Floor Statements

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 331, submitted earlier today.

I ask unanimous consent that 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.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 10:30 a.m., Friday, July 30; that following the prayer and the pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and morning business be closed; that upon the conclusion of morning business, the Senate resume consideration of the motion to proceed to H.R. 3684; that all postcloture time on the motion to proceed expire at 11:30 a.m.; finally, that if the Jaddou nomination is confirmed, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table and the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action, and the Senate then resume legislative session.

Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that it stand adjourned under the provisions of S. Res. 330 as a further mark of respect for the late Mike Enzi, the former Senator for the State of Wyoming.

Mr. President, what is the status of the floor?

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as if in morning business.

Mr. President, let's be clear. We are facing the most dangerous and overt threat to our democratic system in generations.

Supreme Court decisions like Citizens United and McCutcheon wrongly equated money with speech, and in the decades since, unaccountable dark money has flooded into our political system. This broken campaign finance system allows billionaires to drown out the voices of ordinary Americans with no accountability. This lack of transparency also opens the door for dangerous disinformation campaigns.

After the Supreme Court gutted article V of the Voting Rights Act in another terrible decision, we have also seen State legislatures across the country take up and pass voting laws designed explicitly to prevent Black, Brown, and young voters from exercising their right to vote.

These new laws in States like Georgia, Arizona, and Texas are right out of the pre-Voting Rights Act playbook of the Jim Crow South. Some have called them Jim Crow 2.0, and, frankly, it is hard to disagree. They make it harder to register to vote. They reduce early voting times in polling locations. They restrict access to vote by mail. In the Presiding Officer's State in Georgia, it is now illegal to hand out water to someone who has been standing in line for hours to vote, waiting to vote. Could anything be more wrongheaded?

My home State of New Mexico is a good example of what it looks like to enhance rather than attack participation in our democracy. I am proud of the ways that election officials in my State have stepped up in recent years to make voting safer, to make it more secure and at the same time more accessible for every New Mexican, and our State has seen greater participation in our elections as a result. Now, unfortunately, we are seeing the polar opposite of this approach in our neighboring States.

Just last week, Democratic lawmakers from Texas came to Washington, DC, to warn us just how dire the situation has become in their State. Texas's Governor, Greg Abbott, and Republican lawmakers in Austin are hell-bent on passing sweeping voting restrictions as part of a nakedly

discriminatory power grab. These proposed changes would reduce voting hours, push back the start of Sunday early voting when many Black voters cast their ballots, and eliminate polling locations in larger urban counties. The goal of this type of legislation is pretty plain to see.

This shameful and transparent attempt to take away Texans' right to vote and similar attempts to disenfranchise voters in many other States should be a wake-up call to every single American. We should all be able to see that these attacks on voting are taking advantage of and in many cases being driven by our former President's lies and conspiracy theories about the last election.

Make no mistake, former President Trump's Big Lie about his loss in the 2020 election has sown widespread and damaging distrust in our elections. We should never forget that this same distrust and disinformation fomented a mob of violent insurrectionists who stormed into this very building, the very heart of our democracy, less than 6 months ago.

Now, unfortunately, that cat is out of the bag. I don't see this widespread public distrust in our elections going away anytime soon as a result, especially as long as our former President continues to add more fuel to the fire and particularly when Republicans--even Republicans who know that he is lying--continue to follow him down that rabbit hole.

In one of New Mexico's other neighboring States, in Arizona, there is a so-called audit of the votes cast in their largest county. This bogus audit is being conducted by a private company paid for by secret pro- Trump funders, with no effective oversight.

When you outsource nonpartisan election work to a firm calling themselves the Cyber Ninjas, you know things are off the rails. All of the distrust in our elections that has been ginned up by the former President is all the more reason for us to come together to pass commonsense reforms that would restore all Americans' faith in our elections and in our democracy.

The right of every lawful American to vote is just that; it is a right, and no one, no one, should be able to take that away. The public should have confidence that our leaders are working on their behalf, not in fealty to a class of dark money billionaires. They deserve transparency so that they can see who is behind the political ads on their television screens and their social media feeds. Most importantly, they deserve to know that our fundamentally American right to vote is secure, accessible, and easy to navigate for every single lawful American.

