Floor Statements

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I be allowed to speak for 5 minutes and that, following my remarks, Senator Blumenthal be allowed to speak for 5 minutes.

Mr. President, I rise to express my support for three military leaders whom we will soon be voting on: ADM Lisa Franchetti, Gen. David Allvin, and Lt. Gen. Christopher Mahoney. These are some of the finest leaders our Nation has to offer, and America is stronger because of their service and their sacrifice.

I am particularly proud to support the nomination of ADM Lisa Franchetti to be the next Chief of Naval Operations. Admiral Franchetti brings a wealth of experience and expertise to this position. She has served in leadership roles at every level throughout the Navy, both ashore and at sea, and with postings around the globe. She has served as commander of U.S. Naval Forces Korea; commander of Carrier Strike Group 9; commander of Carrier Strike Group 15; commander of U.S. Sixth Fleet; commander of U.S. Naval Forces Europe and U.S. Naval Forces Africa; and director for strategy, plans, and policy on the Joint Staff, among many other operational roles. She has worked her way up the ranks in the U.S. Navy. She has commanded at sea. She has accepted and has excelled at every challenge that is presented to her. She is superbly prepared to be the Chief of Naval Operations.

As the current Vice Chief and now as the Acting Chief of Naval Operations, she brings an important perspective on the key challenges for the Navy. Her understanding of the Joint Force and the Navy's ever- expanding role within it will be critical.

I want to acknowledge the historic nature of Admiral Franchetti's nomination. If confirmed, she will be the first woman to serve as CNO and the first woman on the Joint Chiefs of Staff. I am glad we have reached this moment.

At every step of her career, Admiral Franchetti has been a trailblazer and a team builder who focuses on the mission, leads by example, and gets the job done. She is an inspiration to many and someone who will always put the security of our Nation and all who defend it first--first before herself, first before anything else. Those are the qualities that make an outstanding officer and an outstanding leader.

Indeed, the Navy faces a dangerous and evolving global security environment. Threats from Russia, Iran, North Korea, and violent extremist groups remain persistent, and the Navy has an important role to play in addressing them. But the clear, pacing challenge for our naval forces is China. In the Indo-Pacific and in seas and ports around the world, the U.S. Navy will continue to be the first line of deterrence and defense against China's expanding global ambitions.

I am confident that Admiral Franchetti has the skills and experience to meet this challenge and provide the Nation's sailors, their families, and Navy civilian employees with the leadership they deserve.

I urge my colleagues to vote for Admiral Franchetti's nomination.

Also, we will be considering later on the nomination of Gen. David Allvin to be the next Chief of Staff for the Air Force. General Allvin is highly qualified for this role. As the current Vice Chief of the Air Force, he has helped lead the service through a critical period of modernization, and he is well positioned to continue that progress.

General Allvin is a 1986 graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy. He has commanded at the squadron and wing levels, including the 97th Air Mobility Wing, Altus Air Force Base, Oklahoma, and he has held major staff assignments and served on the Joint Staff.

General Allvin has served as commanding general, NATO Air Training Command-Afghanistan; commander of the 438th Air Expeditionary Wing, Afghanistan; commander of the 618th Air and Space Operations Center; and as vice director of strategy, plans, and policy of the Joint Staff.

This is a gentleman, an officer who has been in combat, who knows the rigors and demands of combat, and, like Admiral Franchetti, places his mission and his Air Force members ahead of any personal ambition. Prior to his current assignment, he was director of strategy, plans, and policy, J-5, on the Joint Staff. He is a command pilot who has more than 4,600 hours in over 30 aircraft, including 800 flight test hours and 100 hours flying in combat.

If confirmed, General Allvin will lead at a momentous time. Airpower is key to our strategic competition with China and other adversaries, and the entire Joint Force relies on the capabilities of the Air Force every day.

Again, I urge my colleagues to vote for General Allvin.

