Christopher Coons

Mr. COONS

Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I would like to thank my colleague and senior Senator, my friend, Mr. Tom Carper, who allows me to be his wingman here on the floor of the Senate and in our home State of Delaware. I just wanted to speak briefly to the outstanding qualifications of the nominee that will be before us in a moment, Greg Williams of Delaware. As a member of the Delaware Bar, as a member of the Judiciary Committee, I have joined my senior Senator, friend, and colleague in advancing this nomination, both suggesting to the White House strongly that he would be an excellent next member of the important Federal bench in Delaware and that he would represent our Nation well and contribute to our Federal judiciary, which is globally the gold standard for its capability, its independence, and its integrity. Greg has practiced for decades in Delaware. He is one of the best respected, leading complex commercial litigators, and an experienced intellectual property litigator. The District of Delaware is one of the busiest Federal courts in our entire country. Because of our unique place in American corporate law, because of the quality and the competence of our bench, we handle an enormous number of patent cases, a significant number of corporate cases. I don't know if my colleague has mentioned one of the top-of-the- charts cases about to come to Delaware, but when you make a promise to purchase a company like--I don't know, hypothetically, Twitter--and then the deal comes apart, that ends up in a Delaware court called our chancery court. Our Federal District Court and our Federal Bankruptcy Courts handle significant litigation. Greg is someone who also, as a family man, as a person of faith, as an outstanding leader in our community, as the past president of the bar association, as the past chairman of the judicial nominating commission on behalf of our Governor, he has served our community. He brings his heart, his values, his intellect, and his skill to his service each and every day, and I am honored to join my senior Senator in speaking on his behalf on the floor. And I look forward to working with my colleagues across the aisle to ensure a swift confirmation vote today. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. COONS

Mr. COONS. I rise to join the leaders of the codel that I just had the honor and blessing of joining, Senators Shaheen and Tillis, and a number of the other members of that codel, Senators Ernst and Blunt. And I was grateful for the chance to travel with Senators Durbin and Fischer. I want to just join in my colleagues' statements today. I think this was a tremendous opportunity for us in Sweden and in Finland to meet with nations that are advanced economies, that are closely aligned with our values, that have sophisticated militaries, and that now, for the very first time, are seeking admission to NATO. NATO is the most successful security alliance in world history, and it is rooted in shared values and shared concerns and interests. One of the most vulnerable pieces of NATO, if you looked at the map just a few months ago, were three little Baltic States--Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia--that, for decades, were under the heel of the Soviet Union. They were relatively newly independent in recent decades, admitted to NATO, but very difficult to defend. One of the reasons I joined with my colleagues to say here, as we did in Madrid, that we should swiftly ratify the joining to NATO of both Sweden and Finland is that they will provide security. They will be security contributors to this alliance. The odds that a young man or a woman from Iowa or North Carolina, from Missouri, New Hampshire, or Delaware will have to go defend Estonia, will have to go risk or give their life to defending Latvia or Lithuania will go down dramatically if we have on that border, at the very northern end of the NATO alliance, a new 830-mile border between Finland and Russia. The Russians know they will have to defend and pay attention to it given the unique history of 1939-1940 war. And where countries aligned with our values and priorities are going to continue to contribute to the importance of this alliance. It was valuable that in our meetings with heads of state from Europe, like Chancellor Scholz from the Indo-Pacific, like Prime Minister Kishida from Japan, in conversations with foreign Secretaries like Liz Truss of the United Kingdom, or meetings with foreign Ministers of Italy and of Germany and of France and of Spain, that this delegation was able to speak with one voice and to articulate why we join the Biden administration in supporting NATO accession for these two critical new partners. The last point I want to make is that I am hopeful--I am optimistic-- that we will continue to provide unified bipartisan robust support for Ukraine's brave and fierce defense of its Nation and its sovereignty in the face of Russia's war crimes, Russia's continued aggression. We are calling on all of our NATO allies to step up and to contribute and to participate. And they are. This has brought greater unity, greater purpose, greater focus to the NATO alliance than anything in decades. I will remind you, the one time that the article 5 sacred obligation to come to each other's defense has been triggered before was in Afghanistan. Thousands and thousands of NATO soldiers served alongside ours in Afghanistan when it was the United States that was attacked on 9/11. This NATO alliance is stronger than it has ever been and needs to be the strongest it has ever been, because, as my colleagues both laid out clearly and concisely, this is a pivotal moment in the future of the United States and our role in the world, the future of NATO and Western freedom. We must make sure we succeed. I am so grateful for the bipartisan commitment that was at the core of this delegation. I yield to my colleague.

Mr. COONS

Mr. COONS. Madam President, I understand there is a bill at the desk that is due for a second reading.

Mr. COONS. In order to place the bill on the calendar under the provisions of rule XIV, I would object to further proceedings.

Mr. COONS

Mr. COONS. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to executive session to consider the following nomination: Executive Calendar No. 589, James D. Rodriguez, to be Assistant Secretary of Labor for Veterans' Employment and Training; that the Senate vote on the nomination without intervening action or debate; that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table; that any statements related to the nomination be printed in the Record; that the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action, and the Senate resume legislative session.

Mr. COONS

Mr. COONS. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 11 a.m., Thursday, May 5; 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 proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 887, Kathryn Huff, of Illinois, to be an Assistant Secretary of Energy; further, that the Senate vote on confirmation of the Huff nomination at 1:45 p.m.; finally, if the nomination is confirmed during Thursday's session, that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table and the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action.

