live now to the senate floor. the se. the chaplain, dr. barry black, will lead the senate in prayer. the chaplain: let us pray. gracious father, fill our senators with your truth and peace. let your truth bring them freedom from anxiety, fear,

pride, timidity, and sin. let your peace guard their hearts, reminding them of the power of your sovereignty and grace. as they have opportunity, empower them to do good for all people. thank you for bestowing such love upon us that we can be called your children. lord use us for your glory, as you keep us on the path you have selected for us. for our lives. we pray in your great name. amen.

pleaseg the pledge of allegiance to the 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. mcconnell: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senate majority leader. mr. mcconnell: i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

mr. mcconnell: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: i ask further proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i understand appointments were made during the adjournment of the record. i ask they be stated for the record. the presiding officer: without objection. they will be printed in the record. mr. mcconnell: mr. president, i want to welcome everyone back from what i hope was a productive state work period. i'm sure i speak for all of us when i say that traveling to our

states and meeting with those we represent is one of the best parts of this job. it's also one of the most important. that's because it allows us to hear different perspectives on critical issues and reminds us of the real difference that good policy can make in the lives of the american people. frl funding the government to supporting our service members and taking action on issues like zika, we've got a lot to get done in this upcoming work period. i look forward to working with colleagues on these and other important issues in the coming weeks. as i mentioned, over the state work period senators on both sides had opportunities to meet with constituents and talk with them about a number of serious problems facing our country, from combatting the zika virus to addressing an array of national security challenges, americans, like those i met with back home, wanted to know

what steps both parties are taking to help. for our friends across the aisle, that must have been a little bit of a difficult conversation. that's because before the work period, senate democrats filibustered funding to combat zika and to support veterans not once, but twice. they also filibustered funding to provide resources for our service members and national defense priorities. it's hard to explain why, despite their own calls for funding, senate democrats decided to block a bill that would keep pregnant women and babies safer from zika. it's also hard to explain why despite the array of terror attacks we've seen across the world senate democrats decided to block a bill that would help keep the american people safer from threats like isil. our colleagues across the aisle can point to a series of partisan excuses, but the bottom line is this, there is no good explanation for blocking these public health and national security funding bills.

over the summer there were important steps to combat the virus. the administration took the guidance of appropriations chairman cochran and rogers and with the advocacy of members such as senator blunt and rubio, h.h.s. shifted funds already available to them to strengthen our defense against the virus. aerial spraying also started early in august and has produced positive results. the c.d.c. director has said he's been impressed by the effectiveness of the spraying, noting a substantial reduction in the number of mosquitoes in the transmission areas. but these issues have certainly not gone away. in fact, this summer brought even more cases of zika with mosquitoes now spreading the virus in some counties and health officials issuing travel warnings to pregnant women to miami. this summer brought directed terror attacks from france to

turkey as well as more concerns of growing aggress from countries like north korea, which recently test launched another missile. these instances from the summer further underscore the urgency of the challenges facing us and why it's imperative that our colleagues in their respective filibusters of these bills. so today we'll give senate democrats another opportunity to follow through on their own calls for action on zika, to support our veterans who deserve the treatment and benefits they've earned, and to provide for our service members who sacrifice so much to protect the country and the people we love. i hope our colleagues will join us now to finally end their senseless filibusters and help us do our part to address these serious issues.

mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the minority leader. mr. reid: i too am glad to be back. i appreciate all the people here that we spend so much time with and all your good work. we've been gone for seven weeks. the baseball season is about over. i wish it went year round, but it doesn't, so all good things come to an end and we'll have that over with in about month now. mr. president, today the republican senate returns to the longest summer recess in more than 60 years. i'm still stunned that the republican leader decided to have a seven-week vacation and it was more important to do that than funding our nation's zika response. we're -- or giving merrick garland or meeting with him or preventing terrorists or criminals from buying guns. in a "new york times" report in detail on sunday, climate change is here.

military installations like those in virginia as an example but they are not the only ones are in peril of not surviving. whole neighborhoods are under water. highways and bridges are impassable. but seven weeks of vacation and not a word of debate on the rising seas, and they are here. ask anyone in florida trying to pass a bond issue for billions of dollars to raise the highways and roads and the foundations and buildings. and now because of the republican leader's decision to recess for the summer, congress is floundering because of republican inaction. the senate has a mountain of work to do and no time to do it. first and foremost, the senate needs to fund efforts to combat zika. it's a problem sweeping this country. earlier this year democrats tried in vain to bring

republicans to the realization that dick was imper -- that zika was imperilling the health of all. we accepted the senate compromise. last may 89 senators voted to pass that legislation. republicans in the house said no, and then surprisingly when we tried to pass it as a stand-alone here, republican senators said we don't agree to what we agreed to just a few weeks ago. stunning to say the least. president obama proposed a meeting with senator mcconnell, speaker ryan, director burwell and donovan to work on the zika crisis. they said no to the meeting. there was an offer of a negotiated compromise but republicans rejected the offer. republicans were more interested in attacking planned parenthood and flying the confederate flag. can't make that stuff up; that's really the truth -- than

protecting women and babies from this awful virus. as republicans stalled, zika spread quickly. puerto rico has been ravaged by the virus. 2,000 puerto rico citizens are infected each week. remember, puerto ricans are citizens of the united states. the centers for disease control predict by the end of the year 25% of puerto rico's population will be infected by zika. that's 900,000 people. last month the u.s. department of health and human services declared a health emergency in puerto rico due to the zika virus. democrats pleaded with the republicans to cut short the seven-week break and return to the capitol in order to pass emergency zika funding. republicans said no, we're going to stay home some more. and while the republican senate

insisted on vacation, zika spread to the mainland here in the united states. local transmission of zika was confirmed in florida and elsewhere. last week public health officials in florida even trapped some of the mosquitoes carrying this virus. to date nearly 17,000 men, women and children in the united states and its territories have been infected with zika, including 1,600 pregnant women, 16 babies have been born with the birth defects caused by zika. we still don't understand all the devastating effects of this virus. that's why we need more study. we know though about microencephaly, the birth defect that inhibits brain development, prevents the skull from growing. we've all seen the heartrending pictures of these babies with these tiny heads. but in recent weeks we've also learned that newborns with zika face other problems: hearing loss, vision impairment and joint deform 'tis. because of republican inaction,

our entire nation is exposed to this scourge. the centers for disease control do not have the resources to fight zika. the c.d.c. director thomas frieden told reporters -- and i quote -- "our cupboard is bare." basically we're out of money and we need congress to act. close quote. we must stop the spread of this disease. we need to learn more. we need to pass a bipartisan funding bill that gives doctors research and public health officials the resources they require to understand and fight the spread of this deadly deforming virus. we passed something here with 89 votes, as i said, it went to the house and they sent it back with all this strange, weird stuff in it. they cut funding for veterans administration by $500 million. they tried to disguise the fact

that what they were trying to do was eliminate planned parenthood. remember, planned parenthood last year, two million american women went to planned parenthood for help. now with this zika virus frightening women all over america, they want to cut this off? and as i said, they did other things, and when i talked about flying the confederate flag, i'm not kidding. part of the legislation sent back to us that they could continue flying the confederate flag over military installations. is that something we could vote for? of course not. the continuing resolution -- that's become kind of the thing we do around here, since the republicans perfected filibusters. continuing resolutions are a way of saying we can't do our regular appropriations work, so

let's do something that gets us through the year. we must focus on our efforts to keep the government open. press reports indicate that republicans want to pass a continuing resolution that extends into next year. this seems odd, strange. we just completed seven weeks of doing nothing. none of our country's essential business. now republicans are suggesting another ten weeks of vacation? speaker ryan and senator mcconnell should understand that democrats will not support ten weeks away from washington. we cannot ignore the nation's work any longer. president obama will reject any continuing resolution that extends into 2017. notably, members of congress received their pay during the self p weeks we're -- seven weeks we were out of washington and would receive our salaries

during the republicans' proposed ten-week recess. it is a permission for congress to refuse to do its job for the rest of the year. the next senate should not begin months behind because of this republican senate's failure to do its job. once we've ensured that the government is properly funded, we must turn our attention to the important issues that the republican senate has failed to adequately address. and this is only some of them. how about the supreme court judicial nominations. senate needs to give the supreme court the full supplement of nine justices. republicans still refuse to give chief judge merrick garland a hearing or a vote. orrin hatch opened the senate a few minutes ago and has said that merrick garland is a consensus nomination. i don't know if he forgot when he said or didn't mean it at the time -- i think he did mean it