That is why it is so important for the Senate to take up the For the People Act this week. This comprehensive legislation addresses all of the critical challenges facing our political systems and our democratic institutions. The For the People Act would restore transparency, accountability, and strong ethics rules for our elections.

It would stop billionaires from being able to anonymously pour buckets of cash into our elections in an effort to buy them. It would put an end to partisan gerrymandering and broken election rules that allow Republicans and Democrats alike to rig the system for themselves and for special interests. And it would modernize voting systems so that every American, no matter their race, their political party, or their ZIP Code, can have confidence in their ability to exercise their right to vote.

Democrats and Republicans in the Senate should come together to pass commonsense election security, voter protections, and campaign finance reforms in the For the People Act. Each of these provisions, on their own, have won bipartisan support at the State and local level. In a previous, less partisan time, these ideas would have earned broad bipartisan support here in Congress. These are not Democratic or Republican ideas; they are fundamental reforms that we need to pass in order to restore the essential American idea that each of us has a say in who we elect as our leaders.

The House has already passed the For the People Act earlier this year. It is now the Senate's turn to take up this critical legislation. Unless we can pass the reforms that are in the For the People Act, we will keep living under a broken status quo where the special interests wield far too much control and State lawmakers can continue to undermine and ignore constitutional rights.

It is outrageous that Senate Republicans, as we heard from the minority leader, are planning to block legislation to restore voting rights and bring much-needed transparency and ethics into our elections. Their refusal to even allow debate on the For the People Act should be seen for what it is. It is a ringing endorsement of former President Trump's conspiracy theories and his attacks on our elections and on reality itself.

Refusing to take up the For the People Act will prop up the campaigns that we are seeing in States across the country that strip Americans of our hard-won right to vote.

Mr. President, I want to be clear. If Senate Republicans are successful later today in using the filibuster to block the Senate from even debating the For the People Act, this cannot be the end of the story. We simply cannot give up on passing voting rights legislation in this Congress, not when our democracy is what is on the line.

We should all remember that the filibuster is a rule, a rule that cannot even be found in the Constitution, but voting, voting is an American right. When I think about this, I remember my former colleague across the hall from me, actually, when I served in the House, Representative John Lewis. It was one of the most humbling experiences of my life to be able to serve in the same Chamber as Congressman Lewis.

John Lewis dedicated his entire life to the fight for the right of all Americans to cast their ballot safely and without fear of discrimination. More than 50 years ago, he and so many others marched and put their lives on the line to call on President Lyndon Johnson and Members of Congress from both parties to pass the Voting Rights Act. Back then and every time the Voting Rights Act has been reauthorized since, Senators from both parties have found a way to protect our democracy and preserve the right to vote.

Right now, America is facing down daunting threats to our democratic values here at home. For the first time since the Civil War, the greatest threats to the Republic are from within. History will judge all of us based on what we do to defend that fundamental right for all--not some but all--of our fellow Americans.

Mr. President, will we meet this moment? If we fail to rise to the discrimination baked into these State laws, our failure will cast a long shadow. I will be proud to cast my vote on the side of democracy.

I yield the floor

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, it is my honor to recognize the life of Dr. Peter B. Lyons, a steadfast and selfless public servant, who over the course of an unparalleled and distinguished career at Los Alamos National Laboratory, the U.S. Senate, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the U.S. Department of Energy, made numerous contributions to the field of nuclear physics, to the State of New Mexico, and to our country's nuclear energy community.

In 2010, Dr. Lyons was confirmed as the Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy. As Assistant Secretary, he focused on incorporating modeling and

simulation into all programs through the Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation Program, advancing the management of used nuclear fuel through the development of the Strategy for the Management and Disposal of Used Nuclear Fuel and High-Level Radioactive Waste, and leading the Nuclear Energy Group that established the Small Modular Reactor Licensing Technical Support Program for a new generation of safe, reliable, low-carbon nuclear energy technology. Under his leadership, the Nuclear Energy University Program also expanded its successful work supporting universities in the United States as they prepared the next generation of nuclear engineering leaders.

Prior to his leadership at the Department of Energy, Dr. Lyons served for 4\1/2\ years on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and for 8 years as an invaluable member of U.S. Senator Pete V. Domenici's staff, when Senator Domenici was the chairman of both the Senate Energy Committee and Appropriations Energy and Water Development Subcommittee. He and Senator Domenici focused on broadening the use of nuclear energy in its safest configuration as a critical way to reduce dependence on other forms of energy that contributed to climate change.

