Tammy Duckworth

Ms. DUCKWORTH

Ms. DUCKWORTH. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions be discharged from further consideration of S. 5276 and that the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration; further, that the bill be considered read a third time and passed; and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Ms. DUCKWORTH

Ms. DUCKWORTH. Mr. President, this week, the U.S. Senate acted, unanimously, to honor our Nation's dedicated law enforcement officers, firefighters, and emergency responders by passing the Public Safety Officer Support Act, known as PSOSA. I was proud to author the bipartisan Public Safety Officer Support Act and want to thank Senator Cornyn and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Durbin for their steadfast leadership and hard work in helping pass this vital legislation that seeks to modernize the Public Safety Officers' Benefits Program by recognizing that, when a public safety officer dies by suicide, there should be a rebuttable presumption that the loss should be designated as a line of duty death. I look forward to President Joe Biden signing the bipartisan Public Safety Officer Support Act into law and remain confident in the U.S. Department of Justice's readiness to effectively implement this important new law. My confidence is rooted in the Department's productive engagement and helpful technical assistance that was provided throughout the development of the final version of PSOSA. Of course, the Public Safety Officer Support Act would never have passed without the steadfast support and dedication of a wide range of organizations, such as the Fraternal Order of Police, National Association of Police Organizations, Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, Sergeants Benevolent Association NYPD, National Association of Attorneys General, National District Attorneys Association, Major County Sheriffs Association, National Sheriffs Association, National Border Patrol Council, United States Capitol Police Labor Committee, BLUE H.E.L.P., The Wounded Blue, American Psychological Association, American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, International Union of Police Associations, International Association of Chiefs of Police, National Prison Council, National Narcotics Officers Associations' Coalition, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, National Association for Children's Behavioral Health, International Society for Psychiatric Nurses, Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute, Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance, SMART Recovery, Kennedy Forum, Inseparable, National Council for Mental Wellbeing, National Association for Rural Mental Health, American Mental Health Counselors Association, National Association of Social Workers, Postpartum Support International, National Association of State and Mental Health Program Directors, American Association for Psychoanalysis in Clinical Social Work, and the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies. This impressive array of support for PSOSA reflects the importance and urgency of fixing a specific flaw in the Public Safety Officers' Benefits Program. Under current law, despite public safety officers facing a heightened risk for developing posttraumatic stress and having trauma-induced suicides, family member survivors of police officers and firefighters that commit suicide are excluded from the program. This means that surviving families are often left without any Federal support, State and local survivor annuities, or continued access to their loved ones' health insurance. Comparatively, the U.S. Armed Forces recognizes that servicemember suicides are line-of-duty deaths. More than 90 percent of the 1,107 Active-Duty Army suicides between 2005 and 2012 were determined to be in the line of duty. Just like our servicemembers, our first responders should be recognized and supported for the mental distress they endure while protecting our communities and responding to emergencies. That includes supporting their surviving families after they are gone. Once signed into law and implemented, the bipartisan Public Safety Officer Support Act will finally provide grieving families the benefits their loved ones earned while serving their communities as public safety officers and, equally important, help us eliminate the harmful stigma and infliction of emotional distress and pain on survivors that stems from misguided and outdated policies that refuse to designate public safety officer suicides as line of duty deaths. Now, I want to be clear. Ensuring that public safety officer suicides are considered line of duty deaths for purposes of participating in the Public Safety Officers' Benefits Program is about honoring a fallen police officer's or firefighter's life of service. It is about honoring these Americans and caring for their families, just as we do when a public safety officer dies from heart disease or COVID in the line of duty. Simply put, our bipartisan law will ensure surviving families of fallen public safety officers receive the support their loved ones earned through a life of service. We are seeking to ensure eligibility for the Public Safety Officers' Benefits Program no longer allows the manner of death to negate a career devoted to public service and serving one's community. And that is why it is also important to emphasize that a presumption of a line of duty death is not an absolute. Just as committing suicide should not deny a public safety officer and their family a line-of-duty death designation, in and of itself, taking one's life would not entitle a disgraced public safety officer who violated their oath of office to receive a Public Safety Officers' Benefits Program benefit. It is our intent that the U.S. Department of Justice will review and take into account the potential contributing factors to the officer or firefighters' death or injury and consult the agency investigating the cause and manner of death and the agency of the police officer or firefighter, just as the Department's Bureau of Justice Assistance Public Safety Officers' Benefits Program Office is empowered to do in all other claims submitted to the program. Moving forward, I hope enactment of the Public Safety Officer Support Act inspires the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund and other State and local law enforcement memorials to update their respective line-of-duty death criteria to match the Public Safety Officers' Benefits Program. After all, our Nation's support of first responder families is particularly critical following the tragic loss of a police officer, a firefighter, or an emergency responder, and these grieving families deserve to be included among the families of the fallen. In closing, I want to take a moment to recognize the incredible courage, resilience, and strength of the late Officer Jeffrey Smith's widow, Erin Smith, and his parents, Richard and Wendy Smith. Their collective determination and commitment to fixing an unjust system to prevent future families of the fallen from having to experience the emotional pain and financial harm resulting from the denial of a line-of-duty death designation, played a pivotal role in the development and passage of the Public Safety Officer Support Act. I commend Erin, Richard and Wendy Smith for honoring the service of their loved one and hope that Officer Smith's lasting legacy of spurring a long-needed change in the law provides them with comfort and confidence that his tragic loss was not in vain.