Mr. COONS

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

Mr. COONS

Mr. COONS. Mr. President, we are in the middle of a horrible global pandemic. Later this month, we will pass a tragic milestone of a million Americans killed by COVID-19. Already, more than 6 million globally have died. And I know we are all sick and tired of it, completely tired of it, done with it. I hear all the time at home and here that we are done with this pandemic, but, unfortunately, it is not done with us. This week, this body has failed to take minimally responsible action. And I am going to speak for a few minutes to what it means that we have failed to come together to pass another urgently needed appropriations bill both to meet our domestic needs for therapeutics and vaccines and for treatment and for the development of the next vaccine for the next variant and what it means that we have delivered zero additional resources for global public health to address this worst global pandemic in a century. The bill that we should be taking up now and is being blocked by disagreements would have provided $10 billion to help provide additional protection for 330 million Americans, to buy the therapeutics that we need, to invest in the research to make sure that we are ready for the next variant, to finish providing the public health support for vaccinations. While we may think we are done with the virus, 30,000 Americans yesterday tested positive. It has touched all of our communities, our families, my own family, our own neighborhoods. We are not done with this. Senator Schumer and others of my colleagues have been saying on this floor and in public and in private relentlessly, we must deliver more resources. Well, I am here to say that we cannot get this pandemic under control here in the United States and secure the safety and health of our people until we have delivered meaningful vaccine protection around the world. It is shortsighted for us to say that because we are done with it, it is done with us. I will remind you, we have twice before gone through periods where things were looking better, things were looking up, and then the Delta variant emerged, the Omicron variant emerged in other places in the world where vaccination rates were not what we might hope for, not what we have achieved here and in other countries. So let me briefly explain why this is a case of ``pay me now or pay me later.'' I understand the fiscal concerns that have driven some to say we should spend no more, but I think we will discover the foolishness of a view that says we need not spend more. First, it is just a waste of money, folks. We have already bought hundreds of millions of vaccine doses that are now not going to be delivered in countries in the world, and particularly in Africa, where the public health systems are not developed enough to actually translate vaccine doses into vaccinations. As I learned during the Ebola epidemic in Liberia, that last mile from the capital to the regions to villages is really hard to navigate. It is hard to navigate here in the United States, heck. But in countries without cold storage chains, without rural public health resources, without the resources to pay for people to go and vaccinate, not having that last dollar to go that last mile means that we are letting people die when we have got the vaccines to save their lives; and it means we continue to have 2.8 billion unvaccinated people around the world. Second, this is a moment where we can teach the world, again, that the United States, long the most reliable global public health partner, can be counted on in this critical moment. Dozens of countries could not get our vaccines 6 months or a year ago, so they have relied on Chinese and Russian vaccines that are ineffective against Omicron. A variant emerged able to get around Sinopharm and Sputnik, the vaccines delivered by the Chinese and Russians. So we have a moment when dozens of countries around the world are asking for our help. We have got the vaccines; we have got the opportunity; and we are failing to take advantage of this moment. The most compelling reason, of course, is our own people's health. We have seen this cycle before, and we will see this cycle again. How bad is the vaccination status in other places around the world? Well, briefly: Yemen, a country undergoing a horrific war with widespread famine, their vaccination rate is less than 1.5 percent. In Haiti, in our hemisphere, a nation of 11 million people, their vaccination rate is below 1 percent. The number of folks fully vaccinated in two great countries on the continent of Africa--Tanzania, 60 million people; Nigeria, 200 million people--below 5 percent. We cannot afford to allow this virus, COVID-19, which is like a safecracker, out there in the world to just keep twisting the dials and testing, testing, testing--because every time it infects someone, it has a chance to mutate. Every time it mutates, it has a chance to get past our defenses. We will regret this failure. We need to treat this like the global health emergency it is, and we need to realize that we already had hundreds of millions of people facing food insecurity before the Russian invasion of Ukraine accelerated the vulnerability of millions of people around the world because Ukraine is the breadbasket from which is fed countries all over the region: the Middle East and North Africa, from Syria to Somalia. We are going to see food riots, increased instability, and millions more in hunger. So, folks, I will keep at this. I will keep working. I will keep mobilizing and engaging my colleagues, both Democratic and Republican, in making the case until it is done; but we have a moral imperative, an economic imperative, a political imperative, a humanitarian imperative to save our own country and our own people by providing the resources the world needs and deserves. We have so many good partners in this--organizations like One, USGOC, Care, Catholic Relief Services, Save the Children, Bread for the World, and many others--too many to name. But we need the same level of energy and commitment and engagement in this Chamber that we have heard from calls from around our country and our world. The world is looking to the United States to use the vaccines we have, use the resources we have, provide the support to get us on the other side of this pandemic globally. Mr. President, this is the moment that we should do it.

Mr. COONS

Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the following letter honoring Jack Leslie, be printed in the Record.

