Floor Statements

Mr. President, as our dear colleague, Senator Dianne Feinstein, is lying in state in San Francisco today, the home where her leadership started for us and for the country, and as we prepare to remember her tomorrow in a special celebration of her life, I rise to pay tribute--tribute to an incredible leader and my dear friend, who dedicated her life to serving the people of California and the Nation.

Perhaps ``leader'' isn't strong enough. It is not a strong enough word. She wasn't just a leader. She was an American icon. She inspired generations of women to stand up and suit up and push our way into the halls of power that weren't particularly welcoming.

Like so many of us, she started in local government. Unlike many of us, her rise was sparked by tragedy. As president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, it was her job to announce the horrific assassination of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk.

She was heartbroken. But she was also calm. She was determined. She vowed that her grieving city would recover and rebuild.

She was a crucial part of that rebuilding, serving as mayor for 9 years. In 1990, she ran for Governor and lost, but she picked herself back up and said she wasn't done serving her State.

In 1992, she ran for the Senate and won, joining five other groundbreaking women who changed the face of this institution forever.

Keep in mind that before 1992, there were no women's restrooms anywhere near the Senate Chamber. This is actually something we all noticed.

Through sheer determination and a lot of hard work, she rose to become the highest ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee and chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Through her leadership, she left her mark on this institution over and over again in so many ways. She was a fierce and courageous advocate for commonsense gun laws, as our Presiding Officer is as well, including the 1994 assault weapons ban signed into law by President Clinton. That legislation alone saved so many lives from gun violence during the 10 years that it was law. I so wish that it had been able to be continued permanently. She stood up for American values when she led the years-long investigation into allegations that the CIA had used torture against terrorism suspects. Despite CIA and White House objections, Senator Feinstein courageously chose to publicly release what is known as the torture report. It was such a historic moment that it was even turned into a major motion picture starring Adam Driver and Annette Bening as Senator Feinstein.

I will never forget sitting in this Chamber behind Senator Feinstein to show support for her courage that day. She spoke to the American people about the horrific details outlined in this report.

Senator John McCain, who understood the horrors of torture more than anyone, commended Senator Feinstein and her staff for the report and added this:

Our enemies act without conscience. We must not. This

executive summary of the Committee's report makes clear that

acting without conscience isn't necessary, it isn't even

helpful, in winning this strange and long war we're fighting.

We should be grateful to have that truth affirmed.

In response to the report, Senator Feinstein and Senator McCain's anti-torture amendment was included in the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act. The amendment restricted interrogation techniques to those authorized in the ``Army Field Manual'' and

required that the International Committee of the Red Cross have access to detainees in U.S. Government custody--a law that stands today.

Senator Feinstein was also a tireless champion for women, including the Violence Against Women Act, legislation to fight human trafficking, and our freedom to make our own reproductive health decisions. She was a leading voice for decades on behalf of our LGBTQ+ friends and neighbors. She fought to protect California's forests and water infrastructure.

Beyond her many, many accomplishments, she was also my friend, and I so enjoyed hearing the stories from colleagues in the last number of days about her.

Yes, Mr. President, I, too, have a seersucker suit, which she bought for each of us to make sure that the women of the Senate could participate in seersucker suit day.

Yes, I also have a piece of art. In addition to watercolors, she drew beautiful pictures with colored pencils, and I am so honored to have one of those hanging in my house.

Yes, Dianne also used to say: Are you staying in DC this weekend? Why don't you come over for dinner?

I was grateful for the times I was able to join her.

Dianne was always giving people, particularly all of us as women, items of hers that we admired. We had to be careful what we were admiring or we would end up getting one.

One day, I got the opportunity to return the favor in a very small way. We were on the floor, and Dianne said to me: I love your lipstick, the color of your lipstick. Where did you get it?

And I thought, aha, this is a moment for me to give Dianne something, as small as it was. So I came in a couple of days later with a package with several of the lipsticks she had admired, and the smile on her face was priceless.

She said: You don't have to do that.

I said: Yes, I do. You do so much for us every day that this is just a small token I can give in return.

Senator Feinstein once said this:

Women have begun to see that if I go through that doorway,

I take everybody through it.

Today, I am remembering my friend for all of the barriers she broke, the glass ceiling she shattered, the doors she held open so that so many others could follow.

