Source: United States Senator for Maryland Chris Van Hollen
June 10, 2021
Senators recommended Judges Boardman and Griggsby to President Joe Biden
U.S. Senators Chris Van Hollen and Ben Cardin (both D-Md.) today praised the Judiciary Committee’s approval of Judges Deborah Boardman and Lydia Griggsby to serve as U.S. District Court Judges for the District of Maryland.
“We are pleased that the Judiciary Committee approved both of our outstanding Maryland nominees today. Both have a demonstrated track record of public service, and have already accumulated significant federal judicial experience from serving as judges on their respective courts,” the senators said. “We look forward to their swift approval by the full Senate and continued dedication to Marylanders seeking justice.”
U.S. Magistrate Judge Boardman was nominated to fill the future vacancy created when Judge Richard Bennett, appointed by President Bush in 2003, announced his intention to take senior status upon the confirmation of his successor. U.S. Claims Court Judge Griggsby was nominated to fill the current vacancy created when Judge Catherine Blake, appointed by President Clinton in 1995, announced her intention to take senior status on April 2, 2021. President Biden nominated Judges Boardman and Griggsby to these vacancies on March 30, 2021. The Senate Judiciary Committee held their confirmation hearing on May 12, 2021.
Source: United States Senator for Kansas Roger Marshall
Sen. Marshall on Border Crisis: Administration’s policies enrich cartels, encourage violence, and harm Central American economies
(Washington, D.C., June 10, 2021) – U.S. Senator Roger Marshall, M.D. spoke on the Senate floor today about the crisis at the southern border, addressing the root causes of an influx of migrants, and calling for Vice President Harris to take this issue seriously and visit the border. You may click HERE or the image below to watch Senator Marshall’s speech in its entirety.
Background:
In March, Senator Marshall penned an op-ed for the Topeka Capital Journal highlighting the failures of the Biden Administration when it comes to the southern border crisis. This op-ed followed Senator Marshall’s trip to the southern border for a tour along the Rio Grande River and a briefing on the growing migrant crisis earlier in the month.
Senator Marshall also joined his colleagues in sending a letter to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) Comptroller Gene L. Dodaro highlighting President Joe Biden’s suspension of border wall funding and construction without lawful justification, as required by the Impoundment Control Act.
Full Text of Senator Marshall’s Remarks:
Mr. President – I come to the Floor today following the conclusion of Vice President Harris’s border evasion tour through Guatemala and Mexico earlier this week.
As a physician, I have had the opportunity to do multiple mission trips to Mexico and Central America, and I have been to the border now three times.
I’ve seen the crisis first hand, which is why it was so concerning to me that, in the earliest days of this new administration, they followed through on a number of campaign promises related to opening our border and curbing control measures put in place by the previous Administration.
Just to be clear, the current administration issued multiple executive orders and actions on immigration, including halting construction of the border wall, ending the “Remain in Mexico” policy, and reaffirming the White House’s commitment to grant blanket amnesty to 11 million illegal immigrants residing in the United States.
While President Biden and his administration appeared surprised by the massive influx of migrants encountered in the aftermath, this was a predictable result.
As described by the President of Guatemala, once the message from the White House changed to “we’re going to reunite families, we’re going to reunite children… the very next day, the coyotes were here organizing groups of children to take them to the United States.”
On March 24th, after months of the resulting escalating crisis on our southern border, President Biden tapped Vice President Harris to serve as his border czar.
In the 10 weeks that have passed since her appointment, the situation at the border has continued to worsen. In April, Customs and Border Protection officials made more than 178,000 apprehensions at the U.S.-Mexico border. In May, they once again made more than 170,000 apprehensions, marking the third straight month over that figure. These are 20-year records.
As demonstrated in an interview with Lester Holt this week, Vice President Harris considers these staggering numbers a laughing matter. If she took her role seriously and actually visited our southern border she would realize that the Americans who live in border communities are not laughing. That’s because their towns are being overwhelmed by migrants and they feel their lives are in danger.
The origin of these migrants has expanded as this crisis has drawn on. In recent weeks and months, Border Patrol has encountered significant numbers of migrants from Ecuador, Venezuela, Cuba and Brazil.
While these arrivals have come from a wide variety of nations, the majority of border-crossers continue to come from Mexico and the Northern Triangle countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
Despite years of foreign aid and assistance to these nations, this is a trend we’ve seen growing in recent years. Since 2018, Border Patrol has encountered approximately 5% of Honduras’ population, 3.5% of Guatemala’s and roughly 3% of El Salvador’s population.
