Josh Hawley

Mr. HAWLEY

Mr. HAWLEY. Madam President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. HAWLEY. Madam President, in the last 20 years in the State of Missouri, we have lost 60,000 jobs to the People's Republic of China. That number nationwide is almost 4 million. Our trade deficit with China, as we stand here tonight, is at near-record levels, and every dollar of that deficit represents blue-collar jobs destroyed, industry shuttered, manufacturing capacity withering away. I would submit to you that it is the most important deficit that we face. We can talk about budget reforms, and we can talk about savings here and there, but until we do the work of bringing back productive capacity to this Nation and good-paying blue-collar jobs you can raise a family on, we will not put our economy on the basis that we need to address the economic challenges that we face. So my amendment does something very simple. It imposes across-the- board tariffs on China for every year in which we have a trade deficit until that deficit is zero. Bring back jobs to this country. I urge a ``yes'' vote.

Mr. HAWLEY. Madam President, I call up my amendment No. 93, and I ask that it be reported by number.

Mr. HAWLEY

Mr. HAWLEY. I yield the floor.

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

Mr. HAWLEY. Mr. President, in October of this past year, the parents and students of Jana Elementary School in Florissant, MO--that is in the greater St. Louis area--woke to find news of an independent study that had found nuclear radioactive contamination inside the school building at Jana Elementary. Now, sadly, this probably didn't come as a total shock to those residents who have lived in Florissant and in the surrounding area because for years now--for years--this community has had to deal with the fallout of the Federal Government's own nuclear program and the waste left over from it dating back to the 1940s, which was then effectively dumped in St. Louis, made its way into the water, into the soil, and now into a stream that runs right by this elementary school. So the school board wisely said: We should do a study. Let's find out if it is in the school. Independent results came back and said it was in the dust, on the windowsills of the school--radioactive material. The school board met. They shut down the school. Parents had kids at home for months. Then comes the first of this year. The school board said: We can't in good conscience reopen it. Now what is happening? The school is closed. The kids are having to be bused to other locations, driven to schools outside of their neighborhood. This a working-class community. These are hard-working folks. They don't have the resources lying around to send their kids to other schools or to pay to move. If they did, they would. They don't. They are just trying to live their lives, work a job, get their kids a decent education. And, instead, they have had to deal with this. The worst part about it is the Federal Government refused to clean it up. When this news broke, the Army Corps of Engineers said: Oh, there is nothing wrong with the school. We have tested it a million times. It is fine. In fact, they held a press conference today in which they said the same thing: Trust us. It is fine. It is fine. I don't think any of them are sending their kids there. But trust us, they say; it is fine. When I and the school board and the parents said to the Army Corps of Engineers: You need to retest; you need to test the entire school district--then they pointed fingers and said: Oh, no, it is the Department of Energy; it is their problem. So then, when we went to the Department of Energy, they said: Oh, no, we can't do anything. It is the Army Corps' problem. The Biden administration has spent the last 8 months now pointing fingers at each other, saying why they can't do this; they can't do that. The kids are just out of luck. I just notice this. When that bank in California full of billionaires--who are also, not incidentally, major political contributors--had a problem, boy, this government moved lickety-split to bail them out. How many billions did this government spend to bail out the SVB shareholders and stakeholders and depositors? They got their bailout in no time flat. These kids? Nothing. Can't even get a response. Do you know the Biden administration won't even respond to me? So fine. We will do it ourselves. I have introduced legislation that will order testing in the entire school district, that will mandate a cleanup of the school, and, if necessary, build these kids a new school. The Federal Government caused this problem. The Federal Government should fix this problem. And just because these kids aren't billionaires or big-time political contributors or connected politically doesn't mean that they can be ignored. It doesn't mean that their lives don't matter. I would just note this. Last week, the Secretary of Energy, Jennifer Granholm, when I talked to her about this bill in a public forum--I asked her in the hearing--she said that she would support the legislation. And who couldn't, Mr. President? Who couldn't support having the Federal Government clean up its own mess and getting some justice for these kids at Jana Elementary? And I will just say this. This community in St. Louis has been asked to live with the fallout of the Federal Government's actions for decades--this is just the latest instance--for decades. The cancer rates, the rates of disease, autoimmune disorders, they are off the charts in this community, and for years these folks have been told: Just shut up, and it will be fine. Well, it is not fine, and today we are going to get some justice for these kids. Today we are going to start the cleanup process that should have happened decades ago. So I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Environment and Public Works be discharged from further consideration of S. 418 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mr. HAWLEY. I know of no further debate on the bill.

