Impeachment proceedings. It seems like morning, noon, and night the relentless effort to unseat the president of the United States is a toxic strain of potomac fever infecting capitol hill. Now if only congress would channel every waking minute to fix problems in the real world, wouldnt that be wonderful. Let me provide a reality check. For People Living in the real world, impeachment inquiry is not what keeps americans up at night. Its not what wakes up moms and dads worried sick about paying for their childs insulin. Its not what drains the pocketbooks of seniors and takes a big bite out of peoples paychecks. The issue that unites americans from maine to iowa to oregon is the high skyhigh prices that americans and the taxpaying public pay for are paying for prescription medicine. As chairman of the Senate Finance committee, i am working in a bipartisan way to fix whats broken in our drug supply chain. In february we called the heads of big pharma to testify before the finance committee. Next we heard from the largest pharmacy benefit managers to examine rebates and unravel the pricing supply chain. There was an awful lot of finger pointing between the various interests about the soaring drug prices that americans pay for pharmaceuticals. That finger pointing we heard in our committee. Finger pointing doesnt decrease drug prices because the real problem is theres too much secrecy and not enough accountability in the industry pricing of drugs. When drug prices grow by leaps and bounds year after year, its time to look under the hood. Time to kick the tires along the drug supply chain and check the gauge on the competition. Why in the world is insulin, just as an example, a drug thats been on the market for nearly 100 years, doubling or tripling in price for patients in the United States . Its surely not that way in europe. Weve gotten lots of feedback from patient advocates, Health Providers and freemarket proponents. The pushback from big pharma reveals that were really on to something. Congress needs to take its foot off the brake. Its time to deliver real savings, and our bill will deliver real savings to consumers and to the taxpayers. Its time to pass reforms that will cut Prescription Drug costs for the American People. Now, some of my colleagues may require a more blunt call to action so i want to use the two by four illustration. Join us and score a win for the American People otherwise do nothing and risk being on the losing side of the ballot box next november. At my annual 99 county meetings where i always hold a q and a with whatever group of constituents gather, i hear the same message from people all across the state of iowa. They have family members and they have neighbors who struggle to pay for prescription medicine to manage Chronic Health conditions and to treat diseases. Thanks to breakthrough treatments and cures americans are living longer and healthier lives. Many are beating the odds of a diagnosis that would have been a death sentence a generation ago. However, if a loved one is diagnosed with m. S. Or diabetes or Cystic Fibrosis, no miracle cure will help if americans cant afford to pay for their medicine. And it wont help snois if skyhigh r seniors if theres skyhigh medicare and medicaid. Its causing too Many Americans to skimp on other necessities or even ration their doses of the prescriptions they take. Now, i just mentioned as an example Cystic Fibrosis. Last month the f. D. A. Approved a promising new treatment for this progressive genetic disorder. Cystic fie fibrosis Cystic Fibrosis impacts about 30,000 americans. Theres nothing parents wont do to advocate for children living with this condition. Thats when i launched the Bipartisan Senate caucus on Cystic Fibrosis to add our voices for awareness and advocacy. Now im told the price tag for the the price tag for pt new drug is more than 300,000 per patient per year. Without a doubt this drug raises the roof of hope for tens of thousands of families, but it also raises a red flag about drug prices. If prices keep going through the roof year after year, how will americans who depend on prescription medicines afford them . Americas drug pricing regime is broken. It requires reform to sustain fiscal sustain ability and sustainability and also to steer incubation and innovation forward. It needs more transparency. It needs better incentives. It needs real competition to drive down prices. So all 100 of us have our work cut out for us. Big pharma doesnt want its pipeline to the federal treasury tightened at all, and theyll spend big money to scare people away from Reasonable Solutions that will deliver real savings and get the best deal for the taxpayers. I refer to our working in a bipartisan way. So in july Ranking Member wyden and i secured broad bipartisan support in our finance committee, 199 vote. Our bill would save taxpayers more than 100 billion, and thats not this senator saying that, thats the congressional budget office. The bill caps out of pocket costs for seniors. The bill saves their households more than 30 billion. We finetuned and improved our bill to gain more momentum and more support. And part of that support, and one of the outstanding advocates for what were trying to do, doesnt happen to be a member of the finance committee, but its my good friend from maine, senator collins, right here on the floor. Ill yield to her in a short time. Shes helping lead the fight to reduce drug prices. Weve been working together on many issues. Im a former chairman of the special committee on aging and and current chair. She has the special committee on aging. Were committed to help Older Americans lead healthier productive lives. We also share a top priority not to miss a vote. While i might have a longer voting streak, susan hasnt missed a single vote. I hope the people of maine appreciate a person thats been in the senate since 1997 and hasnt missed a single vote. Senator collins is one of those rare lawmakers who doesnt care who gets the credit as long as were doing the right thing. And the name of this bill that im talking about, and i imagine shell refer to, is a Prescription Drug pricing reduction act, and that will do be the right thing to do and it will do the right thing. So its time for congress to do the right thing. And just in case i said anything different about senator collins and not accurate, she can feel free to correct me, but i now yield to senator collins, a strong voice for this piece of legislation. Ms. Collins mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from maine. Ms. Collins thank you, mr. President. Mr. President , let me first thank and recognize senator grassley for his farsighted and courageous leadership on this issue of vital importance to the American People. The escalating cost of Prescription Drugs. Under senator grassleys chairmanship, the finance committee has held numerous hearings on drug pricing. His diligence, his persistence on this issue has produced the bipartisan Prescription Drug price reduction act, a bold set, an effective set of proposals that i strongly endorse and look forward to seeing signed into law. Mr. President , this past century could well be called the age of miracle drugs. From insulin and penicillin to pharmaceuticals that treat karns, h. I. V. , cancer, h. I. V. , heart disease, and so many other serious conditions, modern drugs have been proven to improve, extend, and even save lives. In our time, however, we might define a miracle drug as one that has not doubled in price since the last refill. With Prescription Drugs among the key factors driving up the cost of health care, it is essential that we approve policies that both encourage innovation and protect consumers, particularly our seniors. Demonstrating the importance of this challenge, three senate committees, the Senate Finance committee, ably charged by senate grassley, which i mentioned earlier, the help committee and led by senator alexander and the Judiciary Committee, led by senator graham, has advanced bills aimed at reforming our broken drugpricing system. In addition, mr. President , the senate aging committee, which i chair, has held eight hearings on drug pricing since 2015 and issued a major report in 2016 on sudden price spikes in offpatent drugs. Our report highlighted the manipulated manipulative schemes employed by martin s hcrelin who increased the price of a drug that was more than 63 years old, a lifesaving medication by 5,000 in just one day. To paraphrase his words, he could drive up the price of drugs like this one on which he had not spent a dime in the research and development because he could. His price gouging caud real hardships for patients. Mr. President , some of the most alarming testimony that we heard on the aging committee has come from patients. They describe the Financial Impact of their Prescription Drug prices, the depths that theyve gone to to access medications they need, and how the struggle has affected their health and their overall quality of life. They are truly choosing between paying their electric bill, buying the food that they need, and filling their Prescription Drug prescriptions. An example is a young father from new gloucster from maine who discovered a supply of insulin for his 13yearold son who has type i dieb had more than tripled to more than 900. A woman from falmouth, maine, saw her outofpocket costs for the arthritis medication e embrl that she needs soar from 10 to 3,800 per month when she transitioned from her employersponsored insurance to medicare when she retired. She had no choice but to switch medications which did not work nearly as well for her. But she simply could not afford that outofpocket cost. I will never forget standing in line at the pharmacy counter in bangor, maine, where i live. The couple ahead of me received their Prescription Drug and the unwelcome news that their prescription copay was going to be 111. And the husband turned to his wife and said honey, we simply cannot afford that. And they walked away leaving that needed prescription on the pharmacy counter. I asked the pharmacist how often does this happen. His answer . Every day. The results of exorbitant increases in the price of drugs, needed prescriptions arent filled. Doses are skipped. Pills are cut in half, all harmful to the patients health. And why . Because the patients simply cannot afford the exorbitant cost, the skyrocketing cost of these drugs. Mr. President , this should not happen. We must join together to combat the exorbitant prescription costs that confront more and more americans every day. More than half of all americans and 90 of our seniors take at least one Prescription Drug each month. For many access to these medicines is not only critical to their wellbeing but it can literally be a matter of life and death. For children and adults with type i diabetes, insulin is not a luxury or something thats nice to have. Insulin is essential to their ability to survive. And insulin was first isolated nearly a century ago in canada and yet its cost has soared in recent years. Another chairman in the senate who has worked very hard on this issue along with senator grassley is senator lamar alexander. He has made it a strong priority of the help committee on which i serve to increase transparency and competition in the Prescription Drug market. Mr. President , i dont think theres any product that we buy in this country where there is less transparency in the price than the price of Prescription Drugs, nor where the supply chain is more rife with conflicts of interest. Last year in response to my experience listening to this couple in bangor, maine, i authored a bill to block pharmacy gag clauses. Now, under these contractual gag clauses, pharmacists were actually prohibited from volunteering to a consumer that it might well be less expensive to pay out of pocket rather than using their insurance. A recent study published by the journal of the American Medicine Association found that this new law could help americans save money in nearly one out of four prescription transactions in a pharmacy. Another bill i authored in 2017 to promote more competition from lower price but equally effective generic drugs is also showing results. To date the f. D. A. Has granted nearly 200 application requests under the new expedited pathway established by this law with 12 approvals. That is a much faster pace than in the past. In june the help committeereported out the lower the Lower Health Care cost act which incorporates more than 14 measures to increase drug price competition. Im pleased to say that it includes major portions of the biologic patent Transparency Act that i authored with senator kaine and that is cosponsored by senators brawn, holly, portman, shaheen, stabenow, paul, and murkowski. It is intended to prevent drug manufacturers from gaming the patent system. It requires earlier and greater disclosure of the web of patents held by biologic manufacturers thus making it easier for biosimilar competitors to develop more affordable alternatives without being stymied by the filing of lastminute patents. According to former f. D. A. Commissioner scott gottlieb, if all of the biosimilars that have been approved by the f. D. A. Were successfully marketed in the United States in a timely fashion, americans would have saved more than 4. 5 billion in 2017. The fact that a biosimilar version of humira, the best selling drug in the world, has been on the market in europe for more than a year while american patients must wait until 2023 is a clear example that the Biosimilar Market is not working as it should. The Lower Health Care costs act also includes the creates act, a bill that i know senator grassley has been very involved in. It addresses the anticompetitive practices of companies that delay or even block access to a sufficient quantity of the brandname drug needed to conduct the bioequivalency test required by the f. D. A. As part of the generic drug approval process. This addresses one of the major problems identified by the aging committee when we looked at this issue starting in 2015 examining the explosion in prices of Prescription Drugs of which there is no generic equivalent. And im pleased that we are on the verge of taking action to combat and stop this unfair practice. The help Committee Bill also requires significantly more disclosure on the costs, fee, and rebate information associated with p. B. M. Contracts. Thats prescription benefit managers. And i know the finance Committee Bill does as well. As i mentioned previously, the finance committee passed the Prescription Drug pricing reduction act, landmark legislation that would save taxpayers more than 100 billion and save seniors more than 30 billion in outofpocket costs for their prescriptions. I strongly support this bill because it strikes the right balance between reducing outofpocket costs for consumers without hindering innovation and investment in the next lifesaving medications. The finance Committee Bill also makes crucial improvements to Medicare Part d, such as protecting seniors with an outofpocket spending cap, another long overdue change that would ensure that patients with highcost conditions such as cancer, multiple sclerosis, and Rheumatoid Arthritis can get the medications they need. Furthermore, the bill would protect taxpayers from higher than inflation increases in drug prices while reducing government spending, premiums, and overall outofpocket costs. The Judiciary Committee, mr. President , is also has also advanced proposals that would empower the federal trade commission to take more aggressive action on anticompetitive behaviors. These are three worthwhile pieces of legislation that should be brought to the senate floor. The work of the finance committee, the help committee, and the Judiciary Committee is a tremendous breakthrough which would make such a difference to the American People. As we continue to find further consensus and a path forward on each of these bipartisan bills, i hope that we can also look for additional improvements. For example, as cochairs of the senate diabetes caucus, senator shaheen and i along with senators cramer and carper have introduced legislation to address flaws in the system that have allowed pharmacy benefit managers and manufacturers to implement what are truly unscrupulous price increases on lifesaving insulin. I also support a measure introduced by senators klobuchar and grassley to prohibit brandname Drug Companies from confiscating generic Drug Companies to delay the entry of a less costly but equally effective generic into the market. Thats referred to as pay for delay. Im amazed that its not already illegal under our antitrust laws. But this bill would make it clear that this tactic is no longer permitted. Mr. President , congress has a tremendous opportunity to deliver a decisive victory in both lowering Health Care Costs and improving health care. For the people of my state of maine and throughout america. If we want new medicines to reach consumers who need them, the companies that invest in research and take the risks necessary must see a fair return on their investment. But at the same time, we can no longer allow the price manipulation and the market distortions to continue at the expense of the most vulnerable americans and their families and ultimately at the expense of every american taxpayer. We we can act to make a real difference in the lives of americans whose Health Depends on affordable Prescription Drugs. The required policy solutions wont come in the form of a miracle, but through hard work and continued bipartisan cooperation. Let us come together. I urge all of my colleagues to join in supporting the measures that we have worked so hard on, that the help committee, the finance committee, and the Judiciary Committee have all reported on a bipartisan basis, recognizing the hardships imposed on the American People. Let us bring these bills to the senate floor expeditiously. Thank you, mr. President. A senator mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from north dakota. Mr. Cramer thank you, mr. President. I wanted to come down to the chamber today to talk a little bit and highlight the vast differences in priorities between the two chambers of the United States congress today. You know, several of my colleagues will be down here a little later today to talk about and to encourage the passage of the National Defense authorization act, a bill, by the way, that passed the senate in a very strong bipartisan way, reflective of the strong bipartisan input on a vote of 868. The house also passed their version of the National Defense authorization act on more of a partyline vote. The point being both chambers have passed it. The reconciliation of the two bills has begun. The negotiations have begun, but they have been stalled. And i think it is a strong reflection of the differences between the two chambers. But first i want to talk a little bit about why its important that we do this job. First of all, there have been 58 years in a row that the ndaa has passed the house and the senate and signed into law. Why . Well, because its the highest priority of the government. Of all of the bills we do every year, apart from and very close to appropriations would be authorization of our National Defense programs. Thats why its happened 58 years in a row. But its important for a number of reasons. One of the things that both the house version and the Senate Version of ndaa do is highlight the importance of space with the creation of a space force, as we call it in the senate, space corps they call it in the house. Nonetheless, similar it represents and recognizes the importance of the space domain as a warfighting domain going forward, a priority that our near peer allies have already recognized in their policies. Without ndaa passing, that goes by the wayside for at least another year. It also fully funds several national priorities, not the less of which is of course the largest pay increase for our men and women who wear the uniform in ten years. But on a more local level for me, it authorizes the modernization of our nuclear fleet, including the groundbased missiles known as the icbms that we have 150 of in north dakota, at minot. It modernizes this system which is several decades old. If we need anything, we need to modernize our Weapons Systems to keep pace with our near dear adversaries. It also authorizes millions of dollars in funds to advance the global hawk mission which is headquartered in grand forks, another very important air force base in my state. It authorizes funds for the mq9 program. Mq9s are flown by north Dakota Air National guardsmen in fargo, the happy hooligans. It also advances the mission of the cavalier air station in cavalier, north dakota, one of our space one of our very few space radar stations. And it ensures the needs of all of our guard operations and that they are met. The house bill, by the way, also does something thats very important to me. Its a bill that i have introduced along with my colleagues from new york, and that is an honors it honors the 74 sailors that lost their lives on the frank e. Evans 30 years ago during the very many war. These sailors names have been left off the Vietnam Memorial wall over a minor technicality, a technicality that probably shouldnt be in the rules to begin with but certainly has been waived in many other circumstances and needs to be waived in this ndaa, and i would love to get that house language into the final bill. But none of these priorities are going to be met if House Democrats and i focus on House Democrats if they dont come to the table and act in good faith and negotiate in good faith. Senate democrats have had a major part in this, and i welcome every bit of involvement that they provide. One of the joys of being on the being on the Armed Services committee for me has been being able to see the functioning committee that works well across party lines. Obviously, Senate Republicans are all on board. House republicans are all on board. But for some reason, the house leadership on the democratic side is focused on other priorities, and the contrast could not be more clear. While we have been working hard on senate here in the senate on appropriations as well as Defense Authorization, our chairman has used his voice, chairman inhofe has used his incredible work ethic, his wisdom working with senator reed, the ranking democrat, on getting these priorities to the forefront. I cant think of a better tandem than those two gentlemen. Chairman inhofe is truly one of the hardest working, most decent and honorable people i have ever worked with. And chairman smith, chairman of the house committee, could learn a few things from him. Again, while we passed the bill with over overwhelming bipartisan support, the house bill was a much more partisan exercise. But we want to prevent a government shutdown, mr. Chairman. We want to prevent a continuing resolution. So along with the ndaa of course is the defense appropriations bill, and we have got to get both of them done. We want to give our military a winwin situation where they get the pay raises, where they get the modernization they need, where new programs can be launched and where we can provide longterm certainty. And while were providing trying to provide at least a win for our military, democrats in the house are focused on trying to win the 2016 president ial election, not even thinking so much about the next one. They are involved in a Kangaroo Court over there. I have watched a halfhour of it today. I could hardly believe what i was seeing. Todays political theater in the house is unnecessary, and its an outward demonstration of the inward motivation of a party that is trying to undo the presidency of donald trump, three years into it. So instead of prioritizing our constitutional responsibilities, theyre engaged in political theater in a Kangaroo Court. I am pleading once again with my colleagues across the aisle and especially across the capitol in these last couple of days, while the negotiators are together trying to figure out a path forward, please come to the table, please act in good conscience. Please, please, please look for opportunities consider we can compromise and for petes sake, lets at least pass the things that we all agree on. Thank you, mr. President. I yield the floor. The senator from new mexico. Mr. Heinrich i would ask unanimous consent to speak as if in morning business. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Heinrich mr. President , earlier today, we were asked to vote on the confirmation of chad wolf to serve as the under secretary for strategy, policy and plans at the department of Homeland Security. Mr. Wolf has been serving in that role on an acting basis since february. Because of the way the Trump Administration functions or fails to function, what we were really being asked to do today was to confirm mr. Wolf to a position so that the president can then promote him to acting d. H. S. Secretary. This comes on top of most appointed positions at the agency going unfilled or only filled with similarly temporary acting roles. But before we all throw our hands up in the air and simply add this vote to the growing list of broken norms and incompetent actions on the part of the trump white house, i would like us to consider what is at stake in this particular case. And i would beg us to take seriously the human toll that has been incurred because of this administrations willful chaos at the department of Homeland Security. The department of Homeland Security is the nations Third Largest federal agency. Behind only the pentagon and the v. A. The agency oversees disaster relief, transportation safety, counterterrorism, and immigration and Border Security. According to a report in the Washington Post, mr. Wolf is the favored pick of senior trump advisor Steven Miller to take over as acting Homeland Security secretary. That should tell us about everything we need to know. Steven miller has been the lead architect of the white houses immoral and antiimmigration policies over the last three years. The senate should have taken this vote as a reason to examine how this administration has spent the last three years flouting our nations laws and our nations values through its intentional chaos at the department of Homeland Security. We should do our jobs and give an honest accounting of this administrations inhumane and frankly ineffective policies, policies that should be said that mr. Wolf has been right in the middle of each step of the way. But instead, the senate voted to confirm mr. Wolf in this sham process to a position we werent even sure he will serve in. This is shameful. Now that the senate has confirmed mr. Wolf to the under secretary position and as we anticipate President Trump moving him into the acting secretary role, i would ask my colleagues to please consider his record. We know that mr. Wolf played a central role in authoring and implementing the family separation policy. We dont fully understand how much he did to implement President Trumps other harmful immigration policies because the department of Homeland Security has stonewalled and refused to provide key documents to the senate on his tenure before we took the vote this morning. However, given his major role with secretary nielsen, it seems safe to assume that mr. Wolf was involved in many of the administrations policy failures. Under these policies, thousands of children as young as infants and toddlers arriving at our nations southern border have been separated from their families. We have seen migrant families and children held in appalling, overcrowded, some say prisonlike, i would say prison facilities, immigration detention facilities like those in clint, texas, that we saw in the media. The Trump Administration has throttled major ports of entry where refugees present themselves for asylum as is actually dictated by current u. S. Law. This has resulted in huge groups going instead to remote and dangerous stretches of the southern border. We have tragically seen that result in the deaths of several children in new mexico near some of our remote ports of entry that lack even the most basic medical infrastructure. We have seen President Trump play politics with the lives of thousands of refugees and asylum seekers, mothers, fathers, and children who are desperately seeking refuge and the prospect of a better life in this country. We have seen the president even go so far as shutting down the government and stealing billions of dollars of congressionally appropriated funds from the military to pay for his wasteful and candidly ineffective border wall. Finally, President Trumps decision to terminate the deferred action for childhood arrivals program, or daca, has thrown dreamers across this country deep into fear and uncertainty. The stakes of that decision has been shown in oral arguments before the Supreme Court this very week. Dreamers are among our best and brightest, our best and brightest students, teachers, and even veterans. They only know this nation as their home in many cases, and today im meeting with a dreamer named samuel who lives in las cruces, new mexico. Samuel came to the United States from mexico with his family when he was 11 years old. He has called las cruces his hometown for the last 13 years. As a daca recipient, samuel was able to study accounting at New Mexico State University and to help provide for his family. Dreamers like samuel want to give back to their communities, and the only nation that they know as home. They are american in every way except on paper, and because of President Trump, dreamers like samuel face a deeply fearful future. Whenever we debate immigration, frankly, it becomes a little personal for me. And thats because, like most all of us in this nation of immigrants, my familys story in america began with a search for a better life. My father came to the United States with his family from germany as a young boy. They were fleeing the government of a racist, populist dictator who was first elected democratically and then used race and scapegoating to cement his grip on power. I always wonder how different my own life would be if america had turned my father arizona way or separated him from his family. This is not some abstract question for the mothers, fathers, and children who are desperately seeking refuge and the prospect of a better life in america today. I know that so Many Americans watching this administrations immigration policies know in their hearts what america truly stands for as a nation built by many generations of immigrants like my father. That includes local officials, first responders, volunteers in communities like democratting and las cruces and albuquerque, new mexico, who over the last year provided food and help and shelter to asylum seekers. It includes the thousands of americans who marched in the streets to demand an end to family separation and it includes the millions of americans who want our leaders in washington to finally affirm the incredible value that immigrants provide for our country. I want all of you to know that i stand with you. You are on the right and just side of history. I will keep calling on us to hold this Administration Accountable to our american values, and i will keep calling on congress to uphold our end of the bargain and finally act to reform our broken immigration system. And that should start by passing the dream act. We also need to address the root causes of migration from central america, including extreme poverty, criminal gangs, and violence. We must make Smart Investments in real Border Security and Economic Development in our border communities, and we need to provide the necessary medical and humanitarian resources to our border region, particularly for the rugged back country terrain we have in my state. I will never stop fighting for policies that respect the dignity of immigrants, recognize the real needs of our vibrant border communities, and live up to our true american values. Unfortunately, i dont think we will ever have a productive path forward on any of these urgent matters with this president and his administration. That is true no matter who President Trump ultimately shuffles into the role of acting Homeland Security secretary. But it is especially true if the president chooses chad wolf. When senator rosen questioned mr. Wolf in the Homeland Security committee about the role he played in family separation and other cruel immigration policies, mr. Wolf said, my job wasnt to determine if it was the right or wrong policy. In other words, folks, he was just following orders. I think its clear that the Trump Administration has shown an appalling disregard for basic human dignity. And now the senate has confirmed someone who will simply rubber stamp the continued failures of this administration. I should also note that the current pending vote on the floor is for a judicial nominee, Steven Menashi, who has also played a role in the administrations shameful immigration policies. As a counsel in the Trump Administration, mr. Menashi was acknowledged has acknowledged that he advised Steven Miller on immigration policy, and he has a long record of opposing the basic human and civil rights of people of color, of women, of lgbtq americans and of immigrants. As a general counsel at the department of education under betsy devos, he played leading role in playing to deny debt relief to students and veterans defrauded by forprofit colleges. I cant believe that we as a senate can allow these types of appointments to keep going forward. We should not let this go on. This is not who we are as a country, and this is not the america that i know and love. Thank you, mr. President. Mr. President , i would suggest the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call sul mr. President . The presiding officer i ask permissions under the quorum call be vitiated. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Sullivan mr. President , we just celebrated veterans day in the senate and back home and across our great country in our states that all of us represent, and everybody was celebrating our troops, our military, supporting their families. You hear that word support a lot, mr. President , when it comes to veterans day and our military and their families, but im going to talk a little bit about thats rhetoric. Thats all great. Senators talk a lot. But thats very disconnected from actually what is going on in the senate right now. What is happening for the action in terms of supporting our troops. And as i came down on the floor a couple weeks ago, mr. President , talked about this. I was pretty fired up. Im someone who is very collegial with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle here, but one thing that ive noticed is that theres talk on supporting troops and then theres action, and the rhetoric, particularly with my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, doesnt always match whats actually happening. So id like to explain to my constituents at home, the American People, anyone watching, heres whats happening now. Heres whats happening with regard to supporting our troops. The action, not the rhetoric. The action. Two weeks ago my colleagues on the other side of the aisle filibustered the defense appropriations bill. So thats the bill that funds our troops. We had a big budget deal. We all agreed to it. It was hard to vote for it. I voted for it because it supported our military rebuilding our military after the obama year cuts. Pretty significant. I sphroard that. And i voted for that. And then were starting to bring up these minibus appropriations. We had one a couple of weeks ago, we debated and voted on it. The plan was to bring up the defense appropriations bill. What did my colleagues do on the other side of the aisle . They filibustered it. They filibustered it, and its the ninth time since ive been in the u. S. Senate that my colleagues decided to filibuster the spending for our troops. Theres no other bill in the body of the u. S. Senate that the democrats filibuster more than the bill that funds our troops. They dont want you to know that. They dont go home and brag about it, because they should be ashamed about it. But thats what they did. So right now despite this budget deal, despite all this great support for our troops, my colleagues right now, the ninth time since ive been a senator five years nine times they filibustered the spending for the men and women who serve in the military. I asked the leaders to come on down, explain that to the American People. Explain that to the press. Explain that to people watching on tv. They dont, because i think most of my colleagues dont want to do it but theyre told to do it because their leadership wants another priority. So thats whats happened. Talk about supporting our troops, and then the action is were actually not supporting our troops at all. Were keeping funding away from them because were trying to leverage the desire to support our military and the defense appropriations bill for other political goals. Nine times. Theres no other bill since ive been elected to the senate that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle filibuster more when they want leverage on a nonmilitary issue, they filibuster spending for the troops. I would welcome some of my colleagues to come down here and explain why they do that. So thats one issue. Another one, mr. President , its not my colleagues here in the senate but its certainly the democrats on the other side of the capitol hill, we are now debating the National Defense authorization act. The ndaa as we call it here. This is the heartbeat of the congress. Why . It has passed this body 58 years in a row. Thats the closest thing we have to a guarantee in this body. Members, democrats, republicans, come together and we set forward, coming out of the Armed Services committee on which i sit, the ndaa which oversees reforms, authorizes important programs for our National Defense, and sets spending authorization for the entire military. And again, this process is normally very, very bipartisan. And it has been and continues to be in the senate. I give chairman inhofe, the chairman, my good friend from oklahoma, the chairman of the Armed Services committee, and senator reed from rhode island, the Ranking Member, enormous credit for getting a bill that came out of committee 252. Thats very bipartisan. And then when it came to the senate floor, 868. Okay, thats the United States senate saying, hey, this is really important. Were going to take care of our military. Were going to lay out the policies, the top line numbers for rebuilding our military after the massive cuts from 2010 to 2015. So thats positive. So why am i complaining about it . Well, mr. President , that bill right now on the house side as we went into conference is stuck, is stuck. Many of the more extreme members who really arent big supporters of the military lets just call a spade a spade on the house side are now not allowing us to move forward on any kind of compromise in the broader ndaa as we move into conference. So there are provisions, mr. President , that are very important to the military that this body strongly supported in a bipartisan way, but right now because of whats going on in the house, the leadership in the house which seems to be a lot more focused on other issues and not the National Security of our nation, is not moving forward on any compromise. So who does this benefit . Well, it certainly doesnt help our troops. It certainly doesnt help our military. It certainly doesnt help their families. I can guarantee you, whether its our adversaries or potential adversaries russia, china, north korea, iran, as theyre watching this stalemate on the ndaa, theyre very pleased. Theyre very pleased. But, mr. President , this is something that we need to come together and address. So i am asking the chairman of the Armed Services committee over on the house side, chairman adam smith, and others to work with the senate, work with chairman inhofe, work with senator reed on getting to the promises that we all know we need to move this bill for the 59th year in a row to support our military. Now we think that that should be based on the senate bill. When you have 88 senators 86 senators vote for something, super bipartisan majorities, that should be the basis for compromise. But, mr. President , it stalled, and the chairman of the Armed Services committee, chairman inhofe, whos done a great job, is a very patient man, and even senator reed, the Ranking Member on the Armed Services committee, theyre frustrated. Were frustrated. The troops are frustrated. We dont have much time to waste. So again, i would just like to conclude, mr. President , by saying theres a lot of rhetoric here. Theres a lot of rhetoric about supporting our troops. But what we need is action. And, by the way, i think a lot of times my colleagues are like, well, you know what, the men and women in the military, theyre not really watching this. They dont really know that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have filibustered the funding for what they need nine times in the last four and a half years. Nine times. Disgraceful, in my view. People think that, well, theyre not really watching whats going on with the ndaa, how the extreme elements of the Democratic Party on the house side are making sure that theres no compromise so we cant move this bill. But guess what . They are watching. They are watching. They know this. And when they dont get support from the congress of the United States, its a problem for our military, not just in terms of the resources they need, but in terms of morale. So im going to ask my colleagues, both sides of the aisle, next time you go home and give speeches about lets support our troops, lets support our families, do me a favor. Dont come back to this body and then filibuster their spending. Or for the members of the house, stake out such obstinate positions that you know theres going to be no compromise on an ndaa bill thats really important to our military that has strong bipartisan support in this body. So, mr. President , i know some of my other colleagues are going to be down on the floor talking about this ndaa issue, talking about the defense appropriations issue. But again, lets match the rhetoric that we all faulkender about with regard to that we all talked about with regard to veterans day, about supporting our troops with action here on the floor, not just hot air and words. Mr. Murphy thank you, mr. President. Im here to speak for a few minutes on the topic of health care. While my friend from alaska is on the floor, listen, i hope that we can bridge the policy disagreements that we have right now over the defense appropriations bill, the appropriations process and the authorization bill. But ive been in Congress Long enough to have heard this argument be trotted out over and over again, that if you vote against a defense bill that you arent supporting the troops, even if you have a legitimate policy disagreement that youre trying to work out. I just heard that enough to know that, you know, it doesnt match up with reality. I was told that because i opposed the iraq war that i didnt support the troops. People in the 1970s were told if they didnt support the vietnam war they were opposing the troops. The fact of the matter is we have a legitimate policy disagreement that were trying to figure out. Democrats dont think that we should be taking money from defense Construction Projects that are housing and protecting our troops to be used to build a border wall with mexico that doesnt do anything, in our opinion, to protect the United States, compared to the benefit of the spending on military Construction Projects. We think we think ultimately wee serving our troops by making sure military projects get funded instead of this wall that doesnt make sense, if not for the president s campaign speeches. Listen, we have some policy disagreements over the budget. I would hope that my colleagues wouldnt try to use this tired, tired argument that if anyone here ever votes against a Defense Budget that you somehow are opposing the troops. Thats just irresponsible and disingenuous rhetoric. Mr. President , i am here to talk about a few patients from connecticut. We on the democratic side are trying to come down and put a face to this campaign that the president is engaged in to try to weaken and ultimately eliminate the Affordable Care act. Right now theres a court case proceeding through the Appellate Courts that if successful, would immediately end the Affordable Care act which provides insurance to 20 million americans, makes sure that everybody in this country with a preexisting condition doesnt get charged more. The president has weighed in on behalf of that lawsuit. He is hopeful that it succeeds. And if it does succeed, were going to have a humanitarian catastrophe in this country if 20 Million People lose their insurance and once again Insurance Companies are allowed to charge you more if you have a sickness or you have a sick child. And so we just want to make sure we put a face on who is going to be affected if President Trumps sabotage campaign against the Affordable Care act succeeds. I know my colleagues have remarks and are lined up to speak, so let me be as brief as i can. I just want to tell you the story of just a couple of patients from connecticut. Im going to cheat and make this patients of the day. These are folks who reached out to my office to tell me their story. Jason is from south windsor, connecticut. He says im 54 years old and ive been purchasing insurance since i entered the workforce at 22 years old. I have arthritis that is manageable with medication but without that medication i would not be able to function. I have difficulty would have difficulty with simple tasks like walking and shaking hands. Theres no question that i rely on my insurance. If i were denied coverage because of my preexisting condition, i would be devastated. Jason is one of the tens of millions of americans who without the protections from the Affordable Care act would likely not be able to get insurance. And he is perhaps months away from that reality. Lisa from new britain writes on behalf of her grandkids because some young kids cant speak for themselves. Their parents and grandparents speak for them. Lisa is the proud grandmother of two little girls born with Cystic Fibrosis and she worries if her son ever had to switch jobs or change insurance plans if the