at the time. republicans want to hold the seat for donald trump to fill. if that doesn't startle you, i don't know what would. what more do you need to see from trump to realize that he's danger arks unfit for the -- dangerous, unfit for the presidency? how can you hold a supreme court vacancy open for this man and his weird, weird ideas? it's not just the supreme court. roons have deadlock -- republicans have deadlocked our entire system of justice. this senate has confirmed the fewest justices in decade. the republicans want trurn to row make the justice system in their image. what an image that would be -- a trump judiciary. to show the americans' disgust with how the republicans have treated merrick garland's

nomination, if the republican leader thinks there's a committee that needs to meet because of extraordinary circumstances, i would be pleased to consider his request. in the meantime, as of today, we're objecting to the committees meeting with line with the rules of the senate. the disgusting opposition to garland's nomination to the supreme court, we must also pass legislation to keep guns and explosives out of the hands of terrorists and other dangerous individuals. how many more acts of gun violence before we need to do something about it? how many more slaughters must we witness? the american people agree with us. 85% want to do something about this worsening gun situation. this gun violence. 85% of americans support legislation keeping guns away from suspected terrorists.

this is the case all over america. sensible background checks. that's all it is. senate republicans should listen to the american people and stop listening to the national rifle association. we must take a stand against violence. there are many, many other pressing ideas. we need to address the criminal justice system, which is in deep need of repair and renovation. the united states needs to help make college more affordable for american families. the united states needs to address campaign finance reform. we must keep dark money out of politics. it's here and getting bigger every day because of two people, the koch brothers. the kochs today are in hog heaven because they now can secretly funnel money to all their clandestined committees and groups.

they're spending hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars funneling money to the chamber of commerce, national rieferl association -- national rifle association and many other front groups that no one has ever heard of -- none of us has. they're running those ads with this secret money. so the united states senate has much to do and i've only mentioned a few of the things. we have to use our time wisely. for the last seven weeks we've not been using our time in a productive manner and that is an understatement. that's why it was baffling to learn that republicans want to move to the water resource and development act next week. i understand wrda legislation. i've been chairman of that committee on two separate occasions. i know there's money in this bill for beleaguered flint, michigan. the people of flint have waited months and moptses for this overdue -- months and months for this overdue relief. i had last wednesday my 20th

and last summit on lake tahoe. such a much better place because of what we've done over the last 20 years. $2 billion have been spent on that beautiful lake. there's only one other lake like that in the whole world. and that's in siberia. so i know how important this total restoration act is the. -- restoration act is. but the fact remains is the republican house is not going to pass it anyway. i'm willing to do what i can to act responsibly by not blocking this bill as the republicans would do. but we will legislation very carefully. -- but we will legislate very carefully. staffs are working to find out if we have a path forward. i appreciate the good work of senators boxerer and inhofe. i'm hopeful that we can find a path forward on wrda as well as zika and other matters about which i have spoken.

in the meantime, the senate has to prioritize. i know the republican leader sets the senate schedule, but he should being a nounal the situation for what it is -- but he should acknowledge the situation for what it is. we have a logjam of important legislation that he discreted by -- that he created by recessing for seven weeks. we have a mess, but the mess is of the republican leader's own making. now that republicans have finally decided to come back to the nation's capital, it is time to move forward on these issues that have been ignored for seven weeks. in short, it is time for the republicans to do their job. mr. president, i see no one on the floor. i would ask the chair to announce the business of the day. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. under the previous order, the senate will resume consideration of the conference report to accompany h.r. 257, which the clerk will report.

the clerk: conference report to accompany h.r. 25, an act making appropriations for the departments of transportation and housing and urban development and so forth and for other purposes. mr. reid: mr. president, i would note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

mr. barrasso: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from wyoming. mr. barrasso: constitution, mr. president. i ask consent that the quorum call be vitiated. officethe presiding officer: spr without objection. mr. barrasso: thank you. over the past several weeks i spent a lot of time traveling over my home state of wyoming. i know you spent a lost time traveling over your home state of oklahoma. i spoke to a lot of people about one of their top concerns. that's been the obama health care law. the disastrous problems that people are facing. you know, people now tell me that some of them are paying more for their health insurance than her for their -- than they are for their mortgage. that's a problem all o across te

country. that's now. but what we're they're also doing is reading stories in the paper, front-page stories, that are saying that the rates next year are even going to go up again, and not just a little but a lot. so i know that my senate colleagues from all across the country, republicans and democrats, are hearing that because of the disastrous problems that the obama health care law is currently experiencing. you know, in wyoming, the obama health insurance exchange has only one company selling insurance. only one. and wyoming is not alone. now, this wasn't supposed to happen. you know, the democrats in congress who supported this health care law, they said that they were going to create more competition, bring down prices by lots of competition. i can still remember the president back in 2009 when he gave a speech to congress and what did he tell us? he said that in 34 states, he

said 75% of the insurance market was controlled by five or fewer companies. five or fewer. now in wyoming we're down to one. the president said without competition the price of insurance goes up, and he said that the quality goes down. so that's what president obama said seven years ago. he said that five options are fewer -- was such a threat to competition and to quality of care to american families that he needed to create his very entire obamacare health care system. so what's the system -- the situation today? one-third of america will have only one obamacare insurer in 2017. the color-coded map that just came out from the kaiser family foundation -- came out last week -- says all the areas in orange

have only one obamacare insurer selling insurance in their locations. and i note, mr. president, that oklahoma and wyoming are all in orange. millions of americans will have fewer choices in 2017 than they had in 2016, with a third of the country having only one option for coverage next year. now, the obama administration said that these were supposed to be competitive marketplaces. that's what the president -- that's what president obama said. when there's only one company sell ago product in an area, that's not competition. that's a monopoly. the president ought to understand that and so should every democrat in this body. so what do the national newspapers have to say about it? well, "the wall street journal," front-page story last week, august 29, "health plan choices

shrink." page one, "health plan choices shrink." it says in 31% of u.s. counties, insurance exchanges appear likely to offer consumers only one option. it's a monopoly. that's "the wall street journal." what this means, in the article it will tell you 2.3 million people currently on obamacare will have just one option for when they shop next year. so, what are people expecting? they're expecting their insurance premiums to go up. when? november 1, the week before the election, when people start signing up for next year's insurance, they're going to see the incredible sticker shock and how it affects them. that's what competition looks like under president obama. one insurance company in all those orange areas. it's interesting, i see the minority leader just left to go back to his office. the office where behind closed doors the health care law was

written. he's from the state of nevada. let's look at he state of nevada. orange, orange, orange, all those counties, other than this one area here, all those counties, just one option because the very bright people, the architects of obamacare, behind that closed and locked door wrote a health care law that says that one in three americans will have only one obamacare insurer in 2017. it's what we predicted on the floor of the senate as this bill was being debated. president obama said oh no, you're all wrong. the minority leader who was then the majority leader and obviously lost the majority as a result of the poor judgment of the democrats, whether it was nancy pelosi saying first you have to pass it before you get to find out what's in it, or others who said this is going to be wonderful, this is what the american people are facing now. and all the areas in blue, they only have two to choose from. it is astonishing what has

happened when you're down to one choice, basically you have no choice. except for the people in panow county, arizona, this area in red. they actually have no choices. no one wants to sell obamacare insurance to the people that live there. none. itit is an obamacare ghost town. the others may be obamacare waste lands, no man's lands, but this is an obamacare ghost town. so what does president obama say about that? you know, it's gotten so bad in some places that the obamacare exchanges have been called by state insurance commissioners very near collapse. does president obama hear any of these things? do the senate democrats hear any of these things? you would think that they would if they go home and talk to people who live in their home

states. but the insurance commissioner in tennessee described the situation in her state as very near collapsed. now if you look at tennessee on the map, and there are actually some places where they have more than one choice. but the companies that are selling insurance are saying we cannot do it. we cannot continue because of the losses that they have incurred by trying to comply to all the rules and the regulations of the obama health care law. so people in tennessee who get obamacare insurance will be paying as much as 62% more starting in january. when they go to sign up novembee paying 62% more in january. our colleague from tennessee, senator lamar alexander, recently said that for a 40-year-old person, the nonsmoker, lives in his home state of tennessee, buys the cheapest possible obamacare silver plan compared to this

