Floor Statements

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to be recognized not withstanding the order that no business be conducted during today's pro forma session.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that notwithstanding the order that no business be conducted during today's pro forma session, it be in order for committees to report legislative business from 10:30 a.m. until 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday, October 18, 2022, and that the Senate stand in adjournment in accordance with the orders of September 29 and October 11, 2022, for previously ordered pro forma sessions.

Mr. President, I rise to address three different topics, if I might.

First, this week, the Senate of the United States did something important, something that is genuinely a big deal. We ratified a treaty. This is something we don't do often enough, and it bears repeating what this Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol is.

By a vote of 69 to 27, a big bipartisan vote, this Senate ratified a treaty that will reduce global warming by a full degree Fahrenheit-- something critical to the future of the planet--and we do it in a way that is a win for American manufacturing, a win for American exports, and a win for our planet and creation.

Some of you may remember, a long time ago, we discovered a problem--a growing hole in the ozone layer that was being caused by propellants, by CFCs. So the world came together to eliminate CFCs and replace them with a new generation of artificial propellants and refrigerants known as HFCs.

That was good news. The hole in the ozone layer had largely been addressed, and the threat of skin cancer and being bombarded by radiation that that posed was largely resolved. Yet, this next generation of chemicals, HFCs, had an unexpected additional problem. They are 1,000 times worse for global warming, for climate change, than carbon dioxide, so much so--and they are so broadly used in every industrial setting--that it has led to a rapid increase in global warming.

Well, the solution was actually invented in Delaware. It is the next generation of chemicals that is much less harmful to the climate and to the environment, effective as a refrigerant, being manufactured now in places across the United States, and that, if exported to the rest of the world, can grow thousands of manufacturing jobs.

I just wanted to take a moment and celebrate. The projections are there will be as many as 33,000 new manufacturing jobs in the United States, some in my home State of Delaware but spread across the country; over $1 billion in new exports that will impact just this year the American economy because of this; and a 25-percent increase in the exports of American-made refrigerators and air-conditioners and so forth.

This was a rare moment of bipartisan consensus where we were able to come together and address a global challenge and create more opportunity here at home, and I thought it bore some celebration as we conclude this week.

Mr. President, earlier this week, our President, Joe Biden, stood before the world at the United Nations General Assembly and continued his forceful, clear, and strong effort to call on the world to enforce the U.N. Charter and to push back on Russia's brutal invasion of Ukraine.

Since February, when Putin's forces swept into Ukraine and threatened to overrun the entire country, the West has pulled together, and allies and supporters of the Ukrainian people from around the world have imposed sanctions on Russia and Russian oligarchs; have provided funding and support and assistance to millions of Ukrainian refugees who have flooded throughout the rest of the world; and, critically, have provided financial support for the men and women of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, who just in recent days made a dramatic breakout in northern Ukraine, recapturing an area the size of Delaware--more than 3,000 square miles--in a rapid advance east of Kharkiv.

President Biden has asked this body, in a bill we will take up in just a few days, to provide $11.7 billion in additional support for Ukraine. The Presiding Officer and I are appropriators, and we know how precious the resources of the American people are. And I am grateful that, on a broad bipartisan basis, we have provided tens of billions of dollars in humanitarian relief for refugees, in support for the Government of Ukraine, and in critically needed military support for the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

It is because the Biden administration has delivered the most advanced and targeted long-range artillery systems we have, called HIMARS, that

suddenly the Ukrainians are making real advances on the battlefield. We must continue this critical support.

President Zelenskyy has pulled together and mobilized the Ukrainian people in a remarkable show of determination, a fierce resistance. Despite being badly outnumbered by a much greater military force with advanced and sophisticated weaponry, Ukrainians have fought bravely and with enormous determination. They deserve our continued support.

In just recent weeks, there have been some real signs of progress in opening the Black Sea ports of Ukraine so that grain can be exported to a dozen hungry countries, in making progress on prisoner-of-war exchanges between the Russians and the Ukrainians, and in protests in Russia.

In an act of desperation, President Putin has called up hundreds of thousands of reservists in a mobilization to try to push back against Ukrainian forces. Russia is losing this fight. They are losing on the ground in Ukraine; they are losing in the court of public opinion; and they are losing strategically.

