Transcripts For CSPAN2 U.S. Senate U.S. Senate 20180208

At 1130 there will be voting whether to limit debate on the 2018 defense spending bill. Public funding runs out at midnight. Later the senate is expected to take up a six week extension. Live now to the floor of the senate. The presiding officer the senate will come to order. The chaplain dr. Barry black will lead the senate in prayer. The chaplain let us pray. Eternal spirit, our lamp and light, we praise your holy name. Lord, you are our strength and shield, enabling us to be surefooted even when standing on mountain heights. Stay with our lawmakers, support them with your mighty hand, and keep their feet from slipping. Enable our senators to one day stand before your presence with great joy. Show them your greatness until the things of earth grow strangely dim in the light of your glory and grace. We pray in your majestic name. Amen. The presiding officer please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance to the 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. The presiding officer the clerk will read a communication to the senate. The clerk washington d. C. , february 8, 2018. To the senate under the provisions of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable pat toomey, a senator from the state of pennsylvania, to perform the duties of the chair. Signed orrin g. Hatch, president pro tempore. Mr. Mcconnell mr. President . The presiding officer the majority leader. Mr. Mcconnell this congress and this president have delivered a historic series of achievements for the American People. We took an axe to the red tape holding back our economy. We used the Congressional Review Act a record 15 times to pave the way for job creation. After joars of broken properly years of broken promises to our veterans we began giving our heroes the more accessible care, greater choice and workforce training they deserve. We confirmed outstanding judges to the federal bench. We advanced efforts to address the Opioid Crisis. And of course we passed the most significant tax overhaul in a generation. Already tax reform is increasing takehome pay for american workers. Already businesses are investing more, expanding more, and creating more goodpaying jobs right here at home. Over the past year, we have built a record of successes for middleclass families and a stronger, safer country. But among all the work that still remains, one critical piece of Unfinished Business is now really close to the finish line. If we act now, we can start rebuilding our military and provide our troops the training and equipment they need to defend the homeland and protect the American People. The crisis in our military is acute. Just this week headlines revealed that twothirds of the navys fa18 aircraft are not prepared to fly. The fleet which must secure sea lines of communication across the globe and patrol the persian gulf and the South China Sea has shrunk to the smallest ship count in nearly three decades. Weve become too reliant on special Operations Forces and radically drawn down our conventional force structure. This has not been lost on china or russia. Theyre improving their conventional forces and intimidating their neighbors. Our force faces a complex collection of threats and challenges from iran, china, russia, and north korea, to isil, al qaeda, and their affiliates. The need for our forward presence is not diminished in the persian gulf nor the South China Sea and the pacific. Neither has our responsibility to our nato allies in europe or to the republic of korea. No, we have not asked our allvolunteer military to do any less for our country. Theyve just been forced to make do with less. And all these shortterm funding bills have handicapped our military leaders ability to make longterm plans and investments. In december the Navy Secretary said the inefficiencies from continuing resolutions have cost his department enough money to pay for an entire squadron of fighter planes or two destroyers. Let me say that again. The secretary of the navy said the inefficiencies from continuing resolutions have cost his department enough money to pay for an entire squadron of fighter planes or two destroyers. Heres how general dunford, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff put it. He said the u. S. Militarys competitive advantage against potential adversaries is eroding. Yesterday i announced a bipartisan budget agreement that will finally bring this to a close. The agreement will allow for the funding levels recommended by the ndaa conference report, authorization levels secured by the stalwart leadership of chairman john mccain and our colleagues on the Armed Services committee. So what does this mean for our men and women in uniform . It means putting a stop to the decline in combat readiness. It means knowing their Weapons Systems will be delivered, maintained, and kept on the cutting edge. Take it from secretary mattis. Yesterday he explained just what this agreement will do. Heres how he put it. It will ensure our military can defend our way of life, preserve the promise of prosperity, and pass on the freedoms you and i enjoy to the next generation. Our volunteer Service Members arent the only americans this agreement will help. It also builds on the progress weve made for veterans and military families by providing for better care and helping cut the v. A. s maintenance backlog. It offers reinforcements to families on the front lines of our nations struggle with opioid addiction and substance abuse. According to the c. D. C. , opioid Overdose Deaths increased five fold just between 1999 and 2016. On average this epidemic takes more than 100 american lives every single day. This agreement provides for new grants, prevention programs, and Law Enforcement initiatives to bolster existing national and state efforts. The legislation secures relief for families who are still struggling to rebuild in the wake of last years spade of natural disasters. This provision was only made possible by tireless work from several of might colleagues. Of my colleagues. Thanks to the leadership of senator cornyn and senator rubio who led on behalf of florida and spoke up for the people of puerto rico, help will soon be on the way. And the agreement also provides for new investment in our nations infrastructure, a shared bipartisan priority. Now, im confident that no senator on either side of the aisle believes this is a perfect bill. But im also confident that is our best chance to begin rebuilding our military and make progress on issues directly affecting the American People. This is a bill for brave americans serving our country, including the many Service Members based in my home state of kentucky. They deserve the pay raise we promised them and the confidence that when they leave our shores, theyre combat ready. This is a bill for our distinguished military commanders who have sounded the alarm on sequestration more times than any of us can count. This is a bill for our heroes who have come home. They should be greeted by a better funded streamline Veterans Administration that is equipped to meet their needs. This is a bill for American Families who have been victimized by brutal storms or the scourge of drug addiction. They deserve the