>>5078166

Wednesday Feb 6 in Congress

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Senate

Senator Grassley was the President pro tempore.

Second reading:

S 340 A bill to promote competition in the market for drugs and biological products by facilitating the timely entry of lower-cost generic and biosimilar versions of those drugs and biological products.

Arms Sale to India, $190 million (S908)

Notification to Congress required by the Arms Export Control Act.

Missile countermeasures and electronic warfare for aircraft.

Some of the bills introduced:

S. 350. A bill to restore the application of the Federal antitrust laws to the business of health insurance to protect competition and consumers."

S. 351. A bill to prohibit Federal funding of State firearm ownership databases, and for other purposes.

S. 357. A bill to require annual reports on religious intolerance in Saudi Arabian educational materials.

S. 363. A bill to establish an Intercountry Adoption Advisory Committee, and for other purposes.

Excerpts from speeches:

Rep Rouda, CA (p H 1365)

Response to State of the Union Address: "It has been his cynical and sinister political strategy to divide our country and burn bridges among us. The State of the Union is a platform for the President to inject urgency into the problems the country faces.

The President also raised the specter of declaring a national emergency to build a monument to his ego but the real national emergency is the looming climate crisis. As seas rise, fires burn, and the weather becomes more extreme … denial of climate change altogether."

Rep Thompson of Pennsylvania (p H 1365)

Highlights from President Trump's State of the Union Address: "last night we heard a tremendous State of the Union Address from President Trump that expressed confidence and hope for the future of this great Nation."

"We can work together for the common good to improve our outdated infrastructure; to protect American workers; to provide a check against the high cost of healthcare, prescription drugs; to secure our borders; and, yes, to fix our broken immigration system."

"Republicans and Democrats in this Chamber sang ‘‘Happy Birthday’’ to Holocaust survivor, Judah Samet Mr. Samet narrowly avoided the mass killing at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. Last night, he turned 81 years old. Mr. Speaker, I have witnessed many State of the Union Addresses, but that is a moment I will truly never forget."

Rep LaMalfa, CA (p 1366)

State of the Union Celebrated What is Great About America: "The President laid out a plan that he wants to work with this Congress to get to a resolution on that, not an executive order. But in the time since we came up with this temporary solution here for 3 weeks, the negotiations from that side of the aisle have been zip."

"The crisis doesn’t lie in the religion of climate change. The crisis lies in us doing whatever we can to protect our citizens at the border, from the crushing national debt, and from the threatened export of our jobs that we should be employing our own people here."

"those camps where the Germans held the Jewish people and executed so many of them and abused so many more."

>>5078254

Wednesday Feb 6 in Congress

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Rep Norton, DC (p 1371)

Sponsoring HR 866: "The benefits of breastfeeding are well-documented. Breast milk contains antibodies and hormones that boost babies’ immune systems. Studies have shown lower risks of asthma, diabetes, respiratory infections, and other diseases among breastfed babies."

Rep Levin, CA (H 1379)

The True State of Our Union: "last night we heard from a President who is clearly out of touch with the true state of our union. His rhetoric of compromise failed to meet the reality of the highly divisive policies he offered.

The President failed to acknowledge that his tax scam has unfairly benefited big corporations, CEOs, and the wealthiest Americans at the expense of working people."

"…middle class families."

"…ripped away protections for those with preexisting conditions."

"…harmful rhetoric toward immigrants and declined to acknowledge that his anti-immigrant agenda has torn families apart, put kids in cages, and turned away those seeking asylum and safety."

Rep LaMalfa, CA (H1380)

Congratulating the President on the State of the Union Address: "Under the 2 years of this administra-

tion, the economy has consistently added jobs at record rates while simultaneously growing wages."

"We have a limited window of time with our current 3-week agreement, and what with more caravan hordes amassing below our southern border, we need to take action."

Rep Espaillat, NY (H1380)

NEED FOR COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION REFORM: "I have the privilege of serving as the whip of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus…"

"This Congress, we celebrate the largest class of Latino Members of Congress in the history of the United States of America."

