Floor Statements

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the

following member of my staff be granted floor privileges for the remainder of the Congress: Steven Szucs.

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, I want to begin today by noting that it is D-day, and 79 years ago today, we had brave men that stormed the beaches at Normandy. There were Tennesseans among those, and Tennesseans have chosen to very selflessly serve this country.

The ``Volunteer State'' has a long and rich tradition of military service. They have fought in every major conflict in the history of our country, going all the way to the Revolutionary War. Even our moniker, ``the Volunteer State,'' is a nod to that tradition. It was made famous by the 5,000 citizen soldiers of the Tennessee Militia who left their families at the drop of a hat to protect our young nation during the War of 1812.

We have a responsibility to care for the brave men and women who guarantee our freedom for future generations. As a Member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, I have spent the past few years watching various officials fail at this task, especially as it relates to making sure our veterans receive timely access to quality healthcare that they deserve.

Despite increased facility staffing over the past several administrations, despite each administration pushing for internal process improvements and expanded community care and telehealth options, the VA still cannot manage to perform this one basic task, which is timely access to quality healthcare.

There are examples of this. I know the Acting President pro tempore has them in the State of Vermont, and I have them in the State of Tennessee. There is no better illustration of this than with the VA facilities in Dover and Clarksville, TN. These are the only two VA facilities in Tennessee within 50 miles of Fort Campbell, which is the second largest Army installation in the mainland United States. It sits on the Tennessee-Kentucky border.

The Fort Campbell area is home not only to thousands of Active-Duty servicemembers, but thousands more veterans and their families live in this area. So you would think the VA would pay some special attention to this area, but, of course, that is not the case.

If veterans want to see a primary care provider at the VA--now, this is a primary care provider. If these veterans in Tennessee want to see a primary care provider, then, for the Clarksville facility, they have to wait 48 days and 76 days at Dover. Think about that. This is not anecdotal; those were the actual numbers released by the VA at 11:30 this morning. We double-checked the numbers. Think about that. If you have a backache, if you have a cold, if you have bad headaches, if you have a hearing issue, if you have a knee issue, just to see the primary care physician, you will wait 76 days if you are going to the VA facility in Dover, TN.

This is the reality for hundreds of thousands of our veterans across the country. It is absolutely unacceptable. Congress has tried to intervene. The Veterans Community Care Program, which we established as part of the VA MISSION Act of 2018, allows veterans to seek care outside the VA when wait times at those facilities exceed certain benchmarks. The program has helped to alleviate some of those wait times, but it is obvious there is still a lot of work that has to be done on that.

Here is the problem. The problem is that the VA has wrapped this program up in endless layers of redtape. It is obvious that the VA employees and the union, I am sure, are not wanting individuals to get into community care, so what do they do? They try to make this program unacceptable. They don't want veterans in this program.

Just take a look at all of the hoops veterans have to jump through before they can see a doctor. Look at this list. Bear in mind as you look at this list that we promised these veterans--it was part of the promise to them when they enlisted, when they raised their hand, when they took that oath, when they signed up to serve, to protect, to defend this Nation and our freedom. But here is what they have to do. First of all, they have to request the appointment. They can't just show up and say: I need to see a doctor. They have to request it, and they have to wait for the VA to certify that they are eligible and to do an eligibility review.

So they call and request the appointment, and the VA says: We are going to get back to you. First of all, we have to verify your eligibility.

Then it goes into a stack of things to be done. Once the bureaucrats decide they are going to move forward on that request, on that case, the veteran still has to wait for confirmation from the VA that they can indeed go see the doctor. Then they have to wait for the VA to prepare and review a referral for the primary care doctor. Only when that comes in can they finally schedule the appointment.

But they are not done yet. There is still more. Before that veteran can see a doctor, they need an authorization letter from the VA in their hand--a paper copy of an authorization letter from the VA that they take to the VA. How ridiculous can this possibly be?

Once they do finally see a doctor, they have to wait and hope the VA remembers to pay the bill. Then, heaven forbid that veteran needs a followup appointment or another referral.

