Mr. Coons mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from delaware. Mr. Coons i ask unanimous consent that the proceedings under the quorum call be vitiated and upon the conclusion of my remarks, the senator from rhode island be recognized prpb withouthe presiding officer . The quorum call is lifted. Mr. Coons i rise today to express my deep concern with the tax reform bill that the Senate Finance committee is likely to approve later this week. The latest version of this massive tax bill which will impact every single american was only released to the public late tuesday night, less than 48 hours later, the finance committee is ramming through this bill on a Party Line Vote without any hearings and without a thorough review of the bill. I strongly disagree with this process, with this closeddoor process of developing the substance of the bill which skews the benefits to the wealthy at the expense of middleclass families and with this bills irresponsible cost of 1. 7 trillion ove
Good morning. Thanks for your patience director of the Strategy Group yen to welcome to this session on american in goal leadership first i want to take they thank you for giving us this base with our members of our Strategy Group let me tell you about our program this morning the Strategy Group is 35 years old with the notion that even in washington there could be an organization that is nonpartisan we have been resolutely nonpartisan over 35 years the founders meet annually in aspen in colorado to discuss and debate big ideas of americas Foreign Policy and our Global Leadership in each year we prepare a book for publication and this years book is available today that we are discussing today maintaining American Leadership. We will discuss the book this morning and with that global trade position about the impact of technology on the Global Military leadership continuing with a conversation i will moderate between former secretary of defense bill and Madeleine Albright about these iss
Good morning. Thanks for your patience director of the Strategy Group yen to welcome to this session on american in goal leadership first i want to take they thank you for giving us this base with our members of our Strategy Group let me tell you about our program this morning the Strategy Group is 35 years old with the notion that even in washington there could be an organization that is nonpartisan we have been resolutely nonpartisan over 35 years the founders meet annually in aspen in colorado to discuss and debate big ideas of americas Foreign Policy and our Global Leadership in each year we prepare a book for publication and this years book is available today that we are discussing today maintaining American Leadership. We will discuss the book this morning and with that global trade position about the impact of technology on the Global Military leadership continuing with a conversation i will moderate between former secretary of defense bill and Madeleine Albright about these iss
And let me tell you what dishonors our soldiers. Let me tell you what is a dishonor to their memory and their service. It is to fly that flag i want everybody to remember this, im talking to all of my colleagues who think we must keep it up there because of heritage. Oh how i wish how i wish robert e. Lee general lees portrait is in the senate, i wish he was here right now at this podium he would tell you all, it is an abomination for his flag to fly as a matter of fact his very flag was furled it was furled when they surrendered at appomattox and it has never been unfurled and to do so dishonors those who fought and died and it violates the terms of surrender. General lee, when it came time, and the cause was lost, he called everybody to come back work, be good citizens and build a country together. Many times he was called to start start a gorilla war. The flag is furled. Maintain your soldierly honor, go back and serve your country. Never, never, never let the flags fly again. And y
Lgbtq plus community and i know that gay marriage was just legalized in all 50 states and i dont under mine that. Yeah thats awesome. [ applause ] but i was wondering what you specifically were going to do about antidiscrimination laws in the workplace. Because i dont want to be able to get married to someone of the same gender but also be discriminated against in my workplace. Thank you. Thank you. [ applause ] well youre right. The supreme courts decision was an extraordinary historic milestone. And i think its worth if you have any interest in this looking at this decision. Of course its a constitutional decision. But more than that its a decision about how we treat each other, how we respect each other, how we acknowledge that as Justice Kennedy said people shouldnt have to be lonely. People can have relationships and love one another and on and on. It was a quite moving decision to me. But you put your finger on the next big challenge, and that is discrimination. When i was in the