Ms. DUCKWORTH

Ms. DUCKWORTH. Mr. President, 2-year-old Aiden McCarthy was lying bloodied and pinned underneath his unconscious father when he was found--just a toddler, Aiden was still in diapers, had somehow lost one shoe and was down to just one blood-soaked sock, with scrapes across his body. It was last Monday, July Fourth, and Aiden was rescued from the site of a massacre, from the site of the latest mass shooting that has marred our country and left scarred all those who bore witness to its senseless terror. I was at a nearby parade in Illinois when I heard about the shooting. I rushed to the emergency operation center and was there the moment the police came in and told us that two Good Samaritans had found this young boy sheltered under his father's body. When Aiden was rescued, he kept asking for his mom and his dad. But, tragically, horribly, we later learned that they were never going to be able to comfort him ever again. Both his mother and father were among the seven people murdered during that Fourth of July parade shooting in Highland Park. Their names were Irina and Kevin McCarthy And they, like so many of us, had spent that holiday morning eager to take pride in our country, eager to celebrate the freedom and goodness and greatness that has defined our Nation since its first breaths on that first July Fourth, eager to celebrate America at her best. Instead, they experienced the very worst of it. They saw firsthand what can happen when a sick fealty to the gun lobby is prioritized over American lives. And Aiden is an orphan because of it. I woke up today unable to get the image of 2-year-old Aiden's one bloodied sock out of my mind. I woke up, as I have every day since that day, unable to stop thinking about how his mom or his dad put on his diaper that morning, just like I have done thousands of times with my own two little girls. I woke up thinking about how, when the first shots of that military- style rifle rang out, his parents' first thoughts must have been about saving him, shielding him. So today, I come to the floor to say their names and the names of the five other victims, my constituents who should still be breathing at this very moment but aren't: Katherine Goldstein, Jacquelyn Sundheim, Stephen Straus, Nicolas Toledo-Zaragoza, Eduardo Uvaldo, and Irina and Kevin McCarthy. There are too many victims of preventable gun violence to name all of them here. In fact, gun violence is the largest killer of children under the age of 16 in this country--not disease, but the disease of gun violence. It happens in Buffalo, in Chicago, in Uvalde, in Newtown, in Pittsburgh, in DeKalb, in Virginia Beach, in El Paso, in two different Auroras, in Las Vegas. It happens in wealthy suburban communities, in low-income rural communities, and in urban areas across our Nation. It happens everywhere in America but almost nowhere outside of this country. It happens so much here that we only hear about it in the national news when a large enough number of people are killed at one time and in one place. Think about that. Every time gun violence occurs, someone decides whether or not the number murdered is worthy of column inches and breaking news graphics on TV. And, too often, the answer is no because there have been more mass shootings thus far in 2022 than there have been days in the year and because we, as a country, have grown numb. We witnessed that just last week in Chicago, as over the holiday weekend, Chicago's death toll climbed even higher than the devastation seen in Highland Park. Yet there was no national outcry. In Chicago's communities, gun violence is now viewed as all too common, and kids can no longer be kids. They have all heard too many stories of toddlers in strollers killed by a stray bullet or parents murdered while picking up their own kids from school. But these everyday gun deaths no longer garner the attention they demand. We have become desensitized, even as elementary schoolers' lives are being stolen and survivors' innocence are lost. Every gun death is a tragedy that can and should be prevented. This is a uniquely American disease, and it requires a national solution. So I am here on the floor today to plead with my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to help keep another toddler from having to cry out for his parents amidst gunshots and terror; to help stop another day of patriotism, another math class, another trip to the grocery store from turning into a living nightmare. I plead with them to help prevent all that by passing the assault weapons ban, legislation that would block the further sale, transfer, manufacture, and importation of military-style assault weapons and high-capacity magazines for civilian use. I spent 23 years in the Army. So I recognize a weapon of war when I see one. I know why you would need to use them, the power they wield, and what they can do to a human body. I understand that the M4, the M16, and their civilian variants--known generically as AR-15 rifles--were designed for the battlefield. From their portability, rapid rates of fire, power and accuracy to their effective range, these weapons were designed to rip apart the human body so your enemy cannot get back up and fire back at you on the field of combat. These are weapons of the battlefield and have no business being on our streets and in our schools. There is a reason why the parents in Uvalde had to submit DNA to identify their murdered children. These AR- 15 style rifles fire small caliber ammunition at a velocity that can easily penetrate many kinds of body armor even at a distance. So when an unprotected child is shot with an AR-15 at close range, the results are horrific. And as anyone who has ever carried an M4 into combat understands, the American people should not be misled into thinking that AR-15 rifles are safe for our communities or that a ban on fully automatic machine guns is sufficient to protect our children from the most dangerous weapons of war. Mass shooters are hunting mothers in malls, fathers in theaters, and children in their schools. For that evil purpose, a semiautomatic rifle is the perfect weapon because it is lightweight, portable, and easy to load with high-capacity magazines. It couples the speed of automatically chambering the next round after each shot with maximum accuracy--a combination designed to kill as many people as possible, as fast as possible, as efficiently as possible. So the first thing I thought when I heard the audio of last week's tragedy was that it sounded like war because the last time I heard the sound of gunfire that rapid and that many rounds going off on the Fourth of July was when I was serving in Iraq. I never thought I would hear that on this holiday again, let alone here on U.S. soil. And I live, like so many other moms, in daily fear that my own daughters will be forced to hear that nightmarish soundtrack of war in their own classrooms or their own local parade. You know, a few weeks ago I went to talk to my daughters' class about Memorial Day. Both girls' teachers had asked me to come and explain the meaning of Memorial Day, to talk about the sacrifices of our troops, what we have done to safeguard our freedoms and rights as a nation, including, as the Constitution says, our right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. As I was talking, I happened to look outside the window of my older girl's classroom, only to see my younger daughter walking in a line, following behind the other kids in her class in the middle of a shelter-in-place drill. And I watched as that little row of 3- and 4- year-olds crouched down as small as they could get, and my daughter, with her head against the wall, put her hands over her head, learning to protect herself should there be a mass shooting. She is just 4 years old. And she was already being taught how to survive if someone with a weapon of war comes into the classroom where she is just beginning to learn her ABCs, believing that their right to fire assault rifles matters more than her right to make it to age 5. What I felt was close to horror. And I know other parents have felt the same. I am far from the only mom who will hug their kids a little tighter while putting them to bed tonight, then spend hours looking up ballistic backpacks to protect my girls in case the worst-case scenario becomes reality. But the horrible truth is, even ballistic backpacks may not stop these rounds. This week alone, hundreds of Illinoisans and survivors from other mass shootings were gathered at the Capitol. These people--mostly moms--are still recovering from major trauma. And they have jobs and childcare responsibilities and no experience lobbying Congress. Yet they made the trip to Washington, DC, because they know that their children's lives depend on it and because they are beyond furious at the lack of action to ban these weapons of war that have terrorized all of our communities. What these moms want isn't impossible. It wouldn't even be that difficult if more folks would grow a conscience. These parents want us to do better for them, for their kids, for all those in Highland Park last week, and for every person who has so needlessly lost their life to gun violence, whether in a mass shooting or in a tragedy involving a single bullet. The folks at that parade last Monday were there to celebrate life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Seven of them will never be able to do so again. We have to stop this. We have to end this cycle. And we can take a step towards doing so right now by getting these weapons of war off our streets and passing this bill immediately. To anyone who says no, to anyone who objects to passing this bill, I want to know how you can show off taking pride in our country on a holiday, then turn your back on its citizens 1 week later. I want you to say all the names of the ever-growing list of victims of these preventable tragedies. I want you to remember Aiden's pleas for his mom and dad, to think of the sounds of the gunshots that those children in Uvalde heard, to try to fathom the anguish of the parents whose teenagers are gunned down in senseless, everyday violence on our streets. I want you to explain to them why the dollars that you get from the NRA are worth their pain, their tears, their tragedy. Please, I am asking, explain how that campaign contribution is worth this endless cycle of blood and death. Explain how your gun-lobbying, fattened campaign funds are worth another parent having to bury their first grader in their favorite pair of Converse sneakers. Or, if you don't believe those checks are worth it, if you don't actually value your political self-interests more than those Americans' lives, then please join me in passing this bill. It is that simple. I yield the floor.

