Mitch McConnell

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the filing deadline for first-degree amendments with respect to the cloture motions filed during today's session be at 5 p.m., Monday, July 20. I further ask that no second-degree amendments be in order to the following amendments: 2252, 2411, 1788, 2244, 1729, and 1972, as modified.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, at the request of my Democratic colleagues, I am going to rule XIV the House police reform bill. I understand that there is a bill at the desk, and I ask for its first reading.

Mr. McCONNELL

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 Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, I had planned to speak first today about the NDAA. I had planned to discuss our work to ensure American servicemembers can protect our Nation and secure peace for the United States. Unfortunately, the inexplicable passivity and weakness of local leaders in our own country has denied some citizens peace and security right here at home. Here we are in Congress, equipping our Armed Forces to protect the homeland. Yet some local leaders have apparently felt it would be too politically incorrect to do their jobs and keep the peace. It has now been 22 days since radical demonstrators seized control of several blocks of downtown Seattle, drove the police out of a precinct, and declared an autonomous zone, which the mob itself would rule. It is worth pausing to consider how the mainstream media and leading Democrats might have reacted if tea party protesters in 2009 had forcibly created a breakaway zone within a major city and barred the actual authorities from entering. Somehow I am skeptical the press would have bent over backward to find a sympathetic light. Somehow I doubt these same politicians would have felt compelled to curry favor with the occupiers or flirt with their demands. But we are talking about the American left in 2020. So, instead, what we get is a major newspaper lavishing praise--praise--on the ``liberated streets'' and a mayor and local government that have expressly declined to restore order and the equal protection of the law. The mob has gotten its way. There have been numerous shootings in this lawless place. About a week ago, a 19-year-old was shot and killed. Last weekend, after yet another shooting, a 16-year-old is dead and a 14-year-old was injured. Some reports suggest these two boys were shot by a self-appointed security squad. These are miscellaneous citizens who roam the area with guns drawn after the occupiers drove the real police out. We are talking about Seattle, WA, in the United States of America? The rule of law cannot fade in and out with the fashions of the radical left. No leaders should have sacrificed small businesses to riots and mobs a few weeks back, and no leader should let threats or leftwing jargon persuade them to tolerate occupations for weeks on end. I understand that, just this morning, Seattle's mayor finally-- finally--released a new order that at last empowered police to bring an end to this. So let's hope the rule of law finally--finally--prevails.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, on one final matter, while the Senate maintains the serious approach that builds bipartisan successes like the CARES Act and the Great American Outdoors Act, the House Democrats appear addicted to pointless political theater. Well, our absentee neighbors have finally arrived back in the Capitol, and they have wasted no time resuming old tricks. The Speaker has chosen to spend the House's time this week on a multithousand-page cousin of the Green New Deal masquerading as a highway bill. You don't have to take my word for it; the chair of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee said so. He said: ``This is the application of the principles of the Green New Deal.'' And he is right, because here are the four pillars of the Green New Deal: No. 1, spend an insane amount of money; No. 2, check every far-left ideological box; No. 3, propose bad policies; and No. 4, forget about making law from the very beginning so you can legislate in a world of pure fantasy--pure fantasy. Check, check, check, and check. This so-called infrastructure bill would siphon billions in funding from actual infrastructure to funnel into climate change policy. By putting a huge thumb on the scale for mass transit and electric vehicles, it revises the old Obama-Biden focus on disproportionately helping major metro areas, leaving less for the rest of our country. No wonder it came out of committee in the House on a purely bipartisan vote. No wonder the White House declared it not a serious proposal and made it clear this will never become law. Naturally, this nonsense is not going anywhere in the Senate. It will just join the list of absurd House proposals that were only drawn up to show fealty to the radical left. Here in the Senate, we will keep at the serious work of our Nation.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, on an entirely different matter, the Senate has indeed turned to what will be the 60th annual National Defense Authorization Act. If you look at the world news, it would appear we have done so not a moment too soon. After months of threats, President Xi and the Chinese Communist Party finally delivered the punch in the mouth to the city of Hong Kong that they are calling a ``national security law.'' As I and others have warned for months, it tramples all over the freedoms and autonomy that have set Hong Kong apart. Today marks the 23rd anniversary of Hong Kong's handover from the United Kingdom. Normally this anniversary would have occasioned peaceful demonstration. Instead, the new law has brought scores of arrests and boasts from local authorities about how many peaceful demonstrators they have jailed, new harsh penalties for Hongkongers for new and vague offenses, and new authority from Beijing to intervene at will. It appears to directly--directly--violate China's