Floor Statements

Mr. President, I have 8 requests for committees to meet during today's session of the Senate. They have the approval of the Majority anc 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:

committee on armed services

The Committee on Armed Services is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, March 18, 2021, at 9:30 a.m., to conduct a hearing.

Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs

The Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, March 18, 2021, at 10 a.m., to conduct a hearing.

committee on finance

The Committee on Finance is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, March 18, 2021 at 10 a.m., to conduct a hearing.

committee on health, education, labor, and pensions

The Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, March 18, 2021, at 10 a.m., to conduct a hearing.

committee on homeland security and governmental affairs

The Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, March 18, 202l at 10:15 a.m., to conduct a hearing.

committee on the judiciary

The Committee on the Judiciary is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, March 18, 2021, at 10 a.m., to conduct a hearing on nominations.

committee on veterans' affairs

The Committee on Veterans' Affairs is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, March 18, 2021, at 1O a.m., to conduct a hearing.

special committee on aging

The Special Committee on Aging is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Thursday, March 18, 2021, at 9:30 a.m., to conduct a hearing.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to complete my remarks before the vote is called.

And for the information of the Senators, I will speak for about 7 minutes.

Madam President, I would like to start by taking a moment to address the awful violence we saw in Georgia yesterday.

Everyone, especially elected officials, needs to not just speak out but to act against this deadly display of hate.

To the victims and their families and to the Asian-American and Pacific-Islander community in Washington State and nationwide, my heart is with you not just today but going forward. I will continue sending a strong message that hate against you must stop, and I will keep working to ensure your safety in light of the terrible surge in hate crimes we have seen in our State and across the country.

Now, Madam President, I rise today to voice my strong support for Attorney General Becerra to serve as Secretary of Health and Human Services.

After 4 years of attacks on families' healthcare from President Trump, after a year of this pandemic ravaging our Nation, the challenges that lie ahead of us, especially when it comes to healthcare, are numerous; they are enormous; and they are absolutely urgent.

The uninsured rate, the drug prices, and healthcare costs have all skyrocketed. Confidence in our public health agencies have plummeted. Already painful health inequities have grown deeper. And this pandemic has absolutely devastated communities and pushed our healthcare system to the brink.

COVID-19 has killed over a half a million people, and that number continues to rise. When it comes to the hard work ahead to not only end this pandemic but rebuild a stronger and fairer country, it is clear we need an experienced leader at the Department of Health and Human Services. It is clear we don't have a second to waste, and it is clear Attorney General Becerra is the right pick for this job.

His track record shows he has the convictions and the qualifications for the task at hand. As a Member of Congress for over two decades, he has proven himself a skilled legislator who understands healthcare policy. As attorney general of one of the Nation's largest justice departments, he has proven himself as a leader capable of heading a complex Department like HHS. And throughout all of his work, he has proven himself as a champion for patients and public health.

In Congress, he worked to help more people get quality, affordable healthcare by passing the Children's Health Insurance Program and the Affordable Care Act. In California, he has fought in court to defend the Affordable Care Act and time and time again has gone to court to fight for patients, like when he won a $70 million settlement from pharmaceutical companies for blocking cheaper generic drugs from market, when he won a settlement from opioid manufacturers behind the addiction crisis and joined a bipartisan investigation into whether opioids were unlawfully marketed, when he sued e-cigarette companies from marketing tobacco products to children and led a bipartisan effort with the Republican attorney general of Nebraska to protect kids from tobacco imagery, or when he worked to investigate companies and hold them accountable for putting workers at risk by failing to follow COVID-19 safety measures.

Attorney General Becerra has also worked to acknowledge and address issues driving inequities in healthcare. As leader of California's Department of Justice, he fought in court against the Trump administration rule that undermined care for the LGBTQ community, against the administration's constant efforts to undermine reproductive healthcare and against its blatant disregard for the well-being of migrant children.

Attorney General Becerra also established a new Bureau of Disability

Rights at his department, as well as a new office focused on environmental justice, including how pollution and public health hazards disproportionately hurt communities of color.

Overall, his record tells a story that is clear, compelling, and persuasive. He has fought against pharmaceutical companies, opioid manufacturers, tobacco companies and polluters and for more affordable, quality healthcare for every patient.

