Yesterday on the floor of the Senate Democratic senators chris murphy, patty murray and Richard Blumenthal called on Senate Lawmakers to agree to half past gun background check legislations. Republican senator Cindy Hyde Smith objected. Heres a look. I think senator murphy and blumenthal for their tremendous leadership we are on the floor to speak about. I come today not just as a member of the senate representing my home state of washington, but as a former educator as a mother and a grandmother devastated by how the gun violence epidemic is tearing apart our families and ravaging our communities in every state and i am serious, Republican Leaders continue to stand by and do nothing while more lives are lost, just as i was after newtown, Sutherland Springs and marysville in my home state of washington. I could go on. We dont have to continue the cycle of violence, heartbreak and inaction, there was action we could take right now because earlier this year the house passed hr a, meaningful, bipartisan gun safety legislation to address the terrible crisis. And other popular reforms. In 260 days since hr 8 past the house it has languished in the Senate Despite repeated calls for myself and democratic colleagues for a vote. That is why 58 days ago following the tragic events at el paso and dayton, i joined my Senate Democratic colleagues on the floor to try to break the cycle. And demand we address the scourge of gun violence by taking a vote in the senate on hr 8 which would install universal background checks, a policy that is supported by overwhelming majority of americans. In the face of republican apathy people across the country raise their voices even louder demanding action to end the endless wave of gun tragedy so much so that after the summers singapores, donald trump bowed to public pressure and made a commitment to finally act to address the gun violence epidemic. After months and years of inaction and too many lives lost it was the first sliver of hope in a long while that the president and Senate Republicans would finally put the safety of our families over their allegiance to the nra and do something substantive about ending the nations gun violence epidemic. Working with democrats toward common sense reform to End Gun Violence and keep people safe. Now, more than two month later, donald trump has betrayed his pledge to address this epidemic, this past summer never even happened. Once again he has chosen to abdicate his responsibility to keep our families and communities safe and it has broken another promise he made to the American People kowtowing to the nra and its unpopular hard right agenda to stymie common sense gun reform as soon as Mass Shootings were out of the headlines. I can assure you Senate Democrats and i will keep fighting for common sense gun safety reform like universal background checks. Even when gun violence isnt making a headline that day. Donald trump continues carrying water for the nra and Senate Republicans continue hiding behind donald trump democrats here understand congress has a duty to act to protect lives in the president s cowardice absolutely should not set congresss agenda. Donald trump backtracking on the serious issue is disgraceful, i asked my republican colleagues to remember we are not beholden to the president or the gun lobby. We do not need Donald Trumps permission to vote on bills or to act to save lives. In states across the country we have been able to take on the gun lobby and make meaningful progress to address this crisis. In my home state of washington we have closed background check loopholes and enacted extreme Risk Protection orders. We were able to accomplish those things because of the advocacy of groups like moms demand action across the state. The Washington State of mind for gun responsibility, every town for gun safety, march for our lives and so many more as well as the dedicated volunteers and activists behind the organization. The brave people who have been making their voices heard including pressure on lawmakers to do their jobs, to end this senseless epidemic. People like jane rice in mill creek, washington after she tragically lost her niece to gun violence, jane joined the fight for lifesaving legislation by putting pressure on her state lawmakers and won. There are people like jane all across the country who are speaking up, fighting back, even when it means reliving some of the hardest moments of their lives to prevent others from suffering as much as they have. There is a lot of work to do but absolutely nothing hard or brave about simply having a vote on a bipartisan house passed legislation to ensure universal background checks. To the contrary it is the height of cowardice, not to hold that vote while families across the country wonder which Movie Theater or Shopping Mall or synagogue or mosque or Community Space is next and students spend their time in school on active shooter drills while they should be learning. But unfortunately cowardice is what we are seeing from too many republicans in the senate and in the white house when it comes to protecting families from this scourge of gun violence. I hope my republican colleagues allow this legislation to pass today but if they dont, for jane and so many others, Senate Democrats will keep shining a spotlight on the inaction of gun violence in the senate and the broken promises coming out of the white house and we will keep making the case, building supported we will not give up until this is done. Thank you, i yield the floor. I have two unanimous consent request, the first wont objection and the others i fear will. The following 5 interns granted four privileges for the remainder of the year, Devon Bradley and alano nostrand. Without objection. Senator murray noted 100 people died from gunshot wounds every single day. We cant go 24 hours without news of another mass shooting somewhere in america. My kids and millions of others hide in corners of their classroom or their bathrooms preparing for a mass shooting in this body does nothing about it. The good news is we have a piece of legislation that enjoys 95 of supporting the American Public and will undoubtedly make an enormous impact on gun violence rates in this country and so i will give more extensive remarks after i make this unanimous consent request, but my request will be that the Senate Immediately take up hr 8, the universal background check bill that