Mr. HAWLEY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read a third time.

Mr. HAWLEY

Mr. HAWLEY. Madam President, I would just say in conclusion that the security risk from TikTok led us to ban it 4 months ago for the Federal Government. The facts cannot be denied, which is why the TikTok CEO had nothing to say a week ago. He could not deny any of these facts. The truth will carry the day, and we will continue to fight. I yield the floor.

Mr. HAWLEY. Madam President, let me just finish with this, that the Senator from Kentucky decried the collection of personal data by American social media companies--and he is right to do that, by the way. I am concerned about that, too, no doubt. But he pointed out that many American social media companies collect all of this information, that they do it without users' consent, sometimes they sell it to third parties for profit, and you can't necessarily opt out of it. All fair enough, but he is protecting exactly what he decries. The difference is with TikTok, that information is going to a hostile foreign government. It is not a market. It is total control. So I would just say this to Americans out there who are using TikTok: Just know this--we need to tell you the truth about this app. Just know this: If you have it on your phone, it is tracking your key strokes; it is tracking your movements; it is tracking your location; and it is sending that information--whether you want it sent or not--to Beijing, to the Communist Chinese Party, where it can be accessed by anybody there who wants it, under China's national security laws. That is a threat to your personal security, and that is why we should act to ban it. Let me just finally ask the Senator from Kentucky--he and I talked about this before--would the Senator consider allowing us to set a rollcall vote, an up-or-down rollcall vote? Not unanimous consent passed but, as I said, a rollcall vote at a time certain. Would the Senator consent to that?

Mr. HAWLEY. Madam President, I have never before heard on this floor a defense of the right to spy. I didn't realize that the First Amendment contained a right to espionage. The Senator from Kentucky mentions the Bill of Rights. I must have missed the right of the Chinese Government to spy on Americans in our Bill of Rights, because that is what we are talking about here. The Senator from Kentucky can watch as many dance videos as he wants. I have no objection to that. He can watch them on this floor for all I care. Fine. What I object to is the Communist Chinese Party using this app on Americans' phones to spy on Americans without their consent. The Senator says that Americans can simply not use this app, just turn it off. That is not the case. If you turn it off, it continues to collect information. You don't need to consent. TikTok doesn't ask you do you want to share your information; it takes it. It doesn't ask you for permission to track your location; it takes it. It doesn't ask you for permission to share it with the Chinese Communist Party; it just does it. That is the problem. Scour the Constitution. Scour the First Amendment. I promise you, you won't find any right to espionage. You won't find any right to spy. And this novel right that the Senator thinks he has discovered for Americans to be spied upon--I never heard of such a thing in the history of this country. I am astounded to learn that Americans have the right to be spied upon. So not only does China apparently get the right to spy in the First Amendment, Americans have the inalienable right to be spied upon and have all of their data taken from them. That, apparently, is democracy. That is not democracy. That is the abuse of our laws, the abuse of our economy, the abuse of our people by a foreign government for its purposes. So I say again, watch dance videos to your heart's content; but spy on Americans, that is where we have to draw the line. As to money, the Senator said--and I think he is exactly right--that TikTok wants to make money. No doubt about it. And, my, the money they are making; and, my, the money that they are showering on this building. And it is having an effect. But in the end, the American people don't want to be treated as commodities to be bought and sold, because--make no mistake--it is the American people who are being bought and sold here by TikTok. They are being sold to the Chinese Communist Party for influence and money. They are being sold for the wishes and the whims of Beijing, and they are being lied to every step of the way. I will yield to the Senator from Florida.

Mr. HAWLEY. Would the Senator from Kentucky entertain a question?

