Transcripts For CSPAN2 U.S. Senate U.S. Senate 20180118

Mr. Lankford mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from oklahoma. Mr. Lankford i ask unanimous consent to viscerate the quorum. The presiding officer the senate not in a quorum call. Mr. Lankford mr. President , i want to get a chance to address an ongoing conversation thats going on in washington, d. C. , right now and will be over the next 36 hours. As unusual as this may sound with all the drama thats happening here, just outside this building there are tens of thousands ofeople, most of them students, that are gathering in washington, d. C. , preparing for something called the march for life. This has happened for decades now. For students and adults that come from all over the country to be able to come to washington, d. C. , to quietly speak for those who cannot speak for themselves children still in the womb, to be able to speak out for the protection of life. It is an interesting conversation that has a tremendous amount of science and a tremendous amount of faith and a tremendous amount of heat around it. As some individuals dont want to discuss the issue of abortion or would simply say thats a womans choice, need to set that aside and ignore it, there are a whole group of students that are rising up and saying, wait a minute. That child in the womb has ten fingers and ten toes, unique d. N. A. Thats different from the mom and dad, the child has a beating heart. That doesnt sound like tissue to me. That sounds like a child. Theyre raising great issues that quite frankly science reinforces as well. Last week i had the opportunity to be able to stop by one of the Great Research facilities in oklahoma. Theyre doing tremendous research on cancer, on m. S. , on alzheimers, and a lot more. I stopped by one of the labs and talked to one of the scientists there. Theyre actually doing research on zebra fish. As odd as this may sound, theyre taking zebra fish eggs, developi those eggs, there ininvestigating them with a ge that theyre injecting them with a gene that they know to be cancerous in humans, allowing that to develop in the zebra fish, seeing the abnormalities there, treatin treating it with different drugs to see if they can reverse the abnormalities. Theyre taking zebra fish, creating problems and seeing if they can fix it. All for one simple thing. The ability to be able to cure diseases that affect human life. We have as a culture determined that life is valuable. Human life especially is valuable and precious. The challenge that we have is determining when that life begins. Myself and millions of others believe life begins at conception, when that child has different d. N. A. Than the mom or the dad, that tissue is not just the moms tissue at that point, its growing independently. Theres no difference in that child in the womb and the child thats in the background playing and laughing and going down the slide other than time. Theres no difference. Last year the Cleveland Cavaliers guard had a little dakota. She was born at less than a pound at 19 weeks of development. She left the hospital five months later at 7 pounds, 4 ounces. 7 pounds, 5 ounces actually. When she left the hospital, it was a remarkable event. It was celebrated all over social media for this guard for the n. B. A. Cleveland cavaliers and this beautiful child leaving. Dakota is now a year old. Its been interesting the stir that happened around her birth. A lot of people stopped and thought about a child that small and young. It was interesting the articles that came out noted that a child at 23 weeks of development has a 50 to 60 of survival now. Science has changed a lot over the last several decades. A lot is happening. It is remarkable to hear the stories of surgery thats happening inutero. In 1995, Roberto Rodriguez went through surgery still . The womb. He had major problems in his left lung and at 20 weeks they went in and did surgery inutero fixing his left lung, allowed him to finish out. 13 weeks later he was delivered healthy. Little Roberto Rodriguez is now 22 years old. Technology is not new anymore. In many way the science has far surpassed conversation here in america dealing with policy with children. The Supreme Court back in the 1970s when they passed roe v. Wade had this whole conversation about viability and that government has the right to be able to step in and protect children at the moment that theyre viable. In the 1970s that was very different than what it is now. Now we see children at 21, 22 weeks of development and being born and being natural, healthy, great children. We need to be able to catch up in law. We may disagree on a lot of things in life. As ive already stated, i believe life begins at conception. But in this body, i know there is a lot of conception about how do we actually goat a sense of commonality on these issues. Let me lay down three different issues that i think maybe we can find some Common Ground on these three issues. We may disagree on when life begins, can we at least agree that americans have a groom of conscience . Can we at least agree on lateterm abortions when a child is clearly viable . And can we at least agree when a child is born alive, they should be protected . Let me hit those three quickly. The first one is basic freedom of conscience. Allowing an individual to be able to live out their conscience. I spoke to several nurses a few months ago. Those nurses when they were hired at the hospitals they worked in told the individuals in h. R. And the physicians they work with, they believe that life begins at conception and they had a moral and conscious believe that they wanted to protect children and they were told at the moment, you will not have to participate in abortions. We understand your conscious belief. Well protect your conscious belief. And for years they did not. And then suddenly they ran short in nurses at one moment and they pulled each of them in at different times in different hospitals in different states. They told stories of being pulled into a story, being told on the way in we need new this procedure, arriving only to find out it was an abortion they were being forced to assist with. They were appalled to be a part of the death of a child. Rather than protecting the life of a child. But each of them was told, you will los you job if you dont participate in the taking of this childs life. Thats an unfair place to be able to put them in. Individuals should be able to have the freedom of conscience and to be able to live out their moral and spiritual beliefs. I would never go to an abortion doctor and force him to peacefully protest against his own abortion clinic. That would be absurd. But for some reason proabortion hospitals see no issue at times compelling a staff member to participate in something they find objectionable, even when theyve made their stance clear. We should never force a person to administer a lethal injection in a prison if they have a moral objection to the death penalty. That seems only reasonable. Were rightfully furious when a man threatens a woman with firing if she doesnt respond to his advances. No one would say if she doesnt like his advances, she can just go find another job. But for some in our culture, they want to look away when that same man threatens a woman with firing if she doesnt violate her conscience and help perform an abortion. Theyre willing to tell her, just quit and go find another job. Whats the difference . We wouldnt compel a vegan to eat meat at a company barbecue, would why would we compel a person to assist in the taking of a life when theyre personally offended by the practice . The right of conscience should be protected for every person. Religious intolerance is a personal choice, not a legal requirement in america. Lateterm abortions are another area we should find Common Ground on and should be able to protect these children. We should agree that elective lateterm abortions should be ended in america. This is an elective abortion after five mounts of pregnancy, when the childs nervous system is fully developed, they can feel pain tax at that point. We in america because of the proabortion lobby and the activists around have lost track of this simple fact. We are one of seven nations in the world that allow elective abortions after 22 weeks of gestation. In fact, of those seven nations that allow abortions, three of those, canada, singapore, and netherlands allow elective abortions only until 24 weeks, just two weeks later. But there are only four countries in the world that allow elective abortions at any moment. You ready for this club . Four nations that are like us. The United States, vietnam, north korea, and china. Thats it. Those four nations allow elective abortions at any stage like we do. That is a Horrible Club for the United States of america to be in. They are some of the worst human rights violators in the world, and thats the elite club that we find ourself in. The proabortion lobby is so powerful and is so wealthy and theyre so engaged, theyre not willing to even relent that even one childs life could be protected, even when theyre clearly viable. Leaving the United States in this horrible collection with vietnam, north korea, and china on abortion policy. At five months old, a child in the womb can kick, stretch, yawn, smile, suck its thumb, and feel pain. Its a viable child. Lateterm abortions represent only 1. 