Maria Cantwell

Ms. CANTWELL

Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, we come to the floor today after a lot of hard work by the Commerce Committee to pass out the Endless Frontier bill last week--24 to 4. I know my colleagues from the committee will be out here to speak on this important legislation, as will the majority leader, Senator Schumer, who authored this important legislation, and our colleague from Indiana, Senator Young. We thank them for kick-starting what is a very important national discussion about how much we should be investing in research and development or what I would say is American ingenuity or, to put it a little more simply, I just say American know-how, because we are a nation of people who know how to innovate, who know how to use science to transform our economy, and we have done it over and over and over again. I don't know. Maybe it came with, in getting in a boat and coming all the way across the ocean, you had to be an adventurer to begin with. If you had to settle the frontier, you had to be innovative in your own right. If you had to continue to expand our country, you had to have a great ability to take risks in order to calculate and move forward. Yet, somehow, in the United States of America, we are blessed with ingenuity in our DNA. We as a nation are a nation that has figured out that if we continue to partner together with those great, creative minds, that the investment by both the public sector and the private sector and through our universities and now our community colleges and now research centers--that we can grow our economy, compete on an international level, and protect opportunity for future Americans. So it has been many eras of innovation. When I think about it, I think about Thomas Edison and the light bulb, I obviously think about Henry Ford and automobiles, and in my part of the world, we think about Bill Boeing and aviation. Innovation is so much part of our DNA that I don't think we sometimes absorb the littler things that we might not know about. People probably don't know about Nathan Stone Stubblefield, a Kentucky inventor who in 1902 demonstrated the first wireless transmission of communication using magnets. I know we have a big wireless industry today, but people probably don't know that, in 1902, a Kentucky inventor basically helped to turn the page on a new generation of technology. People probably don't know that a Louisiana professor, J. Lawrence Smith, in 1850, invented the microscope. Think about how much that led to the important discussions of science and healthcare for us as a nation. People probably don't know that, in Indiana, a State police officer invented the breathalyzer test, a gentleman named Robert Borkenstein, who basically just said, ``We don't know what is happening here,'' and he introduced and created the breathalyzer test. That is what America is. America is the spirit of know-how and getting things done. In fact, a report read: Americans prioritize being a world leader in scientific achievements more than other global [communities]. That is from the Pew Research Center report by Cary Funk and several other authors last September. The report goes on to read: [S]even in ten Americans believe it is very important for the United States to be a leader in scientific achievements. Clearly, what makes us different than other nations is that we are willing to put significant American tax dollars on the table to ensure that the national investment, the research in science, and the development of our ecosystem take place. That investment is matched with a good education system, capital formation, and, as I said, private sector investments in research and development. All of that has continued to make us the world leader in science and technology innovation. It also helps us create job growth here at home. The question before us today is, How much research and development should our government be doing given how important th practical sciences and engineering are to the next generation of Americans? We are here to discuss this proposal by Senators Schumer and Young, who, as I said, have been working on this concept for years because, no doubt, we have fallen off the pace--that is to say, the pace of scientific research investment at least as a percentage of the GDP. Even though President Bush, in his second term, tried to signal the importance of this investment, he issued a report basically calling the American Competitiveness Initiative the leading world innovation agenda. That was in February of 2006. In fact, at that time, President Bush said: [T]he role of government is not to create wealth; the role of our government is to create an environment in which the entrepreneur can flourish, in which minds can expand, in which technologies can reach new frontiers. George Bush had it right. He knew that this competitiveness issue was starting to challenge us from a competitive perspective, and he knew that we needed to make a bigger investment. Unfortunately, with the two attempts that we had--the America COMPETES Act in 2007 and the America COMPETES Act in 2010--it really was a goal by us to basically double the NSF budget within a 7-year window. While we started out in the right direction, we had a huge economic downturn, and these goals were not met. If we had kept our promises to these science agencies, we would have invested $80 billion more in innovation investments over the last 14 years than we have done today. The challenge that we face now is that, after decades of not living up to what had been outlined for America COMPETES, we now know that it is an environment in which we are facing much more aggressive competition. We have to think about the lack of investment that we did not realize in the context of how long it takes to do technology breakthroughs. Look at just one example, the internet as we know it today. Literally, in the 1960s, the ARPANET was first talked about. It took us to the 1990s to really, with the University of Illinois and Marc Andreessen, to affect what we would later know as hypertext links and a browser. Today, what it means to us is more than $2 trillion annually to our economy. When you think about the investments we are asking our colleagues to make today, we have to consider that, in fact, Federal dollars for R&D is near its lowest point in 60 years as a percentage of the GDP. I can't say that we are going to discover the next internet, but I can say that, if we continue to underinvest in this, we will be shortchanging generations of innovation. There is no doubt that key investments in research and development in other parts of the world are certainly getting attention. Since 2000, research and development in China has grown by 1,600 percent; in Taiwan and Korea by 400 percent; while, in the United States, just by 150 percent. That is in a 20-year window of looking at this issue. Americans believe that competition is good, and we believe that competition helps to drive innovation. So you won't find me as one on the floor who is obsessed about other nations as much as giving a perspective here about what the world market opportunity represents. If we are not making the investments here in science and technology and innovation, not only are we missing opportunities in our own country, we are missing opportunities around the globe. The rest of the Nation, in an information age, is not going to sit by idly, so we have to think about how we move ahead on critical technology that helps us in all sectors of our economy--how it helps us with supply chains and, certainly, how it helps us with national security. What we are talking about here, with this bill proposed by our colleague Leader Schumer and Senator Young, is more than a doubling of NSF's budget in 5 years; it is the start of trying to catch up. It is also a $17 billion investment in energy innovation--a key sector of our economy in which we need to make continued transformation. That represents a 28-percent increase in some of the projects from the Office of Science and things like ARPA-E that could see investment. What we are also investing in, which our colleagues were very adamant about and very convincing, is a new tech directorate--that is to say that our research is very good with basic and very good with applied but that we actually have to get better with the user implementation of our science and spur more innovation in a more rapid fashion. So we are investing, between this new tech directorate and tech hubs, nearly $39 billion to help stimulate the faster translation of our advancements into real innovation. This is something the committee thought long and hard about, and we took testimony from experts who have worked on innovation issues for many years. In this bill, we also increase the protection of intellectual property from our universities. We are helping our universities do better tech transfer but also protect their intellectual property. In an information age, when so much is published online, if other nations, hungry for development, can read our research and act an effect on it because we haven't patented it, then we need to do a better job of patenting our innovations and helping our universities. Our universities are unbelievable research institutions, and helping them spend more time on tech transfer is something that we have done in the Pacific Northwest. A new program ushered in there literally led to 20 startups from research that had been done but just hadn't been translated into new areas. We also are trying to help get more regional diversity to our research and investment dollars. There are about 25 States in our Nation that previously qualified for a program that says they should get a share of research dollars. This legislation says all the money being spent here, 20 percent of it should go to that, what is called EPSCoR efforts, which is expanding research and development into those States. And for the first time, we will have over at NSF an office of diversity--an office to focus on the lack of women and minorities in science and to make real progress on this issue. People see the chart behind me, and, yes, it is no mistake, the picture we picked. The point here is that we know from NSF's own research that we can't be passive about this. Literally, the University of Washington got an NSF grant that helped them study why we are not making more progress with women and minorities in science and innovation, and they came back with: It can't be passive. You can't just put dollars on the table for STEM. You can't just put a few programs in place. It has to be an active approach to changing many aspects to the way we educate in science. I am very proud of the University of Washington on this point because they made changes, and now of those who are teaching in what are considered STEM sciences at the University of Washington, 70 percent of them are women or people of color. So we have changed what the face of teaching science looks like at the University of Washington, and now we have to change some of the criteria and curriculum so that we can continue to attract more people. This bill is a very good step in that direction. So what are we trying to achieve? We are trying to achieve what NSF Director Panchanathan is saying. He is saying that we need, in this next decade and in decades to come, innovation everywhere, tied to opportunity everywhere, tied to our universities. That is what we are trying to do in advancing this legislation. We processed over 100 amendments in committee and a broad range of input from our colleagues. We will, I am sure, here in regular order process many more, but, hopefully, these amendments and more of the substance of this underlying bill we will go into in detail. We have to remember what our goals are with this investment--to stay competitive, to create future jobs, to help our economy by unleashing innovation, to protect our national security, and do what Americans know how to do best--that is, use that ingenuity to help create a better future. I will see if my colleagues want to speak, but we will be coming back to expand on many other layers of this legislation. We will be back to talk about semiconductors. We will be back to talk about the new tech directorate. We will be back to talk about NASA funding. We will be back. And that reminds me. If anybody at home is saying, ``Well, you know, OK, that was interesting; I don't really know about this; what is American innovation?'' just go and Google two things. You can either look at SpaceX rocket return, which they did in 2015, or Blue Origin. In both of those--the New Shepherd and the Falcon, two different approaches--there are literally engineers who said: If we are going to go to space, if we are going to go to the Moon, if we are going back to the Moon and go to Mars, we need to figure out how to have returnable rockets. Just go Google those two clips, and you will see alive and well the spirit of American ingenuity when those engineers see that rocket returning from outer space and reland because they have pulled off an incredible achievement. You will see jubilant joy and excitement over that accomplishment. I guarantee you, we will not see everything that this bill will unleash, but I guarantee you it will unleash things that will deliver that kind of excitement for Americans in the future, and we will have to be very thankful that this Congress set the record straight on the level of investment we need to achieve to keep us competitive.

