Floor Statements

Mr. President, September 9, 2021, over a year ago, was supposed to be a historic day in America's efforts to stop the purveyors of candy- and fruit-flavored e-cigarettes from preying on America's kids. September 9, 2021, was the deadline, and it was set by a Federal judge for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to finally-- finally--clear its enormous backlog of applications from e-cigarette companies seeking to sell their products in America.

Companies that can prove that their vaping products are, in fact, ``appropriate for the protection of public health,'' they can go ahead and sell their products legally, but e-cigarette products can't meet that standard. They can't demonstrate a benefit to public health. Vaping, as we know, is dangerous and addictive, and these companies, like the tobacco companies of years gone by, are preying on our children.

FDA had a legal mandate to ban these products from U.S. markets on September 9, 2021, but the Food and Drug Administration failed to meet the deadline--not by 1 day, not by 1 week, not even by 1 month. Last Friday marked the 1-year anniversary of the FDA's failure to meet this Federal court order.

As of today, the FDA has completed reviews of about half of these e- cigarette products that represent a large share of the market. As a result of FDA's inaction, dangerous, kid-friendly e-cigarettes remain available on store shelves without FDA review or authorization. The cops are not on the beat.

There are consequences to this action. The Truth Initiative is a nonprofit consortium of health groups that aims to protect young people from using tobacco. It estimates that, in the year since the FDA missed the court-ordered deadline to approve or reject e-cigarette applications, nearly 2\1/2\ million kids in America started using vaping products. Many of these young people will go on to develop nicotine addictions, with serious harm to their health. That is the human cost of this FDA failure.

Now the FDA says: Well, we might be able to finish this by 2023, 2 years after the Federal court-ordered date. And that is not the only deadline the FDA has blown when it comes to protecting kids from nicotine. After parents and public health groups demanded the FDA take action against candy-flavored, nicotine-spiked e-cigarettes, the vaping industry came out with a brandnew miracle product designed to evade FDA jurisdiction: synthetic nicotine. Products like Puff Bar are incredibly popular with middle and high school students. These new synthetic nicotine products include all the health dangers of traditional e- cigarettes, none of the regulation. When Congress learned about this loophole, we changed the law to say that the FDA had jurisdiction over synthetic nicotine products.

To make matters worse, even when the FDA does review a product and issues a denial, many e-cigarette companies just ignore them. It has reached a point that they are not viewed seriously. The No. 1 regulator of food and drugs in America, when it comes to protecting our kids from these deadly, addictive products, isn't viewed seriously.

The FDA has the legal right and the legal authority to do so. They can pull these products off the shelves tomorrow. Yet, with respect to illegal e-cigarettes, they do nothing--nothing.

Look, I understand they are understaffed. I understand they are underresourced. FDA is not currently authorized to collect user fees for e-cigarettes, as it does for so many other products. And Congress fails to appropriate the funds many times that they need.

These are real problems, but they do not absolve the FDA of its repeated failure to effectively regulate e-cigarettes. I am at my wits' end when FDA continues to miss these court-ordered deadlines, fails to enforce orders, and shows a lack of urgency when it comes to vaping products.

Last week, I asked Health and Human Services Secretary Becerra to step in. If FDA cannot or will not do its job, then it is time for the lead Agency, Health and Human Services, to take a more active role. The FDA cannot continue to let unscrupulous e-cigarette companies flout the law and put their own profits ahead of the health of our kids. This has to stop.

Mr. President, on a related matter, Congress has a big decision to make in the next few weeks. Every 5 years, Congress must reauthorize FDA user fee programs. These programs authorize FDA to collect user fees from companies they oversee: prescription drug companies, medical device companies. These fees help provide the funding that FDA needs for staff.

In fact, almost half of their funding comes from user fees. But we shouldn't settle for a clean authorization of FDA user fees. We should give FDA the authority to collect user fees from e-cigarette companies, and we should provide FDA with new authority to protect America's health by better regulating the dietary supplement industry.

I want to thank the members of the Senate HELP Committee, especially its chairman, Senator Patty Murray, for including my proposal for better regulation of dietary supplements in the committee-passed bill.

But I fear this commonsense proposal may be lost in the sauce in the closing days of this fiscal year.

Many people are surprised to learn that today dietary supplement companies are not even required to register their products with the FDA. They aren't required to tell the FDA even the ingredients of their products.

