Transcripts For CSPAN2 U.S. Senate U.S. Senate 20180125

Quorum call the presiding officer the majority whip. Mr. Cornyn madam president , i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be dispensed with. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Cornyn madam president , now that the government is up and running again, we need to look ahead at what our legislative priorities should be. I cant speak for everybody, but i can speak for myself. My priorities are threefold. First we need to expedite Disaster Relief. In december the house passed an 81 billion Disaster Relief bill to address the disasters by Hurricane Irma, Hurricane Harvey and the wildfires out in the west. That has been sitting here since december and we need to act and act with dispatch. Everyone remembers Hurricane Harvey, we certainly do in texas, which pummeled us last august. It was last august. This is february. Most of the Media Attention in the months since has focused on the city of houston, which quite literally, was torn apart. They had more than 50 inches of rain fall in five days. Other areas, though, beyond houston faired worse. Im thinking of cities like rockport and port arthur on the west coast. Im thinking of cities like victoria and beaumont. More than 28,000 acres were ruined. People are still piecing together their lives. In addition to Hurricane Harvey, there was, as i said, Hurricane Irma and hurricane maria. There were the wildfires that burned across colorado, later resulting in mudslides after the rain fell. I know the federal government is not the only entity charged with ensuring help gets to these places, but it certainly has an important part to play. I met this morning with the u. S. Mayors conference and saw a number of my mayors from texas who were part of the success, or at least the management of this natural disaster, in texas. Theyve done their part, the states done its part, its time for the federal government to step up and its time for the senate to pass the supplemental that passed the house in december. The second priority that i have personally is lifting the spending caps that impair our national defense, and particularly our men and women in uniform. In my remarks yesterday, i said this is a problem set in motion by the budget control act of 2011. And while well intentioned, and for a while it did hold down Discretionary Spending and reduce our deficits and our debt, its implementation has not stemmed our National Debt but it has tied the hands of our military. This is an important lesson. Its not defense spending, its not tax cuts, its not Discretionary Spending, its the mandatory spending in our entitlement programs which continue to run up deficits and debt and which threaten our financial future to be sure. But in the mean tile our military in the meantime our military faces Readiness Challenges across the globe. We simply must listen to people like defense secretary jim mattis. Lift the caps, end the sequester so our military no longer suffers and so that our National Security is on safer ground. The third on my immediate todo list is working with a Bipartisan Group of legislators as well as President Trump on the issue of the daca recipients. As everybody whose been paying much attention here in recent days know this is a group of about 690,000 young adulls who adults who came into the country as children because their parents brought them in illegally. Noncompliance with our immigration laws. Now, in the United States we dont hold children responsible for the mistakes of their parents, nor should we punish these young adults who now have grown up because their parents broke our immigration laws. We know that they face an uncertain future and that much of the responsibility for our porous borders should be born by congress, not only the present congress but past congresses, and basically our turning the heads the other way while people continue to immigrate illegally into the United States. Were going to need to improve our infrastructure, personnel, and technology to make sure that we dont experience that sort of rush of illegal immigration in the future, which is why some of our democratic colleagues like to say, we need to protect these daca recipients, which were willing to do, but we want to make sure that theres not a repetition of this in three years or five years hence. And so there are important measures we need to combine with that, and the president has told us hes going to insist upon and hes correct in doing so. A robust Border Security component as well as ending chain migration and the diversity lottery visa. And it sounds like from the news i saw this morning that the president made some statement about the first piece of that puzzle last night, but were expecting to hear more from the white house on how they expect congress to respond and what the president would find acceptable here in the next few days. This bill cant become law without the president s signature, so the president s views are not irrelevant. But we are the ones who have the primary responsibility to resolve these complicated issues. And getting 60 votes is not the only thing were aiming for. Certainly thats the hurdle we have here in the senate, but it would be a futile act if the president wouldnt sign it or if it wouldnt pass the house of representatives. So weve got our work cut out for us, and i know the American People will not support it unless it is a serious and wellthoughtout proposal. The blowback will be strong, and well face a harsh reprisal if we dont take into account the opinions and the views of our constituents back home, which i intend to do. But beyond these shortterm actions which we need to move on as soon as possible, there are other priorities id like to mention as well. Infrastructure is something that everybody likes to talk about until you ask the question, how are we going to pay for it . Recently i introduced a bipartisan bill with senator warner from virginia that would expand an Infrastructure Financing Authority already in use by many states and local governments across the u. S. This legislation is called the build act, which would raise the caps on a specific category of what are known as private activity bonds, giving additional access to taxexempt Bond Authority for the purpose of constructing