2 billion and in your vehicle procurement, gets you a little over $4 billion, i think that ought to be a couple of things at the top of your list for consideration. and then, i'm not for layoffs either but i also am concerned about the public perception of the post office and again, for the record, we think the world of our postman but there was a survey done of the, book -- evaluated 24 government operated postal organizations and two private companies that together deliver 75% of the world's mail and found that the post office ranked last as lowest-performing postal agency and commercial operator in the world. and my concern is it is not just with the cost cutting but the public perception of what the post office does and, and yet

you add the poor performance and, and i think because of labor contract you're under, inability to get to, to remove poor-performing workers and then these losses. the post office has got to really address these issues to improve its image and to make it a viable industry. thank you, mr. chairman. i yield back. >> thank the gentleman. will now recognize the gentlewoman from michigan, miss lawrence, for five minutes. >> thank you, honor to be here today, and thank you chairman. and the ranking member for calling this hearing. i want it to be clear for the record that i had a 30-year career with postal service, starting as a letter carrier. so i have a lot of respect for mr. rolando. i also want to say no other organization in america is held

to prefund future retirement benefits at the level that is done by the postal service. it is clear that pushing a public agenda which operates with no taxpayer funds. so there is some allusion earlier we're using taxpayer dollars. the revenue we generate from the sale of our products is what we fund and operate our business within. so often it seeps to get confusing in debate when we start talking about the postal service if we're using taxpayer dollars. so it operates with no taxpayer funds, to the brink of financial crisis by forcing it to assume the financial burden, assumed by no other agency or company, is the height of the financial irresponsibility of congress and congress should fix this problem that we created. today, as we are having this debate about the future of the

postal service, and yes, there are some issues that we need to work with. miss brennan, i have been very clear with you in private conversations and you know, trusting you, to continue to keep delivery standards as one of the primary objectives. as i look here with our postal customers and mailers, who depend on us. one of the things i wanted to talk about is the downsizing commitment that has been made by the postal service, reducing your workforce by 200,000 career since 2006. reducing the work hours by 331 million. changing operation hours. can you, miss brennan, and i would like mr. rolando to weigh in on this as well in my, mailers if you have time, how has this consolidation and reduction of workforce align

with the phase one and phase two of the network of rationalization plans or initiatives? >> if i may start, congresswoman, we completed phase one. phase two we completed 17 of the projected 82 consolidations. so we have additional consolidations that we'll revisit. we'll redo the economic analysis, given data is now five years old and would make the appropriate notifications before we resume those consolidations. >> mr. rolando, how is it affecting day-to-day -- >> first i like to say, keep in mind, a lot is in reaction, is in reaction to the prefunding itself. i keep hearing over and over what would you do if you were a private company, and if we were a private company, we wouldn't have $50 billion of resources tied up in a fund for 75 years in the future. it would certainly affect the standards. it would affect service.

it would affect rates. it would affect vehicles. it would affect infrastructure. it would affect all kinds of things. i think takeaway from all of this, we're not allowed in that way to act like a private company. we do have to prefund. there is no appetite in congress for us not to prefund. so that is why we put together this coalition to find a way to satisfy that mandate. we've come up with a way to do it. and moving on from he then, then we can act as private company or as a postal service and in rational and efficient manner moving forward. >> i want to add, it is about being competitive. we're in a very competitive market, the postal service. if you truly want this company to be efficient and competitive, then we in congress must recognize how we're tying the hands of the postal service. so i say to my colleagues, very passionately, that we absolutely

want the postal service which is covered -- when i was employed i had to take an oath i would protect the mail and make sure that it is protect from foreign agencies and how important, especially it was, to be an agent of the postal service. but then we tie their hands and then we criticize them. one of the things i want to talk about is the future of these packages. we know drones and other industries are coming. but we consistently tie our hands and we see the other industries moving forward to embrace the ability to be competitive. to reduce costs. but we, and postal service, we, i'm saying we, because i'm retiree. those in the postal service continuously fight against these restrictions. so we as congress must step up and take ownership of what we have created. and we have amazing opportunity now to remove some of those