My entire life, we had thought it was unlikely that Sweden or Finland would ever join NATO--the most successful multilateral security arrangement we have ever engaged in as a nation--but because of Russia's aggression against Ukraine now, both Sweden and Finland are seeking admission to NATO. This body acted quickly to ratify their admission to NATO, and we are down to just a few countries.

In New York, I had a chance to meet with President Erdogan of Turkey to convey to him both our appreciation of his help in getting the grain out of the Black Sea ports of Ukraine but the urgency of expanding NATO to secure it against further Russian aggression.

It is my hope that we will move quickly as a united NATO alliance and that we here in this body will act quickly to provide the additional assistance to the Ukrainian people, government, and armed forces that our President has sought.

Earlier today, we took up a vote on the DISCLOSE Act. Since 2010, when the Supreme Court of the United States issued an ill-conceived opinion in the case of Citizens United, we have seen a flood of dark money steadily become more and more pernicious in its impact on our politics and our policies.

Here in Washington and now around the country, wealthy individuals, corporations, and shadowy special interest groups have contributed hundreds of millions--now billions of dollars across several election cycles that have undermined the integrity and fairness of our elections that are at the very heart of our democracy.

This bill would do a simple thing. It would require full disclosure of all corporations, trade associations, nonprofits engaging in electioneering. They would have to disclose any donors of $10,000 or more over any 2-year period. It wouldn't solve all the problems created by Citizens United, but sunshine is the best disinfectant, and it would allow the American people to know who is truly behind the dark money- funded ads that now bombard citizens in competitive elections around our country.

Tragically, it was a straight party-line vote today, and we were not able to proceed to take up and vote on the DISCLOSE Act. In the end, one party continues to defend the practice of dark money flooding our elections, while another is seeking to open up clarity for the general public and our electorate on who is giving money to whom. We should have had a vote on the DISCLOSE Act. Instead we failed to get to that bill because we could not get in this Chamber 60 votes to move ahead.

It is my hope that the American people are paying attention and realize on whose side we are on in this fight over transparency in our elections.

With that, Mr. President, I offer my thanks.

I yield the floor to my colleague from Michigan.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that there be a period of morning business for debate only until 3 p.m., with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each; and that Senator Schumer be recognized at 3 p.m.

Madam President, I rise briefly to speak to a unanimous consent request that I am going to make in just a moment. I am pleased that we are about to consider the nomination of Dr. Monde Muyangwa, to be Assistant Administrator for Africa for USAID.

This is a critical post, one we cannot afford to leave vacant at a time when the humanitarian needs, the development opportunities, the strategic challenges that we see in Africa need to be met by an outstanding development professional.

As the ongoing Russian aggression in Ukraine continues to cause skyrocketing fertilizer costs, widespread food crises, the people of Africa need to know that the people of the United States will support them, will work with them, and will be a great partner in their development.

I am about to ask unanimous consent for the confirmation of a nominee who has a long and deep experience in this area. The director of the Wilson Center Africa Program, long-time dean of the Africa Center for Strategic Studies at the National Defense University, a professor, a nonprofit leader, a development professional, a Rhodes Scholar--someone who will represent us very well.

Madam President, with that, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to executive session to consider the follow nomination: Calendar No. 815, Monde Muyangwa, to be an Assistant Administrator for the United States Agency for International Development; that the Senate vote on the nomination without intervening action or debate; that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table; that the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action, and the Senate resume legislative session.

With that, I yield to my colleague from the State of Illinois.

Mr. President, you and I have had the blessing of traveling to South Africa together, so I know you know, as I do, that it is a critical nation, not just on its own terms as a country of 70 million people of a multilingual, multifaith, multiethnic democracy working to achieve the incredible promise enshrined in its Constitution, working to achieve the vision of a liberation struggle, but it is also a country that is critical to regional security and for the path of the globe and to the security and stability of democracy in this century. This is why I stand to speak briefly on behalf of my friend, Reuben Brigety, the nominee to be our next Ambassador to South Africa, whose confirmation we will take up in just a few moments.

Reuben is someone I admire deeply. He attended the Naval Academy, served in the U.S. Navy, was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State both for African Affairs and for Population, Refugees, and Migration.

I met him as Ambassador to the African Union, knew him well as dean of the Elliott School at GW. He took on the challenge of service as the president of the University of the South, better known as Sewanee; and now our President has nominated him to represent us in South Africa.

