Congressional Record, Senate, December 19, 2020 — Coronavirus Relief and Lending Facilities

Summary

Senate page of the Congressional Record dated December 19, 2020, with remarks on coronavirus relief. Blackburn states that Democrats blocked Republican proposals, and Blackburn refers to the HEALS Act proposal, the Heroes Act, PPP funding and unemployment insurance. Other remarks on lending facilities say markets were again functioning and credit was flowing within days or weeks. The page also prints a cloture motion on the nomination of John Chase Johnson, of Oklahoma, to be Inspector General, Federal Communications Commission.

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“Congressional Record, Senate, December 19, 2020 — Coronavirus Relief and Lending Facilities.” Original at www.govinfo.gov. Archived at Pandemic Darlings, https://pandemicdarlings.com/source-documents/crec-crec-2020-12-19-crec-2020-12-19-pt1-pgs7838-ad40acb543/, SHA-256 ae58a7c0aee25e57d63c8ca5e2f04e54e2e929e8663acf7bbf349c70566618e3.

Full text

S7838 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE December 19, 2020
away far too soon fighting for his fel- I honestly have decided that my another round of funding for small
low workers. His widow, Rita, has be- friends across the aisle must not be businesses, support for schools, and
come my friend. She has continued this paying very much attention to what is more money for COVID–19 testing.
fight. She has become a leader and an going on back home because the people Think about this. Time and again,
inspiration to so many of us. back home in Tennessee are very frus- they say: Oh, we have to have more
I brought her to the State of the trated with them. They seem out of PPP. We have to have more unemploy-
Union twice. She has made the trip touch. They seem to not care. They ment insurance. We have to have more
here over and over, along with so many don’t seem to be interested in taking money for vaccines. We have to have
workers and retirees. They travel all care of people with needs who have more money for testing. We have to
day and night on buses. They have ral- been adversely impacted by COVID. have more money for getting schools
lied in the bitter cold of the winter and They seem to be more interested in open. But they vote no. They have
in hot DC summers. Their government, taking care of themselves. turned their backs on the American
their majority leader, their President This year really did not have to end people repeatedly. They did it in July.
refuse to listen and turn their backs. this way. As I said, our friends across They did it in September. They did it
Rita once told me that retirees and the aisle could have addressed this in October. They have turned their
workers struggling with this crisis feel back in the summer. In July, the mi- backs.
like they are invisible. They feel like nority leader and his colleagues in the Think about what a plus-up of unem-
they are invisible. To far too many House immediately rejected our ployment insurance would have done
people in Washington, they are invis- HEALS Act proposal in favor of Speak- for a family had they decided to vote
ible. They are not invisible to me. They er PELOSI’s mega-trillion-dollar—$3 yes and worked with us in July. That
are not invisible to Speaker PELOSI or trillion—wish list that they had dubbed would have been a lot of money if they
Leader SCHUMER or Senator SMITH or the ‘‘Heroes Act.’’ You know, they al- had had that plus-up every single week
Senator PETERS or Chairman NEAL or ways give such nice sounding names to through August, September, October,
Chairman SCOTT—all of whom have things. Who could be against this? Yet November, and December.
joined with me on fighting for this— they rejected the HEALS Act proposal I mentioned the October 21 vote. One
and to so many colleagues who worked that was targeted-specific relief and day earlier, on October 20, the Demo-
for years now trying to find a bipar- went with the Heroes Act. crats had blocked Senate action to ex-
tisan solution. We won’t give up until It was a very partisan bill. It con- tend the PPP. That was for all of our
these retirees’ benefits are protected. tained provisions that had nothing to small businesses—and yes, indeed, they
It comes back to the dignity of work. do with COVID relief and that the are hurting. We are hearing from them
When work has dignity, we honor the House and Senate Democrats knew on the phone and through email. They
security—the retirement security— were going to be stumbling blocks. are begging for relief. The minority
that people earned—again, sitting Their bill was filled with things—noth- leader threw another possibility of
down at the bargaining table. Workers ing to do with taking care of people, compromise out the window by again