This is why, in Clarksville, TN, all of these steps take 48 days and, in Dover, TN, 76 days. In some parts of the country, it takes 100 days to see a primary care physician.

This is a bureaucratic nightmare, and our Nation's veterans deserve better than this. If Secretary McDonough and his friends can't get the job done, then Congress is going to need to step in and intervene. That is why I reintroduced the Veterans Health Care Freedom Act, which would allow veterans

to bypass the VA's bureaucracy and choose the care they want to receive.

The bill creates a 3-year pilot program within the VA's Center for Care and Payment Innovation that will take the VA largely out of that referral process. The VA can test-drive this program in at least four different Veterans Integrated Services Networks. Those are called VISNs. It would allow the veterans to find and schedule necessary appointments at non-VA medical facilities.

In other words, if they want to go to a doctor in their hometowns, if they want to go to a hospital in their hometowns, if they are taking cancer treatments and they want to do that at the local hospitals, let them do it, and send the bill to the VA.

It would also require the VA to give veterans information about eligibility requirements, cost sharing, treatments, and providers so that they have the information they need right there at their fingertips to be able to make their decisions.

In doing this, we would give the VA 4 years to figure this out--to run these pilot programs and to figure out how to let veterans get the healthcare they need when they need it and at the facilities that are most convenient for them. Surely to goodness, the VA ought to be able to figure this out in 4 years.

We really owe it to our veterans to get them the best care as quickly as possible. If we want to do that, we have to put more power into their hands. Give them the information, the choices, the options. The bureaucrats have proven to us time and time again that they are just not going to make this easy. They are not going to make it simple for a veteran to access community care.

In Tennessee, I hear from veterans all the time. They are a 2-hour or a 3-hour drive away from a VA facility. Somebody has to take off work and drive them to the appointments. Somebody has to take off work when they have to go back for the referral. Let's let them go in their home communities where they can access the care they need.

I am so committed to continuing to work on this to solve this problem for our Nation's veterans. I am working with Chairman Tester, Ranking Member Moran, and my colleagues on the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee so that we can make good on the promises we have made to our veterans. It is time to stop the false promises to the men and women who have served this Nation.

I would ask each Member of this Chamber for their support in bringing the Veterans Health Care Freedom Act in front of the full committee for consideration.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that we yield back the remaining time and that the vote scheduled at 5:30 p.m. begin.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the following law clerk and intern from my office be granted floor privileges for the remainder of the Congress: Bessie Blackburn and Roswell Cole.

Mr. President, the dangers children encounter when they go online have increased exponentially since social media platforms took over our lives. Just a few years ago, cyber bullying dominated our conversations about kids and the virtual world. Now those cyber bullies are joined by drug dealers, sex traffickers, pedophiles, and influencers who glorify mental illness, eating disorders, and self- harm.

Last week, the Biden administration decided to pay some attention to this pressing issue. While I am glad to see the White House get behind us on this issue, I would be remiss if I didn't point out that they are far behind.

Over the past 2\1/2\ years, the Senate has dedicated an incredible amount of time and energy to investigating the harm these threats have inflicted on young people. When Senator Blumenthal and I led the Commerce Committee's Consumer Protection Subcommittee, we hosted five separate hearings investigating the inherent dangers children encounter online. The Judiciary Committee hosted a sixth this past February. During those hearings, we produced more than 500 pages of testimony. This is just the testimony from witnesses who have come before us in those hearings.

In addition to this testimony, we have collected hundreds more pages of evidence illustrating the devastating impact Big Tech has had on the lives of children and teens. We also found proof that these online companies knew they had lost control of their platforms, and still, even knowing it, still they made the affirmative choice to not protect their users. They did this knowing children were at risk.

On top of that are the additional hours we spent talking to parents who tried to protect their children. We also independently confirmed just how easy it is for predators to target young people with dangerous content.

I would implore my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to confront what is in these pages of testimony. Familiarize yourself with what we heard during these hearings and in conversations--heartbreaking conversations--with families and stakeholders. As you do, remember that the examples we discussed in committee weren't just available for children to access; in many cases, there was no hiding from it, which seems unbelievable until you actually speak to young people about how pervasive this harmful content and many times illegal content is. This is why Senator Blumenthal and I spent time talking to kids and teens about their firsthand experiences with dangerous content.

