The National Defense authorization bill today for 2021. There there are a number of amendment votes scheduled for this afternoon. Live Senate Coverage here on cspan2. The president pro tempore the senate will come to order. The chaplain, dr. Black, will lead the senate in prayer. The chaplain let us pray. Eternal spirit, grant to this nation, and to all people, a social conscience built on the vision of the ancient prophets who saw sufficiency for every person and a time when anxiety would overcome chaos and hopelessness. Hasten the day when the small and weak can make their contributions alongside the great and powerful. Lead us to the day when we will see peace among the nations of the earth, when swords shall be beaten into plowshares. Use the members of this body to bring us to the time when your will is done on earth even as it is dob in heaven. Lord, we trust you with our future. Let your glory cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. We pray in your mighty name. Amen. The president pro tempore please join me in reciting the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Mr. Grassley madam president. The presiding officer the senator from iowa. Mr. Grassley i ask permission for one minute in morning business. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Grassley there is an area in bosnia, it goes by the name of sherpenya. This month is the 25th anniversary of a massacre that took place there. It happens to be the worst genocide on european soil since the holocaust. 25 years ago 8,000 bosnians were murdered out of ethnic and religious hatred. Many bosnians who witnessed this horrific atrocity became refugees and found a home in my state of iowa. We must remember for those bosnians, iowans, and for all bosnians who suffered as they continue to deal with unimaginable memories. It is also important for the rest of us to make a point of remembering what happened so that we can prevent it from happening again. I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call mr. Mcconnell madam president. The presiding officer the majority leader is recognized. Mr. Mcconnell i ask consent that further proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Mcconnell this week the senate will pass the 60th annual National Defense authorization act. Every year this legislation lets the senate make our Top Priorities for protecting our homeland, our allies, and our global interests into law. And certainly the recent behavior of our adversaries the world over shows why this task is as urgent as ever. Even as our nation focused on fighting the pandemic at home, our Service Members have contended with dangerous behavior from wouldbe competitors all around the world. The Russia Military has kept probing the bounds of u. S. Airspace, and putins regime has kept its sights on cyber war and destabilization by proxy. China continues to treat International Commercial lanes like its own private pond, choke freedom and autonomy out of hong kong and try to ethnically cleanse jiang. Both cints continue to stabilize mobilities from sea to space, and the persistent violence of terrorist groups like isis and al qaeda demand our attention as well. Amid these threats and many others, the American People and the entire free world look to the men and women of the u. S. Military to preserve order and peace, and the opening bipartisan process led by chairman inhofe and Ranking Member reed has produced strong legislation that will advance their missions. Its the product of intense committee work. It contains more than 200 bipartisan amendments and it will builds on the historic progress which this administration and this Republican Senate have secured over the past three years. After years of cuts to our military that weaken readiness and peril modernization and call into question our interest in protecting our global interests, we have reversed the tide. Weve invested in strength. We built a new National Defense strategy, and are investing and rebuilding and modernizing our military to help achieve it. This legislation will carry the progress even further. More support for Defense Research and innovation, resources for military housing and health care, tools to deepen our commitments with regional partners in europe and the pacific. For most americans, investing in the greatest fighting force in the world is not controversial. Its a nobrainer. But lest we forget, madam president , the radical energy on the far left is sparking some truly extraordinary behavior among our democratic colleagues. Case in point, later today well vote on an amendment that was advertised in an opinion essay by the junior senator from vermont titled defund the pentagon, the liberal case. This is the junior senator from vermont, an essay entitled defund the pentagon the liberal case. You heard correctly, madam president. Weve moved on from defunding local police to defunding the United States armed forces. Maybe well be sending social workers on overseas deployments when they arent too busy responding to violent crimes. Im not sure, senator sanders amendment would literally des mate the Defense Budget. It would rip 10 right out and pour the money into all the usual socialist fantasies free rent, free college, free everything for everyone. Now in light of the longheld views of our colleagues from vermont, a proposal like this may not be particularly shocking. What is remarkable is that the democratic leader, the leader of their caucus, felt pressured into endorsing it. Let me say that again, the democratic leader who in almost every floor speech tries to accuse this administration of being too soft on americas adversaries, wants to literally decimate our dwebs bblg to finance a social defense bblg