Mr. President, I know of no debate on the nomination.

Mr. President, I know of no debate on the nomination.

I would ask that my colleagues yield so that I can ask unanimous consent to prepare for tomorrow's session.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to executive session to consider the following nomination: Calendar No. 367; 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.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned until 10 a.m. on Thursday, November 2; that following the prayer and pledge, the journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be deemed expired, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and morning business be closed; that upon the conclusion of morning business, the Senate proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the Franchetti nomination; further, that if any nominations are confirmed during Thursday's session, the motions 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 that it stand adjourned under the previous order following the remarks of my Republican colleagues.

Madam President, I yield the floor, and I yield back to the Senator from Iowa.

Madam President, I have seven 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:

Mr. President, for the Committee on Armed Services I report favorably the following nomination lists which were printed in the Records on the dates indicated, and ask unanimous consent, to save the expense of reprinting on the Executive Calendar that these nominations lie at the Secretary's desk for the information of Senators.

Madam President, I am reintroducing the Stop Subsidizing Multimillion Dollar Corporate Bonuses Act with Senators Blumenthal, Whitehouse, Merkley, Baldwin, Warren, Van Hollen, and Sanders. This legislation would finally fully close a loophole that allows publicly traded corporations to deduct the cost of multimillion-dollar bonuses from their corporate tax bills. At a time when the gulf in pay between CEOs and average workers is 272 to 1, it is infuriating that U.S. taxpayers are being forced to subsidize lavish executive compensation packages, but that is what is happening.

Under section 162(m) of the Tax Code, publicly traded corporations cannot deduct more than $1 million in compensation paid to their top executives. But section 162(m) does not cover compensation paid to all public company employees, and corporations have long exploited this loophole to claim tax deductions for executive compensation packages that far exceed $1 million. Indeed, publicly traded corporations are offering these lucrative compensation deals to ever increasing numbers of executives--not just a few at the very top of the organization.

Both Republican and Democratic administrations have recognized the need to close loopholes in section 162(m). Indeed, both President Trump and President Biden signed laws based on earlier versions of my legislation in order to curtail the abuse of this deduction. This includes ensuring that performance-based compensation is actualjy counted as compensation under section 162(m) and increasing the number of highly paid executives who are subject to section 162(m). Partially tightening the law in these ways has saved taxpayers well over $9.2 billion. But the full loophole has still not been closed and taxpayers continue to subsidize billions of dollars in extravagant compensation.

The Stop Subsidizing Multimillion Dollar Corporate Bonuses Act would address the remaining gaps by applying section 162(m) restrictions to all employees of publicly traded corporations so that all compensation is subject to a deductibility cap of $1 million per employee.

To be clear, under my bill, publicly traded corporations would still be able to pay their executives as much as they desire, but individual compensation packages above and beyond $1 million would no longer be subsidized through our Tax Code. This is a matter of fairness. It ensures that corporations and shareholders--not hard-working taxpayers--are shouldering the cost of the multimillion-dollar compensation packages they provide to their top earners.

I thank Public Citizen, Americans for Financial Reform, the AFL-CIO, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, MIT Professor Simon Johnson, Take On Wall Street, and the Institute for Policy Studies, Global Economy Project for their support. I urge our colleagues to join us in cosponsoring this legislation and pressing for its passage.

Madam President, I am reintroducing the Stop Subsidizing Multimillion Dollar Corporate Bonuses Act with Senators Blumenthal, Whitehouse, Merkley, Baldwin, Warren, Van Hollen, and Sanders. This legislation would finally fully close a loophole that allows publicly traded corporations to deduct the cost of multimillion-dollar bonuses from their corporate tax bills. At a time when the gulf in pay between CEOs and average workers is 272 to 1, it is infuriating that U.S. taxpayers are being forced to subsidize lavish executive compensation packages, but that is what is happening.

