuously appeared in the House Republican budget to voucherize the Medicare Program. One of the former Speakers of the House wanted to essentially provide seniors on Medicare with a voucher and send them out into more of a private marketplace. It would have ended up putting our seniors more at risk. So together we did battle that idea.

We served together on what was known as the Congressional Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, also known as the ``supercommittee,'' and known to some as the ``not-so-super committee.'' I saw him work to try to achieve agreements on some of the biggest challenges facing our country, but, like him, we both agreed that we weren't going to do that at the expense of protecting Medicare for seniors, protecting Medicaid as an absolutely essential healthcare safety net for tens of millions of Americans, and we were not prepared to provide more tax cuts to the very wealthiest of Americans.

It is in that last effort where Xavier Becerra, I think, really distinguished himself in the House, when it came to the issue of equity and healthcare. I know the Presiding Officer knows well the battles we all went in together in the development and passage of the Affordable Care Act, and it was that that really defined Mr. Becerra's legacy in the House.

He championed the Affordable Care Act from the very start. He helped both to write and to pass this landmark law that now helps tens of millions of our fellow Americans, and after leaving the Congress, he led the charge to defend the Affordable Care Act against the Texas case before the Supreme Court of the United States.

Now, I know a lot of our Republican colleagues have also spent years fighting the Affordable Care Act. We have seen that play out here in the U.S. Senate within the last couple years. But the reality is the Affordable Care Act is very important to the overwhelming majority of the American people who support it and is an essential lifeline to quality, affordable healthcare for tens of millions of Americans. And it is that that Mr. Becerra fought to pass and which he has fought to defend against constant attacks in the courts.

There is no question that Xavier Becerra fights for what he believes is right, as he should, but that has never prevented him from working across the aisle to get things done. As the attorney general in the State of California, he has repeatedly partnered with Republicans to solve the pressing issues facing our fellow citizens.

He builds bridges every day and has worked across party lines to expand access to COVID-19 treatments, to confront the opioid crisis, and to address the dangers of vaping and smoking among our Nation's youth.

His record shows that Attorney General Becerra fights for what is important to the people he represents, not the party he belongs to, and he has demonstrated it by example time and time again with his ability to bridge deep divisions, even during this time of division. I know that he will fight hard for each and every one of our fellow citizens and will not look to see whether somebody is a Democrat or a Republican or from some other party. What he cares about is making sure he is looking out for the healthcare of every American.

And, at this moment, everyone in this country stands to benefit from an effective leader at the helm of the Department of Health and Human Services. Our most pressing task is to contain the spread of COVID-19 and to defeat COVID-19. That requires clear messaging on public health measures. That requires accelerating the distribution of vaccines and treatment and testing and making sure we do all of that in an equitable way. That means safely guiding the opening of our schools, and we all want our students to get back to school as quickly as possible and as safely as possible.

As the attorney general of California, he has led one of the largest departments of justice in the country, and, in that capacity, has stood up for strong consumer and worker protections throughout this pandemic and before, and I trust that he will continue to do so for all Americans as Secretary of HHS, if confirmed.

We know that this public emergency and health crisis has been a blow to our country. It has also laid bare the fault lines in our healthcare system in terms of racial inequities, inaccessibility for underserved communities, and underinvestment in our public health infrastructure. These issues, of course, predated COVID-19, but we must tackle them with renewed urgency as we emerge from this crisis.

Mr. Becerra is equipped to root out these disparities, both because of his knowledge and skill and expertise but also because of his lived experience. Xavier grew up in a working-class Latino family. He knows the communities that are hurting most because he has lived in those communities. He would bring to this important office not only his expertise and skill but the empathy and the compassion needed to help those most in need.

Like most of us, Mr. Becerra is also guided and motivated by what makes him most proud: his family. At his confirmation hearing, he spoke movingly about his wife and his children, who are all a part of all that he does. And he spoke about his parents, who traveled to this country from Mexico seeking a better life, with nothing more than, in Xavier's words, ``their health and their hope.''