highway projects. Again, i was with a number of texas mayors earlier this morning, and they told me that they see that as a positive development. Thats something they can use in their cities. And they appreciate during the tax reform debate we maintained the taxexempt status of Municipal Bonds that are used for those kinds of purposes. In the near future i intend to introduce a few other legislative initiatives to help rehabilitate our nations infrastructure. I come from a state thats growing because were creating so many jobs, and thats putting a strain on our existing infrastructure. So for the interest of Public Safety and the environment as well as our economy, we need to repair and build out our infrastructure. I know the white house has some plans in this area as well, and we look forward to hearing more about them and working with the administration when it comes to infrastructure. Now, thinking to other areas that we could work on in a bipartisan fashion, i firmly believe that its important for us to look at Success Stories in the states and then once these laboratories of democracy have done things that actually result in positive things, that we can then learn from them and we can scale them up at the federal level. So thats one reason im really very interested in taking the lessons we learn in texas and other states on Prison Reform and offering a path for reentry for people who made mistakes and ended up in our jails and prisons. Not everybody is going to take advantage of it, but it was in my visits in texas prisons, i know that ill literacy is that illiterat i will that iy that illiteracy is rampant. Weve used various incentives for lowrisk offenders in texas to provide them opportunities to address each of those concerns, and its been quite successful. Not only have fewer people recommitted crimes and ended up back if prisoners but our back in prisons, but our communities have become safer also. So ive been working in the senate with on a bipartisan way with my colleague from rhode island, senator whitehouse, and my colleague from utah, senator lee. And i know this issue has gotten some real traction thanks to President Trump and the roundtable he hosted at the white house he recall cer this earlier this month. More than 11 Million People go to jail each year in the u. S. , and there are currently 2. 3 Million People under confinement. This is a matter of great public concern, but to me the numberone concern is Public Safety. But if we can keep the public safer, if we can save taxpayers dollars and we can help people who are willing to accept the opportunity to turn their lives around and become productive members of our society, it seems to me that we ought to be doing that. And i look forward to hearing more, perhaps even from the state of the president during the state of the Union Message on tuesday night, if he chooses to mention his interest in that top iraq, which i know he is in that topic, which i know he is interested in. Finally, we have to keep filling our judicial vacancies. Last year we were able to put two texans on the fifth Circuit Court of appeals. But more judges have come through the pipeline this year. One of the judges we confirmed earlier this month is david counts, serving in the Western District of our state. And just this week the president announced his intention to nominate another judge for the Western District, alan albright, as well as Carbon Monoxide barker, and michael troncaly. Were a big state so we have a lot of judicial vacancies and were working hard, senator cruz and i, together with the white house, to make recommendations to President Trump for nomination. They go through a very extensive vetting process. Senator cruz and i have created something we call the federal Judicial Evaluation committee, which are a group of our most experienced practitioners in the state on a bipartisan basis to evaluate the people that apply for these important lifelong or lifetenured positions. I want to compliment the president for his sterling picks for the judiciary certainly so far, starting with the Supreme Court of the United States. But at the intermediate Appellate Courts like the fifth circuit and these district courts, these are the people that do the dayin and dayout work of the judiciary to make sure that all americans have access to justice and the opportunity for a fair hearing before an impartial judge. Thats one of the most important things that the federal government provides through our Judicial Branch equal justice under the law, as the words above the Supreme Court building say. One last item for today, madam president i want to recognize and sincerely thank a member of my staff, emily curling, for her decade of Public Service here in the senate. Everybody knows emily in the senate because of her bubbly personality and shes always looking to find ways to help senators be more successful and to recognize their tremendous contributions to this body. Emily is originally from crossville, tennessee, and we wont hold that against her. Shes not a texan, but many people from tennessee eventually came to texas, as i tell a couple of my tennessee colleagues. Most of them are one step ahead of an aggrieved spouse or one step ahead of the law. Those are the tennesseans that made their way to texas at the time of our founding. Things have gotten perfect by the way things have gotten better, by the way. But thats sort of an inside joke between tennesseans and texans. Emily is the longest serving member of our operation. Before working in her current capacity, she served under my predecessor senator jon kyl and before that, my colleague senator alexander. Emily is one of a kind. Her smile lights up rooms and her personality is contagious. Everyone loves being around her. But she also works incredibly hard. Some nights shes here until 1 00 in the morning and then goes home and works even harder alongside her husband michael. Together they have two small children, brock and madge, that im sure require a lot of love and attention. Were sad to see emily go, but we wish her nothing but the best and want to express our sincere gratitude for her service to the senate. We know her future will be bright in whatever path she decides to take. Madam president , i yield the floor. And id note the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call mr. Cornyn madam president . The presiding officer the majority whip. Mr. Cornyn i would ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be dispensed with. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Cornyn i have nine requests for committees to meet during todays session of the senate. These have been approved by both the majority and minority leaders. The presiding officer duly noted. Mr. Cornyn id note the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call quorum call a senator madam president. The presiding officer the senator from michigan. Mr. Peters madam president , i ask the quorum call be vitiated. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Peters thank you, madam president. I believe that every campaign for Elective Office in this great nation is essentially a monthslong Job Interview with the voters, or perhaps more accurately its a thousands and thousands of individual interviews. And like any employer, the voters have expectations for us once we have been hired to do this job. I will never forget that i work for the people of michigan, and i feel very fortunate to have earned the opportunity to serve them. When i ran for the United States senate, i told michiganders that i would be a pragmatic Problem Solver and stand by that promise each and every day. We were all sent here to be Problem Solvers, especially the hard problems. Making the effort to participate in our democracy is fundamentally optimistic. Voters want us to make their lives and our nation better. Every senator elected to this body carries the hopes, the dreams, and the expectations of the people who live in their state. While we should never lose sight of our nations hopes and dreams, today i would like to focus on expectations. Americans expect us to work together. They expect us to talk to each other. They expect us to negotiate and find Common Ground where we disagree. They expect us to help our fellow americans after disasters. They expect us to respond to crises like the Opioid Epidemic and dangerously underfunded pensions that jeopardize their retirement security. They expect us to keep our borders secure and enact reasonable, humane immigration policies that keeps our nation competitive and boosts economic growth. And they expect us to responsibly fund the federal government. None of us should be proud of the recent government shutdown. There is no such thing as a Good Government shutdown. I am nevertheless hopeful that lessons can be learned from last weekend and a better path forward can be found. I think the coming weeks and months are of vital importance to the future of the United States senate as a meaningful, functional institution. Lets be honest with ourselves and with the American People. In the last few years, we have not been functional. We have blown deadline after deadline after deadline. It took us almost four months past the funding deadline to tackle the easiest problem, reauthorizing the Childrens Health Insurance Program, a program that provides health care to millions of American Children while saving taxpayers money. As i stand here, health care for over 600,000 michiganders, including over 12,000 Michigan Veterans remains at historic because we have blown through deadline after deadline to Fund Community Health Centers, a program that provides costeffective care to millions of americans in both rural and urban areas across our country. How is it that a nation that put the first man on the moon still cant put lights on for our own american citizens in puerto rico . We need to help families clean out their flooded homes in the gulf, support communities who have faced outofcontrol wildfires and mudslides during the devastating 2017 disaster season, and ensure affordable Flood Insurance is available to every homeowner who needs it. Americans stand by each other in the face of tragedy. This is why senator stabenow and i fought for a year to deliver federal resources to flint and continue working to make sure that families are receiving the care that they need and get their damaged pipes repaired. In addition to addressing all of these urgent issues, we need to keep the lights on here in the federal government where funding is set to expire again in just two weeks. While the government was shut down this past weekend, i worked with a Bipartisan Group of senators pulled together by my colleagues, senator collins and senator manchin. This group is called the Commonsense Coalition. We worked through the weekend to find a bipartisan compromise to open the federal government and find a path forward to tackle the complex, pressing issues before us here in congress. While the lights are back on, the real work is just beginning. In the coming weeks, we need to find a legislative solution to provide certainty to the dreamers, young men and women brought to the United States as small children. They grew up as americans, went to school here, served in our military, only speak english, and are every bit as american as you and i. They graduate from our colleges and universities and provide critical talent to a growing american economy. They start their own Small Businesses and create jobs in our communities. They are young adults who voluntarily came out of the shadows to participate in the daca program and are fearful they will be ripped from their home and deported to a country that they have never visited, a country where they dont even speak the language and will find themselves a stranger in a foreign land. An absolutely terrifying situation. Without question, we must also pass a Disaster Relief package to help communities devastated by hurricanes, floods, and wildfires. We must also reauthorize the Community Health Center Program that provides essential health care to americans and over 600,000 michiganders. We must do more to fight the farreaching Opioid Epidemic thats hurting and killing far too many of our friends and family and neighbors. The Opioid Epidemic is a Public Health crisis that touches everyone in every state, in ever county. We need to deliver certainty to the hardworking americans who spent decades earning their pensions and now see them at risk as they prepare to enter retirement. And we must follow through on our most basic of duties. We need a bipartisan deal to fund the