As we have seen in recent votes and actions at the United Nations and in discussions and debates around the world, African countries--in this moment, during this war in Ukraine, in the face of Russia's aggression--are turning away from us. They are not believing the reality that it is Russian aggression that is causing food scarcity and fertilizer prices to spike, and they are more than not taking Russia's side on this.

We cannot take these relationships for granted. The United States, for decades, has been a close development and public health partner of South Africa. We have to send our best, and Ambassador Brigety is the right person at the right time to advance the critical relationship goals that we have between the United States and South Africa.

Tribute to Alexandra Davis

Mr. President, one of the blessings of serving here in the Senate is getting to know natives of New Jersey, like yourself and like my foreign policy adviser, Allie Davis.

I will do my best to get through these next few minutes of remarks without being unduly emotional, but she deserves a catch in the throat and a tear in the eye because Allie is someone who from the moment she came to join my team 6 years ago has been a remarkable person--a person of great spirit and character, someone who also spent time in South Africa as a young person.

After graduating from the University of Delaware, a tour as a Fulbright in South Africa prepared her to join my team as a foreign policy fellow.

As she was just confessing to me in my office a few moments ago, she knew far less about governance and politics than I imagined. She carries herself with remarkable grace and confidence. She steadily has risen to be a legislative aide, a legislative assistant, and now my foreign policy adviser.

I don't have the time--but I wish I did--to detail all the pieces of significant and important legislation she has helped shepherd through to success. She has critically supported my leadership on the State and Foreign Operations Appropriations team. She has been critical as we have worked to address this moment of global hunger. She has helped get the Global Fragility Act from concept to enactment. She has helped make the Development Finance Corporation a powerful tool for development. She helped shape and craft the Nita M. Lowey Middle East Partnership for Peace Act, and she nearly single-handedly, at a time when I was confident this could not be done, got the Sudan Claims Resolution Act through this Congress and fundamentally changed the arc of the search for democracy in Sudan.

We had the chance to travel together on a Presidential mission to Ethiopia, during which she had truly memorable encounters with its head of state and an opportunity to see and participate and help drive diplomacy firsthand. We traveled together to so many other countries: from the UAE to France to Georgia to Italy and, perhaps most memorably, to Sudan, where I was honored to receive one of their leading national awards, which really was an award in recognition of her work on behalf of the Sudanese people.

She goes to serve the House Foreign Affairs Committee, whose chairman I accosted last night at an event, and said: You are causing great harm to me, and I resent deeply the fact that you are causing this most talented and skilled and trusted member to leave the Senate and go to the House.

But she joins as a member of their professional staff, a great team. And I know that we will continue to work hard and to work closely together in the years and decades ahead. A great friend, a great colleague, and someone to whom I wish great success in the many years ahead.

With that, I urge my colleagues to vote in support of the nomination of Reuben Brigety to be Ambassador, and I offer my greatest thanks to Allie Davis for her talented and skillful service on behalf of the people of Delaware.

I yield the floor.

I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent for 1 minute of floor time to speak to the impending nomination.

Mr. President, I would like to thank my colleague and senior Senator, my friend, Mr. Tom Carper, who allows me to be his wingman here on the floor of the Senate and in our home State of Delaware.

I just wanted to speak briefly to the outstanding qualifications of the nominee that will be before us in a moment, Greg Williams of Delaware.

As a member of the Delaware Bar, as a member of the Judiciary Committee, I have joined my senior Senator, friend, and colleague in advancing this nomination, both suggesting to the White House strongly that he would be an excellent next member of the important Federal bench in Delaware and

that he would represent our Nation well and contribute to our Federal judiciary, which is globally the gold standard for its capability, its independence, and its integrity.

Greg has practiced for decades in Delaware. He is one of the best respected, leading complex commercial litigators, and an experienced intellectual property litigator.

The District of Delaware is one of the busiest Federal courts in our entire country. Because of our unique place in American corporate law, because of the quality and the competence of our bench, we handle an enormous number of patent cases, a significant number of corporate cases.

I don't know if my colleague has mentioned one of the top-of-the- charts cases about to come to Delaware, but when you make a promise to purchase a company like--I don't know, hypothetically, Twitter--and then the deal comes apart, that ends up in a Delaware court called our chancery court. Our Federal District Court and our Federal Bankruptcy Courts handle significant litigation.

