Amy Klobuchar

Ms. KLOBUCHAR

Ms. KLOBUCHAR. I ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I thank Senator Schumer for his leadership. With that said, we in the Senate were able to come unanimously behind this important, important resolution, which I will describe in a minute. I also thank Senator McConnell, and I certainly thank my friend Senator Blunt for his leadership. We must pass this legislation honoring the Capitol Police and other heroes who protected the Capitol on January 6 by awarding them this Congressional Gold Medal. Senator Blunt joined me from the beginning in sponsoring the Senate version of this legislation and worked with me on the Rules Committee. And I thank the Presiding Officer, Senator Padilla, for his great service on that committee to continue the work of getting to the bottom of the security, planning, and response failures that we saw on January 6. While that work goes on, it is important that we recognize the bravery and patriotism of those who defended our democracy and our lives with Congress's highest honor. The insurrection at the Capitol was more than an assault on democracy. Oh, it was that in a big, big way, but it was also an actual life-or-death situation for the many brave law enforcement officers who show up here to do their work every day. We will never forget the haunting shrieks of the police officer pinned in between the doors at the hands of rioters, pleading for help. We will never forget Officer Harry Dunn, who told his story again last week at the House select committee, recounting how he fought against the violent mob for hours and after it was all over, broke down in tears, telling fellow officers in the Rotunda that he had been called the N-word multiple times that day. And he looked at his friend, his fellow officer, and said: ``Is this America?'' These medals today, these Congressional Gold Medals that will be displayed for millions to see--one at the Smithsonian, one in this Capitol, one at the Metropolitan Police, and one with the Capitol Police--they answer that question. No, Officer Dunn, that was not America, but these medals that recognize your bravery, this is America. Then our own Officer Eugene Goodman, who after saving Senator Romney from walking directly into the mob of insurrectionists, ran by himself to take on a group of rioters and then diverted that mob away. We have all seen it on the video. We know what he was doing: allowing the rest of us to safely depart. Tragically, the attack on the Capitol also cost the lives of four brave officers, including Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who died the day following the attack. And I had the honor to meet his family. Four other officers died following the events of January 6: DC Metropolitan Police Officer Jeffrey Smith, his colleagues Gunther Hashida and Kyle DeFreytag, whos passings were reported just yesterday, and, of course, Capitol Police Officer Howard Liebengood. We are also so inspired by the work of their loved ones who have come to Capitol Hill to fight for a 9/11-style Commission to look at the insurrection and why it happened, to get to the bottom of it and to advocate for the Capitol Police to support their officers. It has been reported that at least 140 more officers sustained injuries from defending the Capitol. The courage of these officers will be remembered forever. We responded. Senator Blunt and I joined with Senator Portman and Peters on the Homeland Security Committee to interview officials from multiple agencies and review thousands of documents. We convened major public hearings and then interviewed many, many other witnesses. Our resulting bipartisan joint report focused on the security, planning, and response failures related to the violent and unprecedented insurrection at the Capitol, and it includes key findings and recommendations that must be put in place without delay. I am pleased that we have introduced our bipartisan bill, which will make sure that the new Police Chief will be able to call in help from the National Guard without calling a bunch of other people in the middle of a crisis. We have just passed, on a bipartisan basis, thanks to Senators Leahy and Shelby, major security funding that will help to give the police the resources they need and fund the improvements needed to this Capitol. We also have put in place two new Sergeants at Arms, one in the Senate and one in the House, as well as a new Police Chief, Chief Manger, whom I just met with for a lengthy period of time yesterday to go over all of our recommendations. By the end of the year, I will appear in this Chamber with a checklist to make sure that they are either done being implemented or in the process of being implemented to be done soon. Another key priority that we called for in our report was advanced last week when the President signed into law, as I said, all of the funding that we need. And what that includes that I didn't mention, $4.4 million for mental health support for Capitol Police officers and the many officers who are still dealing, as we can see, with trauma to this day. Passing this bill, which, of course, already passed the House--and, yes, I agree with Senator Schumer about how it is impossible to understand why some people voted against it, but it still passed with bipartisan support--is another step forward to honor the heroism and sacrifice of our law enforcement. Those medals, when little kids walk by and see them at the Smithsonian, their parents are going to be able to tell them this happened. This attack happened, and there were brave police officers and staff and others in this building that stood up that day and protected our democracy, and we will be forever thankful to them. We are hearing a lot about gold medals, and some of them by our own USA team that we are so proud of the last week at the Olympics. This is our Olympics. This is our gold medal. And it goes to them, to the Capitol Police officers and the Metropolitan Police officers and others that protected us that day. Thanks, Senator Blunt, who is here with us as well.

Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I want to thank my colleagues, every single one of them, including Senator Blunt and Senator Collins, who is here with us today, for supporting this legislation and honoring the heroism and patriotism of the courageous law enforcement officers who risk and in some cases sacrifice their lives to defend our democracy. I also want to thank Senator Blunt for his work on the Senate version of this legislation, as well as Senator Schumer and Senator McConnell, and I thank Senator Blunt for joining me today. Now it is headed to the President's desk. No more motions, and this is done. I look forward to seeing this bill signed into law. I yield the floor.

Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs be discharged from further consideration and the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of H.R. 3325.

Ms. KLOBUCHAR

Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Madam President, I, of course, join my colleagues in their fond words for Carl Levin. He was a mentor to me, like so many. And I am looking forward to speaking about him as well as my good friend Senator Enzi, whom we also tragically lost this past week, in the coming days. But, today, I am focused on another topic, and that is the Olympics.

Ms. KLOBUCHAR

Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to speak about how we must pass emergency security supplemental appropriations legislation to deliver needed funding to the Capitol Police and the National Guard. Anyone who watched yesterday the moving testimony of the officers who protected this Capitol, I think, understands that we cannot wait. I appreciate the efforts by my colleagues both over in the House as well as here in the Senate, Appropriations Chairman Leahy and Ranking Member Shelby, as well as Senator Blunt who works with me on the Rules Committee, to reach a bipartisan proposal on this critical funding issue, and we should pass this agreement without delay. But after passing this important legislation, we must also continue to work to ensure that all the funding needs in the aftermath of January 6 are met, including with respect to funding for the Justice Department to bring those who participated in the insurrection to justice and to ensure there is sufficient funding for security improvement for the Capitol. When an angry, violent mob staged an insurrection on January 6 and desecrated this Chamber, the temple of our democracy--what they did over in the House, what they did in the hallways, spray-painted on the columns, the Parliamentarian office in shreds--it was an attack on our Republic itself. As chair of the Rules Committee, I knew that we had to respond immediately in two ways: One was immediately finishing our job that day and getting the ballots counted; and then, 2 weeks later, making sure that inauguration took place on that platform, which they had also desecrated only 2 weeks before. But the second piece was to get to the bottom of what happened. I am glad that the House, with their bipartisan Select Committee, is continuing this work. Our focus in the Senate was more limited, but Senator Blunt and Senator Peters and Senator Portman and I combined our committees to look, to get some immediate answers so we could achieve this funding, as well as do some other things that couldn't wait for a year, that we had to get done right away. That is why we convened immediate hearings with both officials who are responsible for security at the Capitol, including people who are no longer in their positions and with representatives from key Federal agencies. We held the first hearing of the event of that horrific day. Our bipartisan report focused on security, planning, and response failures related to the violent and unprecedented insurrection that includes key findings and recommendations that should be put in place without delay. We learned about one Capitol Police officer who could be heard on the radio that day asking a tragically simple question: Does anyone have a plan? Sadly, there was no plan. We found out there was no departmentwide operational plan in place before January 6. We are pleased we have a new police chief who has started this last week, who I know will be committed to getting that plan and working with our Sergeant at Arms, with our new employees here who are committed to work on this, as well as all of those police officers who stood with us that day and protected us from harm. We found out in that report that, although Capitol Police activated seven Civil Disturbance Unit platoons, only four were trained in advanced civil tactics and had access to full riot gear. Officers in one platoon couldn't access equipment that was locked on a bus. Less than 10 percent of officers--160 of 1,840 sworn officers--were trained in advanced civil disturbance tactics. With respect to intelligence, neither the FBI nor the Department of Homeland Security issued a threat assessment or intelligence bulletin warning of the potential for violence on the Capitol on January 6. They admitted at the hearing they didn't adequately look at social media or take it seriously. At the same time, Capitol Police intelligence reports in advance of the attack conflicted with each other. One warned of the Capitol being a target for home violence on January 6, and another rated the likelihood of civil disturbance as ``remote'' to ``improbable.'' It appeared nothing was actually resolved. We also found out that, while the National Guard should have been called sooner, they began arriving at the Capitol at 5:20 p.m., more than 4 hours after the barriers were first breached and nearly 3 hours after the Defense Department got a request for support from the Capitol Police. In light of these findings, our report made many recommendations pertaining to both Capitol Police and Federal agencies. These are measures that could be acted on without delay while important oversight continues. With respect to security here at the Capitol, progress has already been made, as I mentioned, with the appointment of the new police chief. We said that should be done immediately. I have also introduced legislation with Senator Blunt to put in place another one of our recommendations, which is to empower the Capitol Police Chief to directly request assistance from the DC National Guard in emergency situations. One of the many absurd and tragically sad situations was that day when, of course, there had been mess-ups in not requesting the Guard earlier, which could have changed things dramatically. But on that day, the Chief had to try to call the Sergeant at Arms of both Chambers, both of whom were leading the fight against the insurrectionists with the police. He had to make those phone calls because he felt that he needed that permission to be able to call in the National Guard. What our bill simply does is it gives the Capitol Police Chief, in those dire emergency situations, the power to do that. The agreement announced yesterday would also go a long way toward implementing another of our recommendations, which is one of the most crucial: to ensure that the Capitol Police has sufficient personnel with appropriate training and equipment to fulfill its mission. Crucially, yesterday's agreement includes essential funding for the Capitol Police and National Guard, including funding for exactly what is called for in our report. This comes at a critical time when the Capitol Police is expected to run out of funding for salaries in August, and the National Guard is considering having to cut upcoming training without having additional support. The agreement also includes Capitol Police funding for improved equipment and training to ensure officers have the resources they need to fulfill their mission of protecting the Capitol. Importantly, the Capitol Police funding also includes money for mental health support, something I specifically called for. It also fully reimburses the National Guard for their costs in deploying to the Capitol, which was essential to securing the Capitol following the attack. By the way, we all know we need to recruit more officers, and I believe the stability of having a police Chief in place, particularly one from this region, and also having the funding and the benefits and the things we need will be helpful in our major effort that must be done to recruit more Capitol Police. People have been working too many shifts; they have been working too late; and they have been away from their families for too long. While this proposal will deliver needed funding for these urgent priorities, there are other priorities that we must not forget. First, it remains imperative that the criminal insurrectionists who overtook the Capitol on January 6 are held accountable to the fullest extent of the law. The Justice Department has done incredible work to see that justice is done following the horrific events of that day, with more than 500 people now facing criminal charges. That is, by the way, very important that we fund that. That is something we may have to take up in the future as some of these cases may be very complex. Secondly, at the same time, the insurrection also made clear--and we all know this--the need to improve the security of the Capitol Complex itself. This includes funds requested to upgrade the windows and doors that were destroyed by the violent mob that day and for new security measures. As we move forward, while I appreciate the funding in this bill, there may be need for additional funding. We heard again yesterday about the horrific events of January 6 during that hearing. We heard that harrowing testimony, once again, from brave officers who performed heroically under unimaginable circumstances. We all know the stories of staff hiding in closets. We all have seen the videos of how close it was for so many Members. We owe it to those who are with us today, for those we have lost, and for those whom we want to hire in the future to keep us safe. We owe it to them to pass this legislation to fund the Capitol Police and National Guard, but we also will owe it to them in the future to fund these ongoing prosecutions and other security improvements. I urge my colleagues to join me in working to ensure that we pass this bill and also that the critical funding needs are met as we move forward, for nothing is more important to this place than our democracy. I yield the floor.

