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Senate Section (PDF 533KB) E PL UR UM IB N U U S Congressional Record United States th of America PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES OF THE 116 CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION Vol. 166 WASHINGTON, TUESDAY, JANUARY 7, 2020 No. 3 Senate The Senate met at 10 a.m. and was Mrs. HYDE-SMITH thereupon as- flict, Iran’s authoritarian regime has called to order by the Honorable CINDY sumed the Chair as Acting President shown no compunction about kidnap- HYDE-SMITH, a Senator from the State pro tempore. ping, torturing, and killing Americans of Mississippi. f since its earliest days—or Iraqis or fel- f low Iranians, for that matter. From RECOGNITION OF THE MAJORITY the 52 diplomatic personnel held hos- PRAYER LEADER tage in Tehran for 444 days back in The Chaplain, Dr. Barry C. Black, of- The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tem- 1979, to the hundreds of U.S. service- fered the following prayer: pore. The majority leader is recog- members killed in bombings carried Let us pray. nized. out by Iran’s proxies—Beirut in 1983, Eternal God, our Nation needs Your f Riyadh in 1995, Khobar in 1996—to the mercy. The challenges are too great to hundreds more killed or maimed in be met with mere human ingenuity. IRAN Iraq by the explosives and indirect fire You have been our protection. Shelter Mr. MCCONNELL. Madam President, attacks ordered by General Soleimani us until the violent storms are passed. I spoke yesterday about President himself, to the constant flows of re- Let Your glory shine on Your law- Trump’s decision to remove the chief sources and equipment that prop up makers. May their thoughts, words, architect of Tehran’s terrorism from despots and terrorist organizations and deeds prompt people to glorify the battlefield, and I discussed the Sen- throughout the region, Iran’s game You. Inspire our Senators to place ate’s obligation to approach this in a plan has been an open book: Use third- their confidence completely in You. manner that is serious, sober, and fac- party terrorism to inflict death and Eternal God, You are our salvation. We tual. suffering on its enemies while avoiding will trust and not be afraid, for You are It is right for Senators to want to direct confrontation. our strength and song. learn more about the President’s major The threat Iran poses is, certainly, We pray in Your loving Name. Amen. decision. Once again, I encourage all of not new. Its violence is not some f our colleagues to attend the classified unique reaction to President Trump or to Prime Minister Netanyahu or to any PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE briefing which the administration will provide tomorrow. The Secretary of other current leader. Violence runs in The Presiding Officer led the Pledge Defense, the Secretary of State, the the bloodstream of this evil regime. In particular, our colleagues who ap- of Allegiance, as follows: Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, parently want to blame President I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the and the CIA Director will give a classi- United States of America, and to the Repub- Trump for Iranian provocative foreign fied context behind the President’s de- lic for which it stands, one nation under God, policy should reflect on the previous cision, and they will discuss the admin- indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. administration’s recent history. istration’s strategy to protect our per- f Iran exploited President Obama’s sonnel and defend our Nation’s inter- withdrawal from Iraq. Soleimani and APPOINTMENT OF ACTING ests in the new landscape. I would ask his agents filled the void and dramati- PRESIDENT PRO TEMPORE every Senator on both sides to bring an cally expanded Iranian influence inside The PRESIDING OFFICER. The open mind to this briefing. Iraq. They were able to impose a sec- clerk will please read a communication In particular, we should all remem- tarian vision on Iraq that disenfran- to the Senate from the President pro ber that the history of Iranian aggres- chised the Sunnis, fueled the rise of tempore (Mr. GRASSLEY). sion began long, long before this news ISIS, and plunged the region into The senior assistant legislative clerk cycle or this Presidency. In the decades chaos. read the following letter: since the Islamic revolution of 1979, as Over in Syria, more weakness from U.S. SENATE, the White House has changed parties the Obama administration opened yet PRESIDENT PRO TEMPORE, and our administrations have changed another door for Iran. The Democratic Washington, DC, January 7, 2020. strategies, Tehran’s simmering anti- administration failed to confront the To the Senate: American hatred, proxy violence, and Iranian-backed Assad regime as it Under the provisions of rule I, paragraph 3, steady support for terrorism worldwide slaughtered literally hundreds of thou- of the Standing Rules of the Senate, I hereby have remained entirely constant appoint the Honorable CINDY HYDE-SMITH, a