Under section 162(m) of the Tax Code, publicly traded corporations cannot deduct more than $1 million in compensation paid to their top executives. But section 162(m) does not cover compensation paid to all public company employees, and corporations have long exploited this loophole to claim tax deductions for executive compensation packages that far exceed $1 million. Indeed, publicly traded corporations are offering these lucrative compensation deals to ever increasing numbers of executives--not just a few at the very top of the organization.

Both Republican and Democratic administrations have recognized the need to close loopholes in section 162(m). Indeed, both President Trump and President Biden signed laws based on earlier versions of my legislation in order to curtail the abuse of this deduction. This includes ensuring that performance-based compensation is actualjy counted as compensation under section 162(m) and increasing the number of highly paid executives who are subject to section 162(m). Partially tightening the law in these ways has saved taxpayers well over $9.2 billion. But the full loophole has still not been closed and taxpayers continue to subsidize billions of dollars in extravagant compensation.

The Stop Subsidizing Multimillion Dollar Corporate Bonuses Act would address the remaining gaps by applying section 162(m) restrictions to all employees of publicly traded corporations so that all compensation is subject to a deductibility cap of $1 million per employee.

To be clear, under my bill, publicly traded corporations would still be able to pay their executives as much as they desire, but individual compensation packages above and beyond $1 million would no longer be subsidized through our Tax Code. This is a matter of fairness. It ensures that corporations and shareholders--not hard-working taxpayers--are shouldering the cost of the multimillion-dollar compensation packages they provide to their top earners.

I thank Public Citizen, Americans for Financial Reform, the AFL-CIO, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, MIT Professor Simon Johnson, Take On Wall Street, and the Institute for Policy Studies, Global Economy Project for their support. I urge our colleagues to join us in cosponsoring this legislation and pressing for its passage.

Madam President, we have a longstanding adult literacy crisis that affects the quality of life for individuals and families and holds our economy back. It is time for a major expansion of adult education. Today, I am proud to introduce bipartisan legislation--the Adult Education Workforce Opportunity and Reskilling for Knowledge and Success Act, or the Adult Education WORKS Act--with my colleague Senator Young.

Adult education provides numeracy, literacy, digital literacy, English language skills, work readiness, soft skills, high school equivalency, and numerous wraparound services to millions of adult learners nationwide. These essential skills can make the difference between earning a family-sustaining wage and struggling to make ends meet. A study commissioned by the Barbara Bush Foundation estimated that getting all U.S. adults to the equivalent of a sixth-grade reading level would generate an additional $2.2 trillion in annual income for the country. Without the opportunities provided through adult education programs, many adults will be left on the sidelines.

Estimates from the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies, PIACC, indicate that 43 million adults are low-skilled in literacy and 63 million are low-skilled in numeracy. Building a sustainable economy that truly works for everyone is going to require helping these individuals acquire the basic skills they need to succeed. Unfortunately, we are reaching only a fraction of these individuals today. PIACC data show that 23 to 30 percent of working-age adults with low literacy or numeracy skills wanted to participate in adult education but were unable to do so. The Department of Education calculates that this means there are up to 16 million adults seeking education opportunities from programs that currently serve fewer than 1 million individuals.

In my home State of Rhode Island, there are over 61,000 adults who could benefit from English language instruction and over 64,000 working-age adults without a high school credential. Yet, under current funding levels, the adult education program serves just over 4,500 individuals.

The Adult Education WORKS Act provides a roadmap for addressing this crisis. It calls for increased resources, doubling funding for adult education by 2029. At the same time, it makes significant improvements to the adult education system. It calls for a new emphasis on digital and information literacy, which are essential for success in the workplace and in navigating everyday life. It enhances the role of adult education providers, with a special focus on public libraries and community-based organizations throughout the workforce development system, ensuring coordination and efficient use of resources. It invests in the professionalization of the adult education field, strengthening State certification policies, encouraging full-time staffing models, and expanding professional development opportunities and career pathways for adult educators. It provides support for college and career navigators in public libraries and community-based organizations to support adult learners where they live. Finally, it invests in innovation and accountability through pilot projects that test new approaches for measuring program performance and learner outcomes.

