there protesting for palestinian rights, for a palestinian state, great, you want to promote that and want to advocate for that but what's happening at these enchantments, the messages that point out or that focus on slogans like intifada which calls for violence against jewish people and israelis, when you're screening death decides, zionist out of here, it's no longer just an expression of a desire for freedom for people. it is an expression of hate and a expression for violence against a group specifically jewish people and for those who say it's just over some sinus and -- >> we will lead this and take you live to u.s. senate which is gathered back in. members continue work on a measure to reauthorize funding for the federal aviation administration for another five years. ahead of friday's deadline.

you are watching live coverage on c-span2. kansas. da drl drl -- mr. marshall: i ask to add our amendment to the substitute amendment for the faa reauthorization bill. kansasians elected me to fight for them in washington to fgive them a voice at the highest levels of government. i took that seriously. for that reason, i stand here today and will not fall in line to the coward operating pro procedures that block us from bringing our priorities, the priorities of the people to the floor. kansasians want our voices to be heard and not sidelined by lobbyists. every senator in this chamber should have the right to hear

and vote on their amendments. many of my colleagues and i welcome this debate. it's healthy. let's have the debates. let's take the hard votes. what's the harm? i ask everybody, what is the harm of these discussions of these debates and then letting the cards fall where they may with each vote. each senator deserves the opportunity to bring their amendments to the floor and make their case. back home i crisscrossed kansas meeting with small business are owners across the state and every meeting, they look me in the eyes and say they need some type of relief. the price of business is simply too high and unfair, outrageous swipe fees from mastercard and others make it unaffordable to do business. americans pay seven times more than those in the european union

does for the swipe fee. we take these concerns to washington and we got to work, but i never could have imagined the uphill battle we would face for doing the right thing and doing what is best for hardworking americans living paycheck to paycheck. as a physician, once we diagnose the problem, we think the treatment should be quick. once we figure out what's wrong, here's the solution, let's do it. i don't want patients to have to wait any longer than they have to. in washington i realize that we see the problem but we sit on the solutions yet they're not popular with the people who cut the biggest checks up here. for too long the visas-mastercard duopolies use their influence to turn politicians' eyes away. the four megabanks are robbing

america's small businesses at the highest rate in the world with their credit card swipe totaling $90 billion each year. these swipe fees are inflation multipliers on businesses and consumers. often this is one of business's highest costs. mom and pop shops across kansas, hotels across kansas, franchise owners across kansas, consumers are all asking for relief to sell their goods at a lower price and hire more employees, which i know this chamber greece is a good -- grease this is it a good -- agrees this is a good thing as long as they can get wall street out of main street's success. they said that 92% of their members are asking for this.

92% of small businesses are telling congress how we can help them, yet congress refuses to vote on it. 92% of businesses want this. it has been two long years since senator durbin and i have introduced this bill, two years of fighting, asking, beg aring for a vote and we have nothing but excuses and empty promises and assurances. we begged for committee hearings with no result. crickets. why are they against having a committee hearing? it's because they're afraid of the truth. we jumped through every hoop asked to us by leadership to advance this legislation for a vote. enough posturing, kansas statesman bob dole said, leaders stand ready to make the hard decisions and to live with the consequences. they don't pass it off on to somebody else. i know this won't be popular for

beltway insiders and wall street lobbyists, it's good for small businesses and it's good for hardworking americans. i made my decision, i'm sticking with main street every single time, i'm sticking with hardworking americans who take their lunch pale to work. i will close with a reminder to this chamber, i will not stop fighting until we get this vote. i ask unanimous consent to set aside the amendment in order to call up amendment 1936. the presiding officer: is there objection? ms. cantwell: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from washington. ms. cantwell: madam president, reserving the right to object, and i will object. i thank my colleague from kansas for his comments, but we are on the faa bill. the faa and the national transportation safety board need reauthorization by this friday. so the leadership, both the

house and senate, have decided to best move forward to meet that deadline, the best thing we can do is to keep the subject of this debate to germane amendments. so we have all four corners, not one person or individual, but all four leadership teams saying we need to get this bill done and we will consider amendments germane to this subject. so i hope my colleagues will turn down my -- my colleague from kansas's request and move forward with an faa bill to make sure we get this done and make sure we're implementing the most important safety standards possible today, more air traffic controllers, more near-runway miss technologies, better cockpit recording and make sure we're giving consumers the refunds they deserve. madam president, therefore, i object to the senator from kansas. the presiding officer: objection is heard. the senator from kansas.

mr. marshall: i move the motion for the table to commit. i ask for the yeas and nays. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote: the clerk: ms. baldwin. mr. barrasso. mr. bennet. mrs. blackburn. mr. blumenthal. mr. booker. mr. boozman. mr. braun. mrs. britt. mr. brown. mr. budd. ms. butler. ms. cantwell. mrs. capito. mr. cardin. mr. carper. mr. casey. mr. cassidy. ms. collins. mr. coons. mr. cornyn.

ms. cortez masto. mr. cotton. mr. cramer. mr. crapo. mr. cruz. mr. daines. ms. duckworth. mr. durbin. ms. ernst. mr. fetterman. the clerk:

mrs. fischer. mrs. gillibrand. mr. graham. mr. grassley. mr. hagerty. ms. hassan. mr. hawley. mr. heinrich. mr. hickenlooper. ms. hirono. mr. hoeven. mrs. hyde-smith. mr. johnson. mr. kaine. mr. kelly. mr. kennedy. mr. king. ms. klobuchar. mr. lankford. mr. lee. mr. lujan.

ms. lummis. mr. manchin. mr. markey. mr. marshall. mr. mcconnell. mr. menendez. mr. merkley. mr. moran. mr. mullin. ms. murkowski. mr. murphy. mrs. murray. mr. ossoff. mr. padilla. mr. paul. mr. peters. mr. reed. mr. ricketts. mr. risch. mr. romney.

ms. rosen. mr. rounds. mr. rubio. mr. sanders. mr. schatz. mr. schmitt. mr. schumer. mr. scott of florida. mr. scott of south carolina. mrs. shaheen. ms. sinema. ms. smith. ms. stabenow. mr. sullivan. mr. tester. mr. thune. mr. tillis. mr. tuberville. mr. van hollen. mr. vance. mr. warner. mr. warnock. ms. warren.

mr. welch. mr. whitehouse. mr. wicker. mr. wyden. mr. young. senators voting in the affirmative -- marshall. senators voting in the negative -- bennet, blumenthal, booker, cantwell, capito, cardin, cortez masto, cruz, hassan, heinrich, hickenlooper, merkley, ossoff, peters, reed, rosen, schatz, smith, warnock, warren, and whitehouse. mr. carper, no. mr. warner, no.

the clerk: mrs. gillibrand, no. vote:

the clerk: mr. ricketts, no. mr. wyden, no. mr. king, no. ms. hirono, no.

the clerk: mr. tillis, no. mr. van hollen, no. ms. collins, aye.

ms. baldwin, no. the clerk: mr. rounds, no.

the clerk: ms. murkowski, no.

the clerk: mrs. fischer, no. mr. cotton, no. ms. collins, no.

the clerk: mrs. blackburn, no. ms. klobuchar, no. mrs. shaheen, no.

the clerk: mr. scott of florida, aye.

the clerk: mr. casey, no.

the clerk: ms. stabenow, no.

mr. hagerty, no. the clerk: mr. grassley, no.

mrs. britt, no. mr. crapo, no. the clerk: mr. cornyn, aye.

mr. daines, no.

the clerk: mr. lankford, no. ms. duckworth, no. mr. welch, no. mr. durbin, no. mr. graham, no.

vote: the clerk: mr. schumer, no. the clerk: mr. fetterman, no. ms. butler, no.

the clerk: mr. tester, no.

the clerk: mr. murphy, no. the clerk: mr. barrasso, no.

the clerk: mrs. murray, no. the clerk: mr. moran, no. the clerk: mr. boozman, no. mr. menendez, no.

the clerk: ms. lummis, no.

the clerk: mr. kelly, no. the clerk: mr. mcconnell, no.

the clerk: mr. cassidy, no.

the clerk: mr. ernst, aye. the clerk: mr. kaine, no. the clerk: mrs. hyde-smith, no. mr. hawley, aye. mr. lujan, no.

mr. cassidy, aye. mr. paul, no.

the clerk: mr. budd, no.

the clerk: mr. romney, no. mr. wicker, no.

vote: the clerk: mr. vance, aye.

the clerk: mr. hoeven, no. mr. coons, no.

the clerk: mr. thune, no.

the clerk: mr. brown, no. the clerk: mr. scott of south carolina, no.

the clerk: mr. young, no.

the clerk: mr. schmitt, aye.

the clerk: mr. mullin, no. the clerk: mr. padilla, aye. , no.

the clerk: mr. johnson, aye.

the clerk: mr. rubio, no. the clerk: mr. manchin, no.

mr. sanders, no. the clerk: mr. lee, aye.

the clerk: mr. kennedy, aye. the clerk: mr. markey, no.

the clerk: mr. cramer, no. mr. risch, no.

vote:

the clerk: mr. sullivan, aye.

the clerk: have all senators voted? does any senator wish to change his or her vote? if not, the yeas are 12, the nays are 85, and the motion is not agreed to.

mr. kaine: madam president. the presiding officer: the junior senator from virginia. mr. kaine: might i inchoir if -- inquire if we're in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are not. mr. kaine: madam president, i rise today certain that some of the desk staff interest memorized the speech i'm about to give, because it's the third time i will have given it in the last few weeks, on a topic really important to virginia, the faa reauthorization bill that's now pending before the body. i want to thank chairwoman cantwell, ranking member cruz, and members of the commerce comm committee, because as a general matter this is a necessary bill with a lot of good provisions in it, in particular the work on air traffic control recruitment and training and pilot training hours. i feel very, very good about that work that's been done.

but the gist of this bill is to promote air safety, and there is one provision in the bill that is dramatically contrary to the thrust of this bill. it will not increase air safety. it will reduce air safety. and it will reduce air safety in the capital of the united states, at reagan national airport, otherwise known as dca. i'm going to summarize quickly the arguments i made the last couple weeks, but then i want to respond to at least three questions that folks who make a position opposite to me have raised and use some data to demonstrate that those questions, though honestly raised, have answers, and the

by order of comparison, dulles airport is about 12,000 acres, dallas-fort worth about 19,000 acres, denver 32,000 acres. when reagan national was built, it was a little bit the trend to build smaller airports near downtowns because the airplanes were smaller. they were props, with fewer passengers, and lighter and didn't need as much landing runway space to take off or land.maryland. when reagan national was built, and if you've bb there -- bb there, you -- been there, you know it can't be expanded. it was built with three runways, a primary runway and two commuter runways, and the estimate was in the 1960's, that reagan national with three

runways could accommodate 15 million passengers a year. where, where -- well, where are we today? reagan national is now 25.5 million passengers a year. 25.5 million passengers, an additional two-thirds over what it was built for on a land land-locked footprint with three runways. there's been a couple of other important changes at reagan national. the idea was to spread the 15 million passengers over three runways but that was when the planes were smaller, now they're gentlemens and can't land on -- jets and can't land on the shorter runway. so 90% of the airplanes use the main runway. it was 15 million equally divided, it would bring in 5

million passengers a year, now the main runway doesn't have 5 million, it has 25.5 million a year. there's been another major change since this projection of 15 million a year was made and that was 9/11, and after that we imposed dramatically more stringent security requirements on the air patterns over reagan national to make it harder to get in a landing zone or to take off. so what does that mean? built for 15 million on a land locked spot and now 25 million, what does is mean? it means that reagan national is the busiest a runway in the united states, it's only 19th in terms of the total passengers in and out, but that main runway with 90% of the traffic is the busiest runway in the united

states. what does that mean? what does it mean to have one primary runway that has 90% of the traffic that's the busiest in the united states? it means very busy congestion. i will give you stats. reagan has the eighth most daily delay. you calculate daily delay by the percentages of incoming and outgoing that are delayed multiply it by the average delay. more than 20% of flights into and out of reagan national are delayed. they're not delayed by a little. there are some airports that have worse on-time records but the delay is a little bit of delay. the average delay of flights in and out of reagan national once delayed is 67 minutes already. that accounts to over 11,000 minutes of delay every day. and what does delay mean?

delay means, okay, you're late arriving or you're late taking off but because if you're taking off you might be trying to make a connecting flight and if you take off late, you will miss your connecting flight, if you're coming in latin the plane is supposed to of leave to go somewhere else, the delay cascades down and it affects the entire system. delay isn't the only measure-this -- of -- measure of this airport's issues, it is the canceled flights. other airports have cancellations, maybe because of the weather, dca has the third worst cancellation rate among these airports. it's not because of weather. the weather here in d.c. may not be great but it's not catastrophic either, the delay is a function of congestion. here's another measure. planes that are landing that

upon landing have to get rerouted into a looping pattern, dca is the third worst in that. what does that matter? it creates delays and if you're looping planes through a constricted airspace, you are increasing the risk of accident. so by all these measures, delay, average daily delay, cancellations, looping patterns, this airport built for 15 million now at 25 million has serious problems already before you add anymore flights to it. the problems are more than just delay. the problems are also safety. i mean, we're all experienced folks and we know on roads, the more congested the road, the more likely an accident. the roads less likely traveled, less likely to have accidents, roads more heavily traveled more likely to have accidents.