sands of Syrians and displaced millions Senator from the State of Mississippi, to per- through all of these years. more. Once again, amid the chaos, form the duties of the Chair. In effect, Iran has been at war with Soleimani worked and thrived. CHUCK GRASSLEY, the United States for years. While it Of course, all of this was the back- President pro tempore. has taken pains to avoid direct con- drop for the brazen, legacy-shopping ∑ This ‘‘bullet’’ symbol identifies statements or insertions which are not spoken by a Member of the Senate on the floor. S31 . VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:39 Jan 08, 2020 Jkt 099060 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 4624 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\A07JA6.000 S07JAPT1 dlhill on DSKBBY8HB2PROD with SENATE S32 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE January 7, 2020 nuclear arrangement that sent billions ecution seems to have gotten cold feet. Speaker of the House is not going to of dollars to fuel Iran’s further vio- Nearly 3 weeks after the rushed vote handwrite new rules for the Senate. It lence. they claim was so urgent, they are still is not going to happen. Even my friend the current Demo- debating whether or not they even Look, these are serious matters. At cratic leader knew it at the time. Be- want to see the trial proceed. They some point in time, the Democrats’ fore he himself voted for a resolution of voted for it 3 weeks ago. rage at this particular President will disapproval on President Obama’s deal, The House Democrats say they are begin to fade, but the sad precedent Senator SCHUMER said: ‘‘After 10 years, waiting for some mythical leverage. I they are setting will live on. The if Iran is the same nation as it is have had difficulty figuring out where American people deserve a lot better today, we will be worse off with this the leverage is. Apparently, this is than this. agreement than without it.’’ That was their proposition: If the Senate does f the Democratic leader, who opposed not agree to break with our own unani- President Obama’s Iran nuclear deal, mous, bipartisan precedent from 1999 RESERVATION OF LEADER TIME and the Democratic leader was pre- and agree to let Speaker PELOSI hand- The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tem- scient, for that is exactly what hap- design a different procedure for this pore. Under the previous order, the pened. Senate trial, then, they might not ever leadership time is reserved. The previous administration failed to dump this mess in our lap. f confront Iran when necessary. So the It is one cynical political game right mullahs used their windfall from the on top of another. It was not enough CONCLUSION OF MORNING disastrous nuclear deal to double down for the House to blow through its own BUSINESS on hegemonic aspirations all across the norms and precedents and succumb to The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tem- Middle East. A Democratic administra- the partisan temptation of a subjective pore. Morning business is closed. tion just had 8 years to deal with the impeachment that every other House f growing threat posed by Iran, and it had resisted for 230 years. Now it needs failed demonstrably. Iran was stronger to erode our constitutional order even EXECUTIVE SESSION and more lethal at the end of the further. Those in the House want to in- Obama Presidency than at the begin- vent a new, sort of pretrial hostage ne- ning. gotiation wherein the House gets to EXECUTIVE CALENDAR So I would ask my Democratic col- run the show over here in the Senate. The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tem- leagues today not to rush to lash out at Meanwhile, they are creating exactly pore. Under the previous order, the President Trump when he actually the kind of unfair and dangerous delay Senate will proceed to executive ses- demonstrates that he means what he in impeachment that Alexander Ham- sion to resume consideration of the fol- says—when he enforces his redlines, ilton specifically warned against in the lowing nomination, which the clerk when he takes real action to counter Federalist Papers. This is already the will report. lethal threats against Americans. longest delay in American history be- The senior assistant legislative clerk Wishing away tensions with Iran is tween the impeachment vote and the read the nomination of Jovita really not an option. The Iranians have delivery of the House’s impeachment Carranza, of Illinois, to be Adminis- spent decades making that perfectly message. It is almost as though this trator of the Small Business Adminis- clear to all of us. The question is House Democrat majority systemati- tration. whether we as a body would prefer the cally took all of the Framers’ warnings RECOGNITION OF THE MINORITY LEADER administration to stand by as Iran about partisan abuses of the impeach- The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tem- kills Americans or whether we are pre- ment power—took everything the pore.
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