Floor Statements

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for 6 minutes on the Dhillon nomination.

Mr. President, I come to the floor to oppose the nomination of Janet Dhillon to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

I have a number of concerns about her record, which I plan to lay out here today, but before I do, I want to talk about the process by which this nomination has come to the Senate floor.

It has long been common practice in the Senate to confirm nominees to independent agencies as pairs--one Republican and one Democrat.

We do this so agencies like the EEOC are balanced and are able to fully function no matter which party is in the White House. In the case of the EEOC, it ensures workers are being protected from discrimination in the workplace.

Yet, at every opportunity, Republicans have broken norms and abandoned longstanding practices to jam through their nominees. First it was the National Labor Relations Board, when my colleagues across the aisle jammed through two Republican nominees without any Democrats and then refused to give a highly qualified nominee another term on the Board--all because that highly qualified nominee was fighting on the side of workers, not corporations. Then one lone Republican was allowed to object to the reconfirmation of a well-respected Commissioner to another term on the EEOC, even if that meant the EEOC would no longer have a quorum and be able to perform some of its most critical duties.

I came down to the floor to urge our colleagues to end the partisan obstruction and pass a slate of nominees to the EEOC, but Republican leaders allowed one Republican Member's opposition to a noncontroversial nominee to hold more weight than the entire Senate minority.

Now, here we are today, and Republicans want to jam through another nominee without their Democratic pair, and by doing this, my colleagues across the aisle have now abandoned longstanding norms of the Senate and are once again sending a message to the most vulnerable workers they believe the corporations that discriminate against them deserve more of a say.

This is unacceptable and goes against the core of the EEOC. It is illegal to discriminate against someone in the workplace because of their race, religion, sex, disability, or because they are LGBTQ. It is the EEOC's responsibility to enforce those laws and to give every person the opportunity to earn a living without fear of discrimination or harassment.

The EEOC protects LGBTQ rights in the workplace and is the primary agency addressing the gender pay gap. The EEOC is responsible for addressing harassment in the workplace, an issue our country has been grappling with but still has a long way to go. Over the past 2 years, as so many brave women and men have spoken out and shared their stories, we have seen a shift in this country toward acknowledging, finally, the epidemic of harassment and assault in workplaces, and finally we are beginning to address it on a large scale. In Hollywood, the media, even in the Halls of Congress--those who have used their position of power to prey on the less powerful are finally being held accountable.

Workers in industries outside the spotlight, in hospitality or farm fields, and in offices around the country are waiting for the same kind of reckoning. For many of these workers, the EEOC is one of the few places they can turn. It is a resource for workers who want to file complaints and hold employers and businesses accountable for discrimination and harassment. This issue should matter to everyone-- Democrats and Republicans--and this critical civil rights agency should be able to stay out of the political fray too. We have to ensure that the EEOC is balanced and remains committed to its core mission.

Unfortunately, Janet Dhillon's record proves she is not going to stand up for workers. Ms. Dhillon has spent her career working on the side of corporations, making it easier for them to violate workers' rights without consequence. She has fought against positions the EEOC has taken that help ensure workers have the protections they need.

In her confirmation hearing, she refused to commit to maintaining the EEOC's current and critical position that LGBTQ workers are protected under the Civil Rights Act, which is something, by the way, that should not be up for debate.

So what we are seeing today is another power grab by Republican leaders, another Republican step toward partisanship and away from balance, and if Ms. Dhillon is confirmed, another step backward under Republican leadership for workers who simply want to be treated fairly on the job, especially those workers who historically have not had the rights or resources to come forward.

I urge the Senate leadership to postpone this vote and work with the White House to get our Democratic nominee ready for confirmation--she is waiting--so there is no other break in yet another Senate tradition. It is bad for workers. It is bad for our country.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, I, too, want to thank the Senator from New Mexico for organizing today's effort on this very important issue.

I rise today to join my colleagues in really shining a spotlight on a crisis that has brought terror and pain to Tribal communities across my home State of Washington and the Nation for far too long. It is an alarm that has been sounding, actually, for generations and one that has impacted literally countless families, robbing them of their mothers and grandmothers, their sisters, their aunts, their daughters.