In developing this legislation, Senator Young and I worked closely with key stakeholders, working on the frontlines in the adult education community. I am pleased to count the American Library Association, the Center for Law and Social Policy, the Coalition on Adult Basic Education, the National Coalition for Literacy, National Skills Coalition, ProLiteracy, and TESOL among the supporters of this legislation.

I urge my colleagues to cosponsor this legislation and work with us to ensure it is part of any legislation to reauthorize the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act.

Madam President, we have a longstanding adult literacy crisis that affects the quality of life for individuals and families and holds our economy back. It is time for a major expansion of adult education. Today, I am proud to introduce bipartisan legislation--the Adult Education Workforce Opportunity and Reskilling for Knowledge and Success Act, or the Adult Education WORKS Act--with my colleague Senator Young.

Adult education provides numeracy, literacy, digital literacy, English language skills, work readiness, soft skills, high school equivalency, and numerous wraparound services to millions of adult learners nationwide. These essential skills can make the difference between earning a family-sustaining wage and struggling to make ends meet. A study commissioned by the Barbara Bush Foundation estimated that getting all U.S. adults to the equivalent of a sixth-grade reading level would generate an additional $2.2 trillion in annual income for the country. Without the opportunities provided through adult education programs, many adults will be left on the sidelines.

Estimates from the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies, PIACC, indicate that 43 million adults are low-skilled in literacy and 63 million are low-skilled in numeracy. Building a sustainable economy that truly works for everyone is going to require helping these individuals acquire the basic skills they need to succeed. Unfortunately, we are reaching only a fraction of these individuals today. PIACC data show that 23 to 30 percent of working-age adults with low literacy or numeracy skills wanted to participate in adult education but were unable to do so. The Department of Education calculates that this means there are up to 16 million adults seeking education opportunities from programs that currently serve fewer than 1 million individuals.

In my home State of Rhode Island, there are over 61,000 adults who could benefit from English language instruction and over 64,000 working-age adults without a high school credential. Yet, under current funding levels, the adult education program serves just over 4,500 individuals.

The Adult Education WORKS Act provides a roadmap for addressing this crisis. It calls for increased resources, doubling funding for adult education by 2029. At the same time, it makes significant improvements to the adult education system. It calls for a new emphasis on digital and information literacy, which are essential for success in the workplace and in navigating everyday life. It enhances the role of adult education providers, with a special focus on public libraries and community-based organizations throughout the workforce development system, ensuring coordination and efficient use of resources. It invests in the professionalization of the adult education field, strengthening State certification policies, encouraging full-time staffing models, and expanding professional development opportunities and career pathways for adult educators. It provides support for college and career navigators in public libraries and community-based organizations to support adult learners where they live. Finally, it invests in innovation and accountability through pilot projects that test new approaches for measuring program performance and learner outcomes.

In developing this legislation, Senator Young and I worked closely with key stakeholders, working on the frontlines in the adult education community. I am pleased to count the American Library Association, the Center for Law and Social Policy, the Coalition on Adult Basic Education, the National Coalition for Literacy, National Skills Coalition, ProLiteracy, and TESOL among the supporters of this legislation.

I urge my colleagues to cosponsor this legislation and work with us to ensure it is part of any legislation to reauthorize the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act.

Mr. President, first, I want to commend my colleague from Rhode Island. No one has been more accurate and more farseeing about climate change than Sheldon Whitehouse.

When he first came to the Senate, it was a technical issue that scientists debated. Now it is an issue we are confronting because of his efforts, and it is also an issue we are confronting because we see it.

We are in the midst of a crisis. He foresaw it. He has dedicated himself to addressing it. I am just very proud to be his colleague in this Senate.