Floor Statements

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, I am happy to be standing here today on the Senate floor during an exciting week and one that really provides us with hope for the future. I welcome President Biden and, of course, Vice President Harris to their new roles and look forward to their leadership that they will provide in these difficult times.

We can never forget that America is still in the midst of a deadly pandemic. Tragically, we lost over 400,000 Americans. In my State of Illinois, we have seen more than 1 million COVID cases, and 18,398 of my neighbors and friends in Illinois have died due to this deadly virus.

As we continue to try to stop the spread of this pandemic, I am glad that the vaccine rollout has been able to help some in my State-- 537,000 people in Illinois have received vaccines. It is a refreshing and long overdue sight to have the President and White House fully engaged in addressing this pandemic with a focus on science and racial equity.

On his first day yesterday, President Biden signed several important Executive actions, including instituting a mask mandate for all Federal facilities and buildings.

Secondly, he moved to rejoin the World Health Organization. This was one of the most confounding decisions by the Trump administration. In the midst of a global pandemic, President Trump opted to remove the United States from the World Health Organization, which was focusing on the spread of this pandemic and its impact on nations around the world.

Finally, President Biden created an office to coordinate a national response to the pandemic. Today he is outlining a strong plan to provide a national strategy to liberate us from this threat.

I must say that I was disappointed in the transition when at first President Trump refused to acknowledge that he lost the election, and then his Agencies dragged their feet when it came to informing the Biden administration of the status quo in America. Thus,

today, we learn that we were not as prepared as we should have been when it came to distributing the vaccines that were being manufactured across this country. Now we almost have to start from zero to find a way to meet President Biden's challenge of 100 million Americans vaccinated in the first 100 days that he is in office. I pray that he is successful. We should do everything in our power on both sides of the aisle to give him the resources and the cooperation he needs.

The fact sheet of things that will be done by the Biden administration on COVID-19 is lengthy and impressive. The President, on the first day, established a White House COVID-19 Response Office and Coordinator, as I mentioned, required mask wearing and social distancing in Federal facilities, and rejoined the World Health Organization.

Today, President Biden also unveiled a national strategy to leverage Federal resources. It outlines detailed plans for a comprehensive vaccination strategy. If there was cheering--and there should have been--for the Warp Speed project developing successful vaccines in a short period of time, it was followed by some disappointment that even with these vaccines and the knowledge of how to make them, we are not producing them in the quantities necessary, and we are not addressing the logistics of spreading these vaccines across America where they are needed the most.

The President is setting out to restore trust by leading with experts for public outreach, and he is relying on science. That is refreshing. It is hard to imagine something that basic is as refreshing as it is. He is providing resources and guidance to reopen most K-8 schools in 100 days. Wouldn't that be a blessing? There isn't a parent or grandparent in this country who won't cheer that particular goal. He is addressing supply gaps and State capacity. We are finding them virtually all across the United States. And he is focusing on vulnerable populations, including those in long-term care facilities and communities of color.

To implement this plan, President Biden will sign Executive orders today to direct agencies to exercise all authorities, including the Defense Production Act, to accelerate the manufacturing and delivery of vaccination, testing, and medical supplies. Let me say, I have never understood why President Trump refused to use this Defense Production Act to its full capacity, to use his leadership as President to marshal the resources of production and distribution of vaccines and other absolutely necessary medical devices.

President Biden also is directing FEMA to increase Federal reimbursement to States from 75 to 100 percent for emergency supplies, such as PPE, and National Guard personnel. He is establishing a Healthy Equity Task Force to provide recommendations on how to allocate and address racial and ethnic disparities that have been magnified by this crisis

We know the economic damage of this virus continues to linger. Nearly one in four people in my State in renter households reports being behind on rent, and one in three households reports having difficulty just covering usual household expenses.

We continue to see historic numbers of Americans filing for unemployment, including more than 100,000 people in Illinois who applied for unemployment last week. But to fully address the health and economic toll of the pandemic, Congress needs to build upon the work we did in December and heed the call of the $1.9 trillion plan that President Biden outlined last week.

I was part of a bipartisan group of Senators who met several months ago. We talked about following on the CARES Act with some measure of COVID relief. We proposed a plan of $908 billion, which was then embraced by the leaders on both sides of the aisle and the White House, and they negotiated further. That resulted in the measure we passed just a few days ago. But make no mistake, that was not the end of the story, nor did we envision that it would be. This was done on a temporary emergency basis to cover the first quarter; that is, the first 3 months of this calendar year. I pray that this pandemic and all of the problems it has caused will soon be gone, but I doubt that it will happen in the next 3 months.

We have more work to do, and President Biden knows it. I think we all do. We need to come together again on a bipartisan basis.

The first CARES Act passed the Senate by a vote of 96 to nothing. There were no dissenting votes. The second measure, I believe, had 91 or 92 votes in favor of it. So we have shown real bipartisanship. We can't quit on this challenge.

