Vote on moving forward with his nomination today. Final confirmation vote is also possible today. When the senate comes in in just a moment, live coverage on cspan2. The president pro tempore the senate will come to order. The chaplain will lead the senate in prayer. The chaplain let us pray. Almighty god, the fountain of wisdom, thank you for hearing and answering our prayers. Lord, you have given us so much, blessing us in immeasurable ways, you have exceeded our own expectations. For that, god, we are grateful. We thank you for this great country, for our leadership, and for the women and men who serve in this body. Help them to remember, god, that this is your country and they are your stewards, but for a moment in time. We pray that you will help us move forward with faith in tomorrow, knowing you will transform our thoughts, words, and actions according to your divine will. We pray in your heavenly name. Amen. The president pro tempore please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance to our flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Mr. Mcconnell mr. President. The presiding officer the majority leader. Mr. Mcconnell first, this morning began with reports of a tragedy at Marshall County high school in benton, kentucky. State officials have reported at least one confirmed death and several injuries. My staff in western kentucky is at the high school and is in close contact with local officials. Theyre monitoring the situation and will be providing me with updates throughout the day. I know i speak for communities across my home state in sending prayers of comfort and healing to students, faculty and everyone affected by this violence. Our hearts are with the entire community in Marshall County and our gratitude is with the First Responders who rushed into harms way. Now on another matter, mr. President , we might call today the first day of the rest of the 115th congress. Yesterday an overwhelming bipartisan majority of senators voted to end a filibuster of government funding and conclude a shortlived shutdown of the federal government. This regrettable episode reminded all of us that in the United States senate brinkmanship and hostage taking simply do not work. The only path to meaningful progress is the hard work of crafting legislation and provide, and persuading colleagues on both sides to support it. Yesterday evening our agreement to reopen the government, securely funding for our men and women in uniform, extend Health Insurance for Vulnerable Children and further delay three obamacare taxes was signed into law. Now serious negotiations can resume on key issues such as immigration and border security, Disaster Relief, health care, and providing adequate levels of defense spending to support the new National Defense strategy, just to name a few. Because common sense and bipartisanship won out yesterday, we have a fresh start today. I challenge every one of us to make the most of it. The American People are watching. Once again i want to thank the Bipartisan Group of senators spearheaded by senator graham, senator collins, senator flake and several of our democratic colleagues who helped bring an end to this regrettable incident. I particularly want to thank the Senate FinanceCommittee Chairman orrin hatch for his powerful advocacy for the nine million children and lowincome families who rely on the state childrens Health Insurance program. Senator hatch cocreated it with senator ted kennedy on a bipartisan basis more than 20 years ago. I know he counts this program among his proudest legislative accomplishments, and with a career like senator hatch, thats really saying something. I understand the sixyear schip extension the Senate Passed yesterday will be the longest extension in the programs history. Its passage offers just one more testament, as if we needed one, to senator hatchs moral conviction, political skill, and care for the most vulnerable in our society. And it reminds us how much well miss his work when he retires at the end of this congress. On another matter, we have a long list of legislative priorities to tackle in the coming weeks, but legislation is not the only bipartisan business that the senate needs to handle. Yesterday afternoon i filed cloture on three nominees to fill important positions in the administration. Alex michael azar to serve as secretary of health and human services. Sam brownback to serve as ambassador at large for International Religious freedom. And jerome h. Powell to serve as chairman of the Federal Reserve. Today the senate is considering the nomination of mr. Powell who brings with him degrees from princeton and georgetown and a record of high achievement in both the public and private sectors. Since his nomination to the board of governors to the Federal Reserve system in 2011, which received strong bipartisan support, he has served as a steady voice and thoughtful leader. I very much look forward to supporting his confirmation as chairman. Now on one final matter, when the press was focused on the unfortunate lapse in government funding, the good news about last months historic tax reform law continues to pile up. The number of americans preparing to receive pay raises, special bonuses and other benefits thanks to the historic tax cuts passed last month continues to grow. These are just the first fruits of a law that also lays a longterm foundation for better job opportunities, higher waeublgs, and more higher waeublgs and more investment. On this subject heres something not many have realized yet. Even the democrats Government Shutdown couldnt keep this congress from finding new ways from cutting taxes and let the American People keep more of their hardearned money. Included in yesterdays bipartisan bill was an additional 31 billion in tax cuts specifically we delayed three onerous taxes that were created as part of obamacare. Last year as part of comprehensive tax reform, we repealed the unfair individual mandate tax at the heart of obamacare. Now weve taken care of three more. One of obamacares deeply unpopular tax on medical devices, another was the socalled cadillac tax that senator heller of nevada has worked hard to delay. That tax penalizes employers who offer generous benefits. And the third simply called the Health Insurance tax makes plans more expensive. All three of these taxes are unpopular. All are key pieces of the failing Obamacare Health law. And now because this congress is so intent on saving the American People money, all three of them will be delayed. Personally, i like the way the New York Times put it. Their headline read, quote, there is a surprise in the government funding bill. More tax cuts. Heres the storys first line congress is apparently not done cutting taxes. Even after passing a 1. 