Ms. DUCKWORTH

Ms. DUCKWORTH. Mr. President, I rise today to honor Chicago's very own WGN Radio for reaching its milestone 100th birthday this year. In a century's time, WGN has reported on so much of our Nation's history. The station is synonymous with Chicago's vibrant sports history and has defined time and again what it means to have a vision and work to see it through. WGN, which stands for ``World's Greatest Newspaper'' and pays homage to the Chicago's Tribune's 20th century slogan, comes from humble beginnings. Starting with a single staff member in 1922, WGN went on to cover some of the past century's defining moments and solidify a legacy of storytelling and determination. In 1942, it was WGN who interrupted their broadcast of a Bears game to report for the next 257 hours and 35 minutes on the attack on Pearl Harbor. On 9/11, WGN was there, focusing on Chicago's reaction to the events on that tragic September morning. As an Illinoisan, I am proud that WGN has consistently shown up during some of our country's darkest days. But they have been with us through many of our brightest moments too. WGN went from broadcasting its very first sports game--a match between the Cubs and White Sox--go Cubs--in 1924, to Wayne Larrivee, Dick Butkus, and Jim Hart broadcasting the Chicago Bears' legendary Super Bowl XX win to 2010's triumphant cries as the station's broadcasters described Patrick Kane scoring the winning goal in overtime, earning the Chicago Blackhawks the Stanley Cup for the first time in 50 years. WGN has not just been telling our stories for the last 100 years, but they have become a vital member of our community. Judy Markey and Kathy O'Malley's beloved afternoon talk show, and making Mary Sandberg Boyle the station's first woman general manager in 2019, or bringing the voices like Orion Samuelson and Bob Collins to our days--WGN is embedded in the hearts of so many Chicagoans. WGN's legacy isn't just about radio. It is about community. It is about being proud of where you have come from and where you are going. So here is to 100 more years of WGN, and many more to come. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Ms. DUCKWORTH

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

Ms. DUCKWORTH

Ms. DUCKWORTH. Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to the remarkable life of Brian Dennis Balbuena, a devoted son, brother, and friend who passed away on April 3, 2022, after a hard-fought battle with brain cancer. Born March 14, 1983, Brian used his time on earth to bring joy and light into the hearts of others. Having battled and beat cancer at the age of 5, Brian enjoyed finding new ways to ``Pay it Forward'' to those around him. Brian will be remembered by his family and friends as a loving and compassionate person who had a contagious smile and a presence that brightened any room he entered. He leaves behind his incredible parents, Tina and Mark, his siblings, Amber and Dustin, and a host of nieces and nephews. May his legacy and kind spirit serve as an inspiration to us all.

Ms. DUCKWORTH

Ms. DUCKWORTH. Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to the remarkable life of Retired Colonel James A. Smith, Jr., a 31 year veteran of the Illinois Army National Guard who passed away on May 11, 2022. Colonel Smith started his career in 1977 as an enlisted soldier, commissioning in 1982 through the Illinois Army National Guard's Officer Candidate School. He served in various staff and leadership positions throughout his career in the Illinois National Guard. In 2003, Colonel Smith was appointed as the Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel (G-1). In this role, he played an integral role in preparing Illinois Army National Guard units for deployment to Iraq and then Afghanistan. In 2008, before his retirement, he was appointed as the Illinois Army National Guard chief of staff before being appointed the Illinois Department of Military Affairs chief of staff that same year. As the IDMA chief of staff, Colonel Smith supported multiple Illinois National Guard deployments, the Illinois National Guard's response to floods, hurricanes, and wildfires, the 2012 NATO Summit in Chicago, and most recently, the Illinois National Guard's COVID-19 response, as well as law enforcement support missions. Colonel Smith was proud of being an infantry officer, a devout Catholic, and an unwavering Cardinals fan. He was a strong advocate for Lincoln's Challenge Academy and its cadets, the Illinois Military Family Relief Fund, the Illinois State Military Museum, the National Guard Association of Illinois, and, most of all, the soldiers and airmen of the Illinois National Guard and their families. Colonel Jim Smith's voice will not be heard again in the Illinois National Guard's buildings or training areas, but his spirit will remain within this organization for many generations to come. He leaves behind his wife Nilsa and their son Sam. May his legacy of service and kind spirit serve as an inspiration to us all.

Ms. DUCKWORTH

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

Ms. DUCKWORTH

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

Ms. DUCKWORTH

Ms. DUCKWORTH. Mr. President, last night, as I was doomscrolling--as they say one does at 2 in the morning when you can't sleep--what I was looking up were places to buy ballistic protective backpacks for my daughters, who are 4 and 7, and places to buy ballistic protective white boards, which could be donated to my girls' school, that would act as shields should a shooter go to their school. It is bad enough that I felt I had to do that, but the fact of the matter is, those pages were already bookmarked because it was not the first time that I have had to look them up. Just 10 days, 240 hours, less than 2 weeks is all it took. It took just 10 days from the racially motivated domestic terrorism attack in Buffalo before we had to mourn the loss of yet more Americans--this time, 19 babies and 2 teachers--to a senseless, horrific, and, importantly, preventable mass shooting in Uvalde, TX. These were children gunned down at their school, with their small bodies mangled, utterly destroyed by lethal weapons of war that are designed to quickly kill adults. So, last night when I got home, I held on to my two babies so tightly. They didn't know why, but I wasn't going to let them go. I was just so grateful they came home from school. Today, there are at least 19 more families in our country that will never be able to forget the horrific site of what happens to a baby's body, to a child's body when shot at close range with an AR-15 or similarly styled rifle meant for battlefields and not schools. I come to the floor today because, as a mother, I am beyond angry. I am furious, heartbroken, and fed up. I am sick to my stomach thinking about what those parents are feeling right now. They sent off their babies to school yesterday morning, just like I did. They packed their lunch, like I did. They argued with their babies about hurry up, the bus is coming. You are going to miss the bus. No, you really do have to wear a sweater. I know that you don't think it is cold, but you have to wear a sweater or today is PE day, and you have to wear your tennis shoes. But unlike my daughters, those babies never came home again. They will never laugh their beautiful laughs again. They will never smile their wild, silly, gorgeous smiles again. That is a hell on Earth I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. As a Senator, I ask my colleagues: How many more children will you allow to be murdered on your watch? How many more? How many more tiny bodies have to be ripped apart by weapons of war before you will stand up to the gun lobby and the NRA? How many more children will you allow to go to school each day traumatized, fearing for their lives; children, terrified of being gunned down in their classrooms, practicing active shooter drills instead of studying their ABCs and 123s. When will it be enough for you to do something, anything, to simply do your job? When will children's lives matter more than your check from the gun lobby? When? Last night, my colleague from Connecticut Senator Murphy came to the floor to ask our colleagues on the other side of the aisle, ``What are we doing?'' But my Republican colleagues know exactly what they are doing. They know exactly what they are risking, whose lives they are endangering when they refuse to lift a finger in the wake of yet another mass shooting. When the assault weapons ban was allowed to expire, the number of mass shooting deaths tripled--tripled. We know that the ban works, and we need to reinstate it. Republicans are yet again pushing for nothing to be done, falling back on the old line that only one thing stops a bad guy with a gun, and that is a good guy with a gun, knowing full well that there were good guys with guns at both Uvalde and Buffalo. And here we are, mourning dozens of lives anyway. And I have even heard some of them say let's equip the teachers with guns. I would rather equip teachers with more pieces of chalk and more learning tools than guns because even if those teachers had had a gun in the classroom, they didn't have a chance to react to go grab that gun, and they are dead today. They pretend like all we can do is send thoughts and prayers or they say it is too soon to talk about politics. But they know that we don't have any time to wait. This time, we didn't even have 10 days to wait from Buffalo. It is their job to do more than send thoughts and prayers. It is their job--our job--to prove that we care even the least little bit about those little bodies and the giant heartbreaks they leave behind. We know how to stop these attacks from happening as often as they do. Heck, the entire rest of the world has figured it out. We all know there will be another and another and another attack in the weeks and months ahead if we do nothing. More innocent lives will undoubtedly be lost. So if you are not willing to act, if you are not willing to do the most basic part of your job to prevent the senseless loss of innocent life, then again I ask, why are you here? The Senate should immediately, at a 50-vote threshold, vote on the commonsense gun safety reforms that the American people have demanded for so long. And don't tell me this is about the filibuster because we have, time and again, voted at the 50-vote threshold on things that matter, like raising the debt ceiling or the defense budget. Yet the lives of our babies, the right of our babies to not be torn apart by weapons meant for war is not worthy of that? We are talking about universal background checks. We are talking about the kind of reforms that widespread majorities of Americans support. And in the face of yet another moment of unimaginable, unbearable, unfathomable grief, let's show the Nation that we value children's lives more than an arcane Senate procedure rule. Let's do what adults are supposed to do. Let's protect our kids, the most vulnerable, the most innocent. Let's do our jobs. Let's do what we were sent here to do, what our children are depending on us to do. We owe it to each victim of this tragedy and every tragedy before it and their loved ones to finally act. Enough was enough a very, very long time ago. May those babies rest in peace, those little angels now in Heaven. I yield the floor.

