Floor Statements

I announce that the Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. Fetterman), the Senator from Colorado (Mr. Hickenlooper), the Senator from West Virginia (Mr. Manchin), the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), and the Senator from Massachusetts (Ms. Warren) are necessarily absent.

I announce that the Senator from Michigan (Mr. Peters) and the Senator from Michigan (Ms. Stabenow) are necessarily absent.

Mr. President, today, the Senate will vote to confirm Lisa Wang to the U.S. Court of International Trade.

Ms. Wang attended Cornell University and the Georgetown University Law Center before entering private practice in Washington, DC, as an international trade associate. Ms. Wang then spent 3 years serving in the U.S. Embassy in Beijing as a senior import administration officer before joining the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative as assistant general counsel. She went on to serve as a senior attorney in the Commerce Department's Office of the Chief Counsel for Trade Enforcement and Compliance before completing another stint in private practice.

In 2021, President Biden nominated Ms. Wang to serve as an Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Enforcement and Compliance, and she was confirmed in the Senate by voice vote. At the Department of Commerce, she has led the Federal Government's efforts to maintain a level playing field for American workers and consumers by holding our partners accountable to their trade agreements.

Ms. Wang was unanimously rated ``well qualified'' by the American Bar Association. Her deep knowledge of international trade law and commitment to fairness make her an excellent addition to the Court of International Trade. I urge my colleagues to join me in voting for her confirmation.

I announce that the Senator from Michigan (Ms. Stabenow) and the Senator from Michigan (Mr. Peters) are necessarily absent.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, today, the Senate will vote to confirm Kirk Sherriff to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California.

Born in Berkeley, CA, Mr. Sherriff received his B.A. from Columbia College at Columbia University and his J.D. from Harvard Law School. After completing law school, Mr. Sherriff

clerked for Judge Deborah T. Poritz of the New Jersey Supreme Court before beginning his legal career at White & Case LLP. As an associate, he focused on complex commercial litigation and on domestic and international arbitration matters.

Following his time in private practice, Mr. Sherriff has spent the past two decades at the U.S. Attorney's Office--USAO--for the same district to which he is nominated, where he has handled a wide range of civil and criminal matters. Since 2015, Mr. Sherriff has been the chief of the USAO's Fresno office, where he is responsible for overseeing Federal prosecutions brought in the southern half of the Eastern District of California.

The American Bar Association unanimously rated Mr. Sherriff ``well qualified'' to serve on the district court, and he has the strong support of Senators Padilla and Butler.

Mr. Sherriff's deep ties to the California legal community, combined with his significant courtroom experience, make him an excellent candidate to serve on the Federal bench.

I urge my colleagues to support his nomination.

Mr. President, today, the Senate will vote to confirm Karoline Mehalchick to the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.

Judge Mehalchick received her B.S. from Pennsylvania State University and her J.D. from Tulane Law School before clerking for Judge Trish Corbett on the Lackawanna County Court of Common Pleas in Scranton, PA. She then entered private practice in Clarks Summit, PA, where she maintained a general civil and commercial litigation practice, representing both plaintiffs and defendants in all stages of litigation. During her time as a litigator, she tried 10 cases to verdict, including 6 jury trials. She also argued seven appeals before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and served as cocounsel in one case before the Supreme Court of the United States.

In 2013, Judge Mehalchick was appointed as a U.S. magistrate judge on the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania in Scranton. She has served as chief magistrate judge since 2021. During her decade on the bench, she has handled a wide variety of both civil and criminal matters, and she has presided over 16 trials that have gone to verdict. She has issued more than 1,200 opinions and reports and recommendations and more than 1,000 criminal orders related to pretrial detention and release. In addition to her judicial service, Judge Mehalchick also presides over the Scranton Court-Assisted Re- Entry Program--CARE Court--and serves on the Judicial Conference Committee on Codes of Conduct.

The American Bar Association unanimously rated Judge Mehalchick as ``qualified'' to serve on the Middle District of Pennsylvania, and she is

strongly supported by both of her home State Senators and the Pennsylvania legal community. Her litigation background and her courtroom experience as both an advocate and as a magistrate judge ensure that she will be an asset to the district court.

I am proud to support her nomination, and I ask my colleagues to join me in my support.

Mr. President, tomorrow, our Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a landmark hearing. For the first time, the CEOs of five Big Tech companies will testify about the crisis of online child sexual exploitation. This continues our committee's bipartisan work to combat the dangers children face online. This has been one of my top priorities as chair of the committee.