Janet Yellen has been named as the Treasure Secretary designate by President Biden. I had a conversation with her 2 weeks ago. We talked about the perilous state of the economy. It is naive for us to believe that the worst is behind us. We have to face the reality that we may have darker days ahead, and we have to be prepared to deal with them-- first, with the pandemic and, second, with the economy. Even the Chairman of the Federal Reserve has encouraged us not to take our foot off the accelerator, lest we lapse into a recession or worse.

Let's take this seriously. Let's help the businesses, help the workers, help the families, and do our best to get this economy back on its feet.

Illinois has spent $843 million in our health departments to expand testing and vaccine delivery from the December package. But with half a million people vaccinated so far in a State of 13 million, more resources and support are needed. That means providing the $20 billion for vaccine distribution and $50 billion for testing that President Biden has asked for as part of his rescue package so we can finally, once and for all, crush this virus, get the economy back on its feet, and get our kids back in school.

It also means investing in the health workforce, such as through a bill I have introduced with Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida, to provide scholarship and loan repayment through the National Health Service Corps for doctors and nurses to serve in communities with a shortage of providers.

I say to the Presiding Officer, I am sure you are personally aware that there are fewer African-American doctors in the United States today than there were 10 years ago. I am sorry to report that. It should be just the opposite. We should have so many more, for many reasons, not the least of which is to overcome health inequity.

This scholarship program that Senator Rubio and I are proposing builds on the model of the National Health Service Corp, which tracks young doctors to come and serve in underserved areas and to help underserved populations, and then helps pay off their student loans. We take this approach: Keep that; it is good. Expand it where we can, but let's look at another aspect. What if we provided scholarship assistance and really directed it toward minority candidates to become doctors and dentists and nurses and healthcare professionals? All of those aspects would be encouraged if people knew that they had a scholarship through the National Health Service and the promise that they would serve where they were needed after they graduated. We hope this will be included in any measure that is passed in the near future.

The President's plan sets out additional relief measures that will float to those in need. I am especially encouraged by making the child tax credit fully refundable. That is going to benefit 1 million kids in my State.

Also, the Biden plan aims to safely open schools, businesses, and travel while protecting workers in these areas and committing to protecting our most vulnerable populations.

I am ready to continue pushing for COVID relief. The job isn't finished by any means. We must provide American families and workers the tools they need to survive in this difficult economic time.

As Chair Yellen said earlier this week, ``Without further action, we risk a longer, more painful recession now--and long-term scarring of the economy later.''

Let's do this, America. Let's do it together. Let's let the spirit of unity that we saw on the West Front of the Capitol yesterday bring us together here in the Senate and the House in a joint effort to help the American people with the resources they need to survive this pandemic and this lengthy financial hardship.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of the quorum.

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

Mr. President, earlier today I was proud to join my colleagues in witnessing the inauguration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on the west front of the U.S. Capitol.

I remembered, as I walked away from that inauguration ceremony, the experience I had 4 years ago. There was a luncheon. Traditionally there is a luncheon given for the new President and Vice President. That luncheon was my first opportunity to meet President Donald Trump. I had never met him before.

I went up to him at the head table, and I introduced myself and said: I just want to tell you that I am working in the U.S. Senate for the DREAM Act. I believe that these Dreamers deserve a chance to become part of America's future.

President Donald Trump, minutes after having taken the oath of office, said: Senator, don't worry about those young people. We will take care of them.

That was my first conversation with President Trump. What transpired afterwards is a matter of record in the history of this country. We know also what happened in this Capitol Building just 2 weeks ago.

That is why this inauguration was so different. We were battling a deadly virus and possibly a deadly attack by American terrorists. The U.S. Capitol was as closely guarded as I have ever seen it. We estimate that 25,000 soldiers--National Guard and Active-Duty soldiers--were in town to protect us from all around the United States, including 260 from the State of Illinois, I am very proud to announce. They did their job and did it well. I thank them for their service and sacrifice and separation from their families. But at the same time, we are facing a deadly virus. In the midst of a global pandemic, today's celebration had to be tempered so that people were safe from wherever they sat and from wherever they gathered.

President Biden and Vice President Harris understand that our Nation

faces a unique set of circumstances. They also understand that we are a unique nation. What makes us special is that people from all over the world come to our shores to become Americans, not because of their race or ethnicity but because they embrace America's values.

Never before in American history have those ideals been tested as they have been in the last 4 years. A hallmark of the former administration was a relentless attack on immigrants. One of the main targets were the very Dreamers whom I spoke to President Trump about, young immigrants who came to the United States as children.

It was 11 years ago that I joined with then-Senator Dick Lugar of Indiana on a bipartisan basis to call on President Obama to use his legal authority to protect Dreamers from deportation. Our argument was simple: These young people were brought to the United States as children. Their parents made the decision to come here. They grew up here, went to school here, pledged allegiance to that very flag every day in their classrooms, and believed they were part of this country.

Usually sometime in their teenage years, their parents sat down with them and told them the grim reality: They have no country--not the one they left nor the one they currently live in.