Ms. DUCKWORTH

Ms. DUCKWORTH. Mr. President, my older daughter, Abigail--named for Abigail Adams, who urged her husband to ``remember the ladies''--is 7. She is generous, silly, and so, so smart. She calls herself a maker-kid and dreams of being an engineer or an army nurse but definitely not a helicopter pilot. My younger daughter, Maile, just turned 4. Her laugh is contagious, and early on during the pandemic when I was mostly working from home, she proved that she was truly her mother's daughter by starting to pull pranks, including grabbing my phone and, oopsies, hanging up on whoever was on the other line when I was trying to conduct a Zoom meeting or review some legislation instead of playing with her. But Abigail and Maile might not be here today if it weren't for the basic reproductive rights Americans have relied on for nearly 50 years. When Roe was decided in 1973, it changed the lives of so many women. It saved the lives of 14-year-olds who were the victims of rape or incest, who otherwise would have had to turn to back alleys and back rooms. It changed the lives of women who desperately wanted to be moms but who found out their pregnancies weren't viable. They would have to go through the pain and suffering and trauma of a full term, only to stillborn at the end of 9 months. Personally, for me, it gave me my chance to be a mom, for I never would have had my creative, silly, drive-me-crazy-yet-love-them- infinitely two daughters if Roe hadn't paved the way for women to make their own healthcare decisions, as I was only able to get pregnant through IVF, a fertility process that Roe lays the foundation for. Because of IVF, I got to experience all the joys of motherhood. Because of reproductive rights, my husband and I aren't just ``Tammy and Bryan,'' we are ``Mommy and Daddy.'' Because of Roe and the rights and laws it protects, we are a family. Yet, last week, we learned that the Supreme Court could be just weeks away from overturning Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, a decision that, if made final, would strip away reproductive rights for millions of women, forcing them to potentially live through the horrors and indignities that their grandmothers bore if they needed reproductive care, and this would just be the start. For while the anti-choice movement has been working for years-- decades--to get to this moment, overturning Roe is not their end goal. They want a national ban on abortion, something the Republican Senate Leader said was a possibility just last week. They want to undermine access to contraception. In some States, legislation has already been introduced that would make IVF a crime. In Oklahoma, one woman was even convicted of manslaughter for having a miscarriage--a miscarriage. Criminalized for having a miscarriage. I have had a miscarriage, and there are no words to describe what mothers feel in that moment. For me, I was overcome with the rawest, most painful emotion I had ever experienced. In that moment, losing my baby felt more searing than anything I had ever felt in my entire life. Yet if the GOP has its way, women may now have to live in fear that that worst moment of their lives may also send them to prison. And if extremists get what they are seeking, doctors who perform procedures, such as dilation and curettage, to help grieving families who have lost a pregnancy might be at risk of going to jail too. Doctors like the one who after my own miscarriage conducted the D&C to clear out my uterus that allowed me to immediately continue my dream of having a baby via IVF, my desperately wished for second child, my beautiful rainbow baby, Maile. So let's be honest, what is happening is not about protecting life. If the anti-choice movement truly wanted to protect life, they would stop trying to strip away Americans' healthcare. They would be putting all of their efforts into addressing the growing maternal mortality crisis that has taken a tragic number of Black mothers' lives. They would be pushing for desperately needed policies that support parents, like affordable childcare and paid parental leave. If Republicans actually cared about being pro-life, they would do something, anything, to stand up to the National Rifle Association. So, no, this isn't about saving lives. This isn't about looking out for families. It is about getting a slap on the back from their base and exerting even more control over women's bodies. It is about deepening divides between the haves and the have-nots. It is about making it even harder to undo centuries of harm unleashed by systemic racism and economic injustice, systems under which women of color have suffered the most. Look, I know that a lot of us are tired from the seemingly endless fight to protect our most basic human rights, but we can do more. We have to do more. We must. Congress itself has the power. We have the ability to vote tomorrow to pass the Women's Health Protection Act, which would codify Roe v. Wade once and for all because, let me be clear, women seeking care should not be ashamed. The people who should feel shame are those forcing these women to live through unnecessary pain and suffering. The people who should feel shame are those who claim to be pro-life, yet would let a mother die in childbirth for an unviable pregnancy, who refuse to expand Medicaid, who believe guns should be easy to get but basic healthcare impossible to find. These are the people who should be ashamed. These are the people who have no shame. And I will be damned if I let my daughters grow up in a country that gives them fewer rights than their mom had. So here I am today fighting for tomorrow that doesn't look like our yesterday because in that yesterday, those of us with uteruses were treated as second-class citizens. And I didn't learn to fly Black Hawk helicopters, go to war for this Nation, nearly lose my life fighting for the rights enshrined in that Constitution I protected, only to come back home and have those same rights stripped away from the next generation of girls who simply want to be able to follow their own dreams, like I did mine. To me, it comes down to this: Women should be allowed to make their healthcare decisions without Mitch McConnell's voice or Brett Kavanaugh's face haunting them at their OB/GYN appointment. So shame on those who want to take us back to the pre-Roe back alleys. Shame on those who don't dare regulate guns but want to regulate our uteruses. I will fight with everything I have got to keep us out of those back alleys because it is the least that the women who came before us and fought for these rights deserve, and it is the least that our own daughters need. So enough of the hypocrisy, enough of the misogyny, enough of some men in hallowed halls of DC arguing that they know better than women in Illinois or Arizona or Missouri. We can and we must do better. That means proving that we care about women every day of the year, not just on one Sunday in May. That means codifying Roe now. Let's vote. I yield the floor.