``Family of missing Native woman demands answers in Wapato.''

In Yakima County:

A year after her body was found, officials are now

officially calling the death of this young woman a homicide.

A year after.

In Toppenish:

16-year-old . . . disappeared after Christmas Eve in 1971.

Her sister refuses to give up the search.

Those are just a few of the headlines that have appeared in news outlets in Washington State within just the last few months highlighting the scope of the crisis of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls in our communities.

For far too long, our Nation has ignored or misclassified the terrible stories of violence against women and girls in Tribal communities, who have been reported missing or murdered at much higher rates than their non-Native counterparts or, worse, not reported at all.

It is a crisis that is particularly salient in Washington State, which ranks second among States with the highest number of reported cases of missing and murdered Native women. Even worse, Seattle ranks No. 1 among cities with the highest number of cases. But it isn't just Seattle; it is the Yakama Nation, Spokane, Tacoma. The epidemic of missing and murdered Native women isn't an urban problem or a rural problem. It is not an issue just for western Washington or eastern Washington. This is an alarming trend that is devastating communities every day throughout Washington State and across the country, one for which Native women and girls are paying the ultimate price.

Now, thanks to the determination of Native women who have spent years raising their voices to bring attention to this tragic pattern of injustice, we are beginning to develop the tools and resources we need to combat this epidemic.

I am very grateful for Native leaders and organizations like the Seattle Indian Health Board, which last November released a landmark new report--the first of its kind--on the crisis of missing and murdered indigenous women, collecting important data and insights. It is a major step toward removing a significant barrier that has burdened efforts to end the decades-long epidemic, but there is so much more we need to do to keep Native women and girls safe and seek justice.

As important as it is to bring awareness to this devastating crisis, more than awareness, we need action. Congress has to wake up to the crisis affecting Native women and recognize the Federal Government's responsibility and role in ending it, and that includes improving and reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act--a critical law which for years has worked to help communities decrease assaults against women and girls and which Republicans let lapse earlier this year.

This law has long garnered bipartisan support. In fact, we were able to come together just 6 years ago to pass an even stronger version of the law that strengthened protections and resources for our Tribal communities. I know there are champions for this issue on both sides of the aisle, Members who have listened to Native voices in their own States and understand why we have to equip Tribal communities with the tools and resources they need to protect Tribal members and hold others accountable when they cause harm or bring violence. There is no excuse to not get this done. We have done it before; we can do it again.

Now that VAWA has passed the House, know that I am going to keep working with my colleagues to push the Senate to get it over the finish line. In the meantime, I and others will continue lifting up the stories of Native women and girls, as well as Tribal leaders and members.

As a partner to Washington State's Tribal communities here in the Senate, I am going to keep fighting to strengthen Federal support for Tribal priorities and listening to Native voices as well, as we all work together to end the tragedy of this senseless epidemic.

I yield the floor.

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

Madam President, I come to the floor to oppose the nomination of Mr. Gordon Hartogensis to serve as Director of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation and, really, to express my continued frustration with the Republicans' efforts to weaponize the nomination process for partisan gain, including their unprecedented refusal to move Democratic nominees for important Agencies, like the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the National Labor Relations Board, in order to tilt them in favor of corporations, and including their continued attacks on women's healthcare and reproductive rights by stacking our courts with far-right judges.

The Director of the PBGC is responsible for protecting the retirement security of almost 40 million people. We owe it to workers and retirees to make absolutely sure a nominee for this position has the relevant pension-related experience and knowledge to handle that challenge. One needs to have the determination to fight for workers and retirees and to have the willingness to work with Members on both sides of the aisle.

When it comes to Mr. Hartogensis, I am simply not convinced that this is the case. It is unclear to me why he was nominated to replace Director Reeder, who is doing a commendable job, well before Director Reeder's term was completed. What makes this even worse is that the Senate HELP Committee didn't have a hearing at which members could question Mr. Hartogensis.

