A senator mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from montana. A senator i ask the quorum call be vitiated. The presiding officer without objection. A senator mr. President , i rise in commemoration of constitution day, celebrated nationwide yesterday, the date september 17. 232 years ago our Founding Fathers gathered in Independence Hall in philadelphia and signed the document that remains the supreme law of the land today. Mr. Daines in those 232 years, the United States has become the most powerful, the most prosperous nation in the history of the world, and that success has come as a result of the framework set by our constitution. The genius of the framers was their determination to maximize the freedom of the individual while recognizing the need for a Central Government but limited in size by our constitution. The founders understood the nature of man. The founders understood that power corrupts. And under the framework of federalism, we created a divide between the states and the federal government, allowing for powers to be shared. In fact, the 10th amendment at,he powers not delegated to the United States by the constitution nor prohibited by it to the states areeser rd to the states respectively or to the people. At the federal level, we established three coequal branches of government, which established a system of checks and balances to offset the concentration of power. And to complement the laws established, our founders put in place the bill of rights as a safeguard to protect the individual from the threat of government tyranny. Our sacred rights and freedoms endowed by our creator are recognized as inherent and untouchable because of our bill of rights. As the father of our constitution, James Madison stated, and i quote, in europe, charters of liberty have been granted by power. America has set the example of charters of power granted by liberty. Our constitutional system of government is the envy of the world and has served as a model for Countries Worldwide who are seeking to create representative governments. Thats why its so important for us to observe days like constitution day. Americans of all ages should be learning, they should be studying our constitution, they should be taking in what makes our constitution so uniquely successful in nurturing a free and a prosperous society. And our grand experiment has stood the test of time. Yet we must continue to be vigilant in the preservation of this most important part of our american legacy. So today i encourage every montanan, every american to read the constitution, discuss it at the dinner table, discuss it with your family members, discuss it in your classrooms, discuss it with your friends, discuss it with your neighbors. Because as the preamble states, we the people established our constitution, and it remains up to we the people to ensure its success. And may god continue to bless this great nation. Thank you, mr. President. I yield back. Mr. Lankford mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from oklahoma. Mr. Lankford september 18, 1787, this grand experiment was final isled to be able to try to formula they considered a more Perfect Union and the bunch our constitution happened. This was a radical experiment in selfgovernment that most of the rest of the world at the time stared at what we call our Founding Fathers now and thought that will never work. Thatll never work. It wasnt a parliamentary system. It wasnt a monarchy. It was a representative republic, and it was pulling something out of the thoughts and the hearts of people to say, this is inherently what we think would work. Beginning with the simple concept of checks and balances, that one person would Check Another person would Check Another person and to be able to put that into a governmental structure. To have three coequal branches, an executive, the legislative, the judicial branch, that we dont have one over the other. They stand on equal footing between the three. In and each of them watches the other. And the unique system of even putting a legislative brah together, a legislative branch that has one body made of the house of representatives that will be large, that will be boisterous that will be up for election every two times in the most painful parts of government that is required of government is put into the hand of the people that are closest to the people. That the power of impeachment, the power of the purse, the power of things that need to be done by government but can only be done by people that are closest to the government. And to be able to create a sena a with longer term, closer to the states, more of a larger perspective on how we would structure together to make sure that we protect rights of the individual states and the uniqueness of at those times those 13 states all joining together. It was a radical idea and a complete shift from where wed just been because as americans, occasionally we forget, this wasnt our first time to try to put a government together. We had prior to 1787 an articles of confederation that basically had 13 different states very loosely connected to each other, that continued to be able to spar with each other, that didnt cooperate together, and eventually they had to determine weve got to do something different. So after our practice round of the articles of confederation, we put together this constitution. But even immediately after the constitution was put into place, in the very First Congress when the very First Congress came into session, they immediately began work on 12 amendments that at that time they called the bill of rights. Thats right, is it amendments. Were so used to hearing about the 10 amendments of the bill of rights. They started with 12. Then they debated and they edited and they worked it through, and that 12 ended up becoming 10. Those 10 amendments were added as our bill of rights, bus we continue to be able to edit and Work Together as a country. Eventually we fought a civil war. One