Now Vice President Harris is proposing to provide more than $300 million in regional humanitarian aid and a $4 billion long-term plan for Central America.
However, as this graph shows, there is little evidence to show that this type of cash injection will reduce migration from these Northern Triangle nations and Biden administration officials acknowledge that even if these efforts were successful it would take years or possibly even decades to truly make an impact. This is not the type of urgency needed to address the raging crisis on our border.
This is throwing good money after bad money.
Now, let’s take a look at how policy impacts the border.
The graphs prove the cause of the crisis is policy and aid has been ineffective in remaking the economies of the Northern Triangle.
These economies need much more than intermittent aid infusion. I like the phrase “trade not aid.” Since entering into CAFTA-DR in 2005, the United States has increased trade between the United States and the other six countries in the agreement: Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. As of 2019, goods traded among the countries included in the pact increased by 62 percent. By working to expand trade in the region, the United States could boost capital investment and prosperity.
This type of productivity could result in further job opportunities and encourage individuals in the Northern Triangle to remain home rather than pouring across our southern border. It also has the potential to reconfigure supply chains away from China and bolster our relationship with nations in our hemisphere at a time when China is moving to exploit developing countries.
I’ve seen the empty warehouses and jobs leaving Central America firsthand in Honduras – a result of China entering the World Trade Organization. Through stronger trade agreements, we can help bring jobs back to our hemisphere particularly those that will help address some of our medical supply challenges such as making medical gowns, masks, and gloves. These could be easily made in Central America.
At the same time, it is absurd that this administration cannot chew gum and walk at the same time. Proposing $4 billion of taxpayer funds in an aid package when their recently proposed $6 trillion budget request does not include funding increases for the missions carried out by the Department of Homeland Security along the border is astonishing.
A final point, Vice President Harris keeps saying she wants to get to the “Root of the Problem” and while White House policy has created the crisis at the border, the true long term root of the problem is a lack of law and order in Central America, which leads to unstable economies.
The policies first put in place by President Obama and now by the current Administration have enriched the cartels, further encouraged violence, and harmed Central American economies. By not truly addressing the roots, their policies continue to encourage migrants to make the long dangerous journey north.
We must continue to build the wall along the southern border and increase funding for technology, radars, towers, air-assets and others. We must also reinstate the Remain in Mexico Program. And our Vice President, acting as border czar, must visit our southern border communities and the CBP agents and officers overwhelmed by this self-inflicted crisis.
Source: United States Senator for Kansas Roger Marshall
Sen. Marshall Introduces Bill to Make Summer Meal Programs More Flexible
(Washington, D.C., June 10, 2021) – U.S. Senator Roger Marshall, M.D. joined a bipartisan group of his colleagues in introducing the Hunger-Free Summer for Kids Actto add flexibility to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Summer Food Service Program (SFSP), which offers children free lunch and snacks in the summer. This legislation applies lessons learned from the pandemic to existing child nutrition programs to make them more efficient, flexible and better equipped to reach children in need during the summer months.
Children should not go hungry during the summer months due to outdated regulations and a failed one size fits all approach. I applaud the USDA for ensuring children had access to nutritious food during the COVID-19 pandemic. Their efforts allowed us to build on important lessons learned and develop this meaningful legislation,” said Senator Marshall. “I’m proud to introduce this bipartisan solution alongside my colleagues to ensure local leaders have the flexibility needed to reach those in need, especially children in even the most rural areas of my home state of Kansas.”
Background:
The bill gives states additional options to reach hungry children in communities without a centralized feeding site during the summer, some of which mirror authorities Congress established to help the USDA carry out this mission while students received instruction virtually during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Current summer meals regulations require children to travel to a central location and eat together. This works well in some communities. However, in rural areas, it can be difficult for children to reach a site, if one even exists. In suburban and urban areas, inclement weather or violence can keep children from these sites and cause them to miss meals.
This legislation applies the knowledge gained from USDA program expansions during the height of the pandemic, such as Meals to You, a public-private partnership that delivered almost 40 million meals to rural kids nationwide. The Meals to You program served 176 kids in 2 school districts in Kansas: Fairfield Unified School District in Reno County and Golden Plains Unified School District in Sheridan County. The expanded program terminated when the majority of rural schools returned to in-person instruction last fall.
The Hunger-Free Summer for Kids Act proposes two alternative options states can utilize through the program. The first would allow for meals to be consumed off-site through innovative means like mobile feeding and backpack meal programs. The other option would authorize the summer Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) program which would provide eligible families $30 per summer month per child to purchase eligible food items from Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programapproved retailers. In USDA pilot programs, summer EBT was shown to reduce child hunger by over 30 percent.