give up wages today to put money but, oh, they had it filled with poison insisting that the Democrats would ac-
aside, matched by employers, gen- pills. Why? They wanted to make cer- cept the full Heroes Act or nothing.
erally, for the future, for this retire- tain that relief didn’t come. They Isn’t that amazing? That is what small
ment. wanted to make certain that they businesses have gotten, is nothing, be-
They made the right decision back could run this out and get it past the cause my colleagues across the aisle
then, but we are not making the right election. Then we found out from have basically said: Give us everything
decision right now as their pensions Speaker PELOSI herself and from some we want, or we will just vote no. We
are in trouble. I urge my colleagues in of the other Democrats who are in will just leave people suffering.
this body—colleagues with healthcare leadership why they did this. Oh, poli- It is not the Republicans who have
and retirement plans paid for by tax- tics. It helped them with the election, voted no. The Republicans have con-
payers, all of us who are in this body— they thought. They used people as sistently tried to help people, and my
to think about these retired workers pawns. friends across the aisle are consistently
and the stress they are facing. That Heroes Act that they continue trying to help themselves and use peo-
Join us. Let’s pass a solution that to like to talk about would have under- ple as pawns.
honors their work. Let’s honor their mined State voter ID requirements and At the beginning of this month, the
work. Let’s honor the dignity of work. given the green light to some ballot minority leader took to the floor
Let’s keep our promise to them. harvesting schemes. Isn’t it inter- again. He rejected targeted relief
I suggest the absence of a quorum. esting? What are we talking about? again, and he demanded that the Re-
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The What are Tennesseans talking about so publicans come to the table. Well, we
clerk will call the roll. much? Yes, you got it—ballots, elec- have been at the table. They are the
The bill clerk proceeded to call the tions, some of the harvesting, some of ones who reject proposal after proposal
roll. the tricks. Those items they had in the and don’t want to move forward on
Mrs. BLACKBURN. Madam Presi- Heroes Act didn’t have anything to do things on which there is agreement.
dent, I ask unanimous consent that the with targeted relief, but do you know They want to hold out. They have not
order for the quorum call be rescinded. what? They were willing to play these been paying attention to what is going
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without games and to withhold that relief. on outside the four walls of this Cham-
objection, it is so ordered. Why? They thought it would help them ber. They continue to say: We have to
CORONAVIRUS in winning an election. have money to bail out cities and
Mrs. BLACKBURN. Madam Presi- That was all back in July. Then States. They call it aid to cities and
dent, isn’t it interesting? Here we are, comes September 10. The Democrats States, but they are bailouts for these
Christmas week, the weekend before again block the forward motion on an- big blue cities and States that were
Christmas, and we are talking about other targeted bill, throwing a proce- having problems long before lockdowns
needing targeted relief. Now, the dural hurdle in between the American came along and that have really made
Democrats have spent their year push- people and desperately needed relief. an uncomfortable spot for themselves
ing off targeted relief. They have had They got by with it in July, so Sep- because of having irresponsible spend-
their opportunities to tackle this issue. tember rolls along, and it is about time ing policies.
They have chosen not to tackle this for people to start getting ballots and I know that Tennesseans do not want
issue. They have chosen to play poli- mailing in ballots. What do they do? to see their tax dollars going to bail

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tics with this issue. So, on the Satur- They decide to mess with it again—to out people who have chosen to waste
day before Christmas, when we should play politics, to use people as pawns. their taxpayers’ dollars, and I can’t
be home and visiting with our fami- They lower the bar even further on help but wonder how much longer the
lies—I would love to be home with my October 21, throwing away $500 billion Democrats are going to allow indus-
children and grandchildren—here we in targeted relief. They all vote no in tries and small businesses and individ-
are. an attempt to tear our focus away from uals to twist in the wind because they