of the most tragic parts of our entire nations history. But this constitution still kept us together at the end. And we still function together. Since that original 10 of rights 10 bill of rights, weve added 17 more amendments to the constitution. And this enduring document continues to be the foundation of every single law in the United States. It is unlike many parts of the world even still today. That in much of the world, they change constitutions every time their monarch changes. They change constitutions every time their government changes. And when an executive branch decides they dont like particularly whats happening in the legislative branch, they just demand a new constitution and shift the entire laws of the entire country. We dont. We started with a constitution and have started with this simple principle that the law matters. And we continue to build on that basic law, and when our preferences change, the law still exceeds our preferences, and if there is a change that we need to do in law, we agree together to be able to make a change in law, and we still continue to respect the uniqueness of now all 50 states and of local authorities. See, we still have counties and cities and parishes and municipalities. They oversee school boards, they make daytoday decisions, they regard first responders, garbage, parks and recreation, they manage utilities, decide street names, they deal with local roads and street signs and zoning laws. Its all done locally. It is not done federally of much the federal government has nothing to do with that. And theyll have states. They establish local governments, they establish Public Schools and issue teaching certificates and licenses for professionals like doctors and lawyers, psychiatrists, there is as many different types of professions as they choose. They manage elections, because thats the responsibility of the states. They determine Motor Vehicle registrations and drivers licenses and marriage licenses, business licenses. They regulate commerce within their state because our simple system is not only broken up into three different branches of government, but its broken up into local governments, state governments and unique responsibilities for the federal governments beginning with our natialse that is uniquely a role that we can do together. As a federal government. Interstate commerce, managing treaties with foreign entities its the responsibility of the larger government. This unique experiment that was radical in its day is still the envy of the world to this day. And there is a reason that we pause each year in september and remember constitution day. I think about how often we celebrate the declaration of independence every 4th of july ft and Thomas Jefferson and his writing and all the editing that happened with his document after he wrote it, and we sometimes lose track on a day in september when we can pause and think there is that second document in our founding after the declaration, the United States constitution, that remains the foundation of every law that we still continue on today, and we could not be more grateful for a Stable Foundation for our nation. With that, i yield the floor. A senator mr. President. Mr. President , i want to join my colleagues, the two that just were here and spoke as i was here. Mr. Blunt my friend from montana and my friend from oklahoma to talk about the uniqueness of the government that we have. The unbelievable coming together of ideas in philadelphia in 1787, ideas, frankly, that nobody ever had thought of in quite the same way before, starting with the first three words. This is the only document ever devised up until that time that suggested that the source of government was a source of government that the constitution recognizes immediately. When the magna carta talked about the relationship between the king and the barons of england and that was even a big step in a new direction because up until then under monarchies, there was only one source of government which was god and gods ordained chosen monarch was viewed by country after country after country as the way this should be done, and there would be a succession and it would be understood and had really nothing to do with you or me or anybody else. It was all some greater plan left up to somebody else. The articles of confederation that mr. Lankford mentioned as a weak form of government that just simply after a little more than a decade had proven not to work. It just was not a workable structure, but it looked to the states. It was sort of we the states of the United States enter into this agreement as states, but it was the constitution that came up with this this brandnew concept that was put in paper at least for the first time, we the people. The people become in 1787 and in reality when the constitution is adopted and the governments formed in 1789, the people become the source of government. The people become the responsible party. The people become the party that if the government isnt doing what you want it to do, its up to you to do something about it because the governments only there because of you. Now, is we the people a totally inclusive, perfect document, even a perfect idea in 1787 . Not at all. In fact, the constitution goes on to say were doing this to form a more Perfect Union. They dont even suggest were forming a Perfect Union. They just suggest were forming a more Perfect Union, understanding that even within their range of vision of what might happen and there were people that were advocating that women be able to vote, as Abigail Adams had during the revolution itself, there were people advocating that slavery be ended. All of those things, there were many things evidenced in that room as part of the debate that didnt happen, but they didnt wait to have a Perfect Union. They said were going to form a more Perfect Union, and you have got to believe in that. They assumed it would get more perfect as time went on. And here we are 200 and some years