May her memory be a blessing to her family, to the people of California, and to all of us who are feeling her loss.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Madam President, I rise today to strongly support the nomination of Susan DeClercq, whom President Biden nominated to serve as the U.S. District judge for the Eastern District of Michigan; and we will be having that vote shortly.

One of the things that people consistently say about Ms. DeClercq is how warm and personable she is. She is, in a word, kind, but don't let that fool you. She can go toe-to-toe with anyone in the courtroom. Ms. DeClercq is a proud graduate of the University of Michigan and Wayne State University School of Law.

Her first job out of law school was serving as a clerk to U.S. District Judge Avern L. Cohn. Judge Cohn was a force of nature who spent 40 years on the Federal bench, retiring at age 95. He was a bit gruff, but he had an open mind and an open heart--two attributes Ms. DeClercq has carried throughout her career that spans the public and the private sectors.

Currently, she is director and counsel for special investigations at Ford Motor Company. Before that, she spent 18 years in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Michigan in a variety of leadership roles, including as Chief of the Civil Division.

She has fought to protect people's civil rights over and over and over again--an example: a Michigan family that was literally kicked out of a restaurant because their children suffered from a genetic skin disease. She successfully represented an auxiliary firefighter, a U.S. Army reservist who was denied a promotion, which was extended to coworkers with less experience, after he returned from Active Duty in Afghanistan.

In all of her cases, she has won the respect of everyone in the courtroom. As one Michigan lawyer said: If I had to lose to anybody in litigation, I am glad it was Ms. DeClercq.

It is worth noting that, if confirmed, Susan DeClercq will be Michigan's first Federal judge of East Asian descent. Susan DeClercq is an outstanding nominee who received bipartisan support during her cloture vote earlier today.

I urge my colleagues to support her confirmation.

I yield the floor, and I would ask unanimous consent that the scheduled vote begin immediately.

Madam President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, I really feel like this is a celebration because we have been talking about how Americans have been taken advantage of for years--forever--in terms of high prices. We have been paying the highest prices in the world forever and oftentimes three and four times more than people in other countries.

I know I receive messages from families every day who are struggling to pay for their prescription medications. The truth is, we understood this. We finally had the opportunity where we had President Biden and a Democratic majority in the House and the Senate. We took on Big Pharma, and we won. So this is really a celebration.

We are not done. We have more to do. We are just getting started, but this is a big deal. It is a big deal.

One out of four Americans can't afford their medicine right now--one out of four. That is shameful in the United States of America. Back in 1998, when I was a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, I took busloads of seniors from Detroit, one side of the Ambassador Bridge to the other side. A few minutes across the bridge was Windsor, Canada. We crossed the bridge and cut prescription drug prices by 40 percent by crossing a bridge.

It has made no sense to me. The reason I have been championing this for so long and so appreciate the leadership of Senator Klobuchar and so many of us who have worked together is that this just simply makes no sense, and it has cost lives and people's livelihoods, trying to pay for their medicine. You shouldn't have to skip doses or split pills in half or choose between paying your electric bill or taking your medicine.

So the good news is, despite the fact that if you just look at the U.S. Senate--just in the Senate, there are 15 lobbyists for every Senator, and they work every day to try to stop us from lowering prices. But despite that, we took on Big Pharma, and we won.

I want to thank the Presiding Officer for your leadership on the first thing we were able to do that is so tangible.

In Michigan, we have nearly 67,000 Michiganders on Medicare who now benefit from a cap on insulin of $35 a month--not the $600 or $700 that the average person was paying; $35 a month. That is saving lives.

By the way, insulin is something that was discovered and developed 100 years ago--100 years ago. It costs $10 to make, and we had to go through a major fight to cap it at $35. But our Presiding Officer, the Senator from Georgia, led that, and I want to thank you for doing that.

We have nearly 673,000 Michiganders who are going to save an average of $356 thanks to the $2,000 total cap we are going to put on. Right now, folks are, on average, paying $14,000, $15,000 a year and oftentimes thousands of dollars more than that. We are capping that. This next year, it is capped at $3,200; next year, $2,000, and that is it--$2,000-a-year out-of-pocket costs for seniors. It is extraordinary. It will save lives.

So this is a time, I think, of celebration.