year, next year that same person is going to have to pay $852 more than they did this year. not $852, but $852 more than they did this year. in illinois, i talked to senator kirk about that, they're going to be paying 45% more next year. in georgia, 33% more. now these aren't just proposed increases. these are increases that have been approved by the insurance commissioner of those states. it's interesting when the democrats come to the floor and say they're only proposed increases, that will never happen; these are the increases that have been approved by the insurance commissioners of each of those states. premiums are going through the roof. americans are stuck with fewer options because the insurance companies just can't afford to sell on the exchanges due to the rules, regulations and mandates

of the exchanges. it's interesting, you pick up a newspaper, you don't have to page all the way through to get to the stories. here's "the washington post," sunday, august 28, front-page story, mr. president, you can see it from all the way up there, "health exchange signups fall short." health exchange signups fall short. welshings if this is such a great deal as the president said it is, why are the health exchange signups falling short? because the pepper -- american people know it's not a good deal for them personally. it says several firms opt out citing losses. when you go into this article, it goes on to say that the obama administration promise, promise of a menu of health care choices, has been replaced by a grim forecast. that's their words: a grim forecast.

this is the forecast right here on the map. this is what the country has gotten because of president obama's plan and the democrats' demands that they take complete control of the health care of this country rather than leaving it in the hands of the men and women at home across the country who know what's best for them and their families. people living in the third of the country won't have any choice next year. all they'll have to deal with is an obamacare health insurance monopoly, heading to obamacare no man's land. companies are giving up because people don't want obamacare insurance. people can't afford it. they are not buying it. they say for them it's not a good deal. the congressional budget office made some predictions. they predicted there would be about 24 million people signed up for obamacare by now. they made that prediction a year or so ago. the actual number, just

11 million. they overestimated by more than two to one. but from the very beginning the health care law has failed to live up to the hype and to all the promises that democrats and president obama have made. remember when president obama said under this law, he said if you like your insurance, you can keep your insurance. if you like your insurance, you can keep your insurance. it's what the president told the american people, one of the fact-finders called it the lie of the year. but president obama said if you like your insurance, you can keep your insurance. "usa today," august 30, front page right there, "health care choices choked further." "more than two million people could be bumped from insurance plans in 2017." more than two million people currently on obamacare bumped from their plans, and the president looked the american people in the eye and said if you like what you have, you can keep it.

that's what the american people are facing today. one in three have only one insurer to choose from. so the situation is going to get worse. state insurance commissioners say things are very near collapse. and what is the best thing that the president can do to say about all of this? he says that -- to the democrats forcefully defend and be proud. where are the proud defenders? why aren't they here on the floor of the senate defending this monstrosity that has hurt so many american people who had insurance? if you want to help people that didn't have insurance you shouldn't have to hurt people that do have insurance. yet i don't see the democrats here. i challenge them to come here and debate this law and the impact it's had on the american people. what does hillary clinton say? she's running for president. she says defend and improve. why are her supporters not here on the senate floor defending it? these ideas have failed.

the promises have gone up in smoke. so do they have any solutions? do they have any recommendations? the recommendations are more washington control. that's what the architect said the other day. he came up with this plan along with the senate minority leader and a number of senate democrats. that's what he says. more washington control, more taxpayer money. bigger taxpayer-funded subsidies. that's what they said. hillary clinton talks about expanding the failing medicaid program. they want to hurt our seniors by putting more, cramming more people on to the medicare program that's already headed for insolvency. americans know that our health care system is in trouble. obamacare has failed. it is in the insurance death

spiral, and democrats cannot fix it by making it larger. and one-third of the counties in america, people won't have a choice for where they buy their health insurance starting november 1. america does have a choice when it comes to fixing our broken health care system. we can choose to get rid of obamacare and put in place solutions that we know actually will work for people. not for unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats, for people at home that we talk to in our home states over the august time. it means letting people get out from under the burden of all the washington mandates, and it's the mandates that are really the cause of these devastating price increases. you want to create real competition, not obamacare monopolies. letting people choose the coverage and the cost that is right for them and their

families, not what washington says is right for them. when you're from a rural state like wyoming or the president of the senate's state today of oklahoma, we know about rural medicine. we know about rural health care. we know about big distances. we know p what people need. the people there know a lot better than the people of washington think they know about small-town america and rural, rural america. so the republicans in this body and republicans all around the country are going to continue to fight. we will not stop fighting for the kinds of reform that get the power out of washington, to get the power back to the states, to let people have more control over decisions that affect them and their lives and their communities and their future. democrats don't have any ideas other than higher subsidies, more government control, more one size fits all for the failed policies of the past.

and these policies, i will tell you, mr. president, have failed. anything that over that number of years from the president's first speech where he's condemning the fact that there are only four or five choices can now, where you're looking at one, two, or zero choices, points to the failure of the obama health care law. it is time, as we get back heres listened to people at home and heard the complaints. it's time for democrats to work with us to give the american people the health care that they want, that they need and that they deserve. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. a senator: i ask unanimous consent that i be recognized for such time as i shall consume. the presiding officer: the senate is in a quorum call. a senator: i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be rescinded. the presiding officer: without objection. a senator: i ask unanimous consent that i be recognized for such time -- the presiding officer: without objection. a senator: i have real personal interest in a vote that's coming up on zika. i want to kind of share that and my thoughts. mr. inhofe: today we have the opportunity to provide the funding to help combat the mosquito-borne zika virus that has hit florida and some southern states. as of this week there have been 49 travel-related cases of virus in florida and 576

travel-related cases all together. within those cases, 80 are pregnant women that have been infeblghtsed with the virus. this is extremely concerning since zika is linked to severe birth defects in children born to mothers who contacted the virus zika. zika has created a public health emergency that can't be ignored. this sjts the first time -- isn't the first time we've taken this vote up. in june senate democrats blocked the package of the conference report claiming that funds did not need to be offset. the $is.1 billion in funding provided in the conference report will be used to fight the zika virus and prevent it from spreading. this is the same amount as the senate-passed bill in which every democrat voted in favor. all the democrats voted for it. republicans have put together a responsible funding package that includes $750 million in offsets with strong oversight and control to ensure that funds are

being used properly. you know, there's a lot of discussion, a lot of things we're saying here on the floor and to the public that the public doesn't understand. they can't be expected to understand. they're too busy trying to make a living. but when they hear things like this, they shake their heads and they say, you know, what's wrong with that system up there? i say this because there's a little girl who happens to be my sister's granddaughter. her name is cali hamilton. she's lived to some time in florida. she's pregnant. and she's called me several times. she says, i don't understand it. you have democrats that are saying we don't want to do something for -- to save the lives of theeg pregnant -- these press nant mothers in florida and elsewhere unless you fund plan the parenthood and some of the other programs. it gets mixed up. because of the sense of urgency of this thing, it's now a vehicle for everybody else to hitchhike on. let me tell you, when i was

asked the question by my own great niece, who's pregnant, living in florida, why is it that people are too concerned about the political politics of a vote when this is different than any other virus vote we've had. we've had many of them. normally there's some question as to what caused it, some question as to whether or not the solution is a viable solution when in fact in this case, it is. there's no question about it. there are two things that are factual about this that we have not seen before. first of all, the virus is contracted through mosquitoes. we all know that. nobody refutes that. the second thing is you can kill mosquitoes. everybody knows that. now, whether it amounts $750 million or whatever the amount is doesn't really matter auction even if you're out there with a small amount and just killed several million mosquitoes, that could save lives and it could be

my grand niece cali hamilton. and so this is different. and i hope and i encourage when this vote comes up, my republican and democrat friends alike to consider, this isn't something to put something on. this is something take you can immediately get in there and eradicate a bunch of mosquitoes and save lives. you very likely prevent this from happening. i hope to make an exception on this. doesn't make any difference about offsets. doesn't make any difference about the cost really when we know when we save lives. this isn't something that's up in the air, debatable. these are facts that -- mr. president, i wasn't going to talk about that but i do think it's necessary for us to concentrate on what we're really doing back here now. we've been gone for several weeks. i think the country has probably benefited from that. i don't know. we're back now. and we have an opportunity to do some things.