Ms. CANTWELL

Ms. CANTWELL. Madam President, if I could just say something, for a second, while the Senator from Mississippi is here. It has been one of the great joys to collaborate with Senator Wicker on so many important policies last year, working on everything from aviation to maritime and foreign issues, and now working on this legislation and infrastructure and on many things that we want to do for the future. I thank him for his collaborative work on this process. No one probably relished the speed at which we moved through on this bill from our committee perspective, but, nonetheless, I think the committee actually had a lot of joy in the fact that we were at regular order and could process so many amendments and have that diverse of a conversation. The subject matter, in and of itself, is so important--it really is--to get this right. When I think about our attempts at America COMPETES in 2007 and 2010, we were enthusiastic, but we didn't convince the rest of everybody to put the money behind it. It makes me think that I am glad we are creating more of a robust debate about why this competitive issue is so important. Amendment Nos. 1517 and 1547 Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the following amendments be called up and reported by number: the Tillis-Hirono amendment No. 1517 and the Scott-Johnson amendment No. 1547; further, that at 4 p.m. today the Senate vote in relation to the amendments in the order listed, with no amendments in order prior to those votes in relation to the amendments, with 60 affirmative votes required for adoption, and 2 minutes of debate, equally divided, between the two votes.

Ms. CANTWELL

Ms. CANTWELL. I now ask for a second reading, and in order to place the bill on the calendar under the provisions of rule XIV, I object to my own request.

Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, I understand that there is a bill at the desk, and I ask for its first reading.

Ms. CANTWELL

Ms. CANTWELL. I ask unanimous consent the committee-reported substitute amendment to the resolution be agreed to; the resolution, as amended, be agreed to; the committee-reported amendment to the preamble be agreed to; the preamble, as amended, be agreed to; the committee- reported amendment to the title be agreed to; the title, as amended, be agreed to; and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of Calendar No. 25, S. Res. 97.