"By all accounts, President Trump has made immigrants demons. He has demonized immigrants especially undocumented immigrants, as a central theme of his presidency, and last night was, by no means, any exception.

As a former undocumented immigrant myself, I see it as my mission to counter the many lies coming from the White House pertaining to immigrants."

"…the Trump administration’s hateful and heartless zero tolerance policy."

"We will start with my favorite, myth number one: immigrants are violent criminals—false. In fact, all immigrants, documented or undocumented, actually commit far less crime, lower rates of crime than any native-born Americans or any naturalized Americans…

As you can see, this chart, published by the Cato Institute…"

"Myth number two: the number of undocumented immigrants is growing due to a porous southern border and people are flowing in—again, false."

"Finally, myth number three: there is a crisis at our southern border—again, false.

As you can see right here in this chart, Madam Speaker, the data shows border crossings are at a historic low."

"First and foremost, we must protect Dreamers. Dreamers are young people who came here at a very young age…"

"Next, we must protect recipients of temporary protected status, TPS. The countries TPS recipients came here from are still dealing with extraordinary crises…"

"Next, we have to address family separation and the need to improve family reunification. President Trump angrily refers to this as chain migration. We call it family unification…"

"Finally, any reforms we make must reduce the outrageous backlog in processing applications for legal status."

>>5078278

Wednesday Feb 6 in Congress

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Senator McConnell:

State of the Union Message: "some of these accomplishments were delivered by Republicans alone, but the lion’s share of them were bicameral and bi-partisan…"

"So even though I know our Democratic colleagues’ first instinct these days is to reflexively criticize anything President Trump says or does, I hope they took some pride in the strong state of our Union which the President described."

"As the President put it, 'cooperation, compromise, and the common good.' "

"The next deadline for appropriations will arrive in a little over a week, and Members in both Chambers will need to prove we can move past making points and start actually making a difference."

"Another challenge the President mentioned is the ongoing obstruction of his nominations to the executive branch and the Federal courts. He was absolutely right about that. To a historic degree, Senate Democrats have slow-walked well-qualified nominees, gumming up committee consideration and burning weeks of valuable time on the floor. As I have said time and again, this mindless obstruction is unacceptable."

"He offered us a powerful reminder that America’s strength and goodness are inextricably linked with our commitment to individual liberty and free enterprise and that we can never allow the United States of America to dim our light by sliding into the failures of socialism. Socialism has failed everywhere it has been tried, and we are not going to try it in this country. We need to do right now what we need to in order to move forward together."

"The American people will be watching us."

Senator Schumer (S876)

STATE OF THE UNION MESSAGE: "President Trump squandered the opportunity with a forgettable and oftentimes, incoherent speech."

"How about this one? This one made everybody’s eyes roll, even on the Republican side. He said if he weren’t elected President, we would be in a war with North Korea—what hyperbole. It is not just hyperbole—what untruth, what selective memory. President Trump began his time in office by precipitously ramping up tensions with North Korea. They were much lower under President Obama than they were with President Trump."

"We Democrats would love to compromise with the President and come up with some things that would advance the causes of working families in America."

"He talked about the future of America and didn’t even mention climate change. How could you do that? Every scientist who has studied it knows that in the next 10, 20, 30, or 40 years, climate change is going to evoke huge changes in our country and in our world. If you believe in the future and you want to have a good future for our children and grandchildren, which we all do, you can’t ignore climate change. You may have different views on it, but you can’t ignore it."

"Why do so many Americans not have faith in the future?"

"Then, of course, on the wall, he demanded that Congress fund his wall but showed no signs of remorse over the pointless Trump government shutdown that he precipitated."

"There was no plan to tackle our opioid problem. There was no plan to increase wages for the middle class. There was no plan to increase manufacturing jobs."

"On the economy, on healthcare, on governance, and on foreign policy, it is abundantly clear that the Trump administration has been getting failing grades from the American people."