The Presiding Officer knows this issue well. He has worked on kids' online privacy. He did that when he was in the House, and he has done it in the Senate. So he knows the importance of the steps we have taken not to limit the conversation just to grownups but to talk to teens and children, and that is what we have done. No one has a better understanding of what is happening to teens online than teenagers.

So we invited them into the room and asked them: What can we do to be helpful?

What they told us that they needed was something that is more proactive and more enforceable than what the Biden administration has chosen to offer.

According to the White House's announcement, HHS and the Commerce Department will lead an interagency Task Force on Kids Online Health and Safety. Their job will be to identify harms to minors from online platforms and then develop voluntary guidance, policy recommendations, and a toolkit for industry.

That sounds awfully familiar, doesn't it? We have been doing that here in the Senate for more than 2 years. Yet the White House wants to start from scratch. What is the point in that? We know what the harms are. The harms have been articulated.

We also know that voluntary guidance will do nothing to make online platforms safer. We tried that kinder, gentler method, and it failed. It does not work. Social media platforms have proven to us that they are incapable of self-regulation. Why is that? Because, when our children are online, our children are the product. They are data mining our children. They are selling that data to the highest bidder.

The second item I want to highlight is a good development but one that will complement rather than replace work we have already done here in the Senate.

According to the White House's announcement, DHS and the Justice Department will work with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to create combined image repositories to help identify victims of online trafficking and sexual abuse. This is promising because it puts law enforcement on the frontlines. That is an important distinction, but this effort needs our support, which means staying the course on existing legislation to bolster both law enforcement and NCMEC's legal authorities.

On that front, this week, the Judiciary Committee will consider the REPORT Act. It is a piece of bipartisan legislation I sponsored with Senator Ossoff that will require online companies and social media platforms to report known instances of child sex trafficking or enticement on their platforms. It will also substantially increase the fines imposed for failure to report this abuse to NCMEC.

Importantly, the REPORT Act also includes another one of my bills, the END Child Exploitation Act, which requires online platforms to preserve reports to NCMEC's cyber tip line for a period of 1 year. By extending this retention period, we can ensure that law enforcement has enough time to access evidence and to prosecute these crimes.

This bill will also make it easier for NCMEC to transfer these cyber tip line reports to law enforcement, which will, in turn, help law enforcement prosecute cases faster and put more offenders behind bars-- no more excuses.

You know, it is so interesting. I have talked to Tennesseans, and they thought this would already be the law--that these social media platforms would have to report these sex traffickers, these pedophiles, these drug dealers, these child sexual abuse images, and things that were online. They are surprised that they don't and that they don't take them down. So no more executives coming up here to the Hill to give us excuses for why they are not able to do this and complaining about how hard it is to tackle criminal perversion on their platforms-- they need to get busy with this.

The policies laid out in the REPORT Act are critical to helping Silicon Valley and law enforcement stop predators. As I said, they ought to be the first ones to stand up and say: We have got some bad actors over here. We are going to take them down.

There should be bipartisan agreement on this. Everybody should say: Let's do this, and let's do it now.

I know I can't be the only person in this Chamber who is wondering why these big tech companies haven't kept their own promises to make the online world safer for kids and for teens.

The White House's plan for voluntary guidelines and toolkits gives these companies far too much credit. As I said, they have proven to us they are incapable of self-governance.

Why are they incapable? Because they need the eyeballs of our kids on their sites for longer stretches of time. That means the data is richer. That means they sell that data. They are putting profit before the safety of our children. Go talk to these parents who have lost their kids. Go listen to these teens who are recovering from social media addiction.

This is why, earlier this year, Senator Blumenthal and I reintroduced the Kids Online Safety Act. It has 34 bipartisan cosponsors and the endorsement of more than 200 bipartisan organizations.

First, it would force platforms to give families the ability to protect minors' information, disable addictive product features, and opt out of algorithmic recommendations. Next, it would give parents the safeguards needed to protect their children's online experiences as well as to provide a

dedicated channel to report harmful behavior. Those are things that currently do not exist.

