Mr. Carper. Mr. Casey. Mr. Cassidy. Ms. Collins. Mr. Coons. Mr. Cornyn. Mr. Cotton. Mr. Cramer. Mr. Crapo. Mr. Cruz. Mr. Daines. Ms. Duckworth. Mr. Durbin. Mrs. Fischer. Mrs. Gillibrand. Mr. Graham. Mr. Grassley. Hagerty. Ms. Hassan. Mr. Hawley. Mr. Heinrich. Mr. Hickenlooper. Ms. Hirono. Mr. Hoeven. Vote mrs. Hydesmith. Mr. Johnson. Mr. Kaine. Mr. Kelly. Mr. Kennedy. Mr. King. Ms. Klobuchar. Mr. Lankford. Mr. Lee. Mr. Lujan. Ms. Lummis. Mr. Manchin. Mr. Rkey. Mr. Marshall. Mr. Menendez. Mr. Merkley. Mr. Moran. Mr. Mullin. Ms. Murkowski. Mr. Murphy. Mrs. Murray. Mr. Ossoff. Mr. Padilla. Mr. Paul. Mr. Peters. Mr. Reed. Mr. Ricketts. Mr. Risch. Mr. Romney. Ms. Rosen. Mr. Rounds. Mr. Rubio. Mr. Sanders. Schatz. Mr. Schmitt. Mr. Schumer. Mr. Scott of florida. Mr. Scott of South Carolina. Mrs. Shaheen. Ms. Sinema. Ms. Smith. Ms. Stabenow. Mr. Thune. Mr. Tillis. Mr. Tuberville. Mr. Van hollen. Mr. Vance. Mr. Warner. Mr. Warnock. Ms. Warren. Mr. Welch. Mr. Whitehouse. Mr. Wicker. Mr. Wyden. Mr. Young. Tors voting in the affirmative brown, butler, cantwell, carper, casey, durbin, hassan, king, klobuchar, menendez, murphy, padilla, peters, sinema, smith, stabenow, warnock. Senators voting in the negative britt, budd, cassidy, collins, cornyn, crapo, fischer, grassley, hagerty, hoeven, johnson, kennedy, lankford, lee, manchin, marshall, mcconnell, moran, ul, ricketts, risch, schmitt, scott of florida, thune, tillis, vance,■a ms. Lummis, no. Ms. Duckworth, aye. Mrs. Murray, aye. Ms. Warren, aye. ■8■■ the clerk blumenthal, aye. The clerk mrs. Hydesmith, no. mr. Welch, aye. Mr. Heinrich, aye. The clerk ms. Hirono, aye. The clerk mr. Lujan, aye. The clerk mr. Reed, aye. The clerk mr. Ossoff, aye. Mr. Warner, aye. Mr. Schatz, aye. Wy the presiding officer ms. Cortezmasto, aye. ■■l the clerk mr. Coast guard the clerk mr. Cardin, aye. The clerk mr. Graham, no. San the clerk mr. Coons, aye. The clerk mr. Merkley, aye. The clerk mrs. Capito, no. The clerk mr. Bennet, aye. Th the clerk ms. Murkowski, no. The clerk mr. Wyden, aye. Mr. Tester, aye. The clerk ms. Rosen, aye. The clerk mr. Kaine, aye. Mrs. Gillibrand, aye. Ta■b the clerk mr. Booker, aye. The clerk mr. Fetterman, aye. The clerk r. Rounds, no. T1 the clerk mr. Hawley, no. H■■y the clerk mr. Ernst, no. The clerk mr. Whitehouse, aye. The clerk mr. ■f■l■8schumer, a the clerk mr. The clerk mr. Cruz, no. Mr. Hollen, aye. ,t vote . S ■, the clerk mr. Hickenlooper, aye. The presiding officer the yeas are 48. Th are 40. The motion is agreed to. ■i< ■d x mr. Schumer i ask unanimous consent that all time be considered expired and the confirmation vote be at 5 30 p. M. On tuesy, march 19. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Schumer madam president , i move to proceed to legislative session. The presiding officer the question is on the motion. All in favor say aye. Those opposed no. The ayes appear to have it. The ayes do have it. The motion is agreed to. Mr. Schumer i moveve session r calendar 465. The presiding officer the question is on the motion. All in favor say aye. Opposed no. The ayes appear to have it. The ayes do have it. The motion is agreed to. The clerk will report the no the judiciary, edward kiel of new jersey to be United States district judge for the district of new jersey. Mr. Schumer i send a cloture motion to the desk. The presiding officer the clerk will report the cloture motion. The clerk cloture motion, we undersigned senators in accordance wh e 22 of the stands of the senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nomination of executive calendar number 465, edward sun yol kiel of new jersey to be United States district judge for the district of new jersey signed by 17 senators as follows. Mr. Schumer i ask the reading of the names be waived. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Schumer i move to proceed to legislationive session. The presiding officer the question is on the motion. All in favor say aye. Opposed no. The ayes appear to have it. The ayes do have it. The motion is agreed to. Send a motion to the desk. Executive session to consider calendar 463. The presiding officer the question is on all in favor say aye. Opposed no. The ayes appear to have it. The ayes do have it. The motion is agreed to. The clerk will report nomination. The clerk nomination, the judiciary, eumi k. Lee of california to be United States district judge for the Northern District of mr. Schumer i send a cloture motion to the desk. The presiding officer the clerk will report the cloture motion. The clerk cloture motion, we, the undersigned senators rules of the senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nomination of executive calendar california to be United States district judge for the Northern District of california signed by 17 senators as follows. Mr. Schumer i ask consent the reading of the names be waived. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Schumer i ask unanimous consent the mandatory quorum calls for the cloture motion filed today, march 14 be waived. The presiding officer without objection. So ordered. Mr. Schumer i yield the floor. A senator madam president. The presiding officer the senator from maryland. A senator madam president , during his state of the Union Address last week, President Biden once again rightly pointed out that israel has the right and i would say the duty to defend itself in the aftermath of the brutal hamas terror attack of october 7. Mr. Van hollen that left approximately 1200 brutally murdered and 240 taken hostage 7s. President biden also described the ongoingsaster taking place today. Over 31,000 palestinians have been killed. Over twothird them women and children. Likely thousands more unaccounted for buried beneath the rubble. Ecome a hell hole of human suffering. Humanitarian organizations that have operated worldwide for decades say they have never witnessed a more terrible situation. Madam president , among those suffering in gaza are not only over two million innocent Palestinian Civilians but also over 130 hostages still held hamas, including americans. Earlier this week i met with some of the families of israeli hostages whose loved ones w sti held captive. As well as one brave woman who was held hostage and released during the pause. Every day that they are separated from their loved ones, not knowing what will happen to them next, is a day of unimaginable mental anguish and torment. Thats why we must prioritize the release of the hostages and end the suffering of Palestinian Civilians. And the only way for do that is to an immediate ceasefire and release all of the remaining hostages. That must happen. But until itt do everything in our power to protect innocent civilians and end the humanitarian disaster in gaza. Today four out of five of the hung rest people on hungriest people on earth are in gaza. Hundreds of them are on the verge of starvation and over 23 children have crossed that grizzly thresho died of starvation. Cindy mccain, the director of the World Food Programme has warned of an many are having their limbs amp indicated withoutage these ya. Humanitarian officials are seeing the spike in the spread of various preventable diseases, like die radio ya among children. ■ mr. President , two weeks ago the world got a glimpse of a horrible scene. Over 100 starving palestinians were killed asheyy] reached for food from trucks. In the aftermath of that horrible event, President Biden has ordered airdrops of foo supplies. I support that decision because when people are starving, every parcel of food counts. But are just a drop in the ocean of need. So i was also glad to see the president order the building of a temporary help deliver more aid by ship. But that port will likely not be ready for at least 60 days and even then, it will not be sufficient to meet the humanitarian need. All of these extraordina■ry efforts to deliver aid by air, by sea are being undertaken when we know that during the prewar period when there was already a near blockade of gaza, about 500 trucks still crossed daily through the karem shalom crossing in gaza. Those 500 trucks crossed every day when the need was far less acute than it is right now. So the obvious question is why, why in the world should we have to resort to these extraordinary and more expensive means to deliver insufficient amounts of food and aid by air and sea standpoint start answer is because this is a man made disaster. The starvation in gaza is not the result of food by drought o natural disasters that we see in many parts of the world. This has been caused primarily because the netanyahu government has used a series of tactics to restrict the amount of aid entering into gaza. Anyone with eyesee or ears to hear knows that. Members of the netanyahu