preexisting condition clause was struck down by the courts, that he would be denied coverage because of their preexisting condition. She says, quote, the girls are doing so well and thriving with the Current Treatment and medicine theyre on, people with Cystic Fibrosis are now living longer than ever because of the medicine available to them. We work so hard to keep them healthy. If this policy of allowing Insurance Companies to deny people with preexisting conditions or capping lifetime maximums are allowed, youd be taking the lives of our family members. Finally, jusa pena, who is a curnd sister in concerned sister in bridgeport. She writes my younger brother was born two months immature. He reached the peak of my fathers insurance before he left the hospital. In 1978 he was diagnosed with a disease due to his underdevelopment and birth trauma. Due to the massive medical debt that my family accrued due to his multiple surgeries and hospital stays, we had to go on public assistance. My father used to cry when he went food shopping. And so i just want you to remember that reality. Remember the reality of millions of families who went bankrupt, who lost all their savings, who went on public assistance because they had massive medical debt due to the fact that they lost coverage because of a preexisting condition or lifetime or annual caps. All of that can come back if the Affordable Care act is struck down. And its important for us to come down to the floor and remind folks about the human face of health care repeal. And the consequences if we dont stand together and at least try to make a plan for what happens if the lawsuit is successful and the Affordable Care act is struck down by the court system. Thank you, mr. President. I yield the floor. The presiding officer the senator from missouri. Mr. Blunt mr. President , on that topic, of course, i think every member of the senate has said their preserving coverage of preexisting conditions. It was sort of like the same speech the senator from the senator said when you dont do everything that you can to get the defense bill. It is at least at old as that. Were here today to talk about why were not doing what we need to be doing right here in the shadow of veterans day to fund the military, and following dan sullivan, there are multiple dan sullivan in politics in alaska, and the first time dan sullivan senator dan sullivan was on my radar, said, well, how do you tell them apart . This one is afghan dan. He was afghan dan because he was willing to serve, just like you, mr. President , because you left law school not to go to the jag corps, but to go to the acting fighting forces of the country, and we are grateful to that. And both of you speak with authority on these issues. But the whole senate and the whole congress has a chance to speak with authority on these issues if well just decide to do our job. The veterans day, i think, unique among the way communities decide they are going to honor veterans day. I had a couple of events scheduled on monday one was in hartville, ohio, and they created a wall of people through the whole history of that country who died. If you are in hartville today and you look at that wall, im confident you will see some of the last names of the kids in your school. Or i was at camdenton at a High School Event where we had 20 world war ii veterans on the stage. I represent 500,000 veterans, and my guess is the proportion of finding 20 in one county in one state is fairly hard to do these days, but they were all there, and we were also talking about the beginning of a new junior rotc program at that high school that starts in january, and they already had 82 High School Students signed up to be part of that junior rotc program that they had spent ten years trying to put in place. And for those who have served and for those who are willing to serve, the one thing we can do in the congress is pass the two pieces of legislation necessary to support that service. You know, today less than unlike world war ii, unlike many past conflicts, less than one half of 1 of the population serves in the military. So the other 99. 5 need to stand up and do what we can to be sure that our military is the best supported military in the world. We never want an american soldier, sailor, airman, marine, person in the coast guard, national guard, reserves to be in a fair fight. We always want them to be in an unfair fight where they have advantages in that fight. And the only way to ensure that they have those advantages is to have the training dollars, to have the equipment dollars, to have the command structure that allows that to happen. And so, you know, for 59 straight years the senate has passed the National Defense authorization act. This is the act that defines what the congress believes should be the Guiding Principles for the military for that year, the places where money should be invested, the equipment that should be bought, the other changes that need to be made. And then the other bill we pass is the appropriations bill that takes that authorization bill and really puts the money by it that allows it to happen. So for 59 straight years the only authorization act we pass every year, and i think we could have a real good debate as to why thats the most important of what we do, its the most important thing the federal government does, weve done that, but we cant seem to get it done this year. That bill that bill that has the biggest pay raise for people in the military in a decade is somehow been being negotiated since roughly june 27 of this year. This should have been a oneweek effort, not a weeks and months effort. That bill has money in it that direction that encourages spouses so when somebody is assigned to a new base, the spouse can go to work doing what they do as quick as they could possibly do it. Facilitating an expediting state certification. We just had our First Military spouse sworn in as a mel of the missouri bar in january. Her husband had come to take a command position at fort leonardwood. The first week she was in missouri, she was able to be sworn into the missouri bar and go to work. Whether its a therapist, a teacher, a truck driver, an electrician, an engineer or welder, if you have those skills and follow your spouse to a new assignment, we should make that a top priority. Thats what happens in these bills, it supports the Readiness Center in springfield, it supports the vehicle maintenance facility, it supports the c1 Flight Simulator in rosecrance. All the of those things need to happen and now we need to decide as a senate and a congress how to make that happen. Whether its the Super Hornets the navy wants that will be built in missouri or the f15s for the air force, these things dont happen unless they are authorized. Lets get them authorized. Lets appropriate the money. Were already weeks late. We dont need to be months late. Better to have the money the day youre supposed to have it if youre going to spend it as wisely as we hope you would be able to spend it. I join my colleagues today and i know you, mr. President , saying we need to get this work done. Its critical. Its a priority and im glad to join my colleagues here on the floor fighting for those who fight for us. The presiding officer the senator from arkansas. Mr. Cotton i join the senator from missouri, the senator from alaska and many other senators calling for the National Defense authorization act. This bill is part of a last of those that we pass every single year from congress with a large bipartisan majority for 58 straight years. Its not derailed by petty partisan politics or grievances by the parties. It gets large bipartisan support because congress understands the National Defense must come before politics. Time is short to get it right unfortunately because of the petty partisan politics. This bill is an opportunity to continue rebuilding our military after eight years of stagnation and cuts by the last administration. The bill would increase funding to our troops by 22 billion, money that we could spend on cuttingedge technologies like new vertical lift jet engines to this is important especially as storm clouds brew in the western pacific from a rising china. The Chinese Communist party is not derailed by petty partisan politics and therefore is investing huge sums to transform its military into a worldclass force, capable of rivalling and they hope ultimately defeating our own military. At the same time china is pursuing an aggressive Technology Strategy to dominate the next generation of military hardware. Beijings ultimate goal, of course, is to replace us not just as the most powerful country in the western pacific but in the entire world so we must invest in our military right now or else we will reap that in the future. Theres many other important measures that have been included in this years defense bill that wont pass, that wont even see the light of day on the senate floor if we fail to pass that bill. Theres the sanctions act, my Bipartisan Legislation that would crack down on foreign criminals, mostly chinese who muggily deadly poisons across our border. Synthetic opioids kill tens of thousands of americans every year, and that toll will continue to rise if we dont start to bust up the criminal networks that originate in china and then come through mexico to poison our communities. So lets pass the defense bill to give Law Enforcement the tools for the fentanyl sanctions act. Theres also the p. C. S. Act, my legislation that would help military spouses transfer their occupational licenses across statelines. When your husband or wife is in the military, you follow their career, if and if youre a lawyer or a nurse or a teacher or any of the other hundreds of jobs that require an occupational license in this country, you face barriers to working and putting food on the table for your family. This bill would allow military spouses to continue to pursue their careers uninterrupted and therefore allow their military Service Members to focus on their own mission, not worry about their spouses jobs. Theres also legislation to honor the 241 american victims of the beirut marine bar barracks bombing perpetrated 26 years ago. It would be a national day of remembrance and strengthen the resolve of the terrorist forces that carried it out and threaten our security to this day. Theres also the opportunity to strengthen restrictions on huawei by protecting the 5g futures act. We must deny access to our Sensitive Networks and the networks of our allies. 91 senators 91 senators voted to instruct the Conference Committee to include that legislation in the defense bill. Theres still hope it can be included, but only if we pass the defense bill in the first place. If we dont, then chinas spy Company Stands to gain. Now, this far from an exhaustive list of the reforms that are or could be included in this years defense bill. Its just a sample of the many valuable and bipartisan measures under consideration. But it also underscores the importance of passing the defense bill in the first place. Considering the alternative to passing the National Defense authorization act, a terrible stopgap spending measure that would include zero zero reforms and that would degrade the fighting capability of our military even as we face rising threats from china and russia every day. The stopgap spending measure would freeze defense spending from last years levels. That is not to say business would go on as usual. No. Inflation would tend to erode the funding levels and the mill would have to tear up and renegotiate many multiyear contracts with defense companies. Renegotiating those contracts would cost billions in Administrative Expenses that could have otherwise gone for pay and benefits for our fighting men and women, new aircraft or new ships or new guns or new munitions. This socalled spending freeze would, in fact, cost taxpayers an are arm and a leg. All the more reason why Congress Must act once again to pass the National Defense authorization act as we have for 58 years without being divided by petty partisan politics. So i urge my colleagues to put aside their partisan objections on issues that are really not even related to our military, make the hard compromises necessary, pass this bill, and give our troops what they need. Mr. President , i yield the floor, and i note the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call a senator mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from georgia. Mr. Perdue thank you, mr. President. I ask the chair that we would vitiate the quorum call. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Perdue mr. President , the world is more dangerous today than any time in my lifetime. We face five threats across five domains. China, russia, iran, north korea, and terrorism. And the domains have gotten very complicated. Air, land, sea, now we have to deal with cyber and space. But in that background, mr. President , three times over the last 50 years, this government under the leadership of three different president s has disinvested its military significantly under president carter, under president clinton, and indeed under president obama. They cut the military by 25 at least in each one of those administrations. The last one was extremely draconian. We saw the impact of that in our readiness, the fact that our Modernization Program had been killed and we found ourselves falling behind what we now call near competitors, i would say theyre peer competitors, when you saw the money theyre spending, exactly the same were spending and they dont have the regulatory overhang. They dont have the legacy costs that we have here in the United States. And so they can get things done quicker and cheaper. In the meantime, the worlds the world continues to become very dangerous. Yet here we are in the second month of our fiscal year under a continuing resolution. And as we now are becoming educated about, this is devastating to our military. This is the 187th time since the 1974 budget act was put in place that we have executed a continuing resolution. It sounds real easy. But we cant get an agreement on how much to spend for the next year so well just keep spending at the same level. Some businesses do that. But in this case with the u. S. Military, its devastating because it locks them in to existing programs. For example, we did an audit last year, the first audit in the history of the United States, of the department of defense. The Third Largest line item on our expense sheet. And we did an audit. Now that audit was found and identified by the department of defense 4 billion of obsolete programs that nobody really wanted to keep and continue spending on, 4 billion a year. So right now under this continuing resolution, not only are we not able to give a 3. 5 pay raise, the largest in ten years to our military, not only are we not able to improve their housing, but we are obliged to keep spending 4 billion a year right now on obsolete programs that the Defense Department doesnt even want. This is ludicrous, mr. President. Right now i would say that were in gridlock. We had 88 votes here in this senate where we voted it approve the National Defense authorization act. Several weeks ago. Very bipartisan, negotiated in committee. I was on the Armed Services committee. We took this very seriously. We debated it and there was a definite fight but we reached compromise, mr. President. And we reached agreement. Bipartisan to support and defend our military and to make sure that they are able to do the things that they want to do to make us competitive and defend our country. And yet here we are six weeks in to this fiscal year and we still dont have this year funded. Were under a continuing resolution that devastates the military. Six decades, 58 years, each year weve been able to did that and yet this year we cant seem to come to an agreement because the house and the senate cant get together and conference and agree on exactly what it is they want to do. Thats all window dressing, mr. President. This has nothing more no more complicated than this. The democrat brethren in this body and the house simply do not want to allow this president to spend another dime on building a wall around our southern border. Lets put this in perspective. First of all, weve seen on this floor just in the last two hours, two different comments. We all know that building a border wall doesnt really work, it doesnt change anything. Thats just absolute propaganda, mr. President. Barack obama built 135 miles of wall. This body approved that. And wherever that wall was built, illegal crossings at the southern border went down 95 . Thats not propaganda. Thats fact. And, mr. President , its another example of the obstructionism weve been witnessing here since the day this president was sworn in. On inauguration day, january it 20, january 20, 2017, the headline, the headline of the Washington Post said, the campaign to impeach this president has already begun. Since day one theyve been obstructing this president. We saw that on the confirmation process. For the first time in 230 years we saw the Minority Party not waive the 30hour debate rule and allow this president to get his nominees confirmed. Its Blood Pressure the slow its been the slowest ever, mr. President. So we sit here today not being able to build the space force that both sides have agreed on. 88 people in this body agreed that we need to start spending money and do that. We cant do that. We cant put into first place the founding the foundation blocks, the Building Blocks for the advanced Battle Management system which is so important to deal with a modern fight. We cant rebuild our Nuclear Triad which is absolute critical shape. We cant seem to get at our readiness right now because of the lock that we have under this continuing resolution to the existing contracts out there. And as you just mentioned a few minutes ago, we have to go in and renegotiate all these contracts. Last year was the first time that we did not have a continuing resolution and it was such a sigh of relief inside our military because it was the first time in a long time, over a decade, that they didnt have that for the First Quarter of the year. This is devastating. Its become habit. We superto stop it. Its insewedious. Its killing our military and keeping us from doing the things that both sides want to do because of petty politic, mr. President. We need to modernize our force and do it right now. This ndaa allows us to do that. We need to rationalize our expenditures to make sure every dime were spending in our military is exactly what we should be spending it on. We have a voluntary force and can never take that for granted. We have to take care of our people in uniform wherever they are in the world. That means working on their mental health, their physical health and their housing. Mr. President , i come from a state that has nine military installations. We take National Defense very seriously . Georgia and seriously in georgia and always have. People are concerned that this gridlock is endangering our country. Its time we get together, pass this ndaa, move on the appropriation bill and get this done, mr. President. People back home are watching. The people in our military are waffing and more importantly owe watching and more importantly our potential adversaries are watching. With that i yield the floor. A senator mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from nebraska. A senator mr. President , i want to join my colleagues to speak on the importance of passing the fiscal year 2020 Defense Authorization bill. Mrs. Fischer as others have mentioned, the process of negotiating the National Defense bill is one that has a long history on capitol hill. For the past 58 years the United States congress has found a way to come together and unite behind a bipartisan bill that supports our Service Members and that enables the defense of this nation. We must continue this tradition, and that means recommitting to the principles of bipartisanship and compromise upon which it is built. Thanks in large part to the hard work and the leadership of chairman jim inhofe and Ranking Member jack reed, the members of the senate Armed Services committee, the senate has passed an overwhelmingly bipartisan version of this years National Defense authorization act. The house of representatives, however, passed a very different bill. The conference process is ultimately about finding the best solution that supports our men and women in uniform, but we have to be willing to compromise and find consensus. We cannot resort to political brinksmanship. As the chairman said last week and some of my colleagues have mentioned here today, we are running out of time. It is essential that our colleagues in the house come to the table to pass the f. Y. 20 ndaa. We live in a rapidly changing world and unfortunately one that contains a growing number of threats and challenges that our military must face headon. These threats demand that we be ready and our military can only effectively confront those threats if we provide our Service Members with the support they need to execute the missions, defeat the enemies of freedom, and safeguard the nation. Providing for the common defense is the highest responsibility this body has, and that is why it is so essential that we pass this legislation in a timely manner. Inas i said before, for 58 years the ndaa has been the subject of a bipartisan consensus in congress. Despite all of our other disagreements. No matter what other issues arise, the one area in which we must forge agreement is in authorizing the resources our men and women in uniform need. Time and time again we have heard from our senior military leaders that their greatest obstacle is budget uncertainty and unpredictable funding. If we do not come together and pass this years ndaa soon, we are at risk of damaging our military capabilities and jeopardizing our ability to confront threats from china, russia, and other malign actors. It is essential that we work swiftly to secure an agreement so that we do not fail to provide the department of defense with the predictable funding that they need. We must do our part and honor the service of all our men and women in uniform by moving this process forward and passing the f. Y y. 2020 National Defense authorization act. Thank you, mr. President. I yield the floor. A senator mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from North Carolina. Mr. Tillis thank you, mr. President. First i want to thank senator fischer for all of her work on the senate Armed Services committee and so many other areas. Im here to talk about the same subject, the National Defense authorization act. It may be difficult to understand the differences between the difference between appropriating and authorizing. We have two different sorts of committees here. One focuses on the resources authorizing their use, but they cannot be used or should say funding their use, but they cant be used unless theyre authorized. So every year for 58 years weve come into the committee. Weve heard differing opinions on priorities. But at the end of the day, the amazing thing about the senate Armed Services committee when it comes to the National Defense authorization act, we always reach a bipartisan agreement and it passed out of the senate Armed Services committee with, i believe, unanimous support. Then it got passed out of the senate. And normally this happens in the june time frame, maybe july time frame. Now here we are in november, not only have we not passed the National Defense authorization act, but were at risk of passing anything. Now what were hearing about is the socalled skite bill that would just be the basic authorities while were leaving Everything Else on the table. Im going to talk a little bit about the subcommittee which i chair but what do authorities mean . It means research on new Weapons Systems. It means research for men and women in a dangerous situation to make sure the best possible technology and thraining is available to training is available to make it as safe as it can be in an unsafe environment. There are hundreds of authorizations in the National Defense authorization act that are at risk of sliding another year for the first time in 58 years. Now what i want to talk about is whats at stake if we cant reach an agreement with speaker pelosi, specifically in the personnel subcommittee. I get i actually requested the personnel subcommittee because i wanted to focus on the business of the department of defense, and i wanted to focus on military families and on the soldiers health sand safety. Health and safety. If we do not pass provisions passed out of the subcommittee and in the National Defense authorization act that passed out of the senate, heres whats at stake. A pay raise for every soldier, sailor, and marine, a 3. 