i have played the air traffic control tape for colleagues of mine, i can't do it on the floor. a few months ago there was a plane trying to take off and another trying to move to another runway to take off and they almost collided. you can hear the air traffic controller yelling stop, stop, and they wound up stopping 300 feet of each other. thank god a collision and a catastrophe was averted, but more and more planes on this busiest runway in the united states is just going to increase the chance of a significant incident. don't take my word for it. even though senators, i know we like to think we're experts about everything, there are experts in this. the federal aviation administration and the metropolitan airports authority, what does the faa say about this? they point out all the

statistics that i have given you come from the faa. there is a senate proposal before us that would add ten flights into reagan national. that's called five slots. each slot is a flight in and a flight out. what does the faa say about it? they've given the committee and they've given the senators from the region the same set of data and they say you can't even add one flight in without increasing delay which is already significant, but if you add ten, five slots, the delay will increase by 751 minutes a day. there's already more than 11,000 minutes of delay a day, if you take the flights that are delayed and multiply it by the minutes they are delayed, adding five slots, ten flights will add to that, 751 additional minutes of delay, 751 minutes that make

people late, that jeopardize their ability to get another flight, and cause a cascading delay which may be the recipients of those taking off late from reagan national. that's what the faa charged with the safe appeared efficient operation of american airspace is telling the united states senate. metropolitan washington airports authority, congress creed it in the late -- created it in the late 1980, congress charges it with the operation of not only reagan national but also dulles airport. what do they say? they say, stop, stop. don't add anymore flights because the delay is unacceptable and if you jam more flights on it the busiest runway in the united states, you raise the safety risk. now, again, we senators like to think we know a lot. we don't know as much about efficient and safe air traffic operations as the federal aviation administration, we

don't know as much as the metropolitan washington airports administration. so when the delay statistics already point out this is unacceptable, when the cancellation and looping into loop statistics are dangerous, when we've had a near collision that is a flashing red warning signal that is it right in our face before this vote, when the faa says you captain put one flight in without increasing an unsetable delay and when the metropolitan air traffic authority says don't do this, why would we do this? the senators from the region who have the most at stake stand unified, senators cardin, van hollen, warner and i -- and we have an amendment that would strip the five slots, ten flights out so we don't make this worse.

since i last appeared on the floor to talk about this last week, colleagues have come up to me with some questions and they've raised three. here's one. dca is uncapacity because dca was approved for more than 1,000 flights a day in the 19 60's an there's only 890 flights out a day, therefore, there must be more capacity. those that ask that question are stating a truth. dca was approved for over 1,000 flights a day in the 1960's when most of the flights had props, not jets, when most of the craft were smaller and had fewer passengers and could take off and land on shorter runways. so, yes, in the aviation world of the 1960's, it was approved for over 1,000 flights, but now

when there is more time to land and take off, that isn't that relevant. it's not that relevant. and, in fact, another change that that's happened that's important that i alluded to earlier, is we were set up for more than 1,000 in and out in the 1960's, but 9/11 happened since then. since 9/11, we have imposed much more stringent criteria over the region, the capitol, pentagon and congress, so that there wouldn't be any real serious harm and risks to people on planes and people who live in the area. the faa said, you're right we did approve a higher capacity in the 1960's, but the changes in the number, size of planes has constricted them to the one runway and changes in the airspace made it harder and that's why even though we're not

at the capacity established in the 1960's, you can't even put one more flight into dca without expanding delay. the 1960's were different, this is a different kettle of fish. the second thing i heard is that dca has pretty good on-time percentage, not bad delay, good on-time percentage. it is true if you look at the percentage of planes that land or take off on time, dca is better than some airports. it's kind of sad to say that 20% -- 25 plus -- 20 plus percent of our flights are delayed out, and that's better than some others. here's what you've got to know. which airport you would feel more comfortable flying into, one with an 80% on-time record but where the delay was 67% or

what if you flew into one with a worse on-time record but the average delay was 10 minutes. 67 minutes means a misconnection, 67 minutes means cascading delay throughout the system. three minutes or ten minutes doesn't. and so just looking at on-time perfectage doesn't give you the full picture of this airport and that's why the faa measures delay not in on-time percentage but in total daily delay, and based on that measure, dca is not a high epheperformer, it's already a poor performer and we shouldn't add to it. the last thing i will say and i will yield to other colleagues who wish to speak. some say this is a fight between airlines, united likes it one way, delta likes it another way, and who cares about the airlines? we ought to care about safety.

we ought to care about passengers, we ought to care about the 25.5 million people that are using this dca airport on an annual basis. and we ought to weigh that 25.5 million a lot heavier than a couple of dozen people in the senate who would like to have more convenience on flights into dca. this is ultimately about the senate. because, as i have said to my colleagues, the house took up the same issue in the faa reauthorization bill and in the committee, they chose not to jam more flights into dac -- dca. and when the bill was on the floor, someone tried to make the same amendment that's on the floor today. the house rejected it. so this is not a battle with the house. the house has accepted the advocacy of the faa and mwaa and

the regional delegation. they paid heed to the potential impacts on delay and cancellations and even potential collisions, and they've said, we're not going to run thisific are. the last thing we want is for there to be something bad happen out at that airport and someone stick a mike in our face and say, hey, you knew about all this it and you were warned, but you voted for it anyway? so is the house rejected this. and what senator warner and i and what senator van hollen and cardin -- the four senators from this region affected by dramatically by the bill -- are asking is we hope our colleagues will, too. we want to support this faa bill. it has a lot of good in it. but when it comes to jamming the airports, we're saying, stop, stop. for god's sakes, stop. with that, a madam president, i

yield the floor. a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the senior senator from kansas. mr. moran: madam president, thank you. i returned from a weekend at home, and last week on the floor i spoke about this same topic, and i rise today to again discuss the legislation that's now pending before the united states senate. a long-term five-year reauthorization of the federal aviation administration. i appreciated the opportunity to work with you and others on the commerce committee as we worked our way through this process. i think we've been at this about 14 months and the time is for us toically this to a conclusion. a long-term reauthorization should be a priority, as it was of the committee, of our subcommittee, and certainly it should be a priority of the senate. i'm disappointed to learn just a few moments ago that it appears

that the house of representatives is set to vote on a one-week extension. i hope that we do not utilize that the development in the senate to delay our consideration and passage of the legislation. perhaps that's the way for the house next week to finish the work, but as we often do here when there's extra time, we take every moment and a bunch more than what's really available. after 14 months of negotiations, the most recent extension expires friday of this week, may 10. it's time to come together and pass a long-term faa reauthorization. i'm the ranking member of the aviation subcommittee, where i've worked closely with chairs cantwell and duckworth and with ranking member cruz on bill that demonstrates congress'

commitment to aviation safety and excellence. this legislation strengthens the standards for air safety, bolsters the aviationworkforce, modernizes american airports and urban and -- in urban and rural settings, promotes innovation and enhances consumers' air travel experience. my home state of kansas is steeped in aviation history and will continue to contribute to the greater industry as a result of the passage of this legislation. the faa reauthorization safeguards the essential air service program ensuring that rural communities and small airports are connected to the national airspace system, increasing business and tourism and access to educational opportunities and employment throughout the country, valuable to states like mine, states like kansas. this allows small airports in rural communities to continue to have regional air service.

previous faa reauthorization bills created the aviation workforce development grant program, aimed at strengthening the pool of pilots and aviation maintenance workers. the text of the agreement expands this highly competitive grant program to grow the aviation workforce and is broadened to open eligibility for aircraft manufacturing workers. whether you are an airline looking for a pilot or an airport manufacturer looking for a worker, our country is in -- there is great demand in our country for those who have that technical capability, that engineering experience, and those who love the joy of flying. bolstering this grant program means increased competitiveness, which only drives innovation and will create more opportunities and economic development for our state and my colleagues' states.

every place you go, people are looking for workers. america has -- we are known as the place in which aviation is king. aerospace is a driving force in our country. a workforce is critical to its future. similarly, this bill encourages research, research on how best to introduce emerging aviation technologies into airspace, including electric propulsion and hypersonic airport. -- aircraft. as the air capital of the world, kansas is the leader in new aviation research, and technologies. these are significant components of our educational colleges and universities. this legislation also provides a unique opportunity not only to address current demands of the industry but also to address the future ones. the faa oversees the world's busiest and most complex

airspace system in the world, managing approximately 50,000 flights and three million passengers every day. in order to address shortcomings in air safety and modernization, congress must do its job and pass a reauthorization bill that is tailored to the needs of the aviation community and the flying public. recent incidents and near misses have made clear the urgency of this responsibility. no matter what else we do, we need to make certain that flying is as safe as it possibly can be. this bill also makes considerable investment in modernization of the national airspace system and faa's systems for oversight. as air traffic increases and new manned and unmanned technologies are deployed, this bill provides essential updates to the faa and to the mtsb's regulatory mandate.

this bill addresses the need for additional numbers of air traffic controllers with an eye toward the future of aviation, this bill extends with an eye towards advanced materials, including at wichita university, and emergent aviation technologies. the bill equips the faa to meet its mission, to provide a safe and efficient operating environment for civil and commercial aviation in the united states. beyond innovative safety and workforce solutions, the bill provides the aviation industry, academia and regulatory agencies with resoarses to extend -- resources to extend america's leader in aviation. the path to a faa reauthorization has not been easy, nor a short one. but this criticality legislation can no longer take a back seat.

delaying this important legislation any further only exacerbates the challenges that the american civil and commercial aviation industries face and condones bad behavior. madam president, i hope that we do not use, if the house does pass a short-term extension, i hope we do not use it as an excuse not to provide further today, tomorrow, and friday to complete our work. it is time we come together. it is time we get this bill done. it is past time for us to come together and get this bill done. the fine public and aviation industry partners want it, and our country and our citizens deserve it and neated it. -- and need it. madam president, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the junior senator from rhode island. mr. whitehouse: madam president, i am back with my trusty, battered "time to wake up" chart here to talk about the climate

warnings that now predict climate-related damage in the trillions of dollars. trillions of dollars. a full third of our national debt already comes from economic shocks like covid and the 2008 mortgage meltdown. i've been using the budget committee to spotlight warnings that the next big economic shock will be caused by climate change. climate change is not just about polar bears or green jobs; it's about economic storm warnings to which we had better start paying attention. today i'll talk about three. the most recent comes from the potsdam institute, whose report summary i ask to enter into the record. the institute warns -- and i

quote here -- that global annual damages are estimated to be at $38 trillion with a likely range of $19 to $59 trillion in to 50. $38 trillion is the midpoint in a range that could go as high as $59 trillion. that's pretty bad. but it gets worse. this is not a complete accounting of the expected damages. it does not fully account for damage from weather extremes, things like storm and wildfire damage. to quote the potsdam report about its damage predictions, accounting for other weather extremes such as storms or wildfires could further raise these predictions. and even that's not the end of it.

it gets worse still. the potsdam economic damages estimates leave out damages that are hard to monetize. but, nonetheless, can be very real to real people. again, quoting the report, that is without even considering noneconomic impacts such as loss of life or biodiversity. if your grandfather taught you to fish in a certain place and you can't pass that on to your granddaughter because the fish aren't there or because the creek isn't there, that is a real and genuine harm, but they can't monetize it, so they don't even count t and i'm sorry to report that it gets even worse. the potsdam global damage estimates are based on existing levels of fossil fuel pollution. back to the report -- i quote, these near-term damages are a result of our past

emissions. we will need more adaptation efforts if we want to avoid at least some of them it and we have to cut down our emissions drastically and immediately. if not, economic losses will become even bigger. -- in the second half of the century. well, with an entire industry and an entire political party dedicated here in congress to making sure that we do not cut down our emissions drastically or immediately, this damage estimate is virtually certain to be worse in the out years. in sum, economic damages could be as high as $59 trillion annually in 2050, plus whatever added damages come from storm and wildfire, plus whatever added damages come that are hard to monetize, plus whatever economic damages come from failing to reduce emissions

drastically and immediately. how did these damages hit us? here's the report. these damages mainly result from rising temperatures but also from changes in rainfall and temperature variability. those factors lead to income reductions for the majority of regions including north america. caused by the impact of climate change on agricultural yields, labor productivity, or infrastructure. the result? climate change will cause massive economic damages within the next 25 years in almost all countries around the world, [including] the united states. that's report one. massive economic damages to the united states. let's move on to report two, the cover article for a recent issue of "the economist" magazine entitled "the next housing

disaster. from the economist, opening paragraph, i quote, about a tenth of the world's residential property, by value, is under threat from global warming, including many houses that are nowhere near the coast. from tornadoes battering midwestern american suburbs to tennis ball-sized hailstones storming the roofs of italian villas, the severe weather brought about by greenhouse gas emissions is shake ago the foundation of the world-class asset class." the potential costs are enormous. by one estimate, climate change and the fight against it could wipe out 9% of the value of the world's housing by 2050, which amounts to $25 trillion.

we've had testimony in the budget committee about how this works. there is the potential direct cost of damage from wildfires or major storms. hurricane ian cost florida more than $100 billion and it was just a category 4 storm at landfall, below the maximum category 5 strength. some scientists are predicting we'll need category 6 in the future from storms made more powerful due to ever warming seas. there's the related risk of insurance coverage failing to play claims after such a major disaster leaving homeowners stranded economically in ruined homes. then there is the broader risk of insurance collapse even without a single devastating storm. how does that work? again, from budget committee testimony, first unprecedented, unpredictable wildfire or flooding risks drive up insurance costs. we're already seeing that happen. then continued unpredictability

and worsening risk make properties in certain areas uninsurable. we're beginning to see that. you can't get a policy for any amount of money. without insurance then, it's near impossible to get a mortgage. and, by the way, a 30-year mortgage doesn't look just at today's conditions. it looks out 30 years. so a mortgage crisis follows the insurance problem. and when properties can't get a mortgage, the only buyers for the property are cash buyers. buyer demand crashes, and your property values crash along with that. this is how the chief economist of freddie mac predicted years ago a coastal property values crash that he said could hit the american economy as hard as the 2008 mortgage meltdown and subsequent global economic

crisis. first, insurance crisis. second, mortgage crisis. third, coastal property value crisis. and unlike the mortgage meltdown of 2008 when property values could recover and did recover from an economic shock, properties that are predictably going to be under water physically or repeatedly burned down during the 30-year period of a mortgage, they won't recover their value. this is not a temporary market value that crashes and then rebounds to something near normal. in this kind of crash, the unpredictable conditions and the underlying risks that caused it just guest worse. for decades if we get serious finally about fossil fuel emissions and for centuries or forever, if we don't. we are playing near the edge of an economic precipice.