So I introduced legislation 20 years ago, the DREAM Act, in an effort to give them a chance, a chance to earn their way to legal status and citizenship, but I have been unable to enact that into law in both the House and the Senate in any given year. I have been stymied and stopped by the filibuster too many times.

President Obama knew that. When he was a Senator here before being elected to be President, he was a cosponsor of my DREAM Act, so I knew where his heart was and I appealed to him--could he do something. And he did. He created DACA.

DACA, by Executive order, provided temporary protection from deportation to Dreamers. If they register with the government, pay a fee, and pass a criminal and national security background check, they could have a temporary right to work here in the United States and be free from deportation.

More than 800,000 Dreamers came forward with President Obama's DACA. DACA unleashed the full potential of these Dreamers, who are contributing to our country this very day as soldiers, teachers, and business owners. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 200,000 DACA recipients have been characterized as ``essential critical infrastructure workers'' during this pandemic. That wasn't my designation; it was the designation of the Trump administration. Among those essential workers are 41,700 DACA recipients in the healthcare industry--doctors, intensive care nurses, paramedics, and respiratory therapists.

Well, on September 5, 2017, former President Trump repealed DACA. Hundreds of thousands of Dreamers faced losing their work permits and being deported to countries they barely remembered, if they remembered them at all.

Last summer, the Supreme Court rejected President Trump's effort to end deportation protection for Dreamers. In an opinion by Chief Justice John Roberts, the Court held that the President's attempt to rescind DACA was ``arbitrary and capricious.''

Today, in one of his first official acts, President Joseph Biden signed an Executive order to restore DACA. I am eternally grateful for President Biden's courage and commitment in keeping his word. Without DACA, hundreds of thousands of talented young people who have grown up in our country cannot continue their work and risk deportation every single day.

But the resumption of DACA is just the first step toward long-overdue justice for Dreamers. Only legislation passed by Congress can provide a path to citizenship to the Dreamers. I first introduced the bipartisan DREAM Act 20 years ago, as I mentioned, and I will continue to do so until it becomes the law of the land.

I am honored that I have a chance to serve as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee in the 117th Congress. As a child of an immigrant myself, I never dreamed that I would be blessed with the opportunity to lead the committee that writes our Nation's immigration laws.

To all of the Dreamers out there, I have told you many times: I have never given up on you; don't give up on me. I am going to pass the DREAM Act.

Over the years, I have come to the floor with the most persuasive approach I can think of to pass the DREAM Act and make it the law of the land. I tell their stories. These stories show what is at stake when we consider DACA and the DREAM Act. It is not a theory. It is not just a law. These are real, human lives.

Today I want to tell you about Hina Naveed. She is the 127th Dreamer whose story I have told on the floor of the Senate.

Hina was born in Pakistan and came to the United States from Dubai when she was 10 years old. She grew up in Fall River, MA.

She sent me a letter, and here is what she said about growing up:

I had a pretty typical experience navigating a new country

and new school system. It wasn't until I turned 16 and my

peers were getting their permits and their first jobs that I

really felt the impact of being undocumented.

Hina was an excellent student. In high school, she was president of the National Honor Society and Key Club. She graduated as the salutatorian of her class, ranked second out of 350 students with a 4.0 GPA. She received the Outstanding Vocational Student for Health Careers Award and Overall Outstanding Vocational Student Award.

She went to the City University of New York College of Staten Island, where she earned associate's degrees in liberal arts and nursing and a bachelor of science in nursing. She studied at CUNY Law School, where she graduated with a law degree.

Thanks to DACA, Hina became a registered nurse. She worked as director of health services for a nonprofit, community-based organization in New York. Her department provides healthcare services for children in foster care, many of whom are victims of medical neglect. She is also a member of the New York City Medical Reserve Corps. At the height of the pandemic, she volunteered on weekends at a hospital and at a residential facility with COVID-19 patients.

Hina wrote to me about her plans:

I want to work on health policy reform at a local and state

level in an effort to achieve health equity for all. This

pandemic has highlighted health disparities that have long

existed, and I want to be part of making the change I want to

see and experience.

Here is what Hina said about DACA and what it meant to her:

DACA has been life-changing. It has allowed me to drive,

work, achieve fiscal independence, continue higher education,

and contribute to my community more than I would have been

able to otherwise. However, it is temporary, and with the

benefits it provides, it has also cast a shadow over my life,

forcing me to plan my life in 2-year increments.

Well, let me start by saying thank you to her, to Hina Naveed, for her service on the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic. All of us are in awe of our healthcare heroes. She is an immigrant healthcare hero. She is a DACA healthcare hero. She has put herself and her family at risk to protect others. She also shouldn't have to worry about being deported tomorrow and her family facing division.

Will America be a stronger country if we just up and deport her or if she became an American citizen? I think the choice is clear.

