Chuck Schumer

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. I announce that the Senator from Illinois (Mr. Durbin), the Senator from California (Mrs. Feinstein), and the Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. Fetterman) are necessarily absent.

Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, first let me salute our chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and our Member of the committee, the Senator from Virginia, for the great work they have done. We are trying to be very fair in the amendment process. We are trying to allow amendments to occur, but we want to try to move the bill along as well and not just do things for dilatory or extraneous purposes. So I am very glad we have agreed on these three amendments and hope we can agree on a few more and get things done. Order of Business Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that it be in order to consider the following amendments: Paul No. 2, Graham No. 14, Lee No. 22; that if offered, the Senate vote in relation to the Paul and Graham amendments at 5:50 p.m. today, with 2 minutes for debate equally divided between votes; further, that the Senate vote in relation to the Lee amendment at a time to be determined by the majority leader, following consultation with the Republican leader, with 60 affirmative votes required for the adoption of the Paul and Lee amendments, all without intervening action or debate.

Mr. SCHUMER. I announce that the Senator from Illinois (Mr. Durbin), the Senator from California (Mrs. Feinstein), the Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. Fetterman), and the Senator from New Mexico (Mr. Heinrich) are necessarily absent.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. I announce that the Senator from Illinois (Mr. Durbin), the Senator from California (Mrs. Feinstein), and the Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. Fetterman) are necessarily absent.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, on AUMF first, two decades after the start of the Iraq war, the Senate this week debates legislation to repeal the authority that commenced the war to begin with. By a large vote--67 to 28--the Senate yesterday sent a clear message that the time has come to repeal the AUMFs of 2002 and 1991. At this point, repealing the Iraq AUMFs in the Senate is not a matter of if but, rather, of when. I hope, given such a strong bipartisan vote yesterday, we can move quickly. There should be no needless delay or dilatory tactics on something the majority of Senators support. We are in the process of negotiating amendments. We want to be reasonable, but this process is going to proceed as quickly as it can. Allowing these AUMFs to remain on the books is just asking for a future administration to abuse them and, God forbid, bumble us into a new conflict in the Middle East. War powers belong in the hands of Congress, and we should use and exert that authority by bringing these AUMFs to a close. It is my hope that both sides can reach an agreement to accelerate this process very soon. In the meantime, once again, thanks, kudos to Senators Kaine and Young, Chairman Menendez and Ranking Member Risch, and all of the cosponsors. There are many in this legislation.

Mr. SCHUMER

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

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 116, which is at the desk.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. I further ask that the committee-reported substitute amendment be agreed to; that the bill, as amended, 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. SCHUMER. Mr. President, in 1 minute, I will ask unanimous consent on Calendar No. 24, S. 30. I am just proud to say that there are a good number of major facilities for Veterans Affairs to go forward, including the final installation on the Canandaigua veterans facility, up near Rochester, to complete its modernization. We have been working a long time on this, and this finally completes that action. Mr. President, now, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 24, S. 30.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. I announce that the Senator from Illinois (Mr. Durbin), the Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. Fetterman) and the Senator from California (Mrs. Feinstein) are necessarily absent.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, first, a little housekeeping. I understand that there are three bills at the desk due for a second reading en bloc.