international promises and effectively end the ``one country, two systems'' policy. I have discussed at some length the specific consequences China will face for this. I will continue to discuss them in the future. This same week, we received new confirmation that China's ethnic cleansing campaign against the Uighur people in Xinjiang includes forced abortions, forced birth control, and State-enforced sterilizations on a systematic scale. All of this is in addition to the international provocation that China has only stepped up during this pandemic--which they helped worsen--against Taiwan, against India, against the Philippines, and so on. China is not our only adversary occupying the spotlight. Recent days have intensified questions about Russia's negative role in the Middle East. I have long warned that Russia and other adversaries will exploit any American passivity or retreat from this important region. Whether in Syria or Afghanistan, the question is whether we will stand our ground and exert our influence or allow Iran, Russia, and terrorists to literally push us out of the region. Sadly, as the Senate turns to the NDAA, the need to continue making swift progress on our national defense strategy is staring us plain in the face. Fortunately, Chairman Inhofe, Ranking Member Reed, and our colleagues on the Armed Services Committee have put forward a bill that rises to the challenge. The bill establishes the Pacific Deterrence Initiative. It lays out a clear vision for making our Pacific joint force more adaptable and our commitments to regional partners more feasible, smarter basing for forward-deployed Americans, more supplies and equipment prepositioned. It will encourage more streamlined technology so that, from weapons platforms to information security, America and its allies in China's backyard stand ready to counter aggression together. This NDAA authorizes full funding for the European Deterrence Initiative, doubling down on our NATO alliances as we check the worst impulses of Putin's Russia. The bill will further limit the information Putin gets pertaining to missile defense, bring more focus on tracking Russian support for terrorist proxies and despotic regimes, and renew our commitment to have U.S. forces support, train, and keep watch alongside our partners. But it isn't enough to check our adversaries today. We also need to outrun them toward the future. So this legislation will also support critical reserves to help us secure a decisive edge in everything from hypersonic weapons to 5G communications. Threats to our Nation are pulling American servicemembers in all directions. Fortunately, this NDAA has all of their backs.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, yesterday I discussed how the Senate's serious, fact-based approach to the coronavirus crisis has cut a sharp contrast with House Democrats' political theater. Back in March, as the economic fallout from this crisis was just beginning, it fell to the Senate to write, negotiate, and pass the CARES Act. With the House absent from Washington, Senate Republicans turned a blank sheet of paper into an outline for the largest rescue package in American history. We negotiated with our Democratic colleagues, and we made a law. House Democrats tried to insert unrelated wish-list items at the eleventh hour--things like tax credits for solar panels--but the Republican Senate stood strong, and because we did, for 3 months now, the unanimous bipartisan CARES Act has been the cornerstone of the Federal Government's response to this crisis Doctors, nurses, and hospitals have received historic Federal funding to supplement their efforts. Households received direct checks. Tens of millions of Americans have kept getting paychecks and not pink slips because of our small-business-saving Paycheck Protection Program. These are the historic programs that the Senate has spent weeks overseeing and adjusting where necessary. A few weeks ago, House Democrats jetted into town for a day or two-- just long enough to make another unserious contribution, to again use this crisis for partisan wish-listing. You don't have to take my word for it. The media completely panned it. NPR called it ``a long wish list for Democrats.'' Another journalist wrote, ``Neither this bill nor anything resembling it will ever become law.'' And listen to this reporting: ``Privately, several House Democrats concede their latest bill feels like little more than an effort to appease the most liberal members of the caucus.'' This is the proposal that our Senate Democratic colleagues keep thundering that we should take up and pass here--something so unserious that it had House Democrats themselves rolling their eyes. Remember, among other things, this bill would give taxpayer-funded checks to illegal immigrants, and it would change tax law to provide massively expensive gifts to wealthy people in high-tax blue States. These are their coronavirus priorities? This political theater is the opposite of the serious Senate approach that built the CARES Act. Any further recovery effort should focus intently on three things: kids, jobs, and healthcare--kids, jobs, and healthcare. To step back toward normalcy, our country will need K-12 and college students to resume their schooling, we will need to reenergize hiring to get workers their jobs back, and we will need continued progress on the healthcare fight to get ready for the fall and winter and speed the search for a vaccine. One helpful policy would be strong legal protection for schools, colleges, nonprofits, and employers who are putting their necks on the line to reopen. So long as institutions follow the best available guidelines, they should not have to live in fear of a second epidemic of frivolous lawsuits. Believe me, the virus is worry enough. These are the kinds of smart solutions Washington must continue discussing as we evaluate what further steps may be necessary. Partisan theater and politicized wish-lists are not what the country needs.