I have no doubt as Secretary that he will put special interests on notice and put patients and public health first and put science, data, and experts back in the driver's seat. And he would also bring an important perspective to this role as a first-generation college student and the first Latino Secretary of Health and Human Services.

He is exactly the kind of leader we need to make sure we make good on the promise of the historic investments we made in the American Rescue Plan to end this pandemic--investments to rapidly scale up testing and tracing and sequencing so we can identify new strains of COVID and slow the spread; investments to quickly and equitably get vaccines into arms, an effort that requires not just making vaccines available but breaking down barriers to access, promoting vaccine confidence, fighting misinformation, and engaging community partners; investments to build our public health infrastructure and recruit and train 100,000 public healthcare workers.

He will also be a valuable partner to Congress as we work to address challenges that predate this pandemic but have been made all the more urgent, like rooting out systemic racism and addressing inequities in our healthcare system, which have made this pandemic so much more damaging and deadly for communities of color; like addressing the mental healthcare crisis, which the trauma of this pandemic has made so much worse; like fighting the opioid epidemic, a crisis which was deadlier than ever this past year; and like expanding access to quality affordable childcare, which has become more difficult for families to get during this pandemic.

When this pandemic is over, we will need a strong leader at the Department to deal with the aftermath and with so many other outstanding issues: bringing down prescription drugs prices; making sure healthcare in this country is truly a right, not a privilege; undoing 4 years of attacks on reproductive rights and ensuring every woman can get reproductive healthcare, regardless of their race or income or ZIP Code or disability; lowering our unconscionably high maternal mortality rate; reversing the alarming trend of rising youth tobacco use; and ensuring the Office of Refugee Resettlement is upholding its welfare mission by prioritizing the well-being of every child in its care, ensuring they are treated with decency and humanity and kindness; and working to place children with suitable sponsors quickly and safely.

We have our work cut out for us, but in Attorney General Becerra, we have a Secretary of Health who is up to the job. He has the support not only of Democrats but of Republicans, as the Republican attorneys general of both Louisiana and Tennessee have spoken highly of their experiences working with him.

I urge every Senator who wants the Biden-Harris administration to succeed at ending this pandemic quickly, keeping our families safe, and ensuring everyone can get quality affordable healthcare to join me in voting to confirm him.

Thank you.

I yield the floor.

I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, I want to really thank Senator Schumer, Senator Wyden, and Senator Sanders and others who are working so hard with me on making sure that our relief bill includes a much needed raise for our workers.

Democrats and Republicans alike have joined together in rightly calling our essential workers heroes and the backbone of our economy. But despite their tireless work and the constant risk of COVID exposure, too many of these workers are paid wages so low, they cannot afford to pay for even their most basic needs.

This pandemic should be a wake-up call that these workers whom we all call heroes deserve more than $7.25 an hour. I urge my colleagues to vote for the Sanders amendment in order to give a much needed raise to millions of workers and end the tipped minimum wage and subminimum wage for youth workers and workers with disabilities.

After more than a decade since the last Federal minimum wage increase, the tides are turning, and there is overwhelming support for Congress to act. So let me be clear. Today's vote is just one step in our fight. We are not going to give up. Today we are going to keep working to get this historic bill across the finish line because right now this country is on fire. Republicans' biggest concern seems to be that we might use too much water. The reality is, we are far from doing too much because we will not have done enough until this crisis is over, until families across the Nation are safe, and until we rebuild a stronger and fairer country.

Anyone who says this bill is too expensive needs to understand how much this pandemic has already cost our communities, how much it has already taken from families, and how much more is at stake if we don't finally bring it to an end.

They need to listen to public health and healthcare workers who have been straining to test, to contact trace, to

vaccinate people across the country, and to grapple with the trauma of fighting this pandemic on the frontlines.

They need to listen to parents who are asking how they are supposed to go to work when they don't have childcare and their kids can't go to school in person, who wonder how are they going to pay rent, how are they going to pay for groceries, how are they going to pay to keep the heat on, and fearing what will happen if they cannot.

They need to listen to students whom this pandemic has robbed of critical school resources, as well as opportunities to grow and thrive and socialize with their peers.

They need to listen to our States and our cities and our Tribes and our territories that have seen their budgets upended.