barriers as we hold the postal service accountable for filling their role of delivery. i'm over, so thank you. >> i thank the gentlewoman. the chair recognizes the gentleman from missouri, mr. clay, for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and let me start with miss rectanus. do you know of any other government agency or private sector company that has to fully prefund the health care costs of its retirees? >> the issue err asking about whether anybody is quite like the postal service, and issue they are a unique organization that were designed to be a federal entity, independent agency within the federal government. so they are designed to be self-sustaining. so that is why they are in a different situation than other organizations. >> but 2006 postal accountability act imposed that requirement on the postal service, correct? >> that's correct. >> how much money has the postal

service been required to pay in? has it been able to make all of these payments? >> to date the postal service has paid about $18 billion on top of the original money put in originally. they have missed 28 billion in payments as far as the retiree health benefit program. >> so 28 billion is value of unfunded liability? >> no, sir. that is the amount of money the postal service has not put in. amount of money unfunded is $54 billion. >> i see. miss brennan, that i understand 86% of the losses at the postal service accumulated between the years 07 and 11. are attributable to this prefunding requirement. is that right? >> that's correct, congressman clay. >> do you believe that the prefunding mandate is unfair to the postal service? and do you agree with mr. rolando? >> i agree with mr., president

he rolando's comments. i would say it is responsible to prefund. the challenge for us in the recent past was the accelerated payment schedule. going forward though the challenge for us is to insure medicare integration. >> is, is modifying this prefunding requirement an essential part of the joint reform proposal to which the postal service, postal unions and certain mailers have agreed? >> yes, congressman. given the prefunding requirement ends this fall, the challenge now is to address the larger issue of an unaffordable system for the postal service and our retirees. >> how much money do you think this would save the postal service? >> fully integrating with medicare for all of our retires, 65 and older would save us over $17.5 billion over the next five years. >> i see. is it true that the postal

service retiree health care fund is already 50% funded? >> that's correct, congressman. we're better situated than most. >> and do you know what the current balance in that fund is? >> the current assets are over $50 billion in the rhb fund. >> wow. the prefunding requirement may have made sense back in '06 but it no longer makes sense to have the postal service comply with a requirement that would force it into insolvency. and just one question for mr. rolando, give me your overall sense how the morale is among postal service workers today? >> the overall morale, we deal really in four different avenues, if you will, with the postal service,

depending on the level of engagement of each of the employees, organizations. we deal in a collective bargaining arena whereby obviously we're addressing things that are going to affect morale in terms of pay, benefits and working conditions. we work together in arena of growing the business, making sure that service is what it needs to be so we can face our customers every day. obviously that can be rewarding, frustrating at the same time. we deal together in a legislative arena as we're doing today to make sure that the postal service is here to serve the american people for many years to come and then we deal in another arena that i will call the culture of the postal service and i think that's an important thing that's been embedded for a long time, the way that it exists that we certainly have commitment from leadership in the postal service and the unions to address that.

in all those things contribute to the morale of postal workers all over the country and in difficult ways. >> thank you for that response. may i yield the rest of my time to the gentleman from massachusetts? >> just quickly, mr. chairman, thank you. want to push back on a little bit suggestion made by one of my brothers across the aisle about the comparative value or comparative performance of the united states postal system versus some of the international competition. there is a great report out by oxford university, oxford strategic consulting, they measured the efficiency of the postal services in the top 20 countries in the g20 and the united states postal service came out the best and remarkably, it is only system in that top, that top group that does not receive taxpayer funding. so ours is doing better than all the rest, contrary to the statement made earlier, and remarkably the united states postal service scores highest

for efficiency even as it delivers far more letters per employee, 268,894 in the last study period, than any other service in the g20. japan came in second and they, and less than 1/3 of that. so, and also, we have universal service which a lot of these other countries don't have. we deliver to every single location. and the only, the only criticisms that the british study had was that unlike in siberia where their post offices sell groceries our do not. we have grocery stores that do that. i want to push out, we came out the best in this study. very credible study. reported by cnn. like to enter this as part of the record. >> without objection so ordered. gentleman's time expired. we'll recognize the gentleman