later. Is it perfect yet . No. But its hopefully more perfect than it has been and less perfect than it will be because we the people are going to come together in this convention and then later adopt it in a bigger setting to form a more Perfect Union. And that more Perfect Union would include ideas that nobody had ever thought about before. If the people are forming the government, what kind of controls do you put on the government . Not too many controls. I remember in the bicentennial of the constitution, Warren Burger was the chairman of the bicentennial commission, the chief justice of the United States. He said when he was a boy that you measure the value of a horse by how little harness you could put on it and still get it to do the work you wanted done. You didnt totally handicap the horse by piling all kinds of harness and all kinds of reins and all kinds of bits. The valuable horse was a horse that didnt need to take all kinds of structure but had all the structure it needed. And thats what the constitution ride to put together. Not a government that would overwhelm itself but a government that had enough to control itself. So they came up with this idea of balance of power. They started describing, as all of us would believe, the most important part of the government in article 1 thats why it was article 1 that set up the congress, the house, and the senate. They then came up with an executive that would execute the will of the article 1 body, the body that would decide how to spend the money and the body that would decide what laws could get on the president s desk, and the body that had the ability if the president didnt sign the law to override the president s decision not to sign the law, all of that was there, but that balance of power where the congress had strengths, the executive had strengths, and even the court comes in to serve often as a referee between the two, sometimes to tell the president what the president can do and the congress cant do and sometimes just the opposite, to say no, you can do this. You can appropriate the money but you cant appropriate it conditionally. You cant appropriate the money and say to get the money the president has to do things that dont have anything to do with the appropriations process. We just want the president to behave differently. We cant do that. The president shouldnt be able to do it either, and the courts are often the group that decides that. Not hanging too many obligations in the constitution, whats the constitution say about the courts . Not a lot. It says there will be a Supreme Court and such other courts as the congress decides necessary. Thats not a very complex structure. It doesnt say how many people are going to be on the Supreme Court. There have been different numbers over time. It doesnt say how many other courts there will be. But the courts are there and the courts the judges serve for life, outside of the normal concerns that they might have that one of the other groups will decide whether they could continue to serve or not. That may be their greatest power, that they are there no matter what they decide unless their decision is so extraordinary that somehow the other power decides to remove them. And so here we are, its a living document. Its amendable. Its a loving document through its amendments, not through its interpretation. The founders nor those who believe the constitution continues to serve a constitutional purpose never thought that, well, the constitution, well decide later what the founders would have thought that sentence meant. This has divided our country, by the way, for a while, but many people along with me think the constitution means what it says it means and what you would have thought it would have meant in the context of the time, and if you want to change that, there is a process to change it. The amendment process works just beyond just the first ten amendments, and the other amendments senator lankford talked about, and its still there to do that. But here we are celebrating this unique moment where people came together with ideas that got on paper and were approved, that even if they had been talked about before had never formed the basis for a government before. And here we are well over 200 years beyond 1787 and the first year of the government, 1789, and that constitution has been the model for all kinds of constitutions by all kinds of countries. Interestingly, many of them have almost the same constitution we have. They just have not been able to figure out how to live with it or to let the balance of power and the power of people work. Again, the most important part, the first three words, the most important understanding to form a more Perfect Union, not yet accomplished, maybe never accomplished, but it always gives us a goal for things to be better than they have been in the country we have the opportunity to live in under the constitution that provides a unique set of liberties and freedoms that others can only hope for. And with that, mr. President , i yield back. The presiding officer the senator from vermont. Mr. Leahy mr. President , later today were going to vote on whether to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to h. R. 2470, the house defense, labor, health, Human Services, education, energy and water and state and foreign operations appropriations bill. I must say i have to strongly urge senators to vote no. Im not urging a no vote because the house bills arent good bills. The underlying house bills are good bills. If we are going to vote to just consider these bills, that would be easy. I think everybody in this chamber would vote yes, but thats not what we are doing. Senator mcconnell has made very clear that he will bring up h. R. 2470 not to vote on the bills passed by the house of representatives, but for consideration of the Senate Defense appropriations bill, and thats a partisan bill. It was reported out of the Appropriations Committee on party lines. Hes going to offer that