back to "the economist," the $25 trillion bill will pose problems around the world, but doing nothing today will only make tomorrow more painful. this is what is called a systemic shock. it does not stay confined to the affected homeowners and industries. to quote "the economist" here, the impending bill is so huge in fact that it will have grim implications not just for personal prosperity, but also for the financial system. i continue here, if the size of the risk suddenly sinks in and borrowers and lenders alike realize the collateral underpinning so many transactions is not worth as much as they thought, a wave of reprising will reverberate through financial markets.

the punch line -- climate change in short could prompt the next global property crash. "the economist" article is a prediction just as to property markets. for report 3 in this speech, let's go to deloitte's research arm which looks at broader economic trajectories. a, if we do respond effectively to climate change, and, b, if we don't. the stakes are huge. deloitte is a corporate consulting firm. it is not green new dealey. and deloitte estimates that the global cost of doing nothing on climate will be around $180 trillion in economic damage by 2070. $178 trillion, to be exact.

to quote the deloitte report, if we allow climate change to go unchecked, it will ravage our global economy. ravage our global economy. but the deloitte report goes on to say that if we act responsibly and an act policies that -- and enact policies that limit warming to 1.7 degrees celsius, we can save ourselves from that ravaging and actually grow the global economy by over $40 trillion. $43 trillion to be exact. so the swing in our economic future based on what we do on climate is over $220 trillion. the difference between a negative $178 trillion bad climate outcome if we keep shirking and dawdling and a positive $43 trillion good climate outcome if we shape up. and to be clear, that $220

trillion, that's adjusted to present value. dialing down to the united states, the report predicts for the united states the damage to 2070 are projected to reach $14.5 trillion, a lifetime loss of nearly $70,000 for each working american. on the up side, a responsible climate path could add $885 billion in economic benefit for the united states for a swing of over $15.3 trillion, again, net present value, depending on which path we choose. the deloitte report warns we have squandered the chance to decarbonize at our leisure. given the costs associated with each tenth of a degree of temperature increase, every month of delay brings greater

risks and forestalls the eventually economic gains. they continue, the global economy needs to execute a rapid coordinated and sequenced energy and industrial transition. this is not the speech to lay out how we do that, madam president. that speech will come later, so stand by. this speech is simply to highlight that there are now multiple damages assessments out there looking at the climate threat and assessing that threat into the tens of trillions of dollars. there's much that we don't know, but the common level moving into the tens of trillions ought to be a wake-up call for all of us.

there are some things that we do know. we do know that getting serious about these warnings will require breaking the filthy political hold of the fossil fuel industry on congress. it will require exposing and defeating fossil fuels dark money influence and disinformation armada. and it will require learning to deal with the facts as they are. not as a deeply ill-motivated industry would have us wrongly believe. wow, is it ever time to wake up. i yield the floor.

a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from west virginia. mrs. capito: thank you, mr. president. the environmental protection

agency is back with a barrage of rules and regulations to accomplish two main goals -- kill coal and natural gas once and for all and in doing so appease the climate activists who the president feels he need tos keep happy -- he needs to keep happy in an election year. so what just happened? in the last two weeks the biden epa finalized a slate of four policies as part of their latest and punishing climate crusade. the first is the clean power plan 2.0 that will eliminate coal, power generation, and block new natural gas plants from coming online in the future. the second is the updated mercury and air toxics standard rule that is designed to put coal plants out west out of business by saddling them with unrealistic emissions requirements. the third is the coal combustion

residual rule. and the fourth is the affluent limitations guidelines -- sounds pretty technical -- for coal plants which both impose unattainable requirements for disposing and discharging waste at these plants. the elg's will orphan millions in investments made just in the last four years, so our plants have readjusted to make sure they're following, and now they are come back four years later and say that 300 million, no good anymore. you've got to spend another 340 million. again, this administration isn't being shy about what the desired end game is here. these rules are meant to put coal and natural gas employees out of work. now let me tell you, the energy mix in this country now with coal and natural gas is 60% of our energy comes from the two of those combined. and the goal here is to shutter

these baseload power plants once and for all. but as i alluded to earlier, they've tried this before. we all remember when the obama administration attempted to implement a similar overreaching set of mandates, and the supreme court remembers that as well. they turned it down. so why try again? why get rejected by the highest court in the land and then come back with the same playbook? well, it sadly comes back to two of the overall, the same two overall goals. close down reliable american power plants and try to prop up disappointing poll numbers. the administration doesn't seem to care whether these regulations are struck down in the end. they are betting that by threatening the electricity sector with rule after rule, investment will be forced away from reliable baseload power

towards the energy sources of their choices, which, by the way, cannot predues the energy -- produce the energy that's needed. beyond these four rules recently announced, the epa has rolled out an electric vehicles mandate, an air rule meant to halt manufacturing projects, and a federal plan that has already suffered legal blows in court because it dictates to states how to address their own unique environmental concerns. much of the regulations in the environment space -- and we all want clean air and clean water -- are left to the discretion of the states, with oversight by the federal. but the epa's broader strategy that costs hundreds of billions of dollars and purposefully violates legal constraints set by the supreme court is creating a massive problem that every member of the biden administration just can't seem

to see. or perhaps it's one that they choose to ignore. all of president biden environmental regulations impacting everything from power plants to the kind of cars that we drive are working against each other and putting us on a path to an energy crisis. they're driving up demand for electricity, so think electric vehicles, a.i., higher manufacturing, more, more demand for energy, straining a grid that even the administration projects will see explosive demand in the coming years. we've seen instances where it's been too stressed and has had to pull back. while simultaneously -- more de supply. it's kind of like a parent telling their child that they have to practice for hours and

hours every day to make the high school baseball team. but in the same breath telling that same child, you know what, i'm going to take your bag, bag of balls, and glove and put them in the garage. good luck. go get them. the biden administration and many on the left need a reality check. and here it is, the inconvenient truth is that coal and natural gas are the backbone of america's current electric grid. i mentioned that earlier, 60%. many many people know that i'm a huge advocate for nuclear energy and hoping to get a bill to pass small nod ewular -- nodular nuclear development. i want energy sources of all kinds to continue playing an increased role, including wind

and solar and i believe with innovation and time this absolutely will happen. but, as i said, the reality is roughly 60% of electric generation in the united states come from the two sources of power that the biden administration is trying to close off forever. not only do these attacks on coal and gas-fired power plants make no sense, they pose serious problems for our grid. experts have sounded the alarm, public utilities commissioners, nonpartisan grid operators from blue states and red states, the federal regulatory energy commission, better known as ferc and the nonprofit electric reliability cooperation all shouted from the rooftops about the ways that the biden administration proposed clean power plan 2.0 would jeopardize

the reliability of our electric grid. quote, underline reliability, materially and adversely impact electric liability, catastrophic reliability problems. these are just a few of the warning signs that we heard about when the epa brought their plan forward. the finalized rules announced by the epa largely brushed aside these keshs, this is -- concerns. this is what gets me. they ask for comments and concerns, they never listen to the comments or keshs. they -- concerns. they brushed aside these concerns and went ahead with baseload power and no plan to replace it. let's look at the rules from the outside. the result of the epa's latest action means what will happen? americans will lose their jobs.

american families and small businesses will pay more for their electricity in a time when bidennomics is causing inflation, our electric grid will be in jeopardy and with an inexplicable bid on banned exports in place, america's allies will have to go to russia and iran and ask for extra help. it's plain to see that the president's entire energy and environmental strategy hurts america and helps our adversaries. so as the biden administration attempts to put the final nail in the couffin of the baseload sources, remember their objectives, to them it is a decades-long goal to close down

power plants and get over the finish line in an election year. they have shown they have no regard for the supreme court, no regard for the workers in west virginia, and no regard for the truth about what happens when you undermined our nation's electric grid. the biden administration has chosen whose side they're on. they're on the side of the climate activists over the well-being of middle america, and they've chosen to shut the lights off for the rest of us without so much as a good luck. with that, i yield the floor. mrs. hyde-smith: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from mississippi. mrs. hyde-smith: madam president, the biden administration continues to fail the american people with its consistent attacks on our

nation's energy supply and production. these attacks are happening as americans continue to suffer through the burden of a record inflation caused by this administration. energy is the lifeblood of civilization, lighting our homes, fueling our transportation, pouring innovation and for those of us in rural america, heating our poultry houses, much like the area where you and i come from madam president. energy of all forms from oil and gas to nuclear to wind to solar not only powers our world but it protects our world. to threaten any energy source is to threaten the vitality of our nation and its communities. but from day one, president biden did just that. it started with the barrage of excessive executive orders aimed at american energy production, including the cancellation of the keystone xl pipeline and

only got worse from there. agencies under this administration have been emboldened to ram through harmful policies and rules that are driving us straight toward a cliff. the department of interior continues to hold domestic energy production back by releasing a five-year leasing plan for oil and gas production that contains the lowest amount of lease sales in history. with the option for the secretary to cancel any one of them as she deems necessary. the bureau of land management has issued rules that weaken our domestic energy production and create additional more red tape. the environmental protection agency has issued rules that weaken our domestic energy production and limit consumer choice for vehicles.

the department of energy has issued rules that weaken our domestic energy production, limit consumer choice for natural gas appliances in our houses and places a pause on liquefied natural gas exports. makes no sense. even the securities and exchange commission has now decided it wants to get involved with climate policy, releasing a greenhouse gas disclosure rule that would lead to mountains of burdensome paperwork for companies and higher costs for consumers. the sec is meant to protect investors, facilitate capital formation and maintain markets. it has absolutely no authority to address political or social issues much less serve as a climate change task master. if you threw a dart at a dart

board labeled with all the biden agencies that have a hand in targeting energy production, chances are that you'll hit an agency that has committed an overreach of its statutory authority. the administration continues to slow-walk permitting. most recently attacking l.n.g. facilities for climate consideration, whatever that is. well, is the administration aware that by continuing to ignore the law and not holding lease sales in the gulf of mexico it hamstrings future gomesa funds that would come back to the gulf states to protect critical coastal protectionings. that's right the administration's interior department is jeopardizing climate and conservation goals

for my state and we aren't the only state sowning the a -- sounding the alarm on these terrible policies. these policies are driving up energy costs and emboldening our energies. president biden and homeland security allies continue to -- and the biden administration have -- it has been stated that fossil fuels will be around for a long time because they are needed yet they continue to try to diminish its production without the technology and grid capacity replacements. not only could we see higher energy costs under these policies, but we could see more blackouts during stream weather events, something that has mississippians very concerned. the american people deserve better than failing energy policies from a tone-deaf administration and agencies that are doing everything they can to

circumvent congress and force their radical energy agendas on this entire nation. still, the hardworking people in our energy industry are not letting president biden crush their spirits. my colleagues and i are battling back with everything we can to challenge these rulings on behalf of the american people. with cra resolutions of disapproval, appropriations, committee hearings, we have the opportunities to try to hold these agencies accountable for their continued overreach. i will keep fighting alongside my colleagues until this ship is back on the correct course of independent energy production for the betterment of the united states. i yield the floor.

mr. hoeven: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from north dakota. mr. hoeven: are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are not. mr. hoeven: thank you, madam president. i rise today to talk about the biden administration making energy less reliable for homes and businesses not only for my

state but states across the country. according to data from federal energy regulatory commission, electricity demand is expected to increase by 5% over the next five years. at the same time ferc commissioners and grid operators are warning of more blockouts and brownouts because power plants are retire before new generation capacity can be brought online. simply put, energy prices are high because demand is outpacing supply and americans are being forced to pay higher prices at the pump appeared higher -- and higher -- because the cost is built in, higher prices are funding persistent inflation. instead of bringing more supply online to reduce prices, the biden administration is imposing a regulatory blizzard that seeks to curtail energy production.

it starts with the epa which is imposing new costly, unworkable mandates specifically designed to reduce traditional energy production. just two weeks ago, the epa finalized four new regulations targeting the power sector, including an overly stringent new mercury and air toxic standards despite the epa's own regulatory analysis stating that the existing rule is adequately protecting public health. also the clean power plan 2.0 requiring existing cole-fired and new -- coal-fired and new gas-fired plants to reduce co2 emissions by 90% when carbon capture and storage is not yet commercially viable. new burdensome requirements on water discharge at power plants

and new ash cole management requirements as well. on top of all these burdensome regulations on the power sector, epa is placing onerous new methane regulations on oil and gas producers. and the epa is implementing a new tax on natural gas. collectively, these epa rules will require the power sector to spend billions of dollars to comply with these regulations or worse. force the premature retirement of reliable coal-fired base load plants. ultimately these costs are passed along to electric ratepayers, families, and businesses across the country. to push back against this regulatory blizzard, i will be introducing a congressional review act resolution of disapproval to overturn the maps rule. also i'm joining senator capito in her efforts to overturn the

clean power plant 2.0 rule. all these things are driving inflation. essentially the biden administration is putting handcuffs on our energy producers and they're forcing up the price of energy. they're doing it not only with the regulatory burden that creates costs for the plants to continue to operate, but they're also putting base load energy out of business. that puts us at risk of blackouts and brownouts across the country and it undermines the stability of the grid. but it also forces energy prices higher for every single consumer, every business and every individual. and who does that impact the most? low-income people. so it goes right at low-income

individuals. if you live in a place like -- i don't know -- california, maybe texas, it can get pretty warm. you want those air conditioners running. you don't want a brownout right at peak time when you need that power. on top of the epa's regulatory onslaught, this blizzard is continuing at the interior department which manages 245 million acres of public land and 700 million acres of subsurface minerals. our vast taxpayer-owned energy reserves are a national strategic asset. ensuring our nation remains energy dominant. why then is the biden administration doing everything it can to seemingly lock away access to our taxpayer-owned energy reserves? it makes no sense. last month the interior department's bureau of land management or blm issued its public lands rule. this rule allows environmental

groups utilize a new conservation lease that will directly conflict with long-standing multiple use stewardship of federal lands, including energy development. so the law says that on these federal lands, they have to be for multiple use. that's energy development. that's agriculture. that's tourism. that's all of these different uses. but with these new environmental or conservation leases that will restrict the use of that land to one use. one use is not multiple use. that absolutely violates the law. along with senator barrasso, i'll be introducing a c.r. resolution of disapproval to block this rule as well. blm has also finalized a new onshore gas real. these are designed as well to -- and will drive up the cost of energy production on federal lands. it affects small businesses. it affects consumers.

it affects every single business that uses energy which is just about all of them. it affects every consumer because we all use energy. in north dakota, the blm is proposing a new -- just my state alone -- a draft resource management plan that would close off leasing to 45% of federal oil and gas acres. our state produces -- texas produces the most oil and it's either north dakota -- actually new mexico that produces the second most. we produce about 1.2 million barrels a day of oil. but -- and we have a lot of federal land. but this resource management plan that the blm is putting forward closed off leasing to 45% of the federal oil and gas acreage, 45%, half of it. and as far as coal, we provide electricity i think to as many as 12 different states with coal-fired electricity.