assistance this agreement secures. I hope each senator will carefully review this bipartisan bill and support it. We need to build on our historic year, seize the opportunity, and keep moving forward. The presiding officer under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. Morning business is closed. Under the previous order, the senate will resume consideration of the house message to accompany h. R. 695 which the clerk will report. The clerk house message to accompany h. R. 695, an act to amend the National Child protection act of 1993 to establish a National Criminal history background check system and criminal history review program for certain individuals who related to their employment have access to children, the elderly or individuals with disabilities and for other purposes. The presiding officer under the previous order, the time until 11 30 will be equally divided between the two leaders or their designees. Mr. Mcconnell i suggest the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call quorum call mr. Schumer mr. President. The presiding officer Senate Minority leader. Mr. Schumer i ask unanimous consent the quorum be dispensed with. Are we in a quorum, mr. President . The presiding officer we are in a quorum call. Mr. Schumer i ask unanimous consent the quorum be dispensed with. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Schumer thank you, mr. President. Yesterday after months of painstaking negotiations, the republican leader and i reached a twoyear budget deal. Not only will it end the series of successful fiscal crises that have gridlocked this body, it will also deliver a large investment in our military and robust funding of middleclass programs. It will also give a significant boost to our Nations Health care and provide long overdue relief to disasterstricken parts of our country. As i said yesterday, it doesnt include everything that democrats want nor everything that republicans want. But its a good deal for the American People, and its a strong signal that we can break the gridlock that has overwhelmed this body and Work Together for the good of the country. Let me run through a few of the benefits that this agreement would provide. Our military has suffered from the uncertainty of endless shortterm spending bills. This budget deal puts that to an end. It gives the military a significant boost in support and allows the pentagon to make longterm decisions about its budget. Its the right thing to do, and i want to credit two people. First, my dear friend, senator mccain. He talked to me repeatedly even when he was ill about the need for funding defense. He also talked about the need for doing immigration and tried to make them go hand in hand. But senator mccain has been our leader in this chamber on both sides of the aisle in terms of making sure defense is funded, and i know he is proud today of what were doing for the military. Id also like to thank secretary mattis. He visited me repeatedly. Hes a cabinet secretary who seems to be doing his job rather than focusing on an ideological path which divides people. And he worked hard for this and deserves a great deal of credit. We democrats always argue that waoepbted to fund our we wanted to fund our military and middleclass programs. We needed good help on both. A mother whose child died from opioid addiction, a veteran who is waiting in line to get help, College Students with great debt on their shoulders. Pensioners whose pensions might be greatly diminished, they all need help, too. To say our military needs help to the exclusion of all these other worthy causes is not fair to them and not good for america. And i have always argued, we can do both. This budget shows we can. We can do both, fund the military and help fund the middle class. For those naysayers who said that couldnt be done, it sure can. This budget, im proud of what it does for the middle class. For a decade, we all know this, we all talk about it, our middle class has suffered from a needless and selfimposed austerity in congress, limiting investment and jobs in education, infrastructure, Scientific Research and more. This deal puts that to an end as well. So for those who said we cant do both, we can. Im proud of this budget because it does. Let me go into a few specifics. There is billions of dollars of support for child care, helping middleclass families shoulder the very heavy burden of child care. They need to take care of their kids in a way that they can have confidence in when both parents work. So often that happens. Or in singleparent families, so often that happens. What about College Affordability . The debt burden on the shoulders of those who just got out of college or graduate school is huge. We are focusing on providing help here, and in this budget, we focus on police officers, teachers, and firefighters. What about infrastructure . Our infrastructure is crumbling throughout america. Much of it was built 50 or even 100 years ago. Roads and bridges, water and waste water. We need to help those, and then we need new infrastructure. How about Rural Broadband to rural areas in inner cities which are not getting it. Broadband is a necessity today. Kids cant learn. Often you cant hold a job unless you can get broadband at home. In large parts of america, particularly rural, we cant get it. We provide help. And Rural America is very happy that were doing this. We provide billions to rebuild and improve veterans hospitals and clinics, so that when our brave soldiers come home there in the scars of war, their country serves them just as well as they served us. Opioids, i mentioned that earlier. 6 billion. Finally to guard against the opioid and Mental Health crises. The Opioid Crisis is widespread. The president has set up a whole bunch of commissions and given a whole bunch of speeches, but hasnt funded it. We in this body have. We democrats have led the charge. We have so many members like senators shaheen and manchin. So many senators like senators heitkamp and baldwin. So many senators like mccaskill and donnelly, like senator hassan, have been talking about the Opioid Crisis for a long time, and their hard work has now produced the dollars that will give the treatment that so many who are addicted need and the infrastructure to prevent these bad drugs, particularly fentanyl from coming into this country. Mr. President , my guess to the state of the guest to the state of the union was Stephanie Keenan from put New Hampshire county. She was a brave veteran. The veteran got hooked on opioids after ptsd. He waited six months for his first appointment at the v. A. Died of an overdose two weeks before he could get treatment. Stephanie keenan has been fighting for this. She is a brave, strong woman who is lighting a candle. She was my guest at the state of the union. She is a happy woman this morning because all her hard work after her sons passing is coming to fruition. And of course, there is much more in this proposal, so much we can all be proud of as americans that were not neglecting people who have been neglected for so long. Support for Community Health centers. They serve over 25 million americans. A full decade of funding for chip, the Childrens Health Insurance Program. An effort to lower Prescription Drug costs to