We have nearly 1.8 million Michigan seniors who are now going to be able to get free shingles vaccines and other critical vaccines that before they maybe just didn't do because, on average, it was $300 or $400 to do, and now they can protect themselves with vaccines. That is a big deal.

Senator Wyden was talking about his provision, which is so very important, which is to say that if a drug company, under Medicare Part D--which are the drugs you get in the hospital or in the doctor's office--that if they go up faster than the rate of inflation--the Biden administration now has the authority to check every 3 months--if it goes up faster than inflation, they will roll the price back. As of July 1, it was an average of over $470 per dose on a cancer drug. So this is a big deal. It is a big deal that we are talking about right now.

The biggest of all: Medicare is beginning to negotiate prices just like the VA, which gets a 40-percent discount, by the way. That is the ultimate.

When I first came to the Senate after taking those bus trips across the border, I really took on this whole question about prescription drugs and really leaned in in so many ways. I was excited we were going to do Medicare Part D that passed under the Bush administration until I saw the fine print where it prohibited Medicare from negotiating prices. That was the fine print. It sounded great, but the drug companies were able to insert the language that says: You can't negotiate. We get to charge whatever we want.

That is what has happened since then.

So here we are. The first 10 drugs that will be negotiated through Medicare were announced just a week or so ago, and we are talking about those drugs that will deal with blood clots and heart failure, diabetes, psoriasis, blood cancers, arthritis, and so many more things. These are the top drugs in terms of usage and price--the first 10. Then there will be more, and there will be more, and there will be more until we get the full negotiation.

We know that negotiating on just these 10 drugs will help more than 9 million people--9 million people--lower their costs--just those first 10. This is a big deal. We know we have more to do to lower costs, more to do together to address healthcare costs and other costs that people pay.

But I think it is pretty safe to say that the prescription drug companies are the biggest lobby here. We finally had the votes. We had the President who was willing to do it, President Biden. We had the majority in the House and the Senate to do what we knew needed to be done regardless of how much clout they have, and so that is what we did.

You know, I get letters like all of you do and talk to people all the time, but Diane of Bloomfield Hills, who is retired and on Medicare, shared with me that she is a diabetic, and she takes two types of insulin, or four injections per day--four injections per day. She told me that she used to pay a copay of $650--$650 or more--for a 3-month supply for just one of her prescriptions. She takes four injections a day--for just one of her prescriptions. But not anymore. Back in January, Diane went to the pharmacy like usual, and the pharmacist told her that her 3-month supply would be $105; not $650--$105. She said: ``I paid and walked away with a big smile on my face.''

The Presiding Officer led that effort to put a smile on her face and, I am sure, create a little more capacity for her to take care of herself and to be able to have a good life.

People like Diane should not have to go without the medicine they need. They shouldn't be forced to skip doses or take less than was prescribed to save money. They shouldn't have to choose between their medicine and putting food on the table or paying the bills. That is what this is about.

So it is a celebration, and I am so proud that we joined with President Biden to take the first step to make sure that people are going to be able to afford the medicine they need.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, before talking about some good news, I think, for so many of us across the country, I want to just thank Senator Murray for all of her leadership in the devastation she is describing in Washington State. I know that our Presiding Officer, with what is happening in Maui--the people of Hawaii are so fortunate to have you and Senator Hirono, who are out every day describing what needs to happen and pushing hard to make it happen.

We have a lot of issues that are really important, a lot of devastation, a lot of extreme weather events; and we certainly understand that the climate crisis is adding to all of what we are seeing right now and the devastation. And it is critical--it is critical--that we keep focused on that.

Mr. President, first, I want to thank Senator Blumenthal for his comments.

I thank Senator Klobuchar, who has been dogged on this issue of Afghan refugees, and I thank her for her leadership on this.

I want to thank Senator Lee, who is allowing me to take a moment in the middle of a very important issue that we are still discussing today. I thank him for his courtesy in allowing me to take a moment of personal privilege to speak about someone who has been with me for a long time but who is moving on to other opportunities; and I appreciate his family and friends in the Galleries who want to have an opportunity to salute him.

Tribute to Matthew Williams

Mr. President, I have a phenomenal member of my staff who has been a critical part of my team for a long time, Matthew Williams. We are excited for his new opportunities, but we are still not sure we are going to let him go because he has been so incredibly important to my success over a lot of years.