Mr. HAWLEY. Madam President, 4 months ago, the U.S. Senate, and then the U.S. House, came together to ban the app TikTok on all Federal Government devices--on tablets, on phones, on computers--on Federal contractors and their devices as well. We acted, just a few months ago, with a sense of urgency because we decided that TikTok was a national security threat. A privacy threat? Yes. A data threat? Yes. But above all, a national security threat. And we were right to act just those few months ago. And now we must take the next step: to ban TikTok nationwide, to protect the security of every single American whose personal lives, whose personal data, whose personal security is in danger from the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing. And it is time to act now because we have seen, just in the last week, the TikTok CEO come before the U.S. Congress and confirm that the reasons we acted 4 months ago were right and valid and that the need at this hour is urgent. In this last week, we learned--I should say we confirmed from the testimony of the TikTok CEO that TikTok has the ability to track Americans' data, to track Americans' location, to track Americans' personal lives--whether they want it to or not. What am I talking about? Well, TikTok tracks your keystrokes. Now, think about this for a second. It is not just the videos you may upload if you have the app on your phone. It is not just the videos that you watch. It is the keystrokes that you enter--and not just while you are on the app. Oh, no. It tracks your keystrokes all the time--while you are texting, what you are emailing. It tracks your contact list. It reads your phone list. We believe, based on independent third-party analysis, that it can get into email. And it does this whether or not the user consents. In fact, there is no way to turn it off. Americans are subject to this ongoing data collection--at all hours of the day and night--even if they have got TikTok turned off on their phone. What else have we learned? Well, that TikTok is monitoring the location of Americans. It is not just your keystrokes. It is your location data. Where are you right now? What is it that you are doing? Where are you moving to? Are you in a car? Are you in a building? On what floor are you on? TikTok can use the settings of your phone to track exactly where Americans are. And we know that they have been doing this--TikTok has been gathering this data--not just on American citizens but also on American journalists. We know that they are able to see what journalists are saying, to see where journalists are going. New whistleblower revelations have shown that TikTok has spied on particular American journalists and tried to track them, tried to learn what they are writing, tried to control, in essence, or at least get an understanding of what their message might be. Think about this. An app on your phone that tracks your keystrokes, that reads your personal information, that tracks journalists around, that tracks your location--you can't do anything about it. And we haven't even gotten to the worst part. The worst part is all of this information is accessible to engineers based in China, accessible to the Chinese Communist Party. When he was asked about this last week, the CEO of TikTok didn't deny this espionage. No, what he said instead is, well, ``I don't think spying is the right way to describe it.'' Maybe he preferred the word ``surveillance.'' Maybe he preferred the word ``monitoring.'' Maybe he preferred the word ``tracking.'' But I actually think ``spying'' just about captures it. The problem with TikTok is not the videos on the app. The problem with TikTok is, it is a backdoor for the Chinese Communist Party into the personal lives and information into the most intimate details of every American's life. And we know the link between TikTok and the Chinese Communist Party is real, and we know that it is strong. TikTok is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Chinese parent company ByteDance. We know that ByteDance has Chinese Communist Party members in its senior leadership. In fact, ByteDance's editor in chief is a Communist Party secretary. We know the Communist Party has done trainings for TikTok and ByteDance personnel. We have video of it being done in Beijing, in China. Whistleblowers have come forward to my office, and to others, and given us evidence that China-based engineers are able to access Americans' personal data at any time that they want. Again, the CEO did not deny that last week. No. The links to the Chinese Communist Party are real, and they are inscribed in Chinese law. This isn't just a matter of what TikTok may want to do. No. TikTok is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Chinese parent company and is subject to Chinese law, which both the 2014 espionage law in that country and their 2017 national security law, which required--required--the company to turn over data that the Chinese Communist Party, that Beijing, may request. Under those laws, they must make Americans' data available--must make it available--to Chinese communist officials. This is in addition to the CCP members who are actually senior officials in these companies, who work in these companies, who have access to Americans' data as I stand here and speak to you today. The intent of China in all of this is quite clear. They want to build a profile on every single American. We know that many of the recent data hacks of credit agencies, of other digital repositories of Americans' personal information have been carried out by communist China. They are hungry for information about the American people. They are gathering it on everybody that they can, as much as they can--just like they do to their own citizens. And they are using the app TikTok to do it. Of course, that is not the only way that the Chinese Communist Party has tried to gather information on Americans. This is certainly not the only time that they have done it. Think about the Confucius Institutes