Ms. DUCKWORTH

Ms. DUCKWORTH. Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to the remarkable career of CW5 David Hammon, a 42-year servicemember of the Illinois Army National Guard who will retire on April 30, 2022. Chief Hammon was the fifth command chief warrant officer of the State of Illinois and only the third full-time soldier to hold the position. Chief Hammon enlisted in the Army as an aircraft mechanic in 1980. He served with the 219th Transportation Company, 40th Aviation Battalion (Attack Helicopter), 1144th Transportation Battalion, and 1st Battalion, 106th Aviation Regiment. In 1996, he became an aviation warrant officer with the 106th. He served in various units and positions, to include aviation intermediate maintenance, light medium transportation, lift, and aviation unit maintenance. His latest assignment was as a maintenance test pilot for Company D, 1st Battalion, 106th Aviation Regiment in Decatur, flying the UH-60 Blackhawk. Chief Hammon deployed twice in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom/New Dawn. In 2004 to 2005, he deployed with Headquarters, 1st Battalion, 106th Aviation Regiment, and in 2009 to 2010, he deployed with Company A, 1st Battalion, 106th Aviation Regiment. His overseas deployment training missions include Germany, El Salvador, Panama, Iceland, and Hawaii. Chief Hammon's military awards and decorations include Meritorious Service Medal, Air Medal (Numeral 2), Army Commendation Medal (3 oakleaf clusters), National Defense Service Medal (1 Bronze Star), Iraq Campaign Medal (3 Bronze Service Stars), Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Humanitarian Service Medal, Armed Forces Reserve Medal (M 2 Device), Overseas Service Ribbon (Numeral 2), Army Reserve Component Overseas Training Ribbon (Numeral 7), Illinois State Active Duty (Numeral 2), Army Combat Action Badge, Master Army Aviator Badge, Army Excellence in Competition Badge Bronze Rifle, Driver and Mechanic Badge. Chief Hammon's leadership, determination, and commitment have no doubt changed lives and helped to make our country safer. As his Army career ends, may he continue to be ``Always Ready, Always There!'' and forever take pride in knowing that his exemplary efforts and unwavering professionalism contributed greatly to the success of the Army and the National Guard mission.

Ms. DUCKWORTH

Ms. DUCKWORTH. Madam President, I come to the floor today to mourn the passing and celebrate the life of Thomas Horace Porter, my good friend and a man who could put a smile on my face even in the toughest times, on one of the most painful days of my life, while I was recovering at Walter Reed. Among the peer visitors at Walter Reed Hospital, two of the most beloved were Tom and his wife Eleanor. Tom was a gentle giant--a tall, smiling, then-74-year-old veteran who showed up at my bedside while I was still sedated to talk with my husband and mother and who came to visit again soon after I regained consciousness. As a young Army lieutenant in the Korean war, Tom had lost both his legs in a landmine explosion. His heroic actions saving his men on that day earned Tom both the Silver Star in addition to the Purple Heart for his combat injuries. During his months of recuperation back in the States, Eleanor--or El, as we all know her--an Army second lieutenant herself, had been one of his physical therapists. The couple ended up married for more than 50 years. Tom continued to serve our Nation--this time as a civil servant, achieving the rank of Senior Executive Service in the Department of Agriculture. When Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom began and the wounded began flooding the wards at Walter Reed, Tom and El decided that they needed to help. They became peer visitors, and for the next 7 years, during twice weekly visits, they changed the lives of countless veterans who passed through that hospital, my own included. When I was at Walter Reed, Tom made it his mission to talk with injured troops about the full lives they will lead after their devastating injuries. A lot of the wounded warriors around me were really young, just 19 to 24 years old, lying in their hospital beds with limbs missing, burns to their faces and bodies, skulls crushed and encased in protective metal cages or helmets. They were all facing a future none of them had planned for. Like them, I had always assumed I would either die in combat or come home. The third option of coming home severely injured was never something that occurred to the majority of us. Tom would walk in with that big smile of his and say: Hey, I was like you. Lost my legs at 22. But I recovered and I have had a full and regular life. I courted El after I lost my legs, and she and I have been married for 50 years and have wonderful kids and grandkids. He reassured them that they could still have the lives they dreamed of, and his words had weight because he was living proof that that was possible. He would wink and joke: Listen, having an amputation is better than having a puppy. Trust me, you won't have any trouble getting the ladies. And then he would answer any questions they had because he knew they needed to hear from someone who had already journeyed on the road they were about to travel. For years, Tom and El came into Walter Reed every Tuesday and Thursday without fail. El was known as the Cookie Lady because she would bring in dozens of homemade cookies that she collected from folks at her church. For those of us who were in the hospital a long time, El knew our favorites. Mine were oatmeal raisin. If I was at physical therapy or in surgery or getting my wounds debrided when El made her rounds, she would make sure to leave a little bag of cookies by my bedside table. It was a real treat in the midst of the painful, early stages of recovery--something to look forward to every week. Tom and El. El and Tom. The two of them became family for all of us. They would bring me and my husband to their lakeside home, feed us home-cooked meals, and let me fall asleep in their hammock overlooking the water, knowing the good that getting out of that fluorescent-lit hospital room would do me. As someone who loved and was desperately missing the ocean, I can't begin to describe how restorative those days by the lake were. There are no words for how right it felt to be drifting off to sleep to the sound of waves hitting the shore rather than to the beeps and the buzz of the hospital machines that had been my nightly soundtrack for too long. And there is no possible way to express just how grateful I am to Tom and El for making that a possibility; for giving me a taste of home, right when I felt most like a stranger to myself; for enveloping me in something good and whole right when I felt untethered from what I felt was my life's mission; and for simply being who they were--kind and fierce, as compassionate for the people they loved as they were passionate about the causes that they believed in. They were our advocates, our heroes, our Tom and our El. I am so sorry for your loss, El. We miss Tom every single day. Thank you both for all you did for me and what you did for all of us. We miss you desperately. I yield the floor.

Ms. DUCKWORTH

Ms. DUCKWORTH. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Ms. DUCKWORTH

Ms. DUCKWORTH. Mr. President, I have one request 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:

Ms. DUCKWORTH

Ms. DUCKWORTH. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to executive session to consider the following nomination: Nani A. Coloretti, of California, to be Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget; 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 with no intervening action or debate; that any statements related to the nomination be printed in the Record; and that the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action.

Ms. DUCKWORTH. Mr. President.

