Jeff Merkley

Mr. MERKLEY

Mr. MERKLEY. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to consideration of S. Res. 539, submitted earlier today.

Mr. MERKLEY. I ask unanimous consent the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. MERKLEY

Mr. MERKLEY. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to vitiate the order of December 20, 2023, with respect to S.J. Res. 50.

Mr. MERKLEY

Mr. MERKLEY. Mr. President, I rise tonight to talk about the extraordinarily challenging humanitarian situation in Gaza. And let's begin with October 7. Israel has every right to eliminate the military threat of Hamas, to go after Hamas terrorists who conducted a horrific attack on Israel October 7. But how the Netanyahu government wages that war matters. And how they have done so is deeply disturbing to millions of Americans, and it is deeply disturbing to me. Hamas is the enemy. Palestinian civilians are not the enemy. Earlier this month, Senator Van Hollen and I visited the Rafah Crossing on the border between Egypt and Gaza. We spoke with aid workers who had served in the worst conflict zones in the world, from Syria to Sudan to Yemen, including one worker who had spent several months working on the frontline in Ukraine. Each told us that they had never witnessed a humanitarian disaster on the scale or severity of Gaza. In Gaza, calamity after calamity multiplies the suffering. It is not just a shortage of food. It is a shortage of food; it is contaminated water; it is massive displacement; it is continuous bombing and shelling; it has destroyed hospitals and other hospitals that desperately need drugs and medical supplies; it is communication failures due to damage and communication failures due to blackouts. As of today, more than 26,000 Palestinian civilians are dead. It is estimated that 70 percent are women and children--some 18,000 women and children. It is really an unfathomable number. But let's try to put some perspective on that. If 18,000 women and children were lined up holding hands, they would form a line over 13 miles long. Or if you spent 1 minute with each child and woman--18,000 women and children--it would take you more than 300 hours to visit or connect with each of them--12 days. In addition to the 26,000 Palestinian civilians who are dead, an estimated 65,000 Palestinians are wounded. Of Gaza's 2.3 million people, 1.7 million are eternally displaced-- over 70,000 homes destroyed. Those who are told to leave the north for the safety of the south are now often bombed or shelled in the locations they were encouraged to go to. There is no guaranteed safe place in Gaza. Even designated U.N. shelters have come under attack. When thinking about food, 90 percent of Palestinians are living on less than one meal a day--one meal a day. Only one of the three clean drinking water pipelines from Israel is functioning. And water filtration equipment has been repeatedly turned away by Israeli inspectors, as I saw for myself in Rafah. Just 14 of 36 hospitals are still operating, and those hospitals lack basic medical supplies and even lack food. One doctor who came out of Gaza talked to me about the extraordinarily deep wounds--burns--caused by white phosphorus, and he showed me pictures of those wounds. Another talked to me about--he was an orthopedic surgeon. He fixed broken bones, but he said he couldn't believe how many bones had been shattered by the blasts and how much untreatable trauma there was to individuals' internal organs. UNICEF estimates at least 1,000 children have had arms or legs amputated, many without anesthesia. New mothers have been profoundly impacted. More mothers are having miscarriages. More mothers are having stillbirths. More mothers are anemic and suffering postpartum hemorrhaging. More mothers are undernourished and cannot breastfeed, and yet finding clean water and formula is extremely difficult. More mothers are enduring C-section surgeries without anesthesia. Let me say it again: Israel has every right to go after Hamas. Hamas is Israel's enemy. The Palestinian people are not their enemy, and they are not our enemy. So we should be disconcerted, we should be staggered, we should be horrified by the extraordinary level of civilian deaths and injuries and the humanitarian challenges I have described with food and water and medicine. President Biden has called the bombing ``indiscriminate'' and urged the Netanyahu government to adopt a much more targeted war strategy. This message has been repeated by Secretary of State Blinken. This message has been repeated by Secretary of Defense Austin. These messages have been repeated with increasing intensity. But the Netanyahu government has rejected these requests. President Biden has called for Israel to vastly increase humanitarian aid to afflicted Palestinian civilians, but the Netanyahu government has also rejected that request. The suffering is growing with each passing day. So what has prevented a massive influx of aid needed to address the humanitarian conditions in Gaza? Before October 7, 500 trucks a day went into Gaza. Why can't 500 trucks a day go into Gaza carrying that needed humanitarian aid--food, water, and medical supplies? In short, Israel has done two things: They have set up a complex and inefficient inspection process post-October 7 that restricts aid from entering Gaza. And, second, once aid is into Gaza, there isn't a deconfliction