Last February, we held a hearing on kids' online safety. Six witnesses testified about online child sexual exploitation, cyber bullying, addictive online platforms, and the collection and sale of children's sensitive personal data. At the hearing, I noted there were no witnesses from the tech companies present. I promised they would have their chance.

Tomorrow, the CEOs of Discord, Meta, Snap, TikTok, and X will testify. I thank my friend and fellow colleague Senator Lindsey Graham, ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, for his bipartisan cooperation in establishing this hearing. The CEOs of Discord, Snap, and X will testify pursuant to subpoenas issued by the committee. This follows their repeated refusal to testify voluntarily. I look forward to hearing from these companies about what they are doing to make their platforms inaccessible to child sex offenders.

As recently as last week, some have launched new child safety measures that are long overdue. If you were watching the playoff football games over the weekend, you heard some of these same companies advertising they have now discovered a new way to protect children. Could it have something to do with their appearance at the hearing? We will see.

But it shouldn't take a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee to finally get these companies to prioritize child safety. Because these changes are half measures at best, I welcome the opportunity to question them about what more needs to be done.

There have been recent troubling reports about how each of these platforms is being used by offenders to target children or trade child sexual abuse material. Some reports even detail how the platforms promote exploitive behavior. Let's be really honest about this. Some of these algorithms are more powerful than any parent--that is for sure-- and some of the techniques that are used by these platforms to encourage and lure children into situations where they are in danger are well-documented and researched.

There have been recent troubling reports about these platforms being used to target kids in the most heinous ways. Some details about this show that the companies are actually promoting this kind of behavior. The National Center on Sexual Exploitation has named each of these companies to their annual ``Dirty Dozen List'' for facilitating child sexual exploitation.

I am sure every Member of the Senate has heard from constituents, friends, and family members about the harm Big Tech is inflicting on our kids. Tomorrow, the Senate Judiciary Committee will demand answers.

Hearings are important, but it is clear that we need legislation, because the tech industry has failed, on its own, to protect our kids. They are protecting their profits, but they are not protecting our children. Last year, the committee unanimously reported five bills to combat the crisis of online child sexual exploitation. One of the bills I introduced is my bipartisan STOP CSAM Act, which will end Big Tech's free ride and allow victims to finally hold these companies accountable for their failure to stop online child sexual exploitation. CSAM is an acronym for ``child sexual abuse material.''

Since the earliest days of the internet, companies have been allowed to act with near impunity. American families harmed by Big Tech's decisions have no means of redress. To illustrate how dangerous this is, consider a change Meta made last month that carries grave consequences for children. Every year, Meta submits tens of millions of CyberTips to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, known as NCMEC, concerning CSAM found on its platforms. Each CyberTip involves a victim of exploitation, like a child being sexually abused in a photo that has been traded endlessly online or a child who is being coerced, extorted, groomed, or sold for sexual purposes.

In December, Meta announced it is rolling out end-to-end encryption by default on its Facebook and Messenger platforms. Because of this change, Meta will no longer be able to use certain tools to detect and report child exploitation. Encryption can be a valuable tool for protecting privacy, but it is alarming for a company to kneecap their own work to stop online child sexual exploitation.

According to press reports, Meta employees warned internally that this would greatly diminish the company's ability to identify online child exploitation, and child protection advocates and survivors immediately sounded the same alarm. NCMEC called Meta's adoption of end-to-end encryption ``a devastating blow for child protection.'' NCMEC and other advocates are imploring Meta to pause the rollout until it demonstrates the encryption switch won't cause children harm. That is all they want: for Meta to be sure it won't hurt kids.

This highlights the unacceptable situation we find ourselves in. There are no tools to hold companies accountable. Instead, survivors and advocates are left to plead with these companies to choose safety over profit.

The Phoenix 11, a group of CSAM survivors, powerfully expressed their rage about this situation in a letter they recently sent to the committee. They wrote:

As survivors, we bear the consequences when decisions are

made that prioritize profit over children . . . If Meta no

longer reports these crimes against us, we alone suffer the

consequences.

This is a profoundly disturbing situation. In no other sector of society would we permit one company to make an unreviewable decision that puts millions of American kids at risk. But for almost 30 years, section 230 of the Communications Decency Act has protected the tech industry from accountability for the damage it has done.

You have to look far and wide to find companies or industries that are exempt from liability under the law, civilly or criminally. This is one of those. The law was enacted to allow a fledgling industry to grow, but now it has become an entitlement for the most profitable industry in the history of capitalism to line their profits at the expense of kids.