i chair a committee and have chaired a committee that is called the environment and public works committee. it's a committee that sometimes somewhat jokingly i'll say we'll hear from the committee that actually does thing but we do. we had a bill that was the fast act. that's the highway bill, the first one in 17 years that we've had. it's one that we all got along. we had democrats and republicans, we passed it unanimously out ever our committee and passed almost unanimously. we had the support on this floor. then we came up with -- frank lautenberg's chemical safety act. that's an interesting one because there are a lot of democrats that are opposed to that begin with yet there's no regulation over the use of chemicals, none whatsoever. and so our manufacturing base has disappeared, many of them going to countries where they know they can defeign what a chemical is. there are a lot of liberals who say let's oppose all chemicals. obviously if you don't have

chemicals you can't manufacture. that affects everyone. you have people going overseas now. by the way, some are now -- because i personally talked to them since we have that under control for the first time in 40 years we're getting people to come back to this country to manufacture. so we achieved that chemical bill and working together with senator boxer. this is interesting because when they talk about the most conservative members of the united states senate, i'm always in that crowd. barbara boxer is always -- is in the most liberal groups yet we work together on the things that we are supposed to be doing. you know, we have that old worn out document that nobody reads anymore called a constitution. they say what we're supposed to be doing, defending america and doing infrastructure. so that's what this is all about. we have the wrta bill. it's coming up. if we get on that, this would be the thing that's going to be of benefit to everybody. i worry about it. you get to something that is

good for everyone, zika is a good example, all of a sudden opposition comes up and you don't know what the source of that opposition is but it's there. now, real briefly i'm going to cover these things because of the significance of the we are ta -- wrta bill, the water resources bill. we talk about five different areas, the core projects. we know about the corps of engineers. we know about their projects. there isn't one member of the united states senate that doesn't have efforts and dogs in that fight. dams and levees, certainly the occupier of the chair and i both know of some of these problems that exist in our state of oklahoma. the e.p.a. water infrastructure on both drinking water and wastewater, that's something that in our -- particularly in my state, a state that is primarily rural, we have a lot of small towns, they don't know how in the world they're going to come up with the massive amounts of millions of dollars to somehow do something to stop

the mandates, the unfunded mandates that come from government primarily the e.p.a. when i was mayor of tulsa, that was the biggest problem that we had was we had unfunded mandates. we had needed things to be done and we were not able to get them done. the restoration programs. so we'll start with the corporation of engineers. -- corps of engineers. we authorize 29 projects recommended by the chief of engineers that will provide benefits that significantly exceed the cost of the projects. these include harbor deepening projects for charleston, south carolina, jacksonville, florida, brownsville, texas, as well as significant food protection projects in kansas, missouri, california, north carolina, louisiana, and elsewhere. this chart number one shows -- okay, yeah, this happens to be the port of charleston. it gives you an idea of what we

have. we also authorize the next phase of the everglades restoration project. certainly the two senators from florida have this as a great concern. i've been on this road going through the everglades and they have problems there. it's one of the real gems we have in this country and we do address that in a very cost effective way. in addition to new projects, the bill modifies some of the existing projects that need additional congress ol authority before they can -- before they can continue. they floo flood control projects in missouri, kansas, kentucky, arizona as well as critical navigation safety projects in texas. the bill also makes policy changes on the recommendations of senators, mo jects -- project sponsors and the use of our water transportation infrastructure. i've been there. not this one in ohio but i have in oklahoma. a lot of people don't know.

i'm sure the chair and i are aware of this but a lot of people are not aware that we in the state of oklahoma are navigable. we have ports. it looks just like this when you go lieu the -- go through the lock of dams and they're about in that condition. when take stops everybody stops. there's not another way but we have some ideas on how to do this using local sponsors. we have people who are users of the navigation way throughout america that want to be able to update and make sure that they're going to be safe and going to continue to operate, but the law does not allow us to do that on these projects. we correct that in this bill. so we talk about local sponsor, they can make changes so that levee districts are not caught in the bureaucratic nightmare when they attempt to repair the levees which means everything is stopped, so drought stricken communities can increase reservoir capacity. when a corps rebuild as levee

after a disaster, we allow local levee districts to increase the level of flood protection at their own expense. we actually did that two years ago in the last wrta bill. i was proud of us when we came back in and we were able to get back on a two-year cycle. we're supposed to do a water resource development act bill every two years. we did not do it and during the eight years that the democrats controlled the united states senate. right now we are doing that. that was one of the benefits that came from the last bill. in wrda 2016, we expand the current authority of the corps to accept funds from non-federal interests to expedite permits for rail transportation projects. overall we estimate the corps of engineers section of the bill will cost about $6 billion over a ten-year period. the second group was called dams and levees. we address this -- just imagine

this. i was going to find out where this was. do you know where this damage occurred? the ohio river. do you know about what area of the ohio river? this is the ohio river. a minute ago we showed one of the levees. this is just like that levee except this one erupted. there is a term that is used called the "high hazard potential. "quhtion a classification of high hazard takes plashings we have about 14,726 high-hazard potential dams in the united states. the definition of "high hazard" is if it breaks, people will die. and you can see. people die. it's not a -- you know, this is serious stuff. anyway, we now have that -- in this bill that we're going to be able to protect those and to do something about the high-hazard

dams and infrastructure that we have, the levee system. it means that under our legislation, fema -- that's the federal emergency management agency -- is authorized to help rehabilitation dams and state safety officials have determined so if the state safety officials say this is a high hazard forks emfema is authorized to come in and work. c.b.o. estimates that the implementation --- --implementing these dams and safety programs will cost $400 million over ten years. we have added the bureau of indian affairs dam safety program for dams in indian country at a cost of $129 million. this is based on the senate bill 2717 that senator barrasso -- we heard from senator barrasso just a few minutes ago. he was one step ahead of

everybody else when he moved through the committee that i chaired the indian affairs committee -- and we had unanimous support for this very issue. that's allowing the indian -- this program to be expanded to indian country. the third thing the e.p.a. drinking water and waste water infrastructure. you know, i spent a lot of my time going around into the small communities. as i said, years ago i had -- i had a hard jofnlt i was a mayor of -- i had a had job. i was a mayor of a major city. the biggest problem we had was on federal mandates. we tried to stop that. this bill goes a long ways to making that so that these small communities and the peerer communities -- the poorer communities shall the rural communities have access to resolving the problems of these mandates that are primarily in the drinking water and waste water infrastructure. so we are working on that now.

2848 includes $170 million to address lead emergencies and public health consequences of these emergencies. for example, we provide $70 million to capitalize the new water infrastructure finance and motivation -- innovation act. that's the wifia act, that we can provide secure loans for water and waste water. that's what we are in the process of doing. the fourth area -- restoration programs -- we have four regional restoration programs that we rt reported out of the committee. these included senator kirk's great lakes restoration initiative, the lake tahoe initiative. that was senators heller, reed, boxer and feinstein. and so we are addressing these with these restoration programs. the final area is coal ash. something this people don't know about coal ash. they think about this as being

something dangerous when in fact coal a shall is a critical ingredient for making roads and bridges. it is more durable, less expensive than the alternatives and many states actually require fly ash to be used in their project. we have a whole section on the coal ash which includes consensus legislation to allow the e.p.a. to review and approve the state permitting programs for coal ash disposable units. this is going to be something that's very effective. there is no other environmental regulation solely enforcing the very things that we're talking about. so this is our chance. i know right now the next vote i guess is going to be on the virus -- i assume. and i encourage people to keep in mind when they vote on that that they're voting on something that is not -- i don't remember ever seeing it ever before, but

it is something where we no a government program will work because we know we can erad cat mosquitoes. so let's get with it and quit talking about who we're offending politically. let's just get it done. in the meantime, let's be lining up for a major bill that we need to be doing. hopefully we can do it during this work period. and we should be able do it and that's the wrda bill. with that, i yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

mr. cornyn: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority whip. mr. cornyn: i'd ask consent that the quorum call be rescinded. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cornyn: mr. president, i thought i'd gotten to the point where i wasn't surprised at some of the rhetoric we hear from our colleagues on the other side of the aisle, tuck lib the democratic -- particularly the democratic leader, when he clams that we haven't gotten anything done in the united states -- when he claims that we haven't gotten anything done in the united states congress since the republicans have been in the majority.