Mr. SCHUMER. In order to place the bills on the calendar under the provisions of rule XIV, I would object to further proceeding en bloc.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, on H.R. 1, over the weekend, the U.N. International Panel on Climate Change released their most dire warning to date: Unless the world swiftly transitions to clean energy and curbs emissions, our planet risks crossing a point of no return sometime in the next decade. What awaits us on the other side could be severe and irreversible: droughts, storms, and crop failures at a level we can scarcely imagine today. I think of my young grandchildren, and I worry about the world they are going to grow up in. This is something that should make every one of us want to do something real about climate change. Unfortunately, House Republicans seem to think the best solution for our energy needs is not to help America transition to clean energy. They think doubling down on more giveaways to Big Oil is the way to go. I have been very clear about two things: Democrats want to see a bipartisan, commonsense energy proposal come together in Congress, but Republicans' H.R. 1 proposal is dead on arrival in the Senate. Let me just repeat that so they hear it from the other side of the aisle. H.R. 1 is dead on arrival in the Senate. So you can do all of the hoopla you want in the House. It ain't passing. It is not going to change a thing. No serious proposal would omit, as the House bill does, long overdue reforms for accelerating the construction of transmission to bring clean energy to projects online. You can't have a good bill without some transmission. Transmission is vital to getting clean energy from where it is produced to where people live, but the Republican H.R. 1 proposal leaves this problem untouched. It is one of the major things we must do this year. No real energy proposal would stuff itself with poison pills in the way Republicans' H.R. 1 does as well. House Republicans want to repeal everything from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund to the methane fee-- imagine repealing the methane fee when methane is 10 times as dangerous as CO2--and the royalty reforms for oil and gas leases. Democrats just passed these into law--to wide acclaim throughout the country and throughout the world--through the Inflation Reduction Act. So to undo them a few months later is ludicrous. It is laughable. It is not happening. Until Republicans recognize that permitting reform is an essential step toward laying the foundation for clean energy and that transmission is essential, no proposal or package they put forward will be taken seriously. Fortunately, there are some on both sides of the aisle in both Houses who are attempting to put together bipartisan legislation, and it has my blessing for them to try and come up with something that would be reasonable, productive, and could pass.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, today is World Down Syndrome Awareness Day. To honor this day, I am wearing a pair of socks given to me yesterday, in Schenectady, by my friend Sheila Seery. Sheila's daughter, Anna, is 14 and lives with Down syndrome. These socks come from a company on Long Island called John's Crazy Socks, run by a man with Down syndrome, who makes socks to help raise awareness for the condition. So, not only are they a wonderful pair of socks, they are also for a great cause. Today, I am thinking of my friend Sheila and her daughter, Anna, as well as every family in our country who has a loved one living with Down syndrome.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, on the AUMFs, today, the Senate begins debate on a resolution formally repealing the Iraq AUMFs of 2002 and 1991, bringing us another step closer to ending these war authorities and putting these conflicts behind us for good. I want to note last week's vote on cloture--68 to 27. That is a clear sign of bipartisan support in this Chamber. I hope Republicans will work with us to keep this bill moving forward, because AUMF repeal in the Senate is now a matter of when, not of if. It is my hope that we can finish our work on repealing these AUMFs as soon as possible. We will have a reasonable amendment process. That said, given last week's strong vote, there is no reason to drag this out. I am encouraged that, in the House, Members from both sides of the aisle seem to be open to taking action once the Senate passes this resolution, and there are Members of the Senate Republican leadership who seem very strongly for the bill. That is a very good sign. As always, I thank my colleagues here in the Senate, on both sides of the aisle, for supporting this legislation, particularly Senators Kaine and Young, who did an amazing job in rounding up support. This has been a dream of Senator Kaine's for a long time, and now it is coming closer to reality. And I want to thank Chairman Menendez and Ranking Member Risch and all of the cosponsors of the legislation. There is no justification anymore for allowing these Iraq authorizations to remain on the books. Every year they remain in place is another year a future administration can abuse them to ensnare us in another conflict in the Middle East. The American people don't want that. They are tired of endless wars in the Middle East. We owe it to our servicemembers and our veterans, as well as their families and communities impacted by the war, to repeal these AUMFs as soon as we can.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, on CHIPS, today, the administration released a number of proposed guardrails that will ensure the Chinese Communist Party does not benefit from our efforts to increase chip production here at home. We first put these guardrails into the CHIPS and Science bill, which we enacted into law last summer--something we are very proud of and that I am very proud of. We put them in because we didn't want to see companies getting help to expand operations in America and then using other dollars to expand operations in countries like China. I am glad the administration is implementing this law with good, strong guidelines--with good, strong regulations. Specifically, the Department of Commerce and the Treasury have proposed new restrictions, which the Senate approved through the CHIPS and Science Act, on the amount companies receiving CHIPS money can invest in projects located within countries of concern. That includes Russia and China. Abusing CHIPS funding to expand projects in China- based markets would be self-defeating, and it would endanger our national security. This is what we passed into law in the CHIPS bill, and this proposed rule will implement it in a strong way. If we are serious about investing in domestic chip production, the last thing we should be doing is allowing companies to take CHIPS dollars and use them to build facilities in China that benefit the CCP. I applaud the administration. I applaud our great Secretary of Commerce for this proposed rule, which I called on them to fast-track weeks ago, and I am glad they are doing it. I am also glad this week that the administration is rolling out proposed guidance for implementing the CHIPS investment tax credit--the ITC. I fought relentlessly to get this tax credit into CHIPS and Science. We knew, without it, our new factories here in America that are going to make advanced computer chips would not grow as quickly and as well. I want to thank Senators Wyden, Brown, Casey, Tester, Kelly, Warner, Cantwell, and many others for joining me in this effort. As I have said many times, President Xi and the Chinese Communist Party are on an all-out campaign to replace the United States as the global force in the 21st century. Look no further than the headlines today. President Xi is being wined and dined by Vladimir Putin, leaving no doubt that the CCP is rooting for Putin to prevail in Ukraine. But it is not just on military matters that China wants to dominate. For decades, the CCP has rapaciously stolen American, European, and Japanese technologies and intellectual property. The CHIPS and Science Act was designed to halt this bleeding and bring semiconductor jobs back to our shores. But, if that is going to happen, we can't allow taxpayer dollars to expand projects in China to begin with. So I applaud the administration for introducing this proposed rule today.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, on the Norfolk Southern hearing, the many consequences of Norfolk Southern's derailment in East Palestine continue to reverberate today. That accident and the many that have occurred since have forced Congress to confront an ugly realization: Years of lobbying from rail companies and deregulation under Republican administrations have empowered the rail industry to put profits over people and endanger communities' safety. Tomorrow, the CEO of Norfolk Southern will return to the Senate and testify before the Commerce Committee. He will be joined by Jennifer Homendy from the National Transportation Safety Board, as well as by two colleagues, Senators Brown and Vance, who have pushed the bipartisan Railway Safety Act. We have heard Norfolk Southern's CEO say he is sorry for what happened in East Palestine, but we have also heard him say he is open to legislative efforts to enhance safety. I hope Norfolk Southern's CEO follows up his apology with candid answers to some important questions: One, why did Norfolk Southern, after seeing a record $3.3 billion in profits last year, pursue billions--billions--in stock buybacks instead of putting that money toward safety and toward their workers? Two, why did the freight rail industry spend so much time and money lobbying for deregulation while also cutting the industry's workforce by, roughly, 20 percent? And, three, will the chair of the NTSB, who will testify tomorrow, as well, also commit to expanding their investigation into Norfolk Southern to include all class I freight rail companies so we can get to the heart of the problems that lie within the rail industry? The Senate needs answers. Communities like East Palestine need answers. So many others deserve answers as well. I hope we will hear some tomorrow. I yield the floor.