Most parents are shocked when they go onto these platforms, and when they are trying to report cyber bullying, they don't hear a word back from the platform or, maybe months later, they get an email that says: This content does not violate our community standards.

How disgusting.

Many of these parents know what is going on, and they are trying to help. They know what their kids are seeing, and they know predatory content. Content that promotes self-harm, suicide, eating disorders to minors will now, indeed, be a problem for these platforms to deal with when we pass the Kids Online Safety Act.

Parents are tired of the denial, the deflection, and the disrespect that is shown to them and their children by these social media platforms. Our kids deserve better than what these platforms and big tech companies are dishing out to them. They deserve protection on these sites.

As the Presiding Officer well knows, there are things that are illegal in the physical space but that are allowed in the virtual space on these platforms, and these platforms do nothing--nothing--to take this down.

In addition to making it difficult for these social media platforms to skirt the provisions of KOSA, we are requiring in that legislation a requirement for an annual risk assessment and access to data sets we can use to access and assess safety threats to underage users. It is time to make certain that safety is there, that it is safety by default, safety by design for our children.

Both the REPORT Act and the Kids Online Safety Act have earned the enthusiastic support of bipartisan policymakers, advocates, medical professionals, tech experts, and families from across the country. It is time we pass this legislation.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

I ask unanimous consent that the vote scheduled for 5:30 p.m. begin.

I ask for the yeas and nays.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the following interns and fellow in my office be granted floor privileges for the remainder of this Congress: Margaret Finnegan, Garrett Frye, Charles Morrow, Ryan Fortani, and Benjamin Bridges.

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

Mr. President, today I rise to oppose the nomination of Nancy Abudu as President Biden's nominee for appointment as a U.S. circuit judge for the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Now, in a government as divided as ours is at this time, we expect to have some controversial nominees that come before us at the Judiciary Committee. We expect debate; we do expect disagreement; but what we should never expect or tolerate is a nominee who has proven herself completely unfit for the role she is asking.

Ms. Abudu has shown us that there is no such thing as a good-faith debate. She views disagreements over policy as evidence of bigotry. She describes herself as a radical legal activist and has compared her fellow Americans to Jim Crow-era racists and endorsed political violence against conservatives.

She has stated that policing is--and I am going to quote her here-- the true threat to our collective safety. Hear me out on this. She has said that policing is--and I quote her--the true threat to our collective safety. She has embraced lawless sanctuary city policies and compared our criminal justice system to the horrors of slavery. These are her statements and her positions.

I would be doing a disservice to our Federal, State, and local law enforcement officers if I didn't point out the rank hypocrisy of my Democratic colleagues' attempt to force this nominee through during National Police Week.

Now, as I said, she feels like policing is a threat to our collective safety, but my Democratic colleagues, during this National Police Week, are choosing to push her forward.

She used the significant power of her position within the Southern Poverty Law Center to weaponize charges of hate against her political opponents, all the while covering up blatant discrimination within her organization.

Indeed, the Southern Poverty Law Center, every year, issues their ``hate'' list. This should give everyone pause, but perhaps the most egregious example of Ms. Abudu's hostility toward the rule of law involves this very Chamber, those of us of each party who sit in this Chamber.

In 2021, she engaged in a vicious mudslinging campaign in an attempt to manipulate the U.S. Senate into abandoning the filibuster and endorsing a radical overhaul of our Federal elections. Her campaign was so full of misrepresentations--and we will just call them falsehoods-- that even some of the most progressive Members of her party balked at what she was doing. This is the conduct that the Biden administration is seeking to reward.

Justice is to be evenhanded; equal justice for all; one system of justice, not two tiers of justice. We must not tolerate what is happening here, and we must not approve this nominee.

We had a great discussion in the Judiciary Committee about people who are unfit for the bench, unfit for public service, and the need to make certain that people are fit for this service. Ms. Abudu, by her actions, has proven herself to be unethical, unscrupulous, and completely untethered from any acceptable philosophy of law.