millions of american seniors caught in the Medicare Part d doughnut hole. Disaster relief, Recovery Funding not just for texas and louisiana and florida, important as they may be and are, but for puerto rico and the u. S. Virgin islands and western states, and a special select committee, we dont do this often, thats empowered under a deadline to deliver a legislative fix to the pension issue by the end of the year. This issue, which plagues so many working americans, middleclass americans, in many states, people who paid into their pensions day after day, week after week, month after month, and are now finding those pensions vanishing, we should provide relief for them just as we should provide relief for others, and this commission is a strong, bright light that focuses on this issue and will create a path to solution. I want to salute so many of my colleagues who have worked so hard on so many of these pieces. Senators murray and wyden and tester on health care. Brown, casey, stabenow, manchin, heisman trophy, donnelly, klobuchar, baldwin and smith on the pension piece. Nelson on the disaster package. Senator leahy, Ranking Member of appropriations, has done a great job on the whole thing. A lot of credit is due to each of them and so many more of our members because the final product is something that will benefit so Many Americans over the next decade. Senator mccaskill was also very much involved in the pension issue, as well as many others. So i hope this budget agreement will pass the senate in large numbers from both sides of the aisle. It will be easy to say well, i didnt like this, i didnt like that, but this is the time to come together. This is a time to stand up for our soldiers, our middle class, and those aspiring to the middle class. So i hope we will get a large bipartisan vote. And to that point, i have some pointed words for some in the house, in the Freedom Caucus, hard right, who are starting to squawk about this budget deal. They say it raises the deficit. They just voted and cheered a bill that would add 1. 5 trillion to the deficit in the form of tax breaks for mammoth corporations. They were willing to increase the deficit on the defense side of the budget, but all of a sudden, when it comes to our schools or our roads or our Scientific Research, oh, we cant do it because of the deficit. Mr. President , it is blatantly hypocritical to ignore the deficit when it favors Corporate America but raise the alarm when it comes to helping our veterans, our students, those addicted to opioids. That is selective enforcement. That doesnt fly. And there is a lot of sophistry going on, when we reduce taxes, we wont have a deficit because it will keep the economy growing. Does anyone doubt that education keeps the economy growing, that Scientific Research keeps the economy growing, that Building Infrastructure keeps the economy growing . There is a lot of hokum flying around here that only when you cut taxes for big corporations we grow the economy. Whats got for the goose is good for the gander, and i think americans are tired of the hypocrisy on the hard right which greets a 1. 5 trillion hole in the deficit by cutting corporate taxes and primarily taxes on the wealthy with cheers and then says you cant spend money for somebody who needs relief from the student debt loan they have or who needs help for health care or food stamps. It is utter, sheer hypocrisy. Let this budget go forward through both chambers and on to the president s desk where President Trump seems willing and ready to sign. President trump was not involved in this process. He was not constructive when he spoke and tweeted. He asked for a shutdown. I think in this body and i hope my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are learning this that oftentimes we can get a lot more done working with one another and let the white house just sit on the sidelines, because you dont know what their positions are. As i once said, negotiating with the president is like negotiating with jello, and oftentimes their positions are just so far over to one side of the political spectrum, sort of koch brother type positions, that they would never pass. So this is a good model. Now, one more word on immigration. Based on my continued conversations with the republican leader, once we pass this budget agreement, were ready to proceed to a neutral bill, shell bill on the immigration on immigration next week. And the leader has guaranteed, the republican leader, an amendment process fair on all sides where well alternate amendments. That means some of the people who are on the very conservative side will get amendments, some on the very liberal side, but so will there be an opportunity for a bipartisan compromise focusing on the dreamers and Border Security that has a real chance of getting 60 votes. We should all be working hard to get that done in this chamber, and i would say to my friends in america who care about the dreamers, please let your senators know, particularly those senators who have not committed to helping the dreamers, how important this is. Next week will be one of the most vital weeks that we can deal with the dreamer issue in a fair, compassionate way. Its been swept under the rug for too long, but because of the agreement the leader and i came to a few weeks ago, that he has confirmed, keeping his commitment, well be able to deal with it. Mr. President , the house should be able to deal with it as well. What leader mcconnell and i have agreed to should be something that speaker ryan agrees to. To just put President Trumps bill on the floor means no immigration bill and no help for the dreamers. We all know that. It will lose republican votes as well as democratic votes. It wont pass in the house. So i say to speaker ryan allow a fair and open process to debate dreamers on the floor of the house just as we are allowing in the senate. Leader pelosi shouldnt have to stand and speak for eight hours. I respect her for doing it. Just to secure a vote on an issue as compelling and pressing as dreamers. What leader pelosi is asking for is the same thing we got here in the senate. No more, no less. A vote and an open process that is undeniably fair. So i hope speaker ryan will relent and promise a vote. There is an appetite on both sides and in both chambers to get this done, both helping the dreamers and Border Security. In the senate, i know that everyone on the democratic side and many on the republican side are working hard to find a bill that protects dreamers and provides Border Security that can pass next week. We know this is a difficult task. We know immigration is one of the more volatile issues in america, but we have to do it for the good of this country. The budget was a difficult process. We came to an agreement. Lets do the same on immigration. A bipartisan agreement where each side gives some, and we can all be proud that we got it done. The same effort and spirit that forged a budget deal should Carry Forward to the issue of dreamers. Lets get it done next week. I yield the floor. A senator mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from indiana young i ask unanimous consent young mr. Young i ask unanimous consent to be recognized for up to ten minutes. The presiding officer without