If you are going to put a product on the shelf in America, most Americans walking into that drugstore or that vitamin shop believe that there has been

some government review of the product, some inspection, some standards. Not the case. When it comes to prescription drugs, they have to be proven to be safe and effective. Not so for dietary supplements. These products can hit the shelves and make outrageous claims and not be regulated in any way, like prescription drugs.

What our bill says is that each of the companies selling these products has to register with the FDA the name of the product and the ingredients in the product. So if something goes wrong and people start getting sick, we at least have the most basic information to protect Americans.

The FDA is one of the most important Agencies in the Federal Government. It has fallen on hard times. It is there to protect the health of families across the country, especially our children. Whether it is dietary supplements or tobacco or e-cigarettes, we need to make sure the FDA not only has the tools for the job but uses them.

Mr. President, today, the Senate will vote to confirm Judge Sarah Merriam to serve on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.

Judge Merriam was confirmed last year as a U.S. District Court Judge for the District of Connecticut. She received a bipartisan vote on the Senate floor, which reflects not only her qualifications, but her impartiality as well.

Prior to her appointment to the district court, Judge Merriam served as a U.S. magistrate judge for the District of Connecticut from 2015 to 2021.

Throughout her time on the Federal bench, Judge Merriam has presided over hundreds of matters, including five trials that proceeded to final judgment.

This significant judicial experience has undoubtedly prepared Judge Merriam to serve on the Second Circuit.

Judge Merriam also has extensive experience in Federal court as an advocate. For the bulk of her career as a practicing attorney, she served as an assistant Federal defender, representing clients who could not otherwise afford adequate legal representation.

Notably, 24 former Federal prosecutors in Connecticut--including three former U.S. attorneys appointed by Presidents of both political parties--support Judge Merriam's nomination to the Second Circuit.

This broad, bipartisan support is a testament to her fairness and evenhandedness, both as a jurist and as an advocate.

The American Bar Association unanimously rated Judge Merriam ``well qualified'' to serve on the Second Circuit, and she has the strong support of Senators Blumenthal and Murphy.

Judge Merriam has shown that she has the qualifications, experience, and fidelity to the rule of law needed to administer justice on the Second Circuit. I will be supporting her confirmation and urge my colleagues to do the same.

I yield the floor.

I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, today, the Senate will vote to confirm Lara Montecalvo to serve on the First Circuit Court of Appeals. Ms. Montecalvo has significant litigation experience at both the trial and appellate level and will be an outstanding addition to the bench.

She attended Swarthmore College and Boston College Law School. Ms. Montecalvo then worked in the Justice Department's Tax Division as a trial attorney. In 2004, Ms. Montecalvo began working in the Rhode Island Public Defender's Office. She became the Rhode Island Public Defender in 2020.

As a DOJ trial attorney and as a State public defender, Ms. Montecalvo gained experience in both State and Federal court. She has tried more than 20 cases to verdict, including 15 as sole counsel. In addition, she has personally handled more than 80 appeals. The American Bar Association rated her ``well qualified'' to serve on the First Circuit, and she has the strong support of Senators Reed and Whitehouse.

Ms. Montecalvo has shown that she is committed to equal justice. I will be supporting her and urge my colleagues to do the same.

I announce that the Senator from Michigan (Ms. Stabenow) is necessarily absent.

I announce that the Senator from Michigan (Ms. Stabenow), is necessarily absent.

I announce that the Senator from Illinois (Ms. Duckworth) and the Senator from New Hampshire (Ms. Hassan) are necessarily absent.

I announce that the Senator from Illinois (Ms. Duckworth) and the Senator from New Hampshire (Ms. Hassan) are necessarily absent.

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

Madam President, like you, I am proud to represent the city of Chicago. On Friday, returning back home to Chicago, I had a chance to see the best of that great city. I traveled to the Salvation Army Freedom Center in Humboldt Park, in the city of Chicago, where residents from around our city have come together to welcome the families who are seeking refuge in America.

Our city's agencies, State agencies, members of the faith community, and kind families have stepped up to provide supplies--the basics: clothing and such--and a safe place to sleep for many of these people who have come to America. These modest acts of generosity have changed everything for the families who have arrived at that Salvation Army Freedom Center because, for the first time in months, they feel safe and secure. And that is exactly why they left their home in the first place: to survive.

In Chicago, we are honored to offer a warm, welcoming hand to these families escaping unimaginable circumstances because in them we see ourselves, we see America, we see our history as a nation. And for me, personally, I see my own family.