process that makes it possible to deliver aid safely. Into more detail now about how that inspection process works. Senator Van Hollen and I witnessed the burdensome inspection process firsthand at the Rafah checkpoint. The inspection process can take more than a week from the time a driver loads a truck until that driver can deliver that aid into Gaza. We witnessed hundreds of trucks lined up on the highway in Egypt, mile after mile of trucks. They were filled with food, water, and medical supplies, sitting on the side of the highway. Some of them were waiting for permission to go to Israel, to Nitzana, for inspection. And some of them had been inspected in Nitzana and sent back to Rafah to await final permission to enter into Gaza. The challenge, when you think about a truck, is it should be able to load up its supplies, be inspected, and deliver those supplies in the same day, not a process that takes over a week. Let's think about that process for a moment. Israel is appropriately trying to stop dual-use items from entering into Gaza, and so there is a preapproval process between the suppliers and the Israeli Government. That is appropriate. But then, when things are approved and trucks arrive at Nitzana, they are often told by the person inspecting: No, we are not allowing that to go in. Maybe the tent pole is too long, or in one case, medical kits for birthing children had scalpels. A scalpel is a sharp blade, and they were rejected. That inconsistently greatly complicates delivery, and it includes the fact that if anything in the load is rejected, the entire truck is rejected, and it starts the process all over again. Items that are allowed in one day can be rejected the next. Senator Van Hollen and I visited a warehouse full of those rejected items, and they were the things that you would expect for delivery for humanitarian aid. There were water-testing kits. There were medical supplies. There was other desperately needed equipment. Once trucks make it through one of the two gates--Kerem Shalom from Israel or Rafah Crossing from Egypt--then they face the second problem, the problem of deconfliction or the lack thereof of deconfliction, so that drivers face a terrifying gauntlet of damaged roads and falling bombs and artillery shells. The failure to set up deconfliction that allows this aid to be delivered safely is unacceptable, and there is only one government that can set up that deconfliction process, and that is the Netanyahu government. More than 150 U.N. workers have been killed in Gaza so far--the largest loss of life in the history of the United Nations. More than 300 additional healthcare workers have been killed. Due to injuries and displacement, the U.N. humanitarian workforce, which was 13,000 strong in Gaza on October 6, has been reduced to 3,000 workers. The rest are injured or killed or refugees within Gaza itself. Only the Netanyahu government has the power to establish an organized, efficient inspection process. Only the Netanyahu government has the power to enforce deconfliction protocols. This double failure has stymied the delivery of sufficient humanitarian aid, unnecessarily deepening the suffering of Palestinian civilians. Now, delivery of aid faces an additional problem. The Netanyahu government has produced information showing that at least 12 U.N. workers may have been involved in the October 7 terrorist attack on Israel. This is, for sure, deeply troubling. That is 12 workers out of a workforce that counted 13,000, but it is troubling. It is completely against the principles in which the U.N. Relief and Works Agency functions. The United States has appropriately paused assistance to UNRWA pending an investigation, and I welcome that these individuals were immediately terminated. They certainly don't represent the thousands of men and women who work for UNRWA and bravely serve vulnerable people day in and day out in some of the most dangerous settings around the world. I look forward to a swift and thorough investigation to ensure accountability so that U.S. assistance can promptly resume, that the entire humanitarian assistance program can continue. Wish though we might, there is no immediate way to replace that UNRWA workforce--now down to 3,000 workers but essential 3,000 workers--to deliver the aid that does make it into Gaza. It can't be replaced overnight by any other international organization. It is the Netanyahu government that has chosen a war strategy against Hamas that has killed a breathtaking, shocking, unacceptable number of Palestinian civilians. It is the Netanyahu government that has preserved a complicated and inefficient inspection system and a failed deconfliction process that severely limited humanitarian aid to innocent civilians. But let me be clear. The United States shares the responsibility for these failures. We, the United States of America, are Israel's major partner in supplying economic aid. We, the United States, are Israel's major partner in supplying military aid. We, the United States, have resupplied Israel with bombs and artillery shells--bombs and artillery shells of the types that have caused many of the civilian deaths. The world looks at our close partnership and expects the United States to do more than ``request'' that the Netanyahu government adopt a more targeted strategy against Hamas to reduce civilian deaths and injuries. The world expects the United States