Of the sun and its setting. For the beauty of the earth and the glory of the skies, we give you praise. Today, make our lawmakers heirs of peace, demonstrating that they are your children as they strive to find Common Ground. May they take pleasure in doing your will, knowing that by so doing they are fulfilling your purposes in our world. Lord, you are never far from us but often we are far from you, so show us your ways and teach us your paths. We pray in your merciful name. Amen. The presiding officer please join us in reciting the pledge of allegiance to our flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. The presiding officer the clerk will read a communication to the senate. The clerk washington,d. C. , december 4, 2019. To the senate under the provisions of rule 1 paragraph 3 of the stranding rules of the senate i hereby appoint the honorable kevin cramer, a senator from the north dakota to perform the duties of the chair, signed chuck grassley, president pro tempore. The presiding officer under the previous order, morning business is closed. Under the previous order, the senate will proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the following nomination which the clerk will report. The clerk nomination, the judiciary, richard earnest myers ii to be United States district judge for the Eastern District of North Carolina. Mr. Mcconnell on sunday, as we americans savored the Holiday Weekend and gave thanks for our liberty, the people of hong kong once again took to the streets to demand their own. Many waved american flags. Hong kongers are continuing to speak up for the freedoms and the autonomy that beijing has slowly tried to erode. As long as beijing does not relent, it looks like the people of hong kong are not going to relent either. In local elections last week, they were largely symbolic, prodemocracy candidates literally blew away the candidates the Chinese Communist party would have preferred in a literal landslide. Not even beijings propaganda can credibly blame this massive display of popular revulsion at their authoritarianism on the black hand of the west. In spite of chinas propaganda, the west should not stay silent as beijing seeks to snuff out dissent in hong kong. Just a few days prior, mr. President , the congress and President Trump sent our clearest signal yet. Yes, the United States of america stands with hong kong. The Senate Unanimously passed the hong kong human rights and democracy act, and the president signed it into law. It delivered important updates to the original u. S. Hong kong policy act which i authored back in 1992. Sprembg preserving freedom and promoting democracy has required vigilance from hong kongers since the Chinese Communists assumed control of the region of the ive been proud to stand with them in that effort. With my original legislation we paved the way for cooperation between hong kong and the United States, codifying and strengthening economic ties and facilitating the Robust Exchange of ideas and support of greater democracy in the autonomous region. Weve laid the foundation for a u. S. Hong kong relationship that has strengthened both their society and ours and created leverage to hold beijing accountable. Back in 1992, i observed that democracy was, quote, finally gaining a tenuous foothold in hong kong. Recent months have reminded us how tenuous that foothold can be. They remind us how intent beijing remains on exporting its impressive surveillance state not just within Mainland China but also into hong kong and, frankly, all around the world. So the Unanimous Senate vote for expanded oversight and Firm Responses to beijing was welcome news on the streets of hong kong not because the u. S. Senate or International Nonprofits or anybody else is ginning up these protests as beijing wants people to believe. But because those speaking out for freedom recognize a friend of freedom when they see one. Its been fine to see how invested beijing is in these conspiracy theories that this organic protest movement is actually the work of shadowy puppeteers. A few days ago the parties of Foreign Ministry took the panicked and laughable step of, quote, sanctioning, and i quote, several american nonprofits and n. G. O. s such as the International Republican institute, the National Democratic institute, and the National Endowment for democracy. Like i said, mr. President , laughable. I admire the heck out of these organizations, but they arent exactly in the business of commanding millions of people from hong kong to beirut to baghdad to tehran to take to the streets. Theyre not that good. Heres the business they are in. Speaking up for the timeless and universal principles of basic human freedom. They help keep the torch lit. Its the brave souls around the world who want better lives for themselves and their children who pick up the ball and run with it for themselves. The Junior Varsity tantrum that beijing is throwing against u. S. Based organizations is literally comical. It puts the communist partys hypersensitivity on full display and its the same flailing we see from other regimes from moscow to tehran, driven by the same aggressive author authoritarian instincts that push Police Violence and the modernday gulags where china is imprisoning and brutalizing the uighur people. So, mr. President , these are forces of history, never judge us kindly. So im proud of the people of hong kong. Im proud of the senates latest action to