Back in 1911, a young Lithuanian woman set sail for America. She carried two things with her: her Catholic prayer book, published the year before the Czars outlawed it in the nation of Lithuania; and her 2-year-old daughter Ona, my mother.

More than a century stands between my mother's arrival in America and the arrival of families I met Friday, but in many ways it is the same story. America opened its doors to my family all those years ago and gave us a chance to find a place for a new land of opportunity. Today, it is our responsibility to welcome families fleeing violence and persecution, families seeking nothing more than safety and a fair shot. This is fundamental to who we are as Americans, but, sadly, it seems that some in politics think otherwise.

You see, there is a reason these families arrived in Chicago, and it is not because they booked a bus on their own accord. It is because the Governor of Texas has chosen to exploit this humanitarian challenge to score political points. When these families arrived at our Nation's border seeking asylum, what did the Governor of Texas do? He didn't help. He took advantage of the fear and confusion. He rounded these families up, boarded them onto a bus, and shipped them to cities like Chicago and New York without even telling them where they were headed and without any consultation with their destination States. This is cruelty of the highest degree.

The Governor of Texas didn't provide any notice to Illinois or Chicago. He bused them to our Union Station downtown, nearly 1,500 miles away from their Texas border, without sending as much as a text message in advance. No logic. No rationale. Just plain meanness.

Look, we can have reasonable disagreements about how to address the situation at our Nation's border, but there is no excuse for playing games with human lives. It is not the first time. Sadly, it is the playbook for many of the other party. You will recall when President Trump, the nominee or candidate, stood up and said they are all murderers and rapists coming in from Mexico, or do you remember when more than a thousand children--infants and toddlers--were separated from their parents at the border? Some of them are still adrift, never being reunited with their families.

One of the people I met on Friday was a man named Carlos. He and his wife are from Venezuela, a country with an economic and political crisis so severe that their family feared persecution and was on the brink of starvation, even though Carlos was a hard worker, always looking for a job.

So on May 15--May 15--Carlos and his wife did what they needed to do. Imagine this, if you will. They picked up their two children--a 5-year- old little girl and a 1-year-old infant--and set out on a trip to the United States. They set out on foot to reach the Texas-Mexico border. Their journey was a nightmare: violence, theft, and exploitation.

Carlos told me that at one point he thought he would die, with his wife and kids forced to spend nine nights in a Panamanian jungle. They were finally rescued by a local military force, but they had lost all their money, their cell phones. Everything had been stolen.

They didn't quit. They were determined, slowly making their way across Central America, primarily on foot, stopping from time to time. Carlos said: I would take any work they would give me. I would sell things on the street--whatever it was--to feed my family.

It took 4 long months for them to reach our Nation's border, and they had no destination in mind when they arrived, no contacts. They simply followed instructions, and then they were placed on a bus by the Governor of Texas that took them to the city of Chicago.

Carlos had no intention of ending up in this great city when he and his family arrived in America, but he told me,

with real gratitude, that he wanted to stay in Chicago. I warned him to get ready for the winter. They have been amazed by the welcome they have received from the Salvation Army and from so many others--Catholic Charities and other groups--that stepped up to help.

That is a similar sentiment I heard expressed by another man I met on Friday, William. William is 42 years old. He sat down next to me as I was talking to this family. I thought he was a translator. He happily listened to the conversation back-and-forth. Finally, I turned to him and said: So what is your story? Again, he left Venezuela, left his family behind, and is hoping to get some work here so he can send some money back to his family.

We talked about what he would do, and it was literally anything; he would take any job. I asked him if he had any family or friends in the United States. You know what he told me? He said: ``I have you.''

Before I left on Friday, both Carlos and William had something else to say to me. They both asked me the same question: When can I go to work? It should be a simple answer because the reality is they are legally in the country now awaiting a hearing on their ultimate status. That hearing could be a matter of months or years. And there are no shortage of work opportunities in Chicago and all across the country. Plenty of businesses--restaurants, entertainment venues, nursing homes, landscaping--all of them would be happy to hire them, but under the law, currently, they cannot do that because asylum seekers like Carlos and William could be years away from the final determination of their status in America.

They are at least prohibited for the first 6 months from taking any kind of legal employment in the United States. How did that happen? We let them in the country. Yet we wouldn't even allow them to work to feed their families.