I have asked the Trump administration why it decided to replace Mr. Reeder. No response. My Democratic colleagues on the committee asked the chairman for a hearing with Mr. Hartogensis. No hearing. We should be giving Mr. Hartogensis' nomination serious scrutiny, including having a hearing with the Senate HELP Committee, especially considering the complex challenges that the PBGC Director must help the Agency navigate amid our country's multiemployer pension crisis. Millions of workers and retirees across the country are at risk of seeing the pensions they were promised--that they earned and planned their financial futures around--thrown into jeopardy through absolutely no fault of their own.

I am hopeful we can focus on this issue more going forward, and I look forward to taking bipartisan steps to address this crisis, but I am disappointed that our committee, which

should be most focused on this critical issue, was not even able to have a hearing with Mr. Hartogensis in order to dive into this crisis more deeply. So, given my doubts about his credentials for this position and my frustration with this nomination process, I will be voting against this nomination.

Unfortunately, Mr. Hartogensis is just one example of a broader effort by the Republicans to play political games with the nomination process in ways that, ultimately, harm workers and families nationwide.

Madam President, I remain deeply disturbed by the Republicans' continued partisanship, particularly their obstruction of highly qualified Democratic nominees for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the National Labor Relations Board.

It has been a longstanding practice to respect the minority party's selection of nominees and to move majority and minority nominees together to independent Agencies. Yet my colleagues across the aisle have jammed through Republican nominees to the NLRB and have hampered the EEOC's work by allowing one Republican Senator to essentially veto the Democratic nominee to the Agency, effectively tilting the playing field even more in favor of corporations and against workers' rights.

In this moment, as so many brave women and men have come forward to share their stories of workplace harassment and brought this issue to the forefront and as the Trump administration continues to undermine workers' rights to organize and collectively bargain for higher wages and better working conditions, the EEOC and the NLRB have very critical roles to play in protecting workers' rights. They have to be able to function fully and with balanced voices. I am going to keep fighting for workers across the country and keep pushing to get Democratic nominees confirmed to this Commission and this Board.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for 3 minutes as in morning business.

Mr. President, as the minority leader explained, we unfortunately expect that today Senate Republicans will again make an effort to spread lies and misinformation about why some women decide to have abortions later in pregnancy, and they will do so instead of listening to women like Judy, from my home State of Washington, who learned that her son's organs were not developing properly--one lung was just 20 percent formed, and the other was missing entirely; women like Darla, from Texas, who learned that the complications one of her twins was facing could endanger the other's life as well; women like Alyson, a mother of six, who learned that one of her twins had died in the womb and the other was facing severe complications and that her own health was in severe risk from the pregnancy; or countless patients in States that have so severely undermined access to safe, legal abortion that women struggle to exercise their rights protected under our Constitution.

It is worth asking, with so much else going on, why are Republicans spending time doubling down on lies to undermine women's reproductive health? The unfortunate truth is that my Republican colleagues are not repeating these falsehoods because they are concerned about children or families; instead, they are doing whatever they think will help them reach their goal of taking away access to safe abortion in the United States of America.

Republicans may not be listening to women or doctors or families like the ones I just mentioned who had to make extremely difficult decisions, but Democrats are listening. We know women need to be able to make the healthcare choices that are right for them and their families, and healthcare providers need to be able to let medical standards, not politics, drive patients' care.

None of this should be controversial, and for the vast majority of people across the country, it is not. But as long as Republicans are holding partisan hearings to spread misinformation and lies or pushing anti-doctor, anti-women, and anti-family legislation or putting up new barriers to make it harder for women to access reproductive healthcare or trying to defund trusted healthcare providers like Planned Parenthood through harmful gag rules or jamming through far-right, ideological judges to chip

away at Roe v. Wade, Democrats are not going to stop fighting back on behalf of women, men, and families in this country.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, I come to the floor tonight to oppose the nomination of Cheryl Stanton to serve as Administrator of the Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division.

