Fostering Undergraduate Talent By Unlocking Resources for Education Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, first, let me thank my colleagues from South Carolina, Tennessee, Washington State, Alabama, and Delaware for their hard work on this very important issue. I appreciated their words, and I think far more appreciated even than their eloquent words is the fact that we are getting this done, finally. I am so glad for it.

Let me just add my words of support for the FUTURE Act. A few minutes ago, as I mentioned, we passed the FUTURE Act by unanimous consent. I am so glad and grateful that the Senate came together today to give these institutions and the students they serve the certainty needed to continue focusing on their important mission.

In America, we believe in ladders up. People should have to climb those ladders. No one is going to put them up on a pedestal. But there should be the ladders there so that if somebody wants to work hard, they are given fair opportunity and barriers--sometimes barriers based on bigotry and discrimination--do not stand in their way.

One of the best ladders-up we have in America is our HBCUs. HBCUs make up 3 percent of colleges and universities, but they produce 27 percent of African-American students with bachelor degrees in STEM fields, 80 percent of African-American judges, 40 percent of African- American engineers, 50 percent of African-American lawyers, and 40 percent of African-American colleagues here in the Congress are HBCU graduates. So this is one fine ladder-up, as are our other institutions that spend much time helping Hispanic Americans and Native Americans as well.

We need these ladders. They are part of America. We should help them whenever we can. Tribal colleges and universities serving Black, Hispanic, and Native American populations serve more than 130,000 American Indians and Alaska Natives, the most underserved group in higher education. Hispanic-serving institutions have grown by nearly 40 percent since 2009, helping the Latino community make big inroads in college enrollment and completion. They now enroll 66 percent of all Hispanic undergraduates but account for only 15 percent of nonprofit colleges.

So all three of these types of institutions--the HBCUs, the colleges and universities serving American Indians and Alaska Natives, and Hispanic-serving institutions--are amazing ladders up. They are essential for making higher education accessible, affordable, and attainable for all Americans; essential for having that bright Sun--the American dream--actually shine on people instead of it being some words that are meaningless to them.

This is a very fine moment, and I want to thank all of those who put this all together and made it happen. We can celebrate. Most of the things that pass by UC around here--or many of them--are really kind of small and narrow. This is not. This is very important. And my salute to those who made it happen, whom I mentioned earlier. Impeachment

Madam President, now on a less happy subject, this morning the Speaker of the House instructed House committee chairs to begin drafting articles of impeachment against the President of the United States. That is a very solemn duty and solemn undertaking. The Speaker's decision comes after the House Intelligence Committee reported that its inquiry had ``uncovered a months-long effort by President Trump to use the powers of his office to solicit foreign interference on his behalf in the 2020 election.''

We know Russia interfered on Trump's behalf in 2016, and now he is trying to make it happen again, this time by trying to push Ukraine.

The charges against the President are extremely serious. No belittling of these charges will hold any water. The charge to use foreign interference on behalf of a candidate in the 2020 elections is dramatic and awful stuff.

These charges concern our national security. They concern the sanctity of our elections and the potential corruption of our Nation's foreign policy for personal political interests of the President of the United States. The gravity of those charges demands that Senators, if Articles of Impeachment are served to us, to put country over party and examine the evidence without prejudice or partisanship, which is why it is so disheartening, confounding, and deeply disappointing that, at this historic moment, I heard the Republican leader criticizing in such strident terms the process of the impeachment inquiry in the House for being too short and not including enough witnesses or due process for the President.

I respond on two counts. First, the Republican leader is simply wrong to suggest that the House process has been anything but deliberate, evenhanded, and serious. Speaker Pelosi, the House Intelligence Committee, and the House Judiciary Committee are proceeding exactly how the Constitution prescribes. But, second, it is the height of hypocrisy to criticize the House process for being too short and not including enough witnesses when the Trump administration is the one blocking witnesses from testifying.

What hypocrisy? How can a leader even say it with a straight face? Will this febrile obeisance to President Trump never cease? Are they so afraid of him and his bullying that they can't admit the obvious truth and twist themselves in pretzel knots to make arguments that are so spurious? It is the height of hypocrisy to criticize the House for not including enough opportunities for the President to make his defense when the President is refusing to participate. It is the height of hypocrisy to say that there are not enough witnesses when we don't hear a peep out of the Republicans urging the President to allow the witnesses that the House wanted to come forward.

This hyperventilation about the length of the House process and the number of witnesses is simply ridiculous. The Trump administration is responsible for those things, not House Democrats. Everyone knows that. Everyone knows they have gone to court to block witnesses and documents.