Source: United States Senator for Commonwealth of Virginia Mark R Warner
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Mark R. Warner (D-Va.), Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Mitt Romney (R-Utah), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), Jon Tester (D-Mont.) issued the following statement:
“Our group – comprised of 10 Senators, 5 from each party – has worked in good faith and reached a bipartisan agreement on a realistic, compromise framework to modernize our nation’s infrastructure and energy technologies. This investment would be fully paid for and not include tax increases. We are discussing our approach with our respective colleagues, and the White House, and remain optimistic that this can lay the groundwork to garner broad support from both parties and meet America’s infrastructure needs.”
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley said today they have joined colleagues in supporting legislation that would guarantee equal access to abortion everywhere in the United States.
“Reproductive rights are human rights,” said Wyden, who recently introduced a bill to ensure access to abortion regardless of insurance coverage. “In the past decade, we’ve seen concerted efforts at both state and federal levels to restrict access to abortion. Reproductive freedom should not depend on which party holds the White House or Congressional majority. It’s time to codify Roe v. Wade into law, ensuring access to abortion services regardless of income or zip code.”
“The freedom to be in control of your own body is an essential freedom, full stop,” said Merkley. “That’s why it’s so crucial that medical decisions be made by individuals and whomever they may choose to consult—not by extremist politicians. Passing the Women’s Health Protection Act would be a huge step forward in our fight to protect Americans’ right to make those kinds of decisions.”
The Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA) guarantees a pregnant person’s right to access an abortion—and the right of an abortion provider to deliver these abortion services—free from medically unnecessary restrictions that interfere with a patient’s individual choice or the provider-patient relationship. The bill’s introduction follows the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to hear arguments in a case that directly threatens 50 years of precedent protecting access to abortion, and comes as states like Texas continue to pass anti-choice laws.
The Women’s Health Protection Act was introduced by U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) in the Senate, and U.S. Representatives Judy Chu (D-CA), Lois Frankel (D-FL), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), and Veronica Escobar (D-TX) in the House. Along with Wyden and Merkley, the WHPA has 48 total co-sponsors in the Senate and 176 total co-sponsors in the House of Representatives.
The text of the Senate bill – including the full list of cosponsors – is here.
“The majority of voters want abortion protected under federal law,” Nancy Northup, President and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said. “We cannot wait any longer. If Roe falls, many states will immediately take action to make abortion a crime. Even now, with constitutional protections in place, state legislators have made it impossible to access abortion in the South and Midwest. Especially for Black people and other people of color who already face barriers to health care. This bill—WHPA—would protect against the hundreds of state restrictions and bans that have pushed abortion out of reach. This is an issue of equal access, everywhere.”
“Abortion access is a racial and economic justice issue. The legacy of restrictions on reproductive health care has perpetuated white supremacy and anti-Black racism. Restrictions on abortion compound harm for members of communities that have historically experienced barriers to health care — namely people of color, queer and trans folks, and those working to make ends meet. We appreciate that the Women’s Health Protection Act bill language recognizes that Reproductive Justice is a human right and that every individual should be able to decide whether and how to have children based on their own circumstances and without interference or discrimination,” Danielle Hurd-Wilson (they/them), Interim Deputy Director of Field and Programs at URGE: Unite for Reproductive & Gender Equity, said. “The future I want to see is one where anyone can get an abortion with dignity and without barriers. The Women’s Health Protection Act would help cut the tangled web of restrictions that anti-abortion politicians have enacted to shame and stigmatize our decisions and deny us timely health care.”
Source: United States Senator for Ohio Sherrod Brown
Download Production-Quality Video to Full ExchangeHere
WASHINGTON, D.C. – In Case You Missed It: During a U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs hearing yesterday, U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) addressed the need to improve space and staffing support for women veterans, and veterans with spinal cord injuries and mental health needs, at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). During the hearing, entitled “A System to Better Serve America’s Veterans: Investing in VA’s Infrastructure,” Brown questioned expert witnesses on how to best utilize the American Jobs Plan funding to better address staffing needs at VA.
Brown questioned Executive Director of the Office of Asset Enterprise Management at VA, Brett Simms, specifically on the importance of the American Jobs Plan and the $3 billion to address immediate infrastructure needs within VA health care facilities, such as upgrades to support the growing number of women veterans.