Every available metric suggests that online child exploitation is getting worse. In the year 2013, NCMEC received approximately 1,380 CyberTips per day. Ten years later, in 2023, this skyrocketed to 100,000 CyberTips per day. Think about that for a second: 100,000 reports of sexual abuse per day.

There has also been a dramatic increase in the number of victims per offender, who can use technology to ensnare a shocking number of children without even leaving their homes. A single defendant prosecuted in Minnesota sextorted over 1,100 children--one person, over 1,000 kids.

What does that consist of? They lure these kids and groom them to the point where they send photographs of themselves that are way too candid and expose things they shouldn't. Then the person says: If you don't want me to put this on the internet, you have to pay me.

This fellow had extorted in that kind of situation over 1,000 kids before he was finally brought to justice. That is the status quo that Congress protects if we do nothing.

Everyone needs to do their part to stop this gross injustice. That includes Congress finally enacting legislation that holds the tech industry accountable when it fails to protect children. That is why the Judiciary Committee will hold its landmark hearing tomorrow. That is why I will continue to work to bring the Stop CSAM Act and other critical bills to protect kids to the Senate floor.

Mr. President, back in the day, before I was elected to office, I was a trial lawyer in small-town America. I made a nice living. I took cases to trial of a different stripe. I am not saying that I was part of the system of justice in this country, but it turns out I was. The fact that people face accountability for their wrongdoing and could end up losing in court is another incentive to do the right thing in your life. Here we have a situation that is clearly, clearly out of control. What is happening is beyond the reach of the most conscientious parents in America.

I am lucky to have some wonderful grandkids. I have two who live in New York. They are 12 years old. I am really proud of them. Their mom worries about them--and their dad as well--every single day, as they spend way too much time, by their estimation, on screens. They try to encourage them to do the right thing and make sure that they never communicate with people they don't know or provide information or anything else that they shouldn't. But the parents can't be sure that always works--nobody can. They want to do the right thing for their kids.

I told my daughter I was having this hearing. She said: Dad, when you get these execs in front of you, ask them what they do to protect their own kids--their own kids who could be exploited and they wouldn't even know about it.

It is a legitimate question. I don't know if I will be asking it tomorrow. It depends on the circumstances. But it is something that every family across America would like to know: What are you doing, Senator, to protect our kids? It is getting worse instead of better. Can you change the law to help us?

It is up to us to decide. I hope tomorrow's hearing is the beginning of a conversation on a bipartisan basis.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, today, the Senate will vote to confirm U.S. Magistrate Judge Joshua Kolar to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.

After receiving his B.A. and J.D. from Northwestern University, Judge Kolar worked in private practice and clerked for Judge Wayne R. Andersen on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. From 2007 to 2018, Judge Kolar was an assistant U.S. attorney in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Indiana. He prosecuted a range of cases, including public corruption, terrorism- related offenses, violent crimes, narcotics conspiracies, and firearms offenses. Over the course of his legal career, Judge Kolar tried 16 cases to verdict and briefed or argued 20 appeals before the Seventh Circuit.

In 2019, Judge Kolar was selected by the district judges of the Northern District of Indiana to be a magistrate judge, where he presides over civil and criminal cases. Since 2009, Judge Kolar has also honorably served his country as a Reservist and on Active Duty in the U.S. Navy. Judge Kolar has the strong support from his home State Senators, Mr. Young and Mr. Braun. In addition, he was unanimously rated ``well qualified'' by the American Bar Association.

Taken together, Judge Kolar's service to his country in the military and as a prosecutor, his extensive appellate experience, and his service as a magistrate judge make him well-suited to serve on the Seventh Circuit with distinction.

I urge my colleagues to support Judge Kolar's nomination.

I announce that the Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. Fetterman) and the Senator from West Virginia (Mr. Manchin) are necessarily absent.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

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

Mr. President, there are a few things that are more important to a nation's economy than its infrastructure. Most Americans rely on public transport to get from point A to point B. Passenger rail plays an important role in that responsibility. That is why am pleased that Illinoisans have had a voice in one of the largest rail networks in the country, Amtrak.

Something many people don't realize is that despite being a for- profit company, Amtrak is a government entity. Because of this, with the advice and consent of the Senate, the President has the power to appoint members to Amtrak's board. Just this week, we took action in the Senate.

On Tuesday, the Senate voted to confirm the mayor of Normal, IL, Chris Koos, to serve on the Amtrak board of directors, one of only eight individuals appointed by the President at any one time to serve in such a role.