to finance a socialist spending spree. This turns out to be something of a pattern. On the democratic side it sometimes seems like we have hawks when it comes to speeches but chickens when it comes time to make policy. When theyre on the sidelines, theres plenty of bark, but whenever they actually call a shot, its zero bite. Lots of bark, little bite, all hat, no cattle. Thats how we end up with spectacles like the democratic leader playacting as a russian hawk when about a decade ago he was publicly arguing that we should cozy up to putin, send russia billions of dollars of cash, pull the plug on nato Missile Defense packs that hurt putins feelings and concede to him, quote, russias traditional role in the caspian sea region. That was the democratic leader in 2008. Pay off putin, let him have a sphere of influence. And now today he wants to decimate defense spending. But in between he spent years insisting the democrats want to get tough, want to get tough on foreign policy. So you see how the game works, madam president. Sound like hawks on television, act like chickens when making policy. Defense spending demonstrates our will to defend ourselves and our interests in a dangerous world, keeping our nation safe is our foremost constitutional duty. We cannot shirk it. My colleagues who profess concern over putins efforts to interfere in our colleague or efforts to rewrite the rules of the International System must know that we will never, never be able to deter such behavior if we sell out our own soldiers short and surrender our technological edge. So i assure you beijing and moscow will be watching this vote. I ask my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to reject this farleft fantasy. Defeat this amendment. Throughout the cold war we maintained a bipartisan commitment to american strength, american alliances and a global peace built on american values. We will reinforce that stand when we sink, sink the reckless sandersschumer amendment. And again when we pass this bipartisan bill. Now, madam president , on a final matter, since the spring our nation has engaged in important conversation about Racial Justice and policing. Most people understand that continuing our nations tremendous progress towards justice does not mean battling against american principles or American History. Progress means fulfilling our values, not attacking them. And yet, a group of radicals have latched onto this moment to say we should repudiate our country itself. We have watched as mobs have dragged statues of washington, jefferson, and grant through the dirt. And in many selfstyled intellectuals say we should discard the basic principles they fought for. One of the key pillars of our nation is a rule of law. In civilized society, the same laws need to apply to everyone. At times, our nation has fallen short on this score, particularly for all the years when black americans were completely denied the equal protections of law has been to our great shame. This has been central to the cause of civil rights. There is a reason the 14th amendment insists on equal protection of the laws. And yet, in recent months, local leaders have violated this basic tenet as riots rocked major cities, we saw politicians decline to act. They seem to fear farleft critique more than looting and chaos. And we saw the uneven application of other rules like when mayors cheered on mass demonstrations but continued to prohibit religious gatherings. That is the rule of law in jeopardy. Of course, the last example is also a First Amendment issue, and the freedom of expression itself is another principle thats come under threat. As i said a few weeks back, this goes deeper than just constitutional law. America has always proud of the spirit of the First Amendment. We as citizens must want to protect an open, civil discourse, a true marketplace of ideas. But lately, the political left has embraced something totally different. Todays far left is not interested in winning debates with better arguments. They prefer to shut down debate all together. They dont try to win the contest. They just harangue the freefers to stop the game. If they dont the referees to stop the game. If they dont like an oped, they want it unpublished. If they dont like a tweet, they want to track down the author and get them fired. If they dont like a tenured professor, they throw around orwellian accusations that his or her ideas makes them feel, makes them feel unsafe. This hostile culture is getting results. According to one brandnew survey, it is only farleft americans who do not feel compelled to selfcensor their views because of a hostile climate. Everyone but the left feels the threat. And 50 of selfidentified strong liberals say that simply contributing to the republican president ial candidate ought to be a fireable offense for a business leader. Let me say that again. 50 of selfidentified strong liberals say that simply contributing to the republican president ial candidate ought to be a fireable offense for a business leader. In this country . We recently saw the New York Times apologize for publishing a straightforward policy argument from a u. S. Senator. Since an editorial staffer resigned from the paper because even senators left opinions were not liberal enough and led to her constant harassment. That was a recent editorial staffer resigning from the New York Times because her center left opinions were not liberal enough and led to her constant harassment at the times. You see, the safe spaces only go in one direction. On elite campuses such as princeton, we see faculty turning on their tenured colleagues and even administrators weighing in to chastise people with unpopular views at princeton. We see Online Platforms such