Judicial nominations. The president pro tempore the senate will come to order. The chaplain, dr. Black, will open the senate in prayer. The chaplain let us pray. Ee ternl god, we are grateful that you continue to rule the universe. We being a knowledge that though wrong seems so strong your purposes will be fulfilled. Lord, we praise you for your promise that in everything you continue to work for the good of those who love you. Mighty god, let your will be done lest our law makers bless our lawmakers. Listen to their prayers. Quench their thirst for your proence with your abiding love. May they not forget the many times you have helped them in the past. We pray in your gracious name. Amen. The president pro tempore please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance. 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 one minute for morning business, please. The presiding officer without objection. The signing of the Abraham Accords today that the at the white house represents a very historic breakthrough for peace in the middle east. Im not saying that this accord alone will bring peace to that troubled region, but this is a first tangible progress towards peace in that area in a quarter century. I met am war he is. Sedot when he was in the ways and Means Committee room in the house of representatives. And i had an opportunity also to witness at the white house the handshake between rabin and arafat in 1993. Both seemed to herald peace in the middle east that never quite materialized and yet we still have peace between israel and egypt and between israel and jordan. Israel has been a country for over 72 years. Its the only democracy in the region. Its a Major Economic and military political power and of course its our greatest ally in the middle east. Its overdue for other states, then, and those states that are in that area especially to recognize israel and pursue normal relations. The outdated notion that recognition of israels existence should be withheld until somehow israelis and palestinians agree on the details of a twostate solution that has not worked. The twostate solution has made an agreement more likely, but it has prevented diplomatic action that can be a stabilizing force in a nonstable region. In a polarized time, todays historic accord between israel and the u. A. E. And israel and bahrain is good news anyone can celebrate and we ought to give President Trump great credit for his leadership in this area. Hes delivered in a lot of areas where both republicans and democrats, president s, could not deliver in the past. I yield the floor. Mr. Mcconnell madam president. The presiding officer the majority leader. Mr. Mcconnell yesterday i discussed a tide of good news flowing out of the middle east, peace agreements between israel and the u. A. E. And israel and bahrain. It will be documented at the white house later today. Even more arab countries are reportedly considering follow suit. The winds have changed the winds of change are blowing across the middle east thanks in large part to the hard work of the strumtion, they are blowing administration, they are blowing towards peace. Not everyone is happy. Not everyone in the middle east is living in the 21st century. Some are too vested in the old fights and enemies and aggrade to let them and afraid to let them go. President abbas who is in the middle of a term predictly tried to dismiss the compromise as nonsense. But as the obama administrations expert wrote a few days ago, continuing this failed approach would just guarantee palestinians would be left behind while the rest of the arab world builds a better future. And then theres the bass basket case that is iran. Last weekend, as if purposely scripted to contrast with the hopeful news of optimism and peace coming from the arab world, the mullahs reminded the world of their disdain for Human Dignity and basic human rights. They carried out a hurried execution in the face of international condemnation, a 27yearold iranian wrestler, arrested during antigovernment protests in 2018, was tortured into questioning to a murder of confessing to a murder of a security guard. He was hanged on saturday. According to his mother, who was barred from visiting her son before his execution, he and two brothers arrested alongside him were forced to testify against one another. As they mourn their brothers, these two young men themselves face decades in prison for standing up to the brutal injustices of the iranian regime. Stories like this are tragic, but they arent shocking. Not in a country where dissent and preexpression are denied, not from Free Expression are denied, not from rulers who use domestic and international terrorism. This regime has its finger on disstabilizing campaigns, assassinations and violence against every single corner of the middle east from the shore of the medical terrainian, to the gulf mediterranean. The jcpoa did not improve any of this bad behavior. It ignored irans nonnuclear aggression, it let iran continue r d on enriched uranium. If anything, irans behavior has gotten worse. That bad deal is do going, it will have a Security Council resolution that kept iran from buying weapons. The votes of russia and china refuse to extend this 13yearold embargo. Returning to the jcpoa has become a sort of mantra for our political left here in the United States. But, really, the reflex to oppose everything President Trump does can be a gift to our