All the way back to 2006, as a recent graduate of the University of Michigan, he joined my Senate campaign as a press assistant. Matthew Williams did such a great job that I hired him as a staff assistant in my East Lansing office. Over the next 17 years, Matt took on so many different roles and did each one of them so successfully--from press assistant to press secretary to my regional manager in Detroit to deputy communications director to now my staff director of the Senate Democratic Policy and Communications Committee. He is the best communications director on Capitol Hill, for sure. He has been a part of my team for so long that the last time, I think, Matt quit a job was when he was in college--at Joe's Crab Shack.

His time with me has taken him from Michigan to DC, back to Michigan, and now back to DC. Along the way, he married Amber, his wonderful wife, and they have since added two wonderful boys to their family, Max and Ben. I think Max is with us today. When Matt is not in the office, there is a pretty good chance he is at a school event or at a Little League game.

Over the years, he has spoken with a lot of reporters, has planned a lot of press conferences, has taken a lot of my calls, and has never passed up the opportunity to remind me which Michigan university he thinks is better. He is wrong, of course. I think the Presiding Officer actually would agree with Matt on this, but he is wrong. Yet he has been right on so many things over the years that I have been able to overlook his love for all things Wolverine.

One of the first things you will notice about Matt is his positivity, his good-natured smile, and his wonderful sense of humor. It is partly what makes him such a great leader. He is also a great team player who is unfailingly levelheaded and reasonable. It takes a lot to get Matt Williams flustered. He is also incredibly knowledgeable about our State and the people who live there, about our 10 media markets and, if we are going to be honest, about the best places to golf.

Matt has also done a wonderful job as the staff director of the Senate Democratic Policy and Communications Committee for our caucus. All of us are very, very grateful.

Under his leadership, we have modernized the committee services, including launching the first-ever DPCC FloorWatch app, and we have strengthened the ``C'' in DPCC by working with the caucus to amplify our accomplishments and to highlight policy differences between the two parties.

Matt is from Flint. So, to him, I know the Flint water crisis was personal. He fought by my side to do everything we could to make things right for the people of Flint--the families and the community.

Some of my fondest memories with Matt are from our bipartisan 2019 codel to South Korea and Vietnam, organized by Senator Leahy. I will never forget standing at the DMZ with Matt and taking pictures with North Korean soldiers while they were taking pictures of us. Matt was a wonderful travel partner, and I was really honored to be with him as he experienced the country where he was born.

Matt, thank you so much for your 17 years of hard work, your wonderful talent, and your dedication to Michigan and our country. We are all going to miss your optimism and your smiling face around the office, and I know that folks are going to miss your candy

bowl. You will always be a part of Team Stabenow and a part of my extended family, for sure. I wish you and Amber and the boys every happiness and success always.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, first, I just want to indicate also that there is a lot to think about here when we are looking at artificial intelligence. There are a lot of very serious questions we have to figure out.

I am really pleased that we are seeing this bipartisan initiative in the Senate, with Senator Schumer, our majority leader, coming forward, but also with other colleagues who are really helping us go through briefings and are really looking at all of the questions, because it is really serious in terms of the questions. It is something we have to deal with as this is not going away. Certainly, there is a lot we have to figure out in all of this.

Mr. President, I have to first note--and I appreciate so much Senator Carper's comments--but from the smallest State that claims agriculture to our distinguished Presiding Officer from the largest State that has agriculture, to my State of Michigan, which is second only to California in the diversity of crops that we grow, I think we all stand here committed to the importance of growing things in America, this economic engine, supporting small towns, supporting rural development and quality of life.

So I am really pleased, as chair of the Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee, today, to know that we will be confirming Xochitl Torres Small as the Deputy Secretary of Agriculture. Ms. Torres Small's impressive and wide-ranging resume makes her an ideal appointee to help lead the more than 100,000 public servants at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and they are stationed in over 4,500 locations all across the country and all across the world.

Her predecessor in this role, Jewel Bronaugh, was instrumental in helping to restore one of the Department's key functions: serving our constituents on the ground in the communities in which they work, live, and farm. A trailblazer like Ms. Torres Small, Ms. Bronaugh was the first woman of color to hold the Deputy position at the USDA, and we very much appreciated her leadership. I have every confidence that Ms. Torres Small is up to the important task and will lead with great skill and competence.