Well, you won't be surprised to know that was a decision by the Trump administration. This administration of President Biden is trying to change it, but, in the meantime, they are faced with a horrible dilemma, a Jean Valjean moment if there ever was one--when they are trying to find some way to feed their families, but if they take a job and are paid for it in any way, they risk deportation. This is yet another example of a broken immigration system.

The system has failed not just these families but our Nation's economy as well. We have 10 million unfilled jobs in this country. We have 5 million unemployed Americans. There are jobs in every direction. A leading restauranteur in Chicago, whom the Presiding Officer knows very well, said to me: If you took the undocumented workers out of the restaurants in Chicago, you would turn out the lights.

Behind those swinging doors in each of those restaurants are undocumented people doing the hard work: the dishwashing, the food prep and cleanup that is part of being a restaurant. And the same thing is true when we talk about other areas.

I had a visit from the Farm Bureau of Illinois, and they told me just pointblank: We are desperate for workers, for migrant workers, to pick the crops at Alto Pass orchards in Southern Illinois, to work in the dairy farms and dairy operations in Northwestern Illinois.

In every direction, they need these workers, and they need them now-- farm workers, ag workers. And it isn't just in the Midwest. It is across the Nation, and yet we don't have a system that allows for these people to come to this country and to legally work. It doesn't make any sense.

Now, of course, there are standards we ought to apply. They shouldn't be offered any job that hasn't been offered first to an American. That is our first obligation. I get it. And we ought to make sure that if they are going to be here, they are good people.

I don't believe we should knowingly allow any dangerous person to come into this country or to stay. If they are guilty of crimes while they are here, they should be punished and deported, period. The standards we should establish should keep our country safe, first and foremost.

But, secondly, we have seen over the past 4 years, under the previous President, a complete downturn in the immigrants coming into this country to work, and that is why there are so many shortages in our current workforce. We can do better, and we should do better.

And there is a problem we have that is very fundamental. Our Nation's birth rate is not keeping up with our demands for new workers. We have to accept that reality, particularly when it comes to entry level positions.

We are a nation desperate for workers, particularly young, able- bodied people like those two men that I met. But we can't put them to work under the law as it stands today. How does that make any sense?

It is the same story for millions of people living throughout our hemisphere. Even though American employers should be willing to sponsor them, there are few, viable legal immigration pathways to bring them to America, and, as a result, the arduous journey to the Mexican-American border is the only option they have.

I will be the first to agree with my colleagues on the other side in saying we need an orderly process at the border, and we do not have it today.

I am chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. We have the responsibility of writing the laws on immigration. And you say to yourself: Well, Senator, why haven't you done it?

And I can tell you why: Because our committee is evenly divided--11 Democrats, 11 Republicans, as is the Senate, 50-50--making it extremely difficult to pass anything controversial.

It was 7 or 8 years ago when we put together a group of 8 Senators--4 Democrats, 4 Republicans. I was glad to be part of forming that group. John McCain, Lindsay Graham, Marco Rubio, and Jeff Flake were on the Republican side; and on the Democratic side: myself, Chuck Schumer, Bob Menendez, and Michael Bennet. We put together a comprehensive immigration bill and called it on the floor of the Senate here, and it passed with 68 votes. We were elated. We finally found that sweet spot, that agreement.

Oh, we said to President Trump: We will build some more of your wall. And I had second thoughts about that. But if that is what it took, we had an agreement for a comprehensive bill.

We passed it in the Senate and sent it over to the House of Representatives, and under Paul Ryan's Republican leadership, they refused to call it or consider it. It died, and nothing--nothing--has been done ever since. In fact, nothing has been done for 30 years, when it comes to the immigration laws of this country.

Is it any wonder the problems we face?

We need an orderly process. We need to make sure that no dangerous person is going to come into this process and do our level best to keep them out. And we need to accept one reality, and that is that we cannot accept everyone in the world who wants to come to America tomorrow.

The numbers are overwhelming. We have to have an orderly process and bring those people in that help us grow as a nation.

Imagine, if you will--I thought about it from time to time in my own family--sitting down in a small town--a small village then--in Lithuania. Jurbarkas was the name of the village. I can't imagine what it was like over 100 years ago, when my grandfather sat down with my grandmother and said: We are leaving for America. We are going to the land of opportunity. We are going to a place called East St. Louis, IL--which is where I was born.

Imagine that decision--leaving your home, your church, your relatives, everything behind, and going to a land where you don't speak the language. It sounds like an incredible decision on their part, and I marvel today that they even did it. A lot of the people around them in their same village must have said: Oh, that family, the Kutkaite family, they will be back.

