For every house and Senate Member of the 118th congress. Important information on congressional committees, the fl agencies and state governors. The congressional directory costs 32. 95 plus shipping and handling and of your purchase helps support our nonprofit operation. Scan the code to go to cspanshop. Org to preorder your copy today for delivery this spring. Live now to the u. S. Senate where today senators are considering the nomination of a u. S. District court judge for the western part of virginia. It confirms she would be the first Asian American judge to serve a lim any Federal District court in the state. About to advance her nomination is that for 5 30 p. M. Eastern today. Live live coverage of the u. S. Cspan2. E presiding he senate will come to order. The chaplain will lead the senate in prayer. The chaplain let us pray. God of love, whosey those with hearts and who makes cheerfulness a companion of strength, lift our hearts to a joyous confidence in you care. Lord, give us opportunities to tell of all the marvelous things you our nations history, as we seek to glorify your name. Lord, guide and protect our lawmakers. Teach them to find andru you, as they grow in grace and in a knowledge of your providentialng. Remind them that when they feel overwhelmed, you stand behind the unknown to deliver them from doubt. May they claim your promise to provide■q tith mercy and grace, to help them in their time of need. Sovereign name. Amen. The presiding officer please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance to our flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, and justice for all. The presiding officer the clerk will read a communication to the senate. The clerk washington, d. C, march 11, 2024. To the senate under the provisions of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby duckworth, a senator from the state of illinois, to perform the duties of the chair. Signed patty murray, president pro tempore. The presiding officer under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. Morning business is closed. ■ senate will proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the following nomination, which the clerk will report. The clerk nomination, the judiciary. Jas jasmine yoon of virginia to be United States district judge for the Western District of to the military as he looks to rebuild. In many ways this is the prompted by the fact that russia has paid an enormous ukraine, ny suffering more losses than anytime since 20 world war st has also precipitated finland and swedens membership in nato which putin believes russias gd forces. Putin continues to judge that time is on his side and almost certainly assume ises that a larger, better equipped military will also serve the purpose of driving that point home to western audiences. Such messaging is important because putins strategic goalsh remain■ unchanged. He continues to see nato enlargement as reinforcing his longheld belief that the United States and europe seek to restrict russian power and undermine him. And, of course, in the meantime, russia continues to modernize and fortify its Nuclear WeaponsCapabilities Even though it maintains the largest and most diverse Nuclear Weapons stockpile. We remain concerned that a riskg global norms against the use of asimilar metric or strategically destabilizing weapons including yber domains. Another critical intersection we are monoor to having is the are monitoring is the relationship between the f russia, china, north korea and iran which is evolving as these four countries expand collaboration through a web of bilateral and in some cases trilateral arrangements. This growing cooperation and willingness to exchange aid and military, economic, political and Intelligence Matters enhances their individual capabilities, enables them to cooperate on competitive actions, assists them to further undermine the rulesbased order and gives them each some insulation from external international pressure. Nevertheless, we these relationships will remain far short of formal alliances or multilateral axis. Avoid entanglements and wariness of harm and instability if from each other s actions will likely insure it advances incrementally absent direct conflict between one of these countries in the United States. And nevertheless, the Power Dynamics are shifting among them, and this is cin challenges. In particular, russias need for support in the context of ukraine has forced it to grant some longsought concessions toh the potential to underline longheld nonproliferation norms. And as i noted in the intensifying transnational challenges are intersecting with these more traditional threats. For example, with the advent of general rahtive a. I. , state and and nonateonducting foreign malign influence observations no longer need to create content, the threat of actor it ising ploiting these technologies to undercut u. S. Interests and democracy is particularly potent as voters go to the poll in more than 60 elections around the globe this year, as the chairman noted. We have also seen a massive increase in the number of Ransomware Attacks globally whic can went up roughly 74 in 2023 from what it was in 2022. And u. S. Entities were the most haley targeted. Many of these targeted. Many of these contacted mr. Mcconnell are we in a quorum call . Presiding officer no, we are not. Mr. Mcconnell the senate finished its work on annual ppropriations for six m areas of government august and ruler development, commerce, justice, and science, energy and water■v delopment, interior and environment, military construction, veterans