The granddaughter of farm workers, Ms. Torres Small grew up in the borderlands of New Mexico. She began her career working for Senator Tom Udall, clerking for a U.S. district court judge, and practicing water and natural resources law.

Ms. Torres Small was the first woman and first person of color to represent New Mexico's Second Congressional District, which is the fifth largest district in the country.

She has most recently served as the Under Secretary for Rural Development, a position to which she was confirmed unanimously by the Senate just 2 years ago. As Under Secretary, Ms. Torres Small proved herself to be a staunch advocate for rural communities.

It was through her leadership that USDA Rural Development secured $2 billion to support rural broadband through the bipartisan infrastructure law, making USDA the first Federal Agency to invest these funds in physical infrastructure for high-speed internet. I want to stress that they were the first dollars out the door in terms of taking dollars to small communities across the country for critically needed high-speed internet. By moving swiftly to make rural development funding available, USDA reduced energy costs for farmers and small businesses.

Last year, Congress made the largest investment in rural electric since the New Deal. Under Ms. Torres Small's stewardship, USDA has been a leader in delivering those benefits to our local communities. She worked tirelessly to increase rural communities' access to programs and improve customer services at regional offices across the country. And, importantly, she championed USDA's workforce, improving staff morale and building out data and technology.

Ms. Torres Small enjoys broad support from over 80 stakeholders, including the American Farm Bureau Federation, National Farmers Union, National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, National Grocers Association, Western Growers, National Association of State Departments of Agriculture, U.S. Apple Association, the Rice Association, and on and on, as well as the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

I am also pleased that Ms. Torres Small enjoys broad support in this Chamber, and she was advanced unanimously out of our committee.

The role of Deputy Secretary of Agriculture is not only critical to overseeing the Department's efforts to improve its workforce but also improving customer service, which I know she is laser-focused on. The Deputy Secretary position is also vital to our work as we continue to draft a bipartisan farm bill.

Ms. Torres Small's confirmation is a great opportunity for the Senate to show that we can work together in a bipartisan manner.

Ms. Torres Small has a proven track record as a strong leader with deep knowledge of farm, food, and rural policy. I know she will serve the Department and the American people well in her new position, and I urge my colleagues to support her confirmation.

I yield the floor.

I ask for the yeas and nays.

Madam President, listening to this debate today, I can't believe we are having these debates in 2023. It is just stunning to me that we are having to debate privacy and the ability to make your own reproductive health decisions and all the ramifications for it. But here we are.

So I rise today to speak up for American women, the doctors who care for us, and our freedom to make our own healthcare decisions. What a novel idea that, in the United States of America, we would be able to make our own healthcare decisions.

But thanks to a radically conservative Supreme Court and radicals in State legislatures, reproductive freedom is no longer a constitutional right in the United States.

Roe v. Wade protected our freedoms for 50 years, until it didn't. Nearly half of the 50 States have already banned abortion or are likely to do that--half. And, sadly, this change is already making American healthcare worse. It just breaks my heart to hear about the individual situations of women.

In Michigan, fortunately, we are in a situation where the people of Michigan have stood up for reproductive freedom. But to see the women coming into Michigan, the people who are pregnant coming into Michigan, who are coming in to get help that they can't get in their own State, it just breaks my heart.

A poll of OB/GYNs released today by the independent health policy research organization KFF shows the effects. Sixty-four percent of OB/ GYNs surveyed said that the Dobbs decision has increased pregnancy- related deaths. Now think about that: 64 percent of the doctors--of the OB/GYNs surveyed--said that this Supreme Court decision has increased pregnancy-related deaths.

Seventy percent of OB/GYNs said that the Dobbs decision has made racial and ethnic inequalities in healthcare worse. And 68 percent of OB/GYNs--the doctors serving women--say that the Dobbs decision has made it harder for them to manage their patients' pregnancy-related emergencies, including women who desperately want their babies. They are desperate for this. They want to have this child. And something comes up, and it breaks their heart and their family's hearts. And there is an emergency that may threaten their life, and doctors are saying that it is harder for them to respond in an emergency.

Just think about that: 68 percent of doctors say that this Supreme Court decision makes it harder for them to keep patients alive.