adversaries. Former Vice President biden promises to force into a bag deal bad deal. He proposes to renegotiate the bad deal from the inside of it after tossing away any leverage in advance. Theres one right way to deal with regimes like iran, toughness and resolve. Thats why President Trump successfully restored an important measure of deterrence when he removed irans top terrorist solomony from the battlefield forever. Even though tehran is weakened by sanctions and economic unease, they are also emboldened by our internal divisions and eager to exploit rifts among our allies. We know from publicly released intelligence that iran seeks to interfere in our own politics. We know that iranianbacked groups continues to continue to threaten our forces in iraq an syria. We know iranian proxies like hezbollah pose a growing threat to our ally israel. Unit, strength, and unity, strength and resolve are the way to protect our interests, not capitulation. Now, on one final matter. For months it has been clear to every reasonable american that our country can and must hold two sets of true statements in our minds at the same time. Number one, our country has unfinished work to ensure that policing is fair to everyone and that black americans do not feel unfairly treated or targeted by Law Enforcement. And, number two, the vast majority of Law Enforcement officers are heroes and the toxicity and violence that farleft mobs have inflicted on Police Policemen is policemen is beyond the pail. The American People want good, strong policing to ensure equal protections of the laws. We understand there is no contradiction here, none whatsoever. Most people are outraged by the killings of black americans that have shocked our country. Sunday marks six months since the death of Breonna Taylor in my hometown. Our nation wants answers, but most feel sick when they hear about events like what happened in los angeles, two sheriffs deputies were shot in their patrol car and protesters blocked the entrance to the hospital chanting, kill the police, and i hope they die. Fortunately both are out of surgery, but the hateful climate that creates these acts is still with us. And one of our two Political Parties should do more to repudiate the underlying climate on their side. To be clear, democratic leaders, such as Vice President biden and the junior senator from california spoke up quickly to defend the shooting. What about the underlying climate . For months the political left put all its might behind a false narrative that says disorder is acceptable, riots are free speech and Law Enforcement is the real enemy of certain communities. One Prominent National newspaper, which found a straightforward oped from our colleague senator cotton was more than they could bear had no problem publishing a submission entitled, yes, we mean literally abolish the police. No problem publishing that. Yes, we mean literally abolish the police. When the speaker of the house was asked to respond to rioters illegally toppling statues across the country, she responded, people will do what they will do. That was about toppling statues. And from one liberal big city to another, we have seen mayors and local leaders who see it easier to oppose Police Funding than to denounce out of control riots in their very own cities. Just yesterday, with this Los Angeles Story making headlines nationwide, the junior senator from massachusetts decided to criticize Police Officers on his twitter feed and proposed a nationwide ban on nonlethal measures like tear gas and rubber bullets. A ban on tear gas and rubber bullets. We are now at a point where some of our democratic colleagues survey the nation, survey the way Law Enforcement officers are being treated, and decide the answer is to keep rhetorically throwing cops under the bus, throwing them under the bus, and try to ban their nonlethal means of selfdefense while they are at it. The American People dont have any trouble rejecting terrible racism and discrimination and rejecting lawlessness, violence, and adding Police Prejudice with equal clarity and equal force. They deserve leaders who can do likewise. The presiding officer under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. Morning business is closed. Under the previous order, the senate will proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the following nomination which the clerk will report. The clerk nomination, the judiciary, mark c. Scarsi of california to be United States district judge for the Central District of california. Mr. Mcconnell i notice the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call mr. Schumer madam president. The presiding officer the democratic leader. Mr. Schumer are we in a quorum . The presiding officer we are. Mr. Schumer i ask unanimous consent the quorum be dispensed with. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Schumer i ask unanimous consent i be allowed to finish my remarks before the vote begins. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Schumer thank you. Now, madam president , after the Senate Republicans spent four months dithering, delaying, last week, leader mcconnell pushed a partisan emaciated covid bill. It was so paltry and laden with poison pills, it was clearly designed to fail, and fail it did. Its time for the Senate Republicans to wake up to the gravity of the crisis in our country and work with democrats on a comprehensive bill that delivers real help to americans. Speaker pelosi and i have already come down a trillion dollars from our initial requests. Leader mcconnell and Senate Republicans must drop the cynical political games and instead work with democrats to find Common Ground and reach a compromise. If Republican Leadership lets the 20 members of their caucus who barely want to provide any more relief and allows them to dictate their partys agenda, it will block the path to a compromise and republicans will have to answer to the American People. Now, our country still does not have a strong grasp on covid19. America continues to lead the world in a number of confirmed cases by far, over 6. 5 million. Nearly 200,000 americans have died. And yet unthinkably, it was reported that in one of his interviews with bob woodward, President Trump said, quote, nothing more could have been done to combat the coronavirus. Nothing more could have been done. Thats what President Trump said. Of the many lies the president has told about covid19, this is one of the most monumental and one of the most galling. There were so many vital things the president could have done to fight covid19 and protect our country. In the early days of the virus, hospitals, medical centers, essential workers were short on p. P. E. And ventilators and swabs and masks and gloves. President trump never mobilized the resources of the federal government, never fully invoked the defense production act, never set up a National Clearinghouse to get resources where they needed to go. It has been seven months and President Trump still doesnt have a National Testing strategy. There has never been a National Plan for Contact Tracing. The president took months before he even encouraged americans to wear a mask. This is an entire universe of actions that President Trump could have taken to help the spread help slow the spread of the virus and save american lives and american jobs. But he didnt. He never took strong action, never took responsibility. It is what it is. In many cases, it would have been better actually if the president did nothing instead of what he did. It would have been better if the president never downplayed the virus, never called it a hoax, never pushed quack medicines, never speculated by injecting bleach and never held rallies. And every week, every week brings new evidence that his administration is totally unequipped to right the ship, especially the department of health and Human Services. Over the weekend, there were numerous reports that political appointees at h. H. S. Have been interfering in the c. D. C. s report on covid19, trying to delay, edit out, or halt the release of facts that would have been politically embarrassing to the president. This is not the first time the administration has tried to hide reports and facts that would better inform the American People. Meanwhile, as that is happening, President Trump has pressured h. H. S. To slow the testing down. Hes overstated the benefits of certain treatments and pressured the f. D. A. To approve them and accused f. D. A. Officials of holding back a vaccine. And too many people within h. H. S. Are trying to suppress the science. The secretary of health and Human Services, alex azar, has not only failed to push back against these outrageous moves by President Trump, he has been almost entirely silent about the chaos and mismanagement in his own agency. In the in trumps administration, the most important skill is the ability to stand up to the president and resist political influence. More in an agency like h. H. S. Than others where the health of americans is at stake. It has become abundantly clear that the leadership at the department of health and Human Services has allowed perhaps the most important federal agency right now to become subservient to the president s daily whims. So so today im calling on secretary azar to resign immediately. We need a secretary of health and Human Services who will look out for the American People, not President Trumps political interests. Now, on another topic, wildfires. For the last several weeks much of the American West has been ravaged by a historic wave of wildfires. At least 35 people have been killed. Thousands of homes have been destroyed. Over five million acres of land have been incinerated, roughly the size of rhode island and connecticut combined. The sky glows with ghastly shades of red and orange. Its impossible to have a serious conversation about these wildfires without talking about Climate Change. We know that Climate Change contributes to the frequency of these fires. We know it accelerates their destructive power. Six of the 20 largest fires in california history have happened this year alone. Heat waves and dry air make these disasters more likely. These past few years have been some of the hottest and driest on record. But at a press conference yesterday with fema and california state officials, President Trump brushed aside any possibility that Climate Change had an effect suggesting ided onically idiotically suggesting that the planet will start getting cooler. Just you watch. Its like what he did with covid. He tries to deny it and he makes it worse. He encourages people to ignore it and the problem grows. When the head of the California Natural Resources Agency told the president that science disagreed with him, the president said i dont think science knows. This exchange that the president said it will start getting cooler,