as facebook threatening to ban political advertising altogether, chilling our democracy because farleft employees and outside pressure groups berate them for letting diverse speakers use their platform. Even at a time when there is significant appetite in congress to take a second look at the Legal Protections afforded to those supposedly neutral platforms, they still contemplate giving an angry minority of agitators a veto over americas political speech. The. For, salman rushdie, who was himself lettened with death for his speech once said this two things form the bedrock of any open society freedom of expression and the rule of law. Mr. Mcconnell if you dont have those things, you dont have a free country. Free expression and the rule of law. Exactly, exactly the two things we have seen erodeed in recent months. Rushdie recently signed an open letter with other intellectuals, many liberals sounding the alarm on this cultural poison. Editors are fired, they wrote. Books are withdrawn. Journalists are barred from writing on certain topics. Professors are investigated, steadily narrowing the boundaries of what can be said without the threat of reprisal. Well, you can guess what happened next. The grievance Industrial Complex came after the letter itself. The authors were accused of advancing bigotry. And the cycle of nonsense started all over again. The United States of America Needs free speech. We need free expression. And all of us from all perspectives need the courage to speak up and defend it. The presiding officer under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. Morning business is closed. Under the previous order, the senate will resume consideration of the senate 4049 which the clerk will report. The clerk calendar number 483, s. 4049, an original bill to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2021 for military activities of the department of defense, and so forth and for other purposes. Mr. Schumer madam president. The presiding officer the democratic leader is recognized. Mr. Schumer Democratic Senators returned to washington on monday prepared to work in a bipartisan way on the next phase of coronavirus relief. After stalling for months while covid19 surged in more than 40 states, Senate Republicans finally said that now, the end of july, more than three months after the cares bill passed, would be the time for another emergency bill, but here we are. Its in the middle of the week, and the Republican Party is so disorganized, chaotic and unprepared that they can barely cobble together a partisan bill in their own conference. Indicative was leader mcconnells speech. He rants and raves about the New York Times and cancel culture. Not a word about covid19. People are ready to lose their Unemployment Benefits, to lose their apartments, and be evict evicted. Local governments are laying off people because they dont have the dollars. Were in a national crisis. We dont hear a word out of leader mcconnell as were on the edge of so many cliffs. Instead, lots of talk about the New York Times and cancel culture. That may be fodder for the far right. That is not what America Needs. When leader mcconnell at this crucial moment cant even mention covid, it shows what a knot the republicans are tied in. The bottom line is this the white house chief of staff said republicans were on their own 20yard line when it comes to their legislative proposal, their own 20yard line two months and a week after we passed the covid 3 bill, after millions more americans applied for unemployment, after many Small Businesses went under and many more died and were hospitalized as covid rages in many southern states. Were still on the 20yard line . Where have the republicans been . I have never seen a Political Party in the middle of a crisis so tied in a knot that the majority leader capital even mention it in his speech and spends time ranting against favorite targets of the far right and cant come up with a proposal. This isnt a game. This isnt typical republican dysfunction about whether or not they didnt or did see the president s last tweet. The disarray on the republican side has real consequences. Americans will suffer unnecessary pain and uncertainty because of it. The only reason there hasnt been another relief package in Congress Already is because of this republican incompetentence and reckless delay. Even after all of these months the white house and Senate Republicans are starkly divided about what to do. The white house is insisting on policies like a payroll tax cut that would do nothing to help millions of unemployed americans and that many Senate Republicans dont even support. Republicans cant even seem to agree on providing aid to state and local governments or the states should be able to flexibly use the support weve already given. A few of my friends on the other side of the aisle hardly want to spend anymore money to help our country in this once in a generation crisis because it might add to the national debt. Giant Corporate Tax cuts, 1. 5 trillion to 2 trillion of them. Fighting the greatest Public Health crisis in a century and the recession. Where are the priorities on the other side of the aisle . Well, i guess they are for helping big corporate fat cats, wealthy people, but not average people who are hurting. Thats the trouble with the Republican Party. Seriously, there are only three weeks left until the august work period and republicans are still in the opening phases of preparing their bill. We dont have time for this mess that the republicans are in. The moratorium on evictions we passed in the cares act expires in two days. The wall street journal reports that nearly 12 million adults live in households that missed their rent paymen