95% of the federal coal acreage would be closed off under this new rule. furthermore, given the scattered nature of federal minerals across north dakota, this plan is particularly problematic because it also blocks access to state and privately-owned reserves. think about this. the bureau of land management owns the surface acres but they don't own the minerals. so a private individual may own those minerals underneath. but because the blm owns the federal -- owns the surface acres, that individual can't develop his minerals for oil, gas, or coal because they're blocked by the blm. patently unfair. absolutely unfair. and i just don't think it's going to pass legal muster. the blm's mismanagement of our vast energy reserves reaches to other states as well. the blocking of new oil and gas production, for example, in the national petroleum reserve in

alaska. the goal of the biden administration's regulatory blizzard is clear. it's keep it in the ground. keep it in the ground. part of the green new deal agenda. no matter what the economic or geo political costs are. there's a better approach and it means taking the handcuffs off our energy producers, and unleashing the full potential of our nation's most valuable strategic asset, our abundant energy resources, oil, gas, coal, all types of energy. instead of this regulatory blizzard, the biden administration needs to work with us to increase the supply of energy to bring down prices for hardworking american families. so at the end of the day, it's this simple. the biden administration is handcuffing our energy producers with these one onerous regulation after the next. we just put a few of them up on these charts. it's just one after the next. simple terms, what does it do? it restricts and reduces the

supply of domestic energy here at home. okay. so that means our cost of energy goes up. so that fuels inflation. so every single consumer, every single business now pays more for energy and who does it hit the hardest? the low-income individual. it goes right at the low-income individual. so that's the first thing to think about. second, we compete in a global economy. and so if you use energy, that's one of the important costs to our business. if you have low cost dependable increase, we can compete more effectively, create higher paying jobs, more jobs, grow our economy. but all of that is handcuffed as well by the biden energy plan. and then let's talk about national security. energy security is national security. look what's going on in the world right now. how is russia fueling its war machine? right? with sales of oil and gas.

so when we don't produce here at home, that means more people have to buy from places like russia, from opec, from venezuela, right? including our allies in western europe. makes them dependent on russian energy instead of getting natural gas from the united states. that's a national security issue not only for us but for our allies. same thing with iran. how does iran fuel its war machine? with oil. how does it fund hamas? hezbollah? the houthis? with revenues from oil and gas. when we produce oil and gas, that mitigates, reduces, hurts their ability to continue -- particularly if we combine it with the right kind of sanctions which we should have on iran, it not only mitigates their ability to fuel terror, but it strengthens america. it strengthens our allies. and the final point that i want

to make in this regard is let's talk about good -- good environmental stewardship, good conservation. who has the best environmental standards in the world? is it iran? is it russia? is it venezuela? of course not. so how could it possibly make any kind of common sense to produce less energy in america where we have the best environmental standards and instead forfeit it to places are adversaries like russia, iran, and venezuela, where they're not only our adversaries, not only our adversaries but they have the worst environmental standards. that's an energy policy that makes absolutely no sense. instead of regulation after regulation after regulation and tax after tax, take the handcuffs off our energy producers. it's good for consumers. it's good for our economy. it's good for national security. and it's good for the

environment so let us produce energy here in america. it's just common sense. with that, madam president, i yield the floor.

not just saudi arabia but 21 arab states and return for the palestinians and we fast-forward to the current crisis and it's been very clear

we have to release the hostages. going forward we need to get talks back on track and it's your reversible pathway. this is we have been doing for years and we really doocy a sensible way to my can you say more when you say there's normalization between saudi arabia and israel are brands a piece talking about a two state solution, one of the details there? that's where everything gets hung up. >> the details israel and palestinians as i said we have long argued any semblance of

stability. it is pain and suffering also exploited by elements in the region so we do need to resolve it to us stability. >> talk about humanitarian aid. >> we have spent i believe 30 assistance and along the coast to egypt so we are providing assistance land, air and. they're getting worse by the day. and obviously it is so we are

doing everything we can for the people displaced. >> concept distributed? for their other organizations you work with? there issues with hamas we are working with organizations in the ground but also a lot of the organizations. >> we will take your calls for the embassy spokesperson. winds are by party. this is an article in arab news with the headline saudi arabia was a group rough. already targeting, what is the

response of the saudi government? what are you willing to do in response? >> following the aftermath of the october 7 attacks, saudi arabia a summit and leaders of the arab majority countries. it has been literally traveling the globe advocating for three conditions mentioned earlier. we do not see a way forward with those things happening because of the suffering ongoing and gaza, it will not lead us to where we need; to ask you about

the murder of washington post journalist jamal khashoggi and turkey. u.s. intelligence included is your on his and approved operation. what is the response that? >> we have rejected that assessment and it was an egregious front values and they were arrested. they were ossicular and drink long prison sentences. keep in mind history, with never how about happen it is not, we have additional so it doesn't happen again but it really was

an aberration and shouldn't define us as a nation. >> new york times article with this headline he overwhelmingly opposed ties with israel. the results revealed portals to be administration's push for a saudi arabia to push with israel. want to ask you about your public desire or lack of desire and how much support hamas has haven't seen the results we have a clear vision and it was unveiled he. women to empower entrepreneurs, it does transform saudi arabia

tourism destination so we have a vision on our way terms of impairment think back. we duplicate our neighboring countries and put resources on which is for people they can these transform. there's no reason why the middle east cannot enjoy peace and prosperity and goods and services traveling so israel could be potentially part of this vision but we do need to solve this. she is certainly not the way

forward. >> i kaiser saudi arabia. >> we have no talks in the united states. we do have a clear vision for ourselves in the region and the way forward is to state solution. we really need this. >> independent. hey, jeff thank you very much. i'm looking at the website right now and there are tremendous number and it's nothing more

than criticizing the government and as a list of people to go through and saudi arabia and all the people are doing nothing will in expressing their's. >> we are and it is integral to our values human rights conventions protect the rights of elderly people and special needs. we have a human rights condition to protect the rights and responsibilities.

>> in response to jack's questions, we don't have but much time. >> we have institutions inside the same as what you have here but we have away for input to be provided in different institutions and counsel establish and 1990 and six people and now it has form 60. 130% women. this is ain formative evaluatio. mr. rickets: thank you, madam president. madam president, i rise today to join my colleagues in opposing the biden administration's antienergy policy, from the e.v. mandate to the so-called clean power plan 2.0 it threatens the

livelihood of millions of americans and american families. let's start with the epa's delusional and reckless interest vehicle mandate. it requires up to two thirds of all cars and light trucks in 2032 to be electric vehicles. it's delusional because it will block low-income families from owning a car. owning a car is a pathway out of poverty for many americans, including many people in my state. and biden's e.v. mandate will drive up the cost of those used vehicles. the biden administration has no plan for how we're going to generate the power needed to be able to charge these cars or the transmission lines needed to transmit the energy from where it's being produced to where it's going to be needed. and it's also delusional because the e.v. mandate will make us more dependent on the chinese communist party who controls

about 60% to # 0% of all the critical minerals necessary to be able to make the batteries for e.v.'s and they're leeth -- leading us in this technology. this is how crazy stupid this administration is. they want to be control minerals. e.v.'s can use up to four times the am of copper that a dioxide amount of copper a regular car uses. at the same time the biden administration has blocked a road that would go to the ambler mining district in alaska. ambler mining district is one of the places that we have a lot of copper, a major copper deposit. we need this copper yet the biden administration is blocking us from being able to get to it. it makes no sense. another thing that makes no sense is an e.v. mandate that dramatically requires increasing our energy production and

transmission. on the one hand, and then on the other hand the clean power plan 2.0 which is going to attack our energy production. it's a classic example of bureaucrats gone wild. it forces coal or gas generating plants, electric plants to produce up to 90% of their carbon emissions by t-- the 2.0 is illegal. second, the rule will stifle our industry not only in nebraska, but nationwide. in nebraska, 49% of our electricity comes from coal-generated plants. coal-fired plants. it's the baseload generation that weechlt nebraska actually ranks high when it comes to renewable energy. over 31% of our electricity coming from renewable energy but we still need that baseload. nebraska in 2022 ranked number 3

nationwide for industrial electricity customers of any state, just ranked behind texas and california with regard to industrial consumers of electricity. fossil fuel plants generate about 60% of u.s. electricity nationwide and coal contributes about 16.2% of all the electricity in this country. under this rule, more than 78% of coal-powered plants would have to retire between the years 2028 and 2040. and coal remains that primary source of electricity in 18 of our states. currently a quarter of existing 200 plants are scheduled to retire within the incomes five years. we -- within the next five years. we don't have enough new plants coming online to be able to replace the power coming off-line. this plan will close down the reliable and affordable fossil fuel plants and american consumers will pay the price. for us in nebraska, when you're driving up these costs you're hurting our families and of

course our businesses thatobs t

families to be able to send their kid to school, go on the family vacation or so forth. the epa does not have the authority, the legal authority to force a complete shift in energy production through bureaucratic fiat, but the biden administration doesn't care and they're going ahead with it

anyway. the biden administration's anti-energy agenda doesn't just stop there. president biden's imposed moratorium on new oil and gas leases is also an attack on our energy system. the administration has slow-walked these permits for new construction and add new layers of bureaucracy that hinder job-creating energy projects. instead of supporting high-skill, high-wage jobs, this administration has prioritized the interest of coastal elites and radical environmentalists. they would rather see fossil fuel plants closed and thousands lose their jobs than stand up to these activists. this appeasement of the far-left radical wing of the democratic party is wrong. it must stop. we must have some common sense. i'm here to join my colleagues in standing up for american energy, for mesh workers and -- american workers and for our way

of life. together, we're going to do all we can to overturn this anti-energy agenda through congressional review act legislation and other means. we're going to support an all-of-the-above energy strategy. we're going to continue to fight to make sure our employees remain employed, our communities remain prosperous and our nation remains energy independent. with that, thank you. madam president, i yield my time.

mr. schatz: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from hawaii. mr. schatz: thank you, madam president. disaster survivors are running out of time. disaster survivors are running out of money, and they are running out of patience. these people have been to hell and back enduring the worst horrors of mother nature. wildfires, hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, they've lost loved

ones, they've lost their homes, they've lost their livelihoods, and after all of that, after having their lives totally upended overnight, many have been stuck in limbo for months or even years waiting for help to arrive. it hasn't always been this way. over the years congress, on a bipartisan basis, has consistently stepped up to help hundreds of communities decimated by disasters. no matter the political color of the state or the size of the town or the price tag of the cleanup. why? because we've recognized correctly that disasters do not discriminate. and that helping communities recover is one of our most fundamental responsibilities in the federal government. what is the federal government for if not to help our fellow americans in their hour of need? what are we doing here if we

cannot agree that disaster relief is important and necessary for the well-being of our country. it's not acceptable to keep survivors waiting. congress must act. we need to pass disaster relief funding with the urgency it demands and get survivors the assistance they need to fully recover. nine months ago, today, fires fueled by 70-mile an hour winds stormed the town of lahaina on west maui incinerating everything in their path and leaving behind little more than ash, rubble, and smoke. 101 people died, 2,200 structures were leveled, and almost 12,000 people were immediately displaced. just about everyone in that had

ni tight-knit community lost something or someone that day. a few weeks after the fires, when president biden came to la han aye -- lahaina, he promised that the federal government would be there to help recover, not just in the early weeks and months, but throughout. for as long as it took -- for as long as it took. nine months later, cleanup is still ongoing, not a single home has been rebuilt and the infrastructure that has been destroyed, the who are bores -- the harbors the roads and the sewer system still needs to be fixed. the destruction was so total and toxic that bringing lahaina back was going to be a multi-year endeavor and that is the case of so many communities that has been devastated by disaster.

when a president declares a community a disaster, it's for a very specific thing. it's not at the president's whim or whether they like the place that has been hurt. it means that the community's recovery needs are so great that the state and local governments cannot handle them alone, it means that the capacity of the local government has been exceeded and the president is declaring that this place is a federal disaster. so the federal government has to step in and help. which is why almost seven months ago the president of the united states submitted a supplemental request that included funding for the disaster relief and for the community block grant disaster ror recovery or cdbg dr program. it serves an essential but simple purpose, it provides support for communities.