Mr. COONS

Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I rise to offer some brief remarks about a dear friend, someone upon whom I have relied as a mentor, someone who has served our Nation across many decades, and someone whose passing earlier today is a moment of great significance for our Nation and our place in the world. I happen to have been a Truman scholar; some of my best friends are Truman scholars; and the person whose passing we mourn today I first met because she was the chair of the Truman Scholarship Foundation Board. I am speaking of the former Ambassador to the United Nations, the former Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, whom I first got to know decades ago, but whom, in my dozen years here in the Senate, I got to know as a mentor and a friend, someone whose lilting humor, whose brilliant insights, whose force of personality, and whose charisma were unmatched. One of the greatest memories I will have in my life was a dinner I got to enjoy last year with former Secretary and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Colin Powell, and former Secretary of State and Ambassador to the United Nations, Madeleine Albright, and the Ambassador to the United Kingdom. We sat in her garden and talked for hours about the world, about conflict, about Russia and China, about Putin, about the Balkans, about a whole range of things, and I learned so much. Madeleine never lost her love for this institution, for the Senate. It was here that she, as a relatively young staffer, cut her teeth on politics and on being engaged in policymaking. And one of the things that always amused her was that this desk--the desk of Senator Biden and Senator Kennedy--was also the desk of Senator Ed Muskie, a Senator from Maine for whom she worked for a number of years. She was his chief LA from 1976 until 1978 and then went to work for Zbigniew Brzezinski on the National Security Council. I will simply say this. Today, we have lost one of our best and one of our brightest, one of the most passionate in her dedication to democracy. As someone who was born overseas in Prague, Czechoslovakia, and who, along with her family, fled communism to come to the United States, she never stopped offering her insights, her advice, her passionate dedication to democracy. In the books that she read, in the pins that she wore, in the speeches that she gave, in the students that she mentored, Madeleine Albright touched so many lives. Yet she on occasion was gracious enough to give me just a few minutes of her time. Through her, her daughter Alice and her grandson David became great and dear friends. David's service in my office was an enormous blessing to me and my team. I just wanted to ask for prayers for them, for their family, and for all whose lives were touched by Madeleine Albright. Tribute to Tom Mancinelli Mr. President, I rise today to make some comments about a truly bittersweet moment in my career of service. I have been an elected official for 22 years. I have had the opportunity to work alongside dozens--actually hundreds of dedicated, capable, and hard-working staff. None have earned my trust and my confidence, driven my agenda, set my priorities, and been so central to my service and my life like my national security adviser, Tom Mancinelli. Like me, a Truman scholar, Tom is someone who decided early on to set his sights towards a life in public service. In the 7 years he has been a member of my team, he has been an incredible mentor, a great leader, and someone upon whose advice I have always been able to rely. I hired him from service at the Department of State, where he was chief of staff of the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs. He was a Presidential Management Fellow before that, but most importantly, he is a Naval Academy graduate and was an officer in the Marine Corps. I note that brings a smile to his face even now. As I had a chance just last week to say to the Commandant, I have seen, through Tom's service in my office, a gentleman, an officer who has lived the values of the Corps with honor and courage and commitment; someone who has lived his life with an uncompromising code of integrity, respect for human dignity, respect for others, and an intense commitment to his service and a joyful and whimsical spirit. As a result of our years together traveling around the world and our time here in the United States, a number of phrases and terms have become a part of my lexicon that I did not know before: ``Once a Marine, always a Marine.'' ``Every Marine a rifleman.'' ``No plan survives contact with the enemy.'' ``Officers eat last.'' Tom has been an exemplar of the sort of servant leadership embodied in the phrase ``Officers eat last.'' It means you take care of your team, of your squad, of the men and women entrusted to you. In his two tours in Iraq and in his 7 years with me, Tom has shown that exemplary. I have celebrated the Marine Corps' birthday with him. I have heard him talk about Tun Tavern. I have seen him brighten the days of countless marines deployed as parts of security detachments at Embassies around the world with a hearty ``Semper Fi.'' He has always made sure that we respected and paid attention to the lives and the service of the men and women of our Armed Forces. Although it is with great regret that I congratulate him on this, I congratulate him today on his next tour, which will be at the Department of Defense. Through our time together, we have traveled to 54 countries. That is nearly a third of the countries on Earth. We have pressed dictators and autocrats for democratic progress and human rights. We have visited refugee camps in some of the toughest places on Earth to hear those fleeing persecution and civil war. We trekked to see mountain gorillas in Virunga National Park in Rwanda, and I have watched him with, just over the rise, an elephant in the near distance. We carried out a Presidential mission to go to Ethiopia in the middle of a civil war, and we helped deliver vaccines to our partners, from Guatemala to Taiwan. We visited American troops stationed abroad more times than I can count. Tom has helped me write and introduce and get marked up and pass bills that would invest in our strategic competition with China, advance electrification across Africa, combat wildlife trafficking, address the root causes of violence and extremism--the Global Fragility Act--and support young Palestinian entrepreneurs. There is a long, long list. But the one of which I am proudest for him and I hope something of which he is proud as well is the huge amount of effort he dedicated to leading the BUILD Act, signed into law in 2018, to establish the new U.S. Development Finance Corporation--$60 billion in capability deployed to do everything from vaccine manufacturing to sustainable agriculture, from women's empowerment to deploying solar energy in the developing world. The DFC will have a remarkable impact for a very long time to come. As I have said, it is not just the hard work of policymaking but the inside-the-room work of mentoring and guiding fellows and staff members, becoming the sort of person upon whom I can rely to execute a flawless congressional delegation trip overseas, or codel. Frankly, I think one of our most recent trips, among the most memorable, was also among his most successful. We crisscrossed the world with a constantly shifting constellation of Members of the House and Senate, leaving from Andrews Air Force Base, flying overnight to Brussels for visits with the EU, NATO, and Belgium, and then continued that same day on to Scotland. We spent time at both the COP26 global conference on climate change and in Edinburgh, looking at new means of generating electricity and power, and capped off that day with a celebration with the Scottish Government at Edinburgh Castle. We then loaded back on the plane and went all the way to Qatar, had dinner with the Emir, breakfast with the Foreign Minister, and visited Afghan refugees and an Air Force base at which Americans were deployed. We went on from there to Jerusalem, to Tel Aviv, to Ramallah, to meet with the Prime Minister, Foreign Minister, and Defense Minister of Israel and the Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority. Not yet done, we got on a plane and went to Berlin to meet with the now-Chancellor central to our response to Russia's aggression in Ukraine and members of the Bundestag before flying home. All of this was in 1 week--no mess, no fuss, flawless, excellently executed, perfectly planned. Tom takes the time in the course of a codel like that, rather than being frenetic or self-important, to make sure that the other staffers on the trip are learning about how they will lead future codels, that all the Members are attended to and supported, and that it is a purposeful investment of the time and resources of the American people, all while taking a little bit of time to go celebrate with the marines who helped execute that fantastic codel. Most impressively to me, Tom has found a way to excel at his career in my office while still being a great father to his children George and Ruth and a husband to his accomplished wife Sarah. On a few occasions, I have had to chase him out and say: Don't miss that. Often, he has already gone to a parent-teacher conference, to a baseball game, understanding that is his first mission and something to which he is tirelessly dedicated. He will continue his record of public service as the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Legislative Affairs, and I have warned him, dealing with Congress is a really miserable duty. But there is no one--no one--they could have hired who would carry this duty out better or more thoroughly, with more character and competence, than Tom Mancinelli. Hiring Tom was one of the best choices I have ever made. For as many years as he will return my calls, I will continue to call on him for advice and counsel. I very much look forward to his next chapter in public service. As I was talking with my own children just this weekend, my youngest said to me that of all the people she has gotten to know in my office, he most exemplified to her what it means to be an American, a patriot, and public servant. I can offer no greater compliment than that--well deserved, well performed, well served. To my favorite marine, thank you. With that, I yield the floor.