1 pay raise. They could ruse this year as a result of not gaining agreement could lose this year as a result of not gaining agreement with the senate. There are a lot of provisions for military housing. Im from North Carolina and we have two large installations in North Carolina, fort bragg, the home of the Global Response force and camp lejeune, the home to a bigger population of marines than any military installation in the world. Theyre in housing today that needs to be upfitted. Theyre in housing that is in many cases unsafe. This act makes progress to make sure that the families that are housed on bases are in safe, clean settings. And quite honestly, in some cases theyre not today, which is why we got bipartisan support for the provisions we put into our subcommittee mark. Another thing that were working on and its very difficult for someone who doesnt come from a military background is to understand how challenging it is for a spouse to get a job for the brief period of time that they may be at one military installation or another. This mark has provisions in it to make sure that military spouses get Employment Opportunities as quickly as possible and to cut through a lot of the red tape that theyre dealing with today. That provision is at risk. Weve also taken major steps in trying to prevent or reduce military Sexual Assault. Provisions in this bill, i am convinced, because they were voted out on a bipartisan basis, are at risk because we cant seem to get agreement with speaker pelosis house. Another very important area in places like North Carolina North Carolina and camp le jeune alone experienced over 3. 5 billion in damage as a result of the our most recent hurricane, and fort bragg is still trying to recover from a hurricane that happened about two and a half years ago. There are authorities in there to make sure we can rebuild these facilities. Military housing as well as offices and other Training Facilities at camp le jeune could slip another year if we allow what i think right now is the impasse between the house and the senate to move forward. These are all very, very important provisions in the National Defense authorization act. These are all provisions that got bipartisan support from this body, and if you all have been watching congress, you know that we have our disagreements, and there are certain things that we just simply arent going to see eye to eye on. But we see eye to eye on the National Defense authorization act. Thats why i dont understand why the house will not come to the table and pass something that we have successfully passed for every year of my life. Im 59 years old. This could be the first time in 58 years that we run the risk of not showing the respect that i think the men and women in military in uniform deserve, to give them the authority to be trained properly, to not run the risk of working with old authorities that could did i minute usual training and readiness that could diminish training and readiness and authority. We cant take the time to bridge the gap and eliminate the other reasons that divide us and at least come together on something that for 58 years weve seen our way clear to passing and making progress for men and women in uniform, sore soldiers, sailors, and for soldiers, sailors, and marines. I implore us to come together to pass something we have done for decades. We owe it to the mix in uniform d. To the men and women in uniform and we owe it to every american to understand whats at stake if we all of a sudden slide for a year while our adversaries continue to gain ground. So i hope my colleagues will continue to come together and pass this Bipartisan Legislation. Its within reach and absolutely an expectation i think of every member of congress to show our men and women in uniform respect by doing our job. Thank you, mr. President. I note the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call mr. Whitehouse mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from rhode island. Mr. Whitehouse mr. President , assuming that the senate is in a quorum call, may i ask unanimous consent that the pending quorum call be vitiated. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Whitehouse thank you, mr. President. Im here to speak on the confirmation of Steven Menashi to be a judge to the on the United States court of appeals for the second circuit. And weve grown accustomed to the violation of norms around here, kind of a dumbing down of the institution, so by all of those standards, i would ordinarily be opposing mr. Menashi. We have disposed of the blue slip convention for Circuit Court nominees, and ill just warn my colleagues again that there is a price to be paid for that. The blue slip for Circuit Court nominees is the thing that connects a Circuit Court nominee to a particular state so that an arkansas judge on the Circuit Court of appeals or the rhode island judge on our Circuit Court of appeals or the montana judge on their Circuit Court of appeals only is the arkansas judge or the rhode island judge or the montana judge because we honor that blue slip. And in another presidency when the shoe is on the other foot, i dont want to hear any of my colleagues whove thrown this circuit blue slip out complain when somebody who is not even from their state gets appointed to the socalled state seat on the Circuit Court. In addition, weve dealt with a lot of unqualified candidates. I think this administration has set the record for a. B. A. Designated unqualified candidates. This guy has never tried a case, never taken a deposition. He effectively has not practiced law. When he has tried to practice law, its been a disaster. Hes been the counsel for the department of education and managed to have the various programs that he advised on all thrown out in court, and his secretary was held in contempt. So not a guy who when you get a mere legal decisions comes up with a real winning record. Moreover, he refused extremely arrogantly to answer really basic questions, even to the point of frustrating republican members of the committee when avenues witness before us when he was a witness before us and has refused to answer related questions for the record as well. So for all of those reasons, this is a pretty undesirable candidate for the federal bench. But it gets way, way worse. If you look at what mr. Menashi has said over the years, it is quite an astonishing window into his mind. With respect to affirmative action, he has compared universities im quoting him here. Hes compared universities cataloging student according to race on College Applications and official documents, which you obviously do as part of any affirmative action program, he has compared that to the nuremberg laws. If you look at the issue of Sexual Violence, he has made fun of takebackthenight marches and described women active and concerned about Sexual Violence as his words here campus ginocentrics. I dont know how he pronounces it. Campus gynoyentrics. Thats just not a normal word to use. When youre talking about affirmative action, researchers to nuremberg laws is just not normality. Hes argued that gun regulations are pointless im quoting him here wontless and selfdefeating because guns defeat crime. Really . Ask the victims of the firearms massacres happening at such a horrifying rate in this country how guns reduce crime. With respect to the rights that have been enshrined in our constitution and recognized in roe v. Wade giving women the right to some degree of selfdetermination about when to have children, he described the rights codified in roe v. Wade i quote him again here as radical abortion rights advocated by campus feminists. Good luck on an issue related to the womans right to choose getting a fair hearing from this character once hes enrobed. He move to concurred the Gay Rights Group human rights campaign, which he said incessantly exploited the slaying of Matthew Shepard for both financial and political benefit. We engage in some pretty acid rhetoric around here, but about a young man who was murdered for being gay, thats just appalling. And if you are in his court on an issue in which the rights of lgbt folks are involved, theres almost no way you could believe that a judge who had thought or said anything as vial as that could ever give you a fair hearing. And with respect to the question of diversity, which many of us consider to be one before of americas one of americas greatest tax rates, social scientists, he said, have found that greater ethnic heterogeneity is the associated with greater trust. Less effective government institutions and fewer public goods. First of all, i dont think thats true. I dont think that stands scrutiny. But second of all, its just a kind of creepy thing to be saying, that wed be a better country if we martialed ourselves together in our ethnic enclaves which, quote, provide the groundwork for social trust and political solidarity. Not in my world. Not in rhode island. Thats not the way we work. I dont think thats the way america works. So whether youre looking at diversity, whether youre looking at gay rights, whether youre looking at a womans right to choose, whether youre looking at safe regulation of guns, whether youre looking at Sexual Violence against women, whether youre looking at affirmative action in colleges, you can find something truly creepy that this individual has said, that on top of all the other disqualifying factors makes him perhaps the worst candidate that donald trump has tried to put on the federal bench. And, by the way, thats in a crop of ducies. People are going to come into these courts can and theyre going to have a feeling that no american litigant should have. And that is that ive got a judge who is predisposed against me, that it doesnt matter what my cause is. It matters who i am. And, sadly, i dont think this is the bug in these trump judicial appointments. I think this is the feature. I think it is the intention of the dark moneyfueled apparatus that has got this Assembly Line of unusual and peculiar judges ranked onto our courts to make sure our courts are more likely to rule for certain people than others. That theyre more likely to rule for polluters, that theyre more likely to rule for Gun Companies , that theyre more likely to rule for dark money political operators. There are essentially at this point with this nominee to a Circuit Court of appeals no standards left, no standards left. I cant imagine anybody much worse. With that, i yield the floor. It is a sad day. A senator mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from kansas more madam president , mr. Moran madam president , thank you. Today in the Commerce Committee, following an 18month investigation, we examined in that investigation a cultural and systemic issues regarding abuse in the olympic movement. Senator blumenthal and i after that investigation introduced Bipartisan Legislation empowering olympic and amateur athletes act of 2019. It was accompanied by an investigative report findings and recommendations. Im pleased today that the Commerce Committee approved that legislation. This marks a significant step forward to improving the protections and representation provided to our amateur athletes. The subcommittee that i chair exercises jurisdiction over the u. S. Olympic committee and amateur sports at large, and i remain fully committed to ensuring the health and safety of all american athletes. Our empowering olympic and amateur athletes act would enact reforms to the u. S. Olympic system by strengthening legal liability and accountability mechanisms, restoring the culture of putting athletes first, fortifying the independence and capacity of the u. S. Center for safe sports, our investigation which led to the foundation of provisions in this bill included four subcommittee hearings, interviews with olympic athletes and survivors and the retrieval of 70,000 pains of documents pages of documents. This was also made possible by the supportive leadership of the committee, the chairman and Ranking Member, senator wicker and senator cantsfield and the contributions of the Committee Staff and contributions of my staff and those of former chairman thune and Ranking Member nelson. Also i want to take this moment to thank senator grassley, the senator there iowa and chairman now of the finance committee but for a portion of the time that we were dealing with this issue, he was chairman of the Judiciary Committee. He too, made significant contributions to our legislation and his continued leadership on this issue in general has helped move this bill forward and out of the committee today. During our investigations, senator grassley indicated an interest in working together to protect amateur athletes. After we introduced the legislation, im pleased we were able to include provisions from his legislation that was just introduced yesterday here in the senate. Specifically the substitute amendment included funding accountability language for safe sport, clarification on mandatory reporting parties related to child abuse, and new reporting requirements to improve transparency. Senator grassley was also successful in working with senator peters to include whistleblower protection language in the bill during todays markup. So i again thank senator grassley for his leadership and commitment to the health and safety of our amateur athletes. Additionally, there were thoughtful contributions to our legislation, most recently in the form of our substitute amendment from other members of the Commerce Committee, including senator gardner of colorado. Id also like to thank my colleague senator blumenthal, the Ranking Member of the subcommittee, for his steadfast ongoing support and leadership that he has shown throughout this long process. This investigation and legislative process started out as a bipartisan effort to provide policy protections to amateur athletes, has remained as such, that bipartisan ship has continued and will continue to be prioritized as we push for timely consideration of this legislation on the senate floor. Finally, i would be remiss not to express my sincere and humble thanks to the survivors for their bravery in guiding our policymaking with their testimonies and ongoing input throughout the process. Their willingness to recount and to relive their traumatic experiences played a vital role in informing congress as it seeks to address key reporting, governance and resource issues within the olympic system. And this critical legislation would not have happened without their active involvement. I will never forget the question that was asked of me by one of the survivors as we were gathered together in the Russell Senate office building. And the question was, why was there more than one. And its a question that we would always hope to answer. There can never there should never be a victim or survivor of sexual abuse. And if there is one, there should never be a second. And the sad thing about this circumstance that we found ourselves in, that the athletes found themselves in was not only was that there was one but there were many more and we should be able to take that call, why was there ever more than one and make certain that we do everything to keep it from ever happening again. I thank my colleagues in the Commerce Committee for their support on this critical legislation. I look forward to working with the leader and my Senate Colleagues as we push to enact these necessary reforms. Madam president , i yield the floor. A senator madam president . The presiding officer the senator from montana. A senator thank you, madam president. Before i get into my comments on agent orange, i want to thank senator moran and senator blumenthal for leading the charge on making sure that our olympic athletes are protected. Mr. Tester there are some say government has no business in this realm and i couldnt disagree more with that. The fact is that this is a wrong that i think senator moran and senator blumenthal ride to right and i just want to thank them for their leadership. Madam president , i stand here today because the Trump Administration continues to turn its back on our nations veterans. Many who are suffering from illnesses related to agent orange. Agent orange is a very toxic defollow yents used in vietnam. Everybody that was there was exposed to it because it was used in such great volume. And by denying the folks who have suffered from that exposu exposure, eligibility for the benefits and the care they need, theyre not doing right by our veterans. The fact of the matter is there is no logical reason behind it except for the fact that they dont want to pay for it. They dont think the exposure to these toxic chemicals in vietnam are a cost of war. Well they are. And today were telling active chief of staff and acting office of management and budget director Mick Mulvaney and other white house officials to do their job and make sure these veterans are taking care of. It is time for this white house to do right by the 83,000, thats 83,000 veterans who are currently suffering and dying from significant Health Conditions associated with agent orange exposure. This administration, the Trump Administration, needs to stop ignores the overwhelming Scientific Evidence put forth by medical expert, by scientists, and by veterans. Internal documents obtained by a veteran through the freedom of information act revealed that in 2017 President Trumps first v. A. Secretary dr. David shulkin, he tried to do right about these veterans. At that time the v. A. Proposed to expand the list of Health Conditions associated with this toxic herbicide to include Bladder Cancer and parkinsonlike symptoms, and high poe thyroidism. So that these veterans would become eligible for the benefits theyve earned if they had these conditions. But Mick Mulvaney and the white house objected. They didnt want to spend the money. They said they wanted more studies, studies that would have affected effectively run out the clock as more and more of these veterans suffered and died. Since then the National Academies of medicine found evidence that hyper tension has even greater evidence of association with agent orange exposure than the conditions dr. Shulkin attempted to address and yet the white house still refuses to take care of these veterans. They refuse to expand the list to include these four conditions. Parkinsonism, Bladder Cancer, hyper tension, and h hypothyroidism and more have suffered and more have died. These are Vietnam Veterans that are in their 60s, 70s, and 80s. But this administration, the same folks equipped to beg for nearly 20 billion for an ineffective border wall that mexico was supposed to pay for and theyre happy to put 1. 5 trillion tax bill on the Government Credit card but they refuse to recognize that this is a cost of war and that they need to do right by the Vietnam Veterans. Veterans who have already waited decades for the benefits and the care that theyve desperately needed. So its pretty simple. Do the right thing. If you claim to be an advocate for the veterans. No more excuses. End the wait for these veterans and their families. These veterans and their families have already sacrificed greatly and they should not be forced to wait one minute long longer. This issue needs to be dealt with and it needs to be dealt with today. I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call the presiding officer the senator from mr. Manchin we in a quorum call . The presiding officer we are. Mr. Manchin i ask that it be vish yated. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Manchin i rise to talk about a resolution i introduced with my fellow senator from maine Susan Collins and 11 other senators from both sides of the aisle, truly bipartisan to designate november 2019 as the National Homeless children and youth awareness month. Specifically, this resolution highlights the issue of children and Youth Homelessness and supports the efforts of businesses, organizations, educators, and volunteers that are dedicated to meeting the needs of Homeless Children and youth. In 2016 and 20167 school 2017 school year there were 1. 3 million children and youth i repeat, 1. 