i guess to the extent he says that -- and there's nobody who corrects it -- then people might actually believe it. but i just want to point out just in the beginning some of the important werk we have been able -- work we have been able to do. i see my friend, the senator from tennessee, here. he he's been the point man on education. since republicans have been in the majority after the election in 2014, more than 140 pieces of legislation have been signed into law. 140 pieces of legislation. 240-plus bills have passed the senate alone, and we've also had an open, by and large -- not entirely, but by and large an open amendment process where any 0 senator who thinks they have a better idea can come to the floor and offer the amendment and get a vote on it.

now, that 240 amendment votes this congress compared to 15 when senator reid was majority leader in the 213th congress. so i think people need to know that his representation isn't borne out by the facts. i.t. not even close -- it's not even close. you know, i was reminded of the quote from abraham lincoln. he define add hypocrite as a man who murdered his parents and then pleaded for mercy because he was an orphan. it's true that we find ourselves in the current messy posture primarily because of the obstruction of our democratic colleagues on the other side. we were hoping this year we would get back to what we all internally call regular order, which is a more transparent process where each of the 12

appropriations bills can be passed out of the appropriations committee, come across the floor, be amended, and then voted orntion match it up when -- voted on, match it up with what our friends and colleagues in the house do and then send it up to the president for signature. but instead of that normally functioning congress, because of the filibusters of our democratic colleagues led by the democratic leader who now is claiming that the congress has become dysfunctional a sudden, it's because of their actions. they're the ones that have blocked the appropriations process. that's why we find ourselves in the remaining few weeks in september all about trying to figure out how we keep -- how we pay the bills, how do we keep the government up and running. i have a list of legislation that makes up that 240 bills, 140 laws that were signed into law. i won't waste the senate's time

by reciting those, but i would ask consent that following my remarks this be made part of the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cornyn: so we find ourselves here today, mr. president, voting again on a $1.1 billion appropriation to combat the zika virus. there's been a lot of discussion about the zika virus, as we have come to learn, this is a virus carried by a certain species of mosquito. and because of the summer weather and because the zika virus seems to be coming our way from central and south america, we figured it was important for us to do something about it. on the high tech end, what we need to do is our scientists need to come up with a vaccine to make sure that pregnant women don't have to worry about birth defects in their unborn children typified by this chart, which

demonstrates a condition known as microcephaly, where literally the head is shrunken along with the brain, and of course you can imagine the prognosis for this child is very poor and nothing but heartache is in store for this child's family. this is what our democratic colleagues are risking by continuing to filibuster the spending that we have provided for in this appropriations bill, $1.1 billion. now, it's also important to do what is sometimes referred to as the low-tech part of this as well. recently i was in houston, texas, with some of my friends from the harris county public health center -- public health district, excuse me. and they were demonstrating to me how they trap mosquitoes. the culex mosquito, which can

spread other types of viruses, but the adidas egypty. and there is work done at the local level to monitor the mosquito population, then to test it to see whether they can detect the presence of the zika virus. when they do, that of course directs the spraying effort by the public health district because one of the most important things we can do is control the mosquito population. you can't eliminate it entirely, and spraying without any particular target is a waste of time and waste of money. but you can target it. and that's what's happening in places like houston, texas, in the harris county public health district. i spent the afternoon with this public health official at what's called the mosquito and vector

control unit. as the presiding officer knows, use ton is a big place. harass is county -- harris county, where houston is located, is the third-largest county in the country by population. it covers a losted land. it covers 1,077 square miles. tlings bigger than the straight of rhode island. the reason i mention that is just the idea that you go out and spray 177 square miles doesn't make a lot of sense. that's why the important work that's being done by the mosquito and vector control unit is so important to actually target the spraying where it's needed the most. but perhaps the most important thing that we can do as citizens is to educate ourselves and to prevent ourselves from being bitten by the mosquito in the first place. some that has to do with the clothing you wear, using insect propellant -- repellents.

particularly with pregnant women, it is important that women of child-bearing age take special care to protect themselves. and so part of the reason why i visited with the public health officials in houston was to help raise not -- not only educate me but raise public awareness of what we can do as individual citizens to protect ourselves. one of the surveillance entomologists -- quite a title -- a surveillance entomologist with the mosquito and vector control unit is a fellow who i met who has got a won tearful name. max vigilant. what a great name for a surveillancen entomologist in harris county, texas. he gave me a glimpse of what he and his colleagues are doing every day to help safeguard our communities. but they can't do it alone. that's why this funding that has been blocked on numerous occasions by our democratic colleagues over ridiculous

objections makes no sense whatsoever. i happen to see the senior senator from new york, senator schumer, sent out a tweet this afternoon urging senate republicans to pass zika funding, to which i re12307bdz sponded -- responded, well, you blocked it, chuck -- which it true. and they continue to block it. but it is unfortunately falling to local leaders like county judge ed emmett in harris county, people like max vigilant and other folks at the local level to take care of this impending crisis because, frankly, the dysfunction that's occurring here in congress led by the democratic leader. so i just think it's important to set the record straight. i'm grateful that we have leaders at the local and state level who step up when the federal government seems incapable of doing so.

but now it's time for the federal government to step up. whyour democratic colleagues wod risk this horrific birth defect for political reasons is just lost on me. it makes no sense whatsoever. and i might add that not only is it spread by mosquitoes, there's now some demonstrated cases, or proven cases of sexual transmission of the zika virus as well. and we know our friends in florida, in particular, have had domestically transmitted cases of zika virus and are working hard to combat the mosquito there and to contain the vieshes and to -- contain the virus. but for the health of our country and the protection of all of our children, let's get this compromise legislation done. no one should doubt the gravity of the threat or the long-term health consequences of failing to get our work done. so i hope that our democratic

colleagues put their words into action and vote to send additional resources across this country to those that are already working hard to defeat the zika virus. i would just conclude by saying i would just implore our democratic colleagues, including the senior senator from nevada, the democratic leader, to quit saying things that just are demonstrably not true. we have worked hard, many times over the democratic leader's objection -- i can think of two of them that stand out in my mind for trade promotion authority and for a long-term highway bill where he didn't support it and he actively tried to block it. so we had to find other democrats and work with the white house to get it done. and we have been able to do a number of important -- pass a number of important bills, but very little with his help because for some reason he seems

intent on trying to cause this congress to be as dysfunctional as it was when he was the leader. but it's not going to happen. we are working with people of good faith on both sides of the aisle, and when we can with the white house to do the important work of the american people. with that, mr. president, i would yield the floor. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee. mr. alexander: mr. president, i'm here for another reason, but i've been listening to the p distinguished majority whip, the senator from texas. i want to congratulate him on his remarks and make an observation. i was once a republican governor in a state that had a democratic legislature. and if i had gone around the state for the first four years of my term announcing that we couldn't get anything done because the democratic legislature couldn't -- i couldn't work with them, i think about half the people would have said maybe we need another governor. we need someone who has the

capacity to work with people and get results. so i have never understood the strategy that exists, i hope temporarily, on the other side of the aisle of telling the american people that the senate can't function. that doesn't bring any respect and credit to this body. it doesn't help the democrats to say that. it doesn't help the republicans. all it does is cause the american people to think that those of us who they elect aren't capable of working together to get a result when in fact, as the senator from texas said, that's not true. i know for a fact -- he cited one example, and that is the bill we passed last december to fix no child left behind. president obama signed it. he said it was a christmas miracle. it got 85 votes in the senate. it was difficult to do. but i have been careful, every time i talk about this to say it would never have happened had

not senator patty murray, the democratic senator from washington been willing to work with me and other republicans and democrats on the committee to get a consensus. every republican on the committee worked that way. the senator from minnesota, senator franken, for example, held back on an amendment he cared a lot about in committee and glead to offer it on the floor because he didn't want to hurt the bill. we've passed very important legislation in the senate. the cybersecurity bill is important. it would not have passed without democratic support. "the wall street journal" said that education bill that was passed with the support not just of the governors, but of the national education association and the american federation of teachers, usually democratic constituents, "the wall street journal" said it was the most significant devolution of power from washington to states in 25 years. i hear from everybody i talk to in tennessee -- teachers, governors -- they like the bill that we passed.