The Wage and Hour Division enforces some of our Nation's most important workplace laws, including the Federal minimum wage, overtime pay, child labor laws, and family and medical leave. Yet, Ms. Stanton has a very long history of siding with employers when they have violated workers' rights. So I will be voting against this nomination, and I urge my colleagues to do the same.

I also want to object to the Senate moving on Republican labor nominees without approving nominations for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the National Labor Relations Board.

Last Congress, in an unprecedented display of obstruction, my colleagues across the aisle blocked the confirmation of Chai Feldblum and Mark Pearce for terms on the EEOC and NLRB, respectively.

Even though both of these nominees were highly qualified, respected by their peers, Senate Republicans refused to give them a vote.

These are critical Agencies that are responsible for protecting workers' rights. Yet my colleagues across the aisle were more interested in tilting the playing field even more in favor of corporations than providing the Commission and the Board with balanced voices.

Despite longstanding practice to confirm majority and minority members to independent Agencies, my colleagues across the aisle jammed through Republican nominees only to the Board without Mr. Pearce, the Democratic nominee.

Republican leaders allowed one Senator to block the nomination of Ms. Feldblum to the EEOC, meaning that important civil rights agency is unable to do some of its most critical work.

In this moment, as our Nation is grappling with how to address the epidemic of sexual assault and harassment in the workplace, hamstringing the Agency that is responsible for protecting women's rights and safety is absolutely the wrong message to send to women, to workers, and to businesses.

So I am going to keep fighting to make sure the nominees to the National Labor Relations Board and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission represent all voices, as they are supposed to, not just corporations.

I urge every man, woman, and worker who believes workers should have a voice to join me in that.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, I come to the floor today not in celebration but in frustration to once again mark Equal Pay Day. It has now been 50 years since Congress passed the Equal Pay Act. It is a bipartisan law signed by President Kennedy and intended to ensure equal pay for equal work. While this was a strong step in the right direction, the sad reality is that today the gender wage gap still very much exists.

Today women, on average, make 80 cents for every dollar a White man makes, meaning the average woman has to work up until today to earn what her male colleagues made in 2018. For women of color, the pay gap is even worse. African-American women working full time only make 61 cents for every dollar a White man makes, meaning they have to work until August to earn what a White man made in 2018. American Indians make only 58 cents for every dollar, meaning they have to work until September to catch up with their White male colleagues. Latinas, on average, are paid 53 cents for every dollar their White male colleagues make. They will have to work until November--almost a full year--to earn what White men made last year.

The wage gap also hurts mothers who, on average, only make 71 cents to every dollar fathers earn. The gender pay gap starts when women are entering the workforce, and it widens throughout their careers. Pay inequity will cost the typical woman more than $400,000 over the course of a 40-year career. Sadly, by the way, that number tops $1 million for Latina women, meaning women have to work longer and still have less to save for retirement.

The gender wage gap doesn't just hurt women; it hurts families, communities, and the economy. Women are the primary or sole breadwinner in more than 40 percent of American families, meaning families have less money to pay for groceries, childcare, support businesses in their communities, and stay financially secure and independent.

That is why it is so important that we pass the Paycheck Fairness Act today--not tomorrow, not next year. We need to pass this now. Every year the wage gap grows, and it is far past time we close the loopholes in the Equal Pay Act and give women the tools and the protections they need to be sure they are being paid fairly.

This should not be a partisan issue. The Equal Pay Act was passed with bipartisan support. The Paycheck Fairness Act passed the House last week with Republican support. Women across the country, regardless of their skin color, where they live, or whether they are Republican or Democratic, deserve to be paid the same as their male colleagues doing the same work.

I hope my colleagues across the aisle will join us today in supporting this critical legislation. Our economy can only succeed if women can succeed.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of H.R. 7, which is at the desk; that the bill be read a third time and passed; and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Madam President, let me just respond by saying the Paycheck Fairness Act that we are asking to go today and have been denied the opportunity to do so makes very important updates to the Equal Pay Act.

It reaffirms that every worker in America has the right to receive equal pay for equal work. It protects women from retaliation for talking about salary information with coworkers. It allows women to join together in class action lawsuits, and, importantly, it prohibits employers from seeking salary history so the cycle of pay discrimination cannot continue.