Hina and hundreds of thousands of other Dreamers are counting on those of us who serve in the Senate. So here is where we stand. The Senate Judiciary Committee will soon organize--I hope very soon--and I will have an opportunity to appeal to my colleagues on both sides of the table to join me in a bipartisan effort to pass the DREAM Act.

President Biden has made it his clear priority, and I share it. I want this to be the first measure that we consider in the area of immigration. But I know we live in a 50-50 Senate, and it is possible that once again I will need to muster 60 votes to pass this on the floor. So, whatever we do, it has to be bipartisan. That means it won't have everything in it that I want or everything that maybe Hina or the advocates want, but we have to take a step forward once and for all to help these young people.

As long as I am a Senator, I will continue to fight for Hina Naveed and for people who have come to this country just to make it better. It would be an

American tragedy to deport this brave and talented healthcare professional in the midst of a pandemic. We must ensure that she and hundreds of thousands of our essential workforce are not forced to stop contributing when the need for their service has never been greater, and we must give them the chance they deserve to become American citizens.

I cannot express my gratitude enough for President Biden, in the first hours that he was in office, recognizing the needs of the DACA recipients and the Dreamers. I want to work with him and work with both parties across the aisle to make this dream come true for so many who deserve it. They have waited long enough.

I yield the floor.

I announce that the Senator from Ohio (Mr. Brown) and the Senator from Rhode Island (Mr. Whitehouse) are necessarily absent.

Mr. President, before I make my prepared remarks, I would like to note the fact that this is the first time that I am returning to the floor of the Senate since the events of January 6. It was in the early morning hours of January 7 that we concluded our business and left this Chamber to return to our homes for the interim period.

We left, knowing that something terrible had happened in this building on January 6, but we didn't know the extent of it. As Members of the Senate, we were largely protected from this terrorist insurrection, which took place in this building.

It was about 2:15 p.m. on that afternoon of January 6, when Vice President Pence was presiding over the Senate and most of us were in our seats, that there was a commotion at the Chair and the Secret Service came in and literally pulled the Vice President away from that podium and took him out the door. We weren't sure what was happening. It all unfolded quickly. There was an effort to make a quorum call to determine which Senators were on the floor. It was interrupted when a representative of the Capitol Police stood where the Presiding Officer is now seated and instructed us to stay in this room, in this Chamber, in the Senate, in our chairs. The staff people and surrounding offices were going to line the walls. This was going to be a safe place of refuge for whatever was going on.

I remember that moment particularly because something happened, which is etched in my memory. Two plain clothes officers came down into the well of the Senate and stood there, just a few feet from where I am standing. One of them had an automatic weapon around his neck. I couldn't imagine what was going on, where, in the U.S. Senate Chamber, it was necessary to have that kind of firepower.

He stayed there for a few minutes, and then we were told to leave and leave quickly. We filed out the doors and down the steps and walked across through the tunnel to the Hart building, where Members of the Senate were safely protected.

That is one of the reasons I wanted to say a word this afternoon and this morning. The Capitol Police, throughout this, were heroic. They were overwhelmed by this massive insurrectionist mob. The Capitol Police, as well as the others who joined them--the DC Metropolitan Police and other law enforcement agencies, which I don't know the names of as I stand here--I want to thank them all for literally risking their lives for me, for Members of the Senate, for our staff, and visitors.

It wasn't until the next day that we learned--that many of us learned--that a Capitol policeman had been killed--killed by this mob. My heart goes out to him and his family. I thank him and all of his colleagues, men and women, who each day get up in the morning, put on their uniforms, and come to this building to protect me and protect the other Members of the Senate and the House and all of the staff who work here. We will never be able to repay them in any words for what they sacrificed and risked on January 6, but let us never, never demean what happened that day. It was a terrorist attack--homegrown American terrorist attack.

I know we are going to spend some time discussing who provoked that attack. The Republican majority leader laid the blame, as he should have, at the feet of the President, who invited this group to Washington and then urged them to come march on Capitol Hill. I know we will go into this matter with more detail at a later point.

But the fact of the matter is, we endured a great travesty and a great violation of our Republic on that day. To think that in this building--this building that we value so much--so many people came in hell-bent on death and kidnapping and destroying this great Chamber and the building around it. It is inconceivable that this happened in America, and we have to come to grips with it in honest, truthful terms and not say: Oh, that was yesterday's newspaper, and we have to move on.

But there is good news--good news in light of the bad news that I have just recounted. The good news is that by this time tomorrow, we will have a new President and a new Vice President of the United States.

Mr. President, as we begin the Congress and prepare to welcome President Biden and Vice President Harris, I find myself thinking of the words of the 13th century Persian poet, Rumi. He wrote, ``Out beyond the ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I'll meet you there.''

For the moment that we are living through, I would edit his words slightly. I would say: Out beyond the ideas of right versus left, out beyond the rigid confines of our current polarized politics, there is a field of common good and common purpose. I hope we will all find the courage to meet there, to work together in this place.

At another moment of dangerous division in America, Abraham Lincoln prayed that the ``better angels of our nature'' would help us to rediscover our common bond and pull back from the brink of a civil war.

