Of midco supports cspan as a public service, along with these other television providers, giving you a front row seat to democracy. We take you live this morning to the u. S. Senate where today lawmakers will be working on a pair of judicial nominations. Today the chamber may also take up a measure that would repeal some of the Energy Departments efficiency standards for gas furnaces. Live coverage of the u. S. Senate here on cspan2. The presiding officer the senate will come to order. Our chaplain, the reverend dr. Barry black, will open the senate in prayer. The chaplain let us pray. Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Today, give special energy, insight and patience to the members of this body. Strengthen them against relentless pressures from constituents, lobbyists, and special interests, as you give them wisdom to resolve their differences without rancor or bitterness. Lead them in the way of compromise that doesnt sacrifice principle or selfrespect and that preserves timeless values which serve the common good. May their consistent communion with you radiate on their faces, be expressed in their character, and be exuded in positive joy. Lord, fill this chamber with your spirit and our senators with your strength, courage, and peace. We pray in your gracious name. Amen. The presiding officer please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance to the 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, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. The presiding officer the clerk will read a communication to the senate. The clerk washington d. C. , may 21, 2024. To the senate under the provisions of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable raphael g. Warnock, a senator from the state of georgia, 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. Mr. Schumer mr. President. The presiding officer the majority leader. Mr. Schumer i move to proceed to calendar number 397, s. 4361. The presiding officer the clerk will report. The clerk motion to proceed to calendar number 397, s. 4361, a bill making emergency supplemental appropriations for Border Security and combatting fentanyl for the fiscal year ending september 30, 2024, and for other purposes. Mr. Schumer i send a cloture motion to the desk. The presiding officer the clerk will report. The clerk the clerk cloture motion, we, the undersigned senators do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the mogs to proceed to calendar number 397, s. 4361, a bill making emergency supplemental appropriations for Border Security and combatting fentanyl for the fiscal year ending september 30, 2024, and for other purposes signed by 18 senators as follows. Mr. Schumer i ask consent the reading of the names be waived. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Schumer mr. President , i understand that there is a bill at the desk that is due for a second reading. The presiding officer the clerk will read the title of the bill for the second time. The clerk h. R. 8369, an act to provide for the expeditious delivery of defense articles and Defense Services for israel and other matters. Mr. Schumer in order to place the bill on the calendar under the provisions of rule 14, i would object to further proceeding. The presiding officer objection having been heard, the bill will be placed on the calendar. Mr. Schumer thank you, mr. President. Now, mr. President , for years our republican colleagues have insisted that the only real Term Solution to fixing the southern border was for congress to pass legislation. We democrats agree. Congress must act. We need to fix the border and reform immigration, to make it fair and more humane. This week republicans will have an opportunity to join us in taking action. A few moments ago, i filed cloture on the motion to proceed to the bipartisan border act, the same bill negotiated three months ago by the Bipartisan Group of senators murphy, sinema, and lankford. The senate will vote on this bipartisan border bill on thursday. Last night the president called both leader mcconnell and speaker johnson and urged them to go forward with our bill. All those who say we need to act on the border will get a chance this week to show theyre serious about fixing the problem. Unlike h. R. 2, the bipartisan border act was written explicitly to win support from both parties with input, significant input from both sides. The border act is an exercise in legislating. H. R. 2 is not. When republicans pushed h. R. 2, it couldnt even get a single democratic vote here in the senate, much less all Senate Republicans for that matter. That was not a serious bill but what were voting on this week is serious. It is the same bipartisan bill both sides negotiated for months last winter. Its the same bill endorsed by the National Border patrol council, a very conservative group. By the chamber of commerce and by the very conservative wall street journal editorial page. By any objective measure, it is strong and realistic and most importantly a bipartisan proposal. If our bipartisan bill was good enough to win the support of the union that represents border agents, why isnt it good enough for Senate Republicans . Our Senate Republican are Senate Republicans saying they know better than our anxieties patrolling the border . I hope thats not true. I hope our republican colleagues are ready to join us. I will be clear, we dont expect every democrat or every republican to come out in favor of this bill. Thats why as i have said before the only way to pass this bill or any border bill is with broad bipartisan support. If you go by what republicans said over the last few months, youd think theyd leap at an