For nearly 30 years, Dr. Lyons worked as a nuclear physicist at Los Alamos National Laboratory. He served as Director for Industrial Partnerships, Deputy Associate Director for Energy and Environment, and Deputy Associate Director for Defense Research and Applications. At Los Alamos, he also spent a decade supporting nuclear test diagnostics and served as the Chairman of the NATO Nuclear Effects Task Force. He published more than 100 technical papers and held three patents related to fiber optics and plasma diagnostics. He was also elected to the Los Alamos School Board for 16 years, a true reflection of his broad dedication to public service.

Dr. Lyons received his undergraduate degree in physics and mathematics from the University of Arizona and his doctorate in nuclear astrophysics from the California Institute of Technology. He was a fellow of the American Nuclear Society, ANS, a fellow of the American Physical Society, and recipient of the Eisenhower Award for distinguished service from the ANS.

Behind all of these extraordinary achievements and vital contributions to our country lay a humble, kind, and profoundly decent person. All who knew Dr. Lyons, or ``Pete,'' as he insisted his friends and associates call him, will never forget his kindness, his thoughtfulness, and his willingness to help everyone who approached him. Even as he fought the cancer that eventually took his life, he retained his optimistic nature and his great sense of humor.

My thoughts are with all of Pete's family, friends, and colleagues as they mourn his loss and reflect on all that he accomplished in his life.

Madam President, it is a deep honor to recognize the life of an extraordinary New Mexican, Dr. Armin Rembe of Los Ranchos. The first oncologist-hematologist in Albuquerque, Dr. Rembe served countless numbers of patients in New Mexico delivering lifesaving care over a long and successful medical career.

Originally from Seattle, WA, Dr. Rembe developed a lifelong love for his adopted home State of New Mexico. He studied everything he could about New Mexico's rich history and culture. He also became a preeminent collector of Spanish colonial art and served for years as a judge at the annual Spanish Market in Santa Fe.

With his wife of 58 years, Penny, Dr. Rembe developed his second career after retiring from medicine as an organic farmer and steward of Los Poblanos Historic Inn and Organic Farm in Los Ranchos. The historic property was designed by the renowned architect John Gaw Meem and sits amid 25 acres of lavender fields, cottonwood trees, and formal gardens in the Rio Grande Valley.

For 45 years, Dr. Rembe and Penny worked tirelessly to grow the successful and dynamic mission of Los Poblanos as a gem of historical preservation, a venue with world-class hospitality, and a working organic farm that keeps the tradition of agriculture in the Rio Grande alive while minimizing the use of precious water resources.

Above all else, Dr. Rembe was proud of his family. My thoughts are with his beloved wife, Penny, their four children, Emily, Armin, Jay and Matthew, and their eight grandchildren, as they grieve this loss and remember a life well-lived.

Mr. President, I am proud to join with the majority leader and with my colleagues from Maine and Massachusetts to lead this effort to restore responsible methane emission standards at the EPA. We can take commonsense action right now to slow climate change and simultaneously reduce the incredible waste of a valuable energy resource.

Methane is the primary constituent in natural gas. It is an incredibly potent driver of the greenhouse effect. Over the short term, it is actually 86 times more powerful than CO2 emissions. It is estimated that about a quarter of all the human-caused global warming that has occurred since the Industrial Revolution can be attributed to methane emissions.

In the United States, the lion's share of these human-caused methane emissions are from the production of oil and gas. That is due in part to outdated--oftentimes, even faulty--equipment and pipes that leak methane into the air, wellheads that leak methane.

Many oil and gas operators also engage in a practice known as flaring, where operators ignite and burn off excess gas, and, worse yet, venting, where uncombusted natural gas is simply released into the air.

Now, beyond the obvious consequences for climate change, these types of methane emissions waste incredibly valuable energy resources.

Fugitive methane also harms public health by polluting the air that we breathe. When methane leaks from oil and gas wells or pipelines or other infrastructure, harmful carcinogens--

carcinogens like benzene and other volatile organic compounds--also leak into the air alongside it. That means more children suffering from asthma attacks and more seniors having trouble breathing.