3 million children and youth who experienced homelessness in the United States. In West Virginia alone, our schools have identified more than 10,500 students experiencing homelessness. This is simply unacceptable and we must do more to support our future generations. That is why i am a Firm Believer that there are five promises, five promises that we as adults should make to every child. Every child must have unconditional adult caring adult in their life. Thats the first. Every child must know someone loves them unconditionally, no matter what you do, what mistakes you make. At the end of the day that person loves you. Could be your mom and dad, a grandpa or grandma, aunt or uncle or a neighbor, someone that knows theyve got your back no matter what. Number two, every child must have a safe place to call home where harm cannot enter. I would hope it is a home that they live in the. Sometimes it is not always that case. Sometimes it might be a school, it might be an afterschool program, it could be a church, it could be a neighbors home. Every child has to have somewhere safe in their life growing that harm cannot enter and theyre protected. Number three, every child must have a healthy start and access to nutritional diet. I think it is why youve seen our school systems, weve expanded our nutritional programs from breakfasts to lunches. When i went to school way back when in little rural areas, we had no cafeterias, no lunches. But for some reason i could always tell when my mom or other papers would put an extra sandwich in the lunchpail knowing that we couldnt eat it, but someone could. There were always those that stepped up to help others. Every child has to have access to a nutritional diet if theyre going to grow and be engaged but basically to be productive. The fourth one every child should be taught a livable skill so that they could make their own way through life. Thats why primary and secondary education is free in america. It makes us different than every country in the world. We commit to every child to get an education, to be literate. Every child. Thats why the education should be held at a higher standard, to make sure you have a skill set. There should be no child graduating from high school thats not ready to work or ready to learn more. We should be able to identify at seventh, eighth, ninth grade what their interests are going to be. Whether theyre going to be skill or academia driven. A lot of people arent designed to go to college. A lot of them want to work with their hands. They want the skill sets. They have that ability. We should identify that early. The fifth promise is the hardest promise you cannot teach. You cannot teach this promise that you should keep to every child. That that child should grow to be a loving, caring adult and give something back. They can ultimately learn that only learn that fifth one by how you conduct your life, how that special adult in their life, mom, dad, aunt, uncle, cousin, neighbor, afterhours group, someone in their life is giving them hope to where, hey, i can be that person. I can give something back. I can help somebody like me. Thats the five promises. If we cant keep that, then god help us all. We owe that to every generation. To have one child homeless in this country is wrong. Homeless means you have no stable, you have no functional family, you have no biological mom or dad to go to. Youre either surfcouch. Youre living with another distant relative. This is something we need to intervene and make sure we can correct. We must make sure our future generations will grow to be the best they possibly can be. We expect our children and i do not urge to care about their education. But if they dont have a roof over their head or a place to sleep, if they dont have adequate nutrition and meals, they cant focus on learning, like they should be able to. I had one child say, im just trying to survive. I am just trying to make it through the day and survive. I would love toest go the education you want me to get, but in becomes basically survival tactics or education tactics, survival will kick in first. Thats what they are dealing with. This crisis is affecting not just these students in their home but it affects their school life, too, and we must do better to ensure that they can learn and give back to their communities. Speaking of doing more, there is a lot of great work being done in my great state of West Virginia and nationally. One wonderful example is the Childrens Home society in West Virginia who i know are watching and gathered for their annual conference today. I want to thank them for their incredible work they have been doing. They have been a strong leader in helping children and families that experience homelessness in West Virginia. We truly appreciate their leadership on this issue in our state and hope that their work can be used as a standard for the other states to combat this issue. Recently i visited South Charleston middle school to see the would, they are doing to address the child and Youth Homelessness. Crises facing our state from the School Perspective from a students life, much of which is spent at school. They use federal funding to identify students who are homeless so they can provide services to those who need them. I hope my resolution will represent raise awareness so that more schools are use the Funds Available to support the students who experience homelessness. The child and Youth Homeless crisis is intensified by the opiate crisis that has ravaged our state. Lasting effects of the epidemic on our children and future generations are terrible, from the increase in children and Youth Homelessness to a rise in youth Substance Use disorder. This crisis will continue to affect communities like those all across West Virginia for decades to come, which is why we must begin to combat and address the issues like child and Youth Homelessness now. In the middle of this crisis, there are Success Stories, too, like hanas. Hanas parents could not care for her because of Substance Use issues. So she went to live with a family friend who subsequently removed all support. A High School Counselor referred hana to the Youth Service systems Transitional Living program, which helped her finish high school and go on to college. She is a recipient of the y. S. Ronald mulholland future scholarship a tends West Virginia university where she is a junior now studying chem century. She completed an internship in tennessee. It is a wonderful organization that works to provide shelter for children and youth across america. Organizations like the Youth Services system and the Childrens Home society deserve recognition for their incredible work, because without them Success Stories like hanas and so many others wouldnt even exist. Which is why we must raise awareness of this issue so that we can support the wonderful work being done across the United States every day. Im so proud to be here today to advocate for those 1 moi 3 million 1. 3 million children and youth across our nation who need our help and deserve our help. We must do better for them. And i believe strongly that this resolution is the beginning to work towards solving this major crisis our nation has. With broad bipartisan support, and if theres one thing that brings us together, it is the children. It is not democrat our republican problem. It is all of our problem. It is an american problem, and we have to face it. The support of 23 National Organizations i hope this resolution will pass quickly. I look forward to working with my colleagues who have signed onto this resolution and those on both sides of the aisle to bring us back together to combat child and Youth Homelessness. Thank you, madam president. I yield the floor. Mr. Kennedy madam president . The presiding officer the senator from louisiana. Mr. Kennedy thank you, madam president. I want to talk for a few minutes today about 5g technology and taxpayer money. Weve all heard the term 5g. 5g stands for fifth generation. Fifthgeneration technology. In short, what 5g means is incredibly fast data transmission. Data in going from my cell phone to the president s cell phone, my internet to your internet, the ability to connect a lot of different devices at the same time. Through 5g technology, which is wireless technology, we will be able to not only transmit data very quickly, well be able to transmit huge amounts of data, almost breathtaking amounts. And its going to have a huge impact on american society. Its going to have a huge impact on the world. In some respects, its going to change the world. If technology has changed the world thus far and indeed it has; among other things, its made the world smaller 5g is going to change it even more. For example, youll be able to use your smartphone to open your garage door. Youll be able to use your smartphone youll be a mile away to turn on your coffee maker. Well be able to do surgery by internet. Surgeons will be able to be in one place and 1,000 miles away a patient, and that surgeon, through robotics and other means, will be able to transmit the data to operate on that patient. Driverless cars, which is going to change the world dramatically. And not only just the way we get around, its going to change our need for roads, its going to change our tax base, its going to change the insurance market. Farmers 5g is going to allow farmers to be able to be prewarned about encroaching diseases. Farmers wont have to wait to see their crops attacked by certain diseases. Through 5g technologies, theyll be able to know and predict that those diseases are coming. Its going to help us feed the world. 5g technology is going to allow our young people to have virtual apprenticeships. If youre a young woman or a young man and youre right out of school and youre offered an apprenticeship, an internship, lets say, in san francisco, and youre living in dtluth. You say, i dont have the money to move to san francisco, i dont have the money to live in san francisco, youll be able to do an internship through technology. Now, its going to be 100 times faster, in terms of the amount of data. I dont know how to quantify that but its going to be have an extraordinary impact on wireless technology. Now, what are we talking about here . When my phone calls the president s phone, what is are we talking about . Really, were just talking about radio waves. Were talking about radio waves. And a radio wave is nothing more than electromagnetic radiation. I dont want to get off the subject here. When my phone talks to the president s phone, were just sending radio waves through the air. Sometimes you might have heard that referred to as spectrum. And thats basically how a cell phone and the internet works. Except with 5g, the speed with which that data is transmitted and the amount of data will be substantially larger. Who owns those radio waves in the air through which those radio waves travel . According to federal law, the federal Communications Act of 1934, we do. We all do. The American People do. Now, the federal government, through the federal Communications Commission and other agencies, including but not limited to congress, regulates those radio waves going through the air, which we call spectrum. But those radio waves in the air through which they pass are owned by the American People. J, just like the oil and gas offshore in federal waters, just like the rocky mountains. Theyre owned by us, the American People. Now there are certain types of radio waves that are owned by the American People that are perfect for 5g technology. These radio waves and this spectrum, if you will ill use the term spectrum, but you remember im just referring to radio waves moving through the air. This particular spectrum thats perfect for 5g technology is called the c band. I dont know why they call it that, but thats what they call it. And it is between 3. 7 gigahertz and 4. 2 gigahertz. Dont worry about what that means. Just know that this spectrum, this part of the overall spectrum is perfect for 5g. And its perfect because it strikes a balance between coverage and capacity. And this c band if you will thats not too hot, into the too cold, its just right for 5g, is critical to our development of 5g technology. Since the American People own this c band and since many of our Wireless Companies that want to develop and offer 5g technology to the American People, given those facts, the f. C. C. Is going to play an integral part. The f. C. C. Licenses spectrum to companies that want to use it. In other words, if youre a Wireless Company and you want to use a portion of the spectrum, the radio waves going through the air thats owned by the American People, you go to the f. C. C. And you say, i want to license that spectrum, and im willing to pay for it. And by law, not by custom, by law what the f. C. C. Does, it says okay, to be fair were going to hold an auction. 57bd be and everybody who wants to bid on this portion of the spectrum can submit a bid. In the last 25 years, the f. C. C. Has done an extraordinary job, by the way, of getting spectrum out to the private sector and getting the american taxpayer paid for its property interests. In the last 25 years the f. C. C. Has conducted over 100 of these auctions. The f. C. C. Has brought in 1 123 billion for the American People. Billion, thats nine zeros. I would venture to say i met with the folks at the f. C. C. Who handle the public auctions. They are incredibly experienced. They know what theyre doing. Let me get back to the c band. When we left off, we were talking about the c band being perfect for 5g. We have a lot of wireless im sorry Wireless Companies that want to lease it, if you will, want to license it, and the f. C. C. Is there in the middle. And you would expect that what we would do in this instance is what we always do. We hold a public auction. It has been estimated that if we hold a public auction, if the f. C. C. Holds a public auction and tells all the Wireless Companies that want to bid to come on down and bid, it will bring in 60 billion for the American People. 60 billion. You know what we can do with 60 billion . With 60 billion, we can put one million kids through college, all four years. With 60 billion, we could hire one million new cops for a year. With 60 billion, we could build 7,000 miles of interstate. With 60 billion, we can make sure that broadband reaches every crevice and corner of america, because right now it doesnt. If youre in a rural area right now i dont want to overstate my case here, but in many instances if youre in a rural area, you dont have the same broadband both in terms of reach and coverage and speed that people have in a large city. And thats even true before we get to 5g. We can even give the money back to people. We have 140 million taxpayers in america. If we just gave this 60 billion back to the 140 million taxpayers, its about 430 for every taxpayer in america. Now im not suggesting that we do that. Thats above my pay grade making that decision. And for a lot of people, 430 isnt much money. But ive got a lot of friends for whom 450 is for whom 40 is a lot of money. But in the middle of what ive just described, weve got a hair on the bis biscuit. We have three companies, and im not disparaging them. Two of them are headquartered in luxembourg and one is out of canada. They are farm satellite companies. And theyve gone to the f. C. C. And theyve said, look, were going to make you a deal here. We know that we need to get this 5g, this c span spectrum out into the market as quickly as possible. We will do the auction for you. It doesnt matter that the f. C. C. Has already done 100 auctions and brought in 123 billion. These three Foreign Companies have gone to the f. C. C. And said let us do the auction for you because we can do it better and quicker, even though theyve never done a public auction. And then they told the f. C. C. , and, by the way, we want to keep the money. We can do it faster than you, f. C. C. , because even though youve done 100plus auctions and weve never done one, trust me, we can do it faster than you. And we want you to give us the spectrum and let us keep the 60 billion. And the f. C. C. Is considering doing it. If my state has a lot of oil and gas. The federal government, the american taxpayer owns the seabed of much of the gulf of mexico. And periodically on behalf of of the American People the federal government leases out that to oil and Gas Companies to explore for oil and gas. Now when the federal government leases the land out, the federal government takes an upfront cash payment and a portion of any oil and gas thats found. Can you imagine what would happen if i went to the federal government and said, even though ive never done an oil and gas auction, i could do it faster than the federal government even though the federal governments done thousands of them. So i want you to give me all the minerals in the gulf and let me do the auction and keep the money. Can you imagine the reaction if i approached the federal government. The people in charge of those oil and gas leases would do one of two things. I would end up either in handcuffs or a straitjacket. But thats whats being proposed here. And for the life of me, i do not understand why the f. C. C. Is taking this seriously. An article just came out a couple of days ago. Ill read you the first sentence of it. It came out of a periodical called market watch on november 11, a few days ago, and this is how it starts, a big step in the u. S. S. Deployment of 5g wireless could take place by years end as the federal Communications Commission is expected to back a plan from the satellite industry for auctioning off radio spectrum. And they quote a couple of investment bankers. One investment banker, a group called Height Capital Markets and another one called beacon policy advisors. I dont know where theyre getting their information, but they say the f. C. C. Has already agreed not to do a public auction but to let these Foreign Companies have the spectrum and get the 60 billion. And the article goes on to explain that these three companies, these three Foreign Companies, the two Luxembourg Companies and the canadian company, they spent 515,000 lobbying regulators and lawmakers on its auction plan. And then i go back and i look at another article that came out not too long ago, and it talks about, it quotes one f. C. C. Commissioner. It sounds like hes already sold. He was asked about the idea of letting these, just giving the spectrum to these Foreign Companies and letting them keep the money. Heres what he said. He says, most of the criticism of what is known as the c. B. A. Proposal thats the proposal by the private companies shows a lack of understanding of how the internal commission works. He says dont let anyone try to lecture me on the commissions efficiency and timeliness. And this commissioner says, goes on to say, quote, im just quoting from the article, if someone or some entities make a profit for being at the right place at the right time, i will live with that outcome. In the grand scheme of things, if its a contest between speed and government trying to extract a significant piece of the transaction through a lengthy process, ill take the speedy resolution any day. Are you kidding me . What planet did he just parachute in from . And this is a current member of the f. C. C. Somebody needs to tell him about the president s executive order right here, buy american. Hire american. It doesnt say hire Luxembourg Companies. I have nothing against Luxembourg Companies. I just prefer american companies. It doesnt say buy Canadian Companies and hire canadian. I can tell you whats going to happen if the f. C. C. Does this. First of all, the American People are going to lose 60 billion. Number two, theyre going to get sued. They say they can do it faster. I dont believe them. But i know this much, i know a Little Something about litigation i used to do it for a living theyre going to be tied up in court for about ten years, i can tell you that because the federal Communications Act requires a public auction. I can tell you what else is going to happen. The people who live in Rural Communities are going to get the little end of nothing because we wont be able to control who gets this c band. And i will bet you the Companies End up with it start and i hope im wrong and remain in the cities. So if you live in the country where i was raised, you dont get the benefit of 5g. Also, if we give it to these three Foreign Companies and they get to decide who gets the c band, how do we control who ends up with our spectrum . What if they give it to huawei . What if they give it to a company that violates our National Security and our National Intelligence . This is a really bad idea, folks. There is a bill that has been offered. Its a bipartisan bill in the house. Im going to sponsor it in the senate. Its offered in the house by two republicans and two democrats, and the bill is very simple. It just says do the right thing. This spectrum belongs to the American People. This c band belongs to the American People. That 60 billion belongs to the American People. And im asking my friends at the f. C. C. , do the right thing. Do what youve done 100 times already. Let everybody bid. Let everybody bid and take the 16 billion that you get for the American People. And lets spend it on something the American People needs need. With that, madam president , i thank you for your time and attention and i suggest the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call mr. Brown madam president. The presiding officer the senator from ohio. Mr. Brown madam president , i ask i ask unanimous consent to dispense with the quorum call. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Brown we celebrated veterans day of those who died in kandahar and mosul and everywhere else that veterans work to protect our country. We owe them and their families our debt we often fall short in repaying. That is what this is about today. For years the v. A. Has been presented with scientific information making it clear that the list of Health Conditions stemming from agent orange exposure is extensive. It includes hypothroidism, parkinsons light symptoms and hypertension. The latest report by the National Academies recognized that hypothroidism, parkinsons like symptoms and hypertension all have sufficient evidence associated with agent orange. Historically the v. A. Has added illnesses in those two categories to the list of presumptive medical conditions associated with agent orange exposure. This congress has bipartisanly done the right thing time after time after time. Were all on the same side when it comes to helping veterans who are exposed to agent orange in vietnam. We recently found out that the former v. A. Secretary shulkin decided to add three of had these conditions to the list of presumptive medical conditions associated with that exposure only to have o. M. B. , the Trump Administration block his decision, and emailed their director mulvaney, secretary shulkin said adding these conditions was, quote, imperative, yet no action took place. There are 83,000 83,000 veterans living with at least one of the presumptive medical conditions, 83,000, they are in tennessee, georgia, they are in south dakota, they are in ohio. In a discussion with Bluewater Navy veterans last week i learned that since the department put a stay on adjudicating the agent orange claims earlier this year, 12 veterans have died. Time is running out some might accuse this body of waiting until they all died. As hard as it is to say that and hear that waiting for them all to die before we move. We need to do it for whatever political reason that is placed on this. They shouldnt have to fight these one at a time when there are six men and women, veterans of vietnam. We did this to them. The American People government decided to spray agent orange. We knew it was harmful. We knew it then, we know it now. The Chemical Companies knew, the government knew. Why does the administration now, this administration, think its okay to abandon our commitment to this these veterans. If you were exposed to poison while serving our country, there should be no question you deserve the benefits you earned, period, no exception. Madam president , as if in legislative session, i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of s. Res. 420, encouraging the president to expand the list of the department of Veterans Affairs a presumptive medical conditions associated with exposure to agent orange, to include parkinsons, Bladder Cancer, hypertension, hypothroidism, which was submitted earlier today. I further ask that this resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. The presiding officer is there objection . A senator i object. The presiding officer objection is heard. A senator reserving the right to object. And i want to say to my Committee Member from the Veterans Affairs committee how much i appreciate his dedicated work in the committee we worked on a lot of things, including the diseases in here and getting presumptive conclusions done. Mr. Isakson medicine is not exact. Diseases are not exact and circumstances are not exact. When you make a decision to include a benefit for our veterans, you are making a commitment to spend it from the taxpayers of the United States america. We were just in the committee and the gentleman knows that, we approved the Bluewater Navy funds which is one of the largest increases in history going to the veterans. Were circumventing in that some of the Due Diligence you ought to do before you make a presumption of the diseases caused. So i am a member an alumni of the georgianational guard and veteran, chairman of the committee. I think the world of the gentleman from ohio. I think he is doing what he is doing is great and right, but i object to this motion as one that would benefit because i have parkinsons. I went into the service in the 1960s. I didnt serve in vietnam, but i was during that era. I would have consideration and if i got parkinsons disease, which i have, then they could use it to find out if it was presumptively caused by exposure i had. If he wanted to, take a benefit of this end run, im not going to do it because i think its time as chairman of the committee i think we need to make sure that what we promise veterans we have the money to do it so we dont spend too much money on others and leave others short. And i object it the motion. Mr. Brown madam president. The presiding officer the senator from ohio. Mr. Brown senator isakson, the chairman of the Veterans Committee knows, and this is not false kind of flattery. He knows how much i think of him. He runs a Bipartisan Committee in the senate. Im honored to be on it. No ohioan served on this committee as long as i have. I consider that a privilege, number one, and an opportunity to pay people back. I didnt serve in the military. I know that senator isakson did. Senator trump had deferments from vietnam. He didnt serve in the military. I think maybe perhaps because i didnt serve in the military i should work a little bit harder to make sure those people, most of whom are older than i by a little bit during the vietnam war, that they be treed better than they treated better than they were by the country, by the public upon their return from vietnam that that they that they in this case get the benefit of the doubt. In the history of what happened with agent orange, you may remember years and years ago, veterans had to people who had fought in vietnam had been exposed to agent orange had to prove initially case by case why they got sick, which was darn near impossible and especially when your sick trying to do that and go through that pain. Congress bipartisanly do the right thing back then, did the right thing, put a list of these illnesses together that people that that that agent orange was likely responsible for and if you had one of these illnesses and you were boots on the ground in vietnam and you you immediately automatically qualified. You didnt have to fight it in court. You didnt have to get lawyers, you didnt have to do any of that. That was then. Now, even though secretary shulkin, and i dont know how many secretaries have come and gone, the president cant seem to keep secretary of the v. A. Or staff at the v. A. Because of the erratic policy he follows with veterans, the president of the United States goes to new york and makes a great speech about veterans, and we all applaud that, but then hes not willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. These are four illnesses that secretary shulkin thought you heard the term i used earlier, the term that he used. He used the term that these conditions, it was imperative that we did something, and i understand as well as anybody who important it is to protect taxpayers. I also remember just two years ago less than two years ago Congress Gave a tax cut, hundreds of billions of dollars, 70 of it went to the richest 1 of the people in this country and we cant come up with a few billion dollars to help veterans who are dying from these four illnesses. We cant expand this list and give them health care as we try to comfort them as the v. A. In cleveland, dayton, and cincinnati and columbus, atlanta and all over. And i this is no end run around process. This isnt four illness thats i heard somebody talk about in steubenville or cleveland that we ought to be covering, these are four illnesses, the v. A. Has looked at the Scientific Community has looked at the medical community has looked at secretary shulkin who served as secretary of the v. A. Appointed by President Trump, initially was acting under president obama, we cant give them the benefit this is no end run, madam president. We cant give them the benefit of the doubt and say, yes, we should cover this. I i hope that the chairman of the v. A. , of the Veterans Committee at some point we can sit down and talk and that he can reconsider, but why why we think we need to protect President Trump who, like me, didnt serve in the military but for me it was well, i wont get into that. But, madam president , why we cant help these veterans give them the benefit of the doubt, cover these illnesses and and move forward in the v. A. Taking care of people the way that we should. Mr. Thune madam president , its now been 13 months since the administration concluded negotiations on the United Statesmexicocanada free trade agreement, 13 months of uncertainty for u. S. Farmers and ranchers, manufacturers, Small Businesses, digital firms, financial institutions, and many others. 13 months of wondering what the rules of the road on trade are going to look like going forward. Madam president , we should have passed the United Statesmexicocanada agreement months ago. Republicans in the senate have been ready to take up this agreement for a long time. But trade agreements have to be considered by the house of representatives first, and the house of representatives is controlled by the Democrat Party who is far more interested in partisan pursuits than in actually doing any meaningful legislating. House democrats are happy to consider farleft messaging bills that have no chance of going anywhere. They have no interest in working with republicans to actually get something signed into law. Why . Democrats have convinced themselves that partisan posturing is more important than securing a bipartisan legislative victory like a strong, new trade deal that will benefit the american economy. And so they are currently opposing a trade agreement that would benefit millions of American Workers. Madam president , lets be very clear. Democrats decision to prioritize partisan politics is having real consequences for the American People. Right now the members of our military are unable to fund new priorities because Senate Democrats are blocking consideration of defense appropriations. Farmers and ranchers in my home state of south dakota and around the country are struggling, but House Democrats refuse to move forward on a trade deal, the United Statesmexicocanada agreement that would bring them relief. Mr. President , thanks to low commodity and livestock prices, natural disasters and protracted trade disputes, farmers and ranchers have had a tough few years. And one of the biggest things that we can do to help them is to take action on trade. Our nations farmers and ranchers depend on trade. When i talk to farmers and ranchers at home in south dakota, they emphasize that the most important thing washington can do to boost our agricultural economy is to take action on trade agreements. Farmers and ranchers need access to new and expanded markets for their products. And just as importantly, they need certainty about what International Markets are going to look like going forward. The United Statesmexicocanada agreement would help meet those needs. It would preserve and expand farmers access to critical export markets and give farmers certainty about what these markets will look like long term. Im particularly pleased with the improvements the agreement makes for dairy producers. South dakota has experienced a major dairy expansion over the past few years, and this agreement will benefit u. S. Dairy producers by substantially expanding Market Access in canada where u. S. Dairy sales have been restricted. In fact, u. S. International trade commission estimates that the agreement will boost u. S. Dairy exports by more than 277 million. The agreement will also expand Market Access for u. S. Poultry and egg producers and it will make it easier for u. S. Producers to export wheat to canada. And of course the benefits for the Agricultural Industry are just one part, mr. President , of this agreement. Virtually every sector of our economy will benefit from the United Statesmexicocanada agreement for manufacturing to Digital Services to the automotive industry. Usmca breaks new ground by including a chapter specifically focused on small and mediumsize businesses, the first time that a u. S. Trade agreement has ever included a dedicated chapter on this topic. Roughly 120,000 small and mediumsize businesses around our country export goods and services to mexico and to canada. Usmca will make it easier for these businesses to successfully export their products. Mr. President , it would be nice if House Democrats woke up tomorrow and decided that 13 months was long enough to make americas farmers and ranchers and manufacturers and Small Business men wait for the United Statesmexicocanada agreement. But my hopes of seeing action from the house grow dimmer each day. Mr. President , democrats in the house should be addressing the American Peoples priorities. American workers shouldnt be sacrificed for democrats partisan political goals. I hope that enough of my democrat colleagues in the house of representatives will urge their house leadership to bring up the United Statesmexicocanada agreement in the very near future. Mr. President , americans have waited long enough. The presiding officer the senator for ohio. Mr. Brown thank you, mr. President. I rise to talk for a moment about i appreciate senator thunes comments about usmca or some might call it nafta 1. 6. It just doesnt do very much. But what it does doesnt get us where we need to get. I was not in this body. I was down the hall in the house of representatives when nafta passed. I voted against it. I saw what nafta did to my state, what it did to our country, the number of lost manufacturing jobs, states in the industrial midwest have not recovered and still have not recovered from that legislation, from that trade agreement, the north American Free trade agreement. And then the Clinton Administration i opposed my own party on this and the bush administration, the other party pushed one after another after another, trade agreements. President trump made a Huge Campaign promise that he was going to do something about it, and this agreement simply doesnt do it. We have talked to the United States trade representative repeatedly about enforcing labor standards. The whole point of fixing this agreement is so jobs, so companies dont shut down in mansfield and zanesville and lima, ohio, and move to mexico and build plants there and sell the products back into the United States. But you know whats happening . Even with usmca has no language in it thats going to stop the outsourcing of jobs. So if this Congress Moves on usmca, you can bet that month after month after month were going to lose, were going to lose manufacturing jobs, that Business Plan of shutting down production in ohio or in rhode island or in north or south dakota or montana will continue. And usmca doesnt do anything about it. This is the same president that went to youngstown, ohio, as lordstown was about to shut down and said dont sell your homes were going to bring those jobs back. G. M. Moved more jobs to mexico at the same time they shut down the g. M. Plant in lordstown, ohio. 4,500 jobs lost. This usmca is simply a wallpapering over an agreement. It doesnt have to do what you have to do to stop the outsourcing of jobs. I look at trade agreements through one thing. Does it mean more jobs in our country or does it mean fewer jobs . Usmca will do nothing to stem the tide of jobs moving to mexico. Thats why it should be back to the table, include the brownwyden amendment, the labor enforcement, the language that will in fact mean that therell be more prosperity in both countries. I thank senator whitehouse for yielding the floor. Mr. Whitehouse mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from rhode island. Mr. Whitehouse mr. President , i ask its not going to be that long, but i ask unanimous consent to speak for up to half an hour as if in morning business. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Whitehouse mr. President , today is my 258th time to wake up speech, and i want to use this occasion to take us back to our oceans. But before i get into the substance of my remarks, i want to note that this will be the last time to wake up speech that adina liebman has been with me. She has been closely involved in all my offices ocean work, has indeed led it. She came to my office as a knause fellow. We loved dean knause in rhode island, the dean of oceanography at the university of rhode island and worked to help launch noaa, helped start the Sea Grant Program and has been extremely significant in the ocean work of our government. So being a knause, fellow, one of the knause legacies is a really big deal and particularly in rhode island. Shes been coordinating the oceans work now for four years and has also been coordinating our appropriations work. In the time that adean has been working on this the bipartisan ocean caucus which senator murkowski and i established has grown to 40 members. It is very bipartisan. It is very effective. We set it up as a working caucus, and it is working. Adina helped us get the Coastal Resiliency Fund passed into law. It is now producing tens of millions of dollars in grants for coastal communities who need the support as sea levels rise. She helped get save our seas act passed. That was a unanimous effort. Dan sullivan of alaska was a remarkable partner in all of that. And the participants in that, including leaders from landlocked states like senator inhofe was a real leader in that bill, had such a good time with it that were now working on save our seas 2. 0 which today came through the Commerce Committee after having passed Foreign Relations committee unanimously and environment and Public Works Committee unanimously so were hoping soon well be able to organize Floor Consideration of it and perhaps pass it by unanimous consent the way we did save our seas, and the work of all of that in those committees and in negotiating save our seas 2. 0 was led by adina. Last, i started going around this week collecting cosponsors for senator murkowskis and my blue belowback, the oceans data bill that we have worked on and are now ready to launch and an enormous amount of preparatory work goes into getting that ready, getting supporters lined up, doing all the work, crossreferencing different points of view and getting a bill we also hope stands a good chance of passing this body by unanimous consent. So, i give this speech with gratitude to adina for her work. The oceans, mr. President , send a clear and consistent signal about Climate Change. And its a signal that has been untainted by fossil fuel industry propaganda tacts that have been problematic in other areas. And for good reason the signals are untainted, because its hard to dispute Sea Level Rise measured with tide gauges all around the country. Its hard to dispute acidification that is measured with the kind of p. H. Test kit that a middle School Science classroom has. And its hard to dispute rising Ocean Temperatures that are measured with that complex analytical device, the thermometer. So even the fossil fuel industry has trouble fouling the climate signals from our ocean. The recent special report on the ocean and changing climate confirms through grim data that the health of our oceans is in rapid decline. And it confirms that these changes are caused not by nature, but by man. Headlines extracted from the report are pretty alarming. These are quotes. The global ocean has taken up more than 90 of the excess heat in the climate system. The rate of ocean warming has more than doubled. Marine heat waves are increasing in intensity. The ocean has undergone increasing ocean acidification, means sea level is rising. Increases in Tropical Cyclone winds and rainfall. Increases in extreme waves, in extreme sea level events and coastal hazards. Multiple climaterelated hazards. And the ocean, as if thats not enough, quote, is projected to transition to unprecedented conditions. Its a grim warning. Look at acidification. Ocean acidification is a chemical phenomenon. Its not deniable. You can replicate it in a middle School Science lab. You can demonstrate it with your breath and a glass of water and an aquarium bubbleer and p. H. Strips, as i have done from this desk. The oceans absorbed around 30 of our excess co2 emissions. In a Chemical Interaction that takes up the co from the air into the seawater, but it acidifies the seawater. Off our west coast, the humble pteropod is a Building Block in the oceanic food chain. Studies show pteropods suffering, quote, severe shell damage worsened by acidification its hard to make and maintain a shell in acidifying seas. Coral reefs are dying from acidification. The great ocean dieoffs in geologic areas before humans existed were signaled by ocean acidification. So thats serious. Look at heat. The oceans absorb over 90 not 30 like the co2. 90 of excess atmospheric heat that we have trapped in our atmosphere with Greenhouse Gas emissions. So think about it. All the terrestrial effects that we are already seeing from Climate Change come from less than onetenth of the excess heat that we have trapped. The heat going into the oceans is sparing us humans a real catastrophe. That all that heat is changing the oceans. Its four health its four bs worth of heat energy added to our oceans every second. Four hiroshima explosions is the rate of ocean heating and the rate of this ocean heating has already doubled and the ocean is projected to absorb from tief to seven times more heat by 2100. So its heating and the rate at which its heating is accelerating. What does that mean . Well, warming seas expand. Thats a basic law of physics, and along with melting glaciers and ice sheets, that means that seas rise. So far about six inches globally. On Rhode Islands shores already nearly a foot. On our current trajectory more than three feet globally by 2100, more than six feet along our shores in rhode island. This is northern rhode island. This n. R. A. A this is narragansett bay. All of this blue is land now, there are peoples businesses, they are homes, they are roads, infrastructures, all projected to disappear, all projected to be swallowed by rising seas by the end of the century if we keep fiddling around here and not paying attention. The first Street Foundation calculates that coastal communities like these along our east coast and in the gulf of mexico states have already lost more than 15 billion in relative Property Values as the insurance and Mortgage Markets start to look at sealevel rise and flooding and it affects housing prices. In rhode island alone they estimate about 45 million in relative Property Value lost and predicted ahead is a coastal Property Values crash. Thats not coming from an environmental organization, thats coming from freddie mac, the Great American mortgage corporation. And its global. The New York Times recently reported new research that, and i quote, some 150 Million People are now living on land that will be below the hightide line by midcentury. 