They absolutely need to listen to people of color, to voices in the Black, Latino, and Tribal communities who have been hit the hardest by this pandemic in every way.

Anyone who has been listening to the American people and anyone who has been watching what they have gone through understands the danger in this moment is not doing too much; it is doing too little.

If Republicans want to talk about too much, there are almost 10 million fewer people working compared to this time a year ago. There are 11 million people at risk of eviction and 11 million people about to lose their unemployment benefits. That is too much.

One study says that by June, this pandemic will likely have set students back 5 to 9 months in math from where they could be in a typical year, and that setback is even larger for students of color. Another notes that as schools across the country have shifted to remote learning, that one in four students lacks access to internet at home. According to the CDC, one in four young adults has considered suicide. That is too much.

Since the start of the pandemic, we have lost over 650,000 jobs in higher education and 1 in 6 jobs in childcare. That is too much.

Across this country, this virus has infected over 28 million, left thousands of ``long haulers'' still experiencing symptoms, and killed over half a million people. That is too much.

We have to act. We have to. And that is why we are fighting to pass the American Rescue Plan. This American Rescue Plan will send families long-overdue direct relief and prevent expanded unemployment benefits, which have been a lifeline to so many people, from expiring. It will help get vaccines in arms faster. It will hire and train more public health workers. It will ramp up our testing capacity and invest in programs to counter the disproportionate harm COVID-19 has caused specifically to communities of color and Tribes. It will expand affordable insurance to more families and give schools much needed resources to help our students get back to classrooms for in-person learning safely. It will stabilize our struggling childcare sector, which is so critical to helping women and working families get back to work. It will support small businesses and help States keep educators and firefighters and sanitation workers and others on the job.

So before my Republican colleagues worry anymore about the cost of doing all that, I hope they take a moment to consider the staggering cost of failing to do it. There is a reason bold action like this plan has the support of Republican Governors like Jim Justice in West Virginia; the support of Republican mayors like Betsy Price in Fort Worth, TX, or Francis Suarez in Miami, FL, or David Holt from Oklahoma City; and, according to a recent poll, the support of a majority of Republicans.

That same poll showed that the American people support this package by an overwhelming 3-to-1 margin. People support this American Rescue Plan because the American Rescue Plan supports people--workers, families, communities--who know firsthand the loss and hardship of this last year and because they understand the simple fact that when the house is in flames, you do not argue about how much of the fire to put out or how much water to use or how many lives to save; you do whatever it takes until the crisis is over and everyone is safe, and you do it as fast as you can. That is what Democrats are trying to do today. That is what this bill is about, and I urge every single Member of the Senate to support it.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, the only way to safely reopen schools for in-person learning and keep them open is to provide the $125 billion that is included in the American Rescue Plan Act for our K-12 schools. This Federal funding will support schools in their implementing safety protocols that are aligned with local public health guidance in order to safely reopen, stay open, and help students with learning recovery. Our goal is clear.

Let me make something else clear. The amendment offered today to condition funds on forced school reopenings is simply a political show that will, actually, further disadvantage schools that have already suffered the most. If we only provide funding to schools that are physically open, schools in communities with high rates of COVID-19 can't receive the money they need to implement health safety protocols, but they will feel the pressure to reopen even if it is not safe. So conditioning funds actually undermines our ability to get students back in the classroom safely.

Let's prioritize student learning. Safe in-person learning is paramount so let's stop wasting time. Let's pass this plan and get the schools the funds they need.

Mr. President, I oppose this amendment. It would strike two important improvements we made to the program that funds private schools.

First, Republicans are critiquing this bill for not being targeted enough, but this amendment would remove the requirement to target funding to private schools that serve significant percentages of low- income students.

The American Rescue Plan provides an additional $2.75 billion for services to private schools. And the bottom line is, Federal funds shouldn't be spent at expensive private schools. Instead, they should be targeted to low-income students at private schools like all our other education investments.

The pandemic is disproportionately harming students of color and those from families with low incomes. While these students are already much more likely to attend public schools, we need to make sure that those who do attend private schools are prioritized as well.