Ms. CANTWELL

Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that it stand adjourned under the previous order.

Ms. CANTWELL

Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate be in a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.

Ms. CANTWELL

Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 10:30 a.m., Thursday, May 20; 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; further, that upon the conclusion of morning business, the Senate resume consideration of Calendar No. 58, S. 1260, as provided under the previous order.

Ms. CANTWELL

Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, I come to the floor to talk about the rise in hate crimes in the Pacific Northwest and to thank my colleague the Senator from Hawaii for her tremendous leadership in guiding us through this process to get this legislation passed in the U.S. Senate. I want to thank her for her incredible work as a member of the Judiciary Committee and for getting this out and moved to the floor and to thank Senator Schumer and Senator McConnell for both helping us to get to this point today and our colleagues for passing this incredible legislation. But, again, thanks to Senator Hirono for knowing--knowing and understanding and being a great member of the Judiciary Committee-- that we needed to get this legislation done now. Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have a long history in our country. And their contributions have been significant, both in cultural vibrancy to our economy and to our way of life. But, unfortunately, that has also been marked by periods in our history of hate and damaging stereotypes and xenophobia, and we saw this again with COVID-19. That is why we needed to act today, to pass hate crimes legislation to protect Asian Americans in the United States of America and to make sure that they have tools to protect them. Our AAPI communities are facing the same challenges we face in the pandemic. And trust me, we have lost some incredible Asian Americans, who ran markets, who ran restaurants, who were small business leaders and continued to work during this crisis and ultimately paid the price with their lives. But they also, in addition to facing the pandemic, have had to face a range of hate and racism against them during this time period. According to Stop AAPI Hate, nearly 3,800 incidents of violence and hate against AAPI individuals were reported nationwide over a year since the pandemic. And sadly--sadly--women made up over half of this. Nearly 68 percent of the reported incidents of violence against Asian Americans were against Asian-American women. This must stop. And it is very important that we think about how a fraction of these statistics that are the reported information--how many more are out there that go unreported. My State, the State of Washington, has the seventh largest Asian- American population and the third largest Pacific Islander population in the Nation. And like the rest of the United States, we have seen an increase in these incidents. In fact, in 2020, the State had the third highest rate of hate crimes targeted against AAPI community members. That is why I am for getting a full slate of people over at the Department of Justice, including Kristen Clarke, to deal with hate crimes. Why? Because my State is plagued by these issues, and we are not going to tolerate it. We are going to fight back and make sure that we have the infrastructure in place to recognize these things. Just this past February, a teacher driving in the Seattle International District was assaulted with a sock containing a rock. The attacker was charged with felony assault but not a hate crime. We have been told that there are widespread reports of AAPI elders and women throughout Western Washington who have been verbally harassed and randomly physically assaulted. The King County Coalition Against Hate and Bias is collecting information about these attacks. But we know that there have been many throughout many communities in our State. Just a few months ago, a woman in King County and her two children were accosted with a man yelling, screaming at them just to get out-- ``Get out! Get out!'' And a man was captured on video in downtown Seattle attacking an Asian couple, spitting on them, slapping the man's face, and yelling at them: ``It's your fault.'' So we know these incidents are happening. In fact, just a week or so ago, I participated in a roundtable of the Asian American-Pacific Islander community from my State to talk about the need for this national legislation and why it is so important we have community-based solutions, which include more cultural education to teach our children the history of the Asian-American community in the United States, mental health support in multiple languages, investing in community groups, and this legislation that was passed today that will give us better tools to prosecute those individuals who participate in hate crimes. This bill would designate a point person within the U.S. Department of Justice to expedite the review of hate crimes and continue to work with all of us. It requires the Attorney General to issue guidance to State, local, and Tribal law enforcement to establish an online hate crime reporting and data collection system. These are all important tools. So I, again, want to thank our colleagues, and I want to also thank Senator Blumenthal. His bipartisan amendment would authorize the Attorney General to provide grants to States and localities to better train law enforcement on identifying, investigating, and reporting hate crimes and to operate State-run hate crime reporting hotlines. So this legislation will help us in shining a very bright light on an alarming rise in violence against the Asian American-Pacific Islander community and help us with new tools to combat that crime. I, again, thank my colleagues. We all must work together to stop this kind of violence. I thank the President. I yield the floor