150 Million People. A u. K. Study warns global sealevel rise could costs 14 trillion annually by 2100. Lets put this back up. This is what freddie mac has to say. The economic losses and social disruption of the coastal Property Values crash may happen gradually, but they are likely to be greater in total than those experienced in the housing crisis and great recession. Those of us who lived through the 2008 meltdown. We dont want to go there again. Freddie mac is forecasting that will happen because of coastal values. A new Climate Central study shows that chronic coastal flooding or permanent inundation threatens areas occupied by more than 10 of the Current Population of nations, including bangladesh, vietnam, and many small island developing states. Here is the southern part of vietnam swallowed up by high tide in 2050. That was the projection just a few years ago for the flooding that was going to come into the Vietnam Delta area. Up here saigon. This is the new projection for 2050, all of it under water, including a good part of saigon city. As one of the authors of the report said, most sealevel rise here between now and 2050 is already baked in. Decades more of sealevel rise means the fate of many coastal communities here and around the world is already sealed. Which may explain the 2013 warning by the commander of our United States forces in the pacific that upheaval relayed related to Climate Change, and i quote him here, is probably the most likely thing that is going to happen that will cripple the security environment. He said, you have the real potential here in the not too distant future of nations displaced by rising sea level. If it goes bad, you could have hundreds of thousands or millions of people displaced and then security will start to crumble pretty quickly. Well, here it is, as predicted by our navy 2013. Thankfully countries around the globe are awakening to the problems in our oceans. In 2015, i fought to protect a mention a mention of oceans in the paris climate agreement. This years original host, chile, christened the entire upcoming meeting of a blue cop with a blue vision of repairing ocean health. I attended as a u. S. Congressional delegation of one. This Years International our Ocean Conference in oslo where corporations and governments from around the world, even the helpless Trump Administration made national and corporate and regional ocean commitments. Norway leads a panel of 14 nations 14 heads of state and the United States special envoy for the ocean advised by people like our own former noaa administrator. A recent panel report outlined five major ocean initiatives that could reduce 20 of global emissions by 2050. The United Nations also declared the 2020s the decade of Ocean Science for sustainable development. The world has turned toward action on oceans. Now usually in confronting threats of this magnitude, the United States sets an example of leadership. We are abandoning that tradition. In conversations about Climate Change and ocean challenges, the u. S. Is, at best, absent, at worst were the obstruction. Thats a mistake. The United States should not loose its place as an international leader, not if we care about our role as an indispensable nation, not if we care about the prosperity of our democracy. It doesnt have to be this way. Other ocean threats have promised prompted congress to do whats right. We passed International Fishery treaties and the port state measures enforcement laws, we did it here in the senate and now satellites are seeking out pirate fishing ships to bring them to justice. We passed the first marines plastic legislation unanimously and a bigger, better marines plastic bill is moving in the senate right now. Senator murkowski and i are moving the biggest ocean data bill since noaa was founded by our oceans caucus. So, yeah, we can do better and we must. Henry kissinger once told me that the great revolutions of the world have come about from what he called a confluence of resentments. Well, the poorest, those who depend most closely on the oceans, those who lead subsistent lives will suffer most the brunt of the coming crisis and they will resent it. Look at fisheries. The poorest starve when their fisheries collapse. Others are distressed when fisheries collapse but have the resources to migrate or find alternative food sources. For wealthy nations, like ours, the air conditioned fish in our supermarkets might cause more, but our lives arent seriously affected. But when the poor are hurt like that, they will resent it. That is human nature. And if you turn the pain up high enough, well, good luck defending to them the systems of parliamentary democracy and market capitalism that caused this suffering. Years ago Daniel Webster described the work of our founders as having set the world an example. He went on to say the last hopes of mankind, therefore, rest with us, from jonathan win throap to ronald reagan, we called america the city on a hill, set high for the world to witness. President clinton argued that people around the world have always been more impressed by the power of our example than any example of our power. We still tout our system of democracy and capitalism as a beacon of success and progress but we have aided and abetted the failure of our system to address the climate and oceans crisis, and worst of all is the reason for it. The fossil fuel industrys menacing climate denial apparatus. That apparatus may have won the day influencing congress for now, but it will surely fail the test of time. History will judge harshly an american generation that let its democracy be corrupted by this industry. The voice of the oceans is more lasting than the greed and folly of man and it warns of consequences driven by laws of chemistry, physics and biology. These stern natural laws cannot be repealed or vetoed. Propaganda can manipulate people, passions and politics, but propaganda cannot change the laws of nature. The data are the voice of the oceans, and if data could scream, the oceans would now be screaming. So to paraphrase a poem, let us be the voice the sea would have if it had not a better one as it lifts its rumbling deep structured roar. Let us wake up and get to our duty, slap nature, pope francis said, and she will slap you back. Mr. President , we have a hell of a slap coming if we dont get ahead of this and we better wake up to it. I yield the floor. Mrs. Murray mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from washington. Mrs. Murray thank you, mr. President. I have come here before to call out Senate Republicans and their unwavering support by the republicans effort to pack the courts with ideologically driven picks, but the one i am speaking out about is not fit to sit on a federal court, Steven Menashi. Mr. Menashi has a deeply disturbing history of disparaging comments against women, communities of color, immigrants and the lgbtqi community. He unabashedly help roll back protections for communities, he refused to answer basic questions from u. S. Senators, both democrats and republicans, about the policies he worked on while advising the president. He has time and time again put extremism and ideology ahead of the rule of law, and he has proven himself incapable of serving as a fair and impartial judge. And as if his record of extremism and partisanship wasnt bad enough, we now know that Steven Menashi not only helped but was the key architect in secretary devoss efforts to illegally deny relief to student borrowers who were cheated by predatory forprofit colleges. These policies that mr. Menashi provided, quote, legal advice for, were subsequently ruled to be violation of federal law. Secretary devoss policy on borrowed defense led to her being held in contempt of court. Whether mr. Ma neshy menashi did not understand federal law or advised the secretary of education to ignore it at the expense of students, this revolution disqualifies him from serving a lifetime appointment on a federal court or at least it should. Mr. President , tomorrow the senate will take a critical vote. This is a vote on whether the senate once again rupper stamp rubberstamp President Trumps to make the judiciary on a bipartisan basis and if they will have a judicial nominee whose own actions have been found to violate the law as recently as just a few weeks ago. I implore my republican colleagues to consider not just mr. Menashis record of bigotry, the harm he helped cause to cheat and defraud students but also his blatant disregard of the rule of law. One casting their vote, i ask my colleagues not to worry about what the president might say on twitter, but to worry about the rule of law and to worry about the idea of yet another partisan nominee getting a lifetime on a federal bench who doesnt. Its that simple. Thank you, mr. President. I yield the floor. The presiding officer the senator from New Hampshire. Mrs. Shaheen mr. President , im pleased to join my colleague senator grassley on the floor today to talk about important legislation that we are cosponsoring that build upon previous efforts that both of us were engaged in to protect survivors of Sexual Assault in the criminal Justice System. The effort to extend rights for Sexual Assault survivors across the country is critically important, and im hopeful that once our legislation is known to our colleagues, that they will join us in passing this important bipartisan bill. Of the rise the Rise Organization initially contacted our office in 2015. She also worked with senator grassley. When she came to us in de and detailed her harrowing story of Sexual Assault, she was raped and then she felt like she was raped again by a criminal Justice System that was not responsive to the challenges of survivors of Sexual Assault. Amanda described a system that further traumatized survivors and provided scarce protections for their rights. Evidence of assault was being destroyed without sure viefers consent and survivors were forced to periodically follow up with Law Enforcement to preserve that evidence. The broken promise that they were forced to endure resulted in a system where they were often revictimmized. Instead of a process that helped them move forward with their lives as they pursued justice, survivors were confronted with the trauma of reliving their attacks each time they sought to preserve evidence or gather information about their case. Well, because of amandas efforts, the Sexual Assault survivors rights act was creat created. It was legislation that provided for the first legally recognized set of rights for survivors that could be enforced in a court of law. Senator grassley took that legislation. He included it in the adam walsh reauthorization act, and it was signed into law. It has provided survivors with greater protections in federal cases because of a focus on notice, on access to evidence, and on the preservation of Sexual Assault evidence collection kits. And by creating this set of Court Enforceable rights at the federal level, congress established a model for the states to adopt similar legislation to protect the rights of survivors. And so far 21 states including my home state of New Hampshire have adopted that legislation to guarantee survivors certain basic rights in the criminal Justice System. Now, unfortunately, were trying to figure out how to encourage other states to follow the lead of congress, states that have not yet adopted legislation protecting survivors. And thats why the bill that senator grassley and i are here to discuss today is so critically important. The survivors bill of rights and the states act, the legislation were cosponsoring, would establish a Grant Program accessible to states that have in place a law which guarantees the rights contained in the Sexual Assault survivors rights act. The grand amount would be a percentage of the funding that the state receives under the stop violence against women formula Grant Program. States could then use the funds to implement survivor rights, preserve Sexual Assault evidence collection kit, reduce the backlog of kits, and provide support for victim services. Congress has previously passed legislation using the stop formula grants to incentivize states to adopt legislation and this is a perfect example of why that kind of an approach would be successful. No survivor should be compelled to bear the indignity of petitioning Law Enforcement merely to ensure that they are given a fair shake in the criminal justice process. Its my hope that this legislation will lead to an increase in states passing bills to protect survivors rights. I think its important that congress again show survivors that we are behind them, that we will stand up with them for their rights. The survivors bill of rights and the states act would do just that. Senator grassley, im so pleased to be joining you in this effort. I think with this bipartisan support, we can get support from all of our colleagues to enact this followon legislation into law and provide the Additional Support that survivors need. Thank you, mr. President. I yield to my colleague, senator grassley. The presiding officer the senator from iowa. Mr. Grassley first of all, it is a pleasure to work with senator shaheen on this bill. Im very happy to work together. We have the same goals in mind. And for the cynical people outside of washington, d. C. That say theres never any republican or democrat cooperation, theres kind of a rule around here that senator shaheen and i are examples of. But it applies to all 100 senators. If you really want to get something done, you have to seek bipartisanship in this body. And i can quantify that this way. Theres 53 republicans. There are 47 democrat. But democrats. But if there were 53 democrats and 47 republicans, the same rule would apply. About 99 of the legislation that gets done around here has to have 60 votes to stop debate before you can even vote on the bill. So obviously even if all 53 republicans were voting together and that doesnt happen very often, you still wouldnt get to 60 votes to pass a piece of legislation. So thats why almost every major piece of legislation that gets through here and this example of shaheengrassley is just another example, its because you seek bipartisanship and its just its just nice that it has to be that way. So addressing this issue, i can say i associate myself with the remarks of senator shaheen and sit down but theres kind of a rule around the senate, everything thats been said on this bill has been said but i havent said it yet and im going to say t. I recently say it. I recently introduced s. 2770 known as the survivors bill of rights in the states act of 2019 with senator shaheen and senator tillis. This measure is a companion to what congresswoman spear developed and introduced in the other chamber. It builds on legislation entitled the survivors bill of rights act that we adopted in 2016. As chairman of the senate Judiciary Committee in the last congress, i worked closely with a young woman, amanda wynn on the development of that 2016 measure prior to its introduction. Amanda, a survivor of Sexual Assault, founded and leads the Nonprofit Organization known as rise, rise. She also worked with senator shaheen on the same legislation introducing the final version in this chamber. We incorporated the 2016 package of rights into an amendment that i offered to another measure before the senate Judiciary Committee. In may 2016 that legislation passed this chamber 890. In october 2016, the house version which was introduced later was signed by the president. The bill that we introduced this month builds on the 2016 survivors bill of rights. It makes each state eligible to receive a federal grant to implement a similar package of rights for victims of sex crimes at the state level. Such rights include, for example, the right to know the results of your forensic exam, the right to have evidence preserved for a certain period, and the right to notice before your forensic kit is destroyed. A state also may use its Justice Department grants to preserve Sexual Assault evidence kits, reduce the number of kits awaiting testing, and extend additional assistance to crime victims under our legislation. Finally, the measure we introduced authorizes 20 million annually for each of the fiscal years 2021 through 2024 to support the implementation of the new Grant Program established by this bill. I urge my colleagues to join us in cosponsoring the survivors bill of rights in the states act of 2019. I thank senator shaheen for joining in this effort, in leading this bill, and most importantly to compliment her over a long period of her time in the senate and probably even before she came to the senate, her commitment to working with me or with the people generally on the issue of increased protection for victims of Sexual Assault. Again i thank congresswoman spear and her staff for initiating this measure in the house and for working so hard to develop a bicameral bipartisan measure and i thank senator shaheen once again and i yield the floor. Mr. Mcconnell mr. President. The presiding officer the majority leader. Mr. Mcconnell i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to legislative session, that it be in a period of morning business, with senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Mcconnell i have five requests for committees to meet during todays session of the senate. They have the approval of the majority and minority leaders. The presiding officer duly noted. Mr. Mcconnell i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of s. 2851 introduced earlier today. The presiding officer the clerk will report. The clerk s. 2851, a bill to amend section 442 of title 18, United States code, and so forth. The presiding officer is there objection to proceeding to the measure . Without objection, the senate will proceed. Mr. Mcconnell i ask unanimous consent the bill be considered read a third time and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Mcconnell i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 10 00 a. M. Thursday, november 14. Further, that following the prayer and pledge, the morning business be deemed expired, the journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, morning business be closed, and the senate proceed to executive session and resume consideration of the menashi nomination, with the postcloture time expiring at 1 45. Finally, if confirmed, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table and the president be immediately notified of the senates action. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Barrasso mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from wyoming. Mr. Barrasso thank you, mr. President. Mr. President , i come to the floor today to shine a spotlight on our strong, healthy, growing economy. Specifically, my focus is on how this recordsetting economy is helping and can continue to help all americans. Since republicans took over and passed tax relief, there has been no end to the boon in jobs in our country. Republicans have put the u. S. Worker in the drivers seat. The october jobs report again beat all expectations. U. S. Employers added a solid 128,000 jobs last month alone. Even better, American Workers are noting that their wallets are thicker. They are fatter. Wages are up 3 year over year. And it is the fastest growth, faster than inflation. We also continue to see record low unemployment across the country. A 3. 6 , the u. S. Jobless rate is near its 50year low. African american unemployment is at a 50year low. In fact, three years of republican progrowth policies have produced more than six million new jobs. That is 6,700,000 new jobs. Today the United States has nearly 160 Million People working. Thats another record high. Median Household Income is the highest in 20 years. No wonder a new poll by gallup Shows Americans are planning to spend more than ever this Holiday Season because they have the money, they have earned it, and they have kept more of their hardearned money as a result of tax relief. The u. S. Stock market continues to set new highs, and thats welcome news for people when they tend to look at their pensions, their retirement, their 401 k s. Now, notably, trade optimism has been a major factor in the stock markets climb to record highs, which brings me to my next point. How do we start the next chapter of u. S. Of the u. S. In terms of our Success Story . And i believe its through America First trade victories. Without question, the most important trade deal we need to pass right now is usmca. The United Statesmexicocanada agreement. Its vital in my view to continue our american prosperity. The United Statesmexicocanada agreement was signed by all three countries leaders more than a year ago. You think this should be in place, but it takes more than that. Mexico gave its final approval to usmca in june. Canada is waiting for us for our house and our senate to do the approval as well. Without a doubt, usmca is the best trade upgrade in 25 years. Its going to expand Market Access for a host of u. S. Products, and its going to sharpen u. S. Exporters competitive edge. Above all, usmca is a big benefit for American Workers. It will protect and produce millions of u. S. Jobs, and thats critical, and i predict it will pass the senate with strong bipartisan support. So it has to get here. And yet, we have not crossed the finish line. And there is a roadblock, and the roadblock is at the other end of this building. The roadblock is speaker nancy pelosi. She has not and will not yet allow a vote in the house of representatives. It seems to me the speaker is too obsessed with impeaching the president instead of being focused on fighting for American Workers. She has stopped all progress on usmca in its tracks. And the stakes meanwhile could not be higher. Passing usmca saves american jobs. 11 million current american jobs are on the line. The deal will create a new 180,000 u. S. Jobs. Usmca is a boon for the entire economy. It will boost our economy by 70 billion. So what exactly is the speaker waiting for . Canada and mexico are our top trading partners. U. S. Producers dont need impeachment chaos, impeachment circus. What we need is trade certainty. Not only is the deal essential for u. S. Manufacturers, our ranchers and farmers are counting on it as well. Canada and mexico are the top export markets for american farmers. Last year, u. S. Agriculture exports to the two countries totaled 40 billion. For the past five years, mexico has consistently ranked second or third for u. S. Wheat imports. So usmca is a huge win for wyoming wheat growers. My state is going to reap enormous benefits from this deal. Wyoming Foreign Trade has increased nearly 20 in recent years. Wyoming farmers and you know this, mr. President , an agriculture state as you are. Wyoming farmers play a key role in our economy. This friday, ill be honored to attend the 100th annual meeting of the wyoming farm bureau. It will be in laramie. Our farmers add billions to the state economy every year and trade is a big part of it. Wyomings annual agriculture exports total 300 million. The export market supports 2,600 jobs in our state. Our state not only produces livestock, seeds, and crops, were exporting essential chemicals that farmers everywhere need to grow their crops. Wyoming farmers and ranchers are counting on expanded export markets for future growth. New markets mean new opportunities and wyoming is poised to seize them. In coming years, we plan to toad our highquality beef, our grain, and our hay exports. Future exports will include glutenfree products, distilled spirits and craft beer just to name a few. Thats why the usmca agreement is so essential for people all across america. To keep our record shifting economy on track, we need to pass this americafirst trade deal and we need to do it now. Its time to put partisan politics aside. Its time to pass usmca. Thank you, mr. President. On a different topic, i come to the floor today to discuss the democrats partisan campaign against President Trump. The democrats have been obsessed with impeaching him since day one of his presidency, and i absolutely mean day one. As the president was taking the oath of office, sworn in to the presidency, the Washington Post ran this headline the campaign to impeach President Trump they said, has begun. It was posted actually at 12 18 the date he took the oath of office. The minute he took the oath of office, that headline was posted. So three years have passed and impeachment still is taking up all the democrats time, all their efforts, all their energy. They are fixated on it, they are obsessed with it. As a doctor, in my opinion, the democrats have a bad case of impeachment fever, and it seems that there is no cure for them. We all know that democrats deeply dislike this president. They have from the moment he was elected. November 2016. Let me ask you, does that mean they get to overturn the last election . Thats what theyre trying to do. Not to mention interfere with the upcoming election. Its really what it is a bitterly partisan process. Remember, it is being controlled by one political party. This is totally partisan. And up to now at least its been conducted prior to today in total secret, in the cellar, behind closed doors, in the shadows. Thats the way they have done it. Not a fair process, no transparency, no accountability. I think President Trump has a right to be treated fairly. Yet his rights have been completely ignored. The process, in my opinion, is rigged against the president. The outcome is predetermined and fixed. The democrat house wins. The American Public loses. Democrats are so obsessed, they cant work. People elected them to do a job, to work for them, and they are nowhere to be found. The democrats, for example, wont pass defense funding, funding our military, protecting our borders, protecting our nation. They wont approve trade deals or lower drug costs. They wont even help fix our aging roads and bridges. Well, thats all bad news for the American People. All of this tied up in the impeachment obsession that is grinding the democrats in the house to a halt. The good is, republicans are highly resistant to this fever, and so are most americans. Mr. President , were not going to join the democrats impeachment campaign. Republicans prefer to work on the issues that we were elected to address jobs, the economy, National Security and were going to continue to work for the people who elected us. Thank you, mr. President. And i yield the floor. The presiding officer the senator from new jersey. Mr. Menendez