objectiondowndown i would like to mr. Young i would like to take a moment to address the continuing resolution well vote on today. The social Impact Partnerships to pay for results act in the modernizing the interstate placement of children in foster care act. Both are important to hoosiers. Im glad question see them become law after six years of working in a bipartisan way to get them across the finish line. Let me tell you why these for measures are so important to hoosiers and really to all americans. The social Impact Partnerships to pay for results act empowers our public and private sectors to implement evidencebased social and Public Health interventions, to address some of our nations most pressing social challenges. Now, america has a celebrated and vibrant civil society. We have a history of not turning first to government to solve some of our thorniest social and Public Health challenges but instead turning to our neighbors, turning to our local communities. Perhaps our local not forprofit groups or community heroes. We discover that oftentimes they are better situated to address these thorny challenges than a government program. Thats not to suggest in the slightest that government doesnt have a very Important Role in addressing these broad social challenges. Government can indeed make a difference but can these other organizations. We have a growing Evidence Base. This is without any partisan tinge to it. It is broadly agreed we have a growing Evidence Base of those things that are working to address challenges like homelessness, to address things like asthma and low in in lowincome communities, to get the unemployed into the workforce. You name the social ill and there is likely a not forprofit group or a for whennen profit or forprofit group that is making a difference on this front. So the challenges is how do we scale up these evidencebased interventions in an era of scarce resources. Well, because social Impact Partnerships are focused on achieving results, taxpayer money is only paid out when desired outcomes are met. And government payments are made possible because when you really help somebody, when you really are able to help them achieve their goals and turn around their lives, that frees up government money. So we use those avoided costs, those future government savings to pay back those who invest in scaling up things that really work to improve lives. Let me give you an example. One example of what has also been called paid for success. Theres a service in indianapolis that connects registered nurses with low inincome pregnant women. It helps ensure both mom and baby are healthy throughout the pregnancy and through the infants life. They hit specific metrics that save the government money. And under this legislation, a Philanthropic Organization like indianas Lily Foundation can invest in the Nurse Family Partnership to scale up their work. As long as the metrics continue to be met, as long as success is achieved, the investor is paid a return out of those future government savings. Well, it makes a whole lot of sense which is why it passed unanimously out of the house of representatives previously and why i believe it will be passed into law after passing this chamber and being signed into law by the president in coming days. Social Impact Partnerships address our moral responsibilities to ensure that social programs actually improve recipients lives and do so in a fiscally prudent manner. They also respond to the imperative of improving our Economic Health by harnessing the capabilities of every able bodied citizen. You know, we ought to be treating every american like theyre an asset to be realized, not a liability to be written off, not a consumer of programs but somebody with really potential. We want every american to achieve their full human potential. So to recap whos going to benefit, well, the recipients of these services through the Publicprivate Partnership will benefit, the least among us. Taxpayers will benefit. Every american will benefit as our communities become strengthened, as more enter the workforce, as Public Health is improved and so forth. The next bipartisan measure which i expect to get across the finish line today is the modernizing the interstate placement of children in foster care act. This bill expedites the time it takes to place children in loving homes. Well see why its so important and so timely that we pass this legislation today as well. Thousands of children in my state of indiana have lost loving parents to opioi opioidaddiction. Ive seen it up close and personal. This is ground zero in our state for the opioid epidemic. It made National News not in a good way. So many people have been adversely impacted in this community. I know there are communities like this across the country that are being impacted to varying degrees by the Opioid Crisis. Well, i fear that if we do nothing, well lose thousands in the next generation as well. Modernizing the outdated interstate child placement process is one of a number of proposals that are urgently needed. This legislation will incentivize states to connect to an electronic interstate Case Processing system that has already achieved substantial reductions in the time it takes to place these children into homes. Now, frankly, before i dove into this, i just assumed that our foster care system was digitized, that it found its way into the 21st century, that we werent using paper files that were being mailed back and forth several times. But thats not the case. We need to make sure that for a child, they spend less time being shuffled from foster home to foster home, and this legislation will achieve that. We need to make sure that children who are taken in and out of School Without a set routine, that that situation is put to an end. For children caught up in a system struggling to meet community needs, we should do Everything Possible to get them immediately placed in the setting thats best for them regardless of state boundary lines. So in summary, mr. President , these bipartisan, bicameral bills were developed over six years beginning during my time in the house of representatives. I consulted with key steakholders to make stakeholders to make sure there would be broad support and there is. I had countless discussions with hoosiers and other expects about how to experts about how to tackle these challenges. The continuing resolution well vote on today isnt perfect. I remain concerned about our spending levels and i maintain that we need to take longterm action for the Fiscal Health of our country. But with our commitment to our military and the inclusion of these two important pieces of legislation, ill be voting for the c. R. For the good of all hoosier children, families, and communities. Thank you. And i yield the floor. The presiding officer the senator from massachusetts. Mr. Markey i ask unanimous consent that i be recognized to speak for up to ten minutes followed by senator cardin for up to ten minutes. The presiding officer is there objection . Without objection. Mr. Markey thank you, mr. President. Mr. President , i rise to speak about the need to protect our dreamers from deportation. When we talk about dreamers, we are talking about immigrants who came to this country as