Mr. COONS

Mr. COONS. Madam President, since President Biden took office, we have seen historic job growth and a dynamic economy. Wages are rising, and they are rising fastest for working-class Americans. But despite this significant economic progress, today, too many American families are still facing pressing economic challenges: a global pandemic now entering its third year, ongoing disruptions to international supply chains that result in rising prices, and now the economic shocks caused by Putin's aggression, his invasion of Ukraine and the response by the West--a united effort to impose sanctions on Russia, which will also have consequences for the global economy. The Federal Reserve exists, in part, to address issues just like these. The Fed doesn't just set interest rates and control our money supply; it oversees banks, ensures efficient and reliable payments, promotes consumer protection and community development. When our economy is facing such foundational challenges like the ones we are up against right now, it is crucial our institutions are at full strength. The Fed is at its strongest with a full Board of Governors, and President Biden has nominated five of the finest economic and legal minds our country has to fill its vacancies: Jerome Powell, to serve as chair; and Lael Brainard, to serve as Vice Chair--both folks who have ably guided our economy in the years they have served at the Fed; Sarah Bloom Raskin, whom I know from college, has been nominated to serve as Vice Chair for Supervision and has demonstrated through a long career in public service at both the State and Federal level to be a highly competent regulator who has advanced the financial system that would work for all Americans; Philip Jefferson, nominated to serve as a Board Governor, has deep expertise in how monetary policy impacts employment and economic growth and an important understanding of inequality and poverty in America today; last, my good friend, Lisa Cook, whom I have known for decades. We knew each other as young Truman Scholars, folks who were volunteering a week of our time to help mentor and encourage younger Truman Scholars--a federally funded memorial to President Harry Truman. I have known her since a stage in her life where neither one of us might have guessed that someday I would be on this floor speaking as a Senator, and I would be speaking in support of her nomination to the Federal Reserve. She would bring a valuable new perspective to the Fed Board. Lisa, from her time growing up in a small rural town in Georgia, going on to earn advanced degrees from our Nation's finest institutions, and now as a teacher at one of our great public universities, she has built world- class expertise in economics, innovation, and banking. She understands not just abstract economic theory but how those theories impact Americans and their families in all walks of life. Lisa served under President Obama at the White House Council of Economic Advisers, where she dealt with financial crises both here in the United States and abroad, and she has studied the macroeconomics of foreign markets in Europe and in Africa, including the way central banks have dealt with high inflation--one of the issues right before us. She has expertise in an emerging area of the economy that is increasingly important for our central bank regulators to understand: digital currencies and financial technology. She has supported sensible regulation of cryptocurrencies that enables innovation and allows more people to access secure and low-cost financial services. Her data-driven approach would help the Fed navigate our continued economic recovery, and her focus on financial inclusion will be a critical perspective on the Fed Board that would help ensure all Americans can see the benefit of continued economic growth and job gains. Overall, these are five nominees to the Fed Board with sterling credentials and strong character. All of them, on their merits, deserve the seats to which they have been nominated. I respect the desire on the part of my Republican colleagues to conduct a full evaluation of these nominees, and all five of them have responded repeatedly, fully, and with transparency to the hundreds of questions that have been pressed to them. They have answered all the questions put to them. The time has come to advance and confirm these nominees, and I call upon my Republican colleagues to allow a vote to proceed. To block a vote in the Banking Committee of this Senate by simply denying a quorum is no way for this allegedly greatest deliberative body in the world to conduct itself. If we are, in fact, facing the crisis of inflation and rising prices, the Federal Reserve Board must have its full membership. So my colleagues, please, stop blocking these capable and qualified nominees and allow them to proceed. Nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson Madam President, I serve on the Senate Judiciary Committee. And in my dozen years here, I have had the honor of participating in, and even presiding over, confirmation hearings for Federal District Courts, Circuit Courts, and the Supreme Court. We have before us now President Biden's first nominee to our Nation's highest Court. Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is an exceptionally well- qualified jurist whose experience, whose credentials, and whose evenhanded approach to the administration of justice make her an outstanding nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court. This is an important step forward toward making our Supreme Court look more like and reflect more the diversity of people in our Nation and the diversity of experience of those who serve in the bar. Last year, Judge Jackson was confirmed by this Senate on a bipartisan basis to serve on the DC Circuit Court, one of the most complex and significant of the circuit courts of the United States. Before that, she was unanimously confirmed to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia where she has honorably served for 8 years. She has issued over 500 opinions, so we have a very clear idea of her approach to judging and her interpretation