support them. And im proud of continuing to stand alongside them in their journey to true selfdetermination. Now on a related matter, nearly every day ive come to the floor to talk about the key pieces of legislation that well only be able to complete with bipartisan cooperation. Really essential things like funding for the entirety of our federal government, something we have to do, including for our men and women in uniform. The money for the tools and the training and the weapons that our volunteer Service Members need to complete their missions. Things like the National Defense authorization act which congress has passed every single year always on a bipartisan basis for the last 58 years. This is literally the bill that reauthorizes the u. S. Military. It could not be more basic or fundamental. So its dismaying that my democratic colleagues have seen fit to hold these basic duties hostage for the sake of picking fights with the white house. For advancing a partisan domestic agenda. Its disappointing that Speaker Pelosi and the democratic leader have abandoned their own written promises that they would not make our bipartisan appropriations process conditioned on poison pills, policy riders or changes to president ial transfer authorities. All those commitments were made. Even though they put that in writing, theyve chosen to shoehorn partisan demands right back into the process. So were stalled. Were stalled because the agreement that we all reached in the summer has not been honored by the other side. But today, mr. President , i want to keep this really simple. The senates dispensation on that hong kong legislation proves that we can still Work Together when our Core Principles and our National Interests are at stake. Of course those things are exactly whats at stake with defense funding and the ndaa. So its way past time were in december way past time to get serious. Chairman shelby and chairwoman lowey have agreed on subcommittee allegations allocations. Chairman reed have made strides on our bipartisan ndaa. I would implore my democratic friends, please stop gambling our National Security on the roulette wheel of domestic politics. Please stop that. Stop putting political theater ahead of our troops. We all know this is a heated political moment, but domestic politics do not excuse our men and women in uniform from doing their duties so they cannot excuse our democratic colleagues from doing theirs. Our Service Members need congress to have their backs. We can only fund the government if its bipartisan. We can only pass an ndaa if its bipartisan. The road maps are in hand. We have the same traditions that have yielded 58 bipartisan ndaas in a row. We have the bipartisan agreement that everyone signed just a few months ago when Speaker Pelosi and the democratic leader promised in writing, in writing they wouldnt throw partisan wrenches into appropriations. Our country cant afford for democrats to obsess over impeachment and obstruct everything else. So look, lets use these road maps. Lets get these things accomplished. For the American People. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call mr. Thune mr. President. The presiding officer the majority whip. Mr. Thune is the senate in a quorum call . The presiding officer we are. Mr. Thune i ask unanimous consent the quorum call be lifted. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Thune mr. President , 4g technology is pretty amazing. When i talk about 4g technology, that stands for fourth generation. On your smartphone, it might say l. T. E. , but its the fourth generation of technology that we have available to us on our wireless devices. We can facetime with family members across the country, order dinner or groceries without leaving our couch, watch a Football Game on the go with our phones, adjust the heat in our houses before we actually get home. Carry around an entire library in a tablet the size of one small book. Deposit a check without actually visiting the bank. And the list goes on. But as amazing as 4g technology is, it hadnt hold a candle to 5g, fifth generation technology. 5g mobile Broadband Technology will deliver speeds that are up to 100 times faster than what todays technology can deliver. Think about that, mr. President. 100 times faster downloads than what we have today. It will be vastly more responsive than 4g technology. It will be able to connect to 100 times the number of devices that can be connected with 4g. Thats pretty hard to imagine, really. Our phones and computers today seem pretty fast and responsive, but 5g will be much, much faster. And while that will make it even easier to do the things that we do today like check our email or stream our favorite shows, the biggest benefits of 5g, mr. President , lie in the other technologies that it will enable. For example, 5g has the potential to pave the way for the Widespread Adoption of precision agriculture which uses tools like robotics and Remote Monitoring to help farmers manage their fields and boost their crop yields. U. S. Department of agriculture estimates that precision agriculture will reduce farmers operational costs by up to 25 per acre and increase farmers yield by up to 70 by the year 2050. 5g will pave the way for Automated Vehicles which have the potential to dramatically reduce traffic injuries and fatalities. There are 37,000 people lost every year on americas highways due to traffic accidents. Over 90 of those are a result of human error, driving under the influence, driving while distracted. 