Today, the Union, preserved through that war, is battered and divided. For the first time since the Civil War, thousands of Federal troops stand guard at our Nation's Capitol to protect it from attack by American citizens.

Carpenters and other crafts people are still hard at work repairing the doors and windows and furniture smashed to bits less than 2 weeks ago by the insurrectionist mob. We must be better than this or we risk losing our democracy.

I believe that beyond the killing field of weaponized politics, there is still a field of shared dreams, which brings me to a specific reason I take the floor of the Senate today.

I come to thank a remarkable woman who has devoted countless hours over many years trying to help the Members of this Senate, Democrats and Republicans, find that field on which we can work together.

Reema Dodin has been a member of my staff for more than 14 years. She started as a law school intern in my Chicago office, and over the years, she rose through the ranks: legislative assistant; research director; Judiciary Committee staff member; floor counsel; and finally my deputy chief of staff.

For years, my person on the Senate floor has been this woman, this amazing woman. I am grateful for her service to the Senate and her service to the people of Illinois and to our Nation. But tomorrow Reema begins a new challenge as Deputy Director of the White House Office of Legislative Affairs. This daughter of immigrants will make history as the highest ranking Palestinian-American woman ever to work in the executive branch of the President of the United States.

As the liaison to the U.S. Senate, she will continue to help the Senate search for common ground on which to build a better future; only now she will be doing it from a different office, with a much better boss.

I know that she will be a tremendous asset to President Biden and the Nation. In these divided times, it is rare to find a public servant like Reema, whose excellence and integrity is so widely admired on both sides of the aisle.

No one understands better than Reema--well, perhaps two people in the Chamber might understand better--how this Senate works but only two. As the saying goes, she wrote the book on it, coauthoring an insightful tome entitled ``Inside Congress: A Guide for Navigating the Politics of the House and Senate Floors,'' published in 2017 by the Brookings Institution. It came this close to being a New York Times bestseller. But maybe still, with this speech today, it will reinvigorate sales.

As floor director for the Senate Democrats, Reema has worked closely with staff and Members on both sides of the aisle to whip bills and overcome hurdles. No matter how long or pitched the debate, she has always remained friendly, decent, optimistic, and dedicated. It was not unusual to find her still at her desk at midnight or 2 in the morning, sending her final whip alert or email of the day to Senate staffers summarizing the day's activities and the next day's Senate agenda.

Reema acquired her political and diplomatic acumen through hard work

and partly, it seems, through genetics. Her grandfather served as Social Affairs Minister for the Kingdom of Jordan under King Hussein and was involved in the Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations in the 1970s.

As I mentioned, Reema, like so many Americans, including myself, is a child of immigrants. Her parents both came to the United States as college students from Hebron, in the occupied West Bank.

Reema was born in North Carolina and grew up in Orange County, CA. She graduated from the University of California at Berkeley, earned her law degree from the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana, and we made her an honorary daughter of the land of Lincoln. She also is a Truman National Security fellow; a New Leaders Council fellow; an Aspen Socrates alumnus; a former term-member of the Council on Foreign Relations; and a member of the Jenkins Hill Society, a consortium of women in politics supporting women politicians.

Reema loves the Senate, and she loves the challenge of this great Chamber. She loves to give tours in this Chamber to those who want to know the procedure and the history of this beautiful room in American history and the Capitol of our Nation. She cares about the people who protect and preserve this building, including the maintenance people, cafeteria workers, and everyone who works here.

Even after so many years of climbing the marble staircase from the Senate floor to my office, she and I remain in awe of those time-worn steps, the colorful Minton tiles that brighten the Senate floors, and the majestic Brumidi frescos that adorn the walls.

During the recent siege of the Capitol, Reema worried for the safety of Senators and their staff, police officers, and troops who were defending this building, but she also worried about the priceless paintings, statues, and other historical treasures that had been passed down from one generation to the next as part of our national legacy.

Most of all, I know that Reema reveres the Senate as the place where men and women representing all of the people and all of the competing interests of the United States can reason and work together for the common good of our Nation.

In her personal inscription to her book on the Senate, Reema thanked me for taking a chance on folks with only dreams and no connections.

Well, Reema, tomorrow when you join the staff of the President of the United States, Joe Biden, you will have the best connections in Washington, and I know that you will use whatever opportunity presents itself on this new assignment to bridge the gaps in America and bring together the people of this country in a better, more caring nation.

I will forever be grateful for your many years of brilliant, loyal service, and I wish you the best.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. Vice President, in March of 1861, a Springfield lawyer caught a train to Washington. His name was Abraham Lincoln. It wasn't his first trip there. He served as Congressman 15 years before and returned in the beginning of the Civil War to serve as President.

It was a different place than he knew as a Congressman. In 15 years, it had changed a lot. The Sprigg's boarding house across the street, which is now the Library of Congress, was gone. And this building was changing--big changes. They were building a dome on the Capitol. But they were also in the earliest days of war, and President Lincoln was counseled: Stop building the dome. It costs too much money. We can't spend any more time on it.