government have made no secret of their intentions. In october after the war began, it was said so long not release the only thing that should enter gaza is hundreds of tons of air explosives, not one ounce of humanitarian aid. He uses power of his finance minister to block thehipment th Million People for a month in gaza. The shipment was finally released two days ago after having been blocked for all whi were starving. And at one point Prime Minister netanyahu said his government was allowing just the, quote, minimum amount needed, and that was at a time when he and others denied there was even a humanitarian gaza, denied that there was a scarcity of food in gaza, denied that there was hunger in gaza. Mr. President , this is why President Biden has called out these restrictions and he said dress that, quote, humanitarian assistance cannot be a secondary consideration or a bargaining chip, unquote. Tha administration is going to, quote, insist that israel facilitate more trucks and more routes to get more and more people to help the help they need, no excuses, unquote. Her than five weeks ago, 25 senators sent a letter to pres the netanyahu government to implement five specific actions to significantly increase the amount of humanitarian aidgaza. To date none of them have been fully implemented. That is why many of us have called on President Biden to immediately invoke implement the humanitarian awed quarterses act and now that nsm, National Security memorandum 20 is in place which is based on an amendment that 19 of us proposed to the National Security act,t is essential, essential that the Biden Administration enforce its terms to get humanitarian aid delivered where it to go. When people are starving, patience is not a needs to be s president , that getting humanitarian aid into gaza is only half the battle. And the more dangerous half is distributing aid once it is inside gaza. It doesnt you cant safely transport the food to the people who are starving. In other words, you need a safe distribution food for Distribution System for aid inside gaza. Now, the organization that is the primary distributor of assistance within gaza has been an entity called the United Nations relief works agency, or known by its shorthand, unrwa. Americans may have not heard ab say a little bit about why unrwa exists and what it does. In gaza and elsewhere. But before i do that, i want to jump to why this is a pressing issue right now. The future of unrwa is an urgent matter right nowecau Prime Minister netanyahu and his extreme rightwing allies want to get rid of it, not just in gaza butbu everywhere that it operates. And guess what . Prime minister netanyahu and folksn in his government have wanted to abolish unrwa not just since a 2017. Being in in fact, in■3 2018, Prime Minister netanyahu actually changed official israeli policy with respect to unrwa saying that they funding even at a time that his Security Team warned that it could create instabilities throughout the region if that happened. And now, mr. President , we have members republican members of the house and the senate who are jumping on this bandwagon and saying they want to abolish unrwa. And how dohe by inserting a provision in the state foreign operations and related programs appropriations bill,ch is being considered and debated right now as we gather here, to cut off all u. S. Funding for unrwa. Thats what they want to do. So, mr. President , lets go back to why unrwa was created in the first place. In 1949, a year after the establishment of the state of israel, United Nations formed a new agency to provide Vital Services for over 700,000 refugees displaced. Back then the idea was that unrwa would provide services to palestinian■h refugees until a just and durable solution to their plight was found. As we know all too 73 years have passed without a resolution to that conflict, which is why unrwas Mission Remains essential. Among other services unrwa provides schools and prima serv refugees and their descendants in jordan, lebanon, syria, the west bank and in gaza. Mr. President , i hope we all agree that the Palestinian People deserve to live in dignity, and the way to dot is to ensure that they also have selfdetermination in a homeland of their own, just like every israeli i. G. Dignity and selfdetermination in the state of israel. Prime minister and i and many others