5g technology and the enablement of Automated Vehicles will go a long ways toward saving lives on americas highways. It will facilitate Surgical Innovations and new ways to treat chronic illnesses or heal injuries. And so much more. The technology for 5g, mr. President , is already here. Several cities around the United States, including my hometown, sue falls have 5g networks. But theres more to do before we can start to see the benefits of 5g on our phones. The widespread deployment of 5g will require two things, adequate spectrum and adequate infrastructure. While 4g relies on cellphone towers, 5g will also require small antennas called small cells that can often be attached to infrastructure like utility poles or buildings. I introduced the streamline act to make it easier for companies to deploy these small cells to get the infrastructure in place for 5g technology. I secured adequate spectrum for 5g. Last year the president signed into law my bipartisan bill called the mobile now act. It was legislation that i introduced to help secure adequate spectrum and it to facilitate nextgeneration infrastructure. Tomorrow in my subcommittee, i will be chairing a hearing looking at the progress that has been made in implementing the mobile now act. Wrea have a great slate of witnesses testifying, including the sue falls mayor who introduced the advanced 5g technology. The mobile now act has helped us make progress toward the deployment of 5g, particularly in identifying licensed spectrum that can be used to support 5g technology. Mobile now recognized the Critical Role that other spectrum plays in 5g. Wifi operating will have an increasing role as we continue to connect more devices in the 5g era. Theres more work to be done. While weve made Good Progress on securing low and highband spectrum, china and south korea are ahead of us. We dont want to lose out to china and south korea on 5g so we need to increase the amount of midspan spectrum available to u. S. Companies. Senator wicker and i recently introduced legislation to facilitate the acquisition of the spectrum. It will bring a substantial amount of spectrum to the market for u. S. Companies to deploy robust 5g networks. In addition to fostering dre mendus Technological Breakthroughs from agriculture to energy, 5g can add 500 billion to the economy and to create literally millionsnew jobs of but in order to to achieve those economic benefits, we need to stay at the head of the 5g revolution. The United States lagged behind other countries in deploying 2g and 3g technology which had economic consequences. Europe, for example, took the lead in 2g and cornered most of the market in sales and telecom hardware. As 4g emerged, the United StatesWireless Industry stepped forward, investing billions in 4g deployment. The government took steps to make it easier to deploy the necessary infrastructure. Mr. President , thats what weve got to do again today. If we want to stay at the head of the race to 5g, the government needs to make sure that Wireless Companies have access to the necessary spectrum and the ability to efficiently deploy smallcell infrastructure. Mr. President , we are right on the edge of the 5g revolution. And i am confident that the United States can lead the world in 5g just like we did with 4g many we just need to take the last few steps to enable widespread 5g deployment. I look forward to talking with individuals on the front lines of 5g deployment at the hearing tomorrow, inwill continue to and i will continue to work with my colleagues to ensure that both the spectrum and infrastructure are in place for 5g technology. Mr. President , i yield the floor and i suggest the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call mr. Schumer mr. President , are we in a quorum . The presiding officer we are. Mr. Schumer i ask unanimous consent that the quorum be dispensed with. The presiding officer without objection. The democratic leader. Mr. Schumer the house has released evidence it has on the impeachment of President Trump. The report asserted that the inquiry has uncovered a monthslong effort by President Trump to use the powers of his office to solicit foreign interference on his behalf in the 2020 election, unquote. Going on to say, quote, the president placed his own personal and political interests above the National Interests of the United States. Those are extremely serious charges, and the conduct they describe is undoubtedly worthy of congressional investigation, which is precisely what the house impeachment inquiry is designed to do. Whatever your party affiliation, it is up to us in congress, and particularly in the senate, to examine the evidence, remain impartial, and treat this matter with the seriousness it deserves. But at the moment, too many members of the president s parties are stretching the bounds of truth in an attempt to defend the president s behavior. Certain members on the other side have par rotted the fiction invented by Vladimir PutinsIntelligence Services that ukraine, not just putin, interfered in the 2016 elections. One member repeated this falsehood, recanted on Live Television and went back to making similar comments a few days later. Yesterday leader mcconnell, when asked to set the record straight said that it was a matter for the intelligence committees to look into. Well, leader mcconnell, the intelligence committees ha