to do more than ``request'' that the Netanyahu government fix the inspection and deconfliction process to greatly increase the flow of humanitarian aid. No matter how often we ``request,'' no matter how intensely we ``request,'' simply requesting hasn't worked. The world expects the United States to use our influence that comes with being Israel's closest partner to reduce the civilian carnage and vastly increase the humanitarian aid. President Biden and his team have operated for 3\1/2\ months under plan A. Plan A made sense in the context of our longstanding relationship. Plan A was to make requests, make them more clearly, make them repeatedly, make them more intently, but not use any other significant leverage for change. Plan A, now over 100 days in operation, has failed, so it is time that the United States move in a bolder fashion. Let's call it plan B. Provision 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act reads: No assistance shall be furnished under this Act or the Arms Export Control Act to any country when it is made known to the President [of the United States] that the government of such country prohibits or otherwise restricts, directly or indirectly, the transport or delivery of United States humanitarian assistance. Well, Senator Van Hollen and I certainly saw for ourselves the restrictions on the delivery of aid that the Netanyahu government has sustained for 100 days, a convoluted inspection policy, and a broken deconfliction process. Section 620I is American law. It enables the President of the United States to tell Prime Minister Netanyahu: We are not allowed by law to provide another dollar of aid as long as you are restricting humanitarian aid into Gaza through these broken deconfliction processes and complicated, convoluted inspection processes. So President Biden has leverage. He is bound by American law. All he has to do is make it clear that that is leverage that he is bound to follow, that is a law he is bound to follow. As long as the Netanyahu government restricts the delivery of humanitarian aid, the United States cannot legally deliver financial or military aid to Israel under provision 620I of U.S. public law. And the President should do more. Our President should do more. He should make it clear that as long as the Netanyahu government delivers insufficient humanitarian aid to Gaza, the United States is going to provide aid directly--directly provide food, water, and medical aid to the Palestinian people in Gaza. It is time for the United States to use American ships and helicopters to provide medical supplies to every one of Gaza's remaining 14 hospitals. We must move swiftly to eliminate the shortages of anesthesia and antibiotics and any other shortfall of medicine or medical supplies. Picture American helicopters delivering to those 14 hospitals. Never again should a woman delivering a child in Gaza go through a C- section without anesthesia. Never again should a child having an arm or leg amputated because it is shattered or it is full of gangrene have it done without anesthesia. Never again should these medical procedures occur without antibiotics. The United States can deliver and is morally bound to address this shortfall of medical aid. It is also time for our team, our President, to say to Team Netanyahu, to say to his government, that if the Netanyahu government cannot or will not ensure that sufficient food and water are supplied to civilians in Gaza, the United States will ensure, and we will use our ships and our ship-to-shore assets to supply food and water to Gaza directly, which, fortunately, has a 40-mile coastline that greatly facilitates that type of supply. We, the United States, as the major partner with Israel through financial aid and military aid, are inextricably linked to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. The United States, as Israel's supplier, is complicit now in the suffering of the people in Gaza. This complicity must end. President Biden must use the leverage and power of the United States to address the suffering of Palestinian civilians in Gaza--to deliver medical supplies, to deliver food, to deliver clean water. Let me step back and repaint this picture once again. More than 26,000 Palestinians are dead. That includes more than 18,000 women and children. More than 65,000 Palestinians have been injured, and 1.7 million Palestinians in Gaza have been driven from their homes. Ninety percent of Palestinians in Gaza are surviving on less than a meal per day. The supply of clean water is woefully insufficient. Medicines are in desperately short supply. As we ponder this, we must realize that we must value the life of every child the same, no matter who they are or where they call home. If we keep that in mind, we will find the right answer to the enormous suffering in Gaza. The Palestinian people are not Israel's enemy. The Palestinian people are not America's enemy. The United States must end our complicity in this humanitarian catastrophe. The United States must pivot from simply ``requesting'' that the Netanyahu government fix the inspection and deconfliction processes that are restricting humanitarian aid to using every asset at our disposal to directly deliver a massive amount of humanitarian aid into Gaza. We must act boldly. We must act swiftly. To do otherwise is completely unacceptable and immoral. The United States must act now.