Ms. CANTWELL

Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, I come to the floor this afternoon to support the nominations of Vanita Gupta and Kristen Clarke to serve in the leadership of the U.S. Department of Justice, and I am here, Mr. President, to say that just because you are pro-civil rights does not mean that you are somehow anti-police. To be for a Department of Justice that will help us make the right decisions in enforcing civil rights laws around the United States is what is at stake with these nominations. I personally am tired of the challenges that we have faced at home when we do not have people being held accountable and we have incident after incident. And the last administration said, instead of playing our role on consent decrees and making sure federal civil rights laws are enforced, instead they said, ``We're going to stop playing that role.'' So it is so important that we get a Department of Justice that will fight for the civil rights and civil liberties of all Americans. Both these women are highly qualified. They have defended our constitution. They have defended the civil rights of all Americans, and they will ensure that everyone, including the police, are held accountable. We have probably heard this afternoon my colleagues praising Vanita Gupta and supporting her to serve as Associate Attorney General, the third highest position in the U.S. Department of Justice. She is very qualified for the position. She will be the first civil rights lawyer and woman of color to serve in this role. She led the Civil Rights Division during the Obama administration and previously served as an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union. When it came to enforcing consent decrees, she made sure the Obama administration did the job. Now, why is this so important? I can tell you, in Seattle, we had a Native-American carver who happened to stop carving on one corner to walk to another corner and was shot and killed by a police officer because he didn't respond immediately to ``Drop your knife.'' I am so glad the Federal Government was there to say what is going on in Seattle with the police department and overseeing on a consent decree. We had a tragic situation in Spokane where a disabled man just went in to buy a soft drink and snacks, but because somebody thought he was fooling around with the ATM machine, they called the police. And when the police arrived and he didn't respond immediately, he was brutally beaten in the head with a baton, tasered, improperly hogtied to the ground, and stopped breathing shortly after first responders improperly strapping a non-rebreather mask to his face. That was Otto Zehm's afternoon activity, to just go to the store. As he lay there dying, he said, ``All I wanted was a Snickers.'' And thank God we had a Civil Rights Division at the U.S. Department of Justice that said, yes, we are going to intervene and make sure that there is oversight of the Seattle Police Department and an investigation, and we are going to make sure that the civil liberties of all Americans--all Americans, whether you are White, Black, or disabled, or Native American--your civil rights are going to be upheld. But instead of discussing what is the proper role of the Federal Government in making sure that civil liberties and civil rights of all Americans are upheld when their rights are violated--instead, people have said, Well, Ms. Gupta supports decriminalization of all drugs. Well, from a State that has actually passed legislation legalizing the recreational use of marijuana, I guarantee you, my State views some of these issues very differently. But I can say, emphatically, Ms. Gupta has stated consistently she does not support the decriminalization of all drugs--nor do the people of Washington, just because they voted to legal marijuana. Ms. Gupta does not claim that all drugs should be legal, and she does not adhere to the statements that some people have tried to paint her with. You have to ask yourself, What are they afraid of? What are they afraid that she is going to do at the Department of Justice besides uphold our civil liberties? Some of my colleagues have argued that she supports defunding the police. There is zero proof that she supports defunding the police. I don't know why we keep having this debate, but she has worked and understands the police officers' perspective. She has worked to ensure that they were provided with adequate resources. She has worked on building relationships. She has a comprehensive approach to law enforcement and support from their organizations. And I believe she deserves the support of our colleagues. In a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Fraternal Order of Police described Ms. Gupta as one who ``always worked with us to find common ground, even when that seemed impossible.'' So it is clear that she has the support of police. So we need someone like her who is going to bring back this important role of oversight to these important issues. Ms. Clarke is the same. She is nominated to head the Civil Rights Division where she once worked as a trial lawyer. She previously codirected the voting rights work of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, led the Civil Rights Bureau in the New York State Attorney General's office, and has served as the president of the Lawyers Committee on Civil Rights Under the Law. I have called her; I have interviewed her. Why? Because I am tired of the violence and hate crimes in the State of Washington. I am tired of hearing, time and time again, about these issues. And it can be the synagogue in Spokane, where literally somebody spray-painted it. And you would think, Well, how are we going to find who spray-painted a swastika on a synagogue in Spokane? You think, How are we going to find that person? Okay. Not a lot of trouble because people actually said, We did it purposely because we are an organization who believes in this, and we wanted to get our message out. That is what we're facing. And several years ago, we found a bomb planted in the Martin Luther King Day Parade in Spokane, just a few years ago. So these aren't issues that we are sending somebody over to the Department of Justice to analyze and write a report on. We are asking people to help us with the situation in the United States of America to fight hate crimes and to bring about justice on the civil rights and civil liberties of all Americans. And so we have to have people that we have confidence that they are going to uphold our laws and enforce them. We need to have consent decrees to hold police departments accountable for systematic violations of constitutional rights. We need to defend voting rights and to make sure that hate crimes against Asian-American and Pacific Islanders are prosecuted. And so this is why the nomination of Ms. Clarke is so important. I ask my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, if you are facing any of this in your State, please get Kristen Clarke to be there to help us address these issues. Advocating for increased investment in mental health and social work and school resources for minority communities is something that law enforcement agrees with. They agree that we should do these things. So that is not defunding the police; yet people accuse Kristen Clarke of the same thing. She must be for defunding the police. I have talked to prosecutors throughout the State of Washington, and they will tell me that these programs that help families and communities identify these problems early are actually the best things to keep them from having to really have problems later. I certainly hope that some of the false claims that people have made about Ms. Clarke being anti-police are also continued to be struck down as untrue. Ms. Clarke understands law enforcement must collaborate with the State, local, and Federal level. She has a solid record of working cooperatively with law enforcement for decades. She is supported by the Major Cities Chief Association, the National Association of Black Law Executives, a bipartisan group of over 70 former State attorneys general, and more than 40 police chiefs and sheriffs throughout the United States. That can't be somebody who sounds anti-law enforcement. They have the support of law enforcement. What we need is the support of our colleagues to say that these are serious issues and the Federal Government does play a role. That is why it is called the Department of Justice, and that is why they oversee and make sure that the civil liberties of all Americans are upheld. As attorney general and at the Lawyers Committee, Ms. Clarke played a key role in launching a Religious Rights Initiative to address faith-based discrimination to fight anti-Semitic activities. When Ms. Clarke led the Lawyers Committee, she led the charge in shutting down abhorrent anti-Semitic websites that made racist comments, and some were in connection with stormfront.org, which was a central site used to organize the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville. She recognized that online hate is an emerging threat and that Congress must address that threat. After seeing what happened on January 6 and the plethora of anti-Semitic paraphernalia presented here even in the Capitol as we saw riots, Ms. Clarke's expertise and dedication to fighting online hate would be extremely beneficial to the Department and to all Americans. So I implore my colleagues, these are strong women, great qualifications, have been in the mix on these policy issues for a long time. They know what we are up against. We have to ask ourselves, Are we going to enforce the law? These women will enforce the law, and they have the support of law enforcement. We should proceed and confirm both of them. I yield the floor.

