The publication is reproduced in full below:
CLOTURE MOTION
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Pursuant to rule XXII, the Chair lays before the Senate the pending cloture motion, which the clerk will state.
The legislative clerk read as follows:
Cloture Motion
We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nomination of Executive Calendar No. 1035, Nina Nin-Yuen Wang, of Colorado, to be United States District Judge for the District of Colorado.
Charles E. Schumer, Richard J. Durbin, Robert P. Casey,
Jr., Sherrod Brown, Tammy Baldwin, Tina Smith, Jeanne
Shaheen, Chris Van Hollen, Elizabeth Warren, Catherine
Cortez Masto, Tim Kaine, Benjamin L. Cardin,
Christopher Murphy, Maria Cantwell, Christopher A.
Coons, Jack Reed, Gary C. Peters, Tammy Duckworth.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. By unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum call has been waived.
The question is, Is it the sense of the Senate that debate on the nomination of Nina Nin-Yuen Wang, of Colorado, to be United States District Judge for the District of Colorado, shall be brought to a close?
The yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule.
The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant executive clerk called the roll.
Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Ohio (Mr. Brown), the Senator from Maryland (Mr. Cardin), the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Leahy), the Senator from Oregon (Mr. Merkley), the Senator from Washington (Mrs. Murray), and the Senator from Hawaii (Mr. Schatz) are necessarily absent.
Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Wyoming (Mr. Barrasso), the Senator from Nebraska (Mrs. Fischer), the Senator from South Carolina (Mr. Graham), the Senator from North Dakota (Mr. Hoeven), the Senator from Louisiana (Mr. Kennedy), the Senator from Kansas (Mr. Moran), the Senator from Alabama (Mr. Shelby), the Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. Toomey), and the Senator from Alabama (Mr. Tuberville).
Further, if present and voting, the Senator from North Dakota (Mr. Hoeven) would have voted ``nay''.
The yeas and nays resulted--yeas 52, nays 33, as follows:
YEAS--52
Baldwin Bennet Blumenthal Blunt Booker Burr Cantwell Carper Casey Collins Coons Cortez Masto Duckworth Durbin Feinstein Gillibrand Grassley Hassan Heinrich Hickenlooper Hirono Kaine Kelly King Klobuchar Lujan Manchin Markey Menendez Murkowski Murphy Ossoff Padilla Peters Portman Reed Rosen Rounds Sanders Schumer Shaheen Sinema Smith Stabenow Tester Tillis Van Hollen Warner Warnock Warren Whitehouse Wyden
NAYS--33
Blackburn Boozman Braun Capito Cassidy Cornyn Cotton Cramer Crapo Cruz Daines Ernst Hagerty Hawley Hyde-Smith Inhofe Johnson Lankford Lee Lummis Marshall McConnell Paul Risch Romney Rubio Sasse Scott (FL) Scott (SC) Sullivan Thune Wicker Young
NOT VOTING--15
Barrasso Brown Cardin Fischer Graham Hoeven Kennedy Leahy Merkley Moran Murray Schatz Shelby Toomey Tuberville
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Heinrich). On this vote, the yeas are 52, the nays are 33.
The motion is agreed to.
The Senator from Florida.
Cuba
Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Mr. President, on July 11, 2021, in an act of incredible bravery, thousands of freedom-loving people in Cuba collectively stood together to demand freedom from the oppressive Cuban dictatorship.
They stood outside the headquarters of the Cuban Communist Party demanding liberty. They shouted ``Patria y Vida,'' which means homeland and life.
In cities across the island, Cubans young and old showed they are not afraid of the regime. It was a sign that freedom, liberty, and human rights are not merely American ideals but universal rights given to all by God, not any government.
In response to the peaceful protest, the Cuban Communist Party, an illegitimate and brutally oppressive regime deployed a wave of terror throughout Cuba by unleashing its secret police and military forces on peaceful protesters and democracy leaders.
The regime's thugs and security forces unlawfully detained more than 1,400 demonstrators, including leaders from Cuban civil society groups such as UNPACU, the San Isidro Movement, the Ladies in White, and targeted religious and Afro-Cuban leaders.
In the aftermath of the demonstrations and the government crackdown, crowds of Cubans and supporters of the Cuban people gathered here in Washington urging Joe Biden to act.