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December 19, 2020 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE S7839
feel like this is a great time to push content of a relief bill that I think we Governor came to Congress and said:
their socialist agenda and get us on have made a lot of progress on and I Look, we need some extraordinary, un-
that fast track. Oh, that is what they am hopeful that we can get finished. precedented new facilities that we can
would like to do. Many of our colleagues have been stand up very, very quickly, and we
We had a hearing this week in the down here and have reminded all of us, can use them to be a backstop, to re-
Commerce Committee and had some of quite rightly, of the terrible difficul- store confidence, and to enable private
the venues and the live entertainment ties that many Americans are facing. credit to start flowing again so that
industry come before us—the people We are not in a full-blown financial this economic recession that we are
who tend to the stages when the cur- crisis anymore, but we are experi- certainly going to go through—back in
tains go up, the people who are work- encing a lot of economic hardship that March it was clear that was going to
ing backstage. We heard from Michael tends to be concentrated in certain sec- happen, but it was not clear that we
Strickland, out of Knoxville, whose tors and industries, and we have a full- had to suffer through a financial crisis
company, Bandit Lites, helps these blown healthcare crisis. So it is a very, that would create a depression. That
shows look great. You have millions of very serious moment, and it demands a was something we thought maybe we
people who are in these support indus- response. can avoid.
tries. We heard from the motor coach I am hoping we can get that done as So these facilities were set up, as I
industry. We heard from some of these soon as possible, and I want to discuss say, to restore the normal functioning
smaller venues. They are totally shut one of the terms that I have advocated of private lending and private capital
down. They were totally shut down for in this legislation. The terms I have markets—not to replace those mar-
when the country went into lockdown. advocated for have been kets, not to pick winners and losers
They were the first to be totally mischaracterized, including by the and decide, well, who gets credit and
closed, and they are going to be the Senate minority leader and others, and who doesn’t depending on whether we
last to reopen. These are people, joined so I want to set the record straight on like their business, not to subsidize,
by small business retailers and res- what this is all about and why I think not to say: Well, look, you know, let’s
taurants, who can’t open their doors, this is so important. just give cut-rate loans to the people
and they are small business manufac- And to that, I think it is worth re- we like to give them to. None of that
turers who have to wait for the supply membering what brought us to this was the intention. None of that was the
chain to kick back up so that they can point. Back in March, when the purpose.
reopen their production lines. coronavirus was first ripping across The purpose was to ensure that cred-
And they are saying: We need the America and wreaking so much havoc, itworthy borrowers could access credit
help. They are asking us: Who is block- the response, in many, many places, through the normal channels. That was
ing it? Who is holding out? And we tell was a complete economic shutdown—a it. That was the purpose of what has
them repeatedly they could have had been widely described as the 13(3) lend-
complete prohibition against doing
relief in July or they could have had it ing facilities. There were several of
business, against going to work,
back in September or a couple of times these facilities. That was the intention
against earning a livelihood.
in October or November or earlier in And I understand why that was for these facilities.
December. And it is not Republicans And guess what. They worked. They
done—that we were in a healthcare cri-
who have blocked that relief. worked amazingly well, remarkably
sis, and that was the response that was
Time and again, the Democrats have well. Within days, certainly weeks,
believed to be most likely to prevent markets were again functioning, credit
blocked Republican proposals to send
an overwhelming of our healthcare ca- was flowing, and as a matter of fact,
funding where it is needed most. They
pabilities. That would have been abso- within a matter of months, credit was
have rejected every single lifeline that
lutely horrific, and so we had this eco- flowing at an alltime record pace; cor-
we have tried to throw.
I think it has become clear that the nomic disaster. porate bond issuance hit an alltime
And what we discovered in March record high. Across the credit quality
Democrats in Washington, DC, never
was this shutdown brought us to the spectrum, municipal bond issues were
really saw getting assistance to the un-
employed, getting help to small busi- brink of a financial crisis as well. at an alltime record high. Borrowers,
If you think about the financial mar- businesses that wanted to keep their
nesses as a priority. Instead, they
kets where people are providing capital workers and continue to survive until
looked at this, they saw a crisis, they
to businesses and municipalities and we got past this COVID crisis—they
said: Well, this is an opportunity. Let’s
not let this crisis go to waste. individuals, they only do that if there were able to draw down lines of credit
They have used it so that they can is some confidence that they know, at from their banks. It worked.
push their message, their agenda: Do least generally speaking, what the fu- The creation of these facilities gave
what the Federal Government says or ture looks like. We had never seen any- the confidence to our financial mar-
we will let you drown. thing like the government shutting kets that restored the normal func-
So they know that their bills weren’t down our economy before. tioning of those markets. It was really
meant to act as help. Maybe they were And so not really shockingly, the fi- quite extraordinary.
meant to be a push for their leftist nancial markets were on the verge of Now, that doesn’t mean that the
agenda. They know that the emergency completely freezing up, shutting down, economy got perfect after that. Cer-
financial provisions of the CARES Act and preventing even the most basic tainly not. The economy is not perfect
were never meant to replace private functioning of our economy. I mean, we today. But it meant that a recovery
markets or be used as a mechanism to might well have gotten to the point would be possible. We would be able to
bail out State and local governments. where a business couldn’t go to its function. We would be able to begin to
But you know what? They are going to bank and borrow the money it needs to pick up the pieces of a closed economy
push to try to make it so to further a make payroll on Friday or they and, sure enough, we have made tre-
leftist agenda. Crisis management is no couldn’t issue the bond that they need mendous progress. More than half of all
substitute for fiscal policy. to do to pay off another bond that is the people who lost their jobs are back
So I would say to our friends on the coming due, and so that would put at work. So that is not anywhere near
left, these tactics have failed. It is them in default and force them into where we need to end up, but we are on
time to stop using the American people bankruptcy and require them to lay ev- the right track, in part, because these
as pawns. Read your mail; listen to the eryone off. facilities did exactly what they were
phones. People want targeted relief I mean, the knock-on effects would designed to do.
that will help them to get to recovery. have been devastating had our finan- Now, what does my language in this