Mr. McCONNELL

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

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

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, I thank my friend from Utah. I will be brief.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 718.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, I send a cloture motion to the desk.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, I move to proceed to legislative session.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, now on another matter, as I have said for weeks, our domestic challenges cannot take Congress's eye off the ball of world affairs. So, as the Senate passed other major bills and the Senate Republicans tried to advance police reform until Democrats blocked us, our colleagues on the Armed Services Committee have worked hard to assemble the next National Defense Authorization Act. Every year, the NDAA allows us to speak clearly about the Senate's priorities on matters of national defense. As China continues to treat maritime arteries like its own backyard sandbox, the men and women of the U.S. Seventh Fleet and the entire Indo-Pacific Command remain on call to maintain order. As Russia doubles down on its support of brutal dictators and attacks democratic regimes from dark corners of the web, U.S. Cyber Command remains vigilant and our NATO relationships remain vital. As tyrants, from Tehran to Pyongyang, pave over their citizens in pursuit of power, we need our sharpest minds and best tools watching their every move. Our Armed Forces stand watch over our homeland, and they stand watch over an entire international order that shares our peaceful values and benefits our Nation. Now our military has also risen to the unique task of helping respond to the pandemic. Military medical facilities have added critical capacity during the first surge of COVID-19, from Navy hospital ships to soldiers from the 531st Hospital Center at Fort Campbell. National Guard personnel have established and manned temporary testing facilities across the country. DOD research facilities have joined the race to develop treatments. As our servicemembers confront challenges new and familiar, our job is to advance an NDAA that supports them and their families. Chairman Inhofe and Senator Reed led a productive, bipartisan process in committee. I hope we will see a bipartisan amendment process out here on the floor as well. But already the bill will make major steps forward. It supports servicemembers not only while they are at their duty stations but also on the homefront. This year's bill encourages expanded telemedicine capabilities in the military healthcare system, and it will help retain highly trained providers. It implements new quality standards for acquisitions of military family housing and increases impact aid to school districts that support large numbers of military children. It revises sexual assault-prevention policies to destroy barriers to victims seeking justice. It includes further steps to ensure all these efforts are supported by a more efficient and transparent administrative structure over at the Pentagon. That means changes to compensation to attract top talent, expanded access to cutting-edge software, and new checks on the Department's planning process to increase accountability. The U.S. military is the greatest fighting force the world has ever seen. Our work in the coming days is meant to ensure that this remains the case. Supporting servicemembers and their families is a critical piece of this year's NDAA. Our men and women in uniform are simply the best, and they deserve the best

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, I move to proceed to legislative session.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, first, my hometown of Louisville, KY, is mourning a young man who was shot and killed on Saturday at a protest in Jefferson Square Park. Tyler Gerth was just 27 years old. He was a graduate of Trinity High School and the University of Kentucky. He was an up-and-coming photojournalist with a lot of talent. He had been attending demonstrations, both to speak up for Breonna Taylor as well as to document history. Instead, he lost his life. The investigation is still proceeding, but it appears the suspect in custody had been a frequent participant in these protests. He had already been arrested once. It seems he had gotten into some dispute and fired indiscriminately--the definition of ``senseless violence.'' My sympathies and the sympathies of all Kentuckians go out to the Gerth family. We are 30 days into these protests. Kentuckians and all Americans deserve safe streets, safe communities, and peace