affairs, andg and urban develop. The senates vote was a major milestone in a the appropriatios committee began the better part of a year ago. Collins and senator murrays commitment to operating in good faith and adhering as much as possible to portion of the federal governments discretionary budget is complete. As week, the agreement before the senate includes a number of conservative accomplishments that advice chair collins fought for up front. Im especially pleased that it will advance priorities near and dear to the hearts of my fellow kentuckians, from rural transportation to military readiness to stopping the flow of illegalrugs. Im proud to represent three military installlations in kentucky that are vital to Americas National defense strategy, and the bill the Senate Passed last week will fund critical Construction Projects at each of them. It greenlights the construction of topoftheline training and operational capabilities at fort knox and fort campbell, both home to a number of our nations most storied army units. It resurrects resources m a National GuardTraining Range in greenbelt that h has fallen the wait wayside by the wayside. Hundreds of millions of dlashz kentuckians and the rest of Middle America. Urgent funding to overhaul aging roads, bridges, and river ports that hold back main street, investments for clean, reliable water continue environmental cleanup efforts in paducah, and resources to expand Broadband Access of the commonwealth. It also empowers Law Enforcement with new resources to combat the opioidsi devastated my home state and remains a top killer of young kentuckis. So finished the job on a major portion of our government funding responsibilities, and i was especially proud to deliver on some of my fellow kentuckys top priorities. On another matter, last week i was proud to the welcome the Prime Minister of sweden to the capital on an historic day in his nations history and a great day for america and■e fellow members of the transAtlantic Alliance. Earlier today the flag of sweden was rse headquarters for the first time. Sweden is our newest nato ally, and the Prime Ministers visit began more than two years ago. As forces amass on ukraines border in the winter of 2022, putins aggressive ambitions clarified the thinking of some strongest security partners. From outside nato, sweden and finlanad already built advanced economies, exacerbate militaries, and capable militaries and impressive defense industries. T of an axis of revisionist powers, our nor dick powers decided it was time to cast their lot with the most nce in hiory. Their path to accession is a clarifying reminder that nato has always been a defensive alliance. Its members first undertook the responsibility of collective security to defend against growing soviet aggression. Central and Eastern European members pursued membershiper ir protect their newly reclaimed sovereignty and democracy. Natos expansion has always been outside forces, and today is no different. Ive been proud■8 to have worke with our allies at every stop of the process. Ill never forget standing with them two years ago in stockholm the swedish and finnish parliaments voted overwhelmingly to launch their nato access bids. Russias escalation in ukraine has unified swedish and finnish lea leaders. In both countries, strong support for nato and the willingness to share the burden of collective defense literally transcends party lines. Today americas newest treaty allies are poised to make significant, transAtlantic Alliance, with highly trained forces equipped with cuttingedge capabilities, their contribution to a vote of confidence in the enduring importance of collective defense. With sweden and finland in our ranks, the west is more united against autocrats with imperial designs. Withntline allies, americas interests are more secure. On another matter, this week the senate wil get yet another chance to put the emergency brakes on a particularly harmful piece of Biden Administration federal state, the federal Highway Administration final iced finalized a rule last year that would1o■ force s planning agencies to set declining Greenhouse Gasnd requ them to meet those targets. The idea is to make the entire infrastructure the way the bluest coastal cities, like san francisco, do subway stops, electrical vehicle chargers, and bike lanes in rural places, like north dakota . Its a one size fits all mandate. In other words, it forces Middle America to say goodbye to urgent projects on the sort■y of transportation infrastructure that actually makes sense for them. Whats more, authority to implement this rule. Congress explicitly debated and rejected language toarget durin leadup to the passage of the Infrastructure Investment and jobs act. O5 very grateful to my colleague, senator cramer, for taking the lead on this cra and i urge all of to support him on the floor this week. I suggest the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call the clerk ms. Baldwin. ■ . This issue appropriately and responsibly within the intelligence committee. So we had an external panel look at this question how and under what circumstances should we use commerciallyavailable information. And in particular, to reflect on the existing framework for privacy and civil liberties. We published that report and, or in fact, senator wyden asked us too and, as a consequence, put that out. And as an in our exk comm agreed that we thought those recommendat issued i. C. Guidance basically for9 cataloging commerciallyavailable information to insure that our handling of such information is consistent