And he said: No. We are going to build that dome, and we are going to finish it. That dome and this building will be a symbol of this country that will survive this Civil War and come back strong.

So they built the dome. They won the war. And since those days, that dome and this building have been a symbol to this country, a symbol of unity and of hope.

Tours come through here--before COVID-19--by the tens of thousands. If you have ever noticed their tours, they are often shushed. People are saying: Show some respect for this building.

We know this building and the Rotunda as a place where some of the greatest American heroes of both political parties lie in state, and we go there to honor them. We know this building because we work here. We enact laws here that change America. We gather for State of the Union messages from Presidents and honor the people in the gallery.

This is a special place. This is a sacred place. But this sacred place was desecrated by a mob today, on our watch. This temple to democracy was defiled by thugs who roamed the halls and sat in that chair, Mr. Vice President, the one that you vacated at 2:15 this afternoon--sat and posed for pictures, those who were roaming around in this Chamber.

What brought this on? Did this mob spring spontaneously from America? No. This mob was invited to come to Washington on this day, by this President, for one reason: because he knew the electoral college vote was going to be counted this day. He wanted this mob to disrupt the constitutional process which we are part of. This mob was inspired by a President who cannot accept defeat.

If you wonder whether I am going too far in what I say, just read the transcript with the secretary of state from Georgia and listen to this President's wild conspiracy theories, one after the other, swatted down by that Republican-elected official and his attorney as having no basis in fact. This President begs, he coaxes, he even threatens that secretary of state to find the votes he needs. In any other venue, that would be a simple, obvious crime.

The lengths he will go to are obvious. The Texas Senator says to us: Well, many people still agree with him, you know, when it gets down to the bottom line. Many people have fallen for this Presidential position that it must have been a rigged election if I lost.

Well, I would say that after--we have lost count--57 lawsuits, 62 lawsuits--I have heard so many different numbers--after 90 different judges; after this President took his case, the best he could put together, to the highest Court in the land across the street, where he had personally chosen three Justices on the Supreme Court--and I say to the Senator from Texas that he knows much more about that Court than I do--I don't believe they let that paper that he sent up there even hit the desk before they laughed it out of the Court. And that is the best he had to offer--no evidence whatsoever of this rigged election and this fraudulence.

The Senator from Texas says: We just want to create a little commission, 10 days; we are going to audit all of the States-- particularly the ones in contention here--and find out what actually occurred.

And it really draws its parallel to 1876, to Hayes and Tilden. Don't forget what that commission--that so-called political compromise-- achieved. It was not just some ordinary governmental commission. It was a commission that killed reconstruction, that established Jim Crow, that--even after a civil war, which tore this Nation apart, it re- enslaved African-Americans, and it was a commission that invited voter suppression we are still fighting today in America.

Let me close by saying this. The vote we are going to have here is a clear choice of whether we are going to feed the beast of ignorance or we are going to tell the truth to the American people. We saw that beast today roaming the halls. Let's not invite it back.

Madam President, I listened as the Republican leader came to the floor and announced the business of the Senate for this week. Highlighted in the business will be tax treaties--tax treaties with Spain, Switzerland, Japan, and Luxembourg. According to the Republican leader, these are critical to economic development in the United States. I don't question their importance, but I will tell you that, routinely, these are done by voice vote. We don't spend the time of the Senate to come to the floor and talk about our relationship with Luxembourg.

When you look at the issues that most American families expect us to address, I would say the tax treaty with Luxembourg would be low on the list. What might be high on the list and should be considered in the Senate this week is the No. 1 concern of families across America-- Democrats and Republicans. The highest concern and the No. 1 issue when asked about the economy of the United States is the cost of prescription drugs.

The United States Senate has the authority to do something about the cost of prescription drugs. We will not be doing it this week. We will be dealing with a tax treaty with Luxembourg.

What kind of issues, when it comes to the cost of prescription drugs, might be important? Let's start with one that I have started focusing on back home.

Did you know that there are 30 million Americans who suffer from diabetes, type 1 and type 2 diabetes? Did you know that 7.5 million Americans use insulin every single day to stay alive? Four of them were in my office last week from Illinois. They were between the ages of 10 and 17. Talk about amazing young people. Three young women and a young boy talked about their lives and what had happened to them since it was discovered that they had juvenile diabetes.

Their lives have been changed a lot. Each one of them is hooked up to a CGM--I believe that is the proper term, a continuous glucose monitor--that measures whether they need additional insulin, which is pumped in another device on their arm. They talked about how this was a commitment around the clock to make sure their insulin levels were appropriate.

One little girl talked about what it meant to her family for her to be a type 1 diabetic. This beautiful young lady started talking about it. Then she got to the point where she said: It has changed our family; my diabetes has changed our family.

Then she started crying.

She said: We can't do things in our family that others do. We can't take the same vacations that my cousins take, and we can't rent that house out on the lake because of the cost of my drugs, the cost of my insulin.