Secondly, this amendment strikes the limitation we placed on the funds being used for reimbursements at private schools. Reimbursements that were permitted with the first round of funding for this program were in order to cover past expenses incurred by private schools. Those expenses should be reimbursed by that first round. These additional funds are intended to provide services for private schools in the future. I ask my colleagues to oppose this amendment.

Madam President, it is frustrating, but not at all surprising, that in the middle of a pandemic, as we are working to get urgently needed relief to our families, to our small businesses, and to our communities across the country, some Republicans would rather spend time launching political attacks on reproductive health.

That is exactly what this amendment is--an effort to expand restrictions on abortion that already make it harder for women who have low incomes, who are often women of color, to exercise their constitutionally guaranteed right to make their own healthcare choices.

I oppose this amendment because it is completely unnecessary. It is a harmful attempt to distract us from the work that we are on tonight.

Point of Order

Madam President, I raise a point of order that the pending amendment produces budgetary changes that are merely incidental to the non- budgetary components of the amendment, and it therefore violates section 313(b)1(d) of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974.

Madam President, this is yet another amendment that conditions funding to our public schools under the guise of wanting in- person learning, when in reality withholding this funding is counter to everyone's goal.

But this amendment goes a step further. It strips much needed funds from our public schools that want to reopen for in-person learning and implement safety protocols that are aligned with local public health guidance in order to create a voucher program.

That is right. This amendment takes money from public schools that serve 90 percent of our students and sends those funds to private schools. It is unclear to me if our colleague's goals are really about reopening public schools or just about advancing long-term ideological goals.

If we only provide funding to schools that are physically open, schools in communities with high transmission rates of COVID-19 will not receive the resources necessary to implement safety health protocols. Conditioning funds undermines our ability to actually get our students back into the classroom.

Let's stop wasting time and pass the American Rescue Plan so those resources can get to our schools and our students.

Vote on Amendment No. 969

Madam President, this amendment will undermine the goals of this bill to provide assistance to all educators, all students, and families who have struggled through this pandemic. It is simply an attempt to discriminate against transgender students.

All students, including transgender students, benefit from participating in sports--to challenge themselves, to improve fitness, to be part of a team. Allowing transgender students to participate in athletic activities consistent with their gender identity in no way disadvantages their fellow students.

For the love of God, can't we just have a little bit of heart and compassion in this world for someone who doesn't look or live exactly like you?

Instead of focusing on discriminatory policies, we should be examining the real issues with gender parity in sports when it comes to funding and resources and pay equity.

I oppose this amendment because it discriminates against transgender students. It is a harmful attempt to undermine our work to help students and families.

Point of Order

Madam President, I raise a point of order that the pending amendment produces budgetary changes that are merely incidental to the nonbudgetary components of the amendment and violates section 313(b)(1)(D) of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974.

Motion to Waive

Let's be clear. This is a delay tactic intended to stop what we are doing here to send the bill to the HELP Committee. It would instruct the HELP Committee to remove $135 million in critical funding that will help support humanities and cultural organizations weather the worst of this pandemic.

Mr. President, the pandemic has devastated our arts and cultural organizations. Our Nation's museums, indigenous cultural organizations, and local education nonprofits are facing significant losses in revenue, in layoffs, in furloughs. Our cultural organizations in rural and urban and suburban areas need these resources to continue to serve our communities.

The UAC Program at the Department of Health and Human Services is critical for ensuring the health and welfare of unaccompanied children. We absolutely do need to take steps to support this program to ensure the well-being of children in ORR care. But this amendment is merely a delay tactic to address the critical issues at hand related to the COVID-19 crisis. I urge my colleagues to oppose the motion.

Vote on Motion to Commit

Madam President, I rise today to voice my strong support for Dr. Cardona's nomination to serve as Secretary of Education.

Across the country, students, parents, and educators are in crisis. Every day without an experienced leader at the Department of Education is a day that we are losing precious ground. Back in my home State of Washington, I heard from a mother in Yakima whose children shared one iPhone to learn. I heard from a father of a high school freshman in Spokane, worried about the social and psychological toll the pandemic is taking on his son. I heard from students at the Lummi Nation, trying to focus on remote classes while in multigenerational households on a shared, spotty broadband.

I know there are so many similar stories from people in my State and across the country about how this pandemic is making life harder, the ways it has set back students from where they would be in a typical year, denied them access to critical school resources, deepened longstanding inequities, and so much more.