Ms. DUCKWORTH. Mr. President, it makes no sense to say that we are not getting answers so we are not going to confirm anybody to this position of Deputy Director of OMB. We only just confirmed the Director last week. It is like saying: I am going to the emergency room because I have an emergency, and there are no doctors working there to solve my problem so we are not going to let any more doctors in to work there. It makes no sense. I am deeply disappointed the Republicans are objecting to the swift confirmation of the Honorable Nani Coloretti to be Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget. She came through committee; she was reported out of committee; and if there were any questions of her, they should have been asked in committee. But, again, we are holding up the nomination of someone to lead an Agency that you are complaining isn't answering your questions. Well, there is no leadership there to make sure that those questions get answered. So this is a circular logic that does not make any sense. In fact, Ms. Coloretti is eminently qualified to hold this position of Deputy Director of OMB. Like many members of our Nation's diverse Asian-American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander community, Ms. Coloretti and her family lived the American dream of countless immigrants who came to the Nation in search of a better life. Her late parents instilled in her the value of education and hard work and, perhaps more importantly, fostered a sense of empathy and curiosity that helped lead Ms. Coloretti to choose a life of public service. And make no mistake, she is a true public servant who is devoted to serving her country. Her nomination should not be controversial. After all, a bipartisan supermajority coalition of Senators already confirmed her to serve as Deputy Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Of course, this overwhelming support was not surprising, given Ms. Coloretti's impressive experience in the public and private sectors, including serving as a program examiner at OMB. During her time in public service, Ms. Coloretti dedicated herself to making government work better for the people it serves. At the U.S. Department of Treasury, she pushed to enhance decision-making processes through better use of data and evidence. At the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, where she served as a Chief Operating Officer of a Department with a $45 billion budget and approximately 8,000 employees, Ms. Coloretti focused on strengthening management practices to improve program delivery and ultimately achieve better results. Look, there is no question that Nani Coloretti is eminently qualified to be Deputy Director of the OMB, nor is there any question that the President deserves to have his full leadership slate in place to formulate and finalize his fiscal year 2023 budget proposal. As the President often notes, a budget truly reveals what one values, and that is why it was so important that the Senate confirmed the Honorable Shalanda Young to be OMB Director last week. Now, my question is, If you want to fix the problem and get answers, let's get somebody like Nani Coloretti in there who has got a background and a track record of getting Departments and Agencies working correctly, working again efficiently for the American people. That is why it is critical that we move swiftly to confirm Nani Coloretti now. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Ms. DUCKWORTH

Ms. DUCKWORTH. Madam President, I rise today to pay tribute to the remarkable life of Ms. Stephanie Denise Shannon, who passed away on September 8, 2021. Stephanie was born March 24, 1986, in Detroit, MI, to her late father, William Everett Shannon, Sr., and her mother, Toni Laverne Shannon. Upon completing high school, Stephanie attended Wayne State University, where she pursued her passion for helping animals by studying veterinary science. To her close friends, she will be remembered as a kind and gentle spirit that loved video games and enjoyed watching a variety of films. Stephanie was not only a dedicated and loyal friend, daughter, and sister, but she was also a devoted mother to her son, Cason, whom she referred to as her ``Prince'' and her daughter, Madison, whom she referred to as her ``Mini Me.'' The love and light that made so many love and appreciate Stephanie will be passed down and live through her incredible children. May her radiant and loving spirit be remembered by all those who knew her.

Ms. DUCKWORTH

Ms. DUCKWORTH. Mr. President, I join the senior Senator from Illinois' affection for Tom Balanoff. He truly is an icon for labor, not just in Illinois but across the country. Ukraine Mr. President, I rise today to speak on Ukraine. With Russian troops firing outside, one Ukrainian woman was rushed outside and down out of the hospital by hospital staff. She was reportedly forced to give birth in a makeshift ICU in the hospital's basement with the sound of shelling surrounding her and with more than 100,000 Russian troops closing in on the area. Elsewhere in Eastern Ukraine, mothers and their newborns are being hurried from neonatal intensive care units to makeshift bomb shelters, with the blankets swaddling their babies the only armor they have protecting them from the explosions and missiles crisscrossing the skies above them. And all across Ukraine, little boys and girls are being born in subway car shelters, where some of the first words they hear are the cries of older children asking their own parents: ``Mommy, will we die here?'' This is the everyday, every-moment waking nightmare for those who call Ukraine home right now. This is the new normal for new moms struggling to learn how to breastfeed their newborns; the new reality for new parents who, just last week, were trying to figure out how to afford both diapers and next month's rent, yet who are now just desperate to get their 1-week-old to the 2-week-old mark. Why is this their new reality? For what? For a brutal and senseless war, a war as unjust as it is unjustifiable, as needless as it was unprovoked; a war whose violence has already torn families apart, yet whose cruelty has failed to fracture the unity of Ukraine itself. Three decades ago, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States and Russia asked Ukraine to give up their nuclear weapons in exchange for security guarantees under the Budapest Memorandum. Ukraine did so voluntarily, handing them over instead of keeping them for their own defense because the Ukrainians so desperately sought peace and a democratic rule-based order. Now, Russia has unilaterally broken that agreement, shattering that peace, and Ukrainians are once more laying down their lives for those same democratic principles. The contrast is stark. Vladimir Putin is fighting for autocracy, using aggression and irresponsible, unprovoked escalation. Ukraine meanwhile is fighting for freedom. Vladimir Putin believes himself to be some sort of neoimperialist, actively attacking neighboring democracies in an attempt to restore the Russian Empire. Well, today, I want to speak to all the Ukrainians who found a home in Illinois and all of them who are strewn across Europe who have been forced to flee their nation in the wake of this violence and to all who are still in Ukraine praying that they will be able to wake up again tomorrow. Let me say this clearly: We are with you. The free world has not been fooled by Vladimir Putin's schemes and lies. We know that he is no hero for Russians or anyone else. He is a violent mobster and a bully, an egomaniac who uses his own power to abuse those with less power, a tyrant who uses the levers in his control to level those who are in his way, someone who uses weapons of war to murder children from afar, who turns toddlers into orphans from hundreds of miles away from the safety of his hallowed halls and heavily fortified mansions. And yet, even with less power and less money, despite being outnumbered and outgunned, Ukraine has shown an incredible will to fight, putting up the fiercest of resistance against Putin and all that he stands for. That is because cowardice will always falter in the face of courage. Ukrainians are redefining that word ``courage'' every day that they repel Putin's unprovoked aggression. That is because those fighting for reasons of ego and greed will always stumble in the face of those fighting so that their children can climb out of bomb shelters, so that their third graders can go back to school, so that their families don't need to live every hour, breathe every breath with the kind of fear that Putin thrives on. And while I wish more than anything that Putin had never started this war and that those tanks had never rolled through their nation's streets, now the world will know the strength that typifies the Ukrainian people. They will know that Kyiv is synonymous with courage. They will know that though buildings in Odessa may crumble, the heart of the Ukrainian people will never waiver. I am in awe of those men, women, and children. I am in awe of the troops doing everything in their power to protect them. And I am honored that the Illinois National Guard helped train some of those Ukrainian soldiers, with our Guard members advising Ukrainian forces just last year on how to improve their defense capabilities. They are our brothers and sisters in arms; and their bravery, their resilience, and their determination over this past week has reminded the world that, as a certain retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel and son of Ukraine once said in this very Chamber: Right matters. They have shown us once more that a tyrant's lies will never blot out the courage and the goodness of a people determined to fight with and for one another. That is just one reason why I support President Biden's request to dedicate at least $6.4 billion in humanitarian and military aid to help those under siege in Ukraine, and it is why I am doing everything in my power to help keep Ukrainians in the United States safe by granting them temporary protected status. Look, this is no 21st-century Cold War; it is Putin's war. It is a coward's war. Vladimir Putin is no savior. He will bring no glory to the Russian people. All he will bring them is travesty and economic ruin. He is no champion. He is an embarrassment, and the history books will reflect as much. Twenty-eight years ago, when we asked Ukraine to give up those nuclear weapons, they did so, choosing peace, choosing to end the threat of bloodshed and destruction, choosing democracy. So now, we must stand with them as they so desperately seek peace once more. They have chosen democracy time and again. Today and all the days that this terrible war wages on, it is time for this democracy to choose them. I yield the floor.