was passed in a bipartisan way through the house of representatives and receive no action in the United States senate since that time. Mister president , a legislative session i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of calendar number 29, hr 8, that the bill be considered run a third time and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon intervening action. Is there an objection . The right to object, legislation that would affect the rights of american citizens under the Second Amendment should not be fast tracked by the senate. And lawful conduct with firearms of lawabiding gun owners should not be exempt from consideration by the appropriate committee of jurisdiction, it should not be exempt from debate on the senate floor. It was crafted with strong bipartisan input, there are no problems advancing by regular order. The question needs to be forced upon lawabiding gun owners. If i wanted, my grandson, my hunting rifle, would we first have to appear before a licensed gun dealer and go through a lengthy and expensive background check . We have many questions like this. My constituents would like to have an opportunity to weigh in on measures like these, we cant fasttrack ministration that affects americas Second Amendment rights, i object to this unanimous consent request and yield the floor. Objection is heard. The senator from connecticut. Appreciate the good faith objection of my good friend from mississippi. The good news i could convey to her is my Republican Senate friends who want to have some impact into the consideration of the future of american gun laws have ample opportunity to do that because you are in the majority. Senate republicans control the judiciary committee, senator mcconnell can bring any measure to the floor and if the concern is if there is not enough republican input into the question whether criminals or terrorists or people seriously mentally ill get guns then convene a discussion on this. Bring the debate to the floor. Have a process in the judiciary committee, dont just stay silent. It doesnt pass the straight face test to say we cant take up hr 8 despite the fact it has 90 public approval, we dont have input on it. You are in the majority. You have the ability to pass legislation, that you can support as well. You cant sit here and twiddle our thumbs week after week as 100 People Killed by guns through suicides and homicides and accidental shootings. Is in abdication of our basic responsibility as United States senators, nothing matters more than physical safety. There are kids that are walking to school in cities and every single state in this body who fear for their lives, whose brain chemistry is changed by the trauma that they go through because of that fear for their safety and they cant learn, cant cope, cant build strong relationships. My kids go through active shooter drills at school because they expect that someday someone will walk through the door and start firing a military style assault weapon in one of their classrooms and i get it. There is a difference of opinion on exactly how we should extend background checks. I understand my republican colleagues dont want to support hr 8, but you are in the majority. You have the ability to lead a conversation that can find the Common Ground on expanding background checks. Im not going to accept this argument that we cant bring hr 8 to the floor because we have got some concerns about it. I cant get a piece of legislation for any other way than to offer this motion. The American Public will not accept silence from this body, week after week, month after month in the face of this epidemic carnage that is happening across this country. Parents know their kids arent safe, they know their kids arent safe. They expect us to act. The president and attorney general said the other day we made some progress on the issue of background checks over the summer but now we have the impeachment proceedings so that stopped all this discussion. That is not true. The impeachment proceedings are in the house of representatives. The discussion in the future background checks was in the senate. It was happening between myself and senator manchin and senator to me. We are still at the table ready to negotiate a compromise version of a background check expansion act. We have lots of time on our hands in the senate because we are not doing anything other than approving an appointee here, judge their. We have 20 of time, plenty of bandwidth in the senate to negotiate with the white house over universal background checks. You cant say we cant take up hr 8 because we havent had input. Republicans are the only, you cant say impeachment is stopping a debate on background checks from happening. Im ready to talk, senator toomey is ready to start, senator manchin is ready to talk and we have evidence from the summer how important universal background checks are. The last day of august, a gunman fled from police in odessa, texas, hijacked the United StatesPostal Service van, killed the driver and randomly fired on people as he drove through the streets. During his shooting spree the gunman killed six people and wounded over 20 others, a reign of terror throughout the streets of this texas town. The current background checks law works as intended, the shooter tried to buy a gun in january 2014 but he was denied because he had been found to be so seriously mentally ill, he was committed to an institution, that his name was placed on a list of individuals who are prohibited from buying weapons. Texas doesnt have universal background checks meeting as easy as part for the shooter after he got denied a gun purchase at a brickandmortar store to find a private seller who would sell him a military style weapon without a background check and in this case it resulted in 20 people getting hurt and twee 7 people being wounded. This easy way to find loopholes through the nations background check system but that happens every single day, somebody buys a gun at a gun show or online or through a private sale because that is the way they can get a gun without having to do a background check. I am deeply troubled, i am profoundly, profoundly aggrieved by my bodys reluctance to even take up a conversation about the future of gun policy. I wish there wasnt an objection. I wish we had an opportunity to discuss the future of background checks in the future of gun laws on the senate