This bill has the support of Republicans and Democrats and millions of

workers in this country, and I really hope this Senate can reconsider and bring this important piece of legislation up that has passed the House.

I thank my colleagues who are out here today supporting this effort.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the following fellows on the HELP Committee be granted floor privileges for the remainder of the 116th Congress: Meghan Mott, Garrett Devenney, Brian Keplun, Lindsey Tepe, Erika Nuerenberg, and Yesenia Ayala.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Mary Polanco, a fellow from the Air Force assigned to my office, be granted floor privileges for the remainder of this year.

Mr. President, I rise today to join my Democratic colleagues in lifting up the voices of countless people in my home State of Washington and around the Nation who are calling out for Congress to truly address the climate change crisis.

I am glad the Republicans have decided to take at least a short break from their hurried ideological campaign to pack our Federal courts with as many conservative judges as possible. It is inexcusable that they are now choosing to play silly political games instead of working with us to make progress on the many challenges our constituents are facing right now.

Let me be clear. Democrats welcome a robust, fact-based discussion on the Senate floor about what we as a nation must do to combat climate change. That is not what today's vote is, nor what it was meant to be. From the beginning, this vote was scheduled by Republicans to throw red meat to their rightwing base and an extra bone to Big Oil and Gas. But, if anything, what today's vote makes painfully obvious is that while Democrats are here at the table ready to get to work to tackle one of the most urgent issues of our time, Republicans don't have a vision, much less any solution for how we are going to reverse the course of climate change and prevent future damage to our planet. On the contrary, many Republicans won't even admit this is a problem, even after the Trump administration itself released its own report detailing how climate change has damaged our planet and will continue to do so if unaddressed.

Democrats are all on the same page. We believe in the science, we believe climate change is one of our planet's most urgent crises, and we all believe that now is the time to take action before our planet suffers even more irreparable harm. Democrats have long recognized climate change is a threat not just to our environment but to our economy, our community, our health, and even our way of life.

As a voice for Washington State, whose residents are being threatened summer after summer with ever-worsening wildfires that destroy more property and cost more money to contain

and prevent every year, and as a grandmother who wants to leave a better world for the next generation, this is personal to me. But it is not just me or Senate Democrats; our families back in our States understand the risk of climate change, too, and they are very eager for their government to take action against the immediate threat that it poses.

I was back home last week meeting with leaders in our State capital of Olympia. They are working on a suite of progressive policies aimed at tackling climate change. Every day, I hear from young people all over my State about how they want to inherit a clean, healthy planet. The only way we can ensure that happens is by listening to the science and working to do something now while we still can make a difference.

I am inspired by my constituents--especially the students. I understand why they are so passionate. They get it. They know how serious climate change is for today and tomorrow, and they get that we don't have any time to waste. But they cannot do it alone, and neither can Washington State. It is going to take a national effort, a Federal effort to give this issue the attention it deserves, and Congress should play a major role in making sure it is treated like the emergency it is.

Unfortunately, when I turn to my Republican friends in moments like this, when we could be having a real conversation about what we should be doing today to tackle climate change, I am reminded that this isn't a debate made in good faith. If Republicans were truly interested in addressing climate change, they would have stood against President Trump's reckless efforts to roll back clean air standards or, even better, stopped him from pulling the United States out of the Paris climate agreement and weakening our leadership in the global fight against climate change. And those are just a few things.

Now we have some Democrats and Republicans coming together to protect our environment. The recent passage of the public lands package is a good example. But when it comes to the issue of climate change and having a discussion about what it would take to really address it with the seriousness and the urgency it deserves, Republicans apparently only have time for partisan political games, which is so unfortunate because it is long past time for them to recognize that climate change is an urgent and serious issue. It is going to take all of us working together to prevent future generations from suffering the worst of its impact.