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, on another matter, each time I have returned home over the last several weeks, I have had the opportunity to travel to different Kentucky hospitals to safely meet with healthcare professionals and thank them for their incredible work, as well as to listen to what is on their minds. For more than 3 months now, our Nation's doctors, nurses, and health professionals have been fighting day and night to heal strangers and protect our Nation. I said in mid-March that our country was about to meet a lot of new heroes and that among them would be many people who wear scrubs, who rush toward the sick, and who wash their hands until they bleed. Well, Americans and families from coast to coast have met just such heroes. The frontline professionals I am meeting are proud to do their work, and you had better believe they are appreciative that the sacrifices and smart precautions taken by the American people stopped health systems from being overrun in the springtime, allowed them to continue giving each patient the care they deserved, and bought our country time to plan a smart, safe, and gradual reopening. So until we have a safe and effective vaccine, it will remain all of our jobs as American citizens to help our Nation settle into a middle ground between unsustainable emergency lockdowns and our ordinary life from before all this. In short, we cannot go back to April, and we cannot go right back to normal. We need new routines, new rhythms, and new strategies for this new middle ground in between. It is the task of each family, each small business, each employer, and all levels of government to apply common sense and make this happen. To name just one example, we must have no stigma--none--about wearing a mask when we leave our homes and come near other people. Wearing simple face coverings is not about protecting ourselves; it is about protecting everyone we encounter. In fact, the more we hate the pain and suffering that accompanied the strict stay-home guidelines a few months ago, the happier we should be to take responsible, small steps every day to ensure our country can stay on offense against the virus. Now, the Senate should take pride in the degree to which our historic response has helped the country get where we are. All of the health leaders and professionals I meet continue to be glad for the CARES Act, the historic bipartisan legislation that Senate Republicans wrote and then negotiated across the aisle. We sent historic resources to hospitals and health providers to help them do their healing work and to fight this new invader. That was in addition to the historic relief we provided to households and small businesses, which economists across the political spectrum say saved millions of jobs and prevented an economic freefall. In May and June, while the Democrat-led House has been mostly absent, the Senate has kept right on leading. In addition to legislating on other important subjects, we have continued to work all angles of the pandemic. By the end of this week, I believe our committees will have held more than 40 hearings on key aspects of the crisis so this institution can continue to learn and inform any future work. As I have been saying for weeks, a number of us are putting together strong legal protections for healthcare professionals, K-12 schools, colleges and universities, and employers so that our recovery is not promptly swamped by a second epidemic of frivolous lawsuits. While the Democratic House slapped together an absurd multitrillion- dollar wish list that even the mainstream media panned immediately, the Senate has continued with our substantive, serious, facts-first approach. That is the winning formula that built the historically successful CARES Act, and that is the formula we will replicate in any future recovery legislation down the road.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. 4091.

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

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

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

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, on a completely different matter, on Thursday I noted that in recent weeks the Air Force has scrambled jets to intercept intrusions by Russian military aircraft near U.S. airspace in Alaska. Well, on Saturday it happened again. According to the Defense Department, Russian reconnaissance planes entered the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone and lingered for 8 hours. Obviously, this is just the latest in a series of escalations from Putin's regime. Meanwhile, China has resumed its submarine intrusions into Japanese contiguous zones and picked deadly fights with India at high altitude. North Korea State media has stepped up its unhinged, anti-American rhetoric, reportedly declaring over the weekend that nuclear war was ``the only option left.'' And Iran has issued a warrant for the arrest of the President of the United States because we took the mullahs' top terrorist off the battlefield back in January. Our adversaries are as intent as ever on undermining peace; disrupting commerce; and threatening American citizens, our interests, and our allies wherever and whenever possible. So this year's National Defense Authorization Act is as urgent and important as it has been for 60 consecutive years. Thanks to Chairman Inhofe and Ranking Member Reed, the legislation we will consider is already the product of exhaustive bipartisan effort. It includes 229 bipartisan amendments adopted by our colleagues on the Armed Services Committee. It may include more amendments before we finish with it here on the floor. But the primary missions of the legislation are already clear. On the homefront, it will increase pay for servicemembers; reform the military housing and healthcare systems; and increase transparency in Pentagon budgeting, hiring, and acquisition. Around the world, it will make clear our commitments to our allies in Europe and the Pacific, invest in key technologies from biotechnology to hypersonics, and make sure that our men and women in uniform have the tools to remain the greatest fighting force in world history. I am grateful to our committee colleagues for giving the Senate the opportunity to set strong priorities for our national defense. Our job now is to follow their example, work together in a bipartisan way, and pass the NDAA on behalf of our men and women in uniform and the Nation they protect.

Mr. McCONNELL

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