Ms. KLOBUCHAR

Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I join in the wonderful words of my colleague from California, a true leader. He is someone who has served as an election official and the secretary of state for the biggest State in our Nation. He knows how important it is to count the votes and to make sure we allow everyone to vote. I come to the floor today to join him and to join Senator Leahy and other of our colleagues to honor the legacy of Congressman John Lewis and to continue his fight to make sure that every American can make their voice heard at the ballot box. As my colleagues have mentioned, it has been just over a year since John Lewis passed. I have always been in awe of him. This past week, I had the opportunity to reflect on his monumental contributions to our Nation when the Senate Rules Committee held a field hearing on voting rights in his home State of Georgia at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, a place that commemorates the civil rights movement. Today, as we celebrate his legacy, I am reminded of his persistence, his resilience, and his faith that this country could be better if only we put in the work. It was his faith in our country that led him to Selma, AL, where he helped lead 600 marchers across the Edmund Pettus Bridge on that dark day that became known as Bloody Sunday. Several times, several years, including the last year that he came to that bridge before he died, I was able to stand with him on the bridge in awe of everything he had done. The horrific events of that day shocked the Nation, with marchers attacked with clubs and tear gas. Congressman Lewis's skull was fractured. He bore the scars until the very end of his life. Soon after, President Lyndon Johnson came to the Capitol, and, as he said, ``with the outrage of Selma still fresh,'' urged Congress to guarantee the freedom to vote. Months later, with the help of former Minnesota Senator and Vice President Hubert Humphrey, the Voting Rights Act was signed into law. One of the times I visited was, in fact, the 48th year anniversary of that march. That weekend, after 48 years, the police chief of Montgomery handed his badge to Congressman Lewis and apologized for not protecting him and the other freedom marchers. Forty-eight years is a long time, and it only happened because Congressman Lewis never quit fighting for progress, for civil rights, for economic justice, and to defend the voting rights of every American. But now, more than five decades since that day in Selma and since the Voting Rights Act became the law of the land, so much of the progress that Americans have fought and even died for is at stake. Throughout our country's 245-year history, we have had to course-correct and take action to ensure that our democracy--for the people, by the people-- actually lives up to its ideals. We all had that moment, that night after the insurrection when this Chamber, which we are standing in, was taken over by those who did not believe in our election processes and in our democracy. And we not only came back to this Chamber that night, but, 2 weeks later, we stood under a beautiful blue sky and declared--Democrats or Republicans or Independents--that we stood with our democracy. And as I said that day, that was a day where our democracy stood up, brushed itself off, and we went forward as ``one nation under God, indivisible, with life and liberty for all.'' That is why earlier this week, believing that the job is not done, especially when over 400 bills have been introduced across this country in nearly every State, with 28 of them already signed into law, including an egregious example in Georgia--that is why--for the first time in two decades, we took the Senate Rules Committee on the road and held a field hearing in Atlanta to shine a spotlight on what is happening in Georgia and in States across the country to undermine the freedom to vote. We heard from State legislators and a former election official who had lost her job after a change in law meant that local election officials were taken away from their posts. And we heard from a voter, a veteran who had stood in line for hours and hours just to cast his vote. And when I asked him, when he signed up for the Air Force, was there a waiting line, he said no. Well, there shouldn't be a waiting line to vote in the United States of America, and that is why it is so critical that Congress pass basic Federal standards--that is the For the People Act--to ensure that all Americans can cast a ballot in a way that works best for them and that is safe for them, whether it is early voting, whether it is vote by mail, which so many Americans in red States and blue used across the country during the pandemic. And as we know the history of that, in States like the Presiding Officer's State of Colorado, or States like Utah, known as a red State, or States like Oregon, that has been the way they have been doing business safely for a long time. And many of us, for the first time, voted in that way But there are other ways as well, with dropoff ballot boxes. Some people have not registered way early because maybe they moved to a State, as we know happens in the United States, or maybe they are a young person at college, or maybe they forgot to register and they have to catch up and do it. None of those reasons, those simple reasons that could happen to anyone in their everyday life, should be reasons to ban people from voting, and that is why these basic Federal standards are so important. When we were in Georgia, we heard from Helen Butler, who I mentioned was a former election official from rural Morgan County, who pointed out that it was only after Black voters increased their vote-by-mail numbers in the 2020 election that the Georgia Legislature imposed new restrictions on mail-in ballots, after all those years. Georgia State Senator Sally Harrell also testified about how the bill was rushed through--this restrictive voting bill--through the Georgia Legislature without meaningful debate. We heard about the provisions of the bill that basically say that nonpartisan--that is already required, and that is correct--nonpartisan volunteers can't even give voters water when they stand in line, despite the fact that there were voters that we heard from the day before, with Senator Merkley and Stacy Abrams, and those voters stood in line for 3 hours, for 4 hours, and for 7 hours. We heard about the runoff changes. The runoff used to be 9 weeks in Georgia. It was reduced to 28 days. And during the runoff period, you can't vote, under the new law, on Saturdays and Sundays. You can vote that way during the general election. All of this--all of this--is done, in the words of one North Carolina judge, many years ago, in a decision, who said: This law discriminates with surgical precision-- literally going through ways that people voted, literally noticing that 70,000 new voters registered during the runoff, and then banning that because you have to register now 29 days ahead, when the time for the runoff is 28 days. How obvious can you get? Where you live and what your ZIP Code is should not dictate whether or not you can vote for President or U.S. Senate or Congress or Governor or any election. We owe it to the people of this country, and to those across the country who stood in line for hours to cast a ballot, to take action and protect the fundamental right to vote. I know a little bit about that because, in my State of Minnesota, nearly every single election has the highest voter turnout in the country. And guess what. We have elected Republican Governors with those rules that allow for more people to vote and the highest voter turnout. We have elected Democratic Governors, and we have elected Jesse Ventura. What I have noticed is not who wins, given that we are the only State in the country that has one State House that is Republican and one State House that is Democratic, given that our congressional delegation in the House is split evenly and has changed over time. It is not really who wins. It is how people feel about elections. They are part of the franchise we call democracy. So they will come up to me and say, ``You know, I didn't vote for you, but whatever; you are doing OK,'' or ``I have this concern.'' But they feel like they are part of the action. That is what our goal should be, to have all Americans feel like they are part of the action. We must meet this moment. As President Biden said in Philadelphia last week, this is the ``test of our time.'' So what do we do? Well, first, we must pass the For the People Act, which Senators Schumer and Merkley and I introduced, along with many others, to ensure that all Americans can cast their ballot. It is nothing radical. You know why it is not radical? It is firmly based in the Constitution. On the basic voting rights, the Constitution literally says that Congress can make or alter the rules and the manner in which Federal elections occur. That has never been questioned. It has been affirmed time and time again. The other bill, the bill we are focused on today, Congressman Lewis's bill, that is the Voting Rights Act, and you restore the Voting Rights Act after a Supreme Court decision struck down parts of that bill. I didn't agree with it. I agreed with then-Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's dissent, but you fix it with the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. It is now Congress's responsibility--the Supreme Court decision made that clear--to restore and modernize the Voting Rights Act and provide the Federal Government with the necessary tools to combat the assault on Americans' right to vote. We must recommit to the original goal of the Voting Rights Act to end discrimination in voting in America. We know this is something, historically, until recent years, that brought everyone together. The Senate reauthorized the Voting Rights Act in 1982 by a vote of 85 to 8, including 43 Republicans; in 1992, by a vote of 75 to 20, including 25 Republicans; and in 2006--2006--with a unanimous 98 to 0 vote, including 51 Republicans. And I don't think anyone with a straight face can say: Well, the reason we don't need to do this anymore is that we don't have any discriminatory laws being enacted on the State basis or there aren't any laws being enacted that limit voting. Truly, maybe you should read some of the court decisions, if you think that. I would say there is a stronger argument to do this, both sides of the aisle. John Lewis's bill is so important, and it isn't a substitute for passing the For the People bill, but we must do that, as well as include election infrastructure funding in the reconciliation bill, which I believe will be coming our way soon. I will end with this. Last Sunday, I had the privilege of attending services at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where I got to hear Reverend Warnock. There was a guest preacher, but for me it was like he was also preaching. And I got to hear him say something I will never forget. He said this: A vote is a prayer; it's a prayer for a better world, a prayer for your kids' education, a prayer that you're going to finally be able to do something about this world's environment. So during the last election, we saw an unprecedented number of people go to the polls to do just that. Not every one of their candidates won, but they believed enough in our democracy, in the middle of a public health crisis, that they went and cast their vote. In Congressman John Lewis's words, ``The right to vote is precious and almost sacred, and one of the most important blessings of our democracy.'' Today, we must be vigilant in protecting that blessing. Thank you. I yield the floor.