for 30 years and for practically every state in the country, the program has been a lifeline for people trying to get back on their feet and economies trying to get back on their feet. but it's been a year and a half since congress last funded cdbg r and since then disasters have piled up in every part of the country. we know more are coming, especially with hurricane season around the country. and so for lahaina and other communities nationwide, this funding is urgent. rebuilding after a disaster as a community, but also as a family or individual, is among the hardest things that anybody is going to go through. one moment you're going about your day, going to work, dropping off your kids at school, making dinner for your family and next thing you know you're living out of a hotel, if you're lucky, not knowing when your -- where your next paycheck will come from or where or when

you will have a place to call home again. the ordeal is long, confusing, painful and expensive. survivors look to their government for help. they have waited a long time. the time is running out and money has run dry. congress must act and pass disaster aid as soon as possible. we've done full-year appropriations. we've done an international supplemental appropriations bill. we're about to finish the faa. the next big bill that we pass has to be providing disaster relief across the country. i yield the floor.

the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. welch: madam president, i thank the senator from hawaii. first of all, i want to being a thoj my great -- acknowledge my great appreciation for the work you and your committee has done for bringing attention to the ongoing challenges that communities face like your community of lahaina and i'm going to speak in support of the efforts you're making to get supplemental funding for the absolutely essential block grant relief fund. thank you very much. we are all in this together and what senator schatz said about the formality of a federal disaster declaration, the

formality is that it's an acknowledgement that what happened through no fault of anybody in hawaii, through no fault of anybody in vermont is beyond the capacity of the communities in vermont and hawaii, beyond the capacity of vermont and beyond the capacity of hawaii to handle the entire consequence of those events. and what is -- what is most important, more essential for the senate than to acknowledge that all of us, as americans, there but for the grace of god goes our community when a natural disaster occurs. so we have to respond. there's two times that there's a response many one is in the immediate trauma of the event. it's all hands on deck, the community does everything it can. there's one story after another in lahaina in ludlow, vermont,

in johnson vermont, of people coming together to save fellow citizens and neighbors and oftentimes people they don't even know. and the federal government comes in. president biden was immediately responsive in vermont, as he was in lahaina and our fema administration comes in and was immediately responsive and that really helps. it really, really makes a difference. but, you know what? this is a photograph of the capital of mon p montpiler, and the immediate relief efforts are about the water going down, getting the mud out, trying to find some temporary place to live, see if you can save your business, but on that main street in mount pil-- the

businesses are coming back, but they're not all coming back yet. what i've seen is the money that comes in right away gives hope to folks, it gives all of the citizens in the state that are sad at what happens to their neighbors, but who, by the grace of god avoided their own home from being flooded, it gives them and me hope that they will get some help from the federal government and they did. our roads and bridges, we're putting them back together, some of the water treatment facilities that were destroyed, we're putting those back together. but the reality is there is a long and lasting trauma and practical challenge of trying to get everybody back on their feet. you know, if it was -- i get asked by my colleagues, and i really appreciate their concern. peter, how is vermont doing? and i don't know quite how to answer that. because on one level vermont is

doing great. we're moving on, that flood in july, we've done the major things that have to be done, and the help we got from the federal government was really essential in doing that and the good wishes from my colleagues, i'm so grateful for. but the other part of that is when i'm asked, how is vermont doing? the vermonters, if it was your home, if it was your business, if it was your farm, you're not doing well. you know, it's a lot to try to put that business back together. it's a lot to look at that home and realize you may not be able to get back in. so let me just give an example. you though, i was in barry, vermont, that is about five miles from montplelier did.

and most of the damages was done to businesses and in barry, most of it was to homes. and the fema administrator joined me and senator sanders on the tour of homes. i returned in march, and the folks who came to our meeting and took the tour of barry with me, a lot of their homes were damaged. they are trying to find out whether they can be bought out, they are still trying to find out whether they can get back in their home. one couple was at the home when i showed up. they weren't able to he get back in. they're living in a mobile home about 50 miles from where their home is, and there's a lot of confusion about what you can do and how you can do it. those torny questions about -- thorny questions about what's available and how you're going to implement what is needed for that home or that business,

those really linger and at this point, fema -- i don't want to say they're gone because they've done what their job is. but the pain is still very present for those folks, your farm, your business, your home, and the challenges of getting tlou the bureaucratic -- through the bureaucracy is very complicated and that's what i learned from the folks in bear -- barrie, who tried to address concerns members of the community have. but the thing that is absolutely vital is the flexible funding that comes from the disaster relief fund. you know, no matter how hard and competent and how professional our fema folks are, the reality is they have to move on to the next disaster, that's what's happening in this country. the pain of the community is

left behind and the folks in the community have to have the capacity, tools, and resources to do what only can be done by folks in bearry, in johnson, in ludlow and weston. i'm sure that's true in lahaina. they live in that community. the most important thing is to restore the vitality of the community. so the disaster relief funding is the essential component to allow the full rebuilding -- the recovery for the folks who lost their homes. for those farmers. and and for the businesses, not just the individual business owner but the downtown community that depends on ree tail downtown so neighbors can come in, shop, see one another, and have a sense of

community. so if we're going to have an effective disaster relief program, yes, it starts with the federal declaration. in our -- and our president and previous presidents in my experience have been very responsive to communities through no fault of their own have suffered a devastating loss like a fire as was the case in lahaina. but what happens after the waters recede, after the fema emergency folks are gone? it's the hard work. actually rebuilding that house, repairing that business, that is left in the community. and if they don't have that disaster relief funding and the flexibility that's required to respond to the very particular challenges in that community, then we haven't completed the job. and it creates a sense of

frustration and anguish and pain that we can alleviate by having a disaster relief response that starts when the event occurs. that's the disaster declaration. but continues until the job is done. and that's where the funding for the disaster relief is so absolutely essential for us in order to maintain the commitment that i believe this senate has to help folks who have been on the receiving end of a catastrophic loss. so i am fully in support of the supplemental appropriation request that the senator from hawaii is making because my view, he speaks for all of us. in my view, there but for the grace of god goes your community and we in vermont, just as senator schatz in hawaii, have always been there to support the

funding for communities around this country that have suffered losses, such as what happened in hawaii and what happened in vermont. i thank the senator for organizing this and i look forward to working with senator schatz and others in order to make sure we get that disaster relief funding in a supplemental appropriation. and i yield back.

a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. welch: madam president, may 11 will mark the second anniversary of the fatal shooting of palestinian american and accomplished al jazeera jour journalist shareen. she was shot in the head while reporting on an israeli raid in the refugee camp in the west bank. at the time of her death, she was wearing a bulletproof vest

with press written in large letters on the front and on the back. and while there had been some earlier exchanges of gunfire between israeli soldiers and the palestinian militants, there's no credible evidence that has been produced that the shooter acted in legitimate self-defense. no one in shareen's immediate vicinity were harmed and no shots fired from her location. another journalist near her was also shot but survived. shortly after her death, secretary of state antony blinken rightly called for a credible thorough investigation and that the individuals responsible should be held accountable. israeli officials first denied responsibility but when it became clear where the shots were fired from, they called her death an unintentional tragic

mistake. the shooter reportedly fired from an armored vehicle that was 190 meters away. the inescapable conclusion is that she was inlengthsly targeted. -- intentionally targeted. the question is why. my predecessor, senator patrick leahy asked detailed questions about her case, including why the leahy law was not applied to stop u.s. assistance to the unit, the particular u nut -- unit responsible for shireen's death. his questions were never answered. since then there has been no credible investigation. i'm disappointed that israeli authorities have failed to fully cooperate with u.s. efforts to determine what happened. and nobody has been held accountable. shireen abu akleh's case has

become one of many unsolved shootings in the west bank of gaza. since the hamas attack, the terrible attack on october 7, more than 140 journalists have reportedly been killed in gaza. none of those cases have been investigated. no one has been held accountable. we have not and we will not forget shireen abu akleh. she was an american citizen. more importantly she was an innocent civilian doing her job for which she was -- she has paid for with her life. she, her family, and her colleagues in the press deserve justice. on may 3, world press freedom day, secretary blinken said, in their pursuit of truth, journalists often face unprecedented danger worldwide. on world press freedom day, we

recognize their bravery, resilience and vital role in ensuring the free flow of accurate information. our support for journalists in an independent media is unwavering. my hope secretary blinken uses his influence and insists on the credible, thorough investigation of the killing of shireen abu akleh that he called for two years ago. and that those responsible be brought to justice. madam president, i yield back.

>> we are going to go ahead and get started with good afternoon everyone. we are here, i am standing with my amazing sister in service not only the fighter but the mother to him many of those rashida tlaib. we are here and we are asking for everyone to respect the space. the students have been through a lot and i just want to premise with that. greetings and thank you all for joining us. i'm honored to be here today with student organizers from george washington university. some of whom were just released from jail mere hours ago after being arrested.

after this week congresswoman tlaib and i had a sham hearing that republicans had called to pressure the d.c. government too opposed student organizing under the guise of combating anti-semitism which they perpetuate openly and frequently we woke up this morning to the disturbing news that d.c. metropolitan police department had raided the dw gaza solidarity encampment and pepper spray and arrested the nonviolent student protesters in the middle of the night. while you were sleeping. this is all happening because those who refused to stop a ongoing genocide in gaza think they can or will arrested and brutalized their way out of this situation. they think they can intimidate and erase the overwhelming voices for peace and justice. they think they can jail the

violence and wide consensus among people in this country that there should be an immediate and permanent cease-fire. the students are here today to demonstrate that they refuse to be silent. from dw you and everywhere else students have been violently beaten without provocation but they been arrested and charged with disproportionate offenses. they have been suspended and barred from encampment and denied access to food and medical services and care on campus. they have been barred from walking across the stage at graduation. they have been wrongfully as anti-semitic and a shameful attempt to erase the humanity of the many jewish students that have been instrumental in these protests. i know what these intimidation tactics feel like. i will never forget the brutality that we faced on the streets of burgers and in response to our call to end

police brutality. police used tear gas and pepper spray rubber bullets batons and shields this and boots against us. the maturing national guard called us enemy forces. our government labeled those identity extremists. politicians condemned us and those on the frontlines were traumatized that we knew that the time would come that would prove that we were on the right side of history and it did. time will prove the same for the students currently protesting across the country. behind every attempt to silence a protester is an idea that those in power don't want people to hear. students are protesting all across the country because they believe our government has failed to recognize the common humanity of all people. they are protesting because they opposed their government silence and complicity in the death of

dudley's 35,000 palestinians. they are protesting our government complicity in genocide and humanitarian crisis of famine, disease and other pervasive suffering. and there are protesting their university's complicity in these mass atrocities including netanyahu's ongoing invasion in rafah where over 1 million people including 600,000 children are sheltering with nowhere to go. the protest is a myth to be comfortable. it is meant to be disruptive and if you don't want folks to protest then prioritize humanity over profit can humanity over your donors, humanity over your property. this is how justice is won. it was true during the women's suffrage movement where young women were at rest in jail than force-fed which led to the ratification of the 19th amendment. it was true during the civil rights movement when students

led freedom rides and boycotts which culminated in the civil rights act of 64 in the voting rights act of 65. it was true during the student led movement against the vietnam war when organizing at universities the movement to resist the draft and the youth fled nationwide movement and protests that led to the end of the war and campaign to divest from south by students led through apartheid. throughout history people chose not to listen to the students with the courage. today i invite my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to join me and my sister rashida tlaib and these brave students on the right side of history. we must tear the demands of the students because we believe strongly that change must happen. change must happen and until it

does our days cannot go on as usual pre palestine. thank you and i now turn it over , we are going to turn it over to my sister and service the only palestinian american in the united states congress who deserves our respect, our love our ears and who deserves all of our love and our honor. i'm going to make myself cry. >> you are going to make me cry. [applause] >> after rashida tlaib we will hear from miriam segal and kelly. >> thank you so much. all honor to these amazing incredible students. [chanting] i want all the democrats and republicans to know they can't take their way out of this

growing defense. every corner of our country, people of different faiths different colors and ethnicities and backgrounds of different types are coming together and saying the listing is deserve to live. that's something that again we should honor and respect and love on all of them for saying that over and over again. last night under the cover of darkness when the mayor was set to testify before congress before our committee police pepper spray brutalized and arrested nonviolent student protesters and george washington university at 3:00 a.m.. this is an explicit attempt to stop students from exercising their first amendment rights to protest at a university and actions on behalf of the israeli government palestine and israeli -- i want to be clear these students first amendment rights did did not end when they enter these grounds. it stays with them as americans as human beings in this country.

police are entering college campuses across the nation with their guns drawn. targeting students with pepper spray sprayed tear gas rubber bullets and tasers. shame. it is incredibly disturbing that my colleagues are so quick to denounce the student protesters or their silence about these young people, about why they are protesting. when we reached out to them and i made sure she stayed in touch with them and we both want to make sure they are okay. don't be distracted. please talk about palestine. there are no universities left in gaza. israeli forces have killed over 35,000 palestinians. they have slaughtered over 14,000 children. the entire population is on the

brink of starvation. israeli forces are currently invading rafah were 1.5 palestinians including 600 children are trapped, living in makeshift tents without food, clean water sanitation medicine. shameful. there is nowhere safe. they've been trying to tell us that over and over again. they have been trying to tell us 80% of the infrastructure has been destroyed. they have been telling us stop funding a genocide. all across -- the medical system has been destroyed. that is a war crime. students are putting their bodies out to divest from the same weapon manufacturers sending bombs didn't murder innocent children in gaza. we will not stop in defending the students until it ends.