"Failing the middle class."

"Failing American families."

"Chaos."

"blame somebody else for the problems he creates"

"Inside out. Inside out."

"it was criticism for our NATO allies. That says it all."

>>5078285

Wednesday Feb 6 in Congress

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Senator Sullivan (S877)

[This speech is content rich, these excerpts cut a lot out]

CHINA: "You may have seen, for example, that Vice President Pence gave a speech at the Hudson Institute a couple of months ago. For anyone in America interested in U.S.-China relations, I commend that speech to you. It was an outstanding speech. In my view, it was probably the most important speech on U.S.-China relations since a former Deputy Secretary of State, Bob Zoellick, gave the speech called the Responsible Stakeholder Speech."

"I have had a number of discussions with Ambassador Lighthizer, Larry Kudlow, who is the NEC chairman at the White House, Secretary Mnuchin, the Vice President, and the President on this topic."

"Structural changes to the way in which they run their economy, to the way in which they treat other countries are critical."

"First, China, for decades now, has required American companies that invest in China to essentially transfer their technology in exchange for access to their market. No other country in the world does that. China says they don’t do it. They do it. They need to stop that. It is against WTO rules.

Secondly, I am going to talk more in detail about how China consistently steals intellectual property from American and other countries’ companies around the world.

Third, they heavily subsidize their state-owned enterprises, which gives them an unfair competitive advantage against our companies and impacts negatively our workers and our families."

" 'promise fatigue' … We need assurances from the Chinese that will ultimately be fulfilled that an agreement that is reached at the end by this administration can be enforced. Why is that so important? As I mentioned, these kinds of negotiations have been going on for years. The Obama administration Bush administration, Clinton administration, all in good faith, have tried to get China to commit to commitments they have already made and hold to them…"

"Third, we need to make sure China commits to end its global corrupt practices. What do I mean by that? Predatory Chinese infrastructure financing and bribery of foreign officials are trapping countries around the world in debt and marginalizing outside competition by foreign investors."

"This is essentially official policy in China to bribe and pay off officials in other countries to help their companies, which are often state-owned and compete against other companies…

If the U.S. companies do this, their leaders can go to jail for violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. China has no such prohibitions. To the contrary, they do it as part of official state policy."

"Whatever agreement we have with regard to the Chinese on this issue also needs to include addressing this challenge globally of foreign corrupt practices."

"All of the issues I just talked about—promise fatigue, industrial cyber theft, intellectual property theft—aren’t just issues the United States is dealing with."

"one of the most strategic, important advantages we have is our system of alliances…There are many countries in Asia—many countries in Asia—that want a closer relationship with the United States because of the rise of China."

>>5078288

Wednesday Feb 6 in Congress

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Senator Merkley (S880)

CLIMATE CHANGE: "Franklin Roosevelt called for 'a new deal for the American people.' He said … we must 'highly resolve to resume the country’s uninterrupted march along the path of real progress, of real justice, [and] of real equality.’' "

"climate chaos"

"This time, it must be a Green New Deal—a Green New Deal that not only transitions America to an energy economy that is powered by 100-percent noncarbon, clean, renewable energy, but a Green New Deal that creates millions of good, living-wage jobs in the process and continues our Nation’s march along the path of real progress, real justice, and real equality."

"core principles"

"The first is an energy shift that utilizes today’s technology and utilizes and improves our electric grid and our transportation system from ones powered by fossil fuels to ones powered by renewable energy. A key principle of the Green New Deal is that of an energy shift to solar and offshore wind, wave energy tidal energy, and geothermal energy."

"The cost of noncarbon, nonfossil fuel energy has dropped. It has fallen about 90 percent over the last decade."

"The second core principle of the Green New Deal is to create millions of jobs. Our President likes to talk about jobs, and we need his help in actually creating jobs by renovating our energy economy, by investing in these technologies, and by advancing these technologies. It is so we are selling them to the world rather than buying them from the world."