mr. President , over 104 years ago the Ottoman Empire launch add Systematic Campaign to exterminate the armenian population through killings, forced deportation, starvation and other brutal means. Every year i join the Armenian Community in honoring the memory of the victims who made invaluable contributions to sustain the armenian people and preserve armenian history and culture before their cruel inhuman deaths. At the time of the genocide, the United States diplomats who witnessed it knew that the tragedy that they were seeing was an intentional choice. Henry morganthal, the thenUnited States ambassador to the ottoman entire, said that the turkish governments deportation order for the armenians was a death warrant to a whole race. Those are his words. Quote, theyre a death warrant to a whole race. And a name which, quote, they made no particular attempt to conceal in their discussions with him. We know what to call such an intentional, highly organized effort to destroy a people on account of their identity alone genocide. In other circumstances, no one questions this definition. The United States Foreign Policy must reflect an honest accounting of human rights abuses, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing, and genocide. We cannot turn our backs on the armenian victims of genocide, nor on any victims of genocide anywhere or anytime it occurs. If we do, we only empower those who seek to use genocide as a weapon of war for their own malevolent purposes. The government of turkey has funded lobbyists willing to trumpet lies and make excuses for these atrocities. The turkish government and its sympathizers have advocated for restrictive laws on expression and against legislation that recognizes the Armenian Genocide, initiated prosecutions and smear campaigns against those who study the Armenian Communitys experiences at the hands of the turks and even resorted to violence and harassment of journalists and human rights activists who bravely speak the truth. These actions are unacceptable, and they speak volumes about both the crime and its coverup. Thankfully, there are also voices speaking up against turkeys efforts to silence the truth of the Armenian Genocide. I have long worked in the United States senate to push for this honest accounting and to ensure that anyone who represents the United States government does the same. In every session of congress six 2006 i have introduced or cosponsored legislations affirming the facts of the Armenian Genocide. When i was chairman of the senate Foreign Relations committee, i was proud to preside over the passage of an Armenian Genocide resolution out of the committee for the first time. Mr. President , the United States congress cannot stand idly by and let the truth of genocide be silenced. We must commit ourselves to learning the painful history of the armenians as we seek to build a better world for our own and future generations. We must stand up unequivocally for truth, justice, and peace. Only then with that hard work and advocacy and recognition of the truth, only then will we confidently be able to say never again. Never again. Now ive heard many colleagues come to the floor when we talk about the holocaust and say never again. And in rwanda we said never again. In the Armenian Genocide, we should be saying never again as well. Genocide is genocide, and we should recognize it so we can move forward at the end of the day. Im proud to have worked with senator cruz and 23 other senators in leading a resolution recognizing the horror of this genocide. I thank them for their efforts on this important resolution and appreciate their standing up for the truth. This is not an issue of historical dispute. I listened to president erdogans press conference with President Trump where he suggested were willing to they have been viewing this. Theyre going to review it until there is not within more Armenian Genocide victim alive. Historians across the world, the most noted historians and those genocide observers and experts and ethicists have said that this was a genocide. So i want to thank my colleagues for supporting this important resolution and appreciate their standing up for the truth. I hope the full senate will join us and send a clear message to the world that the United States stands by the truth, stands by justice and stands with victims of genocide wherever they may be. This passed overwhelmingly with strong republican support in the house of representatives. We are one step away from finally recognizing this historical fact. Therefore, mr. President , i ask unanimous consent that the senate Foreign Relations committee be discharged from further consideration of s. Res. 150 and the senate proceed to its immediate consideration. I further ask that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motions to reconsider be considered upon considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. The presiding officer is there objection . A senator mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from south carolina. Graham mr. Graham my objection would not be to sugar coat history or try to rewrite it. I just met with president erdogan and President Trump about the problems we face in syria by the military incursion by turkey. I do hope that turkey and armenia can come together and deal with this problem. Given where were at in syria and some hope that maybe we can resolve things, i object not because of the past, but because of the future. The presiding officer objection is heard. A senator mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from new jersey. Mr. Menendez needless to say i have great admiration for the senator from south carolina. I consider him a friend. But you know, our problem with turkey i know my colleague has asked me several times, what are we doing about turkey . And i know hes meant that in the context of sanctions, which i obviously do support for a variety of reasons violates of caatsa, purchase of the s. 400, what they did in syria, the list goes on and on. But in our desire to see turkey become that which we would want it to be, which it is not under president erdogan, we continue to become enablers of the type of actions that are undemocratic, more journalists are jailed in turkey than in any other place in the world. Imagine that, a nato ally. More lawyers are jailed in turkey than in any other place in the world. And the simple recognition of an historical fact, the simple recognition of an historical fact of then the Ottoman Empire and the cruel persecution of a people, the armenian people cannot be recognized by the United States senate like the house of representatives in an overwhelming bipartisan vote recognized . Are we so afraid to stand up to history and the truth . Are we so afraid about turkey . Whos the super power . Whos the super power . Im beginning to wonder. Because every time Turkey Threatens to do something, we cower. Well, as far as im concerned, they dont get to dictate the views of the congress of the United States. They dont get to dictate the views of this senate. This senate should rise up and recognize the historical truth as documented by historians, as documented by our own diplomats. And i will not cease continuing to come to the floor to prick the conscience of the senate and to ultimately reveal who supports recognizing the genocide and who does not. Who supports recognizing the Armenian Genocide and who does not . Otherwise these words about never again, theyre just hollow. With that, mr. President , i yield the floor. Mr. Brown mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from ohio. Mr. Brown thank you. I appreciate always senator menendez standing up for human rights all over the world, and this is one of the worst Human Rights Violations that the world has seen in the last 150 years. I thank my friend from new jersey. Mr. President , judges make decisions around the country, are making them right now on workers rights, voters rights, civil rights, on womens rights, on lgbt rights, lgbtq rights, decisions that would limit those rights for a generation. Judges, we used to be able to rely on judges to expand human rights and civil rights and all rights of human kind. Today we cringe so often with judges that get selected by this president who put their thumb on the scale to support, in support of of corporation over workers and Health Insurance company over patients and wall street over consumers. These same judges make decisions on health care and sentencing and corporate power. Its why we cant afford steven j. Menashi on the federal bench. On all of these issues, his record makes it clear, hes not on the side of the people we were sent here to serve. Theres a simple rule for understanding where Steve Menashi stands on any issue. If a policy helps ordinary hardworking americans, menashi opposes it. He argued that gun safety legislation is, quote, pointless and selfdefeating. Were talking about commonsense background checks that 85 of the American Public support, all blocked by the gun manufacturers. Tell that to the people of dayton whose lives were torn apart, ended in some cases by gun violence. Tell them background checks are pointless. Menashi also advised Steven Miller on immigration policy, the man who stands in the way of be comprehensive Immigration Reform and who helped orchestrate the separation, the ripping of children from pair parents arms. Menashi refused to answer any questions about whether he worked on the trump family separation policy. He has been a Senior Advisor to betsy devos at the department of education where hes seen one disastrous decision after another. The headline in the New York Times says it all, appeals Court Nominee shapes devos gleam loan forgiveness effort. Menashi p devised a scheme to illegally use peoples Social Security data after they were scammed for forprofit colleges. Always sided with the forprofit schools against any of the traditional Excellent Schools of Higher Education in this country. Weve seen how shady schools like corinthian used deceptive, even illegal tactics to trick ohioans in taking out huge loans only then to close up shop and leave them with meaningless degrees or credits, often falling short even of that but always with mountains of debt. We need to hold these forprofit schools accountable. But of course weve learned not to hold our breath when it comes to the Trump Administration, holding any of the elite, the elite in this country, anyone accountable. Instead of figuring out how to provide relief for students, devos and menashi went to work figuring out how to let the schools that scammed them off the hook. Its not just menashi doing his job, advocating for someone elses bad policies. He wrote the memo. Its clear he actually supported and supports betsy devos radical agenda. Now they want to put him on the federal bench so he can put his thumb on the scales of justice for shady forprofit schools over students and corporations over workers as i said, and wall street over consumers, and Insurance Companies over patients. Weve seen that from judge after judge after judge from President Trump, even by those trump . Oordz, menashi is particularly bad. It comes down always, mr. President , to whose side are you on. Are you for a judge are you a judge who will stand on the side of workers or stand on the side of corporations . Will you stand on the side of students, struggling students, moderate income, sometimes lowincome students trying to build a better life for themselves or on the side of failed sham schools . His record is clear. The stakes for ohio are too high to give Steve Menashi a lifetime appointment on the federal bench. Mr. President , id like to ask unanimous consent to place the remainder of my remarks in a different place in the record. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Brown thank you, mr. President. Yesterday we got another reminder of the urgency of the pension crisis facing more than a million workers and retirees with the news that dean foods is filing for bankruptcy. The company is part of the Central States pension fund. The bankruptcy puts the pension fund that much closer to insolvency, that much closer to having to turn to the pggc for help and that much closer to knocking down thedom niece that could bring down our whole multiemployer Pension System and potentially even likely trigger a recession. We have to act now for the sake of our economy, for the sake of thousands of Small Businesses, for the sake of a million americans who are on the verge of facing massive cuts to the pension they earned. This crisis affects thousands of ohioans. It affects the massive Central States pension plan, United Mine Workers pension plan, iron workers local 17, the ohio southwest carpenters, the bakers and confectioners and many others. It touches every state in this nation. If the system collapses, it wont just be retirees who will feel the pain. Current workers will be stuck paying into pensions theyll never receive. Small businesses will be left drowning in pension liability. They cant afford to pay. That will have ripple effects through the economy. Lets be clear, mr. President , if we do nothing, if we do nothing, this could trigger a recession on par with the housing crisis. We know who gets hurt the worst. The Small Businesses, its the workers, its the retirees who are counting on these pensions to survive. People in this town so often dont understand the collective bargaining process. People give up dollars today, give up dollars today at the bargaining table for the promise of a secure retirement with Good Health Care and a pension. These workers lives and livelihoods will be devastated if congress doesnt do its job. I think about the words of larry ward at a hearing in ohio last year. He said i dont understand how it is that congress would even consider asking us to take a cut to my pension or to see it going away when we had no problem sending when it had no problem sending billions to the wall street crooks who caused this problem in the first place. They used that to pay themselves bonuses. We use our pensions to pay for medicine and food and eat. Think of that. Wall street uses this pension money for bonuses. Mr. Ward and his other workers and retirees, we use our pensions to pay for medicine and food and to eat. Somethings wrong with this picture. Its bad enough wall street scawn deader workers money. Its worse that the government thats supposed to look out for these folks is ignoring the promise made to these workers. I know there are senators of both parties working in good faith to fix this, but this bankruptcy is a reminder were running short on time to come up with the bipartisan solution we need. It comes back to the dignity of work. When work has dignity, we honor the Retirement Security that people earned. When work has dignity, we fight for those workers, we honor workers, we respect workers. I urge my colleagues in this body lets pass a solution that honors their work, that honors the dignity of work, that keeps their promise to the people who made this country work. I yield the floor. A senator mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from oklahoma. Mr. Lankford the United States is always grateful to receive heads of state from around the world. Heads of state from around the world come to the United States because they know were 25 of the worlds economy. Were the most powerful military in the world and we try to manage freedom of the press, freedom of speech and freedom of opportunity for all people within our country. When we see a problem in our country, we work to be able to address that. So with that, were welcoming another head of state to the United States, president erdogan of turkey. Turkey has been a longstanding nato ally. Turkey and greece were the first two countries that came into nato after its formation in the 1940s so turkey has been a member of nato since 1952. There is an important military base in turkey. It is key in the war against terror. Turkey hosts the largest syrian refugee population. Turkey has been engaged in nato filling all of its billets, all of its requirements. They have worked to be a good partner. They have partnered with us not only in the war on terror in multiple countries and refugee orches, but they have been faithful to engaging with nato as a whole. But something is happening in turkey that i hope President Trump and president erdogan had a very frank discussion on because since 23016, president erdogan 2016 president erdogan of Turki Al Faisal is shifting of turkey is shifting nato away and toward russia. It is giving more power to erdogan and to whoever his successor is. If he doesnt just maintain power and keep it forever. There was a Mayoral Election in istanbul that president erdogan didnt agree with and forced another election hoping to get the outlook that he wanted. But the turkish people actually voted even more so against erdogan in the next election in istanbul. President erdogan recently imprisoned an american pastor who had served more than 20 years in turkey, serving all people of all faiths and all backgrounds in the beautiful city of izmir. He rounded up Andrew Brunson with tens of thousands of other people that president erdogan and his government just considered a threat. Most of them they held without charges for years now. There are still thousands of people right now that are still awaiting their day in court from the 2016 coup, not knowing if any of these folks were actually connected to the coup, they rounded up teachers, journalists, Law Enforcement individuals, just anyone they could round up they had suspicion of, they rounded them up and said well bring charges later, and thousands are waiting for later. I happened to be in turkey in december of 2013 to meet with the ministry to talk about eric brunson who had nothing to do with the coup that happened in 2016. We had president erdogan president erdogan had the ability to get him released but held him for years with all kinds of wild accusations against a missionary american who had been there for decades. Turkey continues to be able to focus on the kurdish syrians south of the border. I have to tell you, there are a group of the kurds that i understand president erdogan should be attentive to. Theres a Certain Group called the p. K. K. That the United States also considers that Kurdish Group terrorists and have for decades. That particular group of kurds that are in syria have traveled into turkey an carried out car bombs, have killed hundreds of people in terrorist attack in turkey. So president erdogan has every reason to Pay Attention to that particular group of kurds, and i understand his frustration that the United States partnered with them to take out isis, but the fact was turkey would not come help us across the border and take out isis, and so we found partners that would take on isis with us, and they did. And now erdogan wants to be able to push those folks back. His methods are quite brutal in the process. When we went into afghanistan, we understood that all Afghan People were not our enemy. The tax taliban were al qaeda w. We were exceptionally careful when we went into afghanistan to protect the Afghan People yet be able to take the battle to the taliban and al qaeda. Erdogans methods, come across the bode with border with tanks and heavy artillery knowing that there were some p. K. K. In those villages and so they shelled them all. Erdogan and some of his thugs that came across working with the turks, we also have footage of them taking prisoners and shooting them beside the road and leaving their body there. People that were already had surrendered, people who had been handcuffed, executing them beside the road. That is a war crime that we should follow up with and i hope President Trump had a frank conversation with president erdogan on following up on war crimes. To add to awr difficulties with president our difficulties with president erdogan, he has shifted his attention toward russia and completed a purchase of Russian Air Defense system, the very first and only nato country ever to purchase Russian Military equipment. Equipment thats not interoperable with the rest of nato, russian equipment that is specifically designed to take the fight to the f35, and turkey believes that it is going to purchase the f35 from the United States and also they believe they can purchase the s400 from russia and have them side by side. Well, they are wrong. Years ago Congress Passed the countering americas adversaries through sanctions act, commonly known as caatsa. It was clearly known to any country that buys equipment from russia that there are sanctions coming to your country and it is applied. We have plied those sanction applied those sanctions in the past. In addition to that senator shaheen have partnered together to put a bill to block turkey from taking any f35. Not trained in the equipment, not simulators. No f35s can go to turkey. If they are interested in buying Russian Air Defense systems, they understand what that means. We have made it clear to the turks for two years now, if you buy russian equipment, you cannot also have the f35. President erdogan was aware of that. His administration was aware of that. And i hope President Trump made it clear to him today. As clear as this congress has made it clear in a bipartisan basis that turkey cannot have the f35 and also have Russian Military equipment at the same time. Thats incompatible. And we will continue to make that very clear in the days ahead in our legislation and i believe the vote will not even be close to be able to send a message to turkey that we are interested in maintaining our friendship and our nato ally. But our nato ally needs to make a decision if they are a nato ally or if they are a russian ally. Because those two are not congruent. I hope that was the conversation that happened today. Well find out in the days ahead. But even if it was not, i hope that president erdogan and the Turkish Embassy hears it clearly now this congress would look forward to partnering with turkey again in the future, as we have for decades in the past. Weve had an economic relationship, a military relationship, a genuine friendship with turkey, but we do not know who turkey is anymore. We dont recognize the turkey of today from turkey five years ago. We would never come to your country and beat up protesters in the street as president erdogans security thugs did last year in the United States. We would never do that to your country. We would never counter nato just to spite you and we would certainly stay align with a friend whos been a friend for decades. To the turkish people, our beef is not with you. Our frustration is with the regime that is currently directing your country away from its traditional allies. And we continue to reach our hand out to the turkish people and we continue to say to president erdogan, this can be different in the days ahead, as it has been in the past. But some things need to change and we are not the ones that walked away. With that, mr. President , i yield the floor. The presiding officer the senator from oklahoma. Mr. Lankford if theres no further business to come before the senate, i ask that it stand adjourned
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