They weren't. They came here. They endured, and because of that endurance and determination, I am standing here today.

That kind of spirit in the DNA of people who are willing to sacrifice everything to be part of America is something we should not dismiss. This is not a selfish decision on the part of the heads of those families. This is a selfless decision. For their family, they are willing to risk everything to come to this country.

Now, we need an orderly process to bring them into this country, as needed, in the right fashion, and I believe we can achieve that. But, unfortunately, politically, we are stopped at the moment. I am going to continue to work to try to find some bipartisan approach to this which will solve this problem.

Our Nation's immigration system should reward hard work and the determination that these people have to be in America. Instead of exploiting families who are fleeing for their lives, we should all work together to create a system that reflects the best values of America.

We are a nation of immigrants. Our diversity is our strength. Those who say we need some kind of ethnic purity are aspiring to a goal which does not serve us well. We have done just the opposite. We have taken people from different sections of the world and brought them together into the American family, and that is what is important for our future as well.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, today the Senate is poised to confirm another outstanding judicial nominee: Judge Salvador Mendoza, Jr., nominated to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Judge Mendoza is a highly experienced jurist with a lifelong commitment to public and community service. After graduating from the University of Washington and UCLA School of Law, Judge Mendoza joined the office of the Franklin County, WA prosecuting attorney, where he handled a range of felony and misdemeanor cases. Following this role, Judge Mendoza entered private legal practice, simultaneously serving as a judge pro tempore on various Washington State municipal, district, and juvenile courts. He then served 2 years on the Washington State superior court.

In 2014, President Obama nominated Judge Mendoza to the Eastern District of Washington, and the Senate confirmed him on an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote, 92-4. Judge Mendoza has distinguished himself on the bench, presiding over dozens of trials and demonstrating evenhandedness and impartiality in all matters that have come before him. And once confirmed, Judge Mendoza will be the first judge of Hispanic origin to sit on a Washington seat on the Ninth Circuit.

The American Bar Association has unanimously rated Judge Mendoza ``well qualified,'' and he enjoys the strong support of his home State Senators, Mrs. Murray and Ms. Cantwell.

I will support Judge Mendoza's confirmation, and I urge my colleagues to do the same.

I announce that the Senator from Ohio (Mr. Brown), the Senator from New Hampshire (Ms. Hassan), the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Menendez), the Senator from California (Mr. Padilla), the Senator from Michigan (Mr. Peters), the Senator from Arizona (Ms. Sinema), and the Senator from Michigan (Ms. Stabenow) are necessarily absent.

I announce that the Senator from Ohio (Mr. Brown), the Senator from New Hampshire (Ms. Hassan), the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Menendez), 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 Andre Mathis to serve on the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. Mr. Mathis is an outstanding nominee with extensive litigation experience and deep ties to the Tennessee legal community.

Over the years, he has litigated hundreds of civil cases and has defended approximately 150 criminal cases as a member of the Criminal Justice Act panel in the Western District of Tennessee. Mr. Mathis has tried 19 cases to verdict or final judgment and has briefed 23 appeals. And if confirmed, he would be the first Black man to sit on the Sixth Circuit from Tennessee. Mr. Mathis was rated unanimously ``well qualified'' by the American Bar Association, and he received a bipartisan vote in committee. Despite his extensive experience, some on the other side have questioned Mr. Mathis' credentials, as well as his confirmation process itself.

Let's set the record straight. Mr. Mathis is highly qualified for this job. And any claim that there was no meaningful consultation between the White House and the Tennessee Senators on this vacancy is simply false. Over a period of 6 months, the White House asked the Tennessee Senators for proposed candidates, interviewed one such candidate, and made Mr. Mathis available to the Senators to conduct their own interviews. There is a clear record of good faith consultation regarding this vacancy, consultation that far exceeded that afforded by the Trump White House to several Democratic Senators.

Remember, under the former President, Senate Republicans regularly supported circuit nominees who were nominated, even though the Trump White House did not seek any input from home-State Democratic Senators. I have said it many times: There cannot be one standard for Republicans and another for Democrats.

With Mr. Mathis' nomination, this Senate has an historic opportunity to confirm a lifelong Tennessean and a person of outstanding credentials and integrity to serve the community that raised him. I look forward to supporting him and urge my colleagues to do the same.