of the law; and she brings great professional diversity of experience to the Bench as well. If confirmed, she will be the only Supreme Court Justice to have served as a Federal public defender. That kind of perspective on our highest Court is critical. Her work as a public defender is just one example of the breadth of experience Judge Jackson will bring to the U.S. Supreme Court. She has also served as Vice Chair and Commissioner on the Sentencing Commission that interprets and applies criminal law and as a lawyer in private legal practice for some of our Nation's leading law firms. And, most importantly, she clerked for the Justice for whom she has been nominated as the successor, Justice Stephen Breyer. Our President has promised to nominate someone in the mold of Justice Breyer; and Judge Jackson--in temperament, in ability, and approach-- certainly fits that bill. It is my hope, it is my expectation, that this Senate and the Senate Judiciary Committee will meet this historic moment by swiftly, appropriately, and respectfully questioning this nominee in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee, bringing her to a vote on the committee, and then voting to confirm her nomination here on the floor of the U.S. Senate. Executive Calendar Nominations Madam President, if I might, the last topic I come to speak to on this floor today is the critical need for us to be as attentive to the advice and consent role for nominees as ambassadors, as senior members of the State Department, and USAID positions. There are so many positions that have been held for months and months; and many of them are being held by my colleague from the State of Texas because of a disagreement over sanctioning the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. Today, finally, we stand in a place where the policy of this administration, the policy of our close and valued ally in Europe, Germany, and the positions of folks in the Senate are all aligned. There are now sanctions on Nord Stream 2. It has been stopped. Thankfully, my colleague has lifted his holds. Yet there still remain holds from other Members of this body on other nominees, all of them well-qualified. Eight of them would serve under the jurisdiction of my Foreign Relations Committee subcommittee on economic and energy policy multilateral organizations. So while I respect the right of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to hold a nominee for a specific, relevant policy issue, we have to provide advice and consent in a timely and respectful manner of the President's nominees. President Biden has been President more than a year now. We have crises all over the world--whether it is in Ukraine, the violence and the aggression carried out by Putin's Russia or its competition with China or its dealing with North Korea or its advancing our interest with respect to Iran and their proliferation--we have places all over the world for which we need qualified nominees. That is why, in a few moments, I hope to take action on the floor; but I am not yet going to take that action unless it is clear we are all prepared. Let me briefly, in conclusion, if I might, speak to some of the folks who should be confirmed. The Ambassador to Botswana, Howard Van Vranken, career foreign service officer in a country I have visited, a country that is an important partner to allies in Southern Africa, and where the absence of an ambassador means an absence of American leadership. Eric Garcetti, mayor of Los Angeles, ready to serve as our Ambassador to India, a country that is a continent-wide, multifaith, multilingual, multiethnic democracy--a vital partner and ally to the United States where we currently have no ambassador. Marcia Bernicat to be Director General of the Foreign Service. If we are to recruit, retain, motivate, and place the greatest diplomats possible in the world, we need a Director General--a DG--who leads the Foreign Service from a human resources perspective. Julieta Noyes to be Assistant Secretary for Population, Refugees, and Migration. A million refugees have fled the violence in Ukraine; and yet PRM has no Senate-confirmed Assistant Secretary. Think about that as a dereliction of duty by this body. Oren Whyche-Shaw to be Ambassador to the African Development Bank. If we want to see inclusive development on the continent of Africa, how can we have no ambassador for this multilateral development bank? Enoh Ebong to be Director of the United States Trade and Development Agency, the USTDA. TDA plays a critical role in bringing into the United States opportunities for trade and development--again, a critical vacant seat. Christopher Hill to serve as Ambassador to Serbia. There are developments in the Balkans too complex and concerning for me to take this body's time with right now. But let me simply say, any seat, any ambassadorial post in the Balkans vacant is a missed opportunity for American leadership. Laura Holgate to be Ambassador to the Vienna Office of the United Nations and Representative to the IAEA. We are engaged in critical final-stage negotiations, I am told, in Vienna about whether or not we will be able to further constrain and better understand Iran's dangerous conduct with regards to enrichment. We have no ambassador to the IAEA. Think about how irresponsible that is. If I might, we cannot confront our global challenges alone, and we need these diplomats in place so we can successfully address these threats from Russia, climate change, COVID-19, from Iran, from terrorism. It is my hope that my colleagues who have holds reportedly on many of these nominees will relent, and I look forward to continuing to press that case today. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. COONS

Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent, for myself as Chairman of the Select Committee on Ethics and for Senator Lankford, vice chairman of the committee, that the Annual Report of the Select Committee on Ethics for calendar year 2021 be printed in the Record. The committee issued this report on January 31, 2022, as required by the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007.