Democrats are ready and willing to debate Republicans on the facts, about the risks of not tackling climate change as aggressively as possible, and I can only urge Republicans to drop these games. Listen to your constituents. Listen to the facts. Do the right thing and work with us to address this critical issue before it truly is too late. Thank you.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

I thank Chairman Alexander and join him in commending Ms. Lowery for her many years of dedicated and outstanding service to the HELP Committee, the Senate, and the American people. I greatly appreciate the sacrifice that Ms. Lowery has made over the past 16 years in assisting the HELP Committee by applying her expertise in editing, printing, and memorializing our important work. We wish her all the best in her well-deserved retirement.

We hope our colleagues will join us in thanking Ms. Lowery for her service.

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

Madam President, since day one of the Trump administration, the Republicans have done everything they can to cater to an extreme rightwing base by undermining women's access to the healthcare they need and the healthcare providers they trust.

They have moved to roll back requirements that insurance companies include birth control as an essential health benefit, which would mean millions of women would go back to paying extra for birth control on top of their coverage. They have held votes on extreme abortion bans that would get in between a woman and her doctor. They have jammed the courts, even the Supreme Court, with partisans who have made clear they share

the extreme and frightening goal of overturning Roe v. Wade and of taking away a woman's constitutional right to safe, legal abortion in the United States of America.

Most recently, the Trump administration has put forward a deeply harmful rule that would jeopardize access to affordable reproductive healthcare for the millions of men and women who depend on title X, our Nation's family planning program, which historically has had bipartisan support. If this rule goes into effect, providers at health centers that receive title X funding will be blocked--gagged--from even telling patients about where and how to get a safe, legal abortion as part of a discussion of reproductive healthcare options.

The rule would also impose new, medically unnecessary requirements that would make it impossible for Planned Parenthood centers, which serve 41 percent of the title X patients, to continue to participate. Four million people--disproportionately young people, low-income women, and women of color--go to title X-funded centers, including to Planned Parenthood centers, for birth control, for lifesaving cancer screenings, for STD tests, and more each year, and this rule puts the care they depend on in jeopardy.

The Republicans here in the Capitol may have no idea what it would mean for patients to lose access to the providers they trust and the affordable care they need, but that is not because those patients and their doctors and their communities have not been speaking up--they have been. People across the country--women and men, doctors, city and county health officials, religious groups, advocates--told this administration as it was developing this rule that they did not want to see providers at title X barred from giving them medically sound information or have patients be denied access to providers they trust at Planned Parenthood because the Republicans think they know better.

The final rule the Trump administration released shows it ignored those who personally know how much it matters to have unbiased, quality care at title X centers, including at Planned Parenthood. The Republicans might have ignored those voices, but we Democrats are not going to. So I am releasing a memo today that will highlight statements that were submitted in strong opposition to this rule by people from across the country. I want to make absolutely sure that the Republicans have every opportunity to hear what patients and providers have to say. I want to give a few examples.

One patient called her visit to a Planned Parenthood to get a Pap smear a ``lifesaver.''

Another wrote: ``Young people like me rely on Title X for access to family planning services at the provider of our choice.''

A mother and sister from Nevada told the Trump administration:

I too have sisters and four daughters. We are capable,

adept, and able to make decisions for ourselves. We want to

make informed decisions. . . . Withholding information is

misinformation and manipulation.

County health officials and healthcare providers repeatedly urged the administration that this rule would ``interfere in the doctor-patient relationship'' and was ``an infringement on the ethical principles that medical providers adhere to'' with potentially ``irreversible'' impacts in struggling communities.

Since it, apparently, needs to be said on the Senate floor, I would like to remind my colleagues that what these patients, healthcare providers, and community leaders are saying about the importance of a woman's ability to make her own healthcare decisions is not controversial. People in this country overwhelmingly agree that women should be able to get birth control. They agree that no matter how much money you make or where you live, you should be able to get a cancer screening that could save your life and, yes, that women should be able to exercise their constitutional right to safe, legal abortion.

I challenge the Republicans today to read the memo I am releasing. Listen to the women and men whom this rule hurts and from the people who are working to help them get the care they need. Then join the Democrats in standing up against this dangerous, unethical step backward because, right now, it is pretty clear, once again, that the Republicans want to make women's health a political battlefield instead of a serious priority.