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

Ms. CANTWELL

Ms. CANTWELL. I ask for the yeas and nays.

Ms. CANTWELL

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

Ms. CANTWELL

Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, I know we are having a vote in a moment. I ask unanimous consent that the vote not start until I finish my remarks.

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

Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, I don't plan to speak long, but listening to my colleagues, I just wanted to make a few points. Our former colleague, Representative Becerra, spent much time in the Congress--I think 12 terms--much of that in a position focusing on healthcare policy as a member of the Ways and Means Committee. I say that because I know so many of our colleagues, particularly House Members, have gone on to run Agencies, run Departments, be Secretaries of Defense, and, basically, they just had some congressional experience in that policy area. So I am not sure why we are discarding that important policy background, consideration, balancing of those issues, weighing in on parts of our constituencies, as Mr. Becerra did. And Mr. Becerra was the first Hispanic to be a member of the Ways and Means Committee. So I am pretty sure he brought forth a context to many of the healthcare policies. I know now that I bring a lot of focus on Native American issues to the Finance Committee because I represent so many Native Americans. I think Mr. Becerra represents somebody who has a lot of healthcare experience and then, as attorney general, took on one of the biggest fights we need to have right now, which is the affordability of prescription drug pricing and the shortages that I believe are artificially created on things like insulin and other drugs that are spiking out of control the healthcare prices for Americans. If you had to say, besides getting access to affordable healthcare insurance, what the second most important goal would be--or, actually, if you asked across the spectrum of millions of Americans--they would say it is the high cost of prescription drugs. And we have somebody who has taken on this battle and, basically, really understands what we need to do as a nation in lowering prescription drug prices. So I just hope that people who are at home are listening. This is a unique individual who I think stands up truth to power many times in his career, and I think that we would be great if we have his vote and nomination out here on the Senate floor so the American people can hear more about the important policies. If you want to vote against him because you don't want the Affordable Care Act, well, that is your prerogative. But if you want somebody who has just as much experience as any other Member of Congress who has gone on to run an Agency, I guarantee you he is as qualified, if not more qualified. So I hope our colleagues will vote yes on this motion to bring Xavier Becerra before the United States Senate. I thank the President. I yield the floor. Vote on Motion to Discharge