until then an immediate permanent cease-fire that includes complete withdrawal of forces from gaza and arbitrarily detained palestinians. the students are saying no matter faith or ethnicity. this is something i feel as is being completely ignored. why are they out there? this is why we are proud. we are proud to bring these voices so you all don't forget why they are encampment and movement around this country. with that i'm going to have palley come up. [applause] >> hi everybody. we will be giving a statement on the half of the students for palestine as well as the george

washington students for palestine. i will open the two of my friends and organizers will continue. my name is cali. the u.s. backed genocidal campaign rages on for his eighth month as israel slaughtered over 40,000 palestinians and displaced nearly every single person while holding them under siege in an open-air prison now with no means of escape. we as american college students recognize it is our moral imperative as human beings to take a firm stance against the complicity of our universities in this genocide and all atrocities that israel had committed against the indigenous palestinian people for over 75 years. two weeks ago students across the d.c. metropolitan area jointed national fight for justice. eric amlid in solitary with palestinians and protests against the ongoing genocide in gaza was quickly met with overwhelming community support

more than we could have ever imagined. we quickly found fellowship in our collective rage against these institutions upholding the genocide. her demands were universities including george washington university georgetown american george mason howard the university of maryland college park in the university of maryland baltimore county. their disclosure of financial ties to corporations complicit in the slaughter of palestinians. divestment from all such corporations and the all academic type design is big israeli institutions which have always been found amounted to upholding the settler colonialism apartheid occupation and genocide. protection of pro palestinian speech on campus and amnesty for all students who have been disciplined for such free speech already. these demands were always meant to be settled over negotiations. we have repeatedly stressed to our demonstrations and their university president that we were willing to negotiate. that kind of dialogue or

universities claim to encourage. our negotiations team has invited president brenberg to the table so they could dialogue and come to an agreement instead of inching towards an agreement on any terms members a demonstration at dw have publicly about engaging with us while working to finally clear our encampment with police violence since the first night. since day one we have understood the before us. it's a collusion of academic institutions, administration, police, congress and the state at large to protect the interest of the israeli occupation of palestinian land and we have affirmed a blatant mischaracterization of using campus naming them as anti-semitic and dangerous to testify the crackdown on student territory we have seen across the nation. our encampment hosted to shabbat services and the bat mitzvah. a local synagogue has provided a

torrid twos facilitate these services. we help prayer services and prayers with communion members traditionally chaplains and spiritual leaders from a faster rate traditions have gregory come to the community at the encampment. the dmv encampment has proven itself to be actively inclusive of all people of all religious backgrounds and faiths. a vision of the world we could seek to create together but it received immense support from professors alumni parents families blue-collar workers small business owners religious leaders doctors and even the united nations special on the right to education. the encampment started as an effort by students alone evolved into the newfound space of collective care grief and hope for all people from all walks of life. this show of solidarity community and devotion to justice is a testament to the

collective power we wield and the resilience of the communities that are far too often overlooked and abandoned by the people who are supposed to represent them. president allen greenberg called for police intervention against her students and the d.c. community from her ivory tower not visiting our encampment once. if she had come to see us at being cam and she would have witnessed the value of provided to the community. in microcosm of the radically different world we strive for a world founded on solidarity, love accountability than collective care. our community has demonstrated that this kind of world is possible and it's terrifying those who thrive off of our isolation separation and depression. by comparison george washington university is d.c.'s greatest gentrify her to dispose of nearly all the resources and the encampment left behind after the metropolitan police department

forcibly removed all demonstrators. george washington university disposed of dozens of tents that could have housed our neighbors, who that could have fed them and medical aid that could have protected them. while aaron can't meant redistributes supplies to local people in the george washington university facilitated the violent destruction of their mutual aid infrastructure revealing that the protection of the people is not and never has been the universities concerned. the defamation of firing cam and has received largely from production area politicians and the oversight committee hearing which intended to validate it has only served as a distraction from a 76 year long occupation in palestine a 215 day long genocide in gaza and a 36 hour ground invasion in rafah. while politicians in university administered to debate issues of

student affairs under the false. that they may cause discomfort to actively fund and encourage the continued displacement of 2 million palestinians in the massacre of over 40,000 encampments. the idea that somehow this cultural exchange and community education was more deserving of the congressional and state repression than the and international condemned genocidal military campaign in gaza is reprehensible. what action was immediately deployed against the student movement highlighting the people for an immediate permanent cease-fire and the end of the siege and occupation of their land no material effort has gone toward preventing the ground invasion of rafah that is bringing unprecedented catastrophic grief death destruction and displacement of palestinians as we speak.

saying this we have learned is to put ourselves in the path of violent repression. at 3:15 a.m. on wednesday may 8 washington d.c. metropolitan police officers encircled our place martyrs square. the middle of the night violence truck. officers met protesters with pepper spray for the first time since the 2020 protest affirming that black lives matter. this is a manifestation of a dangerous precedent that the police have full authority to brutalize people fighting against american. mpd officers may students as they attempted to leave the area. just this morning their actions are guided by commitment to public safety. they demonstrated otherwise by shoving students to the ground ripping off hijabs and depriving

people of medical support. last night's police brutality sent multiple protesters to the emergency-room. shame. >> shame. >> to give one example of the cruelty we were subjected to mpd officers handcuffed a protester in their wheelchair. the protester upon release from jail this morning shares of the police refused to properly secure their wheelchair and transport to the separate jail they took them two which is a serious safety hazard. the police repeatedly made request to knock over the protesters will chair or pushed him out of the van and making jokes the entire time they held the protester and their jail cell. by comparison their communities is available to him we were in constant communication with

those who need support. we had a fl leaders and engaged a crowd in the language allowing for learning and growth. we had medic on site who understood and prioritized despite george washington university tempting to limit student access to medics for multiple days during the encampment. through the cultivation of an intentional foster of care. miriam. >> hello. i will be finishing up the statement before we get to our personal stories and experiences in the encampments. last night, last night's brutal assault of students in d.c. community members was done at the request of george washington

university. the administration has continuously framed violence is the only option regarding our encampments. this is a retelling of the past two weeks of our encampment has entailed. administration time and time again refused to formally meet with a prepared group of students negotiators while telling the public that the students were dear rational actors unwilling to come to the table. we reject the notion that a police raid was the only possible outcome to our protests. especially given the violence. surely it was the most convenient for the ginebra say that wishes to silence pro palestinian voices certainly not by any stretch of the imagination a necessary one. however with clear support from

congress and the mayor unwilling to stick by her residence it was emboldened to do so. this however is unsurprising at reminds us to look at parallels in the destruction and occupation of gaza. occupation forces brutalized innocent civilians daily while the media looks away because palestinians have been portrayed as violent for decades and that has led to their dehumanization. for all of this violence is backed by the varied administration congressmen and israeli trained police that rain violence on our campus against our students and against our communities. yet the violence we are seeing against our community pales in comparison to that which we are seeing in the u.s. and to that which we are, it pales in

comparison to the violence we are seeing in gaza. it is minor compared to what got this feeling yet the steadfastness of -- steadfastness they are displaying a silent throughout the genocide. refuse to be silent. we interest and an attempt to silence us, to suppress us to abuse us simply because their bodies are serving as a vehicle for their voice. we speak as a voice in the heart of this empire or gaza. we are here for gaza. we will keep screaming for gaza. we will keep fighting for gaza and we demand that all eyes are on gaza in palestine. all 32 of our community members who have been arrested have thankfully been released. we reject the description of what took place last night is peaceful or orderly.

there were protesters in the encampments food deconstructs their claims that the police serve to protect us. rather it's abundantly clear that the police failed to protect the interests of the elite. the mace on people's backs as they ran away from the police is a testament to their desire to cause harm regardless of whether or not we obliged by their orders. they are violations of the the headscarf is sexual assault for their mistreatment and negligence of disabled people is shameful. their careless destruction of the home we have built over the past two weeks whether it be the library, the educational services and above all our space for dialogue and human care for each other. the thousands of people have

engaged with is but they cannot just as easily erase the lessons that we have learned, the connections we have made, the solidarity that we have strengthened in the movement that we have built. the university and the police aggression towards our community has only fueled the flames of our righteous anger and radical hope for future of sincere justice and liberation. we will not stop fighting until we get it you best believe that. we will not stop fighting. every action the police the university admin and the government has committed against us last night is antithetical to the values of our encampment. we condemn their violence, their community disengagement and endangerment, their unwillingness to communicate and their commitment to furthering the genocide in gaza. you may have gotten rid of our

encampments and you may have forced us to physically leave with force but our hearts forever remain in the square and with their siblings in palestine. but the echoes of our community hot you forever and fuel our struggles for eternity. free palestine. [applause] [inaudible conversations] >> i'm sorry i didn't know they had personal statements. >> we spoke on the health of our student organization. we want to talk about her

personal experiences as well. all three of us have been in this encampment for 14 days. i'll talk about my experience here. my name is kali i'm a student at the george washington university and an organizer of student coalition for palestine. i've watched people i'd love to be brutalized by our government and hard administration within the last 24 hours just as i have watched over the last eight months the people of gaza being slaughtered with their government stamp of approval and their university funding for their butcher university under president allen graham berg effect and send the police to violently suspend students alter protector donors and their investments in companies that fund and facilitate genocide in the occupation of gaza i've watched her band are chapter destroyed and over police every space for muslim palestinian anti-zionist youth and spread the type of propaganda that allows the violence to be committed against us. my time at dw who is part of the

sinus community has been made miserable and today was manifested in the form of physical violence. she had any shame she would resign. alongside ellen graham berg of watch which house republicans like chairman, work alongside democratic mayor bowser to send the mp dashti mpv and two -- in the last 24 hours i've watched my fellow students my close friends the mace by police have their hijabs ripped off and be thrown to the ground have their hands zip-tie dear their wheelchairs their heads smashed against -- so hard that their glasses cracked instead of resting and recuperating with them rafah is still being invaded. i'm here because gaza is still undergoing u.s. funded genocide in none of us can rest while the shameful universities and governments continue to support this injustice. our congress are university are

mayor and our police have all worked together to suppress their student movement that despite the fear of suppression we remain steadfast in our demand for total divestment transparency protection of anti-zionism because no fears greater than being underneath bombs and airstrikes in. i stand here today to reiterate the student movement will not rest them either what we are faced with until deliberations of the palestinian people. shame on murial bowser shame on ellen granberg and shame on her schedule government and shame on this congress for the fascist crackdowns and free speech of students as well as a blatant support for genocide in gaza. we owe it to over 40,000 martyrs in palestine including 17,000 children who keep all eyes on gaza as israel conducts their invasion of gaza were 1.6 million are trapped. we are more than obliged to

fight for the liberation of palestine because what he experienced 12 hours ago is nothing compared to the experience of living in gaza nothing compared to the fact that i've woken up every morning and last eight months in the first thing i do is ask if my people in palestine are alive in the last thing i do before every night is no when i wake up 40 more people will have been worried in israel by our tax dollars eyes send all of my left at the moment and all of my solidarity to palestine. thank you. [applause] >> hi my name is miriam and i am a jewish student and protester. i have been a part of the george washington university encampment says thursday april -- i was barricaded in the square for three days in which i was denied access to medic and legal

observers however my morale was kept up by the hundreds of students and community members who showed up to show solidarity for gaza once the community reclaimed the yard. the beauty of the space we created became more coherent. i have been taught about my peoples long history of fighting apartheid i've learned it's my responsibility to fight oppression wherever i see it. my parents instilled in me the idea of healing the world. the space we have created has been incredibly inclusive. we have had a wide range of prayers. we have had to shabbat services. i even the cause i was not getting access to anti-zionist synagogues growing up i was

never able to have bat mitzvah and we had a rabbi bring a scroll to the encampment to give me that bat mitzvah ceremony in the square. [applause] thus i feel safer as a jew inside the encampment than i do anywhere else. that is because i know that all of my comrades, all of my community value collective liberation for all people, for palestinians, for jewish people and for everyone. i know we are one people and i will never be safe and free until the palestinian people achieve complete and total liberation. the only time that i have felt unsafe as a jew has been at the hands of the university administration and the violent police. this morning i was arrested

along with dozens of my comrades and held at a jail site for over five hours. still i stand here demanding divestment from a university because i have to. i demand an end to all complicity, all active facilitation of genocide because i have to. the violin students have been subjected to at the hands of the police is directly tied to the brutal tactics of the israeli occupation ordinance. we know that our -- or israeli trained we know the tactics they are currently using on us, the brutality thatpe her students ae currently facing, those tactics were developed by the israeli occupation forces and practiced on the palestinian people. while the university in d.c. has been subject to brutality there is not a single university left

standing in gaza. the idea was the israeli occupation ordinance have murdered over 40,000, including over 17,000 children. over 1 million palestinians are at imminent risk of death in rafah. there is nowhere safe for them to go. let us ground ourselves in the urgency of this fight for palestinian liberation. all eyes on rafah now. [applause] >> hello. in the palestinian american. my family is from gaza.

i have lost countless dozens of family members to the genocide in gaza create they were all murdered at the hands of the zionist state of israel. i start with that to say just how rare it is that we get to hear palestinian voices. i feel very privileged to be up here, incredibly privileged because i can actually be a voice for my people. as a palestinian especially in the united states, it has been -- i have lived here for almost a decade. it's been very isolating to have to experience what my people, my own family my own flesh and blood have had to go through not just in the past seven months but in the past 76 years and

over 15 years of siege on my own project had to endure it all essentially on my own. because we are erased from the conversation entirely. we have been dehumanized for a very long time. we have been told that our people are less valuable just by virtue of their rhetoric that either the media, the congress, the general cultural conversation, we are told that we don't really matter. we don't get as much media coverage. regardless of the fact that for example for over seven months now we have over 40,000 killed, dozens being killed every single day and invasion in rafah at the moment and still we are told that nothing can be done about

it. nothing can be done. so then came this powerful revolutionary student movement, student movement that reinvigorated all of us especially the palestinians who felt isolated like myself. for the first time in a decade i felt like i had built a true home here in those two weeks. a place where i can fully be myself unfiltered, to my core values and to my core values of community of collective engagement with each other with love and purity. instead we are called savages. we are demonized. that is not true to who we are. and it is shameful that when we have this powerful student

movement that has come together unwavering in their stance for total and complete palestinian liberation that was seen as a threat, a threat by the universities, by the government which all work together to shut us down with brutal force. less than 10 hours ago i was pepper spray vigorously, physically assaulted by police. this is literally on my hand. i can still feel the burning sensation of the pepper spray on parts of my body and why? because we decided to come together to pitch some tents learn from each other and engage in community activities and show each other that actually a better world is possible. for our people and for all of

those who are in solidarity. and what do we get? police coming in at 3:00 a.m. brutalizing us reminding me of the time i sat watching tv when i was a kid in one of many operations against gaza killing a couple hundred, couple thousand and no one batted an eye. a little bit of media coverage here and there and that's it. the world moves on and for once, for once our movement which has become so powerful that we have built over a very long time feels something incredible, feel something game-changing and what's the response we get? i get physically assaulted by a police officer multiple times, doused in pepper spray. pepper spray that hasn't been used in over three years in the

state. all for what? because we demanded that we deserved our dignity our rights, our liberation quick shame on anyone who tries to change the rhetoric and make it a miss characterizing her of movement or change it is something it is not. visit the community about love and total and complete liberation for the palestinians. too much has been done to us for far too long. i too many nights eyes glued to the television watching my people died feeling hopeless watching my people get killed murdered in feeling hopeless feeling like i had nowhere to go and a decade later the student encampments come about in their shut down with brutal force. you can shut us down but we will return.