5 trillion tax overhaul last year. Well, mr. President , i couldnt say it better than the New York Times. The senate is never done looking for new ways to take money out of washingtons pocket and put it back in the pockets of the American People. The presiding officer under the previous order, leadership time is reserved. Morning business is closed. Under the previous order the senate will proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the following nomination which the clerk will report. The clerk nomination, Federal Reserve system. Jerome h. Powell of maryland to be chairman of the board of governors. Mr. Schumer mr. President. The presiding officer the democratic leader. Mr. Schumer unanimous consent the no. No quorum. Thank you, mr. President. Now, yesterday the Senate Passed a continuing resolution to open the government and provide for a sixyear reauthorization of the childrens Health Insurance program. The majority leader and i were also able to agree on a path forward for the daca legislation. The continuing resolution extends government funding until february 8. If an agreement on daca isnt reached by february eight, the senate will immediately proceed to immigration under a neutral process that is fair to all sides. This is the first guarantee that the republican majority will give the daca bill a fair consideration and an upordown vote on the floor. And it means we can hopefully resolve the fate of the dreamers much sooner than the march 5 deadline. So the republican majority now has 16 days to work with us to write a bill that can get 60 votes and prevent the dreamers from being deported. The clock is ticking. 16 days, thats not much time. Got to get moving. Leader mcconnell, his republican colleagues, all of us, should hear the countdown clock ticking to protect the dreamers from deportation. We can get it done. Every democrat, all 49 of us, supports daca. The pressure now is on leader mcconnell and the republican moderate caucus to help find us a solution that protects the 800,000 dreamers and can pass the senate. Over the weekend a Bipartisan Group of Senate Moderates game together and helped renew the urgency of the immigration debate. After talking to senator durbin, it is my understanding that this Bipartisan Group, which includes several republican moderates, expressed a sincere desire to protect the dreamers. More so than before the weekend. Leader mcconnells promise to consider the daca recommendation was made just as much to this Bipartisan Group as it has been made to me. If he does not honor our agreement, it will be a breach of trust, not only with the democratic senators, but with several members of his own party as well. Democrats will continue to fight as hard as ever for the dreamers, but i am more hopeful today than last week that we can assemble 60 votes for a daca bill in the senate and we now have a real pathway to get such a bill through the senate. Im also very glad that a sixyear reauthorization of chip passed alongside yesterdays bill to reopen the government. It was a long time coming. Despite bipartisan majorities that support chip in both houses, the republican majority allowed chip to expire, leaving nine million Sick Children in the lurch. That shameful wrong has been made right. But we should extend chip for even a longer period of time. The c. B. O. Projected that t years of chip, or ar permanent authorization or a permanent authorization, would save the gov 6 billion. How can that be . Fewer will need to go into the exchange and fewer will need subsidies because chip is an efficient and wellrun program. Its a nobrainer, we should make it happen. Still, mr. President , the senate has three weeks in which to conclude a lot of work. A consensus has not been found on the budget, health care legislation, disaster aid and on immigration. On each of these issues the president has been impossible to pin down or on each of these issues the president has either impossible to pin down or completely absent. This hooey that President Trump was involved in the negotiations, pretty invisible to me. President trumps inability to negotiate with congress is what caused the threeday Government Shutdown from which we have just emerged. If were going to get all of these things done, the senate the senate will have to work its will. On the budget, we must lift the spending caps for defense and urgent domestic priorities. Just as our military needs the resources it requires to do the tough job we ask of them, we have Critical Issues here at home. It is equally crucial to us, not more, not less, that we deal with the Opioid Crisis where so many young men and women in the flower of their lives are passing on because of addiction and not enough enforcement at the borders preventing the evil fentanyl from coming in and not enough help. We need to get them the treatment to overcome it. Veterans have to wait so long on line, many for ptsd with opioid treatment, many for other treatments. They shouldnt have to. They werent waiting on line when they were afghanistan or iraq. And pensions, the heartland of america for decades has been our industrial complexes, our industrial might in our states, our central states. These men, women, every week, every month put money into their pension plans, and now because of the stock market and management, that money aint there. Its our job through the pbgc to give them the pensions they deserve. No one will get rich on a pension, but at least you can retire with a life of some dignity. On top of that we must get a Health Care Package done. The bills proposed by bill nelson and Susan Collins on reinsurance, the bills proposed by patty murray and Lamar Alexander on c. S. R. s and community extenders, the areas that help so many. We need to pass a Disaster Relief package. So many need help just as new york needed help years ago even though we didnt the get the support that we needed from states who need money now. We must protect the dreamers. The American People are clamoring for our two parties to Work Together to get things done. After a year of partisanship and strife during which the governing majority hardly attempted to compromise, we now must move forward in a bipartisan way if were going to finish the task at hand. On the budget, on health care, on disaster aid, on daca. I yield the floor. In the house commerce subcommittee oversight investigations how they hearing on the issue last week with representatives from hhs and the fda. [inaudible conversations]