they're proud we did it. they thank us for it. i've heard from physicians in tennessee that they're glad that for once now we have fixed the doc fix. in other words, there were a few months we're not leaving them in limbo about how they're paid for their medicare patients. that's been taken care of not just by senator hatch but also by democratic senator wyden. right out of the box last year with a new republican majority, we passed a trade bill. with whose support? with president obama's support. that was apdemocratic and republican effort together. the chemical safety bill. several republican senators worked hard on that, but so did the senator from california, senator boxer. and without her leadership, it never would have passed. our legislature in tennessee has not been able to agree on a long-term highway funding bill, but in washington, we have, again, because of cooperation between republicans and democrats. so my practice always has been to give people credit when they

do something good. because i think often that credit reflects back on the institution and maybe even on the person giving the credit. that's a time-honored way of doing business in the united states senate. i'd like to see us get back to that in the next congress. let's recognize the fact that there are a number of things that haven't gotten done. i can cite all the reasons why i'm unhappy about the fact that we were able to pass 12 appropriations bills in committee but were blocked by the democrats in bringing them to the floor, but i would rather talk about the things that we accomplished, the things we got done and show the american people when they put us here they were making a good decision. so we've had a productive senate these last two years. one newspaper said it was the most productive we've had since the early 1990's. any time you pass a bill that sends more power from washington back to the states, that has the support of the governors, the n.e.a. and the american federation for teachers at the same time, i think we've done

something pretty good. and i'm happy to give credit to the democratic senators who voted for it because without them and without the president's signature it wouldn't have happened. so a little more of that spirit would help the senate function and function in a way it traditionally has. and we can finish our work this year, by the way. we have a mental health bill that senator cassidy and senator murphy worked hard on. we have a twenty first century cures bill that has broad support, 19 bipartisan bills. we're moving next week, i think, to a water resources development bill that senator boxer as well as senator inhofe are working on. why do we not give other members of the senate due credit when they work together and get a result? no wonder the american people wonder whether we're getting anything done. the truth is we're getting quite a bit done, and it's in their interest, and i'm proud of it. now let me take three or four minutes because i see other senators here, on something

that's very important to me; a completely different subject and important to the people of my hometown of merryville, tennessee. last tuesday i attended a funeral for officer kenny motes of merryville, tennessee, a police officer killed in the line of duty responding to a domestic disturbance call. kenny motes was a young man. he has three young children. his wife brittany and he are in their early 30's. nothing has so touched our community that i can remember in a long, long time. merryville, tennessee, is a small town. blunt county is our county. things like this are not supposed to happen where we live. an officer gets a call. he goes to deal with a domestic disturbance, and he's ambushed from the house where he's called by a person who is now in prison. there was a huge outpouring of support from our community not

just for kenny motes, but also for the men and women in blue in the police department of merryville and of the blunt county deputies who were there as well. there was a procession before the funeral. the funeral was at 7:00 last tuesday. the church, severe heights baptist church, began filling up at 4:00. it was nearly full with hundreds of people and there were more than 1,200 who listened in on a webcast. the next day as i was driving to the airport, i found myself behind a procession of maybe 200 squad cars from many different police departments and sheriff's office around our state and other places. there was a flag of honor, the united states flag of honor, that is flown to honor first responders who are killed in the line of duty. it was driven from texas so it could be there to honor kenny motes as well.

so today on the senate floor i come simply to express the feelings of the united states senate, i'm sure all of us, to his family and to those who serve with him in the merryville city police department, to the blunt county sheriffs deputies, to the entire community who has grieved over his, grieved over his loss. at the funeral, the police chief, tony crisp, gave a commendation to officer motes. it's called the commendation of valor. it's awarded to a police officer who demonstrates gallantry and extraordinary heroism. the act must have been so exceptional that the rules say that the officer while full little aware of the imminent threat to their own personal safety assumed a voluntary course of action above and beyond the call of duty at the risk of his own life. this commendation is the highest decoration conferred by the

department. i was moved, as were everyone in the church last tuesday night by chief of police tony crisp reading of the commendation of valor. i would like to offer that commendation of valor to be inserted at this point in the record and express once again to the family of kenny motes and to the merryville police department and all of the law enforcement officers in the area, our respect for his life, his bravery and for what they do to protect us on a daily basis. i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. leahy: mr. president, is the distinguished senator from tennessee finished?

mr. president, i suspect there have not been americans who either visited or know much about loose. it's a poor country. it's geographically about the size of utah. it has less than seven million people. it's wedged between vietnam and cambodia. i'm sure the back of the 1960's and 1970's few americans heard of laos and virtually no one in the united states was aware that the united states was involved in a war in laos. for nearly a decade, from 1964 to 1973, the united states military released more than two million tons of ordinance on laos. they did that during bombing runs, 580,000 bombing runs. that amounts to a planeload of bombs every 8 minutes, 24 hours a day for 9 years.

laos became and actually still is the most heavily bombed country per capita in history. as part of a u.s. war in laos that was never declared, never declared war there. it was never public sized. it was kept secret. it was done to support the laos government and to interdict the viet cong on ho chi minh trail. but the bombs destroyed many, many villages and displaced hundreds of thousands of lao civilians. but here's what happens, and this is so often the case. the land mines, the cluster bombs, other kinds of bombs, war's end -- the vietnam war ended in 1975. in april of 1975 the united states senate armed services committee by a one-vote margin

voted to finally stop authorization for the war in vietnam. this is april of 1975. i remember that very well because the first vote i cast in the armed services committee. but the war ends, the casualties continue. all these ordinances are in the ground. a child walking to school, a farmer going out to a field to get a cow, they step on one of these, and they're destroyed. >> up to a third of the bombs dropped do not explode. huge numbers of unexploded ordinance.

of the 2 70 million u.s. clusterbombs dropped in laos during that period, it estimated as many as 80 million didn't detonate. but they remained on or slightly below the surface of the ground. they're ready to explode. if they're disturbed by an unsuspecting farmer or child. only a small number of these munitions have been destroyed. but progress has been made. today there are just under 50 new exploded ordinance casualties in laos each year. that's down from more than 300 a decade ago. the majority of the accidents result in death. nearly half of the casualties are children. mr. president, i ask consent that i show my colleagues on the senate floor a photograph. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. leahy: this photograph,

this laotian girl was taken a number of years ago. she is actually one of the lucky ones, walk on her homemade crutches. she survived. much of her life is destroyed because her left leg is gone. that's what these cluster munition dozen to civilians. this was after the peace agreements were signed, and she stepped in the wrong place. you know, i became concerned of this problem back in the late 1980's, and in 1990 the first assistance from the leahy war victims fund was provided to help victims of u.s. clusterbombs in laos. since then, the fund has been

administered by usaid. it's been used to provide medical-related assistance for thousands of laotians. i've included funding each year above the amounts requested by successive administrations, democratic and republican, to support programs to locate and destroy un134r0eded ordinates in laos. since 1995, the united states has contributed more than $1 00 million for these u.x.o. programs in laos. that's $19.5 million for programs. in 2016, and this has been supported by both democrats and republicans, including senator graham, the house subcommittee representative granger, the house ranking member, and i

appreciate the support for this. i have always thought the united states should do more. so i'm very pleased that president obama, who was the first american president to visit laos, announced earlier today the u.s. will increase its support for u.x.o. programs in laos. the president pledged $90 million over the next three years, for education programs at the fiscal 2015 level of $15 million annually. the balance of the $45 million is going to be used to support a national u.x.o. survey. the survey is extremely important. as i said, the land area is about the size of utah. but this will establish a baseline for contaminated land.

that land remains to be cleared. the laos government will allow international donors to plan their future clearance activities. they can tell us how much time it will take and effort to make laos u.x.o. impact-free. earlier this year in anticipation of president obama's laws, tim reisert from my office met twice with the white house staff to discuss ways to increase u.s. funding for u.x.o. programs in laos. and i applaud president obama for publicly recognizing we have a responsibility to do more to end this tragic legacy by accelerating our efforts. do all we can to ensure that congress does appropriate the fundinfunding.