It is that health and that hope that propelled Mr. Becerra into a life of public service, and it is that health and that hope that will animate his leadership at the Department of Health and Human Services, should he be confirmed by this Senate.

He was brought up in a family that believed in and sought the American dream, and he has spent his life fighting to make that dream real for families across this Nation. He believes, as I believe, that that mission requires us to care for the health and safety of each and every one of our fellow citizens, and I have full confidence that he is up to the task.

Colleagues, I urge us to confirm the nomination of Xavier Becerra to be the next Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Mr. President, I rise today to support the confirmation of Isabel Guzman, a dedicated public servant and successful small businesswoman, to lead the Small Business Administration.

Small businesses are a cornerstone of Maryland's economy, creating jobs, driving innovation, and anchoring communities. Isabel Guzman's extensive leadership experience serving at SBA under the Obama administration and running her own small businesses positions her well to support our small business communities as we finish the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic and address the unique challenges faced by women- and minority-owned small businesses across Maryland.

In her new role as SBA Administrator, she will inherit an economic crisis compounded by a mismanaged pandemic that has devastated the small business community from retail to restaurants and bars to sole- proprietorships. She will be charged not only with administering critical small business relief programs, including the Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program and the Paycheck Protection Program, but also with building back better to shape the environment for a thriving small business community. I look forward to working closely with her to ensure that we build an inclusive economy that encourages and supports local entrepreneurs.

Mr. President, I have 8 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:

Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation

The Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, March 17, 2021, at 10 a.m., to conduct a hearing.

Committee on Finance

The Committee on Finance is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, March 17, 2021, at 10 a.m., to conduct a hearing.

Committee on Foreign Relations

The Committee on Foreign Relations is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, March 17, 2021, at 10 a.m., to conduct a hearing.

Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

The Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, March 17, 2021, at 9:30 a.m., to conduct a hearing on nominations.

Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs

The Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, March 17, 2021, at 9:30 a.m., to conduct a hearing.

Committee on the Judiciary

The Committee on the Judiciary is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, March 17, 2021, at 10 a.m., to conduct a hearing.

Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship

The Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, March 17, 2021, at 2:30 p.m., to conduct a hearing.

Subcommittee on Fisheries, Water, and Wildlife

The Subcommittee on Fisheries, Water, and Wildlife of the Committee

on Environment and Public Works is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, March 17, 2021, at 10 a.m., to conduct a hearing.

Mr. President, we urgently need a qualified and effective leader ready to protect our natural resources, conserve public lands, and collaborate with our Tribal nations. President Biden's nominee to lead the Department of the Interior is just the person for the job, Congresswoman Debra Haaland. She will quickly restore confidence in the Department and reaffirm its mission to manage and conserve our public land and do its part to confront climate change.

Congresswoman Haaland would be the first Native American Cabinet Secretary, and she is no stranger to breaking barriers. Haaland was one of the first two Native women elected to Congress in 2018. Prior to her congressional tenure, Haaland was the first Chairwoman elected to the Laguna Development Corporation Board of Directors and the first Native woman elected to lead a State party, as chairwoman of the New Mexico Democratic Party. She brought her progressive values of sustainability and environmental protection to each of her positions, and I believe she will do the same for the Department of the Interior.

During her tenure as vice chair of the House Committee on Natural Resources, Haaland led legislative efforts, like the ANTIQUITIES Act and the 30x30 Resolution, to protect and conserve our national monuments, public lands, and oceans. Additionally, the Congresswoman has prioritized environmental justice and Tribal inclusion throughout her career. She introduced

the Environmental Justice in Recreational Permitting Act to increase access to public lands for all communities and fight environmental injustice. Given the Department's history of failing to engage with indigenous communities while enacting harmful public lands policies, Haaland will bring a new era of equity and inclusion to the Department of the Interior.

Last Congress, I worked to enact the Chesapeake WILD Act, which authorizes up to $15 million annually for a new grant program managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to do fish and wildlife habitat restoration in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. I look forward to working with Haaland to see that this program is fully funded and well implemented.

The Department of the Interior manages over 500 million acres of public land, and Haaland's record shows she is prepared to take on this role. For these reasons, I support Debra Haaland's nomination for Secretary of the Interior.