3 of all abortions in america. I would contend we should stop this practice altogether. 191 nations already do, that they dont allow this, 191 nations. Theres no reason we should not as well. Its interesting. The Washington Post heard several people quote that statistic about seven nations are the only nations that actually allow any abortions this late in the stage. Those four that i mentioned, the netherlands, canada and singapore allow up to 24 weeks but not after that. They ransom their famous fact checker on this issue. The Washington Post ransom through all of it, looked at it saying this sounds like this is not correct, except they ransom through the whole study, looked at it, fact checked the whole thing and at the end of it came back and said no, it actually is correct. What seemed a dubious statement in the beginning, they fact checked and gave what the Washington Post calls their elite jepetco interpretation. That means no pinocchio, true statements. I believe life begins at conaccepting, but i would say to this group not everyone agrees with me on this but we should at least be able to protect life when its viable. Let me add one more detail to this thats painful to even discuss. Of those lateterm abortions that occur, theres 1. 3 of those abortions that occur during thi late time period. The child isoo lge and too well developed to actually have a traditional abortion procedure. So the abortions are done by the abortion doctor reaching in with a tool into the womb and literally pulling the childs arms and legs off allowing the child to bleed to death in the womb and then pulling its parts out a piece at a time. Why do we allow that in america . 191 other nations do not. All of europe does not. When is the last time you heard me say our social policy needs to catch up with europe . Were better than this. Last statement. I have some colleagues that want to be able to join me in this conversation as well. We should be able to agree on a simple principle, that if an abortion is conducted and yet its botched and instead of destroying the child in the womb, the abortion doctor actually induces the delivery, in those rare cases the Current Practice is, when the child is delivered, everyone in the operating room backs away and allows the child to die of exposure on the table. Because they cant actually take the life anymore. Its been fully delivered. Kerma sits in prison right now because as an abortionist in philadelphia, he was of the practice of delivering children and killing them after delivered. So its a crime already to be able to physically take the life of that individual. So the Current Practice is if they mess up the abortion and deliver instead of destroy, they just allow the child to die on its own crying on the table. Can we as congress and as americans at least agree that it is barbaric to watch a crying child on the table slowly die . That at least at that moment of delivery we would agree a child is a child when we can see all ten of their fingers, see all ten of their toes, and hear their voice crying on the table. This is an issue that shouldnt be controversial. This is an issue that we should find great compassion. And i would challenge this body when we deal with conscience and we deal with lateterm abortions and we deal with children that are born alive,hat we find resolution in those areas. Im awarehis is a difficult topic. I understand for many people in this conversation, its painful to even consider it. And for the millions of women who have experienced abortion in their personal life, that this is painful to even consider. But im also aware that until we talk about these hard issues and resolve them, it will continue to advance. Were better than this as a nation. Lets prove it in the way that we treat our most vulnerable. With that, mr. President , i would ask for a time of colloquy time with some of my colleagues and would like to be able to recognize senator blunt from missouri. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Blunt mr. President , im the presiding officer the senator from missouri. Mr. Blunt im here with the senator from oklahoma. Were about to be joined by the senator from iowa to talk about a topic that senator lankford just said is difficult to talk about. When you actually stand up and explain whats going on, its hard to imagine that we still let these things happen. Senator lankford, you know, one thing id suggest that we could talk about is the fact that the minds of people have changed on this and almost all change once you explain the two things that the congress is focused on this year. Polling on this, i believe 63 of all americans now believe that these lateterm abortions should not be allowed to occur. Many as you well pointed out, the countries that allow this to happen are not the countries whose social policies youd want to be aligned with. China, north korea who have a stated purpose of eliminating children just for no other reason than population control, and they wind up eliminating more female children than male children in that process because apparently their belief is that the male child has more economic value going forward. Why would we want to be aligned with countries that look at these issues that way or just simply think that the pain should be allowed. The house has passed the pain capable bill. And where are we now in the house on the born alive bill . Is it to be voted on this week or has it been voted on already . Mr. Lankford in colloquy, the house has passed both a pain capable and infant protection born alive. In a prior month. The senate has yet to take that up and is our hope in the senate to be able to bring that up for real dialogue in conversation in the days ahead. Mr. Blunt i think the pain capable bill was passed by the house in october. We have thousands of americans coming this week focusing on tomorrow to talk about this issue. These two bills are two of their priorities, but of course their priority is to honor life. The march for life is designed to do exactly that. And it clearly the march for life in its 45th year now is not a celebration. Its not an anniversary of celebration. Rather its a time to remember that theres a lot that we still need to do to ensure that our society is a society that values every human life no matter how small, no matter how vulnerable, no matter how little capacity that life has to protect itself. And the way that the society i think has decided to deal with this is looking at things like partial birth abortion, the description of which was every bit as bad as the dismembering abortions. Congress stepped forward on that topic. Some people who performed that particular act didnt stop doing it but theyre in trouble when you find out they have done it. So thousands of people from all over the country, in fact, tens of thousands of people, its a number i believe is always underreported based on looking at the march for life crowd and any other crowds we see here. I guarantee the final number, if you take any of those crowds and look at them, you believe that there is a willingness to ignore the thousands of people that come in buses if all over the country in the worst possible weather more years than not to stand up and say we dont want this to happen. Young people i think are increasingly more and more defensive of the idea of life and are more and more offended by the places which we where weve chosen not to draw the line. How can you possibly justify a baby thats born alive and