from which is for five minutes. >> thank you much. chairman taub, one of the objectives of the current system and any new system comes out of the rate review to make sure we have high quality service standards. right now there is some indication that we're struggling in that regard. if the postal service continues to have problems in that area, what action do you think the commission will take? >> congressman, the commission by law has what is called annual compliance determination where annually we look to insure that rates and fees in effect last year were in compliance as well as service standards were met. we issued our most recent one just about a month 1/2 ago. we did find that service standards indeed weren't met. all of first class mail did not meet their targets. both parts of periodicals mail, most of standard mail. we directed postal service to come back in 120 days with comprehensive plan, particularly

on the, what is called flats, periodicals and standard and first class flats. 90-day report on first class letters and cards. once we get that back we'll assess next steps. it was very directed study. did bring attention which has been a trend unfortunately hasn't been trending in the right direction. that's why this year we took, shall we say a little bit more of an aggressive stance to ask the postal service come in with comprehensive focus, what are the pain points, what are pinch point, how do we get past this. service as the postmaster general said is basic standard has to be met. >> okay. i have a question for miss brennan here. we talked a lot about how the volume of mail has dropped over the last 10 years from 213 billion to 154 billion. we used 2006 as the base year. but you know what it was like 10 years, or 20 years before that? >> off the top of my head, i don't, congressman. i will get that information for you. >> was it going up?

>> it was growing, sir, yes. >> so might have been 154 billion in 1986 or 1990? >> 2006 was the high point in terms of total volume in the system. >> so what i'm getting at here is, i'm wondering if you're creating an artificial cause for a problem by grabbing high year at 213, saying we're 154. of course we'll have a crisis? maybe we're at 154 in 1980 and you weren't having a problem? you know what i'm saying? >> i understand your point. >> but you don't know the answer? >> i would tell you it is not artificial challenges we face. >> one of the biggest capital investments you have, we had hearing on this before, replacing aging vehicles. what is the current status of that situation? >> congressman we're currently in the technical review phase for the prototype vehicles. the plan is that we will determine one or more suppliers

with multiple vehicle types that will test over roughly 18-month period. different top position graph sys, different climates, that will help our decision as we move to production timeline. >> last time you goo is were in here on topic, you would buy 120,000 new vehicles, is that still the plan. >> that would be upper bound in terms of replacement. clearly given our financial situation and certainly the suppliers capability we would be looking to purchase and deploy roughly 20 to 25,000 a year. >> okay. so you're going to spread it out maybe over five years, six years? >> yes. >> next question, what is the pay if i go to work for the post office, start out either deliveryman, one of the guys or gals in the office, what is starting pay for that? >> i would tell you the average of work hour rate they've off the top of my head is $41. . .

it would depend on the roughly $25 an hour and i'll get you be exact. yes, absolutely. more than eight hours in a day or ready ours and we can just and with the rules. >> admit that comment? >> over time, can be in certain

locales. it is seasonal. it depends on employee availability, mail volume and the like. >> what is your average male men make at home >> average salary? again, i'll provide that for the record. >> my time is up. yield the remainder of my time. >> wow, thank you. impressive. let that be a lesson to all of us that are still sitting here. we will get fixed of mr. the gentleman from new mexico. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i really appreciate that. i'm going to change up but i was going to do a little bit because i really appreciate the comment that my colleague, mr. lynch made although i don't need that report. if you want to see the efficiencies of the post office, go visit and do a ride along with a letter carrier and you will have no doubt that it's one of the most efficient system in

the world. thank you very much for that honor and i plan to do more of that. particularly in the area than another one of my colleagues of verity mentioned that ms sasser and the issues that we were consolidating back on hold. given the fact that really hurts rural and frontier areas, disable a single population to traveling distances to prescription drugs. i'm very happy to hear that on hold. in addition to that of the numbers that have been taught to bow, 200,000 employees, more than 360 days consolidated. 2011 is a little bit dated, but the gao report says look, when you reduce the level of services, you're actually hurting your resident stream. so it's good. as you look at these issues, i would love if you would give us further information in writing