Ms. CANTWELL

Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, I come to the floor to talk about the American Rescue Plan, but following my colleague from Washington and in the presence of the Senator from Vermont, I just want to thank them for how hard they have fought for an increase in the minimum wage. Our State, the State of Washington, has led the Nation for many years in the highest minimum wage, and it didn't impact our economy. In fact, it helped our economy. There are now reports, as we have moved towards $15 from just a little town, SeaTac, to the city of Seattle, to now a plan for our entire State to move to $15 over a gradual period of time. I urge my colleagues--I urge my colleagues to come together with a plan that can get us to a $15 minimum wage. I know we have it in us. I know we can do it. I so appreciate our colleagues waging this effort to continue to make this a priority for our Nation. I can't tell you enough how much the wages, particularly in a place like Seattle, are going to matter to people, to have a livable wage. I know people here have discussed various aspects of this program and the plans that are in this bill, but I just want them to know that the cost of living in a very expensive place like Seattle demands that we pay workers what they deserve. It also means that we deal with big-city problems like homelessness and deal with making investments, and I hope that our next infrastructure bill will get to that. This is not the last time I am going to speak about minimum wage, but I want our colleagues to know that this battle is not over yet and that if we want to raise the standard of living in the United States, we have to pay a livable wage. So I come to talk about the details of the rescue plan. This is 1 year since a young man from Everett, WA, became the first COVID victim in the United States of America. Not only did he get sick, but many loved ones got sick, their families, and they are all waiting now for vaccines. So this legislation--priority No. 1 for so many Americans right now is the COVID-19 vaccine. In my State, the State of Washington, more than 1 million residents have been vaccinated, and 6 million more are still waiting. Everyone knows that demand far exceeds the supply. Our healthcare workers are working tirelessly, along with other government officials, to get shots in the arms of individuals. That is why this bill is so important, because it provides $20 billion to invest in vaccine administration and distribution. That includes launching community vaccine centers, deploying mobile vaccine units to hard-to-reach areas, and continuing to support an increased pace of vaccinations. That is job 1 right now--get the vaccine into the arms of Americans. That is why this legislation is so important, to continue that effort, but it also provides other support, like extending unemployment benefits for millions of Americans who lost their jobs through no fault of their own a year ago and are now seeing unemployment benefits expire next week. We know what today's numbers say. We still have a very high unemployment rate in the United States of America. So this bill extends the benefit another 5 months, until August 29. It is a very prudent measure to continue to put the resources into the American economy. It also provides $1,400 stimulus payments to millions, and it supports new efforts for our restaurants, small businesses, and those devastated by the pandemic so they can use this money for payroll, rent, utilities, and paid sick leave. This is so important, to continue to learn from the programs that COVID has started and to refine them to make them successful for our economy. This also helps children who are at home, helping provide more money for E-Rate and broadband connectivity for schools and libraries. This is so important to individuals. It also provides critical dollars for Federal health funding to treat Native Americans in urban areas, a community that has been very hard hit by the pandemic. Our economy lost 9.8 million jobs in 2020, and our current unemployment rate, as I just said--we know from this data that came out this morning--is still too high. We know that, as a result, 19 million Americans, including 460,000 Washingtonians, rely on those unemployment benefits. If we don't act by March 14, 11.5 million people will lose their extended unemployment benefits. So that is why this program is so important to get passed today in the Senate. The restaurants, as we know, have been very plagued by this problem, and the PPP program has been helpful, but I believe this legislation will be even more helpful. Since the beginning of the pandemic, 110,000 restaurants across our country have closed either permanently or for an extended period of time, including 2,300 in the State of Washington, and some are just struggling to hang on. For example, the Black Cypress restaurant in Pullman, WA, lost more than 1 million in revenue and had to lay off workers after the initial PPP loan program ran out. In southwest Washington, restaurants like the Mighty Bowl in Vancouver and the Depot Restaurant in Seaview are operating at 50 percent revenue loss. I talked to one of our restaurant owners, Wassef Haroun, who operates very popular restaurants in Seattle, including Mamnoon. He said his restaurants have lost 70 percent of their revenue compared to 2019. And these are people who are hustling to do standup, popup windows, and all sorts of things to keep the restaurants and restaurant employees working. So the Paycheck Protection Program was critical, and these improvements were desperately needed. That is why this bill includes a new $25 billion grant program for restaurants to address those concerns of rent and utilities and sick leave and other things head-on. The bill also helps with more funding for the SBA live venues grant program that we have authorized, helping those venues stay open. For us in Seattle, music is a thing, and we want these venues to be there. They are part of our history. They are part of our culture. They are part of a music story that really is about, well, just a little bit different take on music than maybe some other parts of the world. So we are very proud of it, and we don't want to lose these facilities, the home for growing more music and cultural impacts to our society. So one of the hardest hit businesses, though, has been businesses with 10 or fewer employees in underserved areas, like Grays Harbor, Yakima, Ferry County, or Pend Oreille. This legislation allows $10,000 grants from the SBA program of Economic Injury and Disaster Loan Program to help with the smaller communities and the small businesses that have been underserved to date by the programs that we have passed. But for the first time, in this legislation, there will be support for the aviation supply chain. We are hearing all sorts of discussions about supply chain shortages and the competitiveness of the United States if the United States sees that critical supply chain elements will not be able to be filled, whether you are talking about the automotive industry or whether you are talking about aviation. Well, in the previous bills, certainly, I can say that the Fed made capital available that, certainly, manufacturers--large-scale manufacturers--took advantage of. Previous bills made money available for the airlines to continue operating, as this legislation does as well. And I would say, I think, we are probably somewhere between 40 to 45 percent of the original capacity for airlines that we were previous to the pandemic, which means we are making progress, and that is what we always wanted to see--the ability to return our economy quickly. But in Washington State alone, we have 30,000 aerospace manufacturing and supply chain jobs that have been lost. Our aerospace supply chain is part of a juggernaut for our economy. It helps us with our gross domestic product, and it helps us in containing and keeping a workforce that is skilled that can work postpandemic. So in this legislation, we will be, for the first time, making resources available for that supply chain. I want to thank Senator Moran and Senator Warner and a slew of other Members who worked on providing resources to this supply chain. It will help us retain and rehire workers in the aviation manufacturing sector. It will help us keep highly skilled workers who serve as the backbone of industries so that our Nation can continue to be poised for the recovery. And it helps us in making sure that we are poised for a strong recovery. We know that aviation manufacturing jobs mean a lot to our Nation. Finally, we are going to help stave off the tide of the huge losses that we have seen in that sector. We are going to help the mom-and-pop machine shops. We are going to take those who have been working on small aircraft parts and landing gears and doors and flight controls and help them with the impact that they have felt in trying to keep a workforce during this period of time. These are all important priorities for us as a nation: the vaccines, the unemployment benefits, the stimulus checks, the E-rate program for helping students learn at home, the investment in the aerospace supply chain. It is important that we get the dollars out the door. This will help us recover. This will help American families wade through the last months of this COVID pandemic fight. But, believe me, they need the help in the last months. This fight is not over, and this will help sustain us. I urge my colleagues to pass this legislation.

Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, the sun is coming up in Washington, DC, and we have to spend all night debating policy and questions to arrive at this moment, at 6 a.m., with an amendment that is literally robbing Peter to pay Paul. This isn't the idea of a debate. The Amtrak and North Corridor System has basically had to reallocate resources. The 457 Corridor, which is one of the busiest in the Nation, has over 750,000 people on that system, but because of COVID, it has lost revenue. It has a 97-percent loss of revenue, and now they are making drastic cuts to employees and to services that could become permanent. This simply helps Amtrak and our busiest corridor stay in business. We will address the Coast Guard needs in other legislation. I ask my colleagues to vote no. Stop robbing Peter to pay Paul. Let's fix the COVID crisis on our transportation system. Vote on Amendment No. 1395

Ms. CANTWELL

Ms. CANTWELL. Madam President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Ms. CANTWELL

Ms. CANTWELL. I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. CANTWELL

Mr. CANTWELL. Mr. President, I have 4 requests for committees to meet during today's session of the Senate. They have the approval of the Majority and Minority leaders. Pursuant to rule XXVI, paragraph 5(a), of the Standing Rules of the Senate, the following committees are authorized to meet during today's session of the Senate: Committee on Armed Services The Committee on Armed Services is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, March 2, 2021, at 9:30 a.m., to conduct a hearing. Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs The Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, March 2, 2021, at 10 a.m., to conduct a hearing on nominations. Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs The Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, March 2, 2021, at 2:30 p.m., to conduct a hearing. Committee on the Judiciary The Committee on the Judiciary is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, March 2, 2021, at 10 a.m., to conduct a hearing.