I turned to her mother, and I said: Tell me, what does it come down to?

Her mom said: We are lucky. We have health insurance. Our health insurance covers prescription drugs. However, there is an $8,000 deductible. So we start each year buying the insulin for our daughter until we have spent $8,000 out of our savings. Then the health insurance kicks in. Usually it is about 3 months.

She is paying, or she is being charged, about $3,000 a month for insulin.

Let's look into this for a minute as we consider why the U.S. Senate thinks a tax treaty with Luxembourg is more important than this issue. Let's look into the fact that insulin was discovered almost 100 years ago in Canada, and the researchers who discovered it came to the United States and said: We have the patent rights to this lifesaving drug for diabetics. We never want to see anybody make a profit at the expense of this lifesaving drug.

The Canadian researchers surrendered their patent rights to insulin for $1--gave it up. I recall that when it came to the Salk vaccine for polio, he did the same thing. He said that no one should ever make a profit on a drug that eliminated polio. These two Canadian researchers felt the same about insulin.

What happened then? Insulin was produced in the earliest stages in a rather crude way but in an effective way to save the lives of people with diabetes. Over the years, that process was improved. There is no question about that.

Today there are three major pharmaceutical companies that make insulin products for the United States--Eli Lilly of Indianapolis, IN, is one of them; Novo Nordisk is another; Sanofi is another. I know a little bit about the Eli Lilly product. It is called Humalog. Humalog was introduced in the American market in 1996, an insulin product. The charge was about $20 to $30 for a dosage--a vial, I should say, and was used as a dosage for those with type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes. It was about $21.

Here we are 20 years later, and how much is that same vial? It is $329. Remember, this was a drug discovered almost 100 years ago. Remember, those who could have capitalized and made a fortune off of it surrendered their patent rights.

How did we reach the point where this drug, in 20 years, is 10 times more than it cost when it was introduced? It is the same drug from the same company. Why has it gone up so much in price? Because they can do it, because these pharmaceutical companies have the power to raise their prices, and people like that little girl in my office from Jerseyville, IL, who broke down in tears, can't control how much that price would be. They need this to survive.

Now you must ask yourself: What are other countries paying for exactly the same drug made by the same American pharmaceutical company, Eli Lilly?

We don't have to go very far to find out. All we need to go to is Canada--Canada. The $329 Humalog vial in Canada costs $39. Why? It is exactly the same drug and is a fraction of the cost in Canada. It is because the Canadian Government stands up for the people of that country and says: You cannot gouge, you cannot overprice these drugs. You are going to be paid a reasonable amount so that you make a profit, but you aren't going to do it at the expense of our families in Canada.

They care. They have done something about it.

We care about a tax treaty with Luxembourg. I am sorry, but as important as that may be in that small part of the world, it is more important for us to deal with the issue of prescription drugs and to ask ourselves why this U.S. Senate, this empty Chamber, is not filled with Senators of both political parties doing something about the cost of prescription drugs.

There is one traffic cop in this Chamber. He just spoke. The Republican leader decides what comes to the floor of the Senate. He has decided we are not going to consider prescription drugs. Maybe he will change his mind, but I think he will need some persuading to reach that point.

What I am hoping is that the 30 million Americans and their families will speak up when it comes to the cost of lifesaving insulin for diabetes. I hope they will do the same when it comes to other drugs--so many of them.

Senator Grassley of Iowa, a Republican, was just on the floor a few minutes ago when we opened the session. He and I are working on a bill, which is just a first step--and I underline, only a first step and not the answer to the problem. But it comes down to this: You can't turn on the television these days without seeing a drug ad. If you haven't seen drug ads on television, you must not own a television. They are on all the time. All of the information we are given about drugs with long names that are hard to pronounce and remember--all of that information is given to us over and over again so that we know much more than we ever dreamed we would know about XARELTO. We can even spell it. We know what different drugs are supposed to do to improve the lives of individuals. Those ads are being thrown at us so that eventually we have that name in our head and take it into the doctor's office and ask for that expensive drug as opposed to a generic drug. That is running up the cost of healthcare.

Senator Grassley and I put in a bill, and the bill is pretty basic. With all of the things they tell you on television about the drugs, it wasn't until just 2 weeks ago--the first time I have ever seen it--that one of these companies disclosed the cost of the drug.

You say to yourself, maybe that is an important part of speaking to consumers across America. Senator Grassley and I have a bill that will require price disclosure on these pharmaceutical companies' advertising. It is not the total answer, but I am hoping it will in some way at least slow down, if not embarrass these companies from the runups in cost that these drugs are going through.

That is part of the answer, but it is not the total answer by any means. There is a long list of things we can do and should do that are a lot more important than a tax treaty with Luxembourg, which should pass by a voice vote without taking the time of the Senate.