Ms. DUCKWORTH

Ms. DUCKWORTH. Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to the remarkable life of Sergeant Marlene R. Rittmanic, a 21-year veteran of law enforcement who was fatally shot and passed away on December 30, 2021, while serving in the line of duty. Sergeant Rittmanic started her remarkable career at the Iroquois County Sheriff's Police Department, serving 7 years before transferring to the Bradley Police Department in 2007, for the last 14 years. Throughout her years of protecting and serving, Sergeant Rittmanic received the Officer of the Year Award for Kankakee County and countless letters of commendation for her service to the community. She will be remembered by her colleagues as a model officer and someone who looked forward to making memories with her fellow officers as the department's photographer, posting inspirational and team-building photographs of the officers and the community. Sergeant Rittmanic was not only a dedicated law enforcement officer, but also a devoted wife and citizen who was loved and respected in her community. Sergeant Rittmanic served in the U.S. Army and was a proud disabled veteran. Sergeant Rittmanic, a poet, also penned the prophetic poem, ``The Color We Bleed is That of Deep Blue,'' in 2001. Sergeant Rittmanic was tragically killed in the line of duty while fulfilling her oath to serve and protect the people of the Village of Bradley, IL, and I am grateful for her years of service. She leaves behind her wife, Lyn, and their 2 rescue dogs, Trigger and Abeline. May her service, sacrifice, and kind spirit serve as an inspiration to us all.

Ms. DUCKWORTH

Ms. DUCKWORTH. Madam President, I join my colleagues, the Senators from Nevada and Minnesota, in my frustration as to why we are here today. Today, I am joining them and urging my colleagues to join me in calling for the swift confirmation of Chief LaDon Reynolds to be the U.S. marshal for the Northern District of Illinois. As a seasoned law enforcement officer, Chief Reynolds is more than ready to take on the challenges of this important leadership role, including playing a key part in addressing the rising violent crime devastating our communities in Northern Illinois. Yet the only reason he is not already confirmed to this position is because of a hold from Senator Cotton--a hold that is completely unrelated to Chief Reynolds' immense qualifications. These qualifications include serving with distinction as the chief of police of the Oak Park Police Department for nearly 30 years, teaching law enforcement officers about the importance of community-oriented policing at the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board Executive Institute, and working to protect communities from rising hate as a board member of Governor Pritzker's Commission on Discrimination and Hate Crimes. Senator Durbin and I carefully reviewed Chief Reynolds' experience and expertise. It is clear to us and the White House that he is the best fit for the job. What we are asking for now is simply to let Reynolds get to work; let him take charge of an office that has already gone without Senate-confirmed leadership for 4 years. We need to have a confirmed U.S. marshal leading Federal law enforcement operations to secure our Federal courthouses and capture violent fugitives of the law. As U.S. marshal, Reynolds would also play an important role in the Biden administration's multijurisdictional strike force to investigate and prosecute gun traffickers channeling deadly weapons into the city of Chicago. Every day, there are new stories of horrifying and often deadly impacts of rising violent crimes in the Northern District of Illinois. In fact, last year was one of the city of Chicago's deadliest in decades. But statistics alone cannot fully describe the devastation our communities have endured. For so many Chicagoans, the presence of gun violence is a constant source of trauma and grief in their day-to-day lives. It is painful and gut-wrenching to see this sort of senseless violence happen again and again. We cannot wait any longer to advance Reynolds' confirmation, especially not for his nomination to be used as a pawn for Senator Cotton to expedite a response to his unrelated pending inquiry to the U.S. Department of Justice. Instead, we must act to make sure the Northern District of Illinois U.S. Marshal's Office has the leadership it needs to fulfill its mission of administering justice and enforcing the law. If Senator Cotton is serious about tackling violent crime and making our communities safe, then we must move forward with confirming LaDon Reynolds to be the next U.S. marshal for the Northern District of Illinois now. Chief Reynolds' nomination has my full support. I request that Senator Cotton lift his blanket hold on the U.S. attorney and U.S. marshal nominees pending consideration before the Senate, including Reynolds' nomination. I yield the floor.

Ms. DUCKWORTH

Ms. DUCKWORTH. Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to the remarkable life of Ms. LaTonya Barton, a military spouse who made tremendous contributions to veterans, especially veteran entrepreneurs, veteran-owned small businesses and service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses. Ms. Barton and her spouse, Mr. Timothy Barton, a U.S. Army veteran, founded Kingdomware Technology, Incorporation, in 1993. After several unsuccessful responses to requests for proposals issued by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs--VA--Ms. Barton suspected that the Department was failing to comply with a statutory requirement known as the Rule of Two. Under this Federal law, VA contracting officers are required to restrict competition to veteran-owned small businesses when it is reasonable to expect at least two veteran-owned small business interests will compete for a given VA contract award. Ms. Barton's legal challenge wove its way through the Federal judiciary until it reached the Supreme Court of the United States of America as the case Kingdomware Technologies, Inc. v. United States. Ms. Barton ultimately prevailed in her case, as the Supreme Court issued a unanimous 8-0 opinion which held that the Rule of Two is a mandatory legal requirement that applies to all VA competitive contract awards, including orders on the Federal Supply Schedule. Ms. Barton's legal victory was a significant win for the rule of law and every veteran-owned small business interest seeking to do business with the VA. Throughout her years of conducting research for the litigation and testifying before Congress, Ms. Barton always kept faith in our justice system and remained steadfast in her determination to make sure veteran small business owners who served our Nation in uniform would benefit from laws enacted to help them do business with the VA. Ms. Barton will be remembered by colleagues as a pioneer businesswoman who was unwavering in her commitment to the principle that when American tax dollars are expended by the VA, veteran-owned small business interests must be empowered to compete with large private sector competitors. Of course, Ms. Barton was far more than a savvy businesswoman. She was also a devoted mother, mentor, friend, and patriot who was loved and respected in her community. Despite the significant demands placed on her time by the litigation, Ms. Barton invested countless hours developing her children's academic and athletic prowess. The fruits of her labor resulted in developing a successful veteran- owned small business that has lasted more than 20 years and three outstanding student-athletes who excel in the classroom and on the basketball court. Ms. Barton passed away unexpectedly on November 3, 2021, leaving behind a legacy for veteran entrepreneurs across our Nation. She will always be remembered for her tenacity and dedication to doing right by our country's veterans. Qualities that are taught and found in our servicemembers came naturally to Ms. Barton, who was an outstanding leader, refused to accept defeat, possessed a never-quit attitude, and never gave up on the mission or her team. Ms. Barton leaves behind her husband, Tim, and their three children, Timothy, Jr., Carolae, and Johnathan. May her service, legacy and kind spirit serve as an inspiration to all.