Mr. COONS

Mr. COONS. Madam President, why are we here? Why is this Senate dedicating this entire day to a debate on the floor? Well, we are here today to talk about, to debate and consider two critical voting rights bills. It is our fourth try. It is our fourth try. The three previous times we have tried to get on this bill, there has been a filibuster on the motion to proceed, an obscure a procedural standing that prevented us from getting to this bill. We are finally on it, and there is a challenge in this Chamber, in this country, to explain and articulate briefly why this is such an important moment and why it justifies, in a tension between two of my core principles--one of which is making sure that we work across the aisle and find bipartisan solutions as much as possible and the other that we protect foundational principles--the right to vote--and through that right to make progress toward justice and inclusion in our society--that I choose the latter. We have seen across our country, in recent months and years--ever since Shelby County, a Supreme Court case, blew a hole in the center of the Voting Rights Act passed in 1965, the most powerful civil rights law in the history our country--a whole series of laws at the State and local level eroding and undermining access to the ballot. And in the months since the 2020 election, tragically, we have also seen now State legislatures take up and pass laws designed to change who counts the ballot, who certifies an election, voter subversion and voter subversion, access to the ballot box, and who counts the votes. Every one of us is here because we were elected. Every one of us wants to know, or should want to know, that we won a free and fair election in which as many Americans in our State as possible voted. Why would we want barriers to Americans with disabilities, Americans speaking different languages, Americans working full time and strained by their working family commitments, Americans who are Black or Brown, Native American, or Hispanic, or African American? Why would we want to have any suspicion that our election to this body relied, in some part, on suppressing or miscounting those votes? Today, I am going to speak just briefly, if I can, about how today is really about a fraying bipartisan consensus. Some of my Republican friends and colleagues have spoken about how we have to continue to hang on to and respect the rules of this Senate, especially the 60-vote threshold, to moving forward on policy changes, and I have long defended that and respect that concern. But we are also principally here because of a forgotten consensus about working together to protect access to the ballot box. We have heard just now from a colleague the accusation that this is a ``partisan Federal takeover'' of elections. Yet several of my colleagues have read and reminded us the Constitution itself explicitly gives this Congress the power, even the responsibility, to ensure that Federal elections are conducted in a way that is free and fair. When the first Senate gathered, think about who was in the room. Think about the qualifications to vote, how narrow they were--property, White men. Think about the arc of change in our Nation and how, year after year, generation after generation, with a huge amount of struggle, ultimately, the moral question of who can vote, of who counts and whose vote should be counted has slowly, painfully, through sacrifice, changed. There was, for 50 years--from 1965, when earned through blood and sacrifice on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, the Voting Rights Act was signed into law by a former Senator from Texas, President Lyndon Baines Johnson--there was for 50 years a consensus in this body that the Voting Rights Act was a critical, even a sacrosanct, protection. It was reauthorized five times--in 1970, in 1975, in 1982, and in 1992--by strong bipartisan majorities, and in 2006, unanimously. No wonder, then, that my friend and predecessor at this desk, our President, seems to struggle to comprehend how a Republican Party that included Strom Thurmond, when he chaired the Judiciary Committee, voted over and over and over to reauthorize the Voting Rights Act. Yet today, as we debate the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, we sadly do not have a single vote across this aisle to move us forward. How did this happen? How did this consensus, so hard-won, fray so quickly? In short, it is because of a lie. It is because of a misrepresentation that millions of illegals are voting--famously said by our immediate past President. But a widespread belief that voter fraud was undermining the very credibility of our elections has been adopted across our country and spread and caused a fundamental break. There has also been action by the new conservative majority on the Supreme Court; first, in 2013 in Shelby County, where they took out the section 4(b) formula that eviscerated section 5 preclearance to provide free election protection against voter suppression; and then just last year, in Brnovich v. DNC, when six conservative Justices concluded that a State law in Arizona that had a demonstrable disparate impact on Hispanic and Native American and Black voters could be allowed to stay on the books and proceed. Now, let's be clear. We should make sure there is no widespread voter fraud. And on the Judiciary Committee, my colleague from Illinois and others have led hearings to confirm that there is no widespread voter fraud, as my colleague from California, the former secretary of state, spoke eloquently to earlier. The Freedom to Vote Act, which is the other bill in front of us, benefited from modifications by Senator Manchin of West Virginia, also a former secretary of state, to ensure that we have protections in terms of voter ID. I will also, briefly--and I know I need to conclude--respond, if I can, to accusations by several of my colleagues that Delaware's voting laws are not yet at the highest standard. And I will say, it is true my State has a long, brutal, tragic history of race relations that were not their best, and our voting laws have just now come to up to the Federal standards we are hoping to make the standard for our whole country. But let me ask this question: In the midst of a pandemic, when State after State has adopted changes to voting ballot boxes and no-fault vote-by-mail and same-day registration, why would States be moving those back? The pandemic isn't over. In November, millions of medically vulnerable Americans will be looking to vote. Why would we end these new provisions to provide access to the ballot box? Let me make two last points and conclude. As I have traveled to a dozen countries in the last year, I have heard from allies and adversaries concerns about the health of our democracy. We must take action to protect the right to vote in this country. Last, we should not make the last casualty of this dread pandemic rolling back voting access. If I must choose between a fundamental principle learned through five congressional civil rights pilgrimages spent with John Lewis that voting is a moral question or continue to hold to a rule, I will choose the former and embrace a change that is as narrow and temporary as possible and that will restore debate on this floor. As I marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge for the last time with John Lewis, he stopped and turned and said to all of us in his halting voice, knowing he was in his last weeks: Never give in. Never give up. Never become hostile. Hate is too great a burden to bear. Stay hopeful and keep marching. It is my hope, Madam President, that our debate today, our votes today, will give strength and lift and truth to the service and the life and the sacrifice of Congressman Lewis.