To approve this nominee would be to rubberstamp a nominee who terms herself a ``radical leftist activist.'' It would rubberstamp a radical agenda. It would rubberstamp an activist judge. We don't want that on our courts, and this is something the American people have rejected repeatedly.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the following articles be printed in the Record following the conclusion of my remarks.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, this National Police Week, along with my colleague Senator Hagerty, I would like to honor the unbelievably courageous officers of the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department.

On March 27, a depraved individual attacked the Covenant School in Nashville, TN, and took the lives of 9-year-old Evelyn Dieckhaus, 9- year-old Hallie Scruggs, 9-year-old William Kinney, substitute teacher Cynthia Peak, custodian Mike Hill, and Dr. Katherine Koonce. Just minutes after receiving the emergency call, a group of dedicated officers arrived on the scene and immediately rushed toward the danger. Their unflinching courage and decisive action under fire allowed them to eliminate the threat against this gentle community just minutes after it began and saved countless lives.

Violence against children and their caretakers is an act of unspeakable evil that strikes at the heart of our purpose as parents, grandparents, neighbors, brothers and sisters in Christ, and community protectors. But even in the face of such tremendous loss, Nashvillians find comfort in the knowledge that uncommonly brave men and women have dedicated their lives to protecting us from harm. On behalf of all Tennesseans, I thank Officer Rex Engelbert, Detective Mike

Collazo, Detective Zachary Plese, Detective Ryan Cagle, and Detective Sergeant Jeffery Mathes for their incredible bravery on behalf of the students and teachers at The Covenant School. They showed true professionalism, courage, and selflessness--which is the very definition of heroism. I also recognize and honor Chief John Drake for his steady presence and clarity of mind on that terrible day.

During times of overwhelming fear and uncertainty, the people of the Volunteer State look to their leaders not only for swift action but for comfort and reassurance. The brave men and women in blue who put their lives on the line every day to protect our communities deserve all the admiration, gratitude, and support we can offer, and I am so honored to represent them here in the U.S. Senate.

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

Mr. President, we have really heard quite a bit over the past few weeks and especially this past weekend about this administration and their decision to do away with title 42, and I would take this opportunity to remind my Democratic colleagues that President Biden himself admitted that our southern border will be, and I quote him, ``chaotic for a while'' post-title 42. So the expectation is that this will create chaos, and they know it, but they are doing it anyway.

In the days right before title 42 was terminated, we were already seeing unprecedented chaos along our southern border. Again, they knew it. Chaos was coming, but they were going to do it anyway because it serves their purposes.

Now, here is some of the chaos that has actually happened at that border. These are last week's numbers. They are not my numbers. They are not Republican numbers. They are Border Patrol's numbers. This is what this administration is doing to the communities that are along that southern border.

Border Patrol reported last week 68,000 apprehensions, and they seized hundreds of pounds of narcotics, including 56 pounds of fentanyl. Bear in mind, 1 little gram, one little touch is enough to kill. We are all hearing ``One pill will kill.'' Yet think about 56 pounds of that coming in. What would that do to your community?

At the same time, on top of the 68,000 who were apprehended, there were 16,000 ``got-aways'' whom they could see on surveillance video, but they could not get to them. Those are the known ``got-aways.'' So they cross the border, and they go running into the country.

There are also the unknown ``got-aways.'' As the Presiding Officer knows, as Border Patrol is out, as they are going through their day, many times they find evidence of the people who have crossed where they couldn't see them on video. They weren't wanting to be apprehended. Those are the really bad, bad, bad guys who are bringing in more drugs, more terrorists, more gangs into this country.

In the past 72 hours alone, we have seen three agents assaulted. These are our Border Patrol agents. They are being assaulted. Bear in mind, the cartels--global organizations--the cartels are in charge of that border on the Mexico side. So three of our agents have been assaulted. There were almost 15,000 more apprehensions in 72 hours and more than 4,300 ``got-aways'' who evaded capture.

As I said, these are not my numbers. They are not Republican numbers. These are the numbers of the Border Patrol. They are the Biden administration's numbers. They know that they are creating chaos, that they are making life difficult, that they are making the job of Border Patrol harder every single day, but it serves their purpose, so they do it anyway.