opportunity like the one we have right now. In the words of speaker johnson, the time to act on the border is yesterday. In the words of my colleague from texas, it makes no sense to me for us to do nothing when we might be able to make things better. And in the words of my colleague from south carolina, to those who think that a President Trump wins we can get a better deal, we wont. And he added, this moment will pass. Do not let it pass, unquote. Well, i wholeheartedly would agree. We should not let this moment pass. Border legislation is just about the hardest thing congress ever wrestles with. Bipartisan border bills are rare opportunities here in congress. Thats precisely why we have it in front of us this week. I urge everyone not to let the politics get in the way. Now, on abortion. Shortly i will join senators murray, baldwin, kelly, and some of the nations leading reproductive rights advocates to highlight the terrible consequences of repealing the protections of roe v. Wade. The Maga Supreme Court repealed roe nearly two years ago. It will go down as one of the worst if not the worst Supreme Court decisions of modern american history. In one fell swoop, maga radicals on the court made it so that our children and grandchildren will sadly grow up with fewer Civil Liberties than those who came before them. Repealing roe was tragic, alarming, it was outrageous but it didnt happen in a vacuum. It happened because Senate Republicans packed our courts with hardright judges, plucked right out of the federal society Federalist Society checklist. It happened because donald trump appointed not one, not two, but three magna justices, all who voted to overturn roe. Remember what donald trump said a few weeks ago. He was, quote, proud, unquote, to be the person who paved the way to overturn roe. And after roe was eradicated, maga radicals opened the floodgates for draconian and cool bands on womens choice across america. And we know this is just the beginning. Does anyone seriously doubt that should trump become president again he wont try to add even more extreme jurists to the bench so he can continue his assault on womens reproductive freedoms . Of course he will and the republican senators are likely unfortunately to go along. If donald trump and maga republicans get into power, the hard right would not rest until a National Abortion ban becomes the law of the land. Mark my words. That is the direction that they will take america in. House republicans already included the National Abortion ban in their recent republican study budget. Republican, the Republican Study Committee includes a majority of House Republicans and their leadership. Roe may be gone but sadly the hard rites obsession with eliminating reproductive rights is not. Make no mistake, republicans will have to answer for their antiabortion records today, tomorrow, and at the ballot box in november. On guns, two years ago seriousminded democrats and seriousminded republicans came together to pass the most significant bipartisan gun safety bill in 30 years. We passed new we passed several new commonsense rules in our gun safety bill, including rules closing dangerous loopholes on background checks, and i salute so many of my colleagues led by chris murphy and Kyrsten Sinema who helped make this happen. Yesterday those rules on background checks were supposed to into into effect but sadly maga extreme incompetentses extreme ibss had other plans. Instead they exploited our Justice System and put our background check reforms on ice. How did they do it . By taking their case to their favorite judge in the country in the Northern District of texas to rubber stamp a nationwide injunction. The decision out of texas is terrible for america for two reasons. First, the decision out of texas is another consequence of judge shopping, a deeply unfair practice which jaundices the whole fairness and support a judicial system has, where radicals, rightwing maga radicals all but guarantee a favorable outcome by going to a judge of their choice often in jurisdictions where there is only one sitting judge in that local division, guaranteeing a favorable audience and guaranteeing a favorable outcome. No one had any doubt when these rightwing antigun safety groups went to this one judge, the very same judge who knocked out mifepristone. No one had any doubt what decision they would receive. Judge shopping jaundices our legal system like few other abuses do. Ive introduced a bill to rein in judge shopping and i hope both sides can Work Together on this legislation to restore fairness to the judicial system. If not, were going to see injustice after injustice, a slanted judicial system leaning in favor of hardright radicals imposing its will on the rest of the nation and the courts will have less and less respect because of it. I urge the judicial conference, they agreed judge shopping is bad but theyre doing nothing to implement it. They should. But second, maybe even worse the decision out of texas means maga radicals have temporarily succeeded in blocking commonsense gun Safety Measures and making our communities less safe. There were outrages in uvalde, in buffalo, and finally the congress in a bipartisan way acted the strong est gun safety laws in decades. And now people are less safe. Less safe. Because people who shouldnt have guns, young people are getting them. Closing loopholes on background checks help keep guns out of the hands of people who shouldnt have them, keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of dangerous people should be something both sides can agree on. But maga sadly maga republicans and the rightwing gun lobby thinks the opposite and with