to this committee about your effort in modernizing service is in addressing these issues. and given your on their mandate that there is a healthy balance and we want to make sure in fact that we are building a revenue and at the same time, continue to take appropriate action to protect the population who read the postal service in a way that i think is different than the average person receiving mail. if you do that, i would appreciate it. second thing i want to talk about is a bit different than my colleagues have addressed that in my community, unfortunately we are seen a high number. i went to thank you for your work in albuquerque. i'm concerned with the lack of personnel and the backlog

investigations you don't get those investigations and we don't trigger. we are on a merry go round in this situation as well so it continues to occur at much higher rate than around the country. i will tell you given our poverty used another public post issues which i will address later today in terms of substance abuse, if they sit again problem. it also creates safety issues for folks dealing with this appropriaappropria appropriately because of those backlogs of investigatory issues we are not replacing those standards, mailboxes. i would love to get a sense about what you can do differently or if you have any thought to write unit from congress to make sure you can address these what i'm going to call hot thoughts if you will. >> yes, thank you, congressman. in terms of albuquerque and the postal inspection service partner in and community members, we've got an antitheft

prevention campaign that i'd be happy to brief you in more detail because it's important to us and as we deploy centralized boxes, we need to ensure they are securing we can minimize any potential to be happy to give you more specifics. >> i'm happy to do that. i want you to think about more time although i'm happy to give it back to the chairman because it's been so good to me. i meant that genuinely. i think it's important to think about it and policy mechanism. again in my community -- i love my community here i've got a police force was also one of the lowest staffing in the country and is in real trouble, so leveraging their and the reality is we are not cheap enough and we have a real public safety

issue and we have a competent issue enemies to be addressed and what else we can be doing and you ought to take into account all the circumstances. the reality is that documents are imaged that people don't have access. >> would need to correct that whether it's the post office are looking at other ways to affect deliveries. we don't want disruption of service. >> and it's recognizable. mr. chairman and i yield back the rest of my time. >> thank you. i yield to gentle woman appreciated. i have some questions and then mr. lynch and that we will wrap up. mr. taub, give me your give on the prc. we are looking at a reform package. how would you reform or it just with the prc does or doesn't do? what reforms are you looking for?

mr. chairman, the most important thing of course is the final balance sheet. that's a house that's on fire that has to be dealt with. in terms of the regulatory commission attached to my testimony there's a study that mandated by law at least every five years the commission looks at the entire postal accountability act as well as the whole and offers recommendations for changes if we did that in 2011 in the midst of doing that report right now. in 2011 to report did suggest a variety of possible opportunities. >> pardon me, when do you expect that to be complete? >> we should have that complete by the end of the year. i hope this is to be delivered to congress -- i wish we could. we issued a few weeks ago to comment on that. we asked the public to input a june 14th. still in the public gives us the

input, we have to put that together. we will strive -- >> any preliminary discussions? let me give you an outline of where we are headed with this. we do anticipate introducing a discussion draft of a bill soon. i anticipate that will be available for perhaps two weeks unless there is some major hack a and then the intention is to introduce a bill, market. we are at delay trying to address the pre-funding issue, were obviously as we've heard from across the whole spectrum of the board, trying to deal with the medicare portion of that. it is amazing that $29 billion was paid in 1993, since 1983 and that hasn't been adjusted. if there are structural adjustment or suggestion or idea is that many of you have, we need to have as now.

we have been meeting and hearing and listening and we are having a formal hearing, but we need those as soon as possible. from the gao's perspective, i want to go to the board of governors and it's a little unfair to did any of you on the spot at the gao. how many board of governors are there? >> at this point, there is one -- >> out of? >> nine. >> that is the right answer. there is one out of nine. quite frankly i can't figure out quite frankly what the board of governors does. it is almost never fully staffed. one of the things that we are looking at doing what the board of governors in the prc into one entity. if someone has a problem or challenge with that, a different suggestion, let us know.

to have two separate groups, one of which is never fully daft can literally have one in. they don't have a quorum. they can operate in nobody seems to mind i don't get any complaints. so that is one thing i am looking not that i just came to the word if you have a suggestion on that. >> just to make a personal observation involving ms. solon, the kurds structures that the commission up as a regulator. 1970 when they'll post office department was abolished at the current governors board was created to exercise the power of the postal service and represent the public interest generally. i was simply absurd to the extent they are together, and thinking through the issues of regulator versus operator, but beyond the observation. >> i still see i still control congress and i still see the the prc.