all across the country that the CCP funded on America's college campuses. Think about the researchers they funded and tried to place into key programs, key institutes and universities all across the country. Heaven's sake, think about the Chinese spy balloon that just went over this country, right over my home State of Missouri, just a few weeks ago, photographing everything that they could. Now, this is a pattern. The difference is, in those cases, we addressed it. We shut down the Confucius Institutes. Those who have lied about their money that they have gotten from China, the funding that they have gotten, have in some cases been prosecuted for attempted espionage on America's college campuses, and the spy balloon was belatedly shot down--but shot down, at least. Now, we have taken action in these other instances to protect Americans to stop the efforts of the CCP to spy on America, to collect Americans' data, to put Americans at risk. And now we must do the same thing with TikTok. This is why President Trump and the previous administration tried to ban it. Let's not forget this isn't the beginning of this debate. This is the end of it. We have been at this for years now. Years ago, the last administration tried to ban TikTok for all of these same national security reasons that led us as a Congress to ban it on Federal devices. This has been a long time coming. There is no rush to judgment here. This is what administration after administration has concluded; that it is time to take action. Here is the real truth that if it were the Confucius Institutes, the Chinese spy balloon, if it were some American company that was coordinating with a foreign ally, we would shut it down immediately. And we have done it in these other cases. But with TikTok, now TikTok says: Oh, no, no, no, no. You can't do that to us. You can't hold us accountable. We have a special carve-out. No, we have the First Amendment. The First Amendment protects us. Well, I must have missed the class in law school where we covered the First Amendment right to spy. The last time I checked my Constitution, there was no such protection. And I can be darn sure that there is no special First Amendment carve-out for communists. Now, the First Amendment may protect dance videos, sure; upload those all you want. But the First Amendment does not protect the right to spy on American citizens. It does not protect espionage. It does not protect what the Chinese Communist Party is trying to do in harvesting the data of millions of Americans. Now, TikTok has no special First Amendment carve-out. They don't get special privileges that no other entity or an American company would get. They are subject to the same rules. And when you try to spy on American citizens, when you try to use Americans' own phones as portals for collection, that ought to be stopped. You ought to be banned. And the fact that they are a China-based company shouldn't help them or hurt them. The fact is, their ties to Beijing, their ties to the CCP, their ongoing efforts at espionage, and their ongoing lies, by the way, to this body--this is a company that has come before this body and lied time and time again. They said that they weren't controlled by ByteDance. Now we know they are. They said that China's China-based engineers couldn't access American user data. Now we know they can. They said that the CCP had no influence. And yet last week, the CEO of TikTok couldn't even confirm that the CCP hadn't helped write his talking points. Now, this is an entity--this is a corporate interest-- that is influenced, if not, controlled, by the Chinese Communist Party. The national security risks are severe and growing worse. And I haven't even talked about--I haven't even talked about--the materials on suicide promotion that you will find on TikTok. I haven't talked about the risks to mental health that it may pose. And there is a reason that TikTok isn't even available in China. Did you know that? In China, TikTok isn't available. Why is that? Well, it is because Beijing isn't stupid. They know it is ``digital'' fentanyl. TikTok wasn't designed to make our lives better. TikTok is designed to addict and then to be used as a gateway into our personal lives. It is designed to addict and then to be used as a portal to spy on American citizens. Now, I tell you what, here is one thing that has changed since just December, a few months ago, when we banned TikTok on Federal Government devices. TikTok has gone into full damage control mode. And as Big Tech companies do all the time, they hired a fleet of lobbyists and have spent untold amounts of cash. I am told that even today TikTok lobbyists have been seen here in the building. I have no doubt that they are scurrying around right now. Maybe they are in the Gallery. I just say this: We have the opportunity today to send a message to this corporate interest that the U.S. Senate is not for sale; that we cannot be bought; that we cannot be purchased; that we cannot be influenced by their lobbying campaign, by their corporate money; that we will instead side with the American people. We will tell the truth about what this app is. We will do our jobs and protect Americans. Now, some say that we ought to have a broader bill that would not actually ban TikTok but would give new authority to the executive branch and leave it open. I don't agree with that. My view is, we should act decisively to ban TikTok directly. We shouldn't give new, open-ended authority to Federal bureaucrats; we should target this threat specifically. That is what this bill does that we have before us today. It goes right at the problem. It bans TikTok in this country. It protects the American people, and it sends the message to communist China that you cannot buy us. I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs be discharged from further consideration of S. 85 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration. I further ask 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.