From early education to higher education, we need to make sure students and their families have the support they need to not only get a high-quality education but to make sure every student can try.

Democrats want to get students safely back in the classrooms for in- person learning as soon as possible. So I am glad the Biden administration put forward clear, science-based, public health guidance schools have long needed. There is no one solution that will ensure safety on its own as our country ramps up vaccine distribution.

Congress has to do its part and pass the American Rescue Plan to provide vital funding for schools--to secure adequate PPE, to reduce class sizes to increase social distancing, to improve ventilation and contract tracing, and to take all the steps they need to do so that they can safely reopen for in-person learning or provide high-quality distance learning if it is not safe in their community to return to the classroom and so that they can assess and address the damage this pandemic has done, especially the way it has deepened inequities that have hurt students of color, students of families with low incomes, students with disabilities, LGBTQ students, women, English learners, students experiencing homelessness, and so much more.

At this moment of crisis, Dr. Cardona is exactly the leader we need at the Department of Education to tackle these challenges. During his confirmation

hearing in the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, he demonstrated beyond a doubt that he has experience, principles, and the perspective that we need in this critical role. That is why Dr. Cardona was voted out of our committee by an overwhelming 17-to-5 margin with broad bipartisan support.

Dr. Cardona will come to the Department as a proven leader who will work with students, parents, caregivers, educators, school administrators, and State, local, and Tribal officials. Just as importantly, he will come to the Department as a former elementary school teacher, an adjunct professor, a principal, assistant superintendent, and former English learner himself who knows we have a responsibility to make sure every single student has access to high- quality public education.

At our hearing, he made clear he will fight against longstanding inequities and for every student, including those who have not had a champion at the Department for the last 4 years. He spoke about his commitment to accomplishing President Biden's goal of safely reopening the majority of our K-8 schools for in-person learning within his first 100 days in office.

He showed he understands the challenge the Department is facing is larger than just seeing schools and students and parents and educators safely through this pandemic. It is making sure we come back stronger and fairer. Accomplishing that means ensuring childcare and early education is available and affordable for every family; ensuring every student can get a high-quality public education no matter where they live or how much money they or their families have; rooting out longstanding inequities from our education system by tackling racism, sexism, ableism, and bigotry head-on; and ensuring that higher education is accessible, affordable, accountable, and safe for every single student.

We have a lot of work to do for our schools and students. We have an excellent candidate to get it done, and we have no time to waste. I urge all of our colleagues who have heard from a parent who wants to get their child back in the classroom safely--I am sure everyone has-- to join us and vote to confirm Dr. Cardona as Secretary of Education.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I send a question to the desk.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the following committee rules be printed in the Record.

Madam President, the role of Federal funding to schools for COVID relief is to help support our schools in implementing public health protocols aligned with local public health guidance in order to safely reopen.

The President has made clear that he would like the vast majority of K-8 schools to reopen in the next 100 days, but any amendment offered today attaching extraneous conditions to those funds is simply a political show. If we withhold funds and schools cannot implement health safety protocols, then we are acting counter to actually getting students back into the classroom.

Making sure our Nation's educators receive a vaccine is an important step; however, vaccinations are just one piece of safely transitioning back. Safely reopening schools means providing schools the resources to implement public health protocols, physical distancing, consistent mask-wearing, ventilation, testing, and contact tracing. This amendment would prohibit schools from getting critical resources to implement those public health protocols, and, as a result, this amendment would make that much harder for schools to reopen for in-person instruction.

The best way for our schools to reopen as soon as possible is to give schools the resources they need. I urge my colleagues to oppose this amendment.

Madam President, reserving the right to object. We are in the middle of a pandemic. Families are struggling, and we should be doing everything we can to make it easier for them to get the care they need from providers that they trust.

The title X program has been incredibly helpful to people seeking all kinds of healthcare, from cancer screenings to STI screenings, to birth control, and more. And before the Trump administration's gag rule slashed the capacity of the title X network in half by cutting out trusted healthcare providers, over 4 million patients a year turned to title X-funded providers for their healthcare.

These patients are disproportionately young people, women who have low incomes, and women of color. An overwhelming majority of them have historically turned to providers like Planned Parenthood, which would be permanently kicked out of the program by this bill.