but the extra layer does not make a lot of sense. >> if i may, i appreciate your offer during side on this. chairman taub outlined above in that responsibility. my only question is ... problematic for the regulator to become the operator, but we are happy to provide some additional insight. >> you want to triangulate the issue, but at the same time, it is problematic when there's not a functional group and there hasn't been for a while and there doesn't seem to be any desire to get one. just looking at structurally changing that. duly noted, you know what you're regulator to a severe operator and there does need to be an arms length difference. but there's also the role of congress and we have to serve some of those functions as well.

mr. rolando, kind of walk us through -- i don't know what time frame, but the enrollment is way down because in large part reduction -- someone is watching this for the first time, give them a bit of how the unions have stepped up and how it held to address this problem and there have been quite a number of staff reductions along the way. >> mr. chairman, as far as reductions, there's been a lawsuit of 200,000 jobs in the last 10 years. i think for the majority of the collective bargaining agreement, no new employees come in his career employees. a command has not proved was that any benefits, much lower pay and have to wait for a career position to become available and be eligible for that. in the collective bargaining itself is a process that has worked well for a long time

whether by settlement or interest arbitration. there are other agreements we deal with the postal service, for example, the legislative arena that's an extremely important thing that we do to be able to get a consensus together to move something to congress is going to preserve the postal service in the future. again, i attacked briefly before about being involved in growth in business since service and the networks and value of working together to do that, to the point that bringing in business to the postal service in the fourth array matches the whole culture of the postal service. >> thank you. ms. lauren, let's talk about what you would like to see first and foremost that of congress. this guy your testimony and asking questions. give us the best you have on what you need people in congress

to do. >> we made her get the ball and reliable service that will take three days to get there. we have planning purposes to interact with the social service and have the most efficient possible. we have predictable, stable postal service prices. if we say we check for extreme conditions in order to cover the existing costs, and that will be faster and faster. lastly, transparent costs can be done at the regulator to see if the current pricing mechanism hit the right it under the condition. if congress were to do anything, i would say releasing the reliability is on the balance sheet is really what would help mailers going into the rave review as well as the postal service alleviate pressures on the cap and be able to really can't trade on the service that

the large message that came across today. >> thank you. i appreciate it. the postal service as i said at the beginning serves a vital element of our commerce in the united states. they have high fixed costs. you don't reduce services and raised rates and expect to solve your problem. what you need to do is move volume. you've got to make the post office more relevant in people's lives so there's more volume that could move to the system. raising rates and cutting services is not the way were going to necessarily get there. i've migrated a long way of from where i studied this, were initially my inclination was that sounds good. let's increase the number of postal holidays. that sounds good. the more you dive into it, the more you realize that not the way the economy is moving. what's happening is people want to have their packages and goods delivered right now.

see the amazon of the world starting to expect saturday at sunday delivery and the post office is in a unique position not to produce that. personally i feel very strongly the post office should not be participating in business that is also found i mean streak. selling coffee and t-shirts at all to risk site, other services that you can find down the street. i don't think that is necessarily the role of someone who is a tax advantage, has a monopoly and i have very deep concerns about that. the one thing i've heard in the last couple hours since this hearing continue to harp on and it's incumbent upon us but i also think the post office itself is the government to government business. when i think of where i go to get my passport, think of the post office.

if the state level and the federal level. it drives me crazy to no one that we spend all this money on fema to remap the united states. we've heard post offices a letter carriers and others know their community. they can walk the streets of gaza street signs. we pretty done not with the postal service and yet we spend hundreds of millions of dollars if not billions of dollars doing that. we have disaster with fema and others could happen. we have to be prepared to master the area and is better than anybody. i visited navajo indian reservation, a dilapidated building that the local post master has been there for more than 20 years. she knows her community. she knows people who speak english and don't pitch a no to

read than a horse to get their mail. she knows the community. that is the type of effort that the rest of the federal government should be engaged in. also, i want to look in the past consensus. we have billions of dollars and i can tell they're itching to speak here. >> and sorry, mr. chairman. one was working recently with the midwestern city to provide information on vacant domains through our address management system. we did a pilot earlier this year in added in arizona. we think there's an opportunity for us that the actual conduct in a defensive given in person proven in the facility on the doorstep of technology we now have. >> your local letter carrier gets far more understand that there are 15 people living in this house.