Ms. KLOBUCHAR

Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Madam President, today I rise to honor and pay tribute to the International Falls Journal, the local newspaper of the International Falls and Koochiching County communities that has provided timely, trustworthy, and thorough reporting to Minnesotans for the past 110 years. On June 24, 2021, the International Falls Journal will sadly publish its final edition. Founded in 1911 by Clarence Burton Montgomery as The Daily Journal, the then-daily paper has been a community staple since its start, informing locals of who was born and who died, local business news, and what happened at city council and school board meetings. Through different disasters and crises, The Journal made sure they delivered the news to their readers. In 1988, a fire ripped through its office on a Friday night, claiming most of the building and everything inside, including the paper's equipment. Still, that Monday and for weeks following the fire while the outlet was without printers, the paper was published as planned. This was 38 years after the great flood of 1950, when--you guessed it--the paper still ended up on their readers' doorsteps despite the unprecedented circumstance. The paper went through several owners before landing in the hands of Arlin Albrecht and Phil Duff, The Journal's current publishers, who purchased the paper in 1974. Regardless of ownership, locals have always been able to count on The Journal. International Falls Area Chamber of Commerce President Tricia Heibel said it well: ``From births, deaths, marriages, school events and sporting highlights, from lost pets to everything else, it was just a really central communication tool.'' As the daughter of a newspaperman, I grew up knowing just how important local newspapers like the International Falls Journal are. In fact, it is thanks to the presence of a local newspaper--the Duluth Herald--in my dad's childhood home that my grandmother spotted his interest in storytelling when he was just 12. Local papers played an irreplaceable role in my father's life, as they continue to today for countless readers. But today, newspapers of all sizes are struggling and closing. Ad revenue for U.S. newspapers plummeted from $49.4 billion in 2005 to $14.3 billion in 2018. During that time, two other companies, Facebook and Google--worth over $2.4 trillion combined--became advertising titans. These two companies don't just control the majority of online advertising; they have built power over the news and crushed local news outlets along the way. With the closure of The Journal, we are once again seeing the impacts of this firsthand. We can't stand by and watch this happen to our independent press. That is why I have introduced bipartisan legislation to let news publishers join together to negotiate fair terms with these giant digital corporations. We must give independent papers the chance to compete. But even as we work to ensure other papers are able to keep their lights on, the International Falls Journal is a reminder of the value of local journalism. For more than a century, it has empowered its readers by providing them with accurate, relevant information about their communities. It has captured moments big and small that together tell a beautiful story of the region that will live on. Even as it closes its doors, generations will benefit from the legacy it leaves behind.

Ms. KLOBUCHAR

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

Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Madam President, I come to the floor to speak in support of proceeding to debate legislation that is critical to our democracy, legislation that is based on two simple ideas: that Americans must be able to freely choose their elected officials and that government must be accountable to the people, not to those with the most money. These are not Democratic or Republican ideas; they are core American ideas. But for too long, these rights have been under attack, which is why we need the critical democracy reforms in the For the People Act. I am honored to be leading this legislation with Senators Merkley and Schumer and to have worked with my colleagues as chair of the Rules Committee, worked with my colleagues in the House and civil rights and democracy reform groups and you, Madam President, to bring this bill forward today. The freedom to vote is fundamental to all of our freedoms. It is how Americans control their government and hold elected officials accountable. It is the bedrock of our government. It is the founding principle of our country, and it has stood the test of wars, of economic strife, and yes, a global pandemic. But protecting this right has not always been easy. Throughout our country's 245-year history, we have had to course- correct and take action to ensure that democracy is for the people and by the people and that it has lived up to our ideals. At the beginning of this year, we were reminded on January 6 that it is up to us to protect against threats to our democracy, to ensure that it succeeds. I still remember that moment at 3:30 in the morning when Senator Blunt and I and, yes, Vice President Pence walked from this Chamber with the two young women with the mahogany box full of those last ballots to get over to the House to finish our job so that you, Madam President, were declared the Vice President and President Biden was declared the President. That is upholding our democracy. That is doing it together, Democrats and Republicans doing our job. And what this bill is about to me, this bill is about carrying on that torch to protect our democracy. Today, the vote to begin debate on this legislation will likely get the support of all 50 Democrats. Senator Manchin, along with the rest of our caucus, has made clear to the country that standing up for the right to vote is bigger than any one person or thing. It is about us. It is about us as Americans. I deeply appreciate the work he has put into the proposal he is putting forward today, and I look forward to continuing our discussions with him. He is doing this in good faith. There are many good things in that proposal. And today we are here together to reaffirm we will not give up this fight. It is just beginning. The 2020 election showed that you can make it safer to vote while giving voters the options that work for them. If it is vote-by-mail--I see my colleague Senator Smith here. Minnesota is so proud of our same- day registration. That has worked for us. It has made us No. 1 in voter turnout in the country time and time and time again. Many States during the pandemic took steps exactly like that, extending options for voters, like safe vote-by mail, and now 34 States have no-excuse vote- by-mail--34 States. The result? More than nearly 160 million Americans voted--more than ever before and in the middle of a pandemic. I still remember those voters in the primary in Wisconsin standing in makeshift garbage bags with makeshift masks over their faces in the middle of a rainstorm, in the middle of a pandemic, standing in line to vote. And in an election that the Trump Department of Homeland Security declared was the most secure in our history, the American people elected, yes, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. But in the wake of that historic election, there has been a pervasive, coordinated, and overwhelming effort to undermine the freedoms of voting in future elections, with over 400 bills introduced in legislatures across the country. Twenty-two laws to restrict voting have been enacted in 14 States, and 31 more bills to roll back the right to vote have passed at least 1 chamber of a State legislature. As Reverend Warnock put it in this Chamber in his maiden speech as Senator, ``Some people don't want some people to vote.'' That is what is going on here. The new law in Georgia makes it harder to request mail-in ballots, drastically limits ballot drop boxes, and makes it a crime to hand water and food to voters waiting in line to cast their ballots, when in previous elections, Georgians have stood in line for up to 10 hours to vote. One of the new Montana laws ended same-day registration on election day after it had been in practice in the State for 15 years, and Senator Tester is joining me in trying to bring this practice across-- when we introduced that bill--across the Nation. In the weeks ahead, similar bills are expected to pass in even more States, including Texas, where the Governor has promised to call the legislature into special session to pass a bill to restrict voting that was blocked at the end of regular session thanks to the heroic efforts of Democrats in the Texas State Legislature who blessed us with their presence just last week. These are not empty threats; they are real efforts to disenfranchise regular Americans from voting--senior citizens, people with disabilities, people who can't stand in line for 10 hours just to wait to vote. In the face of these efforts to roll back voting rights in so many States, the For the People Act is about setting basic national standards to make sure that all voters in this country can vote legally in the way that works for them, regardless of which ZIP Code they live in, regardless of whether they live in a big city or in a suburb or out in a small town in western Minnesota. It is about reducing the power of Big Money in our elections by ending secret spending by billionaires and special interests. It is about making anti-corruption reforms to ensure that politicians work for the people, not for themselves. Republicans have said that this bill is designed to provide a political advantage, but, as a former Republican Commissioner of the Federal Election Commission who chaired under George Bush, Trevor Potter, has said in explaining his support for this bill--and he appeared as a witness in my hearing for this bill--he said: This bill does not give power to any particular party over another; it gives power back to the voters. Giving power back to the voters is exactly what we need. There is an amplified attack on the right to vote this year, but we have seen serious efforts to restrict voting rights since the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act 8 years ago. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 marked the cornerstone achievement to the civil rights movement and became a law because of the tireless work of people like John Lewis who put their lives on the line to secure voting rights for all. Fifty- six years later, we are still fighting that battle. At the same time, we haven't had meaningful campaign finance or ethics reform. Our democracy desperately needs the proposals in this bill. And guess what. The American people agree. Yes, this bill is bipartisan, except right here in this place. It is bipartisan because one poll released recently found that 78 percent of Americans, including 63 percent of Republicans, support making early in-person voting available for at least 2 weeks before election day. That is a proposal in our original For the People, and it is in the managers' amendment that we are voting for cloture on, and it is in Senator Manchin's proposal. Another poll found that 83 percent of likely voters support public disclosure of contributions to groups involved in elections--also the DISCLOSE Act in all three proposals. Yet some of my Republican colleagues want to limit disclosures. By the way, disclosures were championed by Justice Scalia. Yet what happened in our committee hearing on this, our markup? Republicans filed amendment after amendment to gut those provisions of the bill. So while they make claims--my friends on the other side of the aisle--that this isn't popular, it is just not true. They claim it is not bipartisan. It is just not true. The bill contains nine bipartisan bills, including the Honest Ads Act, which I first introduced with Senator John McCain and Senator Warner, and now Senator Lindsay Graham took up that cause. Our provision--that provision would finally hold the social media companies accountable to make sure that there are disclaimers and disclosures on political ads. There is the work that I have done with Senator Lankford and with you, Madam President, when you were in the Senate to make sure we have backup paper ballots. We still have eight States that don't have backup paper ballots. That provision is in this bill. Many of the bill's provisions have already been adopted in red, blue, and purple States and have the support of Governors and election officials from both parties. Twenty-one States have same-day voter registration, including red States like Idaho, Wyoming, and Iowa. That is great, but our question should be, why don't all 50 States have it, especially when the Constitution of the United States specifically says that Congress can make and alter rules for Federal elections? It is as clear as the words on the page. Twenty States have automatic voter registration laws, including Alaska, Georgia, and West Virginia. Forty-five States allowed all voters to vote by mail in the 2020 election, and 44 States have early voting. What this bill does is takes the best of the best and puts in place minimum standards so that no matter what State you call home, you have access to the ballot box. That is why Senator Merkley has worked so hard on this legislation. That is why Senator Schumer made this bill Senate file No. 1. The bill that we are voting to advance includes changes that directly respond to concerns about implementation from both Democratic and Republican States and local officials. We heard those concerns, and the Democrats on the Rules Committee, which included Senator Warner and Senator King--we worked on that managers' amendment and made it easier for rural areas, extended the time system, and got at their concerns. And then Senator Manchin has come up with more ideas and more things we can do to make the bill strong. We heard from election officials that requiring States to accept mail-in ballots for too long after election day would delay them from certifying the results, so we shortened the window. I could go on and on and on. In good faith, we have worked to make this bill work for America, and now it is time to allow for debate on this bill. Our Republican friends on the other side of the aisle say this bill-- this is one thing Senator McConnell would say in the hearing--that it would cause chaos. I say this: Chaos is a 5-hour wait to vote. Senior citizens standing in the hot Sun for 5 hours, for 10 hours--that is chaos. Chaos is purging eligible voters from voter rolls and modern-day poll taxes and one ballot box for a county of 5 million people, which is exactly what they did in Harris County, TX. That is exactly what is happening in that State right now. Chaos is voters in Wisconsin waiting in line to vote for hours in the rain in their homemade masks and plastic garbage bags. The angry mob on January 6 that came into this very Chamber, that spray painted the columns, that attacked police officers, that injured people left and right--that is chaos. As I said from the stage on Inauguration Day under that bright blue sky where you could still see the spray paint at the bottom of those columns and the makeshift windows we had in place--I said this: This is the day our democracy picks itself up, brushes off the dust, and does what America always does: goes forward as a Nation under God, with liberty and justice for all. We cannot do that if Americans are disenfranchised, if they are not part of our democracy. Republicans have sadly made it clear that this is not legislation they are willing to negotiate or even debate. They won't even give it a week. They won't even give it a few days. Just last week, they held a press conference to tell the American people that they don't believe Congress should act to protect the right to vote or get rid of secret money in our elections. So, honestly, I would love to get support from the other side of the aisle, but we have to be honest--I don't expect we are going to get it. So, my Republican colleagues, this is not the end of the line for this bill. This is not the end of the line. This is only the beginning because if you have your way, those voters won't even be at the end of the line. They are not going to be able to vote. In the Rules Committee, we will be holding a series of hearings--not just one hearing, a series of hearings--and we are taking it on the road for the first time in a long time. We are going to Georgia and holding a field hearing there so we can hear firsthand from people in the State on what is happening and why we must carry out the constitutional duty in this Chamber to act. I urge my Republican colleagues to recognize the work being done in States to restrict the freedom of Americans to exercise their sacred right to vote. Our Nation was founded on the ideals of democracy, and we have seen for ourselves in this building how we can never take it for granted. We can't let State legislatures get to pick and choose who votes and what votes get counted. That is not how democracy works. I urge all of my colleagues to do what the American people are asking us to do and to do what is right. Vote today to bring us closer to passing legislation to strengthen our democracy. We can't wait in line, and we can't make the people of America wait in line. The time to do this is now. I yield the floor.