These doctors know what they need to do to save lives. In many States, they are just not allowed to do it. How could that be in America in 2023?

And even doctors in States like Michigan--and I am proud to say we now protect reproductive freedom in our constitution, voted on by the people of our State, overwhelmingly, last November. But even we aren't immune from that.

A State law in Texas allows vigilantes to sue doctors even in States where abortion is legal. So much for States' rights. And radicals in other States are scrambling to pass similar legislation.

That is why we need the Let Doctors Provide Reproductive Healthcare Act. Thank you to Senators Murray and Padilla and Lujan and Rosen for leading this effort, and I am proud to be their partner, as we all are.

This bill would ensure that healthcare providers in States where abortion is legal--States' rights; it is legal--can keep providing the reproductive healthcare their patients need. And it would help protect patients across the country who choose to access reproductive healthcare in a State where it is legal.

I trust Michigan doctors. Michigan doctors know what their patients need. What Michigan doctors and their patients don't need are Texas legislators standing in their exam rooms.

It is time to pass this legislation to protect doctors and to protect their patients. So, as if in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent that the Judiciary Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. 1297 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration; further, that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Madam President, let me say two points to my colleague. First, fundamentally, this is about who makes medical decisions. Do we trust women? Do we trust the person who is pregnant? Do we trust their ability to work with their doctor? Who makes the decision in the United States of America? We stand with the women of America.

The second thing I will say is that it is so difficult for me to hear over and over again about the sanctity of life when I lead the Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee, where we have to fight every day to make sure food is available for children who are born.

The House of Representatives just passed an agriculture appropriations bill that gutted WIC, which is the Women, Infants, and Children Program for newborn babies and moms, to get them started in a healthy life.

When we can't pass quality standards for Medicaid births, which are half the births of this country, because we have had objections on the other side of the aisle for years about somehow having quality standards for prenatal care and birth, it is very hard for me to listen to the idea that we ought to be protecting--it is not just the unborn. It is the born. It is the children. It is the moms. It is the quality of life that we fight for every day, for food, healthcare, and so on.

So I find it very hard to listen to that language.

I am very disappointed that there is an objection to a bill that would let doctors practice healthcare to protect women and babies.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, first of all, the great news is, we have a robust economy growing, more small businesses opening, the lowest unemployment rate in a generation, and we all want people to be able to work.

Let me speak to the reality of what is in this bill. First of all, we have had work requirements for people who are single adults with no dependents since the 1990s. If you don't work, if you are not in school, the most you can qualify for is 3 months' worth of SNAP within 3 years. That is current law--$6 a day is what we are talking about.

This bill extends that out in terms of the age, of the number of people required to be in school or at work, with certainly important exemptions for our seniors, for our veterans, and our homeless, and it is in place until 2030.

Here is my question: How do you tell your constituents that you are willing to default, create a catastrophic default now that will raise their unemployment, cost us jobs, raise interest rates, and so on, because you want to change something that is going to be in place until 2030--2030? We have plenty of time to revisit it at that point. This is a bipartisan agreement.

I would just suggest it is very irresponsible for us to change something here that we know--the House is gone. We are going to go into default. We make a change and say it is because we wanted something to be extended beyond 2030. I would suggest we give this a chance, evaluate it.

I would suggest we vote no.

Madam President, I will be equally brief. The good news is this is already required by law.

This is a total duplication. States must already provide up-to-date employment data in order to measure if they hit a 10-percent unemployment rate in order to get a State waiver. This is unnecessary. Please do not risk a default of our country on language that is already in the law.

Would my friend accept a voice vote?

I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, I thank our leader for all of his wonderful work, all the time.

I rise today to pay tribute to a phenomenal member of my staff, a leader who has played a key role in so many things I have been able to accomplish here in the Senate.

Emily Carwell is leaving the upper Chamber for a new leadership change across the Rotunda--dare I say, the lower Chamber--after more than 8 years in my office. And, honestly, it feels like Emily has been with me forever. To speak in Senate terms, Emily has been my legislative director for 2,383 votes.

It is actually quite fitting that she is returning to the House, though, because it is where she started, sort of. When I first interviewed her, I loved her right away: her Midwestern sensibilities, her enthusiasm, her eagerness to work for the people of Michigan. Anyone who has met Emily knows exactly what I mean. As somewhat of an afterthought, I asked her: You were in the House, right? You have House experience, right?