floor. Our constituents expect us to have that debate in this wont be the last time we come down to the floor to try to force a conversation in this body so that we can find bipartisan consensus on an issue that enjoys 95 public support, 80 support from gun owners, 70 support from nra numbers. There is almost nothing is less controversial in America Today then universal background checks and we will continue to press that case on behalf of the American People. I yield the floor. Mister president. Senator from connecticut. We are to be agreed, we ought to be angry and we ought to be in fact furious, not just frustrated but furious at this sad, even pathetic objection to moving forward with a bill that is supported by 95 of the American People and the simple fact is our Senate Colleague has been talking to us in good faith not only about background check bill but also about emergency Risk Protection orders because we know there is no single solution, no panacea and emergency Risk Protection orders are the other side of the coin to background checks. Last week the Washington Post reported that donald trump has given up on passing a lifesaving gun violence legislation. The reason, fierce lobbying by the nra. Lets face the stark truth here. The objection on the floor today is not the result of any lack of clarity about the need for background check legislation. It is a result purely and simply from the president saying now. We need to do our job. We have continued talks with members of the white house staff after the impeachment proceedings began. My hope is the Washington Post article is untrue. I believe it certainly in no way forestalls or prevents these discussions from continuing. I think there is a reason to hope, but it will take courage and strength to do it. The president said yesterday he was too busy doing his job, meeting with the president of turkey, an individual who has potentially enabled war crimes in Northern Syria if he wasnt too busy to do that kind of meeting he shouldnt be easy too busy to do gun violence prevention. The fact is the stakes are simply too high for there to be delay. 36,000 americans are killed every year or more, 100 every day and gun deaths are rising, not declining. The trends are absolutely alarming and appalling and we are complicit in these deaths if we fail to act. As i speak, on the floor right now, there is a School Shooting in santa clara, california. How can we turn the other way . Can we refuse to see that shooting in real time, demanding our attention, requiring our action, we are complicit if we fail to act. It is not just a political responsibility. It is a moral imperative. And the unconscionable loss of life is our responsibility. This problem is one that we can solve. We may not be able to prevent all the deaths that occur, all 100 every day in america, but we can save lives and our goal has to be to save as many lives as quickly as possible. I have been hopeful for the first time in a long time as i talk with senator graham he and i have worked together conscientiously and closely on extreme there have been a series of encouraging conversations with the white house and all seem to be proceeding well until there was a report of the president talking to Wayne Lapierre of the nra. It takes only a phone call or a couple of them with the nra to turn around the white house and stop the progress we have been making and throw out the window all the good work we have done. Over the past several months senator graham, the white house and my office have made important strides on emergency risk, we know that they work, enjoy broad popular support, 70 of the American People support some type of extreme Risk Protection legislation including two thirds of republicans or gunowners. And they have a tangible measurable effect. A crucial tool for law enforcement. The full implementation of emergency Risk Protection associated with a near 14 decline in firearm suicide rates and the passage of indiana law in 2005 associated with a 7. 5 from the suicide rate. And there have been a decline in suicides in homicides and shootings. We can save lives. We can put together emergency Risk Protection and other sensible steps but we can work through this body. We are bringing it to the floor precipitously, absolutely ridiculous. There is no reason to throw away all our work simply because the house is doing something unrelated on impeachment. There is so much work by groups, during the grassroots, mobilizing public support. Moms demand action, students demand action, all of the groups that have rallied around for gun safety in connecticut, the Newtown Action alliance, committed against gun violence and sandy hook show us the way. In the last election gun violence was on the ballot. It is the reason to do it here. American colleagues if they fail that and the voters will judge them even more immediately, equally harshly. The nra is imploding its viselike grip should be crumbling in this body, they should not have the ear of my republican colleagues. The president , i say the nra is telling the American Public they own you and all they have to do is snap their fingers and you fall into line, prove them wrong. All you need to do is take the final step on this legislation. Give us the green light, tell us that we can move forward and you will sign this bill. To the majority leader i say whether or not the president gives us that green light we need to do our job. Please do your job, let us have this vote. Thank you, mister president. I yield the floor. How intelligence can determine adam schiff released procedures for the committee as first public impeachment inquiry hearing. Within document he outlined 3 questions for the committee to seek answers. Did donald trump ask a Foreign Government to investigate potential opponents in the 2020 president ial election, the second, did donald trump seek to have the Ukrainian Government advance the president s personal political interests in exchange for missouri 8 or an invitation to the white house and the third question, did donald trump or his Administration Try to withhold information from congress and the American People without his conduct . To read the full impeachment inquiry hearing procedures document go to our website, cspan. Org impeachment. We expect to hear answers in terms of her relationship with the president and the state department as well as the role of rudy giuliani