Mr. HAWLEY

Mr. HAWLEY. Mr. President, I would just say, in response to my friend's point about there being 60-plus reporting requirements already in place, that is part of the problem. When everybody is in charge, nobody is in charge. Currently, the oversight requirements are spread across three different Agencies of the inspector general. The State Department, the Defense Department, and USAID each would have a little piece of this-- dozens of disparate requirements. Let's unify it. We have done this before--one inspector general, one staff, one set of requirements. Make it public. Give the American people the accountability they deserve. I urge a ``yes'' vote. I yield the floor. Vote on Amendment No. 40

Mr. HAWLEY. Mr. President, do I have any time left?

Mr. HAWLEY. Mr. President, this body has spent to date $113 billion on the war in Ukraine and counting. Yet we do not have any direct oversight of any of the money that is being spent. My amendment is very simple. Let's create 1 government watchdog--not 2, not 3, not 20; 1 government watchdog--to oversee every cent that is spent on Ukraine and to report back to this Congress and to the American people as to how their hard-earned money is being spent. Currently, there are dozens of reporting requirements. There are multiple bureaucrats who are involved. Listen, we learned this the hard way in Afghanistan, where, after years of lack of oversight, billions of dollars wasted, and, tragically, many lives lost, this body finally created a special inspector general to oversee the Afghanistan effort and reporting requirements, to report back to the public on what we knew and were learning. That is what we should do in this case. I urge a ``yes'' vote on this amendment.

Mr. HAWLEY. Mr. President, I call up my amendment No. 40 and ask that it be reported by number.

Mr. HAWLEY

Mr. HAWLEY. Mr. President, yesterday the Nation witnessed a murderous rampage at an elementary school, a small Christian school in Nashville, TN. Tragically, three small children, 9 years old, lost their lives; three employees of this school lost their lives. And even as I am on this floor now, Nashville police are releasing the body cam footage of the officers who responded with heroic speed and heroic courage to the deranged individual who made her way into that school and was executing students and teachers one by one. Those officers deserve to be praised; they deserve to be thanked; they deserve to be honored for what they did and for the lives that they saved. We must also tell the truth about what happened yesterday in Nashville. This murderous rampage, this taking of innocent life was a horrific crime; but, more specifically, it was a hate crime. A crime that, according to Nashville police, specifically targeted--that is their word--targeted the members of this Christian community, the members of this religious institution, its students, its educators, its employees. Let's be clear, Federal law prohibits the targeting of violence against any American on the basis of religious affiliation or religious practice or religious belief. But that is, according to police, exactly what we saw happen yesterday. The members of this community were singled out because of their religious affiliation. And now, three young children are dead, and three educators are dead because of their affiliation with this religious institution, because of their beliefs, because of their work, because of their service. That is a crime under Federal law, and it must be treated as such. Today I have called on the director of the FBI and the Secretary of Homeland Security to open a Federal investigation, a Federal hate crime investigation, into what happened in Nashville. We need the facts. We need to know about the premeditated crime. We need to know about what this shooter did and intended to do. We need to know about the influences. What kind of violent rhetoric motivated this shooter? Were there others involved? This contagion of hateful rhetoric and violence must not be allowed to spread, and that is why we need all Federal resources, according to Federal law, devoted now on the ground in Nashville to get the facts and to stop the violence from spreading further. And I call on this body, every Member of this body, to condemn, in the clearest of terms, this hate crime against this community in Nashville. Today, I will introduce a resolution explicitly condemning this massacre as the hate crime that it is and calling upon this body to condemn hateful rhetoric that leads to violence. Hateful rhetoric against religious believers, religious institutions, religious communities that leads to violence. This isn't speculation; this is a tragic fact. It is happening before our eyes, and we must condemn it. And I would call on those corporate partners who are so quick to weigh in on social issues, now, make your voice heard. Condemn this violence as the hate crime that it is. Stand with this community in Nashville. This is a time to be heard. This is a time to be clear about what has happened and is unfolding before our very eyes. And let's just be crystal clear, rhetoric about days of vengeance and genocide, rhetoric directed against religious believers of whatever background--whether they are Presbyterians like the students and teachers and employees targeted yesterday or some other Christian affiliation or Orthodox Jews or Catholics or whatever the religious background--it is a crime under Federal law to target and commit acts of violence against Americans because of their religious beliefs, because of their religious affiliation, because of their religious practices. This should not happen in the United States of America, and now we must act to see that it does not spread. And so I hope the Senate will soon take up my resolution. I hope that every Member of this body will be clear about what has happened in Nashville and will be clear in standing against the violence, in standing against the hate, in standing against the rhetoric, in standing with this community that needs now our support, that needs now our encouragement and condolences, yes, but also needs our action. I yield the floor.