Mr. COONS

Mr. COONS. I want to express my gratitude to my friend and colleague from Alaska. It is, indeed, a deep well of darkness into which a family is cast when they receive a diagnosis of ALS. My own awareness of this disease and its dread consequences is rooted in a number of cases that came to me and my extended family now quite a few years ago. My brother is with us here in the Chamber today, and his dear friend Dan Loftus passed through ALS, and I remember the pain that this caused him and the depth of that loss. A friend of mine from Delaware, Alex Snyder-Mackler, first shared with me his father Scott's diagnosis with ALS, now 20 years ago. And year after year, as many of us would gather in Newark and run a 5K and do a fundraiser for some sort of research, for some sort of hope, his father Scott slowly slipped away. I talked to Alex this morning and was reminded of how much this means to those families who have come through this. Max Walton, a dear friend of mine in the bar in Delaware, and his father--just an unbelievable character, a great and funny and creative and capable man who built a family business and then slipped from us through ALS. ALS was first known to America when Lou Gehrig, an outstanding baseball player, got it. And he is still famous for his ``I am the luckiest man in the world'' speech, when he announced his retirement from baseball. But 80 years later--80 years later--it is still a mystery to science and a death sentence to those who get this dread diagnosis who are often told they have just a few short years to live. This bill in their name and honor confronts this stark reality and makes progress. I cannot close without thanking two other people--Meghan Taira, who is tireless here on the floor in helping move and prioritize things working for Leader Schumer, who lost her own mother, Ellen Taira, to ALS, and last, if I could, for someone whom I am not worthy of. I have a legislative director, Brian Winseck, who is a spectacular human being, whose skill and persistence and diligence and dedication for my side of this kept us at it every day. His father Joseph was a high school civics teacher, and the loss of his life through ALS is something from which Brian has made so much good for others through his role in helping shepherd this through my office. What Senator Murkowski and I are showing for a moment here today is an answer to a question so many families, so many people living with ALS, so many who have lost a loved one to ALS wonder in the dark moments: Does anyone care? Does anyone see this? Does anyone know what is happening? Is anyone going to do something about this? The families and those who are living today with ALS and those who have lost someone to ALS need to know that your advocacy is heard, that it moved a mountain here in the Congress, and it will begin moving resources and energy and dedication. We are at the beginning of the next step of this journey, but, as my dear friend, under whom I served many, many years ago in a very dark time in the history of South Africa, said: Hope. Hope is being able to see that despite all the darkness, there is still light. Bishop Desmond Tutu spoke that to the people of South Africa struggling in a very dark time and place. To the families, the survivors, and those who are living with ALS, my dear friend from Alaska and I and the folks in our families and on our staff and in the many countless teams of advocates around this country hope that this holiday season, that this Christmas, that this year, we have brought you some glimmer of the light that you have brought to us. With that, I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. COONS. Born in Connecticut.

Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I rise today to join with my colleague the Senator from Alaska in celebrating some good news. Every now and then, something really good happens here in the Congress of the United States. Many of us know the story of ALS, a particularly cruel and brutal disease, a disease that attacks the body but not the mind and whose victims, while they steadily lose their ability to control their muscles and their movement, suffer a sort of living death that, until you have seen it up close, it is hard to appreciate just how cruel this disease is. Last week, 423 of our House colleagues, Members of the House of Representatives, voted to send the ACT for ALS Act here to this Senate. And last night, we here in the Senate unanimously sent that bill to President Biden's desk for his signature. I have to start, I want to start by thanking my dear friend and colleague the Senator from Alaska. She has been a tireless, passionate, capable advocate, and without her this would not have happened. For those who question whether bipartisanship can still deliver results that matter, this Senator, this bill, this moment proves that it can and it does. We are grateful to our lead cosponsors over in the House, Congressman Quigley and Congressman Fortenberry. Frankly, the story behind this moment is the incredible advocacy of the ALS community. They are the reason that the bill got drafted, the bill got introduced, the bill got marked up, the bill passed the House, and that here in the Senate some obstructions were overcome with remarkable force and swiftness. I am just briefly going to mention the tenacity and the strength and the capability of some of the folks who have been my role models in this work, and then I am going to yield to my friend and colleague from Alaska, and she will also speak about it. I just do also briefly want to say that ACT for ALS is not just some resolution. It is not just some commemorative act. This will deliver $100 million through a newly authorized FDA rare neurodegenerative disease grant program. It will fund critical research. It will improve coordination between the Federal, academic, and private sector researchers. And more than anything else, it will give people hope. When I think of this work, Dan Tate is the man who first comes to mind, and Dan, like me, is a graduate of Amherst College and a spirited and capable and soulful person--one of Washington's most skilled lobbyists, someone who worked in the Clinton administration and worked for a Member of the House--and his personal advocacy has meant a huge amount to me, as has the engagement by Brian Wallach and so many others. And I have a half dozen other folks of whom I want to speak, but, first, I think simple decency suggests I should yield the floor to my friend and colleague from Alaska.

Mr. COONS. Point of personal clarification: Delaware.

Mr. COONS

Mr. COONS. I ask unanimous consent that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. COONS. Mr. President, as if in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of H.R. 3537, which was received from the House.

Mr. COONS. I ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read a third time.

Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I know of no further debate on this bill.

Mr. COONS

Mr. COONS. I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. COONS

Mr. COONS. Madam President, I come to the floor at a time when, I believe, as of today, there are 72 nominees for State Department and USAID positions here in Washington and overseas pending on the Senate floor. I am going to make a series of unanimous consent requests. I am first going to proceed to one to which there will likely be one objection. Then I will give a few minutes of remarks and then give additional ones. I ask unanimous consent that notwithstanding rule XXII, if applicable, at a time to be determined by the majority leader in consultation with the Republican leader, the Senate proceed to executive session to consider Executive Calendar No. 239, Michele Jeanne Sison, of Maryland, a Career Member of the Senior Foreign Service, Class of Career Ambassador, to be an Assistant Secretary of State (International Organization Affairs); that there be 10 minutes for debate, equally divided in the usual form on the nomination; that upon the use or yielding back of time, the Senate proceed to vote without intervening action or debate; and that if the nomination is confirmed, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table and no further motions be in order on the nomination; that the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action and the Senate then resume legislative session.