children. We are talking about immigrants whose parents brought them here when they were young to give them a better chance than they had in their home countries. We are talking about young immigrants who when they were children had no choice in the decision to come to the United States. These dreamers know no other home than the United States, and many of them have spent their lives in limbo identifying as americans but lacking legal status and under the constant threat of being sent back to countries that are completely foreign to them. In 2012, president obama took steps to protect some of these dreamers from deportation through an executive order. He established the program known as daca or deferred action for childhood arrivals program. Daca created security and opportunity for hundreds of thousands of young dreamers alonging them to live and work in our great nation without the threat of deportation. So what daca really stands for is deserving a chance in america. Daca, daca. And a protection for these innocent young people who deserve a shot at the American People. And i would like to take a moment to speak about one of these massachusetts dreamers who benefited from daca. Her name is estephanie. She came to the United States at 9 years of age to escape violence in el salvador. She was brought here by her grandmother along with her two sisters and a baby cousin. The journey took 22 days. It was arduous. Eestephanie was so scared. At one point she asked to be left behind. When she finally got to the until, she found it difficult to adjust to this whole new world. But estephanie was overjoyed to be reunited with her mother would had come to the urches a few to the United States a few years before the rest of the family was able to come. Estephanie was grateful for the opportunity she was given and did not want to squander it. She wanted to succeed in school and live up to her mothers sacrifice. Estephanie who only spoke spanish when she arrived struggled with elements i school and she tried Elementary School and she tried to do her homework every night. In two years she was moved on frotoenglish as a second languae class. She was accepted into the prestigious Boston Latin Academy for high school. Her work ethic and desire to deserve her family sacrifices were what motivated estephanie and got her through the many hardships that come with being undocumented, fear, uncertainty, and ant. When she began her College Application process, she fully understood for the first time what it meant to be undocument undocumented. Although she wanted to go to college and have a career, she was afraid to tell her guidance counselor and teachers of her fears about her legal status. But once estephanie opened up to them, she confronted applying and attending college the same way she had always faced up to the other struggles in her life with strength, with courage, and with perseverance and she fought the battle that many aspiring College Students wage figuring out how to pay for it. It wasnt easy. As she researched and applied for scholarships, she found that most were for citizens only. But because of scholarships provided by immigrant support organizations like the wonderful massachusetts immigrant and refugee advocacy coalition, she is now attending university of massachusetts in boston where she is pursuing a degree in International Relations and a minor in public policy. So it sounds like a happy ending but sadly it is not. On her first day as a freshman at umass boston, President Trump repealed daca. He callously terminated the program with no guidance on what should be done next for these young dreamers. That heartless action by the president left estephanie unable to focus on school. She no longer had any certainty about her future here in the United States and at umass boston. As she put it, quote, after so many tears and sleepless nights, it felt like all my hard work was being thrown away. But estephanie is a fighter and shes not giving up on her College Education or a career. I know she will succeed if she is just given a chance. Because she like so many other dreamers deserve that chance. Over the five years that daca was in effect, the program protected some 800,000 dreamers, nearly 8,000 in massachusetts. These are young people like estephanie who study, who serve, who work, and who live next door to us every single day. They are our friends, our neighbors, and our loved ones. They are not too lazy. They are not bad hombres. They are some of the best and the brightest in our country. But now because of President Trumps unconscionable decision to end daca, estephanie and so many other young people like her are living in darkness again. It is heartbreaking to witness this administrations strip protections away from people who are americans in every way that should matter. Leaving them to live under a threat of deportation is unconscionable. We should not abandon these young people who we urge to come out of the shadows. We should not abandon the Larger Community of dreamers who have no other home than the United States. The American People understand this. In january a poll found that 87 of americans favor allowing immigrants who are brought to the United States illegally as children to be allowed to stay here. 87 , nearly all americans, are with our dreamers. You would think extending these protections would be a nobrainer for the republicans right here, right now we could pass a bill to protect these young immigrants. But instead republicans decided to use the dreamers as a bargaining chip in budget negotiations. They hope that by leveraging the lives and futures of dreamers they will get their laundry list of hardliner immigration demands. So i am so glad that senator mcconnell has agreed with senator schumer that were going to open up a debate here on the floor of the United States senate. We are going to try to find a way of resolving this issue, although there is no guarantee that President Trump will in fact agree with any resolution here. Theres no guarantee that the tea party, Freedom Caucus republicans in the house of representatives will agree with any understanding that is reached here on a bipartisan basis, if we can reach one, on the floor of the United States senate. So i just think for better or worse, the dreamers should know that we are going to continue to fight for them, that we are going to continue to work towards creating a pathway for them to be able to live in our country without fear. And i think thats going to be the signature moment that we can create for our country this year. Yes, we have a budget agreement, but we have so much more work to do to help these great young people who will be great americans once we create a path to citizenship for them. Mr. President , at this point i would like to yield back. A senator mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from maryland. Mr. Cardin mr. President , first i want to thank and concur in senator markeys comments in regards to the dreamers. Yes, we are pleased that we have a bipartisan agreement today. Im still in the process of reading all the details before making a final judgment. But its certainly good news that the democrats and republicans leadership have come together in agreement. I join senator markey