all laotians may walk in safety. unlike this girl, they can walk in saivmen safety. i think what president obama is doing is similar to what president george h.w. bush did, the first president bush. even though we had fought a war in vietnam, even though it divided this country, after the war, he decided we had to do something to reengage with vietnam and to show our respect to those who had helped us with m.i.a.'s and others in vietnam. so we worked with bobby mueller and i might say again ted

reisert and myself, and the vietnam veterans of america and used the leahy war victims fund there. i visited them at the time and since to see what an enormous difference it can make. i look forward to going to laos and seeing what a difference the leahy fund and our administration's and this country's efforts will make. now, madam president, in august, as most of us do, i traveled around my state. fortunately, vermont, the land area is the second -- only the second-largest state in new england, which makes it not that

large. i can travel all over it. and i heard from vermonters all around my home state about the issues that are important to them, but one thing i heard almost every stop the made, whether by a republican group, democrat group, independent group, whatever the age, whatever their -- whatever they did for work, they said, what about the supreme court? why has the senate failed to act on the nomination of chief judge merrick garland? and i told them that you know, the senate is returning from the longest recess in nearly 50 years. perhaps republican leadership was hoping that americans had forgottening about the unprecedented obstruction of a supreme court nominee. i can assure you that americans, certainly vermonters, have not forgotten. they have not forgotten the fact

that senate republicans have refused to hold a hearing for chief judge garland, and they've not forgotten that this unprecedented, unprecedented step in not allowing a hearing, this means the supreme court continues to be hindered by the lack of a full bench of justices. chief judge garland's nomination has been blocked by republicans in the senate for 174 days. no time in the history of our country has something like this been done. i think the senate should get to work, fulfill its constitutional duty of providing advice and consent on the nomination, and then have the guts to vote either "yes" or "no." to ensure that we have a fully functioning supreme court. instead of doing our job, we're voting "maybe." the partisan decision to refuse any sort of consideration of a

highly qualified nominee like chief judge garland is an embarrassment. it is an accomplishment on which the senate can be proud. the republican obstruction of chief judge garland has diminished the supreme court. it's impacted millions of families across the country. in seven separate cases, the eight respecting justices could not serve as final arbiter of law when they're unwilling to issue a final decision on the merits. and just last week the court deadlocked on consideration of election law case that will impact the constitutional rights of millions of voters ahead of this year's election. notwithstanding that, senate republicans, who are in the majority, have taken this unprecedented -- the only time in the history of the country -- they continue to blockade in the hope that their party's

presidential nominee wins in november. it's disappointing they continue to hold our highest court hostage in support of an intemperate political candidate who has demonstrated contempt for the rule of law, who said that some judges aren't qualified because their forebearers were mexican. republican obstruction and disregard for the co-equal branch of government also extends to the lower federal courts. since taking over the majority last year, senate republican inaction has allowed judicial vacancies to more than double theash h. their reach -- they've reached 90 vacancies. yet the republican leadership refuses to allow a vote on any of the 27 judicial nominees that are already pending on the executive calendar. these nominees a result of the president working with home

state senators, republicans and democrats, to make a nomination. each of these nominees was voted out of the judiciary committee with bipartisan support. 2008, george w. bush was president. it was in the last year of his term. democrats controlled the senate. i was chairman of the judiciary committee. we confirmed ten judicial nominees in one day. we actually did it in september. not a single nominee was left on the executive calendar. today 13 judicial nominees from states represented by 16 republican senators are ready for confirmation votes. i hope that these 16 republican senators are able to press upon their leadership just how important it is to allow the senate to do its job and vote on these nominees that would serve their state.

i despair somewhat because even though they are nominees from their state, here with their approval, they're not getting their leadership moved forward. just as not a single republican senator has been able to get their republican leadership to allow a hearing and a vote on judge garland. so i hope the republican leadership will reconsider its outright refusal to hold a hearing, vote for chief judge garland's nomination to the supreme court. this unpress dejtsed, un-- this unpress dented -- this unprecedented substance has already -- there's still time avoid another term. it is ghood we actually show up now and then in washington and did our work. there is a plenty of time to have a hearing and vote on chief judge garland's nomination. it is time for the snoot get back to work -- for the snoot

get back to work. i hope my friends on the other side of the aisle will realize what they've done to the supreme court and will reverse this. it is only able to be blocked because all republicans have stood with their leader and have blocked the supreme court nominee. i think that's wrong. it's never been done before. in fact the last time there was a vacancy -- and i mention this for the young pages who are here to get a little history less son, something that senators should know -- the last time there was a vacancy in a presidential election year was a republican president. the democrats were in control of the senate. we confirmed that nominee in a presidential election year. and the vote was unanimous. madam president, i yield the floor and i ask consent that both sniement my statements be d

in the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. leahy: i don't see others seeking the floor, so i would suggest the absence of a quorum equally dwiewded. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: quorum call:

a senator: madam speaker. the presiding officer: the senator from florida.

mr. nelson: madam president, i ask that the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. nelson: madam president, we have a vote coming up at 5:30 on the zika crisis. unfortunately it's not the vote that we voted in the bipartisan bill that had 69 votes in favor of it out of a hundred senators, which we then sent down to the house. the house then adds a number of political messages that don't have anything to do with zika. the display of the confederate flag. there are some people that want the display in certain areas. what does that have to do with zika? there are others that definitely don't want that. there's another one. defund planned parenthood.

well, there are clearly people down in the house of representatives that want to defind planned parenthood -- defund planned parenthood but what does that have to do with zika save for a lot of women that are pregnant that suspect that they might have the zika virus might go into a planned parenthood clinic so it would suggest that you don't want to defund planned parenthood. or what about cutting back on medicaid funding for puerto rico? now that has something to do with zika because puerto rico along with brazil are the two places that are infected the most. the c.d.c. estimates that 25% of

the population of puerto rico is infected with the zika virus. and so you want to cut medicaid funding for puerto rico? well, that's not only ridiculous, it's silly. so once again now multiple times at 5:30 we will have that vote as if you want us who desperately want the funding to meet the emergency crisis of zika. you want us to do it by having to take these political riders that people who are in the extreme spectrum of politics down in the house of representatives are wanting to think that they can force us to take. well, it's not going to happen. now, is there a crisis? well, let me just tell you what

the latest is in my state of florida. well, there are 67 nontravel-related cases of zika that have been established. there are 577 in the state of florida that are travel related. now what does that mean? that means the 577 have contracted zika some place else and they have come to florida but they're there. there are 67 -- it may be over 70 -- that have contracted zika in the state of florida. you can contract it one of two ways. you can contract it by a mosquito that is infected the

aegypti strain of mosquito. this is not a normal mosquito. he lurks in the back dark corners of the house. she can lay her eggs in stagnant water in something as little as water caught in a bottle cap. that's one way to get zika trns mitted in florida and -- transmitted in florida and there have been upwards of 70 of those cases. the other way is bisexual -- by sexual transmission. if one of the partners has zika, they can transmit it to the other. the zika virus lives in the male for about two months. the zika virus itself manifests itself like the mild flu. that's not really the problem. the problem is the over 80 females in florida that are

pregnant that also have the zika virus. and you know, you've seen the photos of these terribly deformed children and that's because as the fetus develops, the virus attacks the brain stem and lessens the ability of the fetus to develop a normal head and a normal size brain and as a result you see the pictures of these terribly deformed babies. it's such a tragedy not only for the family but is a considerable expense. we've heard some of the authorities estimate it would be for the expected life of a child that is born with microcephaly that it may be as much as $10

million. where is that money going to come from? in our state of florida, there are over 80 females that are pregnant that are infected with the zika virus. i just told you statistics of our state. we happen to be ground zero for the zika virus. there are 12 flights a day into the miami international airport from brazil and puerto rico. so you see the opportunity to keep bringing it in just into the state of florida but it is elsewhere in the country as well. so some of our brethren andste d sisteren here since we passed

the bill here till have their heads in the sand refusing to recognize that this is an emergency. now, if they continue, here's what's going to happen. an infected person doesn't mean that infected person stays in one place. they can get on an airplane. they can get on a train, a car and go elsewhere in the country. and elsewhere in the country if that infected person is bitten by an aegypti mosquito, now that mosquito is infected and that mosquito feeds on an average of four people at one sitting for dinner. so now the infected mosquito has now infected four more people in another state because that person has traveled to another state.