Ms. DUCKWORTH

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

Ms. DUCKWORTH

Ms. DUCKWORTH. Mr. President, I can't think of a more important thing to be debating here in these Chambers than the right to vote. We can't even get to that. We can't even get to that because of the use of the filibuster to prevent us from having a vote, a discussion, on the Voting Rights Act. In America, the path toward justice has always, always been intertwined with the right to vote. Progress and enfranchisement have always been braided together. Billy clubs, whips, barbed wire, wrapped tubing--that is what awaited John Lewis at the end of that Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma because it has never been easy--it has never been easy--to fight for enfranchisement or to fight for the right to vote. There has always been a price to pay by those who focus on justice. Shouted slurs, explosions of tear gas, pained screams, and the crack of clubs against bone--those were the sounds that filled the air as Lewis and hundreds of his fellow Americans tried to march forward as they tried to bring their country forward one step at a time. Most of us in this room know of those mothers and fathers of the civil rights movement, what they did for us that day. They raised their voice on that bridge so that fellow Americans could raise their voices at the ballot box. Tragically, we also know that many in this Chamber today appear unwilling to do their part to protect the rights those heroes fought for. More than a half century ago, in this very building, Senators from both sides of the aisle came together to pass the Voting Rights Act, a bill designed to protect Black Americans--to protect all Americans-- from the kind of racial discrimination that was so common in State-run elections at that time. Of course, it is not possible to list out all the changes that have taken place since that moment. More and more civil rights advocates stood up and sat in. More and more Americans marched through and then laid down in the streets. And the moral arc of the universe that Dr. Martin Luther King spoke of bent a little more toward justice with every hard- earned right they secured and every fight that they won. But, sadly, damningly, one other change stands out to me as I speak here today. More than 50 years after the Voting Rights Act became law, we can no longer say that a bipartisan majority of the Senate is willing to protect the most basic tenet of our democracy. Heck, we don't even have all of the Senators in the room to discuss this. Every American's right to make their voice heard is so critically important to our democracy. We can't say this because Senate Republicans have spent the past year blocking every Democratic attempt to even begin debate on strengthening voter legislation. Even as Republicans in States around the country pass more and more restrictive voter suppression laws aimed at silencing the voice of the people, we still struggle and beg to have this debate, and they will not vote to allow us to do so. Republicans in Georgia made it illegal to peremptorily mail out absentee mail out absentee ballots to registered voters, a law that hurts all groups that rely on voting by mail, from communities of color to Americans living with disabilities. It also hurts military voters currently serving in harm's way overseas. I myself voted by mail when I was serving our country in Iraq. After all, I was a little busy flying combat missions, so I don't know if I would have had the chance to request an absentee ballot 15 days before the election if my unit had not assisted in that effort. Not every unit may do that. And so not having their ballots mailed to them would make it immeasurably harder for our troops to vote wherever they may be serving. I can't understand why Republicans would want to make it harder for brave Americans, defending our democracy abroad, to participate in it, but that is what they are doing. And I can't understand how my Republican colleagues can sit here today and ask paid staffers and pages to bring them water, at exactly the temperature they like, with or without ice, sparkling or not sparkling, as they make their voices heard on the Senate floor and then say nothing--nothing--to stop a law that makes it illegal to give water to Americans waiting hours in line at polling stations as they seek to simply have their voices heard at the ballot box. Listen, my five-times great-grandfathers, who were likely indentured servants without the right to vote, didn't fight in the Revolutionary War and earn that right to vote just so people claiming to be the leaders of our generation could chip away at the fundamental idea that founded this Nation: that everyone is equal. And my buddies and I and Senator Cotton didn't sign up to defend our democracy in war zones thousands of miles away only to watch it crumble at the hands of powerful people more focused on their own self- interests than in the foundational component of this extraordinary experiment that we call America; that everyone, regardless of social status, wealth, skin color, sex, has a right to vote. Page after page in our Nation's history is marred by bigotry, tainted by intolerance, by injustice, but through every chapter--however dark the night--some brave Americans have willed that there would be light. That march forward has always been to expand access to the polls, not to decrease it--expanded access for those who didn't own land, for Black Americans after the Civil War, for women, for all Americans. In World War II, Black Americans fought overseas for the same country that forced their families to sit at segregated lunch counters back home. Then they came home and were forced to guess how many jelly beans were in a jar before they, themselves, could vote in a country that they had fought for. Asian Americans fought to end slavery in the Civil War, sacrificed to preserve this Union, and then had their earned citizenship stripped away. Decades later, their grandsons fought in Europe even as their loved ones were interred in camps on American soil. And we march forward, and we march on, and we expand the right to the ballot box. In the sixties, White Americans hopped on buses and risked their lives Freedom Riding through the South so those with darker skin could walk into the ballot box without fear of billy clubs. And Americans of all backgrounds have packed their rucks, laced up their boots, and gone to war in places like Iraq, lost their lives in places like Afghanistan, to defend the most American belief: that we all have a voice and we all have the right to use it, including at the polls, because voting to elect one's own government is the core of that right. I am not asking anyone to do anything nearly as difficult as putting on a uniform and going to war or crossing a bridge and being met with billy clubs. I am not asking anybody to do anything that difficult today. I am not asking my Republican colleagues to risk their lives on a bus or a bridge, in the heat of the American South or under the scorching Sun of a desert in the Middle East. All I am asking for is the bare minimum. All I am begging them to do is merely to not sit in silence in the face of grave injustice, to not let being partisan keep them from being a patriot. For the sake of all who have sacrificed for this Nation, I, at least, refuse to remain silent. That is why I am voting for these bills. That is why I am trying to claw back some of the protections that Republicans have spent the last year trying to erode on the back of the Big Lie, including expanded voter purges, increased barriers for voters with disabilities, and harsher voter ID requirements. That is why I am asking my colleagues who claim to represent the party of Lincoln, as a junior Senator from the ``Land of Lincoln,'' I ask you to act in a way that will further the cause of justice. That is why I am working to restore the Voting Rights Act, to expand early voting and vote-by-mail, to limit special interest money in politics, and to actually try to protect underserved communities and our servicemembers' rights to vote--because not only can our country do better, we have done better. Back when we passed the Voting Rights Act all those decades ago, not only can our Chamber do more, we have done more, including the 16 Republicans who are still in the Senate today who have previously voted to reauthorize the Voting Rights Act. And we owe more to those heroes who fought these fights before us, those trailblazers who marched those bridges while those in power broke their bones, whose skulls were cracked, whose blood was shed, yet whose will never bent, whose determination never wavered, those heroes who never let what was hard deter them from doing what was right. We owe it to each of them--and to those whose rights are at risk today--to pass this bill. I yield the floor.