Madam President, I rise today to voice my support for the President's nominee for Attorney General, Judge Merrick Garland, who is not only a fellow Marylander, but somebody I have known personally for many years. And I know that President Biden has picked a nominee with impeccable credentials and unimpeachable character. His experience stretches from the halls of the Justice Department to the chambers of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and he embodies the decency, the impartiality, and the commitment to justice that our Nation deserves as the Attorney General of the United States. I am confident that Judge Garland will serve admirably and faithfully as the next Attorney General.

The Nation already knows Merrick Garland because of his Supreme Court nomination and as the former Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, where he earned a reputation as one of our Nation's finest and fairest jurists. But his tenure on the D.C. Circuit was just the most recent achievement in a life dedicated to serving the rule of law. After excelling at law school, Judge Garland clerked for the Second Circuit Court of Appeals and then for the Supreme Court. He then rose through the ranks of a prominent law firm before jumping back into public service feet-first as a Federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney's Office during the administration of President George Herbert Walker Bush and then later served as the Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General at the Department of Justice.

As a senior DOJ official, Judge Garland was tasked with overseeing the case of the Oklahoma City bombing, one of the deadliest domestic terrorist attacks in American history. It left 168 Americans dead and hundreds more injured. Merrick Garland brought a steady hand to an operation that involved massive amounts of evidence, pressure from the public, and a large team with diverse skills and backgrounds. With fidelity to the law and meticulous attention to detail and unrelenting focus, Merrick Garland helped bring the bomber, Timothy McVeigh, to justice. He has called this case the most important thing he has done in his life.

Mr. Chairman, ranking member, and committee members, we are going to need his experience as we once again confront the rise of domestic terrorism, particularly in the wake of the horrific events of January 6. And the next Attorney General must not only take on the rise of White supremacists and radical militia groups, but also ensure that justice is rendered equally and fairly by promoting and ensuring racial equity, rooting out discrimination in our criminal justice system, addressing police reform, and ensuring that we don't see a concerted effort to limit people's citizens' right to vote in the United States of America. As Justice Garland has himself stated, ensuring the rule of law and making real the promise of equal justice under the law are ``the great principles upon which the Department of Justice was founded and for which it must always stand.'' Judge Garland has spent his career doing both, and I have no doubt he will honor that tradition as Attorney General.

During Judge Garland's confirmation hearing his commitment to public service and ensuring equal justice were on display. He shared that he felt an obligation to payback our country for protecting and welcoming his grandparents who fled to the United States to escape anti-Semitism and persecution. He stated that serving as an Attorney General that combats injustice and discrimination would be ``the highest, best use of my own set of skills.''

While his professional experiences have prepared him for this job, it is his character that makes him right for this moment. Should he be confirmed, Judge Garland will be charged with restoring credibility and independence to the Department of Justice, making it clear that the Department is not the political instrument of the White House. I know Merrick Garland is up to

the task. The lengthy list of testimonials speaking to his fairness and sound judgement span the political spectrum. He is respected by lawmakers, scholars, and lawyers of every legal persuasion and political philosophy. And on a personal note, I can attest to the fact that his brilliance is matched by his kindness. His many achievements have never gone to his head. He has always stayed humble and treated everyone with respect.

It is for these reasons and many more that I was honored to vote for the President's nominee to serve as the next Attorney General of the United States, Judge Merrick Garland.

Madam President, now is the time to take substantive action to combat climate change, address environmental justice, and help clean up the Chesapeake Bay. To help address these critical issues, President Biden nominated Michael Regan to be Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Michael Regan most recently served as secretary of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality. During that time, Mr. Regan led the implementation of North Carolina's Executive Order 80, a landmark effort to address climate change's impact and transition the State's energy economy. Mr. Regan also created North Carolina's first Environmental Justice and Equity Advisory Board to address societal disparities exacerbated by environmental issues during his tenure as secretary.