Morefrom Brown’s hearing exchange is included below and video is availableHERE:
Brown: Mr. Simms, in your testimony, you stress the importance of the American Jobs Plan and the $3 billion to address immediate infrastructure needs within VA health care facilities, such as upgrades to support the growing number of women veterans. How would VA use the American Jobs Plan funding to improve care for female veterans and other specialties like spinal cord injuries or mental health?
Simms: Thank you, Senator, for that question. There would be focused investments, looking at women’s health for example. We would be looking to both increase access as well as improve existing facilities for things like privacy, separate entrances, and things like that, to address some of the concerns of women veterans being able to access services that exist today. We would also include capacity expansion to ensure that we have the right clinics and the size of those clinics to be able to support the women veterans. So that’s one piece of that. More broadly, I think a lot of the challenges we faced – and I think Ms. Hassan – of facilities where there are utility issues that force closures, or denial of service. A large portion of that immediate investment would be looking at those core infrastructure utility system needs to ensure that we’re operating efficiently and effectively in the existing medical centers so those types of care can be delivered, whether it be specialty, primary care, or in patient or outpatient.
Source: United States Senator for Ohio Sherrod Brown
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, applauded the confirmations of Ms. Adrianne Todman of the Virgin Islands to be Deputy Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD); and Ms. Nuria Fernandez of California to be Administrator of the Federal Transit Administration (FTA). Both historic nominees have broad bipartisan support. Fernandez is the first Senate-confirmed woman of color to lead the agency, and Todman is the first Black woman to serve as Deputy Secretary of HUD.
“Congratulations to Deputy Secretary Todman and Administrator Fernandez on their confirmations. Both are distinguished public servants who understand the challenges we face, and will work to address the growing housing and transportation needsin cities, Indian country, and rural areas,” said Brown. “I look forward to working with them to make equitable and sustainable infrastructure investments so we can build thriving communities.”
Source: United States Senator for Ohio Sherrod Brown
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs – requested a briefing from Pretium Partners, LLC about reports that the company has attempted to evict over a thousand tenants for unpaid rent despite the federal eviction moratorium. In his letter to Pretium Partners CEO Don Mullen, Senator Brown expresses particular concern that the company has reportedly filed eviction notices at higher rates in majority-Black counties.
“While evictions can have long-lasting, damaging effects on renters in normal times, they are especially troubling during a pandemic where safe, stable housing can literally mean the difference between life and death,” Senator Brown wrote. He continued, “In light of the serious potential health consequences of evictions during the pandemic, I am troubled that your companies may have pursued evictions in contravention to the CDC’s moratorium. I am also concerned that these evictions appear to have disproportionately affected renters from minority groups who have suffered greater incidence of serious COVID-related illness and death.”
Senator Brown requested a briefing by June 24, 2021.
I write to request Pretium Partners, LLC (Pretium Partners) provide a briefing to my staff regarding concerning reports that the company’s portfolio firms—Progress Residential and Front Yard Residential Corp.—sought to evict over a thousand tenants for unpaid rent despite a federal moratorium. Troublingly, Pretium Partners’ portfolio firms have reportedly filed eviction notices at higher rates in majority-Black counties.
In September 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued an order prohibiting certain residential evictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, Congress and the CDC have extended the eviction moratorium, including most recently until June 30, 2021. According to NPR and Bloomberg, however, portfolio firms controlled by Pretium Partners have filed eviction notices against more than a thousand tenants across seven states since September 2020—the month in which the eviction moratorium went into effect.
While evictions can have long-lasting, damaging effects on renters in normal times, they are especially troubling during a pandemic where safe, stable housing can literally mean the difference between life and death. In establishing and extending its federal eviction moratorium, the CDC noted the importance of the moratorium in protecting the health of renters and the public. The CDC’s March 31, 2021 order extending the moratorium notes that evictions leading renters to move to shared or congregate spaces can increase the risk of COVID-19 transmission. The CDC also cites research indicating that lifting of state eviction moratoria had led to increased incidence of COVID-related illness and death.
In light of the serious potential health consequences of evictions during the pandemic, I am troubled that your companies may have pursued evictions in contravention to the CDC’s moratorium. I am also concerned that these evictions appear to have disproportionately affected renters from minority groups who have suffered greater incidence of serious COVID-related illness and death. Therefore, I want to understand your company’s eviction policies and practices and the reported disparities in eviction filings. I request Pretium Partners brief my staff by June 24, 2021 on these and related matters.
Thank you for your prompt attention to this request. If you have any questions, and to schedule the briefing, please contact Mr. Mohammad Aslami with the Majority staff at (202) 224-7391.