We need to be tearing down barriers, like former President Trump's title X gag rule, that are jeopardizing access to care for patients, not reinforcing them. And we need to be focused on addressing the pain of this pandemic and on taking steps to finally end it, not wasting time with blatantly ideological bills that appeal to the far-right base at the expense of our families.

While Republicans seem intent on keeping patients from getting the healthcare they need, I am glad we finally have a President who is listening to women and men across the country. He has made clear that he wants healthcare to be a right, not a privilege, and he has already directed his administration to review the damage of title X gag rules that have been so harmful to so many people--an important step toward rescinding the rule, as I continue to push for.

So I urge my Republican colleagues to stop these attacks on women's healthcare and turn their attention to something families actually want, which is serious action to end this pandemic.

I object.

Madam President, I rise today to discuss the urgent challenge our Nation is facing and the urgent response that it requires.

I am always willing to work across the aisle to look for common ground and commonsense solutions. I think my colleagues know this and my record shows it. I am going to keep talking to my Republican colleagues in hopes that there are areas where we can find common ground to help our workers and our families and get our arms around this pandemic. But what we cannot do is allow the possibility of further delay or weaken our response efforts.

With the resources in this resolution, we will be able to reinforce our public health workforce, our community health centers, and our supply chain, all of which are stretched incredibly thin.

We will be able to scale up testing and tracing and vaccination and genomic sequencing and surveillance for new strains of virus and address harmful health inequities that continue to make this crisis so much more deadly for communities of color.

We will be able to provide needed support to our students, our educators, our public schools, and those in higher education as they grapple with this crisis and work towards safely reopening for in- person learning.

We will be able to provide to parents in need of quality, affordable childcare and to a childcare sector staring down mass closures and layoffs.

We need to help workers who are struggling today to make ends meet, who are unemployed, and who are worried about their retirement being thrown into jeopardy. We need to help families across the country who are struggling today to make ends meet, by providing them with direct financial assistance. We need to help States and Tribes and cities and communities whose budgets have been stretched dangerously thin, by providing needed funds.

I see no reason why pursuing this path has to be partisan. After all, if Republicans can use budget reconciliation to give huge tax breaks to the wealthiest corporations, surely they are willing to use it to give relief to communities and families who are struggling in this economic crisis. If they can try to use reconciliation to cause a healthcare crisis by taking health coverage and healthcare protections away from hundreds of millions of people, surely they can support this process, using it to fight the healthcare crisis that has claimed over 440,000 lives in our country and counting. But if they do not, if they insist that using this process to provide relief during a historic pandemic is a partisan vote or that the amount of the relief is too much, I think they are going to have a tough time explaining what and whom they stand for.

Democrats have no problem going on the record as the party that fought for people during the pandemic because, when your house is in flames, you do not argue about how much of the fire to put out or how much water to use or how many lives to save; you do whatever it takes until the crisis is over and everyone is safe, and you do it as fast as you can.

This crisis is not over. Everyone is not safe--not from this virus and not from this economic crisis. There are 440,000 people who have died. We are still averaging 140,000 new cases a day. New strains are presenting new challenges. Underlying disparities are growing deeper, and we are already seeing with vaccination rates that communities of color are being left behind.

We do have to take action, and that is exactly what Democrats are doing today.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Madam President, I come to the floor today to speak about the two nominations we are about to vote on.

The first one is the nomination of John Pallasch to be the Assistant Secretary of Labor overseeing the Employment & Training Administration. This is a critically important role that manages nearly two-thirds of the Department of Labor's budget and our Nation's workforce development programs, which serve over 22 million youth, workers, jobseekers, and seniors who are working to improve their employment opportunities and the lives of their families.

This position is particularly important now as we are seeing the Trump administration work to undermine some of the most crucial programs within the Employment & Training Administration. They are attempting to close Job Corps centers that help train at-risk youth, conserve our natural resources, and provide economic opportunities in rural areas and communities in need. They are also proposing a duplicative, lower quality apprenticeship program that would put workers at risk and give taxpayer dollars to for-profit colleges with very little accountability.