Mr. Regan has a strong record of bipartisanship, having previously served at the EPA under both Democratic and Republican Presidents. He is committed to rebuilding EPA's Federal workforce, which saw record departures during the Trump administration. During the Trump administration, we saw the EPA workforce shrink to levels not seen since the Reagan administration, and those who resigned or retired include some of the Agency's most experienced scientific veterans, as well as young environmental experts who traditionally would have replaced them, causing a brain drain at the EPA. Maryland is home to many of those Federal employees, and I look forward to working with Mr. Regan to rebuild the civil servant backbone of the EPA.

One of EPA's most critical roles for the State of Maryland is its role in the cleanup of the Chesapeake Bay. We are at a very critical junction in the implementation of the Chesapeake Bay Agreement and our mutual goal of clean water in the Chesapeake Bay by 2025. On December 29, 2010, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency established the Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load--TMDL--a historic and comprehensive agreement that includes accountability features to restore clean water in the seven jurisdictions within the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The agreement is a national and indeed international model for watershed restoration. It sets limits for pollution that equate to a 25-percent reduction in nitrogen, 24-percent reduction in phosphorous, and 20-percent reduction in sediment. As the Bay TMDL states, ``The TMDL is designed to ensure that all pollution control measures needed to fully restore the Bay and its tidal rivers are in place by 2025[.]''

I look forward to working with Mr. Regan to make sure that EPA uses every tool available to them, including enforcement measures when necessary, to make sure that all jurisdictions are on track for our mutual goal of clean water in the Chesapeake Bay by 2025.

Furthermore, I am pleased that Mr. Regan has indicated that he will reconstituting the position of Senior Advisor to the Administrator of the EPA for the Chesapeake Bay.

I believe that Michael Regan is a strong choice to lead us into a new era at the EPA. For these reasons, I supported Michael Regan's nomination as the Administrator of the EPA.

Mr. President, I rise today to voice my support for the confirmation of my friend and colleague Congresswoman Marcia Fudge to be the next Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. I know that she will bring strong leadership to HUD at a time when our Nation needs it most.

Across my State of Maryland and throughout the country, our fellow Americans are struggling to keep a roof over their heads. Families are living in fear of eviction or of missing their next mortgage payment. In this time of crisis, we need a leader at HUD who will prioritize tackling the ongoing housing crisis spurred by COVID-19. Congresswoman Fudge has expressed her determination to do just that. She is a dedicated and experienced public servant who has earned a reputation for swift action and firm leadership. Her accumulated experience spanning a lifetime of service will be invaluable in helping the Federal Government mount a robust and coordinated campaign to bring those hardest hit back from the brink and ensure an equitable recovery.

While addressing the urgent needs of renters and homeowners during this pandemic, we can't lose sight of the bigger picture. The pandemic has exacerbated our country's affordable housing crisis and shone a spotlight on how it disproportionately harms communities of color. We are seeing the result of decades of discriminatory practices like redlining that have targeted minority families and left an enduring stain on our communities that won't be easily wiped away. President Biden has put forth a bold plan to combat our Nation's housing crisis, and as HUD Secretary, Congresswoman Fudge will be charged with implementing it, reversing the damage caused by the Trump administration, restoring and improving our fair housing protections, rebuilding our Nation's supply of affordable housing, and investing in our housing infrastructure. She has her work cut out for her.

There is no doubt in my mind that Congresswoman Fudge will work overtime to tackle these challenges head-on. She has spent her career fighting on behalf of those most in need and those who have been historically barred from stable living and home ownership. She has seen these issues up close: first as the mayor of Warrensville Heights, OH, and then as a member of the House of Representatives and as chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, where she has helped forge compromises that brought real results. She is guided by the principle that each of us has a responsibility to respect and uplift those most in need. In her words, ``there is dignity and there is grace within every woman every man and every child in this nation--including those who live on the outskirts of hope.'' For Marcia Fudge, service isn't just a job, it is a calling. I know that, should she be confirmed, Congresswoman Fudge will lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development with unwavering commitment. I look forward to partnering with her and the Biden administration to provide more Americans with the dignity of stable living as we work urgently to strengthen and grow our affordable housing programs across Maryland and throughout the country.