Ms. KLOBUCHAR

Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, as chair of the Rules Committee, I implore my colleagues to vote for this Commission. On January 6, we all walked over that broken glass. We all saw the spray paint on the wall. We all stood huddled together in shelter, and most of us--most of us, the vast majority of us, Democrats and Republicans--voted to uphold our democracy that night late into the evening. But it doesn't end there. I give to you the words of slain officer Brian Sicknick's mother. An ordinary woman, who never has been involved in politics, she is now forced to do extraordinary things and lobby Members of this body to simply get to the truth. She said this: ``Not having a January 6 Commission to look into exactly what occurred is a slap in the faces of all the officers who did their jobs that day.'' For months, national security experts have called for a bipartisan Commission. Yesterday, the Department of Homeland Security former Secretaries from the Bush and Obama administrations--Chertoff, Ridge, Napolitano, Johnson--all called for this Commission. This Commission is modeled exactly after the gold standard of investigations and recommendations--the 9/11 Commission. It is modeled in the words of how the staff is chosen. It is modeled in the words of getting to the bottom of something and getting something done. But yet, so many of our colleagues, sadly, on the other side of the aisle are refusing to move on this. Colleagues, we owe it to the heroic Capitol Police, to the first responders, to the staff members who sat in closets for hours and hours and hours, to the police officer who was called the ``n'' word 15 times and then sat in the Rotunda and looked at another officer and said: Is this America? We owe it to them that put themselves in harm's way to protect the Capitol and the sacred democratic process. Inaction is not an option And, no, the report we are doing that I am so proud of, with Senator Peters and Senator Portman and Senator Blunt, which will come out shortly, is about an immediate response and bills we have to pass and things we have to do and mistakes that were made. It is an important report, and we are proud of our work, but it is no substitute for an 9/ 11-style Commission, and I implore our colleagues to vote with us to get this done. I yield the floor.

Ms. KLOBUCHAR

Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Madam President, today I rise to honor and pay tribute to Dave Lee, a radio host and Minnesota legend who is retiring after 32 years at WCCO radio on April 30, 2021. Hailing from Hatton, ND, Dave did not always know he would be a radio personality. He spent his summers in high school throwing hay bales, picking potatoes, and hoeing beets. When a friend recommended he audition for KRAD, a local radio station in East Grand Forks, Dave was just hoping to earn a little extra money for college, but the station saw a spark in him and offered him 9-hour country music shift. From there, he volunteered to help out with sports coverage, and when he graduated college, he stayed at the station. As he puts it, ``When you are passionate about something, it never feels like you are going to work.'' That is how Dave's voice was introduced to the airwaves, and after years at KRAD in East Grand Forks and KFGO in Fargo, he became a weekend host of News Talk 830 on WCCO. He didn't know at the time, but WCCO would be his home for the next 32 years. Dave went on to join the legendary Roger Erickson as cohost of the morning drive and then took on solo duties when Roger retired in 1997.

Ms. KLOBUCHAR

Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Madam President, I rise today to discuss the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act. I was a cosponsor of this bill, which was introduced by Senator Hirono and passed the Senate on April 22, 2021, by a vote of 94 to 1. I was in Minnesota to attend the memorial service for Daunte Wright when the bill came up for a vote, but I would have voted in favor of the bill had I been present. I have been alarmed by the sharp increase in hate crimes against members of the Asian-American Pacific Islander, AAPI, community during the pandemic. According to Stop AAPI Hate, there have been approximately 3,800 incidents of anti-Asian bias across the country in the last year, and that number only includes what has been reported. As we saw with the recent mass shooting in Georgia, in which six of the eight victims were women of Asian descent, these crimes are horrifying and heartbreaking. I have also talked to constituents in my State who have experienced verbal attacks, physical abuse, and threats to their businesses simply because they are members of the AAPI community. What they have endured is not right. These are hate crimes, and it is time for us to stand together, to denounce hate, and take action. When I first arrived at the Senate, I worked hard to pass the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act. As a prosecutor, I was at the White House when President Bill Clinton introduced the bill, and 9 years later, I got to cast one of the deciding votes to make the bill a reality. Since then I have worked with Senator Murkowski to introduce the bipartisan Justice for Victims of Hate Crimes Act, which will help to ensure that Federal prosecutors can effectively enforce the Federal hate crimes law. After places of worship were targets of violence in my State, I joined my colleagues in cosponsoring legislation to strengthen protections for religious institutions that was signed into law in September 2018. The COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act will ensure that the Department of Justice invests the resources needed to fully investigate pandemic- related hate crimes against Asian Americans and will support local law enforcement to report and respond to hate crimes. While there is more we must do to root out hate and bias in our country, this bill is an important step forward, and I am grateful to Senator Hirono for her work in leading this legislation.