It is clear that the Employment & Training Administration needs a leader now who is knowledgeable, who is experienced, and who is committed to providing workers with the training, support, and benefits they need to succeed in this changing economy. Unfortunately, Mr. Pallasch is not that person. Throughout this nomination process, Mr. Pallasch has shown that he has very limited experience with or understanding of the programs that he would be overseeing.

I am going to vote against this nomination, and I urge my colleagues to do the same.

At this time, I also want to once again reiterate my disappointment in the unprecedented obstruction to Democratic nominees to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the National Labor Relations Board. Last Congress, Republicans refused to confirm two very highly qualified and respected nominees to additional terms on the EEOC and the NLRB.

Earlier this year, Republicans broke yet another longstanding tradition by confirming a majority nominee to the EEOC without a Democratic pair.

Last week, the White House announced its intention to nominate a bipartisan pair of nominees to the EEOC. After a year of obstruction, I am encouraged by this small step toward bipartisanship and normalcy, but I am here today to urge the White House to formalize these nominations as quickly as possible so that the Senate can confirm them and restore balance to the EEOC.

I strongly urge the White House to nominate a full slate of nominees--Republican and Democrat--to both the NLRB and EEOC.

For those reasons and because of Mr. Pallasch's lack of experience and knowledge about the programs and the policies he would be responsible for, I will vote against his nomination.

Madam President, today President Trump and Republican attorneys general are explaining in court why they think people who got their healthcare through the exchanges or Medicaid expansion should have it ripped away. They are explaining why limits on patients' out- of-pocket costs should go away while limits on their annual and lifetime benefits should come back and why protections for people with preexisting conditions should be struck down.

In other words, Republicans are, once again, fighting to take us back to the bad old days to give big insurance companies all the power, to leave millions of people without any hope of getting the quality affordable care they need and to leave patients and families with fewer protections and higher bills--patients like Lily from Gig Harbor, WA, in my home State.

Lily is a rising high school sophomore. She is a rising soccer star, and she is a patient living with cystic fibrosis. To stay healthy and stay on the field, Lily needs to take several prescriptions a day. She needs to keep expensive medical devices on hand and visit specialists every other month, not to mention the hospital a couple of times a year. Even on a good month, her healthcare can cost thousands of dollars.

For families like hers, the stakes could not be higher. If Republicans win their blatantly partisan lawsuit, insurance companies could kick patients like Lily off their parents' insurance before they turn 26, meaning that instead of worrying whether Lily will continue her soccer career at Gonzaga or UW or somewhere else, her family could spend her senior year worrying how to make sure she can get the healthcare she needs.

If Republicans win, insurance companies could also avoid covering essential health benefits patients need--things like prescription drugs or emergency care. They could remove limits on how much patients have to pay out of pocket and put limits on patients' annual and lifetime benefits, which is particularly challenging for patients, like Lily, who need expensive drugs to treat chronic preexisting conditions.

If Republicans win, insurance companies could discriminate against patients who have preexisting conditions, like cystic fibrosis, by charging them more, excluding benefits, or even denying them coverage completely.

Let's be clear. Lily is just 1 of 30,000 patients in our country with cystic fibrosis and 1 of over 100 million patients in our country living with a preexisting condition.

Like the woman who wrote to me about her severe arthritis, which could be debilitating without treatment, or her husband whose high blood pressure could be deadly without medication, or the mom who wrote to me about her son's rare form of epilepsy and how, without insurance, the medical costs would crush her family. For these families and so many other patients living with a preexisting condition, the lawsuit Republicans are bringing today is a matter of life and death.

People are watching closely, and they are not going to forget who kept their word to fight for their healthcare, to fight for protections for people with preexisting conditions, and who on the other side blatantly broke that promise by championing a partisan lawsuit that would throw the healthcare of millions of people out the window.

Democrats are not going to stop fighting for families like Lily's; we are not going to stop holding President Trump accountable for his ongoing healthcare sabotage; and we are not going to stop pushing for commonsense steps that help women and families get quality, affordable healthcare or pushing Republicans to work with us to get the train back on the track and stop pulling up the rails.

I yield the floor.

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

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, half a century ago, members of the LGBTQIA+ community, who were tired of being accosted and abused and assaulted just because of who they were or whom they loved, took a stand to say ``enough is enough'' and pushed back against the forces of history that said they were anything less than.

