Floor Statements

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to legislative session for a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.

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 understand there are two bills at the desk, and I ask for their first reading en bloc.

I now ask for a second reading, and in order to place the bills on the calendar under the provisions of rule XIV, I object to my own request.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Foreign Relations be discharged from further consideration of S. 41 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

I ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read a third time.

I know of no further debate on the bill.

I ask unanimous consent that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of Calendar No. 95, S. Res. 126.

I ask unanimous consent that the Merkley amendment at the desk to the committee-reported substitute amendment to the resolution be agreed to; the committee-reported substitute amendment to the resolution be agreed to; the resolution, as amended, be agreed to; the committee-reported substitute amendment to the preamble be agreed to; the preamble, as amended, be agreed to; and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 451, submitted earlier today.

I ask unanimous consent the resolution be agreed to and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent the Senate proceed to consideration of S. Res. 452, which was submitted earlier today.

I ask unanimous consent the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent the Committee

on the Judiciary be discharged from further consideration and the Senate now proceed to consideration of S. Res. 396.

I ask unanimous consent the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned until 10 a.m. on Tuesday, November 7; 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 Bertagnolli nomination, post-cloture; further, that all time on the nomination be considered expired at 11:45 a.m., and that following the cloture vote on the Kato nomination, the Senate stand in recess until 2:15 p.m. to allow for weekly caucus meetings; further, that if cloture has been invoked on the Kato nomination, all time be considered expired at 2:15 p.m.; and that if cloture has been invoked on the Kobick nomination, all time be considered expired at 5:30 p.m.; finally, that if any nominations are confirmed during Tuesday'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.

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

Mr. President, Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote: The purpose of life is . . . to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you lived and lived well. It is not the length of life, but the depth of life that matters.

In that spirit, I rise today to bid farewell to a member of my team, Matt

Squeri, who is one of the most useful, honorable, compassionate people I have ever worked with, and his public service has made a difference in the lives of so many, including the lives some of the most vulnerable people around the world.

Not only do I want to thank him for the length of his service in the Senate, I want to thank him for the depth of his service. Matt joined my team in 2019 after several years working for our former colleague Senator Heidi Heitkamp and, before that, the Department of Defense and the Center For Strategic and International Studies.

His legislative skill and his policy expertise were immediately evident. What took a little longer to emerge was his encyclopedic knowledge of college football--especially for our shared alma mater, Stanford--not to mention his love for watching boxing.

For those of you who know Matt, that might sound surprising. But if you have worked with him, it makes perfect sense because, if the cause is worthwhile, if it is for democracy, if it is for justice, if it is for human rights, then Matt loves a good fight. He doesn't crash in, like a brawler. He works methodically, like a boxer.

A great example of that was early on, when negotiations on a bill had been stuck in a stalemate with the House for months and months. We had gone round and round with the House, and then Matt went to work. He floated over conflicts, he parried the problems, and, within 2 months, he knocked it out and passed it into law.

He has taken on much bigger fights since then. After joining my team he set out to cultivate working relationships with the staff of Members on both sides of the aisle of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the Congressional-Executive Commission on China. His goal was simple: to turn the CECC's--Congressional-Executive Commission on China--research, advocacy, and awareness-raising into bipartisan legislation and new laws that would make a real difference for real people.

In 2019, as the Chinese Government began its brutal crackdown on Hong Kong, Matt led our successful efforts to protect Hong Kong's people by banning the export of crowd control equipment to the Hong Kong police.

Soon, he took on an even more ambitious project: tackling the problem of the genocide of the Uighur people and their forced labor in Xinjiang Province.

He helped coordinate with the CECC the release of a landmark report in March 2020. That report became the launching point for passing some of the most ambitious human rights legislation the United States has ever considered, the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act.

The premise of the bill was quite simple: The American consumers have the right to know if their products are made with forced labor in China, and they have the right to choose not to do business with those companies.

Matt officially joined the CECC staff in 2021, and he was central to the negotiations that began in committee in January and continued all the way to final passage in December.

And he didn't stop there. He pushed the Olympics and the NBA to stop using uniforms made by--or made from materials made by--forced labor in China.

China, multinational corporations, the Olympics, the NBA--you see what I mean about him not shying away from a fight. And, since then, he has helped us hold hearings, introduce legislation, and improve policies to protect the people of Hong Kong, the people of Tibet, the Uighur people, and to stand up to the Chinese Government's transnational repression.

There is a lot more I could say about Matt's work on legislation. What stands out to me though and to everyone who knows Matt is just how wonderful he is to work with. As one of my senior staff said about starting in our office, ``Matt was the person I looked up to, the person I wanted to emulate.''

He is fun, he is unflappable, he is morally clear, and he is legislatively masterful. And he is generous with his time, whether he is helpful to those new to our team in learning their way around or helping them understand complex human rights issues in far corners of the world. We will miss having him as part of our team.

I quoted Emerson at the start of these remarks. Later, in the same piece, Emerson wrote:

[T]o leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy

child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to

know even one life has breathed easier because you lived.

This is to have succeeded.

Countless people around the world who have never met Matt Squeri have breathed easier because of his work.

So it is with gratitude that Team Merkley, the Congressional- Executive Commission on China, and I thank Matt Squeri for his service to this institution, his service to this Nation, and his service to human rights around the world. We wish him all the best as he moves on to his next assignment.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate stand in recess until 5 p.m.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that privileges of the floor be extended to Matt Squeri, member of my team, for the balance of the day.

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