Mr. MERKLEY

Mr. MERKLEY. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of H.R. 1568, which was received from the House.

Mr. MERKLEY. 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.

Mr. MERKLEY

Mr. MERKLEY. Madam President, a huge thanks to my colleague from Maine and for his scholarly and passionate presentation of the challenge that we face at this moment. And, as he summarized the end, may we choose honor and sustain our support and partnership with the people of Ukraine.

Mr. MERKLEY

Mr. MERKLEY. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned until 11 a.m. on Thursday, February 1; that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and morning business be closed; that upon the conclusion of morning business, the Senate proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the Wang nomination; further, that notwithstanding rule XXII, the cloture motions filed during yesterday's session ripen at 11:30 a.m.; that following the cloture vote on the Wang nomination, the Senate immediately vote on cloture on the Laroski nomination, and that if cloture is invoked on the Laroski nomination, all time be considered expired and the confirmation vote be at a time to be determined by the majority leader in consultation with the Republican leader; further, that if cloture is invoked on the Wang nomination, all time be considered expired at 1:45 p.m.; finally, that if any nominations are confirmed during Thursday's session, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table and the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action.

Mr. MERKLEY

Mr. MERKLEY. I ask unanimous consent that the order of January 22, 2024, with respect to the veto message on S.J. Res. 38, be modified so that the date of consideration be prior to February 29, 2024, with all other previous provisions remaining in effect.

Mr. MERKLEY

Mr. MERKLEY. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to consideration of S. Res. 538, which is at the desk.

Mr. MERKLEY. I ask unanimous consent the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. MERKLEY

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

Mr. MERKLEY

Mr. MERKLEY. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate consider the following nominations en bloc: Calendar Nos. 181 and 487 through 505, and all nominations on the Secretary's desk in the Air Force, Army, Foreign Service, Marine Corps, Navy, and Space Force; that the nominations be confirmed en bloc; that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate; that no further motions be in order to any of the nominations; and that the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action.

Mr. MERKLEY

Mr. MERKLEY. Madam President, I have nine 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 environment and public works The Committee on Environment and Public Works is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, January 31, 2024, 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 Wednesday, January 31, 2024, at 10 a.m., to conduct a hearing on nominations. committee on finance The Committee on Finance is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, January 31, 2024, at 10:15 a.m., to conduct a hearing on nominations. committee on foreign relations The Committee on Foreign Relations is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, January 31, 2024, at 2:30 p.m., to conduct a hearing. committee on homeland security and governmental affairs The Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, January 31, 2024, at 10:15 a.m., to conduct a business meeting. committee on the judiciary The Committee on the Judiciary is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, January 31, 2024, at 10 a.m., to conduct a hearing. committee on veterans' affairs The Committee on Veterans' Affairs is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, January 31, 2024, at 3:30 p.m., to conduct a hearing. select committee on intelligence The Select Committee on Intelligence is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, January 31, 2024, at 3 p.m., to conduct a closed briefing. subcommittee on housing, transportation, and community development The Subcommittee on Housing, Transportation, and Community Development of the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, January 31, 2024, at 10 a.m., to conduct a hybrid hearing.