as a substitute once we proceed to the underlying bills. Now, on top of that, on top of taking a totally partisan bill as a substitute for legislation they could have easily passed, leader mcconnell is also going to offer as part of the substitute the energy and water Appropriations Bills, as well as the state, foreign operations, and laborh. H. S. And education bills. This might sound like procedural. Its not. Those last two bills have not even been considered by the committee. They havent been voted on by the subcommittees. They havent been voted on by the full committee. They were pulled from the Committee Markup last week because republicans were afraid to vote on amendments that would have received support of both republicans and democrats. Is that how we operate . Just because things get complicated and difficult, we just skip parts of the legislative process because we say oh, my goodness gracious, im afraid to have to vote on something yes or no . Thats no way to proceed. Not one democrat on the Appropriations Committee voted for the defense bill. Not one. Including myself. And i voted for more money for the department of defense than any senator serving in this body today. But the way that was written, it does nothing to prevent the president from stealing billions of dollars more from our troops to pay for his cynical Campaign Promise to build a gigantic wall across our southern border. He will steal this money from them even though he promised us that mexico would pay for it. So he can break his promise that mexico is going to pay for it, hes going to steal the money from our troops. Now, the president has already raided 6. 1 billion from the department of defense accounts in the fiscal year 2019 bills for his border wall. He did that without congressional approval. First he diverted 2. 5 billion from the fiscal year 2019 defense appropriations act for the wall. He used standard transport authority. We provide the department of defense to ensure the department of defense has the flexibility to meet the needs of the troops in an evolving threat environment. Its not intended to be used by the president as a piggyback for a Campaign Promise for piggy bank for a Campaign Promise for a pet project that congress has refused to support. He took 3. 6 billion more from military Construction Projects for a southern border wall. This is the wall that he gave his word mexico would pay for. Instead he takes the money from projects that would imp the lives of our troops and their families. Military schools, child care centers, improved training facilities. We cant let that happen again. I offered an amendment during Committee Markup on the defense appropriations bill that would protect the money we would appropriate for our troops, prohibit the president from using it to build a border wall, but that member was defeated on a partyline vote. Now, the republican leader accuses democrats of not standing with the troops by voting against this bill. I would remind him that i voted for a lot more money for the department of defense than he has. But its exactly the opposite. We are the ones saying we want funds that should go to support the troops and their families should be allowed to, and we should not allow the president to take the money from the troops and their families for the wall. Thats tantamount to telling military families you may serve loyally, but we care more about a failed Campaign Promise a wall in the middle of a desert the president promised mexico would pay for we care more for that than we do about providing schools or day care for their children or weapons training or fire stations. Im not going to stand up for that. We have to stand up for the constitution. If you want to raid defense dollars for the wall, then the president has contorted the law beyond all recognition. Hes undone congressional funding decisions by fiat. If you let that go unanswered, we say were surrendering Congress Constitutional power of the purse. Last year we were able to move Appropriations Bills on the floor because the leaders agreed the only bills that had bipartisan support would move forward. I commend my colleague, the senior senator from alabama, senator shelby. We showed the right way to proceed. Its the right way to proceed now. We passed those bills. But the package of bills before us does not have such support. I was hopeful that once we secured a bipartisan budget agreement, wed be on a bipartisan path to consider senate Appropriations Bills that reflect the best of our country. But the Republican Leadership started out the process on a partisan note by refusing to rein in the ability of the president to take the defense dollars that we had forwarded to help our troops, but to take them to build his wall. And by shortchanging the labor h. H. S. Educations appropriations bill, take money out of there so they could put 5 billion of it in the homeland bill. Now, i wonder how many more of our tax dollars were going to spend on this boondoggle. If you put it to a vote to this country, theyd say no more, and the bipartisan budget agreement, nondefense funding was given a 27 billion increase. That was a roughly 3 increase. If all things were equal, the labor h. H. S. Education appropriations bill which is our largest domestic funding bill, should receive a 3 increase in fiscal year 2020. But the republican bill gives only 1 . The department of Homeland Security receives a 7 increase to pay for the wall. Thats not right. The result is the bill put forward by the republicans today fails to cover even the annual cost of inflation in public health, head start, child care, special education, education for the disadvantaged, veterans training grants, and dozens of other programs. To rob funds meant for education, child care and health care, programs have a real positive impact on the lives of all American People, to pay for president trumps wall is just as unacceptable as robbing these funds from our military. And members on our side of