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I yield the floor. cial system completely frozen up, and bill do? What my language does is it
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. it was on the verge, some would say it puts an end to these three programs
YOUNG). The Senator from Pennsyl- was actually in the process, of freezing that did their job—they functioned;
vania. up. they restored the private credit mar-
Mr. TOOMEY. Mr. President, I want And so that is why the Treasury Sec- kets; and so they don’t need to con-
to address the ongoing debate over the retary and the Federal Reserve Board tinue.

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S7840 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE December 19, 2020
What are these three programs? Now, we have folks on the other side would impose on low-interest loans
There is a corporate bond credit facil- of the aisle who are raising all kinds of there, whether it is climate or other
ity, there is a Main Street Lending objections. They are very upset about policies that ought to be debated on
Program, and there is a municipal this. And it is fair to ask: Why? Why this floor and ought to be determined
lending program. Actually, they were would that be? through an accountable process.
hardly used at all. So quickly did the Well, it certainly isn’t because the So, as I say, none of this is specula-
normal private credit markets resume credit markets are back in turmoil, tive. Our Democratic colleagues have
their normal functioning that very few and they think we need to restore the talked about this. They passed a bill
borrowers took advantage. flow of private credit. That would be ri- that actually does this.
In fact, I am pretty sure in the cor- diculous. The credit markets are func- It is ironic that when we were devel-
porate credit facility that was set up tioning as well or better than they ever oping the response to the crisis of
under these 13(3) facilities, I don’t have. It is not even a close call. So it March, earlier this year, some of our
think anything was done at all. In the is not that. colleagues described this $500 billion
Main Street lending, there was very No, what it is is something very dif- fund that was intended to capitalize
little. In the municipal lending, there ferent, and that is the problem that these vehicles that would lend and re-
were two borrowers. That is it. some of my colleagues want to morph store liquidity. They called it a ‘‘slush
These are the programs that were these facilities into a use that was fund.’’ In one of many examples, Sen-
funded by the CARES Act, were set up never intended for them. They want to ator WARREN, on March 30, 2020, said
at the time of the CARES Act for this convert them away from these tem- the CARES Act created ‘‘a half trillion
narrow, specific purpose, and now they porary emergency liquidity facilities dollar slush fund that the Trump ad-
have achieved their purpose. designed to stabilize markets and re- ministration could use to help its polit-
By the way, there are lots of other store the flow of credit—to convert it ical friends and punish its political en-
programs that have been set up over away from that—and instead to use emies, and I think that’s a bad thing.’’
time—some were set up recently—that them to implement fiscal policy and Well, now there is a new administra-
my legislation doesn’t touch in any maybe social policy and certainly to tion, and now they want to keep the
way, shape, form, or fashion. The Com- allocate credit based on their political slush fund.
mercial Paper Funding Facility—unaf- preferences. Mr. President, I ask unanimous con-
fected. The money market fund liquid- What is one of the ways that our sent to complete my remarks before
ity provision—unaffected. The Pay- Democratic colleagues would like to do the vote.
check Protection Program, primary that? No. 1, they want to bail out irre- The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without
dealer liquidity facility—untouched. sponsible States. Now look, I get that objection.
All of them untouched, and, quite con- there are some States across the Union Mr. TOOMEY. So this is a very bad