government that takes care of the men and women who serve our country in the Armed Services, keeps us safe, and properly funds both our military and domestic programs. This will not be easy, but solving easy problems is not why we were sent here to the senate. I ran for the United States senate to solve the tough problems facing our country, and i know my colleagues in the Commonsense Coalition ran to solve tough problems as well. We need the entire senate and the house to start acting like one big Commonsense Coalition. No organization or business can run their budget in two or threeweek increments. The Defense Department and all of our domestic agencies need certainty for Budget Planning just like any household or business does. We cannot let the American People down any longer by kicking the can down the road with another series of shortterm budget patches. The coming weeks will be difficult, but we need to rise to the occasion and deliver on all of these responsibilities. Now is the time for us to step up our game. The American People expect and deserve nothing less. Madam president , i yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call quorum call brown mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from ohio. Mr. Brown thank you, madam president. I ask unanimous consent to dispense with the quorum call. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Brown i ask unanimous consent, madam president , to speak as if in morning business for up to ten minutes. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Brown thank you, madam president. I rise today to honor a member of my staff, jonathan miller, who has dedicated his life to serving his country and his state. Not only has jonathan served the people of ohio each day on our staff helping ohio Service Members and veterans, he also wears the uniform himself first as a member of the national guard, now as a member of the Army National of the Army Reserves. Earlier this month was his last day in the office for a year. His unit is deploying to fight for our country. Jonathan grew up in macedonia, ohio, graduated from ardonia high school and ohio university. In 2011 while working toward his masters degree, he enlisted in the national guard. John told me he enlisted in part because he was, quote, inspired by the debate and repeal of dont ask dont tell and the stories of veterans and my family. Like so many that join the Armed Services from patriotism to family values to what to family precedent and what his family did. He said the army seemed like the place for me to help my community, my country, and to experience new people, places, and ideas. Jonathan went through officer candidate school 2013. He serves with the 300th Chemical Company Army Reserves out of morgantown, West Virginia. Hes worked in our office since 2015. He impresses all of us with his dedication to both of his jobs. In the senate he handles veterans and mel taker military issues and energy and environmental policy. Hes read thousands of lowers from ohio Service Members and veterans over the years. He always works to make sure their views and concerns are heard and that our office helps whenever we can. Hell often call the families directly to follow up and listen to their stories. During a meeting with gold star wives in 2016, john learned that education benefits for some spouses who lost their loved ones in the earliest days following 9 11 would expire before they could make a full use of this benefit their family earned. He immediately brought this issue to my attention. We worked to introduce the military spouses achieving College Education for survivors act. We passed this bipartisan legislation. Hes part of a large its part of a larger veterans package that will directly affect veterans and their families in my state, in nebraska, in states across the country. Jonathan has played a Critical Role in ensuring that our military installations in my state have the support they need to perform critical National Security missions. From the 180th in toledo and 910 in youngstown, to the base in my hometown of mansfield to springfield and of course to Wright Patterson air force base. He often attends visiting ohio honor flight ceremonies, represents our Office Support so Ohio Veterans visiting the memorials built in their honor. His love for the outdoors and for ohio is also shown through his work on issues like protecting the great lakes, including the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative and preserving the cuyahoga Value National park near his childhood home. I would add, ohio is one of the lucky states east of the mississippi and one of the few states that has a National Park and its not far from the Population Centers of cleveland and akron. I would also add that even though the Trump Administration tried to zero out, as the way we talk about it, dramatically cut funding for the great lakes initiative, senator portman, a republican, i a democrat have worked together to restore that funding. We know keeping lake erie clean is an ongoing challenge. Right off the coast of right off the city out of the city of toledo, lake erie is only 30 feet deep contrasted with Lake Superior which is 600 feet deep on the afternoon. That means that lake erie, whether its as buhl is much more vulnerable to pollutants than the other great lakes. Hence the work jonathan does is so important in keeping the great lake clean. At the end of the week others might look forward to a relaxing weekend with families and friends. Jonathan heads out so so often jonathan heads out for drill with his unit. He used to drive from washington to illinois and later to West Virginia for the weekend as part of his service. Now his unit is deploying. Well miss his expertise, his enthusiasm, his unique perspective in this office this year. Were also so grateful for his service to ohio and to our country. One final note before his deployment, last month jonathan got engaged to his partner kevin. John and kevin will join so many of ohios military families who understand the unique challenges of having a Family Member serve far from home. One of the things thats so important that we as members of the senate do, madam president , is when we recognize the service of our men and women in uniform. We also should recognize the service and the sacrifice of those Family Members who are left behind, who sometimes who often live on the margins financially because of the service men and women and their family. All of those reasons and how important that is. On behalf of my whole office, we congratulate john and kevin on their engagement. We wish john well on his tour overseas. We thank him for his sacrifice and his service. Madam president , i would like to ask unanimous consent to separate the ensuing remarks, put them in a different place in the record. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Brown thank you, madam president. Congress finally did the right thing after september, after october after failing to do the right thing in september and october and november and december and early january by reauthorizing the Childrens Health Insurance Program. That bill passed out of the Senate Finance committee with only one no vote. Its the Childrens Health Insurance Program has been around for 20 years. Its always been bipartisan. 209,000 children in ohio benefit from the Childrens Health Insurance Program. These are children, sons and daughters of parents who generally work full time but only make 8 or 10 or 12 an hour. Those families dont often have insurance themselves but the Childrens Health Insurance Program will provide the insurance for those children. Its it particularly is aggravating to many of us that so many members of congress, all of us who have Health Insurance provided by taxpayers failed in september when the program expired, in october, november, and december, failed to provide Childrens Health Insurance Program which was always bipartisan, as i said, failed to provide to continue the program. Now as our vote the other night the other day demonstrated, Childrens Health Insurance Program will now be around for six more years as we continue to make improvements with it. The problem, madam president , is while we provide insurance for six more years for these 209,000 children in ohio and 9 million children all over the country, we havent in so many cases provided the place and the environment for these parents to take their children. One big shortcoming is congress refusal to do its job to reauthorize the Community Health centers, the socalled federally qualified Health Centers. My state is home to several dozen federally qualified Health Centers, Community Health centers. They. All kinds of health care services, in many cases including pediatric dentistry, all kinds of preventive care, all kinds of Emergency Care and other help for so many families, particularly lowincome families in their neighborhoods where this can make a difference. I want to share three letters briefly to illustrate the importance of this. Stephanie, of lorraine county health and dentistry wrote three weeks ago, we desperately we desperately plow on doing all the right things for our Health Centers and patients. Yet for months weve been in limbo and weve been sick with fear. I worry about the impact of my state of and patients. I know the impact on recruitment of providers. What professional wants to chance a Health Crisis wants to work for a Health Center at this point in time. Open provider positions mean less access to care plain and simple. Access is especially important with all the flu and illness going around. What stephanie is saying, madam president , when congress doesnt do its job, when all of us that have Health Insurance paid for by taxpayers whrks we fail , when we fail to do our job, these Community Health centers that are professionally run, that are close to home for so many families, they cant plan for the future. They cant recruit a physical therapist or pediatric dentist or an internist or Family Practice doctor because a provider, professional provider who has invested a lot of money in her education, is she going to want to go to a Health Center where congress simply doesnt do its job and provide funding . I think she said that, stephanie said that so very well. Jared pollock, c. E. O. Of third Street Family Health services, my hometown of mansfield wrote, its nearly impossible to make sound Strategic Decisions for our organization without the security of our funding. Were always told both sides of the aisle love Community Health centers. We need them to show it with funding. Thats exactly right. I have heard my republican colleagues talk almost ad nauseam about how much they like the Childrens Health Insurance Program, how much they like the Community Health centers, and i think they really in their guts do, but then senator mcconnell and the Republican Leadership let them expire on september 30. Did nothing in october, nothing in november, nothing in december. Did a tax cut for the rich. We know that. Bu but didnt reauthorization didnt provide significant predictable, sufficient funding for the Community Health centers or the Childrens Health Insurance Program. A week ago finally we did the Childrens Health Insurance Program, but weve left hanging the Community Health centers. Weve got to move forward. Last, a letter to the chief operating officer for the Ohio Association of Community Health centers this is all of them working together weve hit that critical point that the ohio Health Center program which we know and rely on today will soon be on life support. There are literally is no room for additional delay. Madam president , i now, madam president , i appreciate now, mr. President , i appreciate that Congress Finally did the right thing on the Childrens Health Insurance Program. I ask congress to do the right thing for the Community Health centers. It will literally save lives. It will matter for s so many families in my state and states all over the country. Mr. President , i note the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call quorum call quorum call the presiding officer the senator from mississippi. Mr. Wicker i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be dispensed with. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Wicker i ask unanimous consent that all time be yielded back on both sides and that the senate proceed to a vote. The presiding officer is there objection . Without objection. The question is on the nomination. Is there a sufficient second . There appears to be. There is. The clerk will call the roll. Vote vote vote