with relevant legal policy, security consideration to facilitate consideration and weve developed a framework thas attorney general guidelines and related policies with general principles and Additional Guidance on how i. C. E collect,s commerciallyavailable information including more precise guidance for identifying and dealing with categories of inform■ion that pose a greater risk of implicating privacy and civil liberties. And finally, as the Panel Recommends also, the framework sets out standards and procedures that govern and require periodic reevaluation and i the challenge that is posed by some of the legislative proposals that ive senior require, for example xa probable cause requirement before you can obtain that information. Similarly, we are not going to have in the she their quo of, for example, getting scenario of getting cyber threat information commercially a probable cause reason for getting that. What were trying to do is unta vulnerabilities are. And then what we recognize is that whatever the commercial information is that were obtain thing, we need to treat it in a way that actuallyig that have bn described. Thank you of. Senator rubio. Director ray, we know over the last three years millions of people crossed the u. S. Border illegally, and many have been released into the country. Have members or people with ties to dangerous gangs■s like, fork example, the prison gang if venezuela, were they among the people that came into this i don speak to the specific gang but, or certainly, we have had dangerous individuals enter the United States we now seeing crimeses from people that entered the country over the last three years, some of them with ties to gangs orri . Well, i guess what i would say is this, from an fbi perspective, we are seeing a wide array of very dangerous threat■. S that emanate from thef border, and that includes everything from the drug trafficking9 and the fbi alone seized enough fentanyl in the last two years to kill 270 million people. Thats just on the fentanyl side. An awful a lot of Violent Crime hands of gangs who areis at themselves involved in the distribution of that fentanyl if. But youre also seeing and arresting and, for example, the assault on if Police Officers in new york. All the reporting said they had ties to this gang in ut objection. The chair lays before the senate a communication from the secretary of the senate regarding a message from the preceived during the adjournment of the senate. The clerk dear madam president , sent by messenger the attached, sealed envelope addressed to the president of the senate, dated march 9, 2024, said to contain a message regarding the designation of funding as an emergency requirement in h. R. Appropriations act, 2024. The senate, not being in session on the day, which the president delivered ts message, i accepted the message at 12 05 p. M. And i now present to you disposition by the senate, h the respectfully, sunciria a. Berry, secretary of the senate. Mr. Schumer thank you, madam president. Now, madam president , today, sed his budget for fiscal year 2025. President bidens budget can be summarized in three words op. President bidens budget highlights the sharp contrast between the democrats the republicans negative, regressive vision for our country. Democrats are focused on growing the economy in a responsible way, while making Smart Investments in the American People and our future. Thats why a centerpiece of President Bidens budget foc cr working americans by ending the reckless trumpera tax scam, which overwhelmingly cut taxes for the wealthiest few and large corporations and added trillions to the national debt. It was recently confirmed that the republicaid not pay for itself, as we heard over and over again from our republican colleagues. Democrats know we can, and stbe. As the president pointed out during his state of the Union Address last week, a fair tax code is how we can better invest in things like■ health care, education, and Economic Opportunity for more americans. President trumps tax scam proved everything but fair. It rewarded the wealthy, the well connected, while leaving working families with the tab. Time has shown this tax scam was a dud for political loser for the republican party, because the American People saw it for what it was. Republicans also talk a big game abou President Bidens budget actually proposes measures to do it. It proposes measures to reduce the deficit by nearly 3 trillion over the next decade. That budget will help improve the solvency of vital programs like medicare and social ses ofs of americans rely on every single day. It will reinstate the Child Tax Credit we passed in the American Rescue plan, which greatly reduced sheffield poverty Child Poverty before expiring. President bidens budget builds made to help grow america from the middle out and the bottom up. From the infrastructure law to e c and science act to the Inflation Reduction Act to the pact act and more. Democrats made a lot of Good Investments that are already am. Inflation is cooling down. Manufacturing is surging. Consumer sentiment i growing. The cost of insulin and other drugs is falling. Weve created a record 15 million new jobs since President Biden took office. President bidens budget will help ensure we continue to make good on the investments from our agenda and build an economy that work for heres the bottom line President Bidens budget shows there are two clear choices for americas future and highlights democrats vision for a better america. Democrats want to keep taxes low for middleclass families amendment make the