the process that senator lankford just described where you cant take that life but you can step back and not do anything to save that life or the uniquely troubled countries were involved in that allow allow developed children,oy and girls, ten fingers, ten toes, the ability to feel pain, to inflict that pain on those children at that time. The American People dont support this. Almost nobody who understands whats going on supports it. If youre asking polling, i think, as i said earlier, 63 , more than six out of ten americans say how could we be continuing to let that happen. So supporting those who come here, responding to those who understand this, and certainly the two senators on the floor here, the senator from iowa and the senator from oklahoma, are among the best advocates for life, among the best advocates for getting information out about life, about adoption, about what happens that our laws allow that the laws of other countries dont allow. Certainly ill be welcoming the march to life this year from missouri and other states. The Vice President last year became the first Vice President in the history of the country to speak to the march for life and made it clear where his views were and where the administration is. The missing component here to do the right thing is the congress itself. We have an opportunity to step up and do that. We need to have this debate on the floor because people, once they enter into this debate, realize its not a debate that they want to be in because the wrong side of this is the side where slightly more than a handful of countries allow to happen what we allow to happen. Im pleased to be here on the floor with senator lankford and senator ernst. Senator ernst, im going to turn to you now. Mrs. Ernst thank you. Id like to thank my colleagues. Thank you, mr. President. I thank my colleagues from oklahoma, missouri, and will be joined shortly by the senator from montana as well. Mr. President , im rising today to discuss the importance of protecting and celebrating life. As i travel across the state of iowa, i have had the opportunity to hear directly from families whose lives have been changed by the innovative life affirming Services Offered by their local pregnancy resource center. And there are so many more stories of vulnerable lives saved all across the country, not just in iowa but all across the country. So i would like to begin by recognizing the critical, on the ground actions of these pregnancy Resource Centers, maternity homes, and adoption agencies across the country that are changing and saving lives. And i want to thank them for all that they do. Since coming to washington, ive tried to hold Congress Accountable to do its part to protect the most vulnerable in our society. The senator fr the senator from missouri just mentioned that we can measure a society, and ours is a great society, bute can do more to protect those tt are vulnerable. For example, last january, i introduced legislation to defund planned parenthood while protecting Womens Health care centers. As i have stated time and again, taxpayers should not be forced to foot the bill for roughly a half a billion dollars annually for an organization like planned parenthood that exhibits such disrespect for human life. Despite what they may claim otherwise, planned parenthood is not the nations preeminent provider of Womens Health care. For example, planned parenthood facilities dont even perform inhouse mammograms. They dont do that. Community health centers, on the other hand, continue to greatly outnumber planned parenthoods. They provide greater preventative primary health care services, regardless of a persons ability to pay. Additionally, last april, President Trump signed my legislation into law that ensures states are not forced to provide entities like planned parenthood, the nations single largest provider of abortions, with federal title 10. Im grateful to have worked with congresswoman diane black, a dear friend in the house, my Senate Colleagues who are here with me today, and President Trump to make sure states are not forced to award providers like planned parenthood with taxpayer dollars through title 10 Family Planning grants. Another effort my colleagues and i continue to work on is passing senator grahams paincapable unborn Child Protection act right here in the senate. Whenever i discuss this bill, i cannot help but share the remarkable story of a very special family from newton, iowa. In july, 2012, mika pickering was born prematurely at just 20 weeks. 20 weeks postfertilization. The very age at which this bill would prohibit artions. When he was born, mika was only, if you can imagine it, micah was only about the size of a bag of m ms. About the size of the palm of my hand. Yet micah was a several formed baby, with ten fingers and ten toes. Now, when i first met micah, he was just a few years old, and he came to visit me in my office, and we had a photo of micah when he was just born. Again, folks, the size of the palm of my hand. A little bag of m ms. That photo, i had it in my office. Little micah ran up to that photo, and he pointed at it, and he said baby, and we said yes, micah, thats a baby. Thats a baby. Just a few months ago, i had the opportunity to visit again with micah and his parents at my office here in d. C. , and i can attest that now at 5 years old, micah remains a happy, healthy, energetic little boy. Stories like micahs show all of us that at five months, an unborn child is a child, just as micah would say a baby. There is also significant Scientific Evidence that at five months of development, these babies can feel pain, yet there is no federal law protecting these vulnerable babies from abortion. As a result, every year in our country, the lives of thousands of babies just like micah and end painfully through abortion. Currently, the United States is one of only seven countries to allow abortions at five months of gestation. We are in the company of china and north korea. Folks, this is unacceptable. There is much work to be done in the ongoing fight to protect life. We understand that. But as folks from across the country travel to washington to march for life this week, im urging my colleagues to join me in calling for a vote on this critical legislation that recognizes these unborn babies as the children they are and provides them the same protection from pain and suffering that all of our children deserve. Again, as Micah Pickering would say, a baby. Thank you. A senator mr. President , i would like to ask senator sasse to join in this colloquy as well. Mr. Sasse thank you to the senator from oklahoma. Thank you to the senator from montana for spelling me. Im sitting in the presiding chair during this colloquy, so im not on the ground floor to be able to speak and participate, but id like to associate myself with this colloquy and with the leadership of the senators from oklahoma, missouri, iowa, and montana. I, too, know micah and it is an amazing thing. I wish that all 100 senators in this body had a chance to know micah and his family, and i also want to associate myself with the comments of the senator from oklahoma as you began this, that we are one of only four countries in the world that allow elective abortion at any time for any reason. Our peers in this are north korea, china, and vietnam, and it is a genuine shame. And the American People need to understand that, and this body needs to grapple with that reality. And as the senator from missouri said, it is special to be a part of the rally and the march of the next 36 hours because the college kids who are coming here, they understand this far better than the general public. There is a movement in this country to want to respect and celebrate life. Good things are happening generationally in this cause. I just wanted to associate myself with this colloquy and thank the senator from montana for spelling me from the chair. Thank you. Mr. Lankford mr. President , this is a difficult issue for so many people because it is intensely personal for so many people. We understand full well the grief that some families have when this topic comes up, because there are millions of men and women who they know their child has been aborted. We get that. We want to experience incredible compassion over them as they have struggled through some of the most difficult decisions of their lif we understand that when they go to the mall and they watch a small child laugh