Let me be clear. The Democrats are going to keep standing up for a woman's right to the care that is right for her. We are going to continue to stand up for women's access to affordable birth control, for women's constitutionally protected rights, and against those who want to put politicians in the doctor's office, where they do not ever belong. If that is a fight the Republicans want to have, we are ready and so are people across the country, like the brave ones who spoke up against this very harmful rule.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I thank my colleague from Ohio for his statement and his concerns, and I am here today to join him on the floor to oppose Chad Readler's nomination to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.

I call on every Republican who said they were going to fight for families' healthcare coverage, protections for people with preexisting conditions, to prove they meant it by joining us.

I have heard my Republican colleagues claim time and again that they care about protections for people with preexisting conditions. I have heard

them say they want to tackle those skyrocketing healthcare costs. I have heard them say they want to help people get the care they need, but when push comes to shove, I have yet to see them join Democrats and actually vote to make that happen. In fact, they do have a long track record of working to move us in exactly the opposite direction.

People across the country have not forgotten how they had to speak up and stop Republicans from jamming through that awful TrumpCare bill, which would have spiked premiums and gutted Medicaid and put families back at the mercy of big insurance companies that could jack up prices for people with preexisting conditions.

Those people also will not forget if Republicans decide to ignore them again and rally around this judicial nominee, who wants to do the same damage.

Let's be clear. Chad Readler's nomination is the latest test of whether Republicans are serious about fighting for people's healthcare, and every Republican who supports him is failing yet again.

Make no mistake--Chad Readler has not only championed some of President Trump's most alarming steps, such as his travel ban, his family separation policy, his efforts to undermine protections for LGBTQ people and more; he has also been President Trump's right-hand man when it comes to undermining healthcare for people in this country.

When the Trump administration decided to abandon protections for people with preexisting conditions in court and throw its weight behind a lawsuit that would strike them down, Chad Readler signed on to the brief defending the decision. It is a brief that three other Justice Department officials refused to sign, and one even resigned over it. But Chad Readler led the Trump administration's legal argument for striking down protections for people with preexisting conditions, which will increase costs and throw healthcare for millions of people into utter chaos.

It was an argument one of my Republican colleagues, as you just heard, called ``as far-fetched as any I've ever heard.'' I agree. It is farfetched, which is why it is also farfetched for any Republican who votes to confirm Readler to continue pretending they care about protections for people with preexisting conditions or helping families get affordable healthcare.

The choice, to me, is pretty simple and straightforward. You cannot be for protections for people with preexisting conditions and for making someone who wants to strike them down a circuit judge. You cannot fight for families' healthcare and vote to empower the very people who have been leading the charge to undermine it. You can't vote for Readler and stand with those families.

People across the country are watching this vote closely. They know, despite Republicans' promises to fight for their healthcare, when it matters as it does here, when the care they need is truly on the line, Republicans have not come through for them.

I hope that changes today. I hope, instead of breaking their word and voting once more for President Trump's agenda of chaos and healthcare sabotage, they will live up to the promises and join us and people across the country and oppose Readler's nomination.

Before I wrap up, I want to talk about the larger issue here because Readler is not the only alarming judicial nominee from President Trump.

Just this week, in fact, Republicans jammed through Allison Rushing. She is an incredibly inexperienced circuit court nominee who has voiced some incredibly alarming ideological views, especially for women and the LGBTQ community.

Later this week we expect a vote on Eric Murphy. He is another nominee who has taken extreme positions on women's healthcare, from endorsing misinformation by signing on to briefs that cite false-- false--claims about women's health to standing in support of laws that were found to unconstitutionally infringe on women's reproductive rights and against laws to increase access to contraceptive care.

People across the country have been absolutely clear that they do not want to see our courts lurch to the far right. They know this is a threat. It is a threat to women. It is a threat to our workers and our families and our environment and so much more.

So Democrats are here. We are going to keep standing up and fighting back every time President Trump and Senate Republican leaders try to move us in that direction, and I hope some Republicans will do the right thing and stand with us.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.