She said yes.

It turns out that her House experience was an unpaid fellowship. But--do you know what?--it didn't even matter. She joined my office as a legislative assistant. She hit the ground running, and she simply has not stopped.

She organized the first-ever bipartisan delegation to tour all of our Michigan military installations, which was very significant for us to do.

And, as legislative director, Emily has played a key role in so many areas that I couldn't even list them all. But I have to say, at the top of the list is our work on mental health.

Her passion and tenacity are a major reason why we were able to get certified community behavioral health clinics signed into law, the largest Medicaid expansion since the Affordable Care Act. And it was a wonderful bipartisan effort. And you can bet I will keep her number on speed dial as these clinics are expanded across the country.

Emily has also served as policy director of our Democratic Policy and Communications Committee, a job she has excelled at. And, Mr. President, as vice chair of the DPCC, I know you know that well.

She has led amazing efforts to modernize the committee, including launching the ``DPCC FloorWatch'' app to bring us into the 21st century, which features everything from floor alerts to amendments, to floor and committee hearing videos.

If you had to describe Emily in one word--although there are so many words, but if you had to describe her in one word--``relentless'' would be a good choice. During vote-aramas, when everyone else was collapsed at their desks in the middle of the night, Emily was still typing away on amendments to make sure our caucus members had the information they needed. And she was tireless during the earliest days of the pandemic, when we had to figure out how to run a Senate office remotely while helping the people of Michigan in every way we could.

She has been a wonderful partner on codels, and we have traveled the world together. I will never forget the time when we were in Jordan at a refugee camp, meeting with Syrian refugees. Emily speaks fluent Arabic. So she was able to connect with these people who had been through so much in such a special, incredible way. I was listening, but I wasn't able to speak to them in their language. And it was very powerful.

On a lighter note, Emily, I know about the time when you neglected to tell me that you were accidentally given the hotel suite I was supposed to get, and I got a smaller room. I just want you to know now that I know that.

Just as important as the work she has done is the positive energy she has brought to the office. Emily has a way of bringing people together, whether it is for an office happy hour around her desk, an impromptu lunch outing, or Costco pizzas in the conference room.

Her family is very important to her, and I am so glad her sister is here with us today. And she treats her coworkers like she treats her own family. Just one example: hand-delivering a tin of two kinds of homemade cookies to the home of a coworker who was sick.

Emily is an amazing team player, skills she likely learned on the basketball court. She played on her college team, and she has also played against U.S. Senators who are at least twice her size. And all I am going to say is you will have to ask Senator Tester how that game went.

Emily, thank you so much for everything--for your hard work, your talent, your dedication, your service to the people of Michigan and our country. And, most importantly, I am so grateful for your friendship. You will always be a part of my family. I have no doubt that you will excel in your new position, and the House is so lucky to get you back-- this time, in a paid position.

And I am also very happy that you will be only 7 minutes away. We actually timed it. So Godspeed and, again, all the best, always.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, I rise today to honor the Michigan veterans throughout history who have given their lives for our Nation.

During some of the toughest times for our country, Michiganders have been there. We have been willing to put our lives on the line for the cause of freedom. That certainly was the case during the Civil War. More than 3 million Americans fought in the Civil War. Around 90,000 of them were Michiganders, and more than 85,000 of them were volunteers. It is said that President Lincoln exclaimed, ``Thank God for Michigan!'' when 75,000 volunteers from our State arrived in Washington, DC, in May of 1861.

The 24th Michigan Infantry fought at Gettysburg, where a monument stands to this day commemorating their service in the ``Iron Brigade.'' And the 24th was selected to provide military escort during President Lincoln's funeral procession. Few trials have so tested a nation--or a President--as did the Civil War. As historian Jon Meacham explores in his new book ``And There was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle,'' President Lincoln and the Nation he led faced multiple existential threats: the fracturing of our country, threats against our democracy, and an institution that treated 4 million Americans not as people, but as property.

The echoes of these challenges remain in our Nation to this day. And in Lincoln, we see a path forward. We see that by keeping our moral center as our North Star, a nation can, in the words of Lincoln, ``long endure.'' We have long endured as a nation in part thanks to those brave, selfless Michiganders who were willing to put their lives on the line in order to preserve our Union. More than 13,400 of them never made it home. They have been followed by so many others.