They know exactly what is happening and what will happen if they don't regain control of that border:

more chaos. The chaos is going to escalate because the drug cartels were exploiting the end of title 42 well before last week.

I have on my poster this weekend review, with the apprehensions we have talked about: $83,000 that was seized from the cartels, 224 pounds of marijuana, 179 pounds of meth, 56 pounds of fentanyl, 34 pounds of cocaine, 5 pounds of heroin.

You know, I had a sheriff tell me that they used to apprehend drugs in grams, and now it is all pounds. Why is it pounds? It is because the cartels are so emboldened.

Oh, here we go. We have some more: seven firearms, five sex offenders. These are people who were convicted of crimes in their countries, and they are trying to come in here. A lot of these countries are emptying their jails and trying to unload them on us.

Well, four gang members coming to a neighborhood near you. Why is it that crime is running rampant? Well, we know.

Now, this is all from last week: two felons, one subject with five warrants. That is what they are dealing with.

From October of last year to March of this year, agents apprehended more than 1 million illegal immigrants. Title 42 was still in place then. Last week, tens of thousands of people were camped on the Mexico side of the border, and nearly 80,000 more were gathered in Guatemala with plans to come into the United States. They are making their way here.

The cartels have a plan. The Biden administration and the Democrats have zero of a plan. So we need Congress to step in and make certain we get this border secured.

On his second day in office, President Biden terminated the successful Trump-era migrant protection protocols. That is known as ``Remain in Mexico.'' The policy required illegal immigrants seeking asylum at the southern border or without proper ID to return to Mexico to await their hearing. It worked. Guess what. It worked. Now, instead of keeping it in place, the Biden administration and the Democrats have decided to go back to the old, failed catch-and-release policy. Come on in. We will give you a court date. Court dates now are about 2030, but come on, we will let you in. They will be caught, and then they are released into the country.

Bringing back ``Remain in Mexico'' is essential to maintaining our Nation's security and sovereignty, especially now that the Biden administration has completely undermined Border Patrol by stripping them of their title 42 authority. So this month, I introduced the Make the Migrant Protection Protocols Mandatory Act. The bill is simple. It mandates that individuals seeking asylum at the southern border or without proper ID must return to Mexico while they await their immigration proceedings. We should pass this as soon as possible. That is step one.

Step two is to strike at the heart of the cartels' $13 billion criminal enterprise.

Since President Biden took office, human trafficking has become even more pervasive at the southern border. The State Department estimates that the cartels move as many as 17,500 people across the border every year. One in three is a child. We also know that the cartels overwhelmingly target young girls and sell them into sex slavery. With the end of title 42, these criminal abusers will feel particularly emboldened to expand their business.

I want you to think about those numbers. Human trafficking has become a $13 billion business. Go back to 2019; it was a $500 million-a-year business. Ask yourself, what has changed in that time? It is an administration with very lax or no border policy. Their policy is open it up so that we, the taxpayers, finish the cartels' job. And it is a humanitarian crisis because women and girls--90 percent of whom make this journey--are being sexually assaulted. So I would ask my colleagues, are you OK with that? Are you OK with the cartels making this money? Are you OK with them moving these individuals and selling these women and girls into sex slavery?

The SAVE Girls Act, which I introduced this year--Senator Klobuchar has joined me on this--it establishes a $50 million grant program to put critical resources into the hands of State and local officials and nonprofits so they can fight the smuggling and trafficking of girls across the border and into the communities.

This persistent abuse of young women will only worsen with title 42 gone. There is no reason why this body should not immediately pass this bill and help to protect these women and children who are making this journey.

As we speak, cartels are exploiting Congress's inaction. The President is asleep at the wheel. His border czar is missing in action. His Cabinet officials are busy evading requests for information about what precisely they have been doing with taxpayer time and money over the last few years.

We won't be able to fix this overnight, but we have to start somewhere. We need to make ``Remain in Mexico'' the law of the land and pass the SAVE Girls Act and give law enforcement the tools they need to secure the border before we lose complete and total control of it.

(Ms. HIRONO assumed the Chair.)

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