Mr. MERKLEY

Mr. MERKLEY. Thank you.

Mr. MERKLEY. An estimate of 5 minutes.

Mr. MERKLEY. Mr. President, on October 7, Israel suffered a horrific terrorist attack by Hamas. It echoes very much the impact that we felt here in America on 9/11 when we suffered a horrific terrorist attack, and it connected our hearts to the hearts of Israelis in a powerful way. And, certainly, I completely supported and support now the cause of Israel to go after Hamas to stop this terrorist threat. I fully support the grief they feel with the hostages who remain and their desire, their goal, to get those hostages free, and I know that the United States has been working in partnership with Israel toward that objective. Tonight, we are further into that campaign, and we have before us a request for a report from the administration through the exercise of 502B(c) on any potential violations of internationally recognized human rights that may have occurred in this conflict--a request for a report that would be due in 30 days. And I am here tonight still supporting strongly Israel's right to go after Hamas, but also saying that we have a responsibility to ask hard questions about how a war is conducted--every war. And we weigh in on human rights all around the world. I cochair a commission that looks into China's abuses of human rights in all kinds of dimensions, from Tibet to the slavery of the Uighur population. So why is this request for this information important? There are three reasons. They all relate to the validity of targeting Hamas but the invalidity--potential invalidity--of a strategy that also targets the Palestinian people living in Gaza and understanding this dimension, understanding it in terms of humanitarian aid, understanding it in terms of the huge toll on civilians that the bombing has taken, understanding it in terms of the dimension of displacement, where so many--so many--have been displaced, driven toward the south, crowded into Rafah, along the border with Egypt. So I am going to shortly address--briefly address--each of those. I was one of the first Members of this Chamber to call for an immediate cease-fire and a massive influx of humanitarian aid because of the enormous calamity that is occurring in Gaza with the strategy that Israel is using of mass bombing and artillery shells. One aspect of this is: How does one get humanitarian aid in to assist those innocent civilians who have been so profoundly impacted? So, earlier this month, Senator Van Hollen and I went to the Rafah crossing on the border between Egypt and Gaza. We talked to the governments. We talked to the international aid workers who work through the United Nations--an alphabet soup of organizations. We talked to the seasoned, seasoned individuals who have worked in war conflict zones around this globe, and they all said that getting humanitarian aid in is extraordinarily difficult for two reasons. And the first of those reasons was that it is very hard to get preclearance for the aid. Trucks filled with food, water, and medical supplies were lined up for miles in the desert, waiting to be granted entry into Gaza. A truckdriver can wait more than a week, even when items are preapproved, to get through the inspection. The inspection serves the purpose of stopping dual-use items. That is legitimate. But if it takes a week when aid is desperately needed, that means people are greatly short of food, clean water, and medical supplies. And even when inspected and precleared, they could be rejected, and when an item is rejected, the entire truck is rejected. And we saw a warehouse filled with rejected items, including things like solar- powered refrigerators for medical uses and water decontamination supplies. And then, if trucks are cleared to get in, it is very hard for them to get in unless there is deconfliction. If there isn't deconfliction, then the drivers risk driving and dying when a bomb or artillery shell drops in their path. And, in fact, so many aid workers have been killed and truckdrivers have been killed. We know that, before the war, 500 trucks a day were able to get into Gaza. And now, just last week, it was less than an average of 150 trucks when people are absolutely desperate. So there is the possibility and the hope of the United States working intensely with Israel to dramatically change this situation and to get those trucks into Gaza. But there is also the value of having a report from our government, understanding to which degree they have already worked with Israel. Mr. President, I ask to complete the balance of my remarks.