this movement is a long-term movement and we know that. we know that because we know that our ancestors have experienced it and we are experiencing it we are trying to set up future generations to continue our movement because the struggle is deep in our very blood to our very core. it's what we are made of. so let it be know that we will continue on. you shut down our encampment well well done enough to bear in yard with nothing on it. well done president granberg you destroy the community faith that was all about love and not just connecting the students together but the students with the community around them something dw has failed to do in any of its projects. we did that. and they tore it down with violent force. but we welcome back i promise

you. i promise you we will come back and we will see the freedom of palestine. free palestine forever. thank you. [applause] [inaudible] [inaudible] >> on to the first question. i think it's very it's something that's relatively novel and it

brings me hope that we have these congress members who were willing to back our movement and our values and also remind people constantly to keep their eyes on gaza and keep their eyes on the genocide that's happening in gaza. to my people that palestine has been occupied for over 75 years, this is something that is new in this government and we are very glad that they are actually standing up for free speech as opposed to other members of this congress who claim to do so until it dissents from what they want to hear. very much we are thankful for that and we are so grateful that we have congresspeople that keep on pushing the issues that are identified in gaza that gaza is being invaded right now. and they are dying every day and

we are thankful to them. >> it's one of the things to answer the question what are the most powerful statements that came out with regards to the rights of the students the day after the attack on the tree of life synasynagogue. almost five years to the day. anti-semitism has been on the rise around the world and we have seen it on college campuses and conversations online. it's not new. it's old. but it's on the rise in away that we've not seen in a long time in the united states. in 2019 senator rosen and i launched the senate bipartisan

task force or combating anti-semitism. we started that on the one-year anniversary after the shooting at the tree of life synasynagog we wanted to have a task force to collaborate with state law. law enforcement, and any stakeholders who wanted to combat anti-semitism with education, empowerment and bringing those together for a conversation and to bring together one voice. to support actions to promote holocaust education and to bring anti-semitism to the forefront of our national conversation and quite frankly international. we have worked together to contact other nations and their parliaments of what we've seen of anti-semitism in other countries to reach out to ambassadors ton speak -- and to speak out on what we see here in

the united states. that's not changed. the state department has offered this warning. history has shown that whenever anti-semitism has gone unchecked, the persecution of hoarse has been present or not far behind. defeating anti-semitism must be a cause of great importance not only for jews but for all people who value humanity and justice. that's our own state department. so now what are we going to do about what we're seeing on college campuses? interestingly enough, peep see this as -- people see this as a new thing not just in the last several months, it has been on college campuses and many of us have been ringing the bell to say something is happening on our college campuses. so let's find ways to be able to engage in this. senator rosen and i have a piece of legislation, it's a compilation of multiple pieces

we have worked on for a long time to talk about anti-semitism and many ways our nation can get involved in this. i spoke with president biden appeared there are things he has brought up in the executive level to take on anti-semitism on the national level. some have been carried out and some have not. we continue to nudge in ways that we thought appropriate and to be able to nudge. it's been leadership in our state department has risen up on that and something we have actively involved to get in those positions to be able to lead. my friend tim scott came to the floor to be able to ask for unanimous consent to be able to pass his resolution to condemn anti-semitism on college campuses, i want to thank my friend tim scott for his leadership on this issue and what he's been able to do to raise awareness, unfortunately, his request to be able to pass that resolution was denied. we should be able to find common

ground on issues that condemn hate. his resolution was a simple statement. what are we going to do as a body dob able to -- to be able to condemn hatred in this area? we should not ignore this. the house of representatives last week brought up the anti-semitism awareness act. they passed it overwhelmingly in the house of representatives that they've now sent to this body to be able to take up ato debate and discuss. what's interesting to me when they picked up the anti-semitism awareness act as a nonpartisan piece of legislation, this is a continues of -- continuance of what happened under the trump administration, trump used the same process of putting it in the department of education using the ira definition of anti-semitism in executive order 13899. what is

fascinating, when the house of representatives passed it, there were folks, some from my party, who said we can't actually do this, because this would inhibit free speech. i smiled at those same folks and said, did you say that when president trump was using it as an executive order under his administration, because now they're talking about making a statutory long-term change. the ira definition is not new, by the way. the united states has been a party to this definition since the 1990's. international holocaust remembrance alliance definition, that's ihra, that has been recognized all over the world as a basic definition, with examples of what anti-semitism is. it's not new to the united states. there are many athletic teams that recognized the ihra definition in their deaf nippingses to recognize what -- definitions to recognize what this is. there are 34 states, including

oklahoma, that recognize this in our state to say this is how we define anti-semitism in our state. this is a very basic principle. it is difficult to discourage what you cannot define. when someone makes a blanket statement for anti-semitism, it's great to put definition for what does that mean and not mean. for instance, if someone were to say they disagree with the netanyahu government, is that anti-semitic? the ihra definition says clearly not. we can disagree on governmental action. that's a normal part of dialogue. it's also not something that inhibits free speech. even hateful speech in the united states, even foolish, even stupid speech can be said in the united states. it's a protected right to be able to say whatever crazy thing you want to say in the united states. but when it shifts from free speech to inciting violence and

threats, that's shifted. that's moved from just speech to now criminal action. the ihra definition and what the house of representatives passed last week in the anti-semitism awareness act doesn't limit speech in any way. it very specifically states it's not trying to take away rights of anyone. it specifically notes a protection for the first amendment rights of americans to say what they choose to be able to say. what it does say is if you're on a college campus and you're choosing to discriminate against jewish students, that should fall the same as any other title 6 discrimination falls into. it's no different. so if they're doing discrimination on a college campus, is you can't just say, well, they're discriminating against jewish students, so that doesn't fall under title 6. this says, no, that clearly does fall under title 6 areas, and

makes what has been implied clear. of what has been done by executive action in the past under the trump administration, makes it clear for every administration. what has been done under the department of state for three decades in the united states, clear policy, not just for the state department but also for the department of education, i think that's a pretty reasonable way to be able to take on this issue, to be able to clarify what anti-semitism is on a college campus or any campus out there. some responses have been fascinating to me on this. things like i've already said -- this is going to limit free speech. no, you still have the right to say something, even something dumb. that's still a protected right in the united states. we can say things we both disagree with. that's a protected right. but you can't move into criminal activity. that's not protected. and a university cannot protect discrimination on their own

campus. that would not be allowed. it does not, my favorite thing, it does not outlaw the bible. i've had folks say if you put in the ihra definition it outlaws the bible. i've just smiled and said that is absolutely ridiculous. it's not just me saying this. this is christian leaders i know all over the country saying that is just a ridiculous statement. there's a letter that just came out this week from pastor john hayingy which leads the christians united for israel, and ralph reed from the faith and freedom coalition, this he made the simple statement, to the biblically illiterate, these claims are as insulting as injurious. i've made it very clear, when people ask me, to say somehow the anti-semitism awareness act outlaws the bible or limits speech around the bible. there's a statement in the ihra

definition that talks about using symbols and images associated with classic anti-semitism. the claims of jews killing jesus or blood liable to characterize israel or israelis. they take that, pum that out, around say you couldn't use the bible on that. i say not only what the pastor and other faith leaders, but let me add a voice to this. the scripture is very clear from john 10 that jesus laid his life down for others. he had the power to lay it down and to take it up. that's orthodox christianity. orthodox christianity says my sin is what put jesus on the cross. that's what scripture says. what the ihra definition says is if someone says i hate all jews, because jews killed jeeps us, they're saying that's an -- jesus, they're saying that's anti-semitic to say that. i say it's not only inconsistent with the clear television of

scrip -- clear teachings of sd scripture. not only is the new testament clear about respect for judaism, but the guy on the cross was jewish. his mom at the foot of the cross was jewish. the disciples were all jewish. the people that wrote the new testament were jewish. so to somehow believe that chri christianity would discount all jews is to ignore the basic teachings of the new testament, besides the fa kitty that the romans but the -- besides the fact that the romans put jesus on the cross. this is absurd, number one. and as john hagey and ralph reed said, it actually is insulting and injurious. there are folks that have said that there will be an international organization that's going to police speech in

the united states. i would encourage them to please read the legislation, not what's on social media. to understand what this does. it does not give authority to an international organization to step into the united states and to be able to police speech. it is very clear. it just says this is what discrimination looks like, under title 6, just like we have discrimination laws in other ar areas. the department of education could not say, well, it doesn't specifically outlaw -- outline religion in this area, so if there's discrimination against jewish students we can look the other way. that would stop under this piece of legislation. first things first -- let's have real dialogue as a country. are we as a nation going to look the other way when students are

discriminated against on a campus? are we going to step in and say no? we're not going to just look the other way when there's discrimination. as i go back to the statement from our state department, history has shown that wherever anti-semitism has gone unchecked, the persecution of others has been present or not far behind. so let's speak out and stop. for individuals that want to have anti-semitic beliefs, that's still legal in america, to have an anti-semitic believe belief. still protected as a right. i say it's hateful, bigoted, but still your right to have that belief. when that moves to threats of violence, and intimidation, it moves from a voice to an action, that is criminal activity, and

we should treat it as such, and we should not let it fester as a criminal activity and think it will not spread. it will. my final statement -- for folks that track through social media, where you see voices of anti-semitism on social media, why don't you be bold enough to be able to speak out for people being bullied online, and to say every person has the right to their faith and to be able to live that faith and have that protected? we as americans have the right to have any faith of our choosing, change our faith, or have no faith at all and that be protected. that should not be any less for a jewish student anywhere online or on their own campus. so let's speak out on their behalf. instead of allowing them to be b bullied on their campus or online, why don't we speak out

for their right to be able to live their faith and practice their faith as every other american? that's what i think we should do on college campuses, and it's a simple way that we can honor the dignity of every student. we're going to disagree. there are people that have strong disagreements with the war that's happening right now in israel and in gaza. so let's talk about it. but let's not discriminate while we do it. i yield the floor. ms. cortez masto: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from nevada. ms. cortez masto: mr. president, i am here today to honor the

life of curt engelhart, my senior advisor, beloved nevadan, friend, family member who touched so many lives. we lost curt very suddenly in april, and his loss is felt deeply by everyone in our office, some of whom are in the gallery today, communities he impacted and individuals he met throughout the state of nevada, including, and i so appreciate my colleague, senator rosen being here, and her staff as well. you could tell how beloved he was by the sheer volume of people who came to his funeral in reno. last month there were tribal leaders, law enforcement, farmers, ranchers, labor leaders, former coworkers, and senate staffers, childhood friends and nevadans from across the state who showed up to pay their respects. curt touched so many lives, and

he was able to make even strangers feel as though he was a close friend. that's a picture of him, photo of him right here. there was always a smile on his face. for the past eight years, curt was an essential part of my team. he tyked to tall it -- he liked to call it team ccm. not only because of his intimate knowledge of every community in northern nevada, but had a courageous warmth that drew everyone in. you couldn't dislike curt if you tried. he had this way of attacking life that brought so much positivity and joy to both my campaign and my senate offices. you know, i got to personally experience curt's zest for life on our many tours around rural nevada. every august i travel through the rural counties in my state and every august kurt was with me. that was when i got to know him the best.

on the road, in the middle of the desert, i learned so much about kurt's passions, from what inspired him to be so active in the community to the things that he enjoyed doing when he wasn't at the office. one of the favorite things to talk about for kurt was his deep enthusiasm for video games. kurt loved his gaming community, and they all loved him. one of his friends who played world of war craft with him realm -- realm nipsed about -- reminisced about how kurt in the game played a healer, meaning he took care of the other place. the friend said, quote, i would later learn this is how he was in the real world. that is exactly true. that's exactly how dearth was in the -- how kurt was in the real world, making people feel at ease and extending a helping hand. in my office, kurt was a

casework champion, addressing constituents' needs head on and working closely with nevadans whose issues required special care and attention. thought his time in my office, kurt worked on 638 cases. he was known by the nevadans he worked with as a fierce advocate who knew how to get the job done for them. one casework story kurt was particularly proud of, i was as well, happened in 2019. kurt reached out to a veteran named john who was considering ending his own life because he couldn't afford his medical bills. john had been kicked off his insurance the day he experienced a massive health issue, leaving him with hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay out of pocket. kurt found out about this when he talked with john. he worked with john's insurance company to make sure they retroactively paid every penny of john's bill.