i've been walking the street, going to their door the last seven years and there are 15 people in this domain. that type of thing and insight, they are going to spend billions of dollars and i hope this committee will further look at this. i've been way over my time here. but i'm excited to move this forward. appreciate the work mr. meadows, mr. lynch, mr. connolly and certainly mr. coming. as we wrap up, i think mr. lynch -- that may yield to mr. lynch. >> very briefly. i think there's a wonderful opportunity there at the postal service in the census census walking the streets already. there is a way to maximize skills and expertise the postal service has. i do want to push back a little bit again. i cited the oxygen report that said the united states postal service is the best in the

world. one of my colleagues indicated his belief was that haven't seen the study, but we were the worst in the world. i think the best judge of this is actually because of her and its american citizens. the pew research center poll americans about their government. i think mr. boyle brought this up is the people of the united states in that poll said the most trusted government employees and the united states today is the united states post worker. have you do you post mustard's and also the people at every single day. they were 84, but after many government employees. congress was also have not daddy. we were around six or seven between swine flu and the talent and that is where congress came

in. >> the committee competes with zika. >> amen to that. it is ironic that we have a member of a party that is 6% approval criticizing the employees were present approval rating in the eyes of our constituents. i will yield back and look at that. thank you. >> recognize mr. cummings. >> thank you for your testimony. i just think we have to get this done. we can go around in a circle forever and never can be in the same place 10 years from now. i want to take all of you for coming to the table. but i'm interested in what the chairman said about government to government. do you see that growing or going

postmaster general? >> sir, i do see opportunity. >> how would we get there? >> weightman dave support from you in the chairman on that, but some of the outreach effort we've had with the agencies as a starting point for change our infrastructure. rather than go if the tsa pre-verification or frequent buyers are there's an opportunity for us to handle some work as well. >> mr. channing, if i may, one of the key pieces of the postal service is going to go down this road is also defined in associated with that. that goes to the larger issue of what is that we want the government institution to do. but the house on fire financially, we need to put that out and legislative progress does not lend itself to get to first principles. if there's some way, whether in

this round of the next to think about what it is a government institution must do and what are the costs associated with data and where does the revenue coming. my only concern would be the extent they take on more responsibility in the area. there is costs buried at the associated funding doesn't go to it, but we're adding more of a burden. >> hence my comment about may need assistance from the chair and ranking member. >> certainly we would not want you to go into some thing that is going to not yield a sufficient profit. that doesn't make any sense. certainly no one would burden you with more obligations when the yield is simply to cost more. i'm hoping will be a little to resolve some of those things. thank you very much.

>> the government to government is the other agent is execute on these things and looking at the option of doing it through the postal service. if the unions appreciate that and got the physical infrastructure unlike an entity to be able to do that, whether it can the password sent this you will get a request from us to look at financials of how the whole path forward this just works. i look up in my own district the department of motor vehicles, there's other state opportunities, not just the federal government opportunities for dating a physical location. we appreciate your participation. we are trying to do the best thing. it's time to do it sooner rather

than later. with that, the committee stands adjourned. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

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[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> will go live to capitol hill. lawmakers hoping to complete work on the energy and water

spending bill which lawmakers have been out of stock since april 20th. this is the first appropriate shoes bill under consideration in the senate this year. lie to the floor of the u.s. senate here on c-span2. the president pro tempore: the senate will come to order. today's opening prayer will be by chris justice, pastor of lee park church in monroe, north carolina. the guest chaplain: let us pray. father in heaven, your name is great. you are sovereign and holy. you offer christ-centered salvation and peace.

you are ever present in our time of need. we thank you for the great gift of the united states of america. we ask you to protect, guide and direct the members of the united states senate. for all the issues that might divide us, i pray your spirit would enlighten us and convict us to fulfill your call to love one another as you have loved us. may it be true that, in all our ways, we would acknowledge you so that you would make our paths straight. may it be true that we would desire and actively pursue that your will be done and your kingdom come, on earth now as it is in heaven. may it be true that we would be careful to give you all the praise, honor, and glory due you.