Greg is someone who also, as a family man, as a person of faith, as an outstanding leader in our community, as the past president of the bar association, as the past chairman of the judicial nominating commission on behalf of our Governor, he has served our community.

He brings his heart, his values, his intellect, and his skill to his service each and every day, and I am honored to join my senior Senator in speaking on his behalf on the floor. And I look forward to working with my colleagues across the aisle to ensure a swift confirmation vote today.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

I rise to join the leaders of the codel that I just had the honor and blessing of joining, Senators Shaheen and Tillis, and a number of the other members of that codel, Senators Ernst and Blunt. And I was grateful for the chance to travel with Senators Durbin and Fischer. I want to just join in my colleagues' statements today.

I think this was a tremendous opportunity for us in Sweden and in Finland to meet with nations that are advanced economies, that are closely aligned with our values, that have sophisticated militaries, and that now, for the very first time, are seeking admission to NATO. NATO is the most successful security alliance in world history, and it is rooted in shared values and shared concerns and interests.

One of the most vulnerable pieces of NATO, if you looked at the map just a few months ago, were three little Baltic States--Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia--that, for decades, were under the heel of the Soviet Union. They were relatively newly independent in recent decades, admitted to NATO, but very difficult to defend.

One of the reasons I joined with my colleagues to say here, as we did in Madrid, that we should swiftly ratify the joining to NATO of both Sweden and Finland is that they will provide security. They will be security contributors to this alliance. The odds that a young man or a woman from Iowa or North Carolina, from Missouri, New Hampshire, or Delaware will have to go defend Estonia, will have to go risk or give their life to defending Latvia or Lithuania will go down dramatically if we have on that border, at the very northern end of the NATO alliance, a new 830-mile border between Finland and Russia. The Russians know they will have to defend and pay attention to it given the unique history of 1939-1940 war. And where countries aligned with our values and priorities are going to continue to contribute to the importance of this alliance.

It was valuable that in our meetings with heads of state from Europe, like Chancellor Scholz from the Indo-Pacific, like Prime Minister Kishida from Japan, in conversations with foreign Secretaries like Liz Truss of the United Kingdom, or meetings with foreign Ministers of Italy and of Germany and of France and of Spain, that this delegation was able to speak with one voice and to articulate why we join the Biden administration in supporting NATO accession for these two critical new partners.

The last point I want to make is that I am hopeful--I am optimistic-- that we will continue to provide unified bipartisan robust support for Ukraine's brave and fierce defense of its Nation and its sovereignty in the face of Russia's war crimes, Russia's continued aggression. We are calling on all of our NATO allies to step up and to contribute and to participate. And they are. This has brought greater unity, greater purpose, greater focus to the NATO alliance than anything in decades.

I will remind you, the one time that the article 5 sacred obligation to come to each other's defense has been triggered before was in Afghanistan. Thousands and thousands of NATO soldiers served alongside ours in Afghanistan when it was the United States that was attacked on 9/11. This NATO alliance is stronger than it has ever been and needs to be the strongest it has ever been, because, as my colleagues both laid out clearly and concisely, this is a pivotal moment in the future of the United States and our role in the world, the future of NATO and Western freedom.

We must make sure we succeed. I am so grateful for the bipartisan commitment that was at the core of this delegation.

I yield to my colleague.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to executive session to consider the following nomination: Executive Calendar No. 589, James D. Rodriguez, to be Assistant Secretary of Labor for Veterans' Employment and Training; that the Senate vote on the nomination without intervening action or debate; that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table; that any statements related to the nomination be printed in the Record; that the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action, and the Senate resume legislative session.

Madam 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 proceedings.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 11 a.m., Thursday, May 5; 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 proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 887, Kathryn Huff, of Illinois, to be an Assistant Secretary of Energy; further, that the Senate vote on confirmation of the Huff nomination at 1:45 p.m.; finally, if the nomination is confirmed during Thursday's session, that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table and the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action.

Madam President, 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, we are in the middle of a horrible global pandemic. Later this month, we will pass a tragic milestone of a million Americans killed by COVID-19. Already, more than 6 million globally have died.

And I know we are all sick and tired of it, completely tired of it, done with it. I hear all the time at home and here that we are done with this pandemic, but, unfortunately, it is not done with us.