This Memorial Day, we honor all Michigan veterans throughout history who gave their lives in service to our country. And we honor their families. It is only because of their sacrifice that our democracy lives on.

Mr. President, I am so proud to be here with my colleagues today--Senator Cortez Masto and all of our colleagues and with our leaders Senator Cardin and Senator Murkowski--on this bipartisan resolution that is, frankly, long overdue.

You know, there is a sign you often see at rallies for reproductive rights. A woman my age or older will often be holding it, and it reads something like this: ``I can't believe we are still fighting for this crap.'' Now, it usually has a different word on it than ``crap.''

As I stand here on the Senate floor in the Year of Our Lord 2023, I can't believe we are still fighting for equal

rights for women under our American Constitution. We are 100 years out from when the Equal Rights Amendment was first introduced in 1923--a full century, 100 years--since it was first introduced. And a lot of things have changed since 1923, for sure. Women are CEOs and astronauts, professional athletes and chemistry professors, Governors and a Vice President of the United States. A quarter of the Members of this Chamber are women--not nearly enough, but we are getting there. Yet, still, 100 years later, women are not guaranteed equal legal protections, equal legal rights under our Constitution. That needed to change in 1923, and it certainly needs to change 100 years later in 2023.

Michigan was ready for change back in 1972. That is when my State ratified the ERA. A Congresswoman from Michigan helped lead the way. Congresswoman Martha Griffiths of Detroit was the first woman in history to serve on the House Ways and Means Committee.

In 1970, she filed a discharge petition to send the legislation to the full House of Representatives for consideration. It passed, only to die in the Senate. We have heard that story before. But Representative Griffiths was undaunted. She introduced an amended version. The House and Senate both passed it, and it was sent to the States for ratification in 1972.

Congresswoman Griffiths later served as Michigan's first elected Lieutenant Governor and became known as the Mother of the ERA. Congresswoman Griffiths, sadly, didn't live to see her amendment written into the Constitution.

But there is no doubt we need it today, even more than we did in 1972. Women in this country are watching our reproductive freedoms be dismantled. The Dobbs decision attempts to ban the abortion pill, and harsh abortion restrictions in States have left women in this country with fewer freedoms than our mothers and even our grandmothers enjoyed.

The ERA is really simple. It simply says:

Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or

abridged by the United States or by any state on account of

sex.

Equal rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. That is it.

And this resolution is equally simple, the one before us. All it would do is remove an arbitrary deadline that was included when this was passed in Congress, preventing the ERA from being ratified.

The ERA is simple, but its protections would be profound. It would protect all people, regardless of sex, from discrimination. It would defend against the rollback of our fundamental rights and freedoms.

Congresswoman Martha Griffiths, from Michigan, passed it. The States ratified it. Now we just need to add it to our Constitution. Our daughters and our granddaughters can't wait another 100 years. They deserve equality now.

So I hope colleagues would join with us to pass this resolution and finally ensure all people are equal under our laws.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, first of all, I have to also lend my voice in congratulations to Senator Patty Murray. We are so proud of her and look to her for her leadership. It is an honor to serve with her in the leadership in the Senate, but she is just an extraordinary Member. And 10,000 votes--that is a lot of votes, and we should all continue to be very grateful for her leadership. So congratulations.

Mr. President, this amendment is one that, in spirit--I mean, I agree with the need. Senator Sullivan and I have talked about the fact that I think he identified something that is very important for small rural communities. It is, however, duplicative of work we already do through rural development in USDA.

The USDA has Community Facilities Programs. They provide grants and loans and loan guarantees for essential community services in rural areas of 20,000 residents or less, including public safety.

Communities have used this for firetrucks, fire department construction, and fire equipment that Senator Sullivan has talked eloquently about. Last year, it was nearly $100 million in assistance to rural fire departments.

So I told Senator Sullivan that we will have, in the next number of months, the farm bill reauthorization on the floor. I want to work very much with him on how we might be able to more focus or strengthen this program that already exists. The farm bill is coming up. I believe that is the place for us to address what is a very important issue.

So I would urge my colleagues to channel their support to rural first responders into supporting this particular program in the upcoming farm bill reauthorization.