Forum Shopping they can almost automatically get their way, at least in the district courts. On the pact act, this is some good news. Today President Biden will announce some very good news. Its very good news for our nations veterans. The Biden Administration has now approved over one million claims from over 180,000 veterans still suffering from burn pit exposure thanks to our pact act. When we passed the pact act two years ago it was the most significant expansion in Veterans Health care in generations. Is sent a message to those sunk from burn pits, that were here for you. Im glad the pact act is delivering in helping veterans to get the care and benefits they deserved. Like the gun bill i mentioned, like the ira and chips and science bill, it reminds us, when democrats led in the house, led in the senate, around had the presidency, we got so much done for the American People. The farm bill later this week, House Republicans on the House Committee on agriculture intend to mark up their version of the farm bill that i believe falls terribly short. The farm bill is one of the most important pieces of legislation that Congress Works on, with consequences that affect tens of millions of americans and a broad range of interests, from farmers, both big and small, to nutrition advocates, to climate champions and Rural Development advocates who rebuild local economies and create jobs, lots of jobs, in rural america. Some of these Agriculture Programs have helped rural parts of upstate new york, over and over again. A good farm bill represents all of the interests i just mentioned. So passing a farm bill has always been, and must be, bipartisan, but once again, the magaright House Republicans are taking with their farm bill breaks sorry. But the path House Republicans, the magaright republicans are taking with their farm bill breaks with the bipartisan tradition, which has always enshrined the ag bill, a purely partisan bill that departs from longstanding spirit of bipartisan cooperation, unfortunately will not have a future in the senate. I yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call the clerk ms. Baldwin. Recap for this body, starting last october a group of us sat down to have a serious conversation about border. Senator from connecticut, chris murphy we had independent senator Kyrsten Sinema from arizona, a conservative senator from oklahoma. We all understood the problem is serious and there are very real threats or national security, our economy. It was spiraling out of control at the border. October is heisman ever in history of our country. November was a highest number ever in the history of our country. December was the highest number ever in his ever country with the largest they of illegal crossings in history of our country in december of 12,000 people in a single day. Things are spiraling out of control at the border and they continue. So we sat down in a series conversation and said with differences of how to be able to resolve this but we all want to be able to fix this, so we spent months trying to be able to hammer out a resolution. This is serious dialogue that we hope to go to get to conclusion. But we failed to do that. We created a bill that i felt like was a great bill with Common Ground in it. It didnt have everything i wanted in it, but it did have the essentials in it to be able to change way we do a a silo,o be able to change a processing. Literally took it from the very first person they crossed the border each day would be detained, quickly screened and then deported. The very first person. If we had a flood of caravan up to 5000 people cross the day we cant control that so in that situation instead of detaining quickly screening and deporting we would detained and deported because there was no time to do the screening were not going to release people in. We were going to turn people around. They change the structure dramatically from 07 on the border. I felt like this was a good bill to be able to move forward. At a moving good faith to be able to get that done. But its also well known here that i had disagreements are some of the my own party, the majority within my own party. That said, this is not the time to be able to resolve this. It is what it is. Its the political nature of whats going on right now. I understand that. But the problem is still unresolved. Yesterday we had 5500 people that illegally cross the border yesterday. Yesterday. Last month when 174,000 people that illegally crossed our border last month that wouldve been the highest month ever effectively been nice but in the past 20 years if it wasnt for the last three years under the Biden Administration. It wouldve been hiding a month under president obama, under president bush come under President Trump, hiding any of those months but it doesnt be given the record recordsn set in the previous months before under the bryden administration because their dramatic change in policy. We have had one and half Million People not illegally cross the border this fiscal year, one and a half Million People. And they continue to be able to come across our border with almost no restraint. Ive set for a long time this s a serious issue that we need to address. My own party has said this was not the time to be able to do that. Now im hearing rumors that next week, the folks i was sitting down with to be able to have serious dialogue to fix it, may bring bills back up again and to say lets do a political thing on the other side of the aisle. Listen, if are going to solve the border issues, its not going to be by doing competing messaging bills. If are going to solve this, lets sit down like adults and lets figure out how were g