Mr. SCHUMER

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

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Biennial Report on Americans with Disabilities Act Public Services and Accommodations Inspections--116th Congress, from the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights, be printed in the Record.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. I ask that further reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I call up amendment No. 15.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask that it stand adjourned under the previous order following the remarks of my Democratic colleagues.

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I will note that four of my colleagues will come to the floor tonight to discuss the success of the ACA. This is the anniversary of the ACA. Millions and millions of Americans have gotten good, reasonably priced medical coverage because of the ACA. It is one of the hallmarks that this Congress passed in this century. It is doing more good every year. More people are covered, and costs are going down. Medical care is so essential to the American people. And here we are. Despite all the naysayers early on, it is a hugely successful, popular program that is making Americans more healthy. I want to thank my colleagues, led by the Senators from Pennsylvania and New Jersey. I know the Senator from Oregon is coming as well to discuss the benefits and beauty of the ACA. I yield the floor.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned until 11 a.m., Wednesday, March 22--Members should remember that, 11 a.m.; 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 following the conclusion of morning business, the Senate proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the Gallagher nomination; further, that at 12 noon, the Senate vote on confirmation of the nomination and that following disposition of the Gallagher nomination, the Senate recess until 2:15 to allow for the weekly caucus meetings; further, that at 2:15 p.m., the Senate resume legislative session and resume consideration of Calendar No. 25, S. 316; finally, that if any nominations are confirmed during Wednesday's session, the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table and the President be immediately notified of the Senate's actions.

Mr. SCHUMER

Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, now, almost 20 years to the day that U.S. military operations began in Iraq, the U.S. Senate begins the process of repealing the Iraq AUMFs--the ones of 2002 and 1991--putting the final remnants of those conflicts squarely behind us. The United States, the Nation of Iraq, and the entire world have changed dramatically since 2002, and it is time the laws on the books catch up with these changes. The Iraq war has itself been long over. This AUMF has outlived its purpose, and we can no longer justify keeping it in effect. While the Iraq war was the cause of so much bitterness in the past, I am glad that repealing these AUMFs has been a genuinely bipartisan effort. I expect we will have a number of amendment votes on the floor once this amendment is before us, and I want to thank Senators Kaine and Young, Chairman Menendez, Ranking Member Risch, and all the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the cosponsors of this legislation. Again, this is a bipartisan process. Both parties in this Chamber have voiced support for repeal. President Biden has voiced support for repealing this AUMF, and in June of 2021, our House colleagues voted 268 to 168 to repeal, with 49 Republicans in support. I hope this year, on the 20th anniversary of the start of the Iraq war, both Chambers will finally speak in one voice and send an AUMF repeal to the President's desk. Americans are tired of endless wars in the Middle East. Many Americans have come of age without even remembering the early years of the Iraq war. Every year we leave these AUMFs on the books is another year that a future administration can abuse them, and Congress--the rightful dispenser of war powers--cannot allow this to continue. I want to make this clear: Repealing this AUMF will not in any way hinder our national defense, nor will it hurt the efforts of our troops deployed overseas. In fact, the repeal is an important step for strengthening our relationship with Iraq. So once again, thank you to all my colleagues for their good work on this resolution, and I urge everyone on both sides to vote ``yes'' on cloture on the motion to proceed in a few hours.