in the food court at the mall, they wonder in the back of their head would that have sounded like my child when they laughed . We get the grief that they live with for the rest of their life as they process through what some physician told them was tissue but in their heart they know was a chile. This is a nation that we can set some basic principles to be able to help those individuals, to be able to promote adoption, to be able to encourage those families and to help walk alongside of them. Were good at grace and compassion as a nation. We can continue to be better at it. One of the ways we have got to be able to express that is for the most vulnerable, for those children that have yet to be born. With that, mr. President , id like to invite the senator from montana to also join into this colloquy. Mr. Daines senator lankford, thank you for leading this effort here today, this very important conversation. I want to thank senator blunt, senator ernst, senator sasse for joining us today as well in this discussion. Mr. President , 28 years ago, i became a firsttime dad. By the grace of god, we got to see three more children born after our first child, david, was born. I can tell you, my wife, cindy, and i, we were excited, a little bit terrified when we welcomed david into the world. And as a parent, one of the toughest things is to see your child in pain. I remember when david cried, i would have given an arm and a leg to stop that pain. Iemember when he was just a little baby, taking david to the pediatrician, maybe to get that shot and so forth and the pain david felt and the screams and the crying. I think it was much, much harder on the parents than on the baby. And i think we all recognize the pain a child feels after theyre born. But as i have gone on and researched this issue of pain and babies and so forth, the science tells us that a baby feels pain before theyre born. And senator sasse mentioned earlier that we are one of the few nations that allows elective abortion at any time during a pregnancy one of four any time during a pregnancy. The question is if we were one hour before delivery, the baby is one hour from being delivered, as a nation, can we at least agree that we should have a law that says abortion should not be allowed because its pretty clear that that babys going to feel pain. The question is at what point do we know that they feel pain during the pregnancy . Its shocking to think that our nation loses 13,000 children a year to lateterm abortion. Of course, we can have the debate, we should have the debate about all abortions, but really were focused on today on lateterm abortions. 13,000 children a year die to lateterm abortion. At 20 weeks, these babies can suck their thumb, they can yawn, they can stretch, they can make faces, and the science shows these babies are also capable of feeling pain. Our ears may be deaf to their cries, but we dont have to live in ignorance, not when research and even common sense tells us these unborn children feel pain. In fact, there is a reason that unborn babies are oftentimes given fetal surgery. Thats why we must pass the paincapable unborn Child Protection act. It is unconscionable that we are allowing unborn children as old as 20 weeks thats 5 months to be killed when they can feel pain. In fact, do a google search. If you have a smartphone, sitting in front of a computer, type in 20 weeks. You dont have to type in baby. Just type in 20 weeks. And then take a look at the pictures, the images that come up after you complete that search. This is one of them. In fact, i just had my smartphone last night. I said to my staff, i typed in 20 weeks in the google search. This is the image that comes up. How can we say that that is not a baby . And while much in the media turn a blind eye to the atrocious acts of Kermit Gosnell and they didnt watch the horrific videos taken undercover at planned parenthood clinics, many of us did. We did watch. And we cannot sit in silence. Most of us would not wish that treatment on our most hated of enemies, let alone a child of any age. The u. S. Is just one of seven countries that allows elective abortions after 20 weeks. Its not a good list to be on. Its the same list that we share that has china and north korea on it. As an american citizen, i believe in our founding principle that all men, all women are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, and among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. As a person of faith, i am called, we are called to help the most vulnerable in our society, and as a United States senator, it is my honor to support this leglation, the paincapable unborn Child Protection act. And i urge its swift passage. Mr. Lankford mr. President , this has just been a dialogue, colloquy here on the floor. I thank senator daines of montana, senator blunt of missouri, senator ernst from iowa, senator sasse from nebraska joining on the dialogue and basic issue of life. In 1973 roe v. Wade passed through the Supreme Court in their decision, in a split decision there this week, in 1973. We still have this dialogue. Theres still an ongoing argument about looking into the womb. We know a lot more now about science now than they knew in 1973. We know a lot more about the development of a child now than what they knew in 1973. And were still having this ongoing debate that i think is a righteous debate, quite frankly. I think its entirely appropriate for us to be able to talk about these kind of difficult issues and to try to find some resolution. The American People have these dialogues. We should have them here and to be able to bring the debate to the forefront. This is not about people that we hate, and its always interesting to be able to get the dialogue and push back from people saying you just hate people because of whatever true. It actually that we love children. Thatslly the issue. There is a vulnerable child in the middle of this conversation. Sometimes they dont seem to come up in the conversation about protecting rights or about giving people privacy, and all those things are wonderful euphemisms but in the middle of that theres a very small child thats being discussed. Were trying to elevate their voice to literally speak for those who cannot speak for themselves. We think thats an appropriate role for government, to speak out for the most vulnerable and see if we can find justice for those individuals. This week is not only the week that we have the anniversary of roe v. Wade. Its also the week that we celebrate Martin Luther king jr. Day. I would say hes a terrific role model in this conversation. His basic teaching that hate doesnt win over a friend. Only love can do that. Only love can transform an enemy into a friend. Thats what were trying to do. To people that oppose this idea, we get it. We can have that dialogue. Youre not our enemy, though. Quite frankly, we want to respond to your comments in love and say lets sit down and have a reasonable dialogue. Let us express our affection for children and be able to talk about how valuable they really are in our society. Lets talk about adoption. Lets talk about ways to be able to continue to take care of those. But in the middle of it, lets talk about a child as a child. Not as just tissue thats random. Because tissue thats just random doesnt suck its thumb and smile back at you. It doesnt stretch and yawn. Thats a child that does that. We want to be able to have that conversation. I would urge this body to stop ignoring what millions of the American People see as the issue. Lets talk about the child and lets see where were going to go. I think a good first step for us to be able to talk about this is the infant protection born alive bill. The lateterm, what we call the paincapable bill dealing with lateterm abortions that are very late, five months and later, and the issue of conscience. Are we really going to compel people to perform procedures they find morally reprehensible in the destruction of a child rather than the protection of a child . We should be able to find Common Ground on those. And then lets keep the conversation going, because its a reasonable thing for us to be able to discuss. If we cant talk about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in this place, where could we talk about it . Again i thank my colleagues for participating, and your tenacity and your compassion and your affection for all americans, whether they agree or disagree on this issue, i appreciate very much your engagement and appreciate very much the volunteers scattered around the country right now that are serving women in some of the most difficult moments of their life. Crisis Pregnancy Centers and womens Resource Centers and other locations where theyre volunteering, theyre providing clothes, theyre providing help, theyre providing sonograms and pregnancy tests and theyre walking those families through those tough days. Thanks to those volunteers wherever they may be today and bless you for the ongoing work that you have. With that, mr. President , i would yield the floor. Mr. Daines mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from montana. Mr. Daines i ask unanimous consent that my next remarks appear at a separate place in the record. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Daines mr. President , 24,000 montana childrens access to Childrens Health care is on the line today. The house of representatives is working to pass legislation that reauthorizes a program called the Childrens Health Insurance Program, its better known as chip. To reauthorize this program for six years and to keep the government open, which if passed, will then come to us for a vote. Why dont we take the opportunity before us to come together on issues we agree on instead of always fighting on what divides us . And i think we can all agree on keeping montana kids healthy. Let me tell you a story about a family from helena mt. , montana, the agee family. Jackson was a normal baby, a happy, healthy baby until october of 2016 when he was just eight months old. And thats when he was flown from helena to missoulas Medical Center pediatric intensive care unit. He was desperately ill with a respiratory infection. At that time it wasnt clear why jackson got so sick, but his parents soon learned that he had lay syndrome, a disease in which the body is not able to process energy properly leading to muscle weakness, swallowing problems, and severe illnesses with just a simple or common cold. His parents quickly learned to manage his new feeding tube, to suction his mouth and his throat, and to put him on oxygen monitors at night. Unfortunately, jackson has had five more serious infections. Each time hes become ill, its happened so quickly that hes had to have been flown to missoula, even though he has a team of pediatricians, nurses, dietitians, Speech Therapists and physical therapists trying to help him from getting ill. As jacksons mom would say when jackson gets ill, the only way to keep him from having to be flown to missoula is to get him seen by his pediatrician as soon as possible so if he does get sick, its relatively minor. I can tell you this family in montana is grateful for healthy montana kids. Thats montanas chip program. They are thankful for providing jacksons insurance and they copay for his care and his medical supplies. His mom says that the insurance is what makes it possible to manage jacksons condition and possible to afford well baby checks instead of just going to the doctor on an emergency basis. To add moreackground to the story, jacksons dad was disabled in a workplace accident, and hes home caring for jackson in the familys other two children. Jacksons mom works and her employer has been phenomenal those are her words to her as they have faced jacksons hospitalizations. But the family of five couldnt afford jacksons care without healthy montana kids. A helicopter bill for the ride from helena, missoula, alone can be as much as as 30,000 and jackson has taken that flight six times. This family doesnt know what theyll do if the funding for chip runs out, but they are committed to caring for their son no matter what. Mr. President , that is why i support a sixyear reauthorization of chip. Let me remind you of another reason. This is danielle. Shes nine years old, and she leaves in deer lodge, montana. She was just 18 months old and suddenly lost the ability to walk. Cindy and i are parents of four children. I cant imagine a more frightening moment as a parent, an 18monthold child suddenly they lose their ability to walk. She was diagnosed with a form of juvenile arthritis. You dont think about arthritis affecting an 18monthold child. This is a disease that causes pain, swelling as well as vision problems. Thankfully danielle was started on a medication, a twice ago month injection that controls the swelling and inflammation. And because of that she can walk and she can even run again. But these injections are expensive. To pay outright for just one month costs over 6,000. And last summer for three months, danielle was unable to get the injections. She stopped walking. She couldnt go to school. Her mom had to carry her through the house. When danielle was approved for montanas chip program, she was able to go to the doctor. She got danielle on another medication and infusion this time. She is now back at School Running around, to quote mom, like a kid who doesnt have any problems. Danielle loves to study math and science. And when she grows up, of all things, her dream is to be a doctor for kids. Without chip, danielles family would be unable to afford the medication she needs. Without chip, danielle wouldnt be walking. Danielle and jackson and the thousands of other montana kids and their families need us to work for them. Mr. President , im saddened that partisan politics would come in the way of these childrens access to health care. We have the opportunity today to reauthorize chip for six years and avert a Government Shutdown at the same time. I urge my colleagues to do the right thing here. Do the right thing for the 24,000 montana kids who use this important program. I urge them to support a sixyear reauthorization of chip and to keep the government open. Mr. President , i yield back my time. A senator mr. President. The presiding officer if no one yields time, it will be charged equally to both sides. Mr. Sanders mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from vermont. Mr. Sanders thank you. Mr. President , i ask that the quorum call be vitiated. The presiding officer the senate is not in a quorum call. The senator is recognized. Mr. Sanders in that case, it doesnt have to be vitiated. Mr. President , we are at a pivotal moment. If the congress does not get its act together by tomorrow there will be a government shut down. A government shut down will be extraordinarily destructive to the people of our country, millions of whom depend upon government services. It will be destructive to millions of federal employees who keep their families going with a paycheck from the government. It will be destructive to the United States armed forces, men and women who put their lives on the line to defend us. So it seems to me that we have got to do everything that we can to prevent a government shut down. Now, as everybody knows, we have a Republican Party which controls the United States senate, Republican Party which controls the u. S. House of representatives, and a republican who is in the white house, President Trump. We are now three and a half months into the fiscal year, and yet the Republican Party has yet to give us an annual budget. The United States government is a 3 trillion operation. There is no business in this country of any size that can run week to week, month to month. We need an annual budget, and now the republicans are coming back and asking for a fourth continuing resolution. You cannot run a government like that. It is unfair to the American People. It is unfair to the armed forces. It is unfair to all of us. 3 and a half months have gone in the fiscal year and yet the Childrens Health Insurance Program has not been reauthorized. This is a program that has existed for decades with bipartisan support. How can we not reauthorize the chip program . 