Ms. CANTWELL

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

Ms. CANTWELL

Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to urge my colleagues to support President Biden's nominee to be Secretary of Commerce, the Governor of Rhode Island, Gina Raimondo. Many people know that Governor Raimondo was the first woman to serve in that position in her State, and she has made tremendous impacts to that State at a time when it needed important leadership. So we are very excited that the President has nominated her for this position and that she will put those same skill sets to work here in Washington. The mission of the Department of Commerce, at least according to its website, is to foster, promote, and develop foreign and domestic commerce. Well, I can tell you that she is going to inherit a big challenge because obviously our domestic economy is still reeling from the impacts of COVID-19, and certainly she needs to think about the continuing transition to a digital economy in an information age. The foreign economy that she also will be charged with trying to help and impact as it relates to the United States is certainly plagued by the same pandemic and the impacts of that. So we are looking for someone who can come in and help, with private sector experience, to really move the agenda of this administration forward. For me, Governor Raimondo's private sector experience really means a lot. She knows how to invest in new technologies and things that are going to help us grow jobs for the future, and she knows how to match up a workforce with those job opportunities that are also so critical as we move forward on many, many different policy issues that are going to usher in change. As Governor, she invested in workforce training and matching workers with relevant small business experience, called her Rhode Island job initiative. The program served more than 1,700 employers and 11,000 people throughout the State. She was able to send her State's unemployment rates tumbling to a 30-year low simply by doing a really focused job of matching workforce training to the needs of those industries that were growing in her State. So I certainly appreciate the fact that she has that private sector experience in knowing where to invest and bringing people together, and she certainly created successful programs on matching the workforce for tomorrow. But make no mistake, the Department of Commerce is going to have a very challenging role as we try to deal with the impacts of COVID-19. One of the most important responsibilities, I believe, will be dealing with the sectors most hard hit by the COVID pandemic. I am glad that Governor Raimondo is a Governor of a coastal State because one of the most impacted industries, as we have seen, is the seafood industry, which has been affected greatly by COVID-19 since early January 2020 when the lockdowns in China and around the world impacted the seafood sector. U.S. seafood exports to China dropped by 31 percent by January of 2020 and 40 percent by February of 2020. Lobster, Dungeness crab, shellfish--everything was experiencing severe declines, and west coast fisheries have seen as much as a 40-percent drop in revenue. Sustainable fisheries are important economic drivers in coastal communities. I know that Governor Raimondo gets that. She understands that commercial fishermen and the impacts they have will impact not just seafood processors, shipbuilding, and trade, but also our restaurant economy. Marine anglers took in more than 194 million fishing trips, which fueled our outdoor recreation and tourism economy. So I am glad that Governor Raimondo, from a coastal State, is going to come to oversee some of those key functions at the Department of Commerce, particularly at NOAA, and harness the incredible data and information that help us manage these economies, that keep them safe and keep them focused on science. I know she understands that, as Secretary, she can use those good scientific Agencies within the Department of Commerce to better understand the impacts of climate and the impacts of COVID and what we can do. We know in the State of Washington that just a little bit of science done at the University of Washington helped us immensely in saving our shellfish industry. We now need to do more for fisheries across the United States. We need to invest in things that I call salmon infrastructure to keep--as we continue to grow our economy and continue to move forward on infrastructure, that we are also keeping ways to return salmon. I think this is one of the most important things Governor Raimondo can do as Secretary of Commerce--restore the respect for the scientific process, the scientific community, and the important issues that are going to be at the heart of how our coastal economies are impacted by climate. I have invited Governor Raimondo to take one of her first trips to the State of Washington to see exactly how our State has dealt with these fishery issues. I know that the Presiding Officer from California knows how important the seafood industry is and the impacts to our coastal communities because of climate as well. We need a leader in the Department of Commerce who is going to help us mitigate and adapt to those impacts. I am also counting on Governor Raimondo to help us with our export economy, everything from our ports to farmers to aerospace. Exports mean jobs, and about one in four jobs in the State of Washington is related to trade. Frankly, I think she is a departure from the last President and the last Commerce Secretary, Wilbur Ross. I think he and the President spent a lot more time shaking their fists at the world community than engaging them on policies that were really going to open up markets and help us move forward with getting our products in the door. Ninety-six percent of the world's customers live outside of the United States, and prior to the COVID pandemic, half of the world's population had reached middle class. That means that is a big market, almost 4 billion people. U.S. exporters need to be able to reach those markets and to grow the U.S. economy and grow U.S. jobs. We need to work with our allies, like Europe and Japan, to meet the real challenges we face from China. We need to expand U.S. exports in other fast-growing markets around Asia and South America and around the world. The Department of Commerce has a key role in promoting those exports and helping our companies enter new markets, and U.S. commercial service officials are on the frontlines of these issues around the globe. I know Governor Raimondo understands the importance of this export market, and she understands that the Department of Commerce can play a very big role in it. I hope that she will get to work soon on working within the Biden administration to make this a big priority. I also want to say that I know she is going to, on other science Agencies within the Department of Commerce, play a critical role, everything from the National Institute of Science and Technology--a small Agency that doesn't get a lot of attention, but it is very consensus-based on standards and fostering growth in a number of industries that are so important to communications and manufacturing and public safety. So I hope that she will use, again, her private sector experience in knowing where to invest in new technologies to help us continue to grow economies like the space economy that we have in the State of Washington. We are very proud that, as commercial space travel has started to be a major focus of the private sector, it has grown many businesses and many jobs in our State in that area, and we want to see it continue to grow. But we need Governor Raimondo's leadership on the important policies that divide us on these issues. The U.S.-EU Privacy Shield agreement is such a negotiation. I know my colleague Senator Wicker, who has been very involved in these discussions and negotiations, knows exactly how important digital trade is, and Commerce is leading up these talks to resolve these disputes. We must ensure the continued free flow of commercial data between the United States and Europe. A lot is at stake. The U.S. and EU digital trade is worth more than $300 billion annually and includes more than $218 billion in U.S. exports to Europe. Every business that exports or imports or has a presence in investment in the United States or Europe will face difficulties if we don't resolve these issues and barriers to cross-border data transfer. So all of this is very big risk, and we want Governor Raimondo to get to work on this very quickly and help resolve these issues. The free flow of data between the United States and Europe is critical to 5,000 tech companies in my State and more than $2.8 billion of digital exports in our economy. So I am pretty sure that this is the same--as I said to the Presiding Officer, I know he gets how important digital trade is to the State of California and would like to see these issues addressed as well. So these are very big challenges for the Department of Commerce and the next Commerce Secretary to basically make sure that the impacts of COVID are dealt with in our economy and to usher in a new era of an information age by making the right investments and depending on science to help our key coastal communities that also have been greatly impacted, using and harnessing the aspects of NOAA and really bringing in the type of leadership we need at the Department of Commerce to resolve our problems as a new digital age emerges here on an international basis and continue to allow our economy to grow. I know she is the right choice. I urge my colleagues to support her nomination. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Ms. CANTWELL

Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, every President swears an oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. Every President has a solemn duty to uphold the rule of law and to preserve our democratic system. No one is above the law, not even a President. President Trump violated his oath. He promulgated lies about the election, used his office to try to interfere with election officials doing their job, and failed to protect our Capitol from a mob that clearly intended to cause physical harm to elected officials and to stop the lawful certification of election results. For months, President Trump used his platform as President--at rallies, on Twitter, and in press interviews--to spread disinformation, making unsubstantiated and false claims about voting by mail, vote rigging, and fraud in counting ballots. President Trump pressured State and local officials across the country to reject election results without evidence. He called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to pressure him to find the votes he needed to win the State. Even after President Trump lost 61 election-related cases in State and Federal courts, he continued to insist the election was stolen from him. In the process, President Trump sowed doubt and provoked his supporters. President Trump summoned his supporters to Washington, DC, on January 6. They included known domestic violent extremists, including the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers, and other White supremacists and far-right militia groups. Federal law enforcement had warned about the threat of violence from armed members of these groups. Nevertheless, President Trump urged his supporters to march to the U.S. Capitol and to fight and told them they will ``never take back our country with weakness.'' He said he would march with them. Instead of trying to stop them, President Trump continued to support actions by the insurrectionists even after they breached the Capitol Building, overwhelmed and unleashed violence against law enforcement, and put at risk the lives of the Vice President, Members of Congress, Capitol Police officers, and staff members. Four insurrectionists died. In all, 140 law enforcement personnel were injured and 1 police officer, Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, was killed. Two more police officers later died as a result of the insurrection. Many of the insurrectionists said they were there at the direction of President Trump. And the President did not call on his followers to stand down or send reinforcements to help the overwhelmed law enforcement at the Capitol. Instead, we know from a statement from Washington Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler entered into the trial record that President Trump refused to help bring an end to the insurrection even after House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy urged him to act. In this moment and in the weeks and months leading up to the insurrection, President Trump violated his duty to the Constitution and his oath of office. There must be accountability. Without accountability, we are setting a dangerous precedent--one that says that the President is above the law and did not uphold his oath to ensure the peaceful transfer of power. It is also important to recognize that the events that unfolded on January 6 did not occur in isolation. They were the culmination of years of President Trump stoking the flames of racial tension and division, as the House impeachment managers have concisely laid out. Throughout President Trump's time in office, hate crimes rose to levels not seen in over a decade. The rise in domestic violent extremism has been publicly acknowledged by President Trump's own FBI Director, Christopher Wray, who identified it as the most severe threat to the homeland. Director Wray has testified that racially-motivated violent extremists make up the largest aspect of domestic violent extremist cases, often involving militia groups, such as the ones who were present during the January 6th insurrection. In the Northwest we have faced threats from racially-motived extremists and armed anti-government militia groups for decades, including the siege of Ruby Ridge, ID, in 1992, the Aryan Nations compound near Hayden Lake, ID, and the attempted bombing of Spokane's Martin Luther King, Jr., memorial march in 2011. Groups that were among the insurrectionists on January 6, including the Three Percenters, the Proud Boys, and the Oath Keepers, all have a significant presence in my State. In the last 4 years, their activity has been on the rise. Following the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, they threatened State capitals around our country, including in my State. An armed mob breached the gates outside of the Governor's mansion in Olympia, surrounding Governor Inslee's residence on the capitol complex while his family was inside. This wasn't the first time, however, that these armed extremist groups have showed up to demonstrations in my State. As this Senate trial has clearly shown, President Trump has repeatedly inflamed these groups and others. He encouraged violence at his rallies, called White nationalists and neo-Nazis in Charlottesville ``very fine people,'' refused to clearly condemn White supremacy during a Presidential debate, told the Proud Boys hate group to ``stand back and stand by,'' and told the January 6th insurrectionists that he ``loves them and they are very special'' after they had already laid siege to our Capitol and committed heinous acts of violence. That encouragement has had consequences, as we saw in Charlottesville and on January 6. President Trump's responsibility is clear. He violated his oath of office and tried to overturn the results of the election. Free and fair elections are the bedrock of democracy. Generations of Americans gave their lives for our freedom, for our right to vote, and for the peaceful transfer of power. I voted to hold President Trump accountable for committing a high crime against our governmental system and to safeguard the future of democracy in the United States of America.