kurt actually saved john's life and he was lucky to have kurt as an advocate for him. that's one example of kurt's dedication to helping nevadans in need. whether he was working with the irs to get people their tax refunds, advocating for the protection of sacred tribal monuments or resolving health benefit issues, kurt gave each individual case his all. the nevadans kurt helped described him as going above and beyond to find solutions. kurt made people feel heard taking on the issues of completely strangers as if they were his own. and after the fact, he followed up with them to make sure they had everything they needed because that's who kurt was. public service came so naturally to him. he believed in the power of good government, that our democracy is truly for the people, that our work here in the senate can

change people's lives for the better, even if it's one person at a time. kurt's determination to do the most good for the people of nevada made him a giant all across the state and especially in our rural communities. everyone from reno to our tribal communities either knew kurt personally or they knew of him. he drove from one county to county talking with families, business owners, farmers, ranchers, miners, tribal leaders, law enforcement about how our office could work with them and deliver for them. democrats, republicans, independents, it did not matter. they all trusted kurt to do the right thing by them, and he always did. now, kurt was originally from ohio, but he advocated for nevadans so well that he truly became a nevadan. he was the time of down to earth

guy who could earn over even those who staunchly disagreed with him. he showed up to every meeting fully prepared and well informed, no matter the topic, and he was ready to have a productive conversation with anyone. and once kurt made those connections, he maintained them. he got to know people on a deeper level and kept them in mind for future events he knew would interest them because he cared. he was so loved by his colleagues in all of our offices. my staff have described him as someone who charted his own path and always found a way. he was known for being a straight shooter who everyone could depend upon to tell them exactly what he was thinking. even if it meant and sometimes it did from kurt, hearing the hard truth. when the work got intense, as it often does in senate offices, kurt would help his coworkers

find the levity, even if he was just as frustrated as everyone else. and if you knew anything about kurt, you knew he loved his family above all else. his pride and joy was his son ender. she shared a special bond -- they shared a special bond in so many ways, but in particularly one. because like his father, ender is a master video gamer as well as being an outstanding young man. kurt cherished his family and he talked about them endlessly. his mother luanne, his brother matt, his girl friend cia and ender's mother shayla and he talked about ender. got a chance to know him growing from a young boy to a young teen. and i will tell you kurt's prouders moments are with his -- proudest moments are with his

son. always wanting him to have every opportunity to take chances but don't be afraid to lean in and take those risks. the good, the bad, all of the above, his main goal was tone sure that his son ender had every opportunity in life. our office mourns this devastating loss, but we know kurt will always be with us. this is actually kurt on one of our coal trains in ely, nevada, one of the many examples of how kurt spent his time getting around nevada and talking to everyone who lived there. he lives on in the stories of the countless nevadans he helped, and he lives on in the actions of those he inspired with his unwavering passion. and he lives on in the hearts of

those of us who knew him the best. he will be dearly missed. and with that i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee. mrs. blackburn: thank you, mr. president. this week we're taking a big step to end online child exploitation. the bipartisan report to which you and i led has been signed into law, and now law enforcement and the national senator for missing and exploited children or will have the resources they need to better protect vulnerable children and track down these

predators and pedophiles. this legislation has been urgently needed. and, mr. president, i thank you for your leadership on this issue. here is a frightening statistic. in america a child is bought or sold for sexual exploitation once every two minutes. in this country in 2024, a child is bought or sold for sex once every two minutes. this abuse increasingly happens in the virtual space where predators distribute child sexual abuse material. they recruit minors into sex trafficking rings, and they extort children into sharing explicit images of themselves.

just last year they received 36.2 million reports of online child sexual exploitation, a 23% increase over 2021. ncmec whose cyber tip line serves as our country's centralized reporting system for online child abuse does incredible work to track down these crimes and report them to law enforcement, but tragically, so many more acts of online sexual abuse against children are going unreported. although criminal law requires electronic service providers to report any child sex abuse material on their sites, online platforms including big tech sites such as facebook, snap chat, instagram have no

obligation to report content involving the sex trafficking or grooming of children or intiesment -- enticement crimes. most online platforms choose not to report this abhorrent material to law enforcement. and even when they do report the content, electronic service providers often omit necessary information to identify victims and track down their abusers. we've also heard from victims, their families, and law enforcement about the need to modernize laws around reporting online sexual abuse. for example, children and their parents risk legal liability for transferring evidence of online sexual abuse that they have experienced when submitting reports to the ncmec cyber tip

line. the report act addresses these issues and more to ensure that they are defending children against some of the most heinous crimes imaginable. now electronic service providers will be legally required to report child trafficking and enticement. to ensure compliance with the law, the report act raises the fine for first violations from $150,000 up to as much as $850,000 and subsequent violations, that fee is raised from $300,000 up to $1 million. at the same time the legislation enables victims to report evidence of online exploitation to the authorities and allows for the secure cloud storage and safe transfer of reports from

ncmec to law enforcement. it also increases the retention period for cyber tip line reports from 90 days to one full year, meaning law enforcement will have more time to track down and prosecute these criminals. all together these measures will do so much to protect the most vulnerable among us from online exploitation and help to put an end to this horrific abuse. mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the next portion of my remarks be placed separately in the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. blackburn: thank you, mr. president. across the country we are witnessing one of the first waves of anti-semitism that we have ever seen in our nation's history. i appreciate that my colleague

from oklahoma spoke previously to this. now, one of the things that we have learned is a little birth about the leading perpetrators of these protests that are taking place. what we have found is that far-left activists, including college students at some of the most prestigious universities are involved in these activities. we've all seen the pro-hamas demonstrators that are harassing and intimidating jewish students. they're blocking them from attending class or even from accessing public spaces, and they're doing this with these protests and with these illegal encampments. here's some examples of what we

have had reported to us, and what we have seen from individuals that are walking through these encampments with their cell phones. at columbia university, activists chanted, we are hamas and long live hamas. at george washington university, one pro-hamas demonstrator walked around campus with a sign calling for a final solution against the jewish people. we've seen activists hand out flyers calling for death to america and death to israeli real estate. and it's schools like princeton students have waved the flag of terror groups, including the flag of hezbollah. one thing should be obvious. the anti-israel protest on campuses across this country are hot beds for terrorist

sympathizers and for anti-jewish hatred. never did i think i would see this in the united states of america. in fact, some of these college groups that are out protesting, including at columbia, have allegedly held events with a terrorist organization popular front for the liberation of palestine. these demonstrations have absolutely no place in america. and tennesseans are telling me these demonstrations have no place in our great state of tennessee. but instead of cracking down on these activists and the students who are out there peddling anti-semitism and are glorifying terrorism, many schools are

beginning to bow to their demands. i find this abhorrent and disgusting. in negotiations with pro-hamas demonstrators, northwestern university agreed to offer coveted faculty positions to palestinian academics and set aside full-ride scholarships for palestinian students. to appease its pro-hamas students, brown university last week agreed to hold a vote on divesting from israel. after negotiating with pro-hamas activists for week, columbia university has canceled its commencement ceremony. we can only bring an end to this disturbing illegal behavior when there are actual consequences. college students who promoter rich on behalf of hamas should

be added to the tsa no fly list, and we should deport foreign students on visas who support hamas, a u.s. designated terror organization. and universities that allow anti-semitism on their campuses should be defunded. the stop anti-semitism on college campuses act would ensure that that happens. but instead of standing up for jewish students, president biden has drawn, unfortunately, a moral equivalence between pro-hamas activists and americans. when asked about the anti-demonstration last month or, the president said, and i quote, he condemns those who don't understand what's going on

with the palestinians. end quote. at the same time, the president has focused on pushing billions in new, illegal student loan forgiveness, forgiveness, that could very well benefit the students who are outleading -- out leading these demonstrations. so that is why i have joined my senate republican colleagues in introducing the no bailouts for campus criminals act, which would make any person who is convicted of a state or federal offense in connection with the campus protests ineligible for any federal student loan forgiveness. the president is also reportedly looking to welcome gazans to america as refugees. according to a recent poll, 71% of gazans said they supported

hamas' horrific october 7 attack on israeli civilians. 71%. -- of gazans said they supported hamas' horrific attack on october 7. more than 300 individuals on the terror watch list have entered our country under president biden, but for some reason this administration thinks that they can vet gazans who elected hamas as their government, who support the terrorist attack. they think they can properly vet them and bring them into this country? have they not asked egypt, jordan, other countries in the region why they will not take these palestinian refugees?

i think it would be instructive. and our country cannot afford more failed leadership and not knowing who is coming into this country who may wish us harm. we would like to see the president rescind this and review his priorities and make it his priority to protect the american people. i yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: the clerk: ms. baldwin.

i want to begin by thanking the metropolitan police department further effort of the last two weeks. to keep students in the campus

of gw safe. mpd has maintained a presence at gw throughout these protests. that presence has allowed for an informed and effective response. i also want to thank the broader d.c. community as tensions have escalated on the campuses across our country. our community has been measured with her words and actions but we have demonstrated and upheld our values and constitutional responsibilities. i want to be clear that our responses to demonstrations is always rooted in public safety. and constitutional responsibility. the chief and her team are the experts in public safety always have the final word on how our resources are deployed. mpd as you know, you've heard me say it is the best in the business at keeping people safe.

during the exercise of first amendment demonstrations with that i'm going to turn over too mpd for a statement to take your questions. >> hooks think it meant bowser good morning pamela smith chief of the metropolitan police department. let me start by saying the district of columbia at metropolitan police department support individuals peacefully exercising the first amendment right. but, as a chief of police i need to be and am always guided by public safety. this has been no different. i've consul reviewing information and intelligence should be able to make sound decisions about the george washington university protest based on policing and public safety. since the start of the encampment on gw's campus on april 25 metropolitan police department has been supporting gw and are monitoring the first movement activity. they began very peacefully. over the past few days we began to see an escalation and the volatility of the protest at gw.

this started last thursday when it gw campus police officers push by protesters and item was grabbed up of the police officers hand during the performance of her duties. on monday mpd learned of more indicators that the protesters were coming more volatile and less stable. this included an assault reported to gw police, security probing of gw building. enter indicators counter demonstrators were covertly in the encampment information protesters from other schools were traveling to gw. in addition items could potentially be used for offensive and defensive weapons were being gathered. all of this led to my discussion and conclusion that we needed to change our posture. i briefed mayor on monday we began preparing for last night. our plan included giving warnings, multiple warnings and clear direction to people inside the encampment to disperse the area. we allowed protesters and ample

time to leave the area. in total there were six dispersal announcement before officers took action. many compliant and left the camp. those who did not comply were arrested a total of 33 arrests were made this morning. charges including unlawful entry, mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the consideration of s. con. res. 36. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. con. res. 36, authorizing the use of emancipation hall of the capitol visitor center for an event to celebrate the birthday of king kamehameha i. the presiding officer: without objection. the senate will proceed to the measure. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the concurrent resolution be agreed to, and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the en bloc consideration of the following senate resolutions -- s. res. 677 s. res. 678

s. res. 679. the presiding officer: without objection. the senate will proceed to the resolutions en bloc. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent that the resolutions be agreed to, the preambles be agreed to, and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, all en bloc. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of calendar number 178, s.2195. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar 178, s.2195, a bill to amend the energy policy act of 2005, to reauthorize the diesel emissions reduction program. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i further ask that the bill be considered read a third time and passed, and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of calendar number 343, s.3791. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk:

calendar number 343, s.3791, to reauthorize the america's conservation enhancement act. and for other purposes. the presiding officer: without objection. the senate will proceed to the measure. mr. schumer: i further ask that the committee-reported substitute amendment be agreed to. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i ask that the bill be considered read a third time. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i know of no further debate on the bill as amended. the presiding officer: if there's no further debate, the question is on passage of the bill as amended. all those in favor say aye. all opposed say no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the bill as amended is passed. mr. schumer: i finally ask that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent that the senate committee on banking, housing, and urban affairs be discharged from further consideration and the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of s.2861. let me repeat. surety the.

mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent that the senate committee on banking, housing, and urban affairs discharged from further consideration and the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of s. 2861. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s.2861, to award a congressional gold medal to billie jean king, and for other purposes. the presiding officer: without objection. the committee will proceed to the measure 789 a mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read a third time and passed, and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the appointment at the desk appear separately in the record as if made by the chair. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that a correction to the appointment made on april 30, 2024, be printed in the record. for the information of the senate, this correction is clerical and does not change membership of the united states-china economic security review commission made by the appointment.

the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i have seven requests for committees to meet during today's session of the senate. they have the approval of the majority and minority leaders. the presiding officer: duly noted. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned until 12:00 noon on thursday, may 9; that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and morning business be closed; that upon the conclusion of morning business, the senate resume consideration of calendar number 211, h.r. 3935. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. schumer: for the information of the senate, senators should expect a roll call vote on cloture on the substitute amendment to the faa bill at approximately 1:00 p.m. if there is no further business to come before the senate, i ask that it stand adjourned under the previous order. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate stands objection, the senate stands the senate has now gaveled out for todayt members continue work on a measure to reauthorize

funding for the federal aviation administration for another five years ahead of friday's deadline. live coverage will make his return here on cspan2. ♪ american history tv saturdays on c-span2 exploring the people and events that tell the american story. at 2:00 p.m. eastern university professor lauren thompson with her book currently enemies talks about how despite prohibition against it, union and confederate soldiers often fraternize sharing coffee, tobacco. 3:00 p.m. eastern remembering the korean war first late colonel ralph puckett junior korean war veteran medal of honor recipient leigh and honor at the u.s. capitol in washington d.c. then a symposium on the korean war from texas christian university in fort worth. at 7:00 p.m. eastern the american history tv series congress investigates look at

historic congressional investigations outlet led to changes in policy and law this week 1987 hearing on the ironic contra affair examining the clandestine operation of selling missiles to iran in exchange for the release of hostages in lebanon with proceeds going to contra rebels in nicaragua. exploring the american story. watch american history tv saturdays on cspan2. and find a full schedule on your ogm guide or watch online anytime at c-span.org/history. ♪ cooks "new york times" is reporting independent presidenti candidate robert f kennedy jr. disclosed in a 22 deposition he suffedrom short-term memory loss as well as oer cognitive issues due to a parasite that had eaten a part of his brain before dyinghe article goes on toay in the interview with the times, said he had recovedrom that memory loss and fogginess had no aftereffects of the parasite

what she said had not required treatment. asked last week if any o mr. kenny'health issues could compromise hisitness for the presidency? stephanie spiro spokesperson for the kennedy campaign till the times that is a hilarious suggestion given the competition.