Methane pollution is real and present in many States, and it is a real problem in my State of New Mexico. We saw clear evidence of this over the Four Corners region in northwestern New Mexico--the San Juan Basin--and southwestern Colorado, when a giant cloud of methane, about the size of the State of Delaware, became so large by the mid-2000s that it could actually be seen by NASA satellite images.

This chart right here is a map from NASA of the western United States. You can see right here the cloud of methane over the Four Corners, which coincides exactly with the San Juan Basin, where much of our oil and gas has been produced over the course of the last several decades.

You can see from this map, from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, how real and urgent the issue is. In recent years, researchers have detected increasing levels of dangerous methane pollution now over southeastern New Mexico, over the Permian Basin, where oil and gas operations have been booming for the last decade.

It is clear that this oil and gas producing region has joined the San Juan Basin as another major contributor to our methane emissions challenge.

Late last year, the EPA and the New Mexico Environment Department conducted helicopter flights over both the San Juan and Permian Basins. They used forward-looking infrared technology that can detect emissions from oil and gas operations that would normally be invisible to the naked eye.

I think if you could see methane, we would have solved many of these problems a long time ago.

For an example of what this technology can help us see at an individual oil and gas operation level, look at this side-by-side image from the group Earthworks. As you can see, this is what the human eye sees--simple oil and gas infrastructure, the number of tanks, some piping. But by using infrared imaging, you can see the enormous amount of methane simply being vented or leaking into the air. That entire plume is invisible to the naked eye, and, were it not so, I would, once again, suggest that we would have solved these problems a long time ago

The overflights that were conducted by the New Mexico Environment Department found that methane leak rates over New Mexico's Permian Basin in 2020 had increased by 250 percent over 2019 levels. It is simply unacceptable.

Nationally, the Environmental Defense Fund has found that while oil and gas production has not yet rebounded from a crash brought on by the pandemic last year, methane emissions are already soaring back to prepandemic levels.

That is completely unacceptable when companies have the knowledge, have the technology, have the workforce to fix these leaks and stop the wasteful practices of venting and flaring.

When we set clear rules and emission standards, most oil and gas operators are onboard with updating their equipment and their practices to minimize methane leaks and to bring that natural gas that they produce to market. That is their business plan, not wasting methane.

We saw this bear out in practice in New Mexico over these past 2 years, as our State's oil conservation commission convened conservation and public health advocates and local oil and gas producers to establish State-level methane emissions rules.

New Mexico's new rules govern not just oil and gas production sites but also things like pipelines and storage sites that also oftentimes leak methane into the atmosphere.

And under our new State rules, oil and gas operators have the flexibility to choose the best technologies to meet the target of capturing 98 percent of their natural gas by 2026.

A spokesperson for the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association recently said that the group supports this goal and the newly finalized rules, which promote ``safe, responsible production of oil and gas.''

New Mexico has now joined other western States--States such as Colorado, North Dakota, and Wyoming--that have already adopted strong State-level methane emissions rules.

Until just recently, we also had strong Federal methane rules in place at the EPA. Now, unfortunately, these rules became one more target of the Trump administration's reckless rollbacks of protections of our clean air and clean water in this country. Late last year, President Trump dismantled an EPA rule that required oil and gas producers to monitor for methane leaks at their wells, at their compressor stations, and at their other operations.

This rule, or rollback of a rule, is simply a disaster for our climate and for public health. It was even rejected by much of the industry that it was purporting to help. Many leading American oil and gas producers and companies simply panned President Trump's rollback of these commonsense methane standards. As just one example, Gretchen Watkins, Shell's president in the United States, called the Trump administration's rollback ``frustrating and disappointing,'' and pledged to voluntarily continue reducing their methane emissions.

Why would they do that? Because it is the right thing to do, because it makes business sense, because the rollback was, frankly, nonsensical.

So repairing leaks and installing new leak detection technologies will also create a number of good-paying jobs. It is really the epitome of a win-win situation.

Without clear Federal rules in place at the EPA, however, industry- led voluntary emissions reductions simply won't go far enough to curb the problem that we have. We need clear standards that create clear requirements for reducing waste and harmful pollution.

And it is not just me saying this. Since we announced this effort to use the Congressional Review Act, more and more leading companies in the oil and gas sector have come forward to say that they would welcome reinstating the EPA's methane emissions standards.