Madam President, thanks to the Affordable Care Act, 20 million Americans gained health insurance--including more than 1 million in IIlinois. Thanks to the law, the uninsured rate in Illinois has been cut in half. People with preexisting conditions can no longer be denied health insurance coverage or be charged higher premiums. This protects 5 million people in Illinois with a preexisting condition. Insurance companies are no longer allowed to impose annual or lifetime caps on benefits or deny coverage for maternity care, mental health treatment, prescription drugs, or hospitalizations. Young people are allowed to stay on their parents' health plans until age 26 and seniors in the dreaded Medicare donut hole are saving money on their prescription drugs. Thanks to the law's Medicaid expansion, rural hospitals in Illinois have found a critical lifeline to help alleviate economic challenges. Yet, just last week, the Trump administration and 18 Republican-led States argued in a Federal court that the entire law should be thrown out--ruled unconstitutional. If President Trump is successful, more than 600,000 people in Illinois will lose their health insurance. Nearly 5 million Illinoisans with preexisting conditions will, once again, be at risk of discrimination.

Two years ago, President Trump tried to convince Congress to repeal

the Affordable Care Act. He failed. So what President Trump couldn't do with a Republican-controlled House and Senate--eliminate health insurance for 20 million Americans--he is now trying to do through the courts. That is right. Rather than defending the law of the land, President Trump's Department of Justice is arguing before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit that the entire law is unconstitutional. Protections for people with preexisting conditions? President Trump wants them struck down as unconstitutional. A prohibition on insurers imposing annual or lifetime caps on benefits? President Trump wants that ruled unconstitutional. Tax credits to help people afford health insurance? Unconstitutional, according to our President. If you thought that the U.S. President would be on the side of Americans with preexisting conditions--women in need of maternity and newborn care, young adults just out of college, or seniors with high drug costs--well, you would be wrong. Instead, President Trump's administration is arguing that every single one of these protections should be eliminated. If President Trump and Republicans have their way in court, insurers will once again be able to discriminate against patients with preexisting conditions and impose arbitrary caps on benefits, millions will be thrown off health insurance, and families nationwide will pay more.

Earlier this year, the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives said: Not on our watch. That is right. On a bipartisan basis, the House passed the Protecting Americans with Pre-existing Conditions Act. This bill would prevent President Trump from once again allowing health insurance companies to discriminate against people with preexisting conditions. The House didn't stop there. They also passed a bill to restore funding to programs that help people sign up for health insurance, and they passed a bill to limit the sale of junk plans.

Why is the Affordable Care Act so important? Why are these House- passed patient protection bills so important? Why is this court case so important? They are important because of people like Nathan from Sleepy Hollow, IL, who recently wrote to me about his brother. Nathan wrote:

My 12-year old brother has Crohn's Disease and his

treatments are very expensive. . . . I worry about whether he

will be able to still have insurance if the ACA is

overturned. . . . Please do everything you can to help.

To Nathan and his brother, I say this: The House of Representatives is attempting to help you. Unfortunately, the Republican-controlled Senate is not. What is the Senate, under McConnell's watch, doing instead? Nothing. Rather than address the existential threat facing America's health care system, the Senate HELP Committee advanced legislation that is stunningly silent on protections for preexisting conditions. Republicans are abdicating their legislative duty to preserve healthcare in America. As my colleague, Senator Chris Murphy, said during the HELP Committee markup, we are applying a bandaid to one arm, while the other is being sawed right off. Republicans on the HELP Committee announced grand plans to lower prescription drug costs and shield patients from surprise medical bills, but all they really did is tinker around the edges of the problems. Similarly, the Senate Judiciary Committee was slated to tackle the outrageous cost of prescription drugs. Yet what emerged from committee was the bare minimum of legislative action. When will Congress get serious about going after drug companies that are gouging the American public? When will congressional Republicans stop tweeting and issuing press releases about preexisting conditions and instead do something--anything--to help protect people in need? Talk is cheap, but, unfortunately, it is all congressional Republicans know how to do.

I announce that the Senator from Colorado (Mr. Bennet), the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Booker), the Senator from New York (Mrs. Gillibrand), and the Senator from California (Ms. Harris) are necessarily absent.

I announce that the Senator from Colorado (Mr. Bennet), the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Booker), the Senator from New York (Mrs. Gillibrand), the Senator from California (Ms. Harris), and the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders) are necessarily absent.

I announce that the Senator from Colorado (Mr. Bennet), the Senator from New York (Mrs. Gillibrand), the Senator from California (Ms. Harris), and the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders) are necessarily absent.

I announce that the Senator from Colorado (Mr. Bennet), the Senator from New York (Mrs. Gillibrand), the Senator from California (Ms. Harris), and the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders) are necessarily absent.

I announce that the Senator from Colorado (Mr. Bennet), the Senator from New York (Mrs. Gillibrand), the Senator from California (Ms. Harris), and the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders) are necessarily absent.

I announce that the Senator from Colorado (Mr. Bennet), the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Booker), the Senator from New York (Mrs. Gillibrand), and the Senator from Minnesota (Ms. Klobuchar) are necessarily absent.