Mr. MERKLEY. Mr. President, so our government should work to solve this problem. We have been working to solve it--so having a report announced by our government: to what degree these strategies of a dysfunctional inspection process and a dysfunctional deconfliction process are a part of a deliberate strategy to create and intensify the shortage of food and water and medical assistance. The second concern I have is about the bombing and artillery shells which our President has described as an indiscriminate campaign of bombing. We all understand that this terrible attack from Hamas--and Hamas is the enemy. But the Palestinians who live in Gaza and are not part of Hamas, they did not attack Israel. They are not the enemy, and thus it is essential that Netanyahu's government's war strategy against Hamas actually targets Hamas and not innocent Palestinians. It is estimated that two-thirds of the people killed--two-thirds killed--have been women and children. That is some 8,000 children and 8,000 women. It is a massive toll. So a report under 502B(c) would be valuable in understanding this strategy. And we are closely tied to it, which is another reason we should want this information. We have supplied over 10,000 tons of military equipment since October 7. We have included 15,000 bombs and 57,000 artillery shells. It would be useful to have our own government analyze this and understand why we are supplying the very weapons that our government has said Israel should quit using and do a more targeted campaign. That is the goal of 502B(c): to get a report, to get answers. My third concern is the displacement. The widespread bombing has produced some 85 percent of the people displaced in Gaza. A leaked Israeli Intelligence Ministry paper said that there are three options, and option C is the preferred option, involving an air campaign in the north, driving people to the south, hopefully displacing them into the Sinai. That has a spooky similarity to the facts on the ground. And, of course, such a displacement strategy has been called out by some Ministers of the Israeli Government, one of them calling for exactly that strategy, saying: We want a Gazan Nakba, that people will not be able to return. So we have a government paper. We have the testimony by Ministry officials that that was their goal. Is that their goal? The Government of Israel has now adamantly said that is not their goal. That is useful to have our government's best understanding because we should never be complicit in a displacement campaign, if that is, in fact, what is going on. So, colleagues, we look at conditions around the world, and, normally, it is folks we have little relationship with--although sometimes we have a relationship with them, but it is an ``on and off again,'' like the situation we have with Saudi Arabia. In this situation, it is our friend and partner that we have worked so closely with, and it may feel awkward and difficult to say we need to take a close look. But when there has been this level of casualties and we are this closely tied to it, it is the right thing to do to get the type of information that would come through this request. I encourage my colleagues to support it.

Mr. MERKLEY

Mr. MERKLEY. Madam President, Wisconsin has lost a great man. When I came to the Senate in 2009, I made an effort to sit down with each Member, and, of the 100 Members, the quietest individual, the most soft-spoken, was Herb Kohl. He sat behind his desk. We talked about the family farms, particularly the dairies of Wisconsin. We talked a little bit about basketball--the Oregon Trail Blazers, the Milwaukee Bucks, and, of course, the pride that we had when the Blazers won a championship back in the 1970s. But, really, it was just a comfortable get-to-know-you. Yet I knew the man across the desk from me had been so powerfully successful in business and in politics. But unlike in virtually any other conversation here in the Senate, he didn't lay claim to a single accomplishment or talk about the great glories of his career. It was just a ``Welcome to the Senate. Here, you can help families out.'' That spirit really fits with what we have heard from Senator Baldwin about his legacy--a man who was humble, who was generous, who was disciplined, who was hard-working; a man who worked not just on agriculture but on housing, but on public education, but on cleaning up the Great Lakes, and on many other things that my colleagues have mentioned. When he was pondering retiring, he talked about the individual that he hoped would follow in his footsteps, in his spirit here in the Senate--our own Senator Tammy Baldwin. It was almost a family connection--a powerful, heart-to-heart connection. So one of the most important legacies that he has left is continuing his vision of fighting for ordinary families, ordinary people, here in the Senate, with the woman who took his place. Herb Kohl was modest in style but powerfully effective in practice. We miss him here in the Senate, and we know that the people of Wisconsin benefited enormously from his life and also miss him greatly in his passing.

Mr. MERKLEY

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

Mr. MERKLEY

Mr. MERKLEY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation be discharged from further consideration and the Senate now proceed to S. Res. 423.

Mr. MERKLEY

Mr. MERKLEY. I further ask that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. MERKLEY

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

Mr. MERKLEY

Mr. MERKLEY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of H.R. 2839, which was received from the House and is at the desk.

Mr. MERKLEY

Mr. MERKLEY. 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.