and am pleased that the majority leader will bring to the floor of the Senate Next Week the immigration issue to protect dreamers. I would add those with t. P. Shfplt should also be those with t. P. S. Should be considered. We have a process. I hope the spirit were seeing in the budget agreement will continue next week as the senate works as it should in a bipartisan manner to protect the dreamers and do whats right. But i also want to just acknowledge that there is no such commitment from the leadership, Republican Leadership in the house. So i join with leader pelosi in urging speaker ryan to set up a similar process in the house so that we can get a bill to the president and signed into law to protect the dreamers. The president created this problem by putting a date on their backs. Its our responsibility to respond in a timely way, and im glad to see the senates prepared to take action. Mr. President , i took this time because i want to talk about one specific provision in health care that was passed by congress in the 1990s. But let me just preface that by saying in this budget agreement, im pleased that there is bipartisan agreements on advancing health care in america. A bill that i worked on since we imposed the therapy caps way back in the 1990s that made no sense at all, will finally correct that mistake permanently and allow those that are in need of Therapy Services, the most severe Therapy Services those who have, stroke victims or similar to get that care without a cap as to the amount of services they need. Im also pleased to see were going to be dealing with telemedicine, an issue that ive worked on, many members have worked on, improving dialysis treatment, some of the issues we all worked on. The Community Health centers, Childrens Health Insurance Program, tenyear extension, rural health care. Theres a lot of good things in this bipartisan agreement to advance health care, and im pleased about it. But i just want to remind my colleagues that if we are successful in getting that enacted into law, weve still got to make sure that it is implemented in the manner in which we intended. And i give as an example the prudent layperson standard on emergency medical treatment. I was involved in that process in the 1990s. And the reason this came to our attention is that Insurance Programs in the 1990s was such that it was not unusual for an Insurance Company to deny payment for emergency services. An individual would have the classic symptoms, for example, of a heart attack. The pain, the sweating, and did what a prudent layperson would do. Went to the nearest emergency room to get treatment. After the examination was complete, they found out the person did not have a heart attack. The person was discharged from the hospital, went home, two days later got the bill for that visit, and then almost had a heart attack when the Insurance Company would not pay for that bill. Well, we recognize that as not being right, so we took action to change that in response to these dangerous and unfair requirements, maryland enacted the prudent layperson standard in 1992. It was prudent to go to the emergency room for care. The Insurance Company had to reimburse it. Later in 1997, i led the National Effort to extend the prudent layperson standard to all medicare plans and Medicaid Managed Care plans as part of the balanced budget act of 1997. I worked with president clinton who eventually signed an executive order in 1998 to have the standard apply to all government Insurance Programs. Then i fought to have my patients bill of rights amendment which included the prudent layperson standard enacted as part of the patients protection and Affordable Care act for individual and group health plans. So we now have it effective for all plans in this countries, and theres a definition of what is emergency medical conditions and what is a prudent to do that, its spelled out in the statute dealing with the seriousness of the symptoms as it deals with bodily harm, et cetera. Despite the federal law, private insurers are once again using tactics to prevent people from seeking care in an emergency room. Several newspapers from the Los Angeles Times to the colombia dispatch have reported that anthem, one of the nations largest insurers, implemented an avoidable Emergency Room Program to reduce what it deems as unnecessary e. R. Visits and address Rising Health care costs. This program has been rolled out in several states, including kentucky, missouri, ohio, indiana, georgia, and New Hampshire. According to these news reports, patients believing they have emergency symptoms go to the e. R. For emergency medical care. After several tests physicians determine there is no emergency medical condition, the patient returns home relieved they are okay. A few weeks later they receive a hrert from the insurance compane Insurance Company refusing to pay for the care in the hospital. This is wrong. We said it was wrong in the 1990s. We took steps to change that. We now have laws that make it very clear, that anthem avoidable e. R. Policy forces people who are in some sort of acute distress to determine before they leave their homes if their symptoms are really serious enough to go to emergency rooms. We had back in the 1990s preauthorization for Emergency Care. Can you imagine trying to make a phone call before you go to an emergency room to talk to somebody as to whether you should go there or not, wasting valuable time. Or told to go to a different hospital than the closest hospital, again causing real serious jeopardy. Thats what we had. People should not be forced to act as their own doctor and secondguess themselves when they truly believe they are having a medical emergency. A wrong decision based upon economic considerations, the ability to pay the bill, could be deadly. We should not discourage people from seeking necessary medical treatment, and we should not allow Insurance Companies to return to the time when they could callously refuse to cover Emergency Care provided to individuals who genuinely and reasonably believe they need it. So, mr. President , as we will be considering shortly additional improvements in our Health Care System to eliminate the cap that we have on therapy caps, to make it clear that we want to make telemedicine more available, to help dialysis patients, to deal with our children with the Childrens Health Insurance Program, to deal with rural health care, let us also make sure that we set up the ability to make sure that our policies in fact are carried out. And we should not allow Insurance Companies such as anthem to act as if what congress did did not exist. I think that is our responsibility. I look forward to working with our colleagues in a bipartisan way to improve the health care and access to all americans. With that, mr. President , i would yield the floor. The presiding officer the motion to go invoke cloture. The clerk cloture motion. We the undersigned senators in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the motion to concur in the house amendment to the Senate Amendment to h. R. 695, a bill to amend the National Child protection act of 1993, and so forth and for other purposes. Signed by 17 senators. The presiding officer is there objection . Without objection, by