the aisle are not going to support that. Last year the president shut much of the government down for 35 days in a tweet tantrum over his wall. This strategy of border wall above else, border wall above any interests of this country has already failed once. It will fail again. The majority leader has said theres no education in the second kick of a mule. I agree. But now we find ourselves in this position again. Weve been down this road. It is the president s failed strategy that led to the longest Government Shutdown in the history of our country just five months ago and cost americans billions of dollars. It is the president s failed strategy to hold the American People hostage to pay for a wall that he gave his word mexico would pay for. Now there is a bipartisan path forward. We have bipartin bills that have gone through the Appropriations Committee with overwhelming support of republicans and democrats. The majority leader ought to just bring those up while we sort out these other issues. The energy and water appropriations bill reported out of Committee Last week on a unanimous vote. Every republican and every democrat voted for it. Tomorrow the Senate Committee will consider the agriculture appropriations bill, then the transportation, housing, urban, Development Appropriations bill. I expect most democrats and most republicans will vote for them and we can bring these bills to the floor. To vote cloture on a partisan defense appropriations bill and a partisan state foreign operations bill and a partisan laborh. H. S. Education bill, the last of which have never even been considered in committee. The state foreign operations bill continues the president s discriminatory mexico city policy which prohibits funding for private organizations that support Family Planning and reproductive health. It caps funding for Family Planning and arbitrarily unacceptably low level. It eliminates all funding for the u. N. Population fund. Thats a fund that provides lifesaving assistance to women and girls in yemen and dozens of other countries where usaid does not have programs. Well tell these women and girls in yemen and elsewhere, sorry, youre on your own. For the past 30 years ive been either chairman or Ranking Member of the state foreign operations subcommittee. That subcommittee has a long record of producing bipartisan bills. That was true when the majority leader, senator mcconnell was chairman, when former senator judd gregg of New Hampshire was chairman, while senator graham was chairman and when i was chairman. We were ready to mark up the bill last week but because one senator wanted to offer an amendment related to Family Planning, an amendment that had both republican and democratic support of a majority of members of the committee, the markup was canceled. My goodness, we cant vote on this. It might pass. Were not allowed to vote on it. Rather than vote, the majority canceled the markup. What kind of process is this . What kind of democracy is that . Were better than this. Mr. President , we are the 100 members of the United States senate. 100 men and women to represent 325 americans. Thats an awesome responsibility. Senators should not be afraid to vote. Senators should show courage, not hide behind procedural actions so they never have to take a position. Thats not why people come to the United States senate. Thats not whats expected of 100 people here who represent this great country. So i urge members to vote no on the cloture motion. Its nothing more than a political stunt. We had bipartisan bills, overwhelmingly supported by republicans and democrats. Bring them up. Lets not waste time on show votes. Now i will continue to work with my good friend, chairman shelby , and the majority and democratic leader to find a way forward. Lets not have show votes. Lets have real votes. Lets have all 100 of us stand up and say what we stand for. I yield the floor. A senator mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from alabama. Mr. Shelby mr. President , i listened to some of the remarks of my distinguished senator from vermont and friend. I think were both trying to find a path forward to move our Appropriations Bills, but we are not there yet. Mr. President , this afternoon i urge my colleagues to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to h. R. 2740, the first package of Appropriations Bills sent over by the u. S. House of representatives. This package, mr. President , includes the defense, energy and water, labor, h. H. S. , education, and state foreign operations Appropriations Bills. My democratic colleagues have said theyre opposed to proceeding to this package because we must pass domestic spending bills before we pass the defense bill. But this package before us right now does both, mr. President. In fact, it accounts for more than 40 of domestic spending. And as i said before, it mirrors the package sent to us by Speaker Pelosi and the democraticcontrolled house. So this excuse, i believe, for delaying consideration of this package doesnt hold water this afternoon. We need to move the process forward. I want to make a few points, mr. President , about the Senate Versions of these bills that we will bring up if we invoke cloture today. Last week the Appropriations Committee reported the defense and energy and water bills. The energy and water bill, as senator leahy just remarked, garnered unanimous support. My democratic colleagues similarly praised the bipartisan nature of the defense bill. Yet, they voted against it in the committee. They did so because the bill, as i understand it, from what they tell me, does not restrict the president s ability, mr. President , to transfer funds to secure our southern border. Mr. President , the terms of the bipartisan budget deal governed the fiscal 2020 appropriations process. Theys why they entered into this agreement. They were agreed to by republican and democratic leaders, all the way up to the president ,s the speaker of the house, the majority leader, the minority leader, and so forth. These terms expressly prohibit restrictions on the president s ability to transfer funds. Its plain as day. Our democratic colleagues may now regret having agreed to those terms, but that does not change the fact that they did agree to them. And we want to go by them. Mr. President , i ask at this point unanimous consent to place this term sheet into the record. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Shelby lack of adherence to the terms of the budget deal, mr. President , also explains why were unable to mark up the other two bills in this package, labor h. H. S. Education, state foreign operations. Like the energy and water bills, these bills p were crafted in a bipartisan way. Yet some of my democratic colleagues threaten to amend these bills with abortionrelated poison pills. Mr. President , poison pills, as we all know, like restrictions on transfer authority are expressly prohibited by the terms of the budget deal that we all agreed to a few weeks ago. Again, both parties agreed to those terms. Regardless, mr. President , im interested in moving the appropriations process forward, and i believe senator leahy is too. And im interested in doing so consistent with the budget agreement that we agreed to. That is why the chairman of the labor h. H. S. And Senate Foreign ops subcommittees, senator blunt and senator graham have released a version of the bills th the Appropriations Committee intended to consider last week. Both bills were crafted with bipartisan input and both are free of poison pills. Were proud of the work that went into those bills and went into the transparency about how we intend to proceed. Before we vote on cloture, i want to remind my colleagues here of our shared success last year and our common interest in moving the process forward this year. In fiscal year 2019, last year, we achieved more success in passing Appropriations Bills than we had done i 20 years. The linchpin of that success was an agreement between myself and senator leahy, the vice chairman of the committee, to ban poison pills from appropriations bill. Both sides upheld that agreement right here on the floor. And we funded 75 of the government on time. Thats the framework that the bipartisan budget deal was modeled after, that we could replicate what we did last year. And the purpose of the budget agreement is to replicate the success we had last year, as i just said, to ensure that we do not refer to the dysfunctional appropriation process of years past. Thats why its so important that we adhere to it now. I think the American People want us to do it and do it now. Its all the more important considering what were trying to fund with this package. It contains critical investments, not just in health, education, and energy projects, but in national security, our military. The situation unfolding in saudi arabia should serve, i believe, as a grave reminder to all of us that we must set aside partisan politics and do our job to provide our military the resources it needs to keep america safe. It should also remind us that our main adversaries, china and russia, never relent in their efforts to destabilize any of us anywhere in the world. Thats why we must do our part to ensure that they fail. We cannot do that without Stable Funding for our military for certainty there for our soldiers. Failure to prioritize funding for our National Defense would dermune the pentagons planning process, hinder our commanders ability to counter threats to america and threaten the safety of our nation. Thats unacceptable. We have the opportunity today to move Forward Together to bolster our national security. We have a framework for success that weve used last year. Lets use it now. I hope my democratic colleagues will recommit to the terms of the budget deal that they agreed to in spirit and in fact. I hope that they will set aside partisan politics and do right by our military, the numerous agencies that would receive funding in this package, and our constituents, the American People, and let us get on with the business of the people. So again, this afternoon i urge my colleagues to vote yes on cloture. Thank you. The presiding officer the clerk will report the motion to 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 do hereby move to bring to a close debate on 2740, an act making appropriations for the departments of labor, health and Human Services, and education and related agencies for the fiscal year ending september 30, 2020, and for other purposes signed by 17 senators. The presiding officer by unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum call has been waived. The question is, is it the sense of the senate that debate on the motion to proceed to h. R. 2740, an act making appropriations for the department of labor, health and Human Services and education and related agencies for the fiscal year ending september 30, 2020, and for other purposes shall be brought to a close. The yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. The clerk will call the roll. Vote vote vote mr. Mcconnell mr. President . Vote the presiding officer are there any senators in the chamber wishing to vote or to change their vote . If not, on this vote the yeas are 51. The nays are 44. Threefifths of the senator, duly chosen and sworn having not voted in the affirmative, the motion is not agreed to. Mr. Mcconnell mr. President . The presiding officer the majority leader. Mr. Mcconnell i enter a motion to reconsider the vote. The presiding officer the motion is entered. Mrs. Blackburn mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from tennessee. Mrs. Blackrn hank you, mr. President. One of the occasions that we celebrate every year is constitution day. And that actually took place yesterday and it was so exciting to visit with students and talk with constituents and celebrate constitution day. And the fact that we have this document and you know, our constitution is a disarmingly short document to