I remind my colleagues, if the Articles of Impeachment are indeed passed by the House, Leader McConnell and Senate Republicans must work with Democrats to set the parameters of a fair and impartial trial. Every Member of the Senate should support a fair process. The House is running a fair process now. We must do the same in the Senate if it comes to that.

All week, I have been urging my Senate Republican colleagues not to spread or even speculate about the dangerous myth that Ukraine--not just Putin--interfered in the 2016 elections. The myth was invented by Putin's intelligence services to deflect blame away from Putin while driving a wedge between the United States and Ukraine, one of Putin's top goals. When certain Senate Republicans are parroting Putin's talking points, we have a serious problem.

Hopefully, the overwhelming criticisms of the Members who did that this week have convinced them to stop and back off in the Republicans' absurd denial of fact and total defense of President Trump, even when it is obvious that he is not telling the truth. We have reached a low moment, and maybe the lowest of all was the mounting of Putin's conspiracy theory about Ukraine.

Now, another insidious conspiracy theory was doused with cold water this morning. The truth comes out, Republicans, sooner or later. Another theory was doused with cold water when it was reported that Attorney General Barr's handpicked prosecutor had reportedly found no evidence that the FBI probe into the Trump campaign was a setup. Republicans in the House, conservative media personalities, FOX News, and other blind partisan loyalists to the President have long conjured and peddled these deep-state conspiracy theories without evidence.

The Attorney General is even using the resources of the Justice Department--which could be exposing Chinese Communist Party's spies or tracking would-be radical terrorists or fighting opioids or tackling ransomware attacks on cities across the country--to investigate the origins of the 2016 probe. Attorney General Barr's actions are presumably in the hopes of turning up evidence to support these far- fetched theories.

Well, too bad, Republicans. Too bad, hard right. The Attorney General's handpicked prosecutor found no evidence to these conspiracy theories, that the investigation of President Trump was started with evil and political intent. The only evidence we have is that the outlandish loyalist theories peddled by President Trump and his allies to defend this administration are totally baseless. Border Security

Now, on another note, airport face scans, this morning, it was reported that the Trump administration will propose a rule to require U.S. citizens to have their faces scanned whenever they enter or leave the United States. This sounds like something out of China. Currently, all U.S. citizens are allowed to opt out of facial scans when entering or exiting the country. Now, the Trump administration is poised to remove that option and make facial scans mandatory for all travelers, including U.S. citizens.

I have significant concerns about what this policy would mean for the privacy of every American citizen. Just last year, a cyber attack of CBP compromised the personal information--in this case, it was license plates--and facial data of just under 100,000 people. Imagine if DHS were required to retain the facial data of every American who travels in and out of the country.

There are, of course, legitimate questions about whether the Federal Government is legally allowed to collect and store this data. Those questions must be answered before--not after--the Trump administration moves forward with its new rules. On something as serious as this, Congress should debate this issue.

Regardless, I see no reason why the current opt-out policy must change, and I will work with privacy advocates in the Senate, like my friend Senator Markey, to legislatively prevent the administration from moving forward. TRACED Act

Another issue, robocalls, the House of Representatives yesterday passed bipartisan legislation to crack down on the tens of billions of robocalls that plague Americans every year. All of us are bothered by these darn robocalls. They come at the worse times, and they are on and on. You can't even shut them off.

Last year alone, Americans were battered by 48 billion--billion-- robocalls. That is 150 calls per person, per year. Robocalls are annoying. They are persistent, and beyond that, many of them are dangerous to consumers. Foreign companies can make thousands of calls with a push of a button and can charge Americans simply for picking up the call. Can you believe that? Many are designed to scam elderly Americans. We have heard about elderly Americans who are frightened and send their life savings to these criminal callers. Many of the calls target institutions like hospitals and slow down important businesses.

The TRACED Act passed by the Senate in May and recently amended and passed by the House requires phone companies to block robocalls without charging consumers and will give the Justice Department and the FCC better tools to prosecute scammers who prey on unsuspecting--many elderly--Americans. I am proud to be a cosponsor of the original Senate bill. I pushed hard to move it forward. The Senate should now take action on the amended and expanded robocall legislation from the House and pass it before the year is out.

As we saw with the recent legislation to the democratic protests in Hong Kong, when there is bipartisan consensus on an issue, we can move swiftly to enact bipartisan legislation. These moments, unfortunately, are far too rare under Leader McConnell, who has avoided the consideration of legislation on the floor, even when it has bipartisan support, but I hope as we enter the final few weeks of the year, Leader McConnell will address the issue of robocalls and send this bipartisan to the President's desk.

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