Chris will take the post when the former Macomb, IL, mayor, Tom Carper, departs. When Chris takes the baton from Tom, he will be taking it from a giant in the history of Amtrak.

Tom Carper--same name as our colleague from Delaware--is the longest serving board member in Amtrak history. That is an amazing accomplishment and shows great personal sacrifice on his part to be part of this public responsibility.

First nominated to the board of directors in 2007 under President Bush, Tom Carper joined the board in 2008 and was elected as board chairman from 2009 until his term officially expired in 2013. Tom was then reappointed in 2013 under President Obama, and he served under four different Presidents on the board of directors of Amtrak.

During his tenure on the board, Tom championed issues important to Amtrak passengers across the Nation. He prioritized ensuring service to underserved communities, benefiting local

economies, and improving safety and cyber security. While serving as chairman, Tom Carper took on the critical responsibility of coordinating the board and the CEO, making sure that Amtrak was responsive to the needs of its customers: the American public.

Throughout his life, Tom took on many positions that show the kind of leader he really is. He was a small business owner from Macomb, IL, serving as the town's mayor for over 10 years and then as director of a regional economic development plan. From these positions, Tom gleaned firsthand knowledge about economic development in the Midwest-- knowledge he brought with him to Amtrak. Prior to that, Tom served our Nation in the U.S. Army in both Thailand and Vietnam.

Tom had an acute understanding of how passenger rail service could improve lives. He used that knowledge to modernize our transportation system.

Tom is a great leader and an even better person. In his role, he faithfully honored his Central Illinois roots and showed what midwestern work ethic really looks like.

I want to thank Tom Carper for his years of dedicated service to America's rail infrastructure. Every American who uses Amtrak owes Tom Carper a debt of gratitude. I wish Tom the best of luck in the next well-earned chapter of his life.

Luckily for Illinois and our Nation, our representation on Amtrak's board will continue with the mayor of Normal, IL, Chris Koos. A committed leader, Chris has the longest running term of any mayor in his city's history. It is only right that he will be replacing Tom's recordbreaking tenure on the Amtrak board.

Chris's confirmation has been long awaited. He was first nominated in 2020. Two years later, at my recommendation, President Biden renominated Chris to the Amtrak board of directors. After more than 3\1/2\ years, finally--finally--he was confirmed. Through no fault of his own, he was caught up in some--how should I say?--strategic planning in the future of the Amtrak board, but he finally got the job.

The Midwest will be well represented with Chris Koos on the Amtrak board. He has been a powerful voice in the Illinois transportation sector for years, and he has an intimate understanding of the importance of passenger rail to communities in Illinois, the Midwest, and across the country.

Similar to Tom, Chris is a small business man from a midsized community. He owns a business where he sells running shoes and bicycles. From movement on foot and bike to movement by rail, I think it is safe to say Chris has a passion for supporting people on the go. That passion will allow him to tackle the challenge of serving on Amtrak's board with grace, creativity, and intelligence. Chris will be a great asset when it comes to the future of Amtrak. I am honored to call him a friend, and I congratulate him on this exciting new journey ahead.

Leaders like Tom Carper and Chris Koos make me feel honored to represent the great State of Illinois.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, today, the Senate will vote to confirm Judge Gretchen S. Lund to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana.

Born in Elkhart, IN, Judge Lund earned her B.A., cum laude, from Butler University and her J.D., summa cum laude, from Valparaiso University School of Law. After beginning her legal career as an associate attorney with Ice Miller LLP, Judge Lund clerked for Judge William T. Lawrence on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana. Following her clerkship, she served as a deputy prosecutor with the Elkhart County Prosecutor's Office, where she handled cases assigned to the child support division. In 2006, she was elected to serve as the sole judge for the Goshen City Court, where she presided over criminal misdemeanors, infractions, and ordinance violations. In 2014, Judge Lund was elected to her current seat as the judge on Elkhart Superior Court 4. She presides over both civil and criminal matters and established the county's first drug court. Since joining the bench, she has presided over 27 jury trials, 489 bench trials, and approximately 28,000 cases that have gone to verdict or judgement.

The American Bar Association unanimously rated Judge Lund as ``well qualified,'' and she has the strong support of Senators Young and Braun.

Judge Lund's significant courtroom experience and dedication to service make her an excellent nominee to the Northern District of Indiana. I will vote in favor of her confirmation and encourage my colleagues to do the same.