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

Mr. HAWLEY

Mr. HAWLEY. Mr. President, I appreciate Senator Carper's conversation with me earlier today when he committed to me that he wanted to work to get this issue resolved and get this situation for these parents and kids remedied so that they get the justice that they deserve. I just want to point out that Senator Carper may be the first person in the Federal Government whom I have talked to in months on this issue and who has actually said: Do you know what? I think we can do something about it. So I hope that we can, Senator. I would just say to the Army Corps, to the Department of Energy, to others in the Federal Government, and to the administration that would say, ``Delay, delay, delay. The school is safe. The grounds are OK. Take our word for it,'' the people of St. Louis have taken your word for it for 50 years. This is where we are now. These kids deserve relief. No child should be told: It is all right. There is a contaminated stream near your elementary school. It is OK. Go ahead. Go out and play there. No way. And I will say again, just because these kids and parents aren't rich and wealthy and well connected does not mean that they can be ignored. So I will continue to come to this floor and to insist on votes on nominees until we can get something done. I appreciate the good will of Senator Carper, and I look forward to working with him on this issue. I yield the floor.

Mr. HAWLEY. Madam President, I am here today to talk about the kids and parents of Jana Elementary School and to talk about the measure of justice they deserve for the ordeal they are facing now, for the ordeal they have been put through for months, and, frankly, for the ordeal they have suffered through years and years and years of lies from the Federal Government, of misdirection from the Federal Government, and, frankly, of outright falsehoods this community has had to endure. Jana Elementary School is a small school in the Hazelwood School District in Florissant, MO. That is the St. Louis area. In October of this last year, Jana Elementary was closed. Why? Because they woke up to find out their school was contaminated with radioactive material. Imagine being a parent and waking up to this headline: ``Missouri elementary school to close after report finds radioactive contamination.'' Where was the radioactive contamination? you may ask. Well, it was on the playground. It was in the kitchen of the school. It was in the air ducts. And where did it come from? How did radioactive material get into an elementary school in the St. Louis area? Well, the answer is, it came from the Federal Government. Let me tell you a little story about the Hazelwood School District and about Florissant and about St. Louis, and it dates back to the 1940s when the Federal Government used a site in St. Louis as one of the processing centers for the Manhattan Project. Well, when that project wrapped up in the late 1940s, the Federal Government collected the radioactive waste and transferred it. Out of the area? No. Just to the site of the St. Louis Airport, and there it sat for decades. By ``sat,'' I mean it leached into the air. It leached into the soil. It leached into the groundwater. So what happened? Over the course of 25 years and more, this radioactive material got into the water of a creek called Coldwater Creek. It has been tested many times. Radioactive material has been found there numerous times. And where does that creek go? Well, all along the St. Louis area through numerous communities but also right by Jana Elementary School, right along the school grounds, right along the playground--a creek that is known to the U.S. Government to be contaminated with radioactive material that the U.S. Government allowed to be put into the water. This last fall, the school board quite reasonably took the step of saying: Hold on. We know it is in the water. We know this creek goes right by the playground of this school, within 1,000 feet of the building itself. Maybe we ought to test the building just to see if our kids are safe. So they did. Now, the U.S. Government wouldn't do it, I would just like to point out. No, it wasn't the Government that tested the building. The school board paid for it itself. The parents had to demand it. They went and got a third party to go and test the building, and what did they find? That this radioactive contamination wasn't just in the water. It wasn't just by the playground. It wasn't just within 1,000 feet of the school. No. It was inside the building. It was in the dust that is in the building that these schoolchildren, elementary kids, are going to and playing in, the air they are breathing in every single day. So the school board didn't have any choice. I mean, they found radioactive contamination in their kids' building, so they shut down the school, and, you know, they told the parents: Guess what. There is radioactive contamination in the building. What are we going to do? We are going to shut down the school. I would just like to point out that these are working people. These people are not sitting around all day. They are out there working jobs--some of them, multiple jobs. Some of them are raising their kids on their own. So what do they hear in October? We are going to close the school. We are going to send your kids online for virtual learning. I remember one mother saying: There is no such thing as virtual learning. That just means they are not learning. That means they are home with me. What are the parents supposed to do? They are working. They are trying to provide for their family. Now you have the kids at home not learning. You