3 and a half months of the fiscal year have come and gone, we have not reauthorized the Community Health Center Program which provides primary health care, dental care, lowcost prescription drugs to 27 million americans in every state in this country. Mr. President , if legislation were brought to the floor of the senate today, the stabenow bill reauthorizing this, i suspect we would get 70, 75 votes. Yet republicans, after threend a half months have not able to reauthorize health care or the chip program. Mr. President , when we talk about the budget process, we are talking about three major issues. There are more, but there are three major issues. Number one, will we continue to have parity in spending between defense spending and nondefense spending . Since 2011 in four different budgets there has been a bipartisan agreement that for every dollar you spend on defense is a dollar on the needs of a struggling middle class, millions of people who are struggling every day to keep their heads above water economically. A dollar here, a dollar there. That has been agreed upon on four separate occasions, but senator mcconnell came to to the floor and said we want to do away with that parity. We want to be able to spend more on the military and less on the needs of working families. Mr. President , we have a middle class which is shringing. We have shrinking. We have the highest rate of Child Poverty of almost any major country on earth many we have millions of elderly people who cannot make it on 12,000, 13,000 a year and we have an Opioid Crisis hitting the nation and my state very hard. We have an infrastructure which is crumbling. We cannot ignore the working needs of of the families of this country and not spend on the military. What we node to do to get a bipartisan agreement is reauthorize chip and the Community Health Center Program. The strab now stabenowblunt bill has the votes. Lets do it. We have to deal with the pension issue, mr. President. 1. 5 million American Workers are going to lose their pensions. That cannot be allowed to happen. We have to stand with those workers. Mr. President , i went to a feeting meeting earli today dealing with the Social Security administ administration which provides, which is the administrative arm that makes sure that the elderly and disabled get their benefits in a timely manner. For years now republicans have underfunded that administration and today there are simply not enough employees to do the work that has to be done. And now, amazingly enough, over in the house they are talking about massive cuts to the Social Security administration on top of the cuts they have already received. The Washington Post wrote an article a few weeks ago, unbelievable. And what they said is that over the last year, if you can believe it, 10,000 people with disabilities who had applied for Social Security benefits died while waiting for those while waiting for those claims to be processed, and they were not processed in a timely manner because the Social Security administration does not have the workers that it needs and has been significantly underfunded. For the sake of the Senior Citizen of our country, for the sake of the disabled, any budget agreement, when we have parity, must supply sufficient amounts of money for the Social Security administration so that they can do their work. Mr. President , every veterans day every member of this body talks about how much they love veterans. The veterans Administration Today has 30,000 vacancies which means that our veterans veterans are not getting the timely care that they must receive. We have to fill those vacancies. Any budget agreement must include increased funding for the v. A. Mr. President , in my state of vermont and all over this country there are millions of young people who went to college, went to graduate school, and have left School Deeply in debt. And because of high interest rates, some of those people owe more money today after paying off year after year of their debt than they did the year after they got their debt. We have to face the debt crisis facing 40 million americans. In vermont, and again all over this country, if youre a working person, what do you do if you have a 3yearold or a 2yearold . Well, you look for decent quality child care, but all over this country it is difficult to find that child care. Any serious bget agreement that we reach must include increasing funding for child care so that working people in this country know that when they leave their kid at a center that child will receive quality care at a cost that is affordable. Every dollar that we invest in Early Childhood education is a dollar well spent. Mr. President , all over this country in this, the most wealthy nation in the history of the world, we have an frawg, roads, wastewater plants that are crumbling in many parts of Rural America and in the state of vermont we do not have highquality broadband or cellphone service. How do you maintain a community . How do you bring business into a community . How do kids do their homework if you dont have decent decent broadband or cellphone service. We have to invest in Rural America and make sure every community in this country has broadband and the kind of infrastructure that it needs in order to prosper. Mr. President , one of the tragedies taking place in this country today and resulting, unbelievably, in a lowered life ex pecks tensey rate here in expectancy rate in america, it is in decline, and one of the reasons is the tragic opioid and heroin epidemic which claimed 60,000 lives last year. We have to we cant ignore that problem. We have to invest in treatments and we have to help states all over this country and families struggling with this issue. I point is, mr. President , we need parity, not for some abstract inside adult reason, we need parity in spending because we need more in this country than just a strong military. We need a strong middle class, we need a strong working class, we cannot turn our backs on tens of millions of people who are struggling. And the second issue that we have got to deal with here in the congress is the issue of daca and the need for a clean dreamers legislation. In september President Trump initiated a very serious crisis, and what he did was rescinded president obamas executive order providing legal status through daca to 800,000 young people. These are young people who were raised in the United States of america. These are young people who today are working. They are in school. They are in the military. This is the only home they have ever known. This is the only country that any of them, or many of them, can even remember. The idea of simply doing away with the legal status that they have, subjecting them to deportation, subjecting them to being taken away from their only country they have ever known and loved is literally beyond comprehension and unspeakable. In september, when trump initiated this process by rescinding obamas executive order on daca, he said to congress, the Republican Leadership in the house and senate, you fix it. Get legislation done. Well, there are people right now, senator durbin, senator graham, who a wking on legislation. It doesnt go as far as i would like it to go, but on serious legislation in the house, you have the vast majority of democrats and many republicans who understand we cannot turn our backs on these young people. But thats not just what we feel here in the house and the senate. It is what the American People want. Poll after poll after poll shows that 70 , 75 , 80 of the American People say, provide these 800,000 young people with legal status, provide them with a path towards citizenship. Very few people think that we should turn our backs on these young people, let daca expire, and subject them to deportation. Let us do what the American People want us to do and let us pass a strong dreamers act. And last, but not least, we had some terrible hurricanes some months ago and brought a lot of disaster to texas, to florida, to puerto rico, and to the virgin islands. Months have gone by and we have yet to pass the kind of Disaster Relief that communities inho states and territories desperately need. Mr. President , we cannot continue to kick the can down the road. We cannot continue to run a 3 trillion government on a monthbymonth basis unfair to everybody. We have got to sit down and negotiate a serious budget agreement, and what republicans must understand is, yes, they have a 5149 majority here in the senate, but you need 60 votes to pass this type of legislation. You need 60 votes. That means you cannot do it alone. You cannot give the Democratic Caucus a fait accompli and expect democrats to say, oh, yes, sir, were going to follow you. This requires bipartisan discussion, bipartisan discussion on the parity issue and domestic spending, bipartisan discussion on daca. We have a Strong Majority of members of the senate who support a dreamers piece of legislation and a path towards citizenship. We have a Strong Majority of the American People and a Strong Majority of members of the senate who want Disaster Relief. This should not be a difficult problem. The American People want a resolution. They want it done in a bipartisan way. Lets do it. Lets not kick the can down the road. Republicans must understand that they must negotiate in a bipartisan way. And with that, mr. President , i would yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call a senator mr. President . The presiding officer the senator alabama. Mr. Shelby i ask that the quorum call be dispensed with. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Shelby mr. President , i rise today to offer my congratulations to the university of alabamas crimson tide on the College Football Playoff National championship victory against the university of georgia bulldogs. I join the university of alabama, the crimson tide faithful, and the entire state of alabama, my state, in commending this team on its hardfought win and for showing perseverance in the midst of adversity time and time again. This year, mr. President , the tide overcame a host of injuries and midseason struggles to reach this achievement. The team even had to overcome, as the presiding officer will recall, a 13point deficit in the second half of the championship ball game in atlanta, winning ultimately 2623 in the first overtime in a College Football Playoff National championship game. What a game under head coach nick savins leadership, the tide sought to earn another title, demonstrating nearly ten years of dominance. This years team, among other things won various awards. Minca fitzpatrick, won the best defensive player in the nation award and the thorp award, best defensive back in the nation. He was also named Associated Press firstteam allamerican. Bradley boseman, offensive lineman, was named a. P. Second team allamerican. Jonah williams offensive lineman was named a. P. Third team allamerican. Additionally, five players on the university of alabamas Football Team were named first team alls. C. C. Head Coach Nick Saban has now one six College National football championships, equally the record of legend paul bryant. The crimson tide coaches staff has helped create highcaliber athletes and gentlemen. This team has brought great pride and honor to the university of alabama, the loyal fans of the crimson tide and to the entire state of alabama. I would like to take a minute and thank coach crimson tide head Coach Nick Saban, agentic director gregg burns, president stewart bell, and chancellor ray hayes for their leadership. At this time, i would like to call up, mr. President , and adopt the Senate Resolution by unanimous consent commemorating the university of alabama crimson tide on this 17th College National football title. Thats resolution 375, i believe. I ask consent that the senate proceed to the consideration of this resolution. The presiding officer the clerk will report. The clerk Senate Resolution 375, congratulating the university of alabama crimson tide Football Team for winning the 2018 National Collegiate Athletic Association College Football Playoff National championship. Mr. Shelby i ask unanimous consent that the proceedings be dispensed with. The presiding officer is there objection to proceeding to the measure . Mr. Shelby i ask unanimous consent the presiding officer without objection. Mr. Shelby i ask unanimous consent that the motion be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate. The presiding officer is there objection . Is there objection . Without objection. Mr. Shelby thank you. I suggest the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call quorum call a senator mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from ohio. Mr. Portman mr. President , a lot of my constituents are hearing about the possibility of a the presiding officer the senate is in a quorum call. Mr. Portman i ask unanimous consent the quorum be dispensed with. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Portman mr. President , constituents of mine are hearing today that there is a looming Government Shutdown, that by friday midnight if congress hasnt passed a spending bill, that its possible the government could shut down. That would be a big mistake. Government shutdowns do not make sens we have legislation called end Government Shutdown, by the way, which would say when congress doesnt do their Appropriations Bills on time, which is never or rarely, that there should not be a shutdown but rather continue the spending from the previous year, but ratcheting it down over time to give the Appropriations Committee and the congress the incentive to get their job done, but lets not shut down government. When we have done that, it hasnt helped anybody. It hasnt helped us as taxpayers because we have ended up coming back and paying people and the inefficiencies of it create even more costs. So i would hope were not even talking about that. But in the socalled continuing resolution which is a shortterm spending bill, which again is not the best way to govern but its what our choice is, in that continuing resolution to keep government from shutting down, there is also, as i understand it, going to be something thats very good for our country, and so, one, shutting down doesnt make sense, but two, lets be sure that the shortterm spending bill that we do pass includes something really important, important to about 219,000 children in my home state of ohio and millions of childrens families around the country that depend on a program called the Childrens Health Insurance Program, chip. Chip has traditionally been a bipartisan program. Its supported by democrats and republicans alike. In fact, the reauthorization of the Childrens Health Insurance Program, chip, came out of the finance committee with a vote that was unanimous, republicans and democrats alike. Again, that doesnt happen often. It happened because people believe its important to have that Safety Net Program for our kids and for those families. Right now, that program is really on life support. We are told that if we do not extend that program, that some states will begin running out of money even in the next few weeks. One of those states could be ohio, were told. The numbers are not exactly accurate, i dont think, because nobody knows, and that makes it very unpredictable and uncertain for those families and children, but we know there are States Running out of money right now. By the way, the Program Ended in september, and since september 30, its been given these shortterm authorizations. That doesnt make sense. So my understanding is that the house of representatives is going to actually put io the continuing resolution theyre goin to send over here a longer Term Extension of the Childrens Health Insurance Program. In fact, a sixyear extension, which will be the longest extension ever, and i think that would be really important. I have heard from some families last week in ohio who are wondering, you know, are you guys going to actually provide us a certainty we need to be able to know that we can continue to have our kids receive the treatment they are getting . These are children that have Serious Health problems that need that kind of care and they rely on chip to be able to provide it. So for all the disagreements we have in this chamber and there are plenty of them. There will be a healthy and spirited debate on lots of issues later today, im sure. This is one, the Childrens Health Insurance Program, that typically has been one where we can come together and agree that children should have that basic health care. I came to the senate floor last month back in december to strongly urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle and urge the leadership on my side of the aisle and that side to take the politics out of this thing and just get chip done, get the longterm authorization done in the last spending bill, but that was not done. In fact, there was just a shortTerm Extension of chip that basically coincides with the spending bills. That to me was disappointing, and i said so at the time. It was not done last time. That was a mistake. Now we have the opportunity to do it. Let take that opportunity. Im here to once again say let act to provide that longterm stability in the program. And again, im encouraged by what i hear that the house of representatives is likely to include that and include that stability to ensure children everywhere can receive adequate and Affordable Health care. The house sixyear extension would also return chip to a