Thanks to the sacrifice of freedom fighters like Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, and so many others both named and unnamed who dared that day to live their entire truth, countless others today have been set free. Now, 50 years later, through dogged persistence and sacrifice, we have been able to pass laws and create policies that respect and protect members of the LGBTQIA+ community--from challenging hateful bans against lesbian and gay relationships, to securing landmark civil rights protections against hate crimes, to, finally, making marriage equality the law of our land.

This year, as we commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall protests that sparked the modern movement for LGBTQ equality, I am very proud to stand here on the floor of the Senate as an unapologetic ally for this vibrant community.

As we close out this month's annual celebration of Pride, I come to the floor today to reintroduce legislation to further protect gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual, and gender nonconforming individuals from the dogma of our Nation's homophobic and transphobic past because, even as we reflect on the progress we have made, we have a lot more to do to achieve equality.

In the Senate, I have been very proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with the community in Washington State and around the country in order to continue our progress and work to expand protections to help members of the community thrive, from our efforts to reduce bullying and harassment at colleges and universities through legislation named after Tyler Clementi--a student who tragically died by suicide in college--to reducing the epidemic of harassment and discrimination in workplaces through the Be HEARD Act, which is a bill I recently introduced that would hold businesses accountable for harassment and discrimination, give workers the resources and support they need to seek justice, and clarify that discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity are unlawful under the Civil Rights Act.

I am very grateful to my colleague Senator Booker and our friend Representative Lieu for joining me today in reintroducing the Therapeutic Fraud Prevention Act--the first Federal ban on so-called conversion therapy--because, in 2019, we know that being a member of the LGBTQIA+ community isn't an affliction, a disease, or some chronic condition that requires medical treatment; rather, the politicians who say it is are on the wrong side of history.

In fact, we know that conversion therapy is a painful and discriminatory practice. The American Psychological Association has said it ``is unlikely to be successful in changing someone's sexual orientation'' and would ``involve some risk of harm'' contrary to the claims of practitioners and advocates. It is also a practice that is especially harmful to LGBTQIA+ children, who we already know are vulnerable to increased harassment and discrimination because of who they are.

I am proud that my home State of Washington has already banned conversion therapy, but that is not enough so long as any child or any person in our country can be harmed by this sham practice. That is why I am very proud to be here to reintroduce the Therapeutic Fraud Prevention Act and to remind all of our friends that we stand with them throughout history and throughout the future to make sure they are protected with their rights.

The Therapeutic Fraud Prevention Act is legislation that would classify conversion therapy as the fraudulent practice our communities and science know it is. It would clarify in our Nation's laws that providing or facilitating commercial conversion therapy or facilitating or advertising such services is an unfair and deceptive practice, and it would ensure that Federal regulators and State attorneys general have the ability and authority to enforce this ban.

We have come far in our long battle for LGBTQIA+ equality, and I am ready to get to work to get this important legislation over the finish line because, after 50 years of struggle, as a nation, we have come to know that love is love and that love wins. However, after 50 years, we also know it gets better but only if we work to make it so.

From the horrors of the Pulse massacre, to the ever-climbing number of murdered African-American and Latinx transgender women, to President Trump's transgender military ban and his administration's continuous assault on LGBTQIA+ rights, so many of the challenges that face the community today mirror the critical struggles they faced all those years ago at the Stonewall Inn. Like then, too many in the community are still threatened by even greater danger because they are also women, transgender, people of color, poor, and the list goes on.

That is why this legislation and recognitions like Pride Month are so important. All month, I have been thrilled to see the photos from Pride celebrations back in Washington State--from Spokane, to Yakima, to Olympia--filled with so much cheer, resilience, and strength, only to come back here to Washington and argue in this Chamber about why we shouldn't confirm people to judicial or executive posts who don't believe in the full humanity and equality of so many of our family members, friends, neighbors, and coworkers.

It is obvious that this work is still very important, and we have it cut out for us, but I remain hopeful because I have seen how far we have come in just 50 years. By continuing to honor the righteous tradition of Marsha, Sylvia, and so many others by raising our voices against injustice and taking key steps like this legislation to make life easier for the next generation of LGBTQIA+ Americans, I know we will see even more progress in the next 50 years.