That includes the EQT Corporation, one of the Nation's leading natural gas producers, which operates in West Virginia and Ohio and Pennsylvania. In a statement, EQT's president and CEO, Toby Rice, called the reinstating of uniform Federal methane standards ``sound federal policies'' and committed to ``producing our natural gas in accordance with high environmental and social standards.''

The major oil company Total USA says:

We welcome direct federal regulation of methane emissions

and support resolution via the Congressional Review Act.

Shell U.S. tweeted:

Sound policy surrounding natural gas is critical to its

role in the energy transition. We need to restore the direct

federal regulation of methane emissions--and we urge Congress

to approve the methane resolution under the Congressional

Review Act.

Not my words; Shell--one of the world's major producers of oil and gas.

These are the words of industry leaders who welcome us setting clear standards on methane emissions.

We are voting to reinstate the commonsense methane requirements for the oil and gas industry's production and processing segments and the methane and volatile organic compound requirements for oil and gas transmission and storage facilities.

With this vote, Congress will once again affirm that the Clean Air Act requires the EPA to take action to protect the air that Americans breathe from dangerous and harmful pollutants like methane, just like we did back in 2017 when the Senate came together on a bipartisan basis to uphold similar rules that govern oil and gas production on Federal Bureau of Land Management lands. In that vote, our former colleague Senator John McCain and our colleagues Senator Susan Collins and Senator Lindsey Graham joined with Senate Democrats in retaining the BLM's methane rule that promoted responsible development of natural gas resources on our public lands.

I would hope that all of us, and I mean all of us, sincerely--this is an effort that should receive the support of every single Senator in this body. I would hope that all of us can come together on a bipartisan basis once again to restore and strengthen responsible Federal methane standards for oil and gas operators. I am so pleased that

Senator Collins has already joined us as a cosponsor on this resolution.

Finally, I would like to point out that these rules are important not just to the health of oil and gas producing States like New Mexico or Wyoming or Colorado, because these rules will ensure the safety of not just oil and gas production sites but also of the gas pipelines and the storage sites that exist in every State in this country and in communities across this country.

These upstream segments of the oil and gas industry are in every single community you can imagine in all parts of the Nation. Just like we all know we need to remove poisonous lead from our drinking water pipes, we need to be sure that the natural gas lines that run into our homes and into our businesses are not leaking harmful methane pollution in the very spaces where we all breathe and live.

As we transition towards a 100-percent clean energy future, a future without pollution, we must do all that we can to mitigate the harmful pollution caused by our current use of fossil fuels, and that is exactly what these rules are designed to do.

As President Biden demonstrated just last week when he convened leaders from around the globe, Americans are ready for us to move past former President Trump's backward and reckless vision on climate. Restoring and strengthening methane standards at the EPA will be one of the most powerful steps we can all take here in this Senate today to confront the existential threat posed by greenhouse pollution and a warming planet, and it will make the air over all of our communities cleaner and healthier and easier to breathe.

For all of these reasons, I would encourage once again not just a few of my colleagues but all of our colleagues to join us in voting for this bipartisan resolution to restore some commonsense and some responsible Federal standards for the waste and leakage of methane.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, Leader Chuck Schumer, Chairman Tom Carper of the Committee on Environment and Public Works, Senator Angus King, Senator Edward Markey and I are leading supporters and sponsors of S.J. Res. 14, a joint resolution providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the Environmental Protection Agency relating to Oil and Natural Gas Sector: Emission Standards for New, Reconstructed, and Modified Sources Review, 85 Fed. Reg. 57,018, Sept. 14, 2020, also known as methane rescission rule. We submit these comments to provide the Senate with addit{onal information regarding the intent in adopting this resolution.

The atmospheric buildup of greenhouse gases, such as methane, is changing the climate at a pace and in a way that endangers human health, society, our economy, and the natural environment. Specific public health impacts of anthropogenic climate change include respiratory harms associated with smoke inhalation from unprecedented climate-driven forest fires, heat stroke, and other health effects of increasingly frequent heat waves, and more widespread vector borne diseases. Other public welfare impacts include displacing U.S. communities by retreating snow and ice and rising sea levels, droughts that impact agricultural production and farming communities, and

changes in the frequency and intensity of heat waves, precipitation, and extreme weather events that have a disproportionate impact on our Nation most vulnerable.

A key chemical constituent of natural gas, methane is a leading contributing cause of climate change. It is 28 to 36 times more powerful than carbon dioxide in raising the Earth's surface temperature when measured over a 100-year time scale and about 84 times more powerful when measured over a 20-year timeframe.

Industrial sources emit greenhouse gases in great quantities, and methane emissions from all segments of the oil and gas industry are especially significant in their contribution to overall emissions levels and surface temperature rise.

It is not possible to address the problem of rising global atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations tEy achieving U.S. net greenhouse gas neutrality. The United States cannot become greenhouse gas neutral without reducing greenhouse gas emissions from all industrial sources, regardless of the relative size of any one emission source or the disparate locations of the points of emission.

Within this context, the methane rescission rule should be disapproved by Congress. The rule finalized regulatory actions and introduced legal interpretations that contravene the Clean Air Act and congressional intent for EPA to take strong action to regulate and abate greenhouse gas emissions, such as methane, from all sources.

S.J. Res. 14 renders the methane rescission rule's effect void and demonstrates Congress's disapproval of the new findings of fact and interpretations of law upon which this rule was based.

By adopting this resolution of disapproval, it is our view that Congress reaffirms that the Clean Air Act requires EPA to act to protect Americans from sources of climate pollution like methane, which endangers the public's health and welfare.

In rejecting the methane rescission rule's misguided legal interpretations, the resolution clarifies our intent that EPA should regulate methane and other pollution emissions from all oil and gas sources, including production, processing, transmission, and storage segments under the authority of section 111 of the Clean Air Act.

In addition, we intend that section 111 of the Clean Air Act obligates and provides EPA with the legal authority to regulate existing sources of methane emissions in all of these segments.

In addition, we do not intend that section 111 of Clean Air Act requires EPA to make a pollutant-specific significant contribution finding before regulating emissions of a new pollutant from a listed source category, although EPA could make such a finding if it chooses to do so on a case-by-case basis.

Disapproval of the methane rescission rule does not preclude future regulation under section 111 of the Clean Air Act of methane, VOCs or other pollution from the oil and gas industry. This resolution nullifies a rule that strips away public health and welfare protections and deregulates the oil and gas industry. Any future rule that imposes regulatory requirements on the oil and gas industry, provides additional public health and welfare protections, or establishes or strengthens standards on sources of methane and other pollutant emissions would have the opposite intent and effect of the methane rescission rule and therefore cannot be construed as ``substantially the same'' as the methane rescission rule.

In fact, with the congressional adoption of this resolution, we encourage EPA to strengthen the standards we reinstate and aggressively regulate methane and other pollution emissions from new, modified, and existing sources throughout the production, processing, transmission, and storage segments of the oil and gas industry under section 111 of the Clean Air Act.

The welfare of our planet and of our communities depend on it.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that a letter from attorneys general of New York, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and the District of Columbia, and the chief legal officers of Chicago and Denver on the importance of passing this resolution be printed in the Record.

Madam President, David Soules was one of the kindest people you could ever meet. His easy laugh and infectious enthusiasm was always such a welcome presence, especially on excursions onto his favorite southern New Mexico public lands. I will always treasure the way David could put his ``engineer's brain'' to work, diving into complex problems and looking for solutions, from public access and wildlife habitat restoration to the siting of transmission lines. He was also a real listener, with a rare appetite to always learn something new. David always had time to sneak away to a quiet corner to compare notes, share thoughts, and strategize about how to make something better.

The decade-plus-long, community-driven effort to establish the Organ Mountains Desert Peaks National Monument was successful because of so many different people. But it is truly impossible to imagine it happening without David Soules. David knew every inch of the Organ Mountains- Desert Peaks, and his methodical documentation of historical places, artifacts, and unique Chihuahuan desert ecosystems was instrumental in qualifying the area for monument designation. The National Monument and the 10 new Wilderness Areas that are now protected forever within it will endure as an everlasting gift from David to all of us.

David held a doctorate in mechanical engineering and became nationally recognized expert in the field of imaging through turbulence during his career spanning over 37 years at White Sands Missile Range. During that same time, David became a lifelong sportsman and champion for wildlife, serving on the New Mexico Game and Fish Commission, coauthoring the ``Exploring Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument'' guidebook, serving as a member and supporter of numerous nongovernmental sportsmen's and conservation organizations, including on the boards of New Mexico Wild and the White Sands Missile Range Historical Foundation.

David Soules was a dear friend and an incredible mentor to my boys. I am thinking of his wife, Nancy, their two sons, Kevin and Keith, their grandchildren, and all those who knew, loved, and will forever miss David. Whenever I am hunting mule deer or javelina in southern New Mexico, I will remember David and all he did to protect the wildlife and wild places that I hold dear.

Mr. President, I would ask unanimous consent that Jakob Lindaas, the AAAS fellow from my office, have floor privileges for the rest of today's session.

Mr. President, it is an honor to recognize the lifetime of service and historic contributions of Navajo Nation Supreme Court Justice Lorene B. Ferguson, who died on March 1, 2021, with her daughters at her bedside, from complications of COVID-19.

Justice Ferguson was the first woman justice on the Navajo Nation Supreme Court. In 2001, she was nominated to serve as Associate Justice by President Kelsey Begaye and was confirmed by the Navajo Nation Council. She served as an Associate Justice on the Navajo Nation Supreme Court until 2007, including as Acting Chief Justice from 2004 to 2005.

Prior to her appointment to the Supreme Court, Justice Ferguson served as a Navajo circuit judge in the Kayenta District Court and as a Navajo Tribal Court judge in the Shiprock, To'hajiilee, Ramah, and Alamo Courts. She also served for 8 years as a staff attorney at the Navajo Nation Department of Justice, where she drafted the first Navajo Election Code and Navajo scholarship policy for the Department of Education.

Justice Ferguson was born in the Sawmill, Ni'ii Ji'ih, Chapter of the Navajo Nation in the Fort Defiance Agency in Arizona. She graduated from Fort Lewis College in 1965. She worked in community development, welfare rights, and Native American education as a Head Start teacher and Indian education training technician. She began her legal career after graduating from the University of New Mexico School of Law in 1983.

Justice Ferguson served as a mentor and role model for numerous Navajo attorneys and law clerks. She was a strong advocate for education and Tribal traditional law. She served as a judicial education faculty member for the National Judicial College at the University of Nevada in Reno and was the first Tribal judge to serve as a judge in residence at the University of Tulsa School of Law. She frequently spoke at law schools around the country to educate students and faculty on the importance of Tribal law.

Justice Ferguson was also a loving wife, mother, grandmother, and matriarch for her family. My thoughts are with all of her loved ones and all those who were touched by her life during this time of loss.

Mr. President, it is an honor to recognize over two decades of dedication and service to New Mexico from Dr. Dan Alpert, my senior legislative assistant, who is retiring after a distinguished career in the U.S. Senate.

A dedicated public servant, Dr. Alpert began his career as a nuclear engineer at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, NM, working on nuclear power, renewable energy, and energy efficiency programs for 20 years.

In 1997, Dr. Alpert took his extensive experience at Sandia to Capitol Hill for a 1-year fellowship sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, AAAS, in the office of my predecessor, Senator Jeff Bingaman. Since then, Dr. Alpert has served the people of New Mexico in the U.S. Senate for more than two decades.

Dr. Alpert's dedication to New Mexico and expertise has been instrumental in steering my legislative priorities on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Dr. Alpert's distinguished career includes leadership in energy storage research and development, cutting-edge energy transmission planning, and careful oversight and stewardship of our Nation's nuclear laboratories and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. While he probably did not plan on it when he was earning his nuclear engineering Ph.D., Dr. Alpert also served as a longtime and well-respected agriculture and infrastructure expert in Senator Bingaman's office.

Anyone who has ever worked with Dr. Alpert also knows that his policy

expertise is matched by his dedication to his colleagues and to mentoring the next generation of public servants. Dr. Alpert has demonstrated his heart of gold, a natural kindness, and wonderful sense of humor to all who have had the pleasure to meet him. I also recognize that Dr. Alpert could not be where he is today without the love and support of his sweetheart, Ann.

On behalf of the people of the State of New Mexico and on behalf of my entire staff and Senator Bingaman's staff, I thank him for his service. I know I speak for so many when I thank Dr. Alpert for his contributions to New Mexico and to our Nation. I know that he will continue to make a difference in the lives of everyone he meets. I ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing the dedicated service of Dr. Alpert and congratulate him on his retirement from the U.S. Senate.