trary to what some have suggested, that have suffered financially because idea for many reasons, not the least of
this is no big rewrite of the Fed’s 13(3) of COVID. There are other States that which is to put the Fed in this position
lending facilities. It couldn’t be further haven’t been harmed at all; in fact, of being pressured to make these give-
from that. they have more revenue coming in this away transactions based on political
What it is is an acknowledgment that year than they had last year. It varies, pressure that would completely politi-
the three programs we created in and there is definitely a category of cize the Fed. It would be the end of
March—and which, by the way, we put States and municipalities that have independence of the Fed. That is why
an expiration on them in March. We suffered a loss of revenue. We can and this has never been the role of our cen-
said they end on December 31. should have an ongoing debate in this tral bank, the Fed. We have never
But now we have folks on the other body about what to do about that, if asked the Fed to engage in fiscal policy
side of the aisle who have a novel inter- anything, but that is our responsi- or promote social policy or to allocate
pretation of the statute, saying: Well, bility. credit based on political standing. That
they don’t really have to end or, if they If we are going to send money to is guaranteed to politicize the Fed and
do end, we could bring them back to States and municipalities, we should undermine Fed independence.
life. have a bill, appropriate the funds, and Fiscal and social policy is the right-
We shouldn’t even be having this con- have a vote in Congress so that the ful realm of the people who are ac-
versation, but we are because we have American people can hold us account- countable to the American people, and
got this interpretation that we have to able. That is what happens. We get held that is us; that is Congress.
deal with. accountable. I want to address another accusation
What my language simply does is it When an action like that is done that is completely false and totally un-
follows the statute and calls for the through legislation, it is out in the justified, and that is that somehow this
end of this. open. It is transparent. It happens in is an effort to hamstring the Biden ad-
How do we do this? There are three the light of day, and the American peo- ministration and prevent them from
steps. One is we rescind the money that ple know who to hold accountable. doing what they want to do.
never got used because, as I said, the That is not what our Democratic col- Let me assure the Presiding Officer
markets responded so quickly we never leagues want to do. They want to force and my colleagues, my efforts to en-
ever needed to use this money. And I the Fed to do this for them. sure that this would be a temporary fa-
think our Democratic colleagues agree How do we know that? Because they cility began when we began discussing
on this provision. passed a bill called the Heroes Act, the facility. It was in March that I was
The language that I am trying to get H.R. 6800, that instructs the Federal arguing—actually, I argued that we
in this package reiterates that these Reserve to use the municipal facility should have this end as soon as the fi-
CARES facilities end on December 31, for exactly this purpose—superlong- nancial markets had restored their
as Congress intended. You know, I was term, ultralow-cost loans to munici- normal functioning and no later than
in the room when we were writing this palities, up to 10 years, at one-quarter September 30. I didn’t win the argu-
bill, and nobody thought that any of of 1 percent interest rates. States ment. We ended up settling on Decem-
these programs were going to last be- wouldn’t even have to attest that they ber 31. But that is when I started push-
yond the end of the year. couldn’t secure ordinary credit; they ing to have a finite period of time and
But, as I say, because of this novel could just show up and get it. So the a short period of time. There was no-
legal interpretation, we need to reit- Fed wouldn’t be playing its traditional body in the room who thought that
erate, in an unambiguous way, that role as the lender of last resort in a na- this was supposed to go on indefinitely.