we pray to you and we praise you in jesus' name. amen. the president pro tempore: pleae join me in reciting the pledge f 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. mr. burr: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from north carolina. mr. burr: mr. president, i rise today to welcome a constituent, the senior pastor at lee park church in monroe,

north carolina, chris justice, to the united states senate. chris' story is an inspiring one. you see, in 2005, chris was a well-known broadcaster on dual television stations in charlotte, north carolina. and in november of that year, chris was called by the lee park church, a congregation of 50 faithful, at which time he committed to be their pastor and to split time between that and being a broadcaster, i think. and chris kept that pace up for the next three years, as he grew a church and he understood that god's calling was to the church and to service, not necessarily to broadcasting. well, let me just say this ... that pastor chris has grown that church to a lively congregation involved in their community, and

his senior leadership there has provided the nurturing that's leaded for a community to find their calling in life as part of that church. from the beginning of his career as a news anchor, chris always wanted to give back to be part of the community. he is surely doing that today. today pastor chris is continuing to do so and he is following a strategy that remains the mission of the church: preach the word and love people. i think that sums up pastor chris: "preach the word and love the people." i yield the floor. mr. tillis: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from north carolina. mr. tillis: thank you, mr. president. i appreciate the comments of my senior colleague from north carolina. i want to welcome pastor chris, his lovely wife and friends of the family that came to grace us with his presence. i've been out at lee park.

i was out there for an annual event that they have. i wasinvited to be a -- i was invited to be a pimentoies judge. pastor justice, pastor chris has said that they will find the event. but what struck me is how much the people who were at that event love pastor chris and love the justice family. you've done a great job out in montan--in montana roavment----. we thank you for your service. thank you, mr. president. mr. mcconnell: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: after much deliberation from both sides of the aisle, today we'll complete our work on the energy and water appropriations bill. we know that this bill is the result of a great deal of effort, research, and collaboration across the aisle.

it passed out of committee unanimously. it was subject to nearly two dozen amendments from both parties out here on the floor. as senator alexander pointed out yesterday, we've clearly had an open process from the start that benefited both sides. the energy security and water infrastructure bill is important for our country. we know it will support commerce, public safety, waterways infrastructure, energy innovation, and our nuclear deterrence posture. we know it's important for the way forward a eption pros as well, because -- on th for the y forward on appropriations as well, because it allows republican and democratic members to better represent their constituents' views t provides for more open debate and deliberation. it offers a path to reaching a kind of of product both sides can spowmple support.

empowering members to make more judicious decisions about how taxpayers' dollars are spent is something we should all want. we note aeption pros process is important -- we know the appropriation process is important. i urge my colleagues to work together to keep moving these appropriations bill, as both sides have expressed interest in doing. mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the democratic leader. mr. reid: today the republican presidential nominee, hard for me to say these words, but ... donald trump comes to capitol. he secured the nomination last week. he will meet today with speaker ryan and republican leader mcconnell. it's just the latest sign that the republican leaders in both houses are marching lock step

with donald trump. senator mcconnell has fully embraced donald trump. as he said last week when trump secured the republican nomination, "i have committed to supporting the nominee chosen by republican voters." while speaking with reporters earlier this week, the republican leader sounded enthusiastic about trump's chances in the general election. i guess he should be giddy about a trump presidency. donald trump is everything that the republican leader and his party could ever want in a nomination. his poll positions are identical to the republican party platform, and today senator mcconnell can discuss in an hour or two that consensus with trump. let's talk about the supreme court. donald trump and the senator from kentucky can talk about their obstruction for the first time in the history of the country to a presidential

supreme court nomination. it's never happened before. we've had some stalling and a couple of filibusters, but this is one where people didn't want to meet, a fewof them have broken from them. they certainly don't want to have a hearing, and they don't want a vote. as trump said, republicans should delay, delay, delay filling the supreme court vacancy. following trump's lead, the republican leader is personally overseeing the blockade of judge garland's nomination, forcing the senators to fall in line. let's talk about trump and whivment they get together, they can talk about their policies about being antiwoman. since senator mcconnell is so enthusiastically embracing trump, you can only agree that n only assume with trump's view that women are dogs and pigs.