"The third big principle is that no one gets left behind in this revolution. It ensures that all Americans have the benefits of the new green economy and that the hard-working Americans who are in the fossil fuel industry…have the opportunity for jobs in the future."

"Right now, renewable industries are booming. Jobs in solar and wind are growing 12 times faster than is the rest of the economy. Over 3 million Americans now work in renewable energy and energy efficiency, outnumbering fossil fuels 3 to 1. This is the future of jobs in the United States of America. This is the future of good-paying jobs in the United States of America."

"Those are the three core principles of this vision. They are the three core principles that will take us forward quickly and productively and will put us in the economic lead of the world. It is a lead we are losing as we stumble—trapped by fossil fuel special interest money and its control of Congress.

There are those who say this vision is too bold, that this vision is too far-reaching, but let us think of what Robert Kennedy once said: 'Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.'

For the sake of our planet and our Nation and our families and the 'we the people' vision of our government, let us dare, and let us dare greatly."

>>5078299

Wednesday Feb 6 in Congress

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Senator Van Hollen (p S914)

S1: "I come to the Senate floor today with a sense of great disappointment, disappointment in what my colleague, the senior Senator from Florida and the Republican leader have done with the bill that was before us. … tried to turn it into a political weapon."

"our friend and ally, Israel"

"it contains language that could require the perpetual presence of American forces in Afghanistan and Syria."

"provides Israel with $38 billion in security assistance over the next 10 years. This includes $33 billion in foreign military financing funds to Israel and $5 billion in missile defense assistance for the Iron Dome David’s Sling, and the Arrow–3.

That is a lot of money when you consider the many priorities we have here at home and abroad. In fact more than one-half of our entire global foreign military financing, the security assistance we provide to all of our partners and allies around the world, goes to Israel."

"our friend and democratic ally Israel"

"Specifically, the Senator from Florida added a provision that encourages States throughout the country to pass laws to punish American citizens who choose to protest the settlement policies of the government of Prime Minister Netanyahu by either boycotting products made in Israeli settlements in the West Bank or by not otherwise engaging in commerce with such settlements."

"I will fiercely defend the constitutional right of anything American citizen to express his or her views in such a peaceful way if they so choose."

"Let me read some of the relevant parts. A state may adopt and enforce measures . . . to restrict contracting by the state for goods and services with—any entity that . . . knowingly engages in

. . . boycott activity . . . intended to limit commercial relations with Israel or persons doing business in Israel or Israeli-controlled territories for purposes of imposing policy positions on, the Government of Israel."

"It encourages States to pass laws to deny their citizens the right to bid on any State contracts unless those citizens sign an oath stating that they do not or will not engage in any boycott of Israel…"

"Does that sound unconstitutional? Of course, it is unconstitutional. And, guess what? That is what two Federal courts have already concluded about State laws that already do what Senator Rubio’s bill is proposing."

"Here is what Senator Rubio tweeted out:

'Opposition to our bill isn’t about free speech.

Companies are FREE to boycott Israel. But state and local governments should be FREE to end contracts with companies that do.' "

"I predict that the boycott movement will continue to grow for a number of reasons. At the top of that list is the fact that the Trump administration’s actions and inaction are adding oxygen to the boycott movement.

To start, There has been a big jump in the number of tenders and settlement plans since President Trump took office. In fact, our Ambassador there, Ambassador Freidman, has been a vocal cheerleader for additional settlements in new areas. In doing so, the Trump administration has abandoned what had been a long-held bipartisan position of the U.S. Government."

"Second, the Trump administration, under the guidance of the President’s designated Middle East senior adviser, his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, has embarked on undisguised effort to crush the Palestinians by revoking all U.S. humanitarian assistance."

"Finally, to the Senator from Florida and others, nothing, will motivate Americans to exercise their rights more that efforts to suppress them."

"…our friend and ally Israel."

"We have a President who conducts foreign policy by tweet and champions the views of brutal dictators like Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un, above that of his own top intelligence officials."