Ms. KLOBUCHAR

Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, as we await a very important moment for justice in my State today. Our work goes on. I am here today, first of all, to acknowledge the loss of my mentor, Vice President Walter Mondale. He caught the Nation's attention fighting for justice. So, it is such a moment. He worked on the forefront of the right to counsel in the landmark case Gideon v. Wainwright. He followed in the footsteps of Hubert Humphrey to arrive in the Senate. He did great things passing civil rights legislation. As Vice President, he defined the office of the modern-day Vice President. He was ``Fritz'' to us. He was our attorney general, our Senator, and our Vice President, and I know he is up there right now rooting for justice. I am going to speak more about Walter Mondale next week. Senator Smith, Senator Grassley, and I have a resolution honoring him for his time in the Senate and for his time as Vice President, which we will be presenting next week. Nominations of Vanita Gupta and Lisa O. Monaco Mr. President, now, in the name of justice and the idea that justice must keep rolling along, I want to talk a little bit about some of the people we need in place as we look to the future, as we look to the future of police reform and the work that you have done as the lead on this bill, Mr. President, and the work we have to do. To do that, we need a functioning Justice Department. We have an Attorney General who is excellent in Merrick Garland. We congratulate Lisa Monaco, who is expected to be confirmed later today with a strong bipartisan vote. But we need more. We need the presence of true leaders in the Justice Department. We need to see Kristen Clarke and Vanita Gupta confirmed. Walter Mondale was someone who always raised the bar. He was someone who was ahead of his time. When he introduced housing legislation and childcare legislation, a lot of people said: Oh, why are you doing that right now? I think that is a little bit like the experience of these two women, ahead of their time, doing the right thing, speaking of raising the bar. We know that when many of the women of the Senate come to the floor, something important is going on. And given the challenges our States face today, the stakes are high. So today we make the case for Vanita Gupta and Kristen Clarke, and we address the unfair and unsubstantiated attacks we have heard from the other side of the aisle against these eminently qualified women. I have worked closely with Ms. Gupta and Ms. Clarke for many years, and I am confident they will lead the Department of Justice with honor and integrity. Their nominations also represent the historic opportunity to make progress toward the goal of ensuring that the government looks more like the people it represents, especially at the Department of Justice. When we confirm Ms. Gupta, she will be the first civil rights lawyer and the first woman of color to serve as the Associate Attorney General. And when we confirm Ms. Clarke, she will be the first Senate- confirmed leader of the Civil Rights Division to be a woman of color. They will bring years of experience to bear to take on the challenges we have right now, like hate crimes, on which we are taking action this week in the Senate; like voting rights, on which we just had a hearing today in the Judiciary Committee, and in just a few weeks we will be marking up the For the People Act in the Rules Committee, which I chair. As my State and my country are reeling after the killing of Daunte Wright, and as we await the verdict in the murder of George Floyd, we need Ms. Gupta and Ms. Clarke at the Department of Justice to take on systemic police and criminal justice reform. They are also the leaders that Attorney General Garland wants at the Department, which I asked him about at his nomination hearing. He said Vanita Gupta and Kristen Clarke ``have skills that I do not have; they have experiences that I do not have.'' And he said: ``No human being can have all of the skills necessary to run the Justice Department and I need this leadership team if I'm going to be successful.'' Attorney General Garland, who was confirmed by a bipartisan vote of 76 to 23, needs his team to be successful. That is something all of us should want. After what we saw during the previous administration, it is essential that the leaders of the Justice Department are committed to its independence in order to restore trust in our justice system. This is a priority for the Attorney General, and it is a priority for Vanita Gupta and Kristen Clarke. Vanita Gupta has demonstrated her commitment to the pursuit of justice for her entire career. As an attorney for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, she worked on the frontlines fighting in court to protect the civil rights of some of the most vulnerable people. Later, at the American Civil Liberties Union, she brought cases on behalf of immigrant children and worked to end mass incarceration while keeping communities safe. While serving as our country's chief civil rights prosecutor at the Department of Justice during the Obama administration, Ms. Gupta led critical work on criminal justice reform, prosecuting hate crimes and human trafficking, defending the right to vote, and protecting the rights of the LGBTQ community and those with disabilities. As president of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the Nation's oldest, largest, and most diverse civil and human rights coalition, Ms. Gupta has a record of fighting for all Americans with dedication and a willingness to work across ideological lines to achieve results. Ms. Gupta's depth of experience at the Department of Justice and her years as a civil rights attorney make her eminently qualified to serve as Associate Attorney General. And I have seen--as I know you have, Mr. President--her work firsthand. I was one of the cosponsors of the FIRST STEP Act, which made much needed reforms, a bill that you spent so much leadership on. And Ms. Gupta worked with us, as she brought a broad range of organizations and experts in support of the bill, including both law enforcement and civil liberties groups. Grover Norquist, a Republican and president of Americans for Tax Reform, who supported the FIRST STEP Act, described Ms. Gupta as ``an honest broker; someone with an ability not only to understand, but also appreciate, different perspectives. She was someone who sought consensus.'' As I look at what my State has been through for the last year and as we await this verdict at this moment, that is exactly the kind of person we need at the Department right now. And, if you have any lingering questions, I say to my colleagues, just take a look at the number of law enforcement groups that have come out in support of he nomination. Just look at them. She is the right person for the job at the right time. Then there is Kristen Clarke, nominated to be Assistant Attorney General to lead the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice. Ms. Clarke has spent her entire 20-year career fighting for civil rights and equal justice under the law. Early in her career, she worked as an attorney in the Criminal Section of the Civil Rights Division at the Justice Department, for the Bush Administration. She investigated and prosecuted hate crimes and human trafficking. She also worked in the Division's voting section. Since 2016, she has been the president and executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, one of the country's largest and most important civil rights organizations, dedicated to the pursuit of equal justice for all. It is important to note the history of the Lawyers' Committee, which was created at the request of President John F. Kennedy in the summer of 1963, perhaps the defining year of the civil rights movement. This is an organization of attorneys founded to organize their peers to use their training to advance civil rights for all Americans. Isn't that just who we want leading the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice? I have worked with Ms. Clarke for many years on election issues. She testified before the Rules Committee and impressed everyone on both sides of the aisle. At that time, she said that following the direction of many, she is going to work to ensure ``that the Civil Rights Division . . . is using the tools in its arsenal''--and she said that now as she has been nominated for this position--``the Voting Rights Act, the National Voter Registration Act, the Uniformed and Overseas Absentee Citizens Voting Act--to ensure that eligible Americans have access to the ballot in our country.'' She also mentioned that she was here in the Senate Chamber in 2006, when this body passed the reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act--on what vote?--98 to 0. That is why she has support from Republicans and Democrats who work on these issues. Trevor Potter, who previously chaired the FEC as a Republican Commissioner, called Ms. Clarke ``one of the foremost legal experts in the country on voting rights'' and described her as ``smart, honest, and deeply committed to equal justice under law.'' Tray Grayson, former Secretary of State from Kentucky, who is a Republican and served as chairperson of the Republican Association of Secretaries of State, sent a letter expressing his strong support of Ms. Clarke. And we have also heard from former Assistant Attorneys General of the Civil Rights Division who served in both Republican and Democratic administrations, who wrote: We found Ms. Clarke to be an excellent candidate from the standpoint of experience, temperament and commitment to the rule of law. She has the experience, the commitment and the passion to do this job. I am joined by a number of our colleagues today. Senator Stabenow was here earlier. Senator Hirono is with us on the floor to stand up for Ms. Gupta and Ms. Clarke and to reject the falsehoods we have heard from our colleagues on the other side. But we are also here to make the case for why we must seize this historic opportunity to send two women of color to lead the Justice Department. So at this pivotal moment we live in, at this very moment, my message to my friends, Vanita and Kristen, today, is this: We have your backs, just as you have the backs of the people of this country. Those jurors in Minnesota, they are not talking to each other about if they are Democrats or Republicans. They have a job to do. The witnesses that came forward in that case, people who just happened to be there--a store clerk doing his job, a man who just happened to walk by, the police officers who testified--they didn't ask people what political party they were in. They just came forward. That is why I ask my colleagues to step back and think about what justice really means today and what it will mean tomorrow, and ask them to support Ms. Gupta and Ms. Clarke to serve with Merrick Garland and Lisa Monaco to run the Department of Justice. I yield the floor.

Ms. KLOBUCHAR

Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I have 6 requests for committees to meet during today's session of the Senate. They have the approval of the Majority and Minority leaders. Pursuant to rule XXVI, paragraph 5(a), of the Standing Rules of the Senate, the following committees are authorized to meet during today's session of the Senate: committee on armed services The Committee on Armed Services is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, April 20, 2021, at 9:30 a.m., to conduct a hearing. committee on banking, housing, and urban affairs The Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, April 20, 2021, at 10 a.m., to conduct a hearing. Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation The Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, April 20, 2021, at 10 a.m., to conduct a hearing. Committee on Finance The Committee on Finance is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, April 20, 2021, at 10 a.m., to conduct a hearing. Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions The Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, April 20, 2021, at 10 a.m., to conduct a hearing. Committee on the Judiciary The Committee on the Judiciary is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, April 20, 2021, at 10 a.m., to conduct a hearing.

Ms. KLOBUCHAR

Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I thank Senator Durbin for his leadership, and following my colleague and friend, Senator Lee, I disagree with him vehemently about Vanita Gupta. She is someone I have worked closely with for years on voting rights, on police reform, and just last year I marched with her across the Edmund Pettus Bridge with the late John Lewis to mark the 55th anniversary of Bloody Sunday in Selma, AL. After working alongside her to build a more just system, I have no doubt that she will take this job on with two words, two words that I think are so important right now to build trust with the people of this country: honor and integrity. That is what has marked her career. As a civil rights lawyer, public servant, and as President of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the Nation's oldest, largest, and most diverse civil and human rights coalition, she has a record of fighting for all Americans, with dedication, consistency, and--and--a willingness to work across ideological lines to achieve results. Why did she get those police endorsements and the kind of support that she got, even though she was taking on reform? It is because she earned people's respect. She is the right person for the right time in the Justice Department, and I say this coming from Minnesota, where my State is reeling after the killing of Duante Wright. Our hearts break for Daunte's family and for our community, which is still in the midst of the George Floyd murder trial of Derek Chauvin. I was so proud and am so proud of the ordinary citizens that came forward and testified from my State: a clerk in the store, a man walking by, all of them having carried the burden--the burden--of this murder, looking inside themselves thinking: What could I have done better? And that case will soon conclude, but those citizens coming forward and actually the law enforcement coming forward and testifying at all levels of law enforcement for the prosecution of Derek Chauvin--that meant something to the people of my State. I want to be able to go back and tell those citizens who testified that you don't carry this burden alone; that we have a Justice Department that is going to stand up for you. And, for me, one of those key people is Vanita Gupta. She is exactly who we need right now to champion the cause of equal justice under the law. She has described the Department as an institution she loves dearly because, as she said, it bears the name of a value--justice--one that carries a unique charge and North Star. It is the sacred keeper of the promise of equal justice under the law, and coming from the North Star State, that means a lot. Her commitment to defending the Constitution and upholding the integrity of this important Agency is, for her, a professional calling. It is also a personal calling. As she has described, she inherited from her parents, who came to this country, a belief in the promise of America, one that carries with it a personal responsibility to make this country better for everyone. We all know immigrants who think like that every day--people who have just arrived and people who have raised their families here. They are Vanita Gupta. There is no question that Ms. Gupta has the experience for this job. As an attorney for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, she worked on the frontlines, fighting in court to protect the civil rights of some of the most vulnerable people. Later, at the American Civil Liberties Union, she brought cases on behalf of immigrant children and worked to end mass incarceration while keeping communities safe. While serving as our country's chief civil rights prosecutor at the Department of Justice, during the Obama administration, she led critical work on criminal justice reform, prosecuting hate crimes and human trafficking, defending the right to vote, and protecting the rights of the LGBTQ community and those with disabilities. Ms. Gupta's depth of experience at the Department of Justice and her years as a civil rights attorney make her imminently qualified to serve as Associate Attorney General. In that position, she will oversee the work of the Department's Civil Rights Division and will help direct the Department's work to reform our justice system. Having helped to lead the Federal review of police practices, she understands the need for systemic reform in our justice system, as well as ways to work with law enforcement--with law enforcement--to make necessary changes. That is why she has the support of police chiefs, sheriffs, and major law enforcement groups across the country, including the National Sheriffs' Association, including the International Association of Chiefs of Police, and including the Major Cities Chiefs Association. They know that Ms. Gupta is a trusted partner who, as the Fraternal Order of Police wrote in a letter of support, has ``always worked with us to find common ground even when that seemed impossible.'' Grover Norquist, a Republican and president of Americans for Tax Reform, described Ms. Gupta as ``an honest broker; someone with an ability not only to understand but also appreciate different perspectives. She was someone who sought consensus,'' he said. That is exactly the kind of person we need at the Department right now. I look forward to working with her on the next steps in our efforts to reform our criminal justice system, which we were able to discuss at her hearing. We talked about her commitment to police reform and the need to increase funding for alternatives to incarceration, such as drug court, which is something I have worked on for years since my time as county attorney, and her support for conviction integrity units to help States to review legal cases for people believed to be innocent. She gets that the work of a prosecutor is, yes, working for safety, but it is also to be a minister of justice and to make sure that people are treated equally under the law. I also have talked to Ms. Gupta about the urgent need to finally reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act, which I hope my colleagues and I will work to pass and get to President Biden's desk. In the Obama administration, she coordinated the Department of Justice's efforts to develop guidance supported by data on how law enforcement can prevent gender bias when responding to sexual assault and domestic violence. At our hearing, she affirmed the important role that the Department has in protecting victims of domestic violence, and I look forward to working with her on these issues. As chair of the Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights, I am also pleased that Ms. Gupta committed to make vigorous antitrust enforcement a priority. I think there is agreement from both sides of the aisle that robust competition is essential to protect consumers, workers, and businesses, large and small. I am confident that Ms. Gupta will lead the Department's efforts to confront monopoly power and restore competitive markets along with Lisa Monaco and along with, of course, the Attorney General himself, Merrick Garland. Ms. Gupta's history as a champion of civil rights and record as a consensus builder makes her, as I said, the right person at the right time. She has the backing of more than 220 national civil and human rights organizations, including the ACLU, the NAACP, and the Human Rights Campaign. She has, as I said, the support from law enforcement and from former Department of Justice leaders from both parties. She is a person who works to bring people together to get big things done. That is what we need right now, someone who sees that vision but also understands that the way we get to justice is by doing things step by step by step and bringing people with you as you march along. We need to do more than restore what has been undermined or lost. We need the courage of leadership to preserve and strengthen our democracy by protecting the rule of law. I would like to finally acknowledge that her nomination is historic. In addition to Ms. Gupta's years of experience, dedication to justice, and support from across the ideological spectrum, she will be the first civil rights lawyer and the first woman of color to serve as Associate Attorney General. I look forward to confirming her to be Associate Attorney General, and I urge my colleagues to do the same. I yield the floor.

Ms. KLOBUCHAR

Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent for the legislative activities report of the Committee on Rules and Administration during the 116th Congress be printed in the Congressional Record.

Ms. KLOBUCHAR

Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, today I rise in remembrance of my dear friend Brigid McDonough. Many years ago, she agreed to be the treasurer of my Senate campaign and stayed in that volunteer job for over a decade. That was a courageous thing to do in this political climate. But that was the kind of friend Brigid was: loyal and always there. She wanted to serve the people. She loved her family. She loved her husband, Reid. I know how hard it was for Reid and Brigid at the end, and the last few years the two of them had together were so precious. Brigid loved her extended family of course. I will always remember being at the Lumberjack Days Parade in Stillwater, and Brigid would run up and give me a big hug--and her sister would run up and give me a big hug and then some other McDonough would. Her affection was contagious. Since her admission to the Minnesota bar in 1984, her life and career were rooted in how she could best lift others up. She believed that government and the law can be used to help people achieve equity and social justice in a world where playing fields are not often level. She used her impressive legal acumen to achieve good things on behalf of many people in our State. Brigid recognized the power of political and community organizing, of getting involved. She was inspired by the DFL tradition and the honest conviction to fight for what is just. If you asked me what politician she was most inspired by, I would have to say Senator Paul Wellstone. He was her hero. Campaigning for Paul is how I first met Brigid; She was a true believer, happily working at a law firm by day, and spending her free time out there holding up those green signs for Paul. Providing affordable housing to underserved communities was a major goal for Brigid, and she approached her volunteer work with the same focus she had at the law firm. Whether she was representing immigrant and refugee families through her pro bono work, supporting her alma mater and community by serving on the Macalester College alumni board and the Hmong Partnership board, or chairing the St. Paul DFL--that alone is a career unto itself--Brigid always brought this earnest conviction to fight for what was good, often on behalf of people who couldn't always do it for themselves. Brigid did so much through the valuable guidance she offered to dozens of local, State, and national political campaigns. She was especially dedicated to electing women and people of color to public office, and she was really good at it. Brigid was kind and generous, loyal to friends and colleagues, and compassionate, smart, and really funny. She and Reid loved traveling and both were voracious readers. I always admired her adventurous spirit and valued hearing her opinions on everything from Minnesota politics to Bruce Springsteen. Friends considered her a font of wisdom and ideas, and she always shared recommendations on books, movies, and music, with warmth and affection. There are certain people who have a way of seeing and bringing out the very best in others. Brigid was one of those people. Let's remember Brigid's fierce love of life. That is what made the time we spent with her so special. Her friendship and her commitment to making a difference in the world are true gifts that will continue to benefit all of us who were lucky enough to know her.

Ms. KLOBUCHAR

Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I thank Senator Murphy so much for those beautiful words. When you honor the victims as you did, you honor all victims. What I have found about these crimes, particularly the crime of domestic violence, is, so often, the victims have been hidden from view. It is a crime that takes place in someone's bedroom with the door closed. It is a crime that takes place in a house, a crime that no one ever sees. As you know, in a situation like this, when there is a gun, it becomes deadly. One of my memories is of years ago when a police officer in a small town in Minnesota responded to a domestic violence call. What a lot of people don't know is that, oftentimes, those are the most dangerous calls police officers take. It was a victim--very young--who had called the police, and it was of someone who had severe mental illness problems, her boyfriend. The police went to the door, and the door was answered, and the guy shot the police officer. He was wearing a bulletproof vest, but he shot him in the head. I was at that funeral. It is a reminder that the crime of domestic violence isn't just about one victim; it is about an entire community. As the widow walked down the aisle of the church, she had her two little boys with her, and she was holding this little girl in a dress that was covered in stars. The last time that family had been in that church was for the Nativity play that the boys had been in. The dad had been sitting proudly in the front row, and now they were at his funeral. That is what we are talking about with gun violence. I join my colleagues on the floor to honor Americans whose lives were cruelly and unjustly taken from us by gun violence, and I am going to read some names of people who should never be forgotten. In Alabama, Chase Green; in Arizona, Isaias Garcia Tovar, Sr., Isaias Tovar, Jr., and Delia Noriega; in Connecticut, Dwaneia Turner; in Delaware, Demier Chambers; in Florida, Earnest Lee ``Bug'' Riggs, Jr.; in Illinois, Brenda Poss-Barnes, Greg Barnes, Sr., and Daniel Kinney; in Indiana, Chanel Neal; in Kentucky, Kenya Renee Cunningham, Demontray Rhodes, and Katherine Bryan; in Missouri, Johnnie Jones; in Ohio, Alonzo Lewis; in Tennessee, Kevin Niyibizi; in Virginia, Eddie Jenkins; in Wisconsin, Kevin Kloth and Kevin Schneider. Those are just 20 names out of the thousands of people lost to gun violence every year--an average of 100 gun violence deaths each day. That is three classrooms of children. We also know the communities where mass shootings occur will never be the same. Atlanta, GA, and Boulder, CO, are now part of the ever growing list of cities and towns forever altered but never forgotten-- Midland, Odessa, Dayton, El Paso, Virginia Beach, Pittsburgh, Parkland, Las Vegas, Orlando, Charleston, Newtown, to name a few--and I am greatly saddened that my home State of Minnesota also has communities on that list. On average, someone is killed with a gun every 21 hours in my State. That is 422 people each year. Tonight, I am going to focus on the loss of two women from Minnesota, both of whom were healthcare workers and both of whom were moms. For the past year, frontline healthcare workers protected us from the pandemic, but for Lindsay Overbay and Bao Yang, we failed to protect them. In February, Lindsay was killed in a horrible shooting at the Allina Health Clinic in Buffalo, MN, where four of her coworkers were also injured. This just happened last month. She was a medical assistant at the clinic, and she devoted her life to healing others. She had a wonderful laugh that would make a room spark to life. Her husband said that her laugh was so distinctive that, if you walked into the clinic and you heard her laughing, you knew exactly who it was. The spark of her own life was her family--her husband of 10 years and he beloved children, an 8-year-old boy and a 5-year-old girl. Friends said that she lived and breathed her kids and that she cherished every moment spent with them. Her field of cardiology put her in contact with older patients whom she loved caring for because she said, ``They are at an age where they say what they are thinking.'' It is gut-wrenching and heartbreaking to think that Lindsay won't get to that age, won't get that happy freedom, won't get to see her two children grow up and graduate and have families of their own. It has been reported that the shooter, whom some described as being a disgruntled patient, had previously made threats against the clinic. Although we don't know whether this tragedy could have been prevented, in some way, we know it could have been. We should be doing more to encourage States to pass commonsense laws and to pass laws right here in this body that allow family members or law enforcement to get a court order to temporarily prevent a person from buying a gun who is in crisis. By the way--and Senator Murphy knows this--after Parkland, I was in the White House when Donald Trump was President. I was seated across from him, and I was seated next to former Vice President Pence. I was there because of the domestic violence bill that I lead, and I still have the piece of paper on which I wrote the hashtags when Donald Trump said that he was for universal background checks not once, not twice, not three times, but multiple times. When we talked about this very issue--the idea of getting a court order to temporarily prevent a person who is in crisis from buying a gun, which is something that Vice President Pence supported because of what had happened in Indiana, and they had a similar law--President Trump said he was for it, that he was for this stuff. Then what happened? We all know this. The next day or 2 days later, after this meeting that we had that was on TV, he met with the NRA, and he backed down. We can't keep backing down, and we know we now have a President in Joe Biden who will not back down. Here is another story. Just days ago, we lost another mother of two, Ms. Bao Yang of St. Paul, MN. She worked hard to raise her sons, ages 21 and 11, as a single mom. She held multiple jobs while she studied to be a nurse-- graduating and getting her license a few years ago. According to her son, ``all she ever wanted was to raise my little brother in the best life she could give him. I could see how much stress she carried every day but still always managed to provide for'' us. Bao's sister said she was a sweet, loving, caring, hard-working person who only wanted the best for everyone. But a few days ago--right around the time as what happened in Atlanta; these stories are both completely fresh; they just happened-- on Saturday morning at 8:30, the police were called to her house, and they found that she had been shot. She died later that morning. According to her family, she was a victim of domestic violence, turned deadly because of a gun. Her killer was her former boyfriend. Unfortunately, her story is far too common. According to the Department of Justice, nearly half of the women who are killed by intimate partners are killed by current or former dating partners. Violence Free Minnesota, which is a statewide coalition of organizations that provides services to victims of domestic abuse, said of her homicide that she was the eighth Minnesotan to die due to domestic violence this year. There were 29 domestic violence-related deaths in Minnesota last year. Yet Federal law does not prohibit abusive dating partners or convicted stalkers from buying a gun, which is a problem I have been trying to fix since I got to Washington. We had hearings on this bill. We had a hearing in the Judiciary Committee years ago where the Republican witnesses agreed that we should close what is called the ``boyfriend loophole.'' As one of the conservative sheriffs from Wisconsin testified, he said that, basically, mean boyfriends shoot just as hard and hit just as hard as mean husbands. Yet that discrepancy exists in a number of States. And what just happened just a few weeks ago? The Violence Against Women Act passed in the House of Representatives, Senator Murphy. It passed in the House of Representatives with 29 Republican votes, and that provision is in there. That is now coming over to the U.S. Senate, and it has been one of the reasons this bill has been stalled out. I do not know how after what we have seen with the numbers of domestic violence cases, after the story I just told of a woman we just lost this weekend, and how after what happened in Atlanta, we cannot acknowledge this violence against women and, in particular, against women of color. This is one thing that we can do right now. We literally can pass that bill as we work on background checks and all of the other things that we need to do. I will end with this, Senator Murphy, that what happened in your State with the Sandy Hook shooting is forever etched in all of our minds and memories. When people ask, ``What was your best day in the Senate?'' I talk about a bill I passed--maybe little known to some-- involving a young girl who was killed as a result of a swimming pool tragedy. We fixed that rule about pools at least a few years ago, and no one has died since. Then they ask about my saddest day. For me, it was when the bipartisan background check went down, because those parents whom Senator Murphy knows so well were in my office, and I was one of the several Senators who had to tell them ``no'' even though they had had the courage to come before the Senate. In particular, one woman told me that story of waiting in the firehouse, waiting as, one by one, the kids would come in, and, pretty soon, they knew that they would never see their little boy again. And as she just broke down crying, remembering the last thing she had seen him do, which was point to the picture of the school aide on their refrigerator, and as she sat there, crumpled on the floor, crying, she thought of that aide and thought: She will never leave his side. And when they found them, shot in the school, that woman had her arms around that little boy, and they were both shot to death. And we all had to look at those families and say: You had the courage to come forward to fight for a bill that wouldn't have even prevented the killing of children, but you knew it was the best thing to prevent violence around the country, and that was background checks, but the Senate did not have the courage to pass it. That time has come. The courage must be in all of us, and we must get this done. Thank you, Senator Murphy. I yield the floor.

Ms. KLOBUCHAR

Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Madam President, I come to the floor today to join my colleague, Senator Merkley, and so many others in speaking in support of the critical democracy reforms in the For the People Act-- legislation that I am honored to lead with Senator Merkley and Majority Leader Schumer, Representative Sarbanes, in the House, which passed this bill very recently through their entire Chamber. This bill will, in short, make it easier to vote, not harder to vote, as, sadly, some of our colleagues have proposed over the years. But it will make it easier to vote, end the dominance of big money in politics and ensure that public officials work for the public interest. And it includes provisions, as Senator Merkley noted, from 15 bills that I lead to strengthen our democracy. I appreciate my colleagues on both sides of the aisle who have contributed to the ideas in this bill. It represents the combined work of so many people in this Chamber who are dedicated to improving our democracy. Nine bipartisan bills are part of the For the People Act--bills like the Honest Ads Act, which I originally introduced with Senator McCain, of the great State of Arizona, the Presiding Officer's home State, and now lead with Senator Graham and Senator Warner. What does that bill do? Well, it improves disclosure requirements for online ads, disclosure requirements that aren't in law. It is not right. And that is why this is just one of the many provisions with bipartisan support, the election security reforms that so many of us worked on, including Senator Lankford and Senator Burr. Those are in this bill. These are reforms that have broad support among the American people. According to a Pew Research Center poll, 65 percent of respondents said the option to vote early, in this bill, or absentee, in this bill, should be available to any voter. And a poll from the Campaign Legal Center found that 83 percent of likely voters support public disclosure of contributions to organizations involved in elections. Of course, they do. People want to know who is paying for these ads they see on TV. They want to know where the money is from, and then they can follow the money. Many of the provisions in the bill have already been adopted across the country in red, blue, and purple States. And Republican and Democratic election officials and Governors have supported them. As the chair of the Senate Rules Committee, the committee with jurisdiction over Federal elections and campaign finance law and the committee to which this bill has been referred, I believe we must get this done. Tomorrow, as noted by Senator Merkley, we will be holding a hearing on the bill. I am pleased that every single Democratic Member of this committee is a cosponsor of the bill. I intend to move quickly to a markup to send the bill to the Senate floor for a vote. The For the People Act is critically important. It is important because it would improve our democracy by protecting voting rights, getting dark money out of our elections, and putting in place anti- corruption reforms. It is important because every one of the things that we want to get done, from rebuilding our economy to fixing our immigration system, to investing in infrastructure, to tackling the climate crisis, to reforming our criminal justice system, they all depend on a democracy that works for the people. Last November, in the middle of an unprecedented pandemic, nearly 160 million Americans voted, more people than ever before in the history of America. Think about that--in the middle of a pandemic. And we know we saw the pictures on TV. We saw the people at the very beginning before we knew what safety protocols should be in place, when things were getting messed around--those people in Wisconsin in garbage bags, in garbage bags in the rain, standing in line to vote. Why did so many people vote in the middle of a pandemic, both sides of the aisle--Democrats, Republicans, Independents--why did they vote? Well, they were interested in the election; we know that. But it was more than that. In part, they voted because they had more access to voting because of the changes that were made in the States. Vote-by- mail was available and easier for so many more people to do than ever before. We think about those people who suddenly had new means to vote in States where they suddenly didn't have to get a notary public or two signatures or this or that just to exercise their right to vote. They voted, and they voted in droves. Even though the overwhelming majority of Americans have made it clear they want to see policies that continue to make it easier to vote, sadly, there are those on the other side of the aisle who have been doubling down to find ways to make it harder to vote. As Senator Merkley noted, over 250 bills were introduced in States across the country, including my home State of Minnesota, that had the highest voter turnout once again in the country. People are trying to make it harder to vote, including in Arizona where they had such a record turnout, including in Georgia. Why? As Senator Warnock said so beautifully and succinctly in his maiden Senate floor speech just last week: ``Some people don't want some people to vote.'' Well, that is not how this country was founded. That is not what our Constitution says. We cannot just sit back and let our democracy be undermined. As I said from the inaugural stage on that beautiful blue-sky day at the very place where you could still see the spray paint at the bottom of the columns and makeshift windows that we had in place after the January 6 attack: This is the day our democracy picks itself up, brushes off the dust, and does what America always does: goes forward as a nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. For decades, there have been those who have been trying to chip away at the fundamental right to vote. We can't just keep taking it. We have to ensure that right to vote. What is this about? One, making it easier to vote. That is exactly what For the People does. It includes provisions that I have championed and so many others have, like automatic voting registration, ending purges of voting rolls, ending redistricting commissions, requiring all States to allow same-day voting registration, and voting by mail. These are commonsense policies that were already in place in many States in the 2020 general election. Forty-five States didn't require an excuse to vote by mail. This will ensure that in every State, you don't need to make an excuse. Twenty-one States have same-day registration, including States like Idaho, Wyoming, and Iowa. Forty- three States have early voting. Just last month, Kentucky's Republican secretary of state praised a State bill that would make early in-person voting permanent. Certainly, we need to ban purges of voting rolls. As my friend Stacey Abrams said: If you don't go to a meeting every year, you don't lose your right to assemble under the Constitution. If you don't go to church or synagogue or mosque or temple, you don't lose your right to worship. So if you haven't voted for a few elections and you decide you want to vote because you care about a candidate or an issue, you should not lose your right to vote. But in too many places, that is not the case. Twenty States already have automatic voter registration laws, including West Virginia, Alaska, and Georgia. This bill simply says they all should. The second major reform we need is to get the big money out of politics. The For the People Act helps bring transparency to campaign spending so that voters are informed about who is funding candidates and who is paying for the ads. It also tightens regulations on super PACs and restructures the Federal Election Commission to make it more effective and less prone to partisan gridlock. The third major reform in the For the People Act is restoring trust in ou government. Democracy isn't just about what happens on election day; it is also about making sure that our elected officials are accountable once they take office. The For the People Act ensures that Members of Congress and other Federal officials are truly working for the people. It expands conflict of interest laws, prohibits Members of Congress from serving on the boards of for-profit entities, and codifies ethics rules for the executive branch. Most importantly, why does the highest Court in the land not have any ethic rules for the Supreme Court when every other Federal court in the Nation does? This bill answers that question. Three simple ideas: Making voting easier, getting big money out of politics, and strengthening ethics rules. The year 2020 marked the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote, and a century after that ratification, we elected our first African American, first Asian American, and first woman Vice President in Vice President Kamala Harris. As we celebrate these firsts, we are reminded that throughout our country's history, the right to vote has been hard-fought and hard- won. As Congressman John Lewis, whom we sadly lost, once said: Your vote is precious, almost sacred. It is the most powerful nonviolent tool we have to create a more perfect union. When we reflect on the sacrifices and strides that have been made for the right to vote, one thing is very clear: The fight isn't over. The best way we can honor the countless Americans who have risked and, in some cases, given their lives--given their lives to protect our freedoms overseas, given their lives to protect our democracy here at home--the best way is to make sure that democracy continues unfettered and that everyone has the right to vote because we know, as Senator Warnock reminded us, that there are some people who are trying to make it hard for some people to vote. That is not how America works. The For the People Act is all about making sure America works for everyone. Thank you. I yield the floor. I see we are joined by two Senators who are going to be speaking, Senator Padilla--three Senators--from California, as well as Senator Whitehouse from Rhode Island and Senator Van Hollen from Maryland. Thank you.

Ms. KLOBUCHAR

Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, today I rise to speak in support of Xavier Becerra's nomination to serve s Secretary of Health and Human Services, HHS. Attorney General Becerra will bring a fresh perspective to HHS at a critical time during this pandemic. While there is light at the end of the tunnel with the distribution of the corona virus vaccines, there is still work to do to end this pandemic and put our country on a road to recovery, and that is where Attorney General Becerra's leadership will be crucial. Attorney General Becerra's 12 terms in the U.S. House of Representatives gave him a solid foundation in knowing how to set agendas and achieve results, which we saw deployed in his work as a key leader on the Committee on Ways and Means ranking member of the Subcommittee on Social Security, and chair of the House Democratic caucus. He helped to expand the Children's Health Insurance Program, modernize and strengthen Medicare, and helped pass the Affordable Care Act. His commitment to the letter and spirit of this law is something he carried into his role as California attorney general, fighting to maintain his State's ability to bring millions of previously uninsured residents under the Affordable Care Act's umbrella. Last November, he led the defense of the Affordable Care Act in the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of 20 States and the District of Columbia. His tweet after the oral arguments concisely sums up the national importance of his effort: ``The ACA saves lives. It is the law of the land.'' He brings a strong commitment to using the law and regulatory tools to make access to health care and other vital services equitable--the very thing that makes our Nation strong. I look forward to working with him on ensuring that everyone has access to quality and affordable healthcare, and I know he will be a partner in the fight against the corona virus and our goal of getting all eligible Americans vaccinated, even in hard-to-reach areas. Last week, President Biden signed into law the American Rescue Plan Act, which included major funding to address the--Nation's worsening mental health and addiction crisis. This is a high priority of mine and an issue which Attorney General Becerra has firsthand experience. He started his career as a legal aid attorney in Massachusetts, supporting clients contending with mental health issues. I am eager to work with him on this issue. Addressing the skyrocketing costs of prescription drugs is another area where Attorney General Becerra has shown key leadership. He and I share a belief that fairer competition means increased access to affordable prescription drugs and better public health. As California attorney general, he investigated and brought enforcement actions against drug manufacturers' anti-competitive business practices to help reduce drug prices and ensure that people have access to the drugs they need. In March 2020, he led a bipartisan group of 46 States attorneys general who successfully advocated before the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold the rights of States to regulate and address the rising cost of prescription drugs. The United States must do more to ensure that new technologies have appropriate privacy and security protections for health data. At a September 2020 hearing on the need for Federal data privacy legislation, Attorney General Becerra told me and other members of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation that ``every consumer should be able to own and control his or her data'' and that ``if we decide that we don't want anyone to use [our data], it's our choosing.'' His testimony was reassuring, and I look forward to working with him to ensure consumers can have a peace of mind when it comes to the security of their personal health data. Given the pandemic's spotlight on the vulnerability of our Nation's seniors, I am eager to work with the Biden administration to improve the safety and weTI-being of older Americans. When my 92-year-old dad living in a memory care facility was diagnosed with COVID-19 last year, I was only able to visit him through a window. He recognized me, but he just didn't understand why we couldn't be in the same room together. Tens of thousands of families have been through these wrenching situations over the past year and want to see the Federal Government doing more. Attorney General Becerra recently moved to make the California Department of Justice Medicaid Fraud Control Unit a full- fledged division, underscoring his commitment to protecting seniors and people with disabilities. I know his leadership will place the needs of seniors front and center. Attorney General Becerra has the expertise and experience and the enforcement and regulatory savvy to handle the job of protecting public health, strengthening our hospitals and healthcare system, making sure people have access to quality, affordable healthcare, and supporting our healthcare workers. And as the first Latino to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, he will bring a personal understanding of the immediate need for equitable access to care. With that, I ask my colleagues to support the nomination of Xavier Becerra to be Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Ms. KLOBUCHAR

Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I rise in support of Isabella Guzman, currently the director of California's Office of the Small Business Advocate--the Presiding Officer's State--to be the Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration. We all know the importance of small businesses and how they have been hit so hard during this pandemic. Small businesses employ nearly half of all private sector workers and make outsized contributions to the innovation that makes America's economy strong. Yet the coronavirus has put millions of people out of business, hundreds of thousands of these mom-and-pop, brick-and-mortar retail shops out of business, and restaurants out of business. We are so pleased that there is, as we say in Minnesota, a lighthouse that we are looking to now. I was up in Duluth on Sunday, and instead of the light at the end of the tunnel, which so many of us talk about with regard to the end of this pandemic, the mayor there referred to it as a lighthouse, for they have a lot of lighthouses on Lake Superior. The end of this pandemic is our lighthouse. We see the blinking lights from a distance, but we know we are not there yet. To get there, we not only need to get this vaccine to every person--and the President has said we will have vaccines available by the end of May for every adult in America--but we have to get it distributed, and our pandemic bill certainly is going to be a major step toward getting that done. We also need to get our business economy back in order. We need to be able to not be so far down in the ground that we can't climb out of where we are. That is why having Ms. Guzman in place--someone with her record and her ability to lead and who served as the Deputy Chief of Staff and as the Senior Adviser at the Small Business Administration during the Obama administration--is so important. She will oversee the Paycheck Protection Program, which we established on a bipartisan basis in March of 2020 as part of the CARES Act, as she understands the need for greater equity in loan distribution and has shown a commitment to transparency and accurate loan data. She has made clear that she will make the Paycheck Protection Program more accessible to businesses that have traditionally not had access to the banking relationships needed to secure loans and grants. Very significantly to me and to those of us who worked on the Save our Stages bill, including Senator Cornyn of Texas, who led the bill with me, she has made clear that she will move on the grant program immediately. We have been working with the staff there, and we have given these venues that have been shuttered--the first to close and the last to reopen--the ability to access PPP loans, which is really important right now. We also want to get the grant program out immediately--get that money out--and distribute over $16 billion in grants. Our venues can't wait. They need that relief. Ms. Guzman will be key to leading our way out of this and helping Senator Schumer with his theaters in New York to the Fargo Theatre in North Dakota. We need to get this done. We just passed restaurant relief as part of the American Rescue Plan--a major, major bill--with the $28.6 billion Restaurant Revitalization Fund, which is going to be so key. I was at The Block Food & Drink restaurant in Saint Louis Park on Sunday and then headed up to Duluth, to the Boat Club, with the mayor and the owners of the Boat Club. There were stories I heard of servers who had been laid off, then came back, laid off, then came back, and there were stories I heard about the owners of some of these restaurants in their taking out repeated loans. They are hanging in there, and we need to have their backs. One out of six restaurants in this country has permanently closed down during the pandemic. As the leader of the antitrust subcommittee in the Senate, we don't want to just give all of our food service and action in the restaurant area to the big guys. We are pleased we have successful restaurant chains in this country, but that can't be the only thing we have. That is why helping these smaller venues is so important. Ms. Guzman gets that. She is a lifelong proponent of small businesses and is the daughter of a small business owner. As a former entrepreneur, this makes her the right person for this job at a pivotal time in the life of our country. She has the backing of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and numerous trade organizations. I know her leadership at the SBA will put our struggling businesses in the best hands. I ask my colleagues to support the nomination of Isabella Guzman to be Administrator of the Small Business Administration. The Presiding Officer must be proud to have someone who has done such good work in California in this job. We are excited about her and what she can do

Ms. KLOBUCHAR

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

Ms. KLOBUCHAR

Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that with respect to the Garland nomination, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table and the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action.

Ms. KLOBUCHAR

Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to thank the staff who worked tirelessly to ensure the 59th inaugural ceremonies were a success even under extreme and extraordinary circumstances. The Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, also known as JCCIC, is tasked with the planning and execution of the inaugural ceremonies of the President-Elect and Vice President-Elect of the United States at the Capitol. This ceremony is the culmination of 244 years of a democracy. It is the moment when our leaders promise to be faithful to our Constitution. It is the moment when they become, as we all should be, the guardians of our country. I would like to thank the chair of JCCIC, Senator Blunt, for his outstanding work to ensure that the inauguration was an extraordinary success. It was a pleasure to work with Senator Blunt and his extremely professional staff. I want to commend the entire JCCIC staff, especially Maria Lohmeyer, the Chief of Inaugural Ceremonies, for their remarkable accomplishment. I also want to thank Vincent Brown, who works for me on the Senate Rules Committee, for his work while detailed to JCCIC, as well as my chief of staff, Lindsey Kerr, who worked diligently with JCCIC and many other agencies and offices to ensure a smooth Inauguration. Maria, Vincent, Lindsey, and the entire committee staff have shown that, through hard work and determination, the entire world can see our democracy prevail. This year's inauguration was the 59th in our country's history, and it may have been one of the most challenging ever to design. Planning an inauguration under normal circumstances is difficult, but this year's event occurred in the midst of a global pandemic, just 2 weeks after rioters climbed the inaugural stage to siege the Capitol. The inauguration is an important symbol in our democracy. It has marked the peaceful transfer of power for more than 200 years. It sends an important message to the American people and the world, of unity and a commitment to our democratic principles. Inauguration day represents a new beginning for the country. It marks the beginning of healing, of unifying, of coming together to get through this crisis. This inauguration was the result of Democrats and Republicans working together to bring about this important symbol of our determined democracy. And that spirit of bipartisanship, of working together, was certainly present on the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies. Thank you to everyone who made that incredible day one we will remember forever.