dlhill on DSK120RN23PROD with SENATE
they end on December 31, as Congress tional crisis; it would be the lender of Once we started working on another
intended. first resort to their preferred constitu- COVID-related bill, starting in the
And, finally, we ensure that they ency. summertime, and I became aware of
can’t simply be restarted next year or There is the Main Street lending fa- this alternative interpretation of the
sometime thereafter or duplicated cility. If they can replicate that, who language, we put it in our bill, and we
without congressional consent. knows what kinds of conditions they voted on that in September. So this

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December 19, 2020 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE S7841
language or the substantively similar PERDUE), the Senator from Ohio (Mr. nominee last week; I didn’t spend all
language has been public for many, PORTMAN), the Senator from Idaho (Mr. my time talking about why we opposed
many months now. RISCH), and the Senator from South them. There was no debate.
I also want to stress that we are not Dakota (Mr. ROUNDS). But when it comes to an IG, we have
making permanent changes to laws and Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the to get on the same page. We need an IG
Congress can always act again. The Senator from California (Ms. HARRIS) is we can believe in. So I ask my col-
CARES Act already made these facili- necessarily absent. leagues to turn down this nomination
ties temporary. They were supposed to The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there and get us someone who has a depth of
end at the end of the year, and, of any other Senators in the Chamber de- experience we all can believe in.
course, no change in law is ever perma- siring to vote? The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Sen-
nent. Any future Congress can change The result was announced—yeas 51, ator from Mississippi.
it. nays 36, as follows: Mr. WICKER. Mr. President, I ask
Back in March, when this crisis hit, [Rollcall Vote No. 276 Ex.] unanimous consent to speak on this
the Fed and Treasury knew that they YEAS—51 nomination for 1 minute.
needed to come to Congress for the Alexander Grassley Roberts The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there
tools to solve it. They came to Con- Barrasso Hassan Romney objection?
Blackburn Hawley Rosen
gress, and we turned around in an ex- Booker Hoeven Rubio Without objection, it is so ordered.
traordinarily rapid fashion these mas- Boozman Hyde-Smith Sasse Mr. WICKER. Mr. President, Chase
sive new facilities that had never been Braun Inhofe Scott (FL) Johnson is the nominee here. This is a
Capito Johnson Scott (SC)
imagined before. We responded quickly. Carper Kelly Shelby
cloture vote. He is a marine. He is a
And if there is some kind of future Cassidy Kennedy Sinema Marine Reserve veteran. He is an ac-
event that calls for a future set of fa- Collins King Sullivan complished attorney. He was reported
cilities of this particular sort, they can Cornyn Lankford Thune from the Commerce Committee on a
Cotton Lee Tillis
come back to Congress. Cramer Manchin Toomey unanimous, bipartisan vote. The distin-
There are three facilities—three fa- Crapo McConnell Warner guished ranking member who just
cilities that were launched in conjunc- Daines Menendez Whitehouse spoke made the motion that Chase
tion with the CARES Act, funded by Gardner Moran Wicker
Graham Murkowski Young
Johnson be reported.
the CARES Act, and I am saying that We are the victim this afternoon of
they have achieved their purpose. They NAYS—36 some absences. We are also the victim
should come to an end. They should Baldwin Gillibrand Reed this afternoon of some discussion and
Bennet Heinrich Sanders
not be restarted, and a replica should Blumenthal Hirono Schatz some differences that have arisen over
not be created. That is all. Brown Jones Schumer extraneous issues, and I would just
Some have suggested that the Chair- Cantwell Kaine Shaheen urge my colleagues, both on and off the
man of the Federal Reserve has some Cardin Klobuchar Smith
Casey Leahy Stabenow
committee, to remember that this was
opinion on this. I would challenge any- Coons Markey Tester a unanimous vote out of the com-
one to find a statement in the public Cortez Masto Merkley Udall mittee.