traditional federalstate partnership, which again has been a bipartisan effort and provide additional protections for lowincome children and more flexibility for the states, so there are some changes to the program, some reforms to the program that have been, again, bipartisan through committee, and i am hopeful that that will be part of it as well. The house bill that includes this chip extension would be the longest extension again since the creation of the program more than 20 years ago. So instead of these shortterm ones, were going to be able to have a longTerm Extension if we can pass this. By the way, by doing it long term, the Congressional Budget Office says we actually save taxpayers 1 billion. So by having that predictability and that certainty, not having to stop and start nature of chip, it actually saves taxpayers money. Is this c. R. Perfect in terms of health care . No, there are other things we can do as well. We can do that with regard to the longer term spending bill that we would probably be doing a couple weeks from now or a few weeks from now or whenever we are going to come to the end of whatever the continuing resolution is tomorrow. We do need to find longterm Funding Solutions for Community Health centers, for instance. Again, that has been bipartisan in the past. These centers have been very effective in dealing with issues that relate to our our communities and Health Issues like opioid addiction, Community Health centers have been very helpful in providing treatment to people particularly in rural areas who dont have access to other Health Care Treatment centers. We should provide them with that longterm funding and certainty. I hope my colleagues on the other side of the aisle will vote to extend these important Health Insurance programs for our children. Again, chip stands for Childrens Health Insurance Program, should not be a bargaining chip for other political purposes. Lets get that done. The chance for everybody to ensure that we have that certainty for our children, help them be able to live up to their godgiven potential in life. Second, mr. President , i wanted to talk about another Vulnerable Group of americans, and this is an issue that doesnt relate to the looming Government Shutdown or thepeing bill that wil avoid that shutdown, but it relates to another issuehat congress has the opportunity to address this month. January of, this january, this month, is the Human Trafficking prevention month. Last week was Human Trafficking awareness week. We had a lot of people in this town talking about that issue. I think a lot of people would agree with me that we live in a great country and we are blessed to be americans. In this age of rapid scientific, technical innovation, we have been able to change the world in positive ways, and thats good, but Something Else is happening that is discouraging, and that is that in this country, in this century, the 21st century, were actually seeing an increase in a part of Human Trafficking that is heart breaking, and this is sex trafficking thats occurring in our country. And often it involves children under age who are being sold much like property. Experts tell us that this is happening, this increase primarily for one reason and one reason alone, and that is because of the internet. Its sort of the dark side of the internet. Its a ruthlessly efficient way to conduct this business, this trafficking business. To me, this is a stain on our national character. Its something we should all be involved with, republican, democrat alike, all of us as americans to say lets push back, lets not allow our country during this period of, again, so many positive technological changes to be able to use this technology in this case, online websites selling people in a way that devastates these families and creates so many dislocations in our communities. Traffickers are using the internet because of the fact that congress, this body, the house and the senate, passed legislation 21 years ago that theyre able to hide behind. They have an immunity under federal law. Its called the Communications Decency act. Ironically, it was actually put in place to be able to push back against child pornography. In other words, protect children from viewing pornography. And its being used now to say well, we dont have responsibilities as websites even if we knowingly are selling children online. Can you imagine that . Our legislation to deal with that is something we have been working on for a couple of years. We had a twoyear investigation of this online trafficking, focused a lot on one website, an evil website that sells people online and knowingly has been providing ads out there for underaged girls and boys, backpage. Com. As we looked into it and did more and more research, it became clear that even though they were doing this and even though there were people suing them because of it, none of the lawsuits were successful, whether from prosecutors or victims, whether criminal suits or civil suits because of this immunity that they were claiming under federal law. We found out that backpage. Com, this one website, was responsible for about 75 of all child trafficking reports that the National Center for missing and exploited children was receiving. In other words, the great majority of this was going on on this one website. We also found out that there has been a dramatic increase again in trafficking because of this online ruthless efficiency. When we got through our investigation, we also found out that this website actually knew that some of these ads were related to children and yet published them anyway. They went so far as to try to, as they called, clean the ads for illegal transactions. So someone would place an ad, pay for the ad, and then backpage would say well, you need to change this ad a little bit because youre using words like school girl or cheerleader which indicates they are under age. In other words, they knew these kids were under age, and yet they edited the ads and placed the ads anyway and took the profit. Thats what were up against. The cost to these families, the human suffering that results from this is incalculable. I have met with victims all around the state of ohio and some from other states who have come here as they did last week for this rally. Can you imagine being in that situation as a parent . Kabicki pride who was here last week had her 14yearold daughter go missing. You know, she was a teenager. Her mom was just stricken with grief and concern over her. Ten weeks, couldnt find her anywhere. Finally somebody said you ought to look on this website called backpage because they are selling girls online. God forbid, they were right. And she found her daughter. Sheound a photogrh of her daughter, sever photographs. Not photographshe wand to see, but on the other hand there was her daughter alive. She said my first reaction was just relief that she was alive. And then of course i called backpage and i said i found my daughter. She is on your site. She is 14 years old. Can you please take her ad down . Backpage said did you pay for the ad . She said well, no, i didnt pay for the ad. Thats my daughter. She is 14 years old. They said no, we cant take down the ad. You didnt pay for it. Can you imagine . Now, she eventually was reunited with her daughter and there is a film called i am jane doe where she along with other women and mothers and young women are featured. Can you see more about her story, what a brave woman she is because she is now standing up to it. She filed a lawsuit but the lawsuit was not successful because the judge said there is this immunity. And by the way, the courts that have ruled that these websites are protected by this federal law have said that congress ought to do something about that. Most recently, last august, a sacramento judge dropped charges against backpage stating, and i quote, if and until Congress Sees fit to amend the immunity law, the broad reach of section 230, which is the section of the Communications Decency act even applies to those alleged to support the exploitation of others by Human Trafficking. Now, to me, thats an invitation for congress to act, saying we get it. They are exploiting human beings online, but this federal law gives them this immunity. This immunity was put in place, you know, in an effort 21 years ago to try to ensure we could have a free internet, and thats very important, but it was never intended to provide an immunity