This week, this body has failed to take minimally responsible action. And I am going to speak for a few minutes to what it means that we have failed to come together to pass another urgently needed appropriations bill both to meet our domestic needs for therapeutics and vaccines and for treatment and for the development of the next vaccine for the next variant and what it means that we have delivered zero additional resources for global public health to address this worst global pandemic in a century.

The bill that we should be taking up now and is being blocked by disagreements would have provided $10 billion to help provide additional protection for 330 million Americans, to buy the therapeutics that we need, to invest in the research to make sure that we are ready for the next variant, to finish providing the public health support for vaccinations.

While we may think we are done with the virus, 30,000 Americans yesterday tested positive. It has touched all of our communities, our families, my own family, our own neighborhoods. We are not done with this.

Senator Schumer and others of my colleagues have been saying on this floor and in public and in private relentlessly, we must deliver more resources. Well, I am here to say that we cannot get this pandemic under control here in the United States and secure the safety and health of our people until we have delivered meaningful vaccine protection around the world.

It is shortsighted for us to say that because we are done with it, it is done with us. I will remind you, we have twice before gone through periods where things were looking better, things were looking up, and then the Delta variant emerged, the Omicron variant emerged in other places in the world where vaccination rates were not what we might hope for, not what we have achieved here and in other countries.

So let me briefly explain why this is a case of ``pay me now or pay me later.'' I understand the fiscal concerns that have driven some to say we should spend no more, but I think we will discover the foolishness of a view that says we need not spend more.

First, it is just a waste of money, folks. We have already bought hundreds of millions of vaccine doses that are now not going to be delivered in countries in the world, and particularly in Africa, where the public health systems are not developed enough to actually translate vaccine doses into vaccinations.

As I learned during the Ebola epidemic in Liberia, that last mile from the capital to the regions to villages is really hard to navigate. It is hard to navigate here in the United States, heck. But in countries without cold storage chains, without rural public health resources, without the resources to pay for people to go and vaccinate, not having that last dollar to go that last mile means that we are letting people die when we have got the vaccines to save their lives; and it means we continue to have 2.8 billion unvaccinated people around the world.

Second, this is a moment where we can teach the world, again, that the United States, long the most reliable global public health partner, can be counted on in this critical moment. Dozens of countries could not get our vaccines 6 months or a year ago, so they have relied on Chinese and Russian vaccines that are ineffective against Omicron. A variant emerged able to get around Sinopharm and Sputnik, the vaccines delivered by the Chinese and Russians.

So we have a moment when dozens of countries around the world are asking for our help. We have got the vaccines; we have got the opportunity; and we are failing to take advantage of this moment.

The most compelling reason, of course, is our own people's health. We have seen this cycle before, and we will see this cycle again.

How bad is the vaccination status in other places around the world? Well, briefly: Yemen, a country undergoing a horrific war with widespread famine, their vaccination rate is less than 1.5 percent. In Haiti, in our hemisphere, a nation of 11 million people, their vaccination rate is below 1 percent. The number of folks fully vaccinated in two great countries on the continent of Africa--Tanzania, 60 million people; Nigeria, 200 million people--below 5 percent.

We cannot afford to allow this virus, COVID-19, which is like a safecracker, out there in the world to just keep twisting the dials and testing, testing, testing--because every time it infects someone, it has a chance to mutate. Every time it mutates, it has a chance to get past our defenses.

We will regret this failure. We need to treat this like the global health emergency it is, and we need to realize that we already had hundreds of millions of people facing food insecurity before the Russian invasion of Ukraine accelerated the vulnerability of millions of people around the world because Ukraine is the breadbasket from which is fed countries all over the region: the Middle East and North Africa, from Syria to Somalia. We are going to see food riots, increased instability, and millions more in hunger.

So, folks, I will keep at this. I will keep working. I will keep mobilizing and engaging my colleagues, both Democratic and Republican, in making the case until it is done; but we have a moral imperative, an economic imperative, a political imperative, a humanitarian imperative to save our own country and our own people by providing the resources the world needs and deserves.

We have so many good partners in this--organizations like One, USGOC, Care, Catholic Relief Services, Save the Children, Bread for the World, and many others--too many to name. But we need the same level of energy and commitment and engagement in this Chamber that we have heard from calls from around our country and our world. The world is looking to the United States to use the vaccines we have, use the resources we have, provide the support to get us on the other side of this pandemic globally. Mr. President, this is the moment that we should do it.