have the parents unable to work. What was the solution after that? To bus the kids to different schools all over the area. Now they can't go to the school in their own neighborhood. And what has happened to the Jana Elementary building? Well, it just sits there because what is the Federal Government, which caused this contamination, doing about all of this? Nothing. No, nothing. The parents have gotten the runaround for months now from the Federal Government. When the reports came out that the building was contaminated, the parents and the school board asked the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is supposed to be in charge of cleaning up the site--they said: Would you test the building inside and see if you can verify these results? But the Army Corps said: No, we can't. We don't have any authorization. We can't do any further testing. So then the parents and the school board asked the Department of Energy. They said: Would you test this site? Would you see if you can verify the results? Would you do something about it? And the Department of Energy said, you guessed it: Oh, no, that is the Army Corps' problem. Now, I kid you not. The parents and the school board have written to the Army Corps, and they have written to the Department of Energy, and both of them have just pointed the finger at the other. It is not just the parents. I have done the same. I sat at a hearing just a few weeks ago with the Department of Energy's Deputy Secretary. I said to him: Sir, do you know about Jana Elementary in St. Louis, MO? He said he did. I said: You know it is closed, don't you? He said he did. I said: Will you authorize the testing and cleanup for this school? And his comment to me was: That is really a matter for the Army Corps. I said: The Army Corps says it is your problem. And he said: Well, I don't really understand their position on this. I don't understand this administration's position on any of it. So I am on this floor here today, on behalf of the parents and the kids of the school district, saying it is time to fix it. Now, I have written to the President about this. I wrote to President Biden after the Energy Secretary gave me the runaround. I said: Listen, it is time for this administration to step up. The Army Corps and the Department of Energy both work for the President. Fix this. Direct them to get their act together. Finish the testing, and clean up this school site. That was 2 months ago. I haven't heard a thing. The parents haven't heard a thing. The school board hasn't heard a thing. What they are told is: Just wait a little longer, just a little longer. We will get it together. Just wait a little more. Do you know that the residents of St. Louis have been told to wait a little longer for four and five decades now? Do you know what has happened in that time? They have seen their friends get cancer in their thirties and forties. They have seen an explosion of autoimmune diseases. Why do you think that is? Do you think maybe it has something to do with radioactive contamination in the water and in the soil and in the air, put there by the negligence of the U.S. Government? Do you think maybe that is why it is? Do you think that these people should have to wait any longer? I don't. I have introduced legislation that is very simple. We are not trying to rewrite the United States Code here. It is very simple. It gets justice for these kids. It would order the Federal Government to clean up the school--clean it up. If it can't be cleaned up, build a new one. It is just that simple--not complicated, not onerous, not overburdened with regulation. It gives relief. If the President won't act, we should act. Congress should act. Now, let's just tell the truth here. These parents--these working people in this region of St. Louis--they are not high-rolling donors. They don't give major money to the political parties. That doesn't mean they can be forgotten. You and I both know, if this had been Silicon Valley Bank--for heaven's sake--the President would have flown overnight personally to be there to do something about it. While the Silicon Valley billionaires get bailouts that will cost this country billions and billions and billions of dollars, the children and parents of Jana Elementary can't even get their school tested. They can't get a dime in remediation. That is wrong. That is unjust, and we can do something about it. We can send the message that no matter who you are, no matter where you work, no matter how poor you may be, the U.S. Senate will get something done for you. We ought to send that message today. We ought to send the message that we will not stand by while these kids are consigned to a second- and third-rate experience of education, while these parents are told to just wait a little longer, while their school is infested with radioactive contamination. We should send a message that we are going to do something about it. I will tell you this, and it is what I told the President, until he does something about it and until this body acts to get justice for these kids, I am going to hold every nomination to the Department of Energy--every single one of them--until we can get some justice done at Jana Elementary. I will come to this floor as long as it takes until we get relief for these kids and for these parents at Jana Elementary. I will not allow their situation to be forgotten, and I will not be told on their behalf to just wait another 50 years. They deserve justice today. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Environment and Public Works be discharged from further consideration of S. 418 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.

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

Mr. HAWLEY

Mr. HAWLEY. Mr. President, I thank Senator Moran for the opportunity to say a few words and congratulations to the Kansas City Chiefs and all of Chiefs Kingdom. I just want to add my words of congratulations to the Hunt family. To Clark and Tavia and all of their kids, thank you for your friendship, thank you for your tremendous leadership. I want to say congratulations to the president of the Chiefs, Mark Donovan, to Andy Reid, and I particularly want to add a word of congratulations to my friend Harrison Butker, who delivered the game- winning kick, both in the AFC Championship and also in the Super Bowl. He had a tremendous, tremendous season. Of course, the entire team had a tremendous season. But, just on a personal note to Harrison, well done, man--as you would say, to the heights. So congratulations to all of the team, and I look forward to seeing this resolution and the memorialization of this victory entered into the Congressional Record. With that, I yield back to the Senator from Kansas.

Mr. HAWLEY

Mr. HAWLEY. Madam President, last night, the Senate took the important step of unanimously, on a bipartisan basis, passing legislation to ban TikTok on all Government devices. Now, this has been a longtime coming. I first introduced this piece of legislation almost 3 years ago. But last night's legislation is vitally important because never has the security threat to the American people from the Chinese Communist Party been more grave and never has the determination on the part of the Chinese Communist Party to leverage every possible asset, every possible platform to gather information--personal information--from the American people been more serious than it is now. That is why last night's action by this body is so critical. Let's talk about TikTok for a moment, the most downloaded app in the world for the last 2 and 3 years running. Back in 2020, over 100 million Americans--100 million--used TikTok, and that was over 2 years ago. Since 2022, TikTok's average monthly users--and this year, every quarter of this year--has increased by 234 percent. It is incredible growth. You can see why. It is a fun app to use. Here is what Americans don't know because TikTok doesn't want them to know. It is that the app runs continuously in the background of your phone or device. It collects your keystrokes. It has access to your email, access to your calendars, access to the notes and clipboard functions of your computer or iPhone or tablet or device. It, of course, tracks your geolocation. It is essentially an evidence- gathering, data-gathering machine that runs on your phone. Can you turn it off? Can you stop it from doing these things? No, you can't, not if you want to use the app. What is the connection to Beijing? Only this: that TikTok is owned by ByteDance. Under Chinese law that company must--must--provide all data to the Chinese Communist Party that the party wants upon its request. We know that there are Chinese Communist Party members in TikTok leadership. We know that the Chinese Communist Party has held so-called training sessions for ByteDance and TikTok employees. We know that this data--Americans' data--is available to the Chinese Communist Party, to Beijing, because of TikTok, and it is time we did something to protect American users. We have been warned repeatedly by our own intelligence Agencies that TikTok is a security threat. Heck, the Director of the FBI has testified under oath that TikTok poses major security risks. That is why the Pentagon, the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security, TSA, the Navy, the Army, the Air Force, the Coast Guard, and the Marine Corps have already banned the use of TikTok on Government devices. The only sensible next step is for this Congress to act to make that ban across the board for all Federal devices. Now TikTok has tried to get in on the act. They issued a statement this morning admitting that there may be national security concerns with their platform, after denying it under oath for years on end to Congress. But they also begged Congress not to do anything rash like actually take action. They said: No, no, no, no. Wait, wait. Negotiate with us. Well, I just say this: The time to wait to secure the privacy of American citizens is long past, and the least we can do, the very first step we can take, is to ban this app and its use on Federal Government devices. I hope that now the House and the Senate will act together to move this legislation quickly to the President's desk and we can take the further historic step of seeing this legislation enacted into law, protecting the privacy and the security of every single American. It is within our reach. Let's act now and get it done. Madam President, I yield the floor.

Mr. HAWLEY

Mr. HAWLEY. Mr. President, in reserving the right to object, I ask for permission to hold up this shirt.