you can only assume that's not repulsed by his behavior towards women. look at his "new york times" story with his cavorting with howard stern and how they talked about women. after all, the republican party has spent years blocking every substantive bill for american women. equal pay for equal work. the senator has undermined women's health at every turn, trying to turned planned parenthood into a punching bag, even though millions and millions of american women have been helped by planned parenthood. we can -- today they'll have an opportunity this morning to talk about the anti-latino vote. they can discuss their anti-immigration policies and their agenda. since the republican leader is all in for donald trump, you can only assume he approves trump's calling immigrants racists and murderers.

the dreamers as being mules for drug dealing. i assume that they can have a long discussion about the wall, how high it should be, how they're going to get the mexicans to pay for the wall, even though most people think the idea is insane. let's not forget, democrats have demagogued latinos for decades. the the republican leader voted against comprehensive immigration reform and under senator mcconnell's leadership, senate republicans almost came within hours of shutting down the department of homeland security. because president obama executive actions on immigration. they can talk about their outlook on women -- i'm sorry, on families. donald trump and the republican leader can mention how little

they've done for american families. now today's news, they're going to cut medicaid and medicare. i guess that's because he's going to wind up in the meeting with paul ryan, because that's his number-one issue. one can assume he is okay with trump's shady business practices. he doesn't mind that donald trump rips off hardworking americans and filed bankruptcy many, many times. has a university has corrupt and the trial will go forward during the election. the middle class is an imposition for today's republicans. the republican party refuses to address the minimum wage, college affordability or any other legislation that helps families. now here's a doozy. they can spentsdz spend a lot of time talking about climate change. trump add and the republican

leader can talk about denial of climate change. 97% of all science worldwide believe it is here, it is upon us. ask the senior senator from florida. he'll tell you that i.t. here. look what's happening in miami. even talk to the senators from virginia, they'll tell you what's happening on the military bases on the coast in virginia. donald trump's highest-ranking supporter, his highest-ranking supporter in congress, senator mcconnell, believes that climate change is a hoax. "perpetrated by kleins manufacturers." -- "perpetrated by chinese manufacturers." if elected, prum trump and senar

mcconnell would put polluters first and make the u.s. the laughingstock of the world. more than 170 countries have agreed to address climate change because the united states leadership. trump and mcconnell have stated publicly they'll walk away from this. so let's talk about this thing republicans like to talk about. that's what's happening with the economy. keeping in mind that bill clinton balanced the budget. keep in mind that when george bush came to the presidency, there was a $10 trillion debt over ten years. i mean, a surplus. i'm sorry. a surplus over ten years. i misspoke. it was $7 trillion over ten years. and with two wars unpaid for costing trillions of dollars, with tax cuts not being paid for. that is long since gone, that

surplus. so they can talk about that. they can talk about how they -- how trrch ha trump has said thae thinks america should be -- on its debt. get the people we owe money to to take less money. that's what he said. he doesn't want to pay our national debt and it seems there is little distance between him and the republican leader on that issue. senator mcconnell has presided over republican caucuses that have taken america to the brink of default on a number of occasions not the least of which is shutting the government down, this great government of ours, shutting it down for 17 days. closed, out of business. so, donald trump and the republican leader should have a long, long conversation. they have a lot to talk about. at some point in their conversation donald trump should thank the senior senator from kentucky. trump owes his candidacy to the republican leader and to the

policies that he's led. it was an obstructionist, antiwoman, anti-latino, anti-muslim, antimiddle class, antienvironment and anti-obama and antieverything republicans in the last eight years have made donald trump a reality. i note no one is on the floor. would you announce what we're going to do this morning. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the senate will be in a period of morning business for one hour equally divided with senators permitted to speak therein. the leadership time is reserved. mr. reid: i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: mr. reid: mr. president?

i would ask unanimous consent the call of the quorum be terminated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i would ask the time of the republicans and the democrats be preserved. no one is here. we should preserve that time. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: and i think the order already is the time would be equally divided. if that's not the case, i ask that be the case. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call: