Designating the United States Courthouse Located At 300 South Fourth Street in Minneapolis, Minnesota, As the ``Diana E. Murphy United States Courthouse''

Floor Speech

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Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I come to the floor to speak on two different subjects. The most important one is the first one: to thank a lot of people who helped me to chair and oversee the confirmation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh.

I should have given this speech 72 hours ago, but I was in a hurry to get to the airport. So I am making up for lost time now.

As everyone knows, on Saturday the Senate confirmed Judge Brett Kavanaugh as our newest Associate Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. I come to the floor to thank the Senate staff who helped to make that confirmation possible.

Senators don't always recognize their staff as much as we probably should, but I am proud of the work my staff accomplished over the last 3 months as we considered the nomination of Kavanaugh. They have worked very diligently on this confirmation process of our new Justice, and most of it was behind the scenes. They put in the long, long work hours required, and they did it 7 days a week, if needed. The chairman's team tackled the heavy workload before them, and I am tremendously grateful for all they did to make this nomination a success.

First, on my staff, I would like to recognize my Judiciary counsel staff director, Kolan Davis. Kolan's experience and sound judgment keeps me out of a lot of trouble. I value his counsel today, just as I have for the last 33 years that he has been on my staff.

By my side right here today is Mike Davis, the Judiciary Committee's chief counsel for nominations and also an Iowan. He graduated from the University of Iowa and Iowa Law. Mike brought the tenacity, diligence, and everything else that was needed to lead Kavanaugh's confirmation.

The permanent nomination unit for the Senate Judiciary Committee, working with Mike Davis, includes Lauren Mehler, Steve Kenny, Katharine Willey, and Jessica Vu. Each of them worked incredibly hard. They have worked hard on all nominations of lifetime appointments to the Federal judiciary and over a long period of time, not just on Kavanaugh. Their hard work is shown by the record number of judges the Senate has confirmed this Congress. I think the number is 67 so far, besides 2 Supreme Court Justices. I believe there are 41 on the calendar right now.

In addition to this team, Andrew Ferguson joined my staff to lead the team of special counsels to specifically assist with the Supreme Court nomination. Andrew led by example with his tireless work ethic and, of course, his legal talent.

I also want to thank special counsels Tyler Badgley, Lucas Croslow, Colleen Ernst, Megan McGlynn, and Collin White. This team read every word of Justice Kavanaugh's more than 500,000 pages from his time as an executive branch lawyer, the 307 opinions he authored on the DC Circuit Court, and all other documents relevant to his nomination.

Rachel Mitchell was part of this special counsel team, offering her expertise and many years of experience at a time when we needed extra help when we had Dr. Ford and Judge Kavanaugh before our committee for a second set of hearings.

Law clerks Tim Rodriguez, Camille Peeples, Abby Hollenstein, Dario Camacho, Elizabeth Donald, Michael Talent, Bob Minchin, Nathan Williams, Sam Adkisson, and Asher Perez had the opportunity to contribute and learn during this nomination. I thank them for their hard work and service here in the Senate, on top of their rigorous education. I thank the intern Jacob Ramer for his contribution as well.

Justice Kavanaugh's confirmation process resulted in a record number of pages available to Senators, including questions for the record. This team handled it all.

Over the course of my Senate service, I have established a reputation for my oversight work. I am equipped with a permanent staff of experienced investigators. When allegations of sexual assault were brought to my attention on September 13, I was fortunate to have this experienced and highly regarded division of my staff already on the job to help run down every question and allegation we received.

I thank DeLisa Lay, Patrick Davis, Josh Flynn-Brown, Katherine Nikas, Daniel Parker, and executive branch detailee Andy Hromyak for their dedication to investigation, oversight, and accountability.

I also want to thank my talented communications team: Judiciary Committee communications director Taylor Foy and Judiciary Committee press secretary George Hartmann, as well as Michael Zona, Nicole Tieman, and Alexa Den Herder for their hard work. October 6 will be a memorable date for Taylor, marking both his wedding anniversary and the day Justice Kavanaugh was confirmed.

I am thankful for my personal office staff, led by my chief of staff, Jill Kozeny. She has been on my staff for 31 years. I have long appreciated Jill's advice and all of her hard work on my behalf.

I am also grateful for Jennifer Heins, who makes a tremendous contribution every day, and every staffer who was part of this confirmation process, including Penne Barton, Zach Schultz, Katelyn Schultz, Josie Wagler, and my State staff, who had to answer a lot of telephone calls over a period of 3 months, just dealing with people for and against the nomination of Justice Kavanaugh.

I very much appreciate the rest of my Judiciary Committee staff, including my deputy staff director, Rita Lari, who took care of things while I was on the floor and during the long hours in the hearing.

Finally, I appreciate the work of Leader McConnell's staff, most importantly, John Abegg. Religious Freedom in China and Taiwan

Mr. President, tomorrow, October 10, is the 107th national day of the Republic of China on Taiwan.

I would like to extend my congratulations to the people of Taiwan on this very important occasion and to express my appreciation for the U.S.-Taiwan relations. We were allies in World War II and have been close strategic and economic partners for a very long time. However, as the Government of the Republic of China on Taiwan has evolved into a thriving free-market democracy that is today, our relationship has even deepened and strengthened in a way that can only happen when two countries share core values.

There are times when the economic or geopolitical interests of the United States are aligned with those of another country that does not fully embrace freedom as we do--whether that freedom is in the marketplace of goods and services or the marketplace of ideas in a democratic context. We can and should seek to engage with countries that do not share our values where it is in our national interest, and we do that.

Still, those relationships remain contingent on weighing economic and security costs and benefits. On the other hand, with free-market democracies like Taiwan, there is at the heart of our relationship a very high degree of mutual understanding underpinning all of our interactions. Our shared values mean that our long-term economic and strategic interests are likely to remain aligned. For instance, market economies are more likely to seek mutually beneficial free and fair trade. Democracies tend not to seek hegemony but cooperation. In short, our shared values provide the basis for an enduring and stable bond that can only exist between free people.

One of those fundamental values that is dear to my heart is religious freedom. I know my colleagues are aware of the disturbing reports out of the People's Republic of China about the closing and destruction of churches and the burning of Bibles. That is something we in the United States just do not understand how anybody, any country, could take this situation and think: Who is afraid of worshiping God? Well, it seems they have some problem in China.

In Xinjiang Province, the Chinese Government has rounded up over 1 million Uighurs and Kazakh Muslims. Tibetan Buddhists and practitioners of Falun Gong have also long had their freedom to practice their beliefs suppressed. This should disturb all free people.

Of course, the Communist leaders of China have excuses for their behavior. One of these is the need for sinicization of nonnative religions. In other words, they think religions like Christianity as freely practiced are somehow not compatible with Chinese society. Of course, from our point of view, that is strictly nuts.

Just look at Taiwan. It has the same Chinese history, the same Chinese language, the same Chinese culture as mainland China. Yet, on Taiwan, Christians and other religious groups practice their faith freely. No one gives even a second thought to whether this is compatible with their history and tradition because it is a matter of conscience, not a matter of undercutting the government. That is why I don't understand why it is a problem for Beijing.

In fact, Taiwan has arguably preserved traditional Chinese cultures better than on the mainland. Chiang Kai-shek was able to rescue and bring to Taiwan some of the most valuable treasures from Chinese history. Of course, these items in Taiwanese society, in general, were spared the horrors of the cultural revolution. Of course, the cultural revolution was when the Communist Party of China destroyed an untold number of historical artifacts as well as cultural and religious sites. Ancient Chinese texts were burned, and there were massive human rights abuses.

Some have suggested that recent developments in China are the beginning of a new sort of cultural revolution. I hope not because we know what the results of that were 50 or 60 years ago.

Whatever the Communist Chinese Government is thinking, its actions have shattered many illusions. The hope held by many in the United States was that robust engagement with the People's Republic of China on an economic and political level would help it to evolve into a free market democracy. That hope has now dimmed significantly. Things seem to be going quite in the opposite direction.

This is a bad sign, then, for U.S.-China relations. If the Chinese leaders would like to correct their current course and improve relations with the United States, just take the example of Taiwan. Just look across the Taiwan Strait for that model: Chinese people, just like they are in Beijing.

As the people of Taiwan celebrate their national day, I would like to thank them for their friendship with our great country. The Republic of China on Taiwan continues to be a strong partner in trade, security, and human rights. In fact, I should note that a delegation from Taiwan recently visited my home State of Iowa to increase their purchases of soybeans, and I greatly appreciate that, along with 88,000 Iowa farmers.

Finally, I would like to thank Taiwan for being a model of a free and democratic society when it can have a mutually beneficial partnership with the United States.

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