record that he has made in criticism of Duckworth Murphy Van Hollen This is an outstanding candidate, and
Durbin Murray Warren
this. He is very well aware of what is Feinstein Peters Wyden
he deserves to be confirmed. With that,
going on. I ask for a yes vote.
The last point I want to make: Some NOT VOTING—13
And, Mr. President, I ask unanimous
on the other side have suggested that Blunt Fischer Portman consent that the mandatory quorum
Burr Harris Risch
our language may be too broad, and Cruz Loeffler call be waived.
Rounds
maybe it captures potential facilities Enzi Paul The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there
that shouldn’t be captured. If that is Ernst Perdue objection?
the sincere concern of my colleagues The nomination was confirmed. Without objection, it is so ordered.
on the other side, I urge them to give The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Sen- f
me a call. It is very easy to track me ator from Washington.
down. If you have an objection to the Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, I ask CLOTURE MOTION
way we have worded this and you want unanimous consent to speak for 1 The PRESIDING OFFICER. Pursuant
language that is narrower, I am all minute on the next vote and the nomi- to rule XXII, the Chair lays before the
ears. We can work this out. nation to be FCC IG. Senate the pending cloture motion,
With that, I yield the floor. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there which the clerk will state.
VOTE ON THE DIETZ NOMINATION objection? The legislative clerk read as follows:
The PRESIDING OFFICER. All Without objection, it is so ordered. CLOTURE MOTION
postcloture time has expired. NOMINATION OF JOHN CHASE JOHNSON
We, the undersigned Senators, in accord-
The question is, Will the Senate ad- Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, the ance with the provisions of rule XXII of the
vise and consent to the Dietz nomina- FCC is one of the most important inde- Standing Rules of the Senate, do hereby
tion? pendent agencies that we are counting move to bring to a close debate on the nomi-
Ms. MURKOWSKI. I ask for the yeas on for the future of the information nation of John Chase Johnson, of Oklahoma,
and nays. age. When you think about the fact to be Inspector General, Federal Commu-
that they regulate interstate com- nications Commission. (New Position)
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a
Mitch McConnell, Lamar Alexander,
sufficient second? merce, radio, television, wire, and sat- Rick Scott, Tom Cotton, Mike Crapo,
There appears to be a sufficient sec- ellite in all 50 States, it is imperative— Cory Gardner, Ron Johnson, James
ond. imperative—that we have someone as Lankford, Roger F. Wicker, Marco
The clerk will call the roll. the IG who understands these policies. Rubio, Cindy Hyde-Smith, Thom Tillis,
The senior assistant legislative clerk I believe the next era of telecom is Shelley Moore Capito, John Boozman,
called the roll. going to usher in 5G. I do think we are Joni Ernst, Mike Braun, Pat Roberts.
Mr. THUNE. The following Senators going to solve our rural IT problems. I The PRESIDING OFFICER. By unan-
are necessarily absent: the Senator do think we are going to connect imous consent, the mandatory quorum
from Missouri (Mr. BLUNT), the Senator schools. But if we have an IG who does call has been waived.
from North Carolina (Mr. BURR), the not understand communication policy, The question is, Is it the sense of the
Senator from Texas (Mr. CRUZ), the has no experience in communication Senate that debate on the nomination

dlhill on DSK120RN23PROD with SENATE
Senator from Wyoming (Mr. ENZI), the policy, has never had a role in that, I of John Chase Johnson, of Oklahoma,
Senator from Iowa (Ms. ERNST), the say we won’t accomplish the mission of to be Inspector General, Federal Com-
Senator from Nebraska (Mrs. FISCHER), oversight or the mission, ultimately, munications Commission (New Posi-
the Senator from Georgia (Mrs. LOEF- at the FCC. tion), shall be brought to a close?
FLER), the Senator from Kentucky (Mr. It is clear we don’t all agree. It is The yeas and nays are mandatory
PAUL), the Senator from Georgia (Mr. clear we don’t all agree. You got a under the rule.

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