believe that the only viable longterm solution to this conflict is a twostate solution. And President Biden has put that idea forward as the best way to create sunlight at the end of this very dark tunnel. Unrwa wasded to be a bridge until such a resolution was reached. Now, Prime Minister netanyahu has stated very clearly that hes opposed to a state solution. He was opposed to the oslo accords, and he has been a severe opponent of the twostate solution. And, as i said earlier, he also wants to eliminate unrwa, which today is an organization of over 300,000 employees providing services to palestinians in three countries and, as i said, also in the west bank and gaza. 13,000 of those 30,000 unrwa staff operate inaza, many of them as teachers. Since the war started with the brutal maam attacks on hamas attacks, schedules have shut down and as a United Nations agency it has deployed its resources to supply humanitarian relief to the civilian population there. It is the main vehicle forstrib assistance in gaza. It wont do any good to get humanitarian assistance into gaza if you dismantle the u. N. Organization principally responsible for delivering that aid to people in gaza. This morning i met with chef jose andres, and i applaud him for his efforts and the efforts of the world central kitchen around the world, including in israel and in gaza. He said, and i quote, support for unrwa is vital. If you want to feed people, you need to support unrwa. We may have a temporary port, but when the ship gets to the port, someone has transfer that food and other assistance from the ship to the people who need it in gaza. And unrwa is the principaltd districter of assistance distributor of assistance, and you talk to the World Food Programme and others, and they say they cannot replace that capacity that unrwa has. Now, plop, in late january, the netanyahu government allegedtha employees participated in the horrific october attacks against israel. These are, of course, very serious allegations, and unrwa has taken them seriously. All agree that any individuals involved in that horror must be held accountable, and even though the netanyahu government has not provided unrwa with the underlying evidence, unrwa immediately fired the alleged perpetrators. The u. N. Secretarygeneral also took swift action and announced the launch of a fullindependent by the u. N. s highest investigative body, into the allegations. And that is ongoing. At the same time, President Biden suspended all u. S. Contributions to unrwa, pending the outcome of that investigation. A number of other countries followed suit,s did the e. U. But, mr. President , since then two things have changed. First, has not shared the underlying evidence with unrwa, nor, as reported by has it shared the evidence with the United States. In fact, i urge every one of my Senate Colleagues to read the classified report prepared by the dni, and i especially urge my colleagues to read the intelligence assessments about the many other claims the netanyahu government has made against unrwa. And there have been many. Im sure that many of my completion are unaware of the fact that unrwa has long provided both israel and the United States with the names and identities of all its employees for full review and vetting. Now, israel of course has far more extensive intelligence capabilities than unrwa, but apparently they have never previously raised complaints about any of the unrwa employees on the second, mr. President , the e. U. And many countries that initially suspended their Financial Support for unrwa have since restored their contributions because they have acknowledged the didesperation gaza and the irreplaceable nature of unrwa. In fact, even prior to these allegations, unrwa had asked the u. N. Secretarygeneral to convene an independent review group to assess whether unrwa is doing everything in its power to ensure neutrality. So again, unrwa in gaza is an organization with a 13,000 people. It is delivering essential lifesustaining food and aid to over two Million People. What t e. U. And these other countries recognize is that it is inhumane to cut off assistance to 2 Million People because of the atrocious alleged acts of 14. Punish the 14. Dont punish two million innocent gazans. And that is why i believe that President Biden should restore this assistance now. Now, mr. President , the no