Source: United States Senator for Vermont Patrick Leahy
06.10.21
WASHINGTON (THURSDAY, June 10, 2021) — A bipartisan group of senators led by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Senator John Boozman (R-AR) are proposing to apply lessons learned from the pandemic to existing child nutrition programs to make them more efficient, flexible and better equipped to reach children in need during the summer months.
Leahy and Boozman Thursday introduced the Hunger-Free Summer for Kids Act to add flexibility to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Summer Food Service Program (SFSP), which offers children free lunch and snacks in the summer.
The bill gives states additional options to reach hungry children in communities without a centralized feeding site during the summer, some of which mirror authorities Congress established to help the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) carry out this mission while students received instruction virtually during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Current summer meals regulations require children to travel to a central location and eat together. This works well in some communities. However, in rural states like Vermont, it can be difficult for children to reach a site, if one even exists. In suburban and urban areas, inclement weather or violence can keep children from these sites and cause them to miss meals.
The Hunger-Free Summer for Kids Act proposes two alternative options states can utilize through the program. The first would allow for meals to be consumed off-site through innovative means like mobile feeding and backpack meal programs. The other option would authorize the summer Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) program which would provide eligible families $30 per summer month per child to purchase eligible food items from Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) approved retailers. In USDA pilot programs, summer EBT was shown to reduce child hunger by over 30 percent.
Leahy, the longest serving member of the Senate Agriculture Committee and chair of the Appropriations Committee, said: “The COVID-19 pandemic has taught us so much about the importance of expanding access and increasing flexibility for children to receive meals in non-traditional settings. I am so proud the efforts in Vermont to keep all children fed during the past year, especially during the summer when many day camps and programs were shut down. This bill would implement many of the lessons learned during the pandemic to allow states to better meet the nutrition needs of their communities and ensure no child goes hungry during the summer months.”
Boozman said: “The summer meals program is in desperate need of an update as many of the rules date back to the 1960s. The one-size-fits-all solution is simply unworkable under normal conditions, much less during periods of stress like what we experienced over the past year. The flexibilities Congress granted during the pandemic offer a good recipe for how to successfully serve more children in need. We want to ensure that all options—from off-site, grab-and-go models, to home delivery, to electronic benefits transfer—remain on the table.”
Similar steps taken during the pandemic to reduce exposure risks for COVID-19 proved quite successful in maximizing participation. For instance, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act authorized nationwide waivers allowing off-site meal distribution to a parent or guardian to take home to their children. Additionally, the Pandemic EBT program is essentially the same approach this bill proposes for families to use during the summer. Vermont was the only state to serve more summer meals in 2020, than in 2019.
Along with Boozman and Leahy, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Sens. Michael Bennet (D-CO), Roy Blunt (R-MO), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), John Cornyn (R-TX), Deb Fischer (R-NE), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), John Hoeven (R-ND), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), Roger Marshall (R-KS), Jerry Moran (R-KS), ) and John Thune (R-SD) all joined in introducing the bill.
The Hunger-Free Summer for Kids Act has the support of leading national advocacy groups including Feeding America, Share Our Strength, Tusk Philanthropies, Bread for the World, MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger, the Alliance to End Hunger and Save the Children.
Source: United States Senator for Mississippi Roger Wicker
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, R-Miss., a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, today pressed Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on the Department of Defense’s (DOD) recent budget request for Fiscal Year 2022.
During today’s hearing, Wicker referred to the testimony of the Navy’s Vice Admiral at this week’s Seapower Subcommittee hearing, where the Vice Admiral admitted that the U.S. needs a larger Navy. Wicker asked Austin if the Vice Admiral misspoke.
“For some time, we’ve had a goal of a 355 ship Navy, and I think that goal is a good goal to shoot at,” Austin answered.
“This budget doesn’t get us anywhere near back on the path to do that,” Wicker replied.
Wicker then expressed his concern about the Navy’s plans for amphibious warships. Last year’s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) authorized a multi-ship procurement bundle for three LPDs and one LHA, which would result in a $700 million dollar cost savings. However, the Department of Defense has walked back support for this block buy pending a new assessment of the fleet’s needs. Wicker asked Austin how it made sense for the DOD to oppose saving $700 million of taxpayer money if the ships were going to be purchased anyway.
Austin answered that the DOD is always faced with tough choices.
“This is an inadequate defense budget,” Wicker concluded. “Let me just say to my colleagues, the Constitution of the United States also gives us the power of the purse. And while we appreciate the suggestion by OMB budget crunchers, it is our obligation to defend this nation and this proposed budget does not do so.”