Mr. COONS. Madam President, at a time when we need senior people to help our country deter adversaries, advance our interests, and secure our values, it is important that all the nominees currently waiting on this floor be confirmed. They are well qualified. Eight of them would serve under the jurisdiction of my Subcommittee on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in various multilateral organizations and in economic and energy policy. I understand and I respect the right of colleagues on both sides of the aisle to seek amendments on votes like the Nord Stream 2 issue. I, for one, would be happy to vote on additional subjects around foreign policy and national security, and I pushed for additional votes during the National Defense Authorization Act floor process. These national security issues are important, and this Chamber owes to the American people robust debate, but we also need to provide advice and consent on any President's nominees in a purposeful and timely manner. With that in mind, in a few moments, I will officially ask unanimous consent to confirm the following nominees: Jack A. Markell, of Delaware, to be Representative of the United States of America to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, with the rank of Ambassador; R. Nicholas Burns, of Massachusetts, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the People's Republic of China; Rahm Emanuel, of Illinois, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to Japan; Steven C. Bondy, of New Jersey, a Career Member of the Senior Foreign Service, Class of Minister-Counselor, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Kingdom of Bahrain; Cynthia Ann Telles, of California, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Republic of Costa Rica; Bathsheba Nell Crocker, of the District of Columbia, to be Representative of the United States of America to the Office of the United Nations and Other International Organizations in Geneva, with the rank of Ambassador; Christopher P. Lu, of Virginia, to be Representative of the United States of America to the United Nations for U.N. Management and Reform, with the rank of Ambassador; Christopher P. Lu, of Virginia, to be an Alternate Representative of the United States of America to the Sessions of the General Assembly of the United Nations, during his tenure of service as Representative of the United States of America to the United Nations for U.N. Management and Reform; Lisa A. Carty, of Maryland, to be Representative of the United States of America on the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, with the rank of Ambassador; Lisa A. Carty, of Maryland, to be an Alternate Representative of the United States of America to the Sessions of the General Assembly of the United Nations, during her tenure of service as Representative of the United States of America on the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations; Laura S. H. Holgate, of Virginia, to be Representative of the United States of America to the Vienna Office of the United Nations, with the rank of Ambassador; Laura S. H. Holgate, of Virginia, to be Representative of the United States of America to the International Atomic Energy Agency, with the rank of Ambassador; C.S. Eliot Kang, of New Jersey, to be an Assistant Secretary of State (International Security and Non-Proliferation); Adam Scheinman, of Virginia, to be Special Representative of the President for Nuclear Nonproliferation, with the rank of Ambassador. I am going to ask unanimous consent for all of these because they are critical to our foreign policy and our national security. And I must say at the outset, I have appreciated the opportunity to dialogue with my colleagues about a possible path forward, but as of right now, we don't have one, so I am seeking this unanimous consent. Principal among the many nominees I just spoke about is my dear friend, Jack Markell. I would like to turn to my colleague, also from the State of Delaware, for a few minutes of remarks about this wonderful public servant we have both known for decades.

Mr. COONS. I want to thank my colleague, the senior Senator from Delaware. I, too, have known Governor Markell for decades, and I, too, was prepared to make long and fulsome comments about his remarkable record of achievement both as a leader in the private sector, as someone who actually did help create jobs by launching Nextel and by growing it to a remarkable, world-class telecom company, and his leadership as State treasurer, to his leadership as Governor, but that has been covered in wonderful detail. His Pathways to Prosperity Program in Delaware I have recommended to colleagues of both parties as a model for how we might move forward on apprenticeships and on skilling for the 21st century and his current service as the President's special adviser to lead Operation Allies Welcome. Senator Carper and I just visited Fort Dix on Friday with Governor Markell to see the tremendous work of our Armed Forces and to visit with Afghan families who have just been relocated to the United States. It is just a reminder of his great heart and his dedication to service. I am confident that he has the experience, intelligence, and character to serve admirably as our Ambassador to the OECD. All the individuals for whom I will call a unanimous consent request here in just a moment--I am confident that these are individuals nominated for positions critical to our national security interest and our ability to maintain our standing in key international organizations. Four of these nominees will be responsible for representing the United States at various U.N. bodies and three of them for leading work on nuclear energy nonproliferation, to promote energy security while protecting the American people from the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. These are diplomats who will help the United States bolster and reform institutions so they can effectively withstand the steady march, the pressures of authoritarianism, and uphold our core values of human rights, labor rights, democracy, and transparent economic practices. In conclusion, I ask that we confirm these nominees today so they can move forward with representing our Nation, Governor Markell and many others. Several have been pending since April, more than 220 days; others, for 130 days--since July. It is December. While I am hopeful that we can yet find a path forward towards a resolution of this impasse, today I was committed to coming to the floor and asking unanimous consent. We need to get these folks into their positions as soon as humanly possible. So I ask unanimous consent that notwithstanding rule XXII, if applicable, at a time to be determined by the majority leader in consultation with the Republican leader, the Senate proceed to executive session to consider Executive Calendar Nos. 318, 319, 442, 446, 460, and 514; that there be 10 minutes for debate equally divided in the usual form on the nominations en bloc; that upon the use or yielding back of time, the Senate proceed to vote without intervening action or debate on the nominations in the order listed; that if a nomination is confirmed, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate; that no further motions be in order on these nominations; and that the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action.