unanimous consent the mandatory quorum has been waived. The question is, is it the sense of the senate that debate on the motion to concur in the house amendment to the Senate Amendment to h. R. 695 shall be brought to a close. The yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. The clerk will call the roll. Vote vote vote the presiding officer are there any members in the chamber wishing to vote or to change their vote . If not, on this vote the yeas are 55. The nays are 44. Threefifths of the senators duly chosen and sworn not having voted in the affirmative, the motion is not agreed to. Mr. Mcconnell mr. President . The presiding officer majority leader. Mr. Mcconnell i move that the chair lay before the senate the message to accompany h. R. 1892. The presiding officer the question is on the motion. All in favor say aye. All opposed say no. The ayes appear to have it. The ayes do have it. The motion is agreed to. The clerk will report. The clerk house message to accompany h. R. 1892, an act to amend title 4, United States code to provide for the flying of the flag at half staff in the event of the death of a First Responder in the line of duty. A senator mr. President . The presiding officer the president pro tempore. Mr. Hatch is it proper to speak today as if in morning business . The presiding officer without objection. The senate will be in order. Mr. Hatch mr. President , i rise today to speak in strong support of the bipartisan budget act which the senate will hopefully pass later today. This bill as the name implies is the result of some rigorous bipartisan and bicameral negotiations. Im pleased to have played a part in this endeavor and im gratified to note that in addition to keeping the presiding officer the senate will be in order. Mr. Hatch im gratified to note that in addition to keeping the government open and providing much needed resources for our troops, the bill before us addresses a number of longstanding priorities of the Senate Finance committee, including many that i have personally been working towards for years now. Indeed, this legislation once passed and signed into law will be the combination of years of work put in by members of the finance committee on both sides of the aisle. I want to take some time to say a few words about some of the bipartisan victories take will be achieved through this legislation. I should warn you, though, mr. President , this will take a few minutes because there are quite a few provisions to discuss. For starters lets just talk about health care. Among the more prominent victories in this bill is an extension of the Childrens Health Insurance Program for an additional four years. As we all know, last Month Congress passed a historic sixyear chip extension, which was eventually signed into law. The bill before us would add another four years on top of that sixyear provision providing a total extension of ten years. Ten years. Thats just remarkable. I have a long history with the chip program, mr. President. I was the original author of the program and have always been an outspoken champion of it. Weve had some back and forth here in the senate about chip in recent months and some of it has gotten pretty fierce. However, today the senate will pass legislation, bipartisan legislation, to provide unprecedented security and certainty for the families that depend on chip and the governments that need more predictability to map out their own expenditures. Im sure my friend, senator kennedy, is up there watching and very happy that he came on this bill in the early stages and helped to put it through. In addition to the chip extension, the budget bill includes a bipartisan finance Committee Bill entitled the creating highquality results and outcomes necessary to improve chronic care act of 2017, a fairly long title. Senator wyden, the finance committees Ranking Member, and i have been working for years on this legislation which once enacted will improve Health Outcomes for Medicare Beneficiaries living with chronic conditions. It will also help bring down medicare costs and streamline care coordination services. Weve been working with our colleagues, stakeholders and advocates for quite some time. We moved the bill through Committee Last year and the Senate Passed it once already without a single vote in opposition. This legislation will finally get the chronic care act to the president s desk. I want to thank senator wyden for the time and effort hes put into this effort. I also want to thank our other colleagues on the finance committee, particularly senators isakson and warner, who joined us on a working group to develop this important legislation and move it forward. This bill, as promised, will relieve a great deal of suffering for Medicare Beneficiaries and will do so in a fiscally responsible manner. The budget bill also contains a package of bipartisan provisions that have come to be known as medicare and health extenders. These provisions are High Priorities for a number of our members throughout the senate, and i am very pleased that we were able to include them in the final package of the spending bill. And while these are all important, id like to highlight that there are a few provisions that we were able to permanently resolve and not just extend. One such provision will repeal a flawed limit on the amount that medicare would pay for outpatient physical and other therapy that threatened access for some of the most vulnerable patients. I worked with other members in both chambers to find a lasting solution to this decadesold problem. Again, demonstrating that congress can tackle hard problems and not just kick the can down the road. In addition to the medicare extenders, the bipartisan funding bill also includes some key reforms to the underlying medicare programs. These include expanding access to inhome treatments for patients with Medicare Partb and improve means testing for the premiums paid by high income earners under Medicare Parts b and d, all of which will help improve the overall fiscal outlook for medicare. Furthermore, the bill repeals the independent payment Advisory Board that was created under the socalled Affordable Care act. This too is a step that is garnered bipartisan support, as it should, showing that Many Democrats join republicans in recognizing just how illadvised the creation of this panel really was. The bill addresses a number of other Health Care Priorities as well, including continued funding for various Public Health programs, some delays for burdensome medicaid reductions that have been on the horizon, and it provides relief to puerto ricos Health Care Challenges faced after the hurricane devastation. By increasing medicaid funding. Id also like to say, mr. President , in any big package there are a lot of policies in here that give me concern. Some of the upsets particularly related to Medicare Part d that my democratic colleagues insisted be in this package are very troubling to me, and i look forward to working with my colleagues to address this moving forward. In addition to these Health Care Priorities, the funding bill extends a number of important tax provisions in order to help families, individuals, and Small Businesses throughout the country. We made progress on producing and