read. It just really doesnt take a lot of time. When you sit down to read it and digest it and when youre done with it, you might easily walk away thinking, you know, that wasnt that hard after all. Its pretty simple, right . Well, we all know that thats not necessarily the case. Easy to understand but so important that we look at this in its entirety. Theres an entire body of law dedicated to tearing that constitution apart. And it is mind boggling when you think about that. We have this document. It puts this foundation in place. And there is law that would rip it apart. There are those that would rip it apart who are looking for answers to problems our founders never dreamed of. Theres a lot of talk lately concerning the founders and how their backgrounds and status in society informed the document that eventually became what is known as the constitution of the United States. But i think its even more important to think of the founders as human beings who came to the Constitutional Convention harboring ambitions and goals equal in gravity to our present passions. Their desire to have a United States of america. They wanted freedom there their from their oppressors on the other side of the world and from a system of government that would inevitably lead to oppression. They said no more. Lets write this into the fiber of this nation, freedom, freedom from our oppressors. They wanted to reforge the change that broke during the revolution into ties that would bind the several states together under a common goal. Bound together, united in purpose and in freedom. After years of blood and uncertainty, they desperately wanted control over their own lives and over their futures. Individual freedom, freedom to choose. And because they were human, yes, they wanted power. And so they argued. They argued about everything. They argued about states rights. They argued about a nation having a debt. They argued about the confederacy and compacts versus the federalist vision of a more pet union. But through all that, t foundersll managed to create a document that set forth a new standard of government. A government of the people, by the people, for the people; a form of governance that is responsible not to the government but is responsible to the people. They gave us a framework, but there are a great many things that they declined to set in stone. They made a conscious choice, which is why we continually find ourselves engaging in philosophical combat and, unfortunately, as part of that battle, many of my friends on the other side of the aisle have gone so far as to undermine the very institutions that define this country. Supreme court confirmations have turned into a circus. Policy debates devolve into personal attacks, distinguishing between news and opinion is all but impossible on many days of the week. Mresiden many of my friends on the other side of the aisle like to describe the constitution as a living document, but i dont really follow that line of thinking. Describing our constitution as a living document is really just a prelude to changing the rules to fit the circumstances. And, in my opinion, that is a dangerous concept. As our founders signed on the dotted line, the rest of the world looked toward americas shores with skepticism and, at times, derision. They didnt understand how a government by the people and for the people could possibly fit into the existing mold. After over 200 years of progress, there are still those who remain skeptical of the country that broke the mold and transformed from a struggling cluster of colonies into a shining city on a hill. I urge all of my colleagues to respect the constitution. It is not an intellectual straitjacket. Not once has the sum of its contents acted as a barrier to progress. The constitution is not the source of the freedoms it guarantees. But it does state definitively that its execution secured the blessings of liberty to those who bore witness to americas beginnings and to those who would come after. It is a legacy worth fighting for. Happy constitution day. I yield the floor and notice the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call quorum call mr. Mcconnell mr. President. The presiding officer the majority leader. Mr. Mcconnell are we in a quorum call . The presiding officer we are. Mr. Mcconnell i ask unanimous consent that further proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. The presiding officer so ordered. Mr. Mcconnell i ask the chair lay before the senate the message to accompany s. 1790. The presiding officer the clerk will report. The clerk resolved, that the house insist upon its amendment to the bill, s. 1790, entitled an act to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2020 for military activities of the department of defense, and so forth and for other purposes. And ask a conference with the senate on the disagreeing votes of the two houses thereon. Mr. Mcconnell i move that the senate disagree to the house amendment, agree to the request of the house for conference, and authorize the chair to appoint conferees on the part of the senate. And i send a cloture motion to the desk. The presiding officer the clerk will report the cloture motion. 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 disagree in the house amendment, agree to the request from the house for a conference, and authorize the chair to appoint conferees in relation to s. 1790, an act to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2020 for military activities of the department of defense, for military construction, and for Defense Activities of the department of energy to prescribe military personnel strength for such fiscal year, and for other purposes, signed by 17 senators as follows mr. Mcconnell i ask the reading of the names be waived. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Mcconnell i ask unanimous consent the mandatory quorum call be waived and that the cloture vote occur at a
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