They gathered in front of the White House. They protested in front of the Cuban Embassy. I heard their cries asking the American Government to show its support. I joined them in front of the White House and in front of the Capitol.
We know Joe Biden has the power to join the Cuban people to call for the Cuban Communist Party to change. But aside from a couple statements he made last year, Joe Biden has not taken one action to support the Cuban people and their fight for freedom.
He has done nothing to provide them with internet connections or to support the democracy movement on the island.
I want to be clear: The President of the United States is known both here and around the globe as the leader of the free world. Our President, regardless of who it is, has immense power to rally our democratic allies and the freedom-loving people of the world to put pressure on oppressive regimes like the one occupying Havana and throw the full support of the global community behind the Cuban people's movement for freedom.
Anyone who denies this is ignoring history. But Joe Biden hasn't done any of that. He hasn't even tried. Instead, he and his administration have bowed to the demands of Cuba's murderous Castro and Diaz-Canel regimes and chosen not to stand for democracy and human rights.
And just weeks ago, he chose to prop up the oppressive regime with pathetic appeasement policies and sanctions relief. These actions bring shame to the United States. They do nothing to help the people only help line the pockets of the regime, its thugs, and its evil partners in Russia, Iran, and communist China.
This failed President has done more to unite America's enemies than bringing together the world's democracies for a common cause. Biden's appeasement is horrible for U.S. national security, a threat to stability in Latin America, and a danger to the power of democracy across the world.
Six months after the demonstrations started, the Senate unanimously passed my resolution that supported Cuban democracy activists like Jose Daniel Ferrer, and condemned the brutal torture, unjust imprisonment, and severe oppression that the illegitimate communist Cuban regime is subjecting innocent Cubans to every day.
Last week, we honored the 1-year anniversary of the action of the brave Cuban people, and we remembered the horrific images of violence and oppression we saw as the illegitimate communist Cuban regime, terrified of the freedom movement, viciously cracked down on the people with mass jailings, beatings, and even murder.
Well, most of us remember. Joe Biden could not be bothered to even make a statement. His silence on this issue shows he doesn't care about the consequences of his actions. He doesn't care that he is playing into the plans of Castro and Diaz-Canel.
Meanwhile, the Cuban people get nothing in return, and the security situation in the region worsens. When Biden doesn't stand up to Castro and Diaz-Canel, we are left with a destabilized hemisphere that is less peaceful and puts our homeland security at greater risk.
They are murderous, illegitimate dictators. Appeasement is the worst move imaginable. And you better believe that Iran, Russia, and communist China love it when Biden is nice to their friends in Latin America.
So in the midst of this 1-year anniversary of the July 11 historic and peaceful demonstrations, I am asking Joe Biden to call for the immediate release of the hundreds of pro-democracy activists, including children whom the regime is unjustly detaining and subjecting to physical and psychological torture.
I hope someone in the White House is paying attention. Unfortunately, we know Joe Biden isn't. Children are locked away in jail, kept away from their families. These are kids. Some are just 14 years old. What is it going to take for Joe Biden to grow a backbone and do something?
Now, I am sure the administration will say that they have spoken out. Sure, we have seen statements and tweets, but that is not enough. Where is Joe Biden?
The White House can try to hide behind the words of the State Department and claim false leadership, but statements from bureaucrats and tweets from an embassy that shouldn't even exist will never be enough.
Sadly, that is all we can expect from this weak and incompetent President. It is essential to the national security of the United States as well as our efforts to support freedom, democracy, and human rights that Joe Biden reverse the foolish actions he has taken and not allow totalitarian dictators in our hemisphere to go unchecked.
I am also calling on Joe Biden to support the DEMOCRACIA Act, legislation I introduced last year with Congressman Byron Donalds. Our bill would hold the illegitimate communist Cuban regime accountable through severe sanctions, actions, and unprecedented financial pressure, and put safeguards in place to ensure those sanctions are not wrongfully lifted.
It would also require the President to establish a task force to develop long-term solutions for providing reliable internet service to the people of Cuba that is not censored or blocked by the Cuban regime.
As the Cuban people's fight for freedom from the oppressive and illegitimate communist Cuban regime continues, the United States must stand for the Cuban democracy.
We can never bow to dictators--never. It is time for Biden to lead and to oppose those genocidal dictators and support human rights.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Minnesota.
____________________
SOURCE: Congressional Record Vol. 168, No. 118
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