passing tax extenders legislation with the passage of the path act in 2015. Still many more important items remain to be handled, and we have worked to address member priorities to extend certain provisions. The provisions included in the spending bill all expired at the end of 2016. This legislation will extend them through this year. Finally, the bill makes takes some major steps forward in the area of human services, which is also under the jurisdiction of the finance committee. In addition to continuing funding for important chimed and Family Service child and Family Services programs, the bill includes the Family First Prevention Services act, another bill originally introduced by senator wyden and myself to strengthen families and reduce inappropriate foster care placements. This legislation will help keep more children safely with their families instead of placing them with foster care. Under this bill, states will be able to Fund Effective services that have been shown to prevent children from entering foster care. It will also encourage states to place children with foster families instead of in group homes. And it will reduce the bureaucracy faced by relatives who seek to take in children rather than have them end up in foster care. Also included in the spending bill is the social Impact Partnership act, a bill that i introduced along with senator bennet which will support innovative Publicprivate Partnerships to address critical social and Public Health challenges. As a result of this bill, states will identify key social challenges they want to address, state the results they hope to achieve, and the federal government will pay for a rigorous independent evaluation to verify that they achieved the outcome. Mr. President , as you can see, weve been very busy in the finance committee for the past two years. Obviously we have seen success in some of the more highprofile items like tax reform late last year as well as longterm highway funding and renewing trade Promotion Authority in 2015. But our work has gone far beyond these efforts. And thankfully, with passage of this spending bill, many more of the committees efforts, virtually all of them bipartisan, will come to fruition. I want to thank the Senate Leaders from both parties who have worked with us to include all of these important provisions. I want to thank my colleagues on the finance committee, both republicans and democrats, who have put in so much time over the years on all of these efforts and congratulate them all for the success we look forward to seeing this week. Of course, mr. President , we do still have to pass the bill. Therefore, i urge all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to vote in favor of this bipartisan legislation. And with that, i yield the floor. A senator mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from rhode island. Mr. Whitehouse mr. President , before i make my remarks, let me just say in the, you might call the current unpleasantness in washington, what a pleasant thing it is to be here on the senate floor and hear the respected chairman of the Senate Finance Committee Say the positive words that he has said, describe his success at expanding chip, and call to our memory the name of senator kennedy, who was his friend and his ally in creating that program upon which so many children across america depend. So i thank him for a lovely moment in an otherwise somewhat, shall we say challenging washington environment. Mr. President. Mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from rhode island. Mr. Whitehouse in the spirit of back and forth, which is often the spirit of the senate, i am following senator hatch, but i see senator wicker also on the floor. If time is pressing on him, id be willing to consider yielding for a few moments. I dont know how much time he intends to consume. Mr. Wicker the senator is very kind. Time is not that pressing. Im actually expecting two or three colleagues, and perhaps well engage in a colloquy after that. So i do appreciate my friends courtesy. Mr. Whitehouse in that event let me commence my 196th time to wake up climate speech. The last year has been a lousy one for environmental policy here in the United States. While the rest of the world began implementing the Paris Agreement to reduce the Carbon Emissions that are changing our climate and our oceans, this proud body, the United States senate, sat on its hands. When President Trump handed the keys to his administration over to what i call the three stooges of the fossil fuel industry pruitt, perry, and zinke the senate sat on its hands. The recent interview with british journalist pierce morgan shows trump willing to make a scientific fool of himself on the question of climate change. To please the general managers pulling the strings of his administration, the Koch Brothers. This record puts them all way out of line, way out of line with most americans. Overwhelming numbers of younger americans demand Climate Action and plan to hold politicians who stand in its way accountable. Faith groups, universities, state and local governments, and businesses have stepped up their climate leadership. Businesses hear from their customers and know the American People want action. But, if Corporate America is serious about Climate Action in washington, Corporate America needs to explain why the big business lobby groups in this town, the u. S. Chamber of commerce, the American Petroleum institute, the National Association of manufacturers, stand so resolutely in the way of Climate Action. These three Industry Groups have been instrumental in blocking Climate Action, using lobbying, dark money election spending, and threats of dark money election spending. Today i want to take a look at the biggest and swampiest of the three, the socalled u. S. Chamber of commerce. First lets clear up common misperceptions about the chamber. It is not a Government Agency and it bears almost no relation to your Hometown Chamber of commerce. Instead of representing the interests of Small Businesses, the chamber represents the interests of giant corporations, International Corporations and the ultra rich. Chamber president tom donohue admitted as much in a letter to the Tobacco Company phillip morris. He wrote that Small Businesses provide the foot soldiers and often the political cover for issues Big Companies want pursued. End quote. Why this service to giant corporations and the ultra rich . Easy answer. They pay the bills. The vast majority of the chambers 275 million per year budget comes from just a handful of donors. For instance, in 2014, just 119 donations accounted for over 160 million of the chambers fundraising haul. Who are these donors . Well, the chamber doesnt want you to know. It does all it can to resist transparency. But thanks to voluntary disclosures by some corporations and the tax filings of some nonprofit groups, we know that its donors include many of americas biggest corporations as well as political front groups run by the billionaire Koch Brothers and karl rove. The chamber took in at least 5. 5 million from kochbacked groups between 2012 and 2014. A karl rove affiliated group gave the chamber 5. 25 million in 2014 alone. It would be interesting to know how much of the karl rove money