it ought to be common sense and how many times have folks like me and the senator from maryland come and pled with our colleagues let's stop this monkey business. let's stop these political games. let's stop these political riders. let's do what the senate did three months ago when it passed bipartisan by 69 votes $1.1 billion in emergency funding and send it down to the house and tell the house to stop playing these games. and so seems to me we're going to go through another exercise now having multiple times. we're going to vote this down at 5:30. what's going to happen next? i hope reasonable heads will

prevail. madam president, i yield the floor. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. a senator: madam president, first i want to thank my colleague from florida, senator nelson, for his comments in regards to the zika funding. i know that as the senator from florida, he knows firsthand of the locally acquired disifers in -- zika virus in his own state. mr. cardin: this is not just a matter of individuals traveling to other countries and obtaining the zika virus and coming back to the united states. we have a locally acquired zika virus here in the united states and senator nelson has been an outspoken leader on the united states senate and the congress doing the right thing. he's absolutely right when he says we did pass three months ago a compromise bill that would have funded the n.i.h. and usaid and the other agencies what they needed for the remainder of the year, would have done it in a

way that was not all the money that i thought or you thought and senator nelson thought should be provided but was a fair compromise. instead of course we got a conference report that contained less funds. with poison pills and issues that are not related to the zika funding to try to move forward on a pretty extreme agenda. that's not what we should be doing with the health of people of this country. i take this time to support what senator nelson has said and rise to talk about the urgent need for us to provide full funding, full funding for our response to the zika virus. more than six months ago president obama submitted a request to congress for $1.9 billion in emergency supplemental funding to address the virus. the request included $1.5 billion for the department health and human services, $335 million for the u.s. agency

for international development and $41 million for the department of state and support for several other federal agencies. the administration plan, which had the full weight of the scientific community behind it, represents a coordinated and well-funded whole government approach to combatting the virus with a focus on prevention, treatment and research. but instead of listening to the experts, republicans offered a zika conference report that underfunded critical federal, state and global response by more than $800 million and included poison policy riders and pay-fors. the senate rightfully rejected the zika conference report, and we'll have another opportunity, and i just urge my colleagues to stop playing politics with this and let's bring forward a clean funding for the zika virus. many senators including myself were disappointed we adjourned

for the summer recess before dealing with this public health emergency. one thing is clear, zika will not simply disappear on its own. when we left town in july there were approximately 1,100 travel-associated zika cases reported in the continental united states, including 31 in my home state of maryland, and 2,474 locally acquired cases across u.s. territories. as has been pointed out, people travel. they bring the virus back here to the united states, it can be transmitted by mosquitoes here and it can be locally acquired here. just six weeks later the number of travel-associated zika infections has more than doubled to 2,500 cases, including 77 cases in maryland. the number of locally acquired cases across the u.s. territory has jumped fourfold in the last six weeks to more than 9,000

cases, and perhaps most alarmingly, as senator nelson pointed out, it's documented here in the united states. florida has documented approximately 30 locally acquired zika cases. zika isn't just a threat to us at home. it also threatens american service men and women and their families and other personnel who are serving abroad. earlier this month the department of defense officially confirmed that 33 u.s. service members have contracted the virus abroad. and just last week officials in singapore, a country we haven't even considered in context of zika, announced that it had 82 confirmed cases of the virus and had detected local transmission. we cannot play partisan politics with this virus. because of zika, babies are being born in the united states and throughout central and south america with horrible birth defects. a recent study found that

microencephaly is not the only birth defect resulting from this virus. to date more than 1,300 pregnant women nonpartisan continental united states -- in the continental united states and territory are being monitored following laboratory evidence of a possible zika virus infection, according to the zika prevention registry. without congressional action to fund our response to the zika epidemic adequately, the efforts to better understand and combat this terrible disease will, is in danger of being derailed. let me just quote from dr. tony fauci the nation's leading infectious disease exert and the direct of national institutes of allergy and infectious diseases. he's well known by all of us on both sides of the aisle. he's frequently used by democrats and republicans here as the expert. this is what he said here -- quote -- "the vaccine effort will be blunted if not aborted if we don't have the funding."

end quote. dr. fauci also emphasized that other vital h.h.s. and national institutes of health programs will suffer if the agency is forced to focus funding primarily on vaccine development. already the national institute of allergy and infectious diseases diverted funds from tuberculosis and malaria research to fund zika efforts. those programs are now suffering. while congress has been away the administration has been forced to rob vital research programs focusing on ebola and cancer. earlier this month secretary burwell announced h.h.s. will transfer another $81 million from other advanced research programs at n.i.h. and biomedical research and development authority to continue zika vaccine development. it's unconscionable that we're forcing our public health officials to make these kinds of decisions. madam president, funding of n.i.h. has always been a

bipartisan priority, and yet here we're not making the money available, requiring money to be diverted from other important n.i.h. products and inadequately funding a response to a public health emergency in zika. even with those additional funds that were made available, dr. fauci will still need $196 million to fully fund n.i.h. research of zika. if congress doesn't approve emergency funding for zika research, n.i.h.'s zika vaccine trials will once again be interrupted and treatment will be further delayed. how do we explain this to the millions of americans at risk for contracting zika here at home? let me just point out, on august 30, just a couple days ago, the director of the centers for disease control announced that the agency will run out of funding to fight zika. we don't have the money there. it's up to congress to provide those funds.

mosquito season, as we know mosquitoes that have this virus virus -- the mosquito season in the united states typically last through october. if local transmission spreads in other area the c.d.c. is unlikely to have the resources to respond to send teams to help local and state health departments. millions of americans are at risk. state and local health departments also bear the brunt of consequences of not fully funding zika response efforts. our nation's health departments are on the front line fighting this disease while working on grass roots level to expand and enhance prevention efforts including mosquito surveillance and patrol, promoting culturally conscious education programs to raise public awareness and equipping our public health care workforce with the most medically accurate guidelines to help patients make informed decisions about their health care. the first order of business for

this congress should be to pass an adequate and clean zika funding bill. neglecting to pass an appropriate zika response bill is a failure to expect of mothers who have growing concern about the lasting impact of mosquito bites this summer could have on the health of their unborn children, and it is a failure to the millions of americans who trust us to do everything in our power to safeguard their health and well-being. if we expect to make adequate progress of combatting this virus this year, if we want to protect the health and welfare of all americans, congress must pass a clean, well-resourced funding bill without delay. madam president, i would suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

quorum call:

a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from new hampshire. up-or-down yod yod are -- mrs. . i ask the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture cloture. the clerk: we move to hereby move to bring to a close debate on the conference to h.r. 2577, an act making appropriations for the departments of transportation and housing and urban development, and so forth and for other purposes, signed by 17 senators.

the presiding officer: by unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum call has been waived. the question is, is it the sense of the senate that debate on the conference report to accompany h.r. 2577, an act making appropriations for the departments of transportation and housing and urban development and related agencies for the fiscal year ending september 30, 2016 and for other partisanships shall be brought to a close. the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. the clerk will call the roll. vote: vote:

vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: on this vote, the yeas are 52, the nays are 46. three fifths of the senators not having voted in the affirmative, the motion is not agreed to. the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture. the clerk: cloture motion: we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on on the motion to proceed to calendar number 524, h.r. 5293, an act making appropriations for the department of defense and so forth and for other purposes, signed by 17 senators. the presiding officer: by unanimous consent, the mandatory quoacial quorum call has been waived. the question is, is it the sense of the senate debate on the

motion to proceed to h.r. 52 3-rbg9s an act making appropriations for the department of defense for the fiscal year ending september 30, 2017, and for other purposes shall be brought to a close? the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. the clerk will call the roll. vote:

vote:

s vote:

vote: will and will will will versus session right now so you need to well i don't want 53,100,000 maybe the will so i may they continue to you know what i write were you so you in a way well

the presiding officer: on this vote, the yeas are 5, the nays are 43. three-fifths of the senators duly chosen and sworn not having voted in the affirmative, the motion is not agreed to. mr. mcconnell: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: i move to proceed to calendar number 523, s. 2848. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the motion. the clerk: motion to proceed to the kings of s. 2848, a bill to provide pour the conservation and development of water and

related resources and so forth and for other purposes. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent that the senate 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 ask unanimous consent the appointments at the desk appear separately in the record as if made by the chair. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i understand that h.r. 3231 is at the desk and i ask for -- a first immediating. -- a first reading. the presiding officer: the clerk will read the title. the clerk: and act to amend title 5, united states code to protect unpaid interns in the federal government and so forth and for other purposes. mr. mcconnell: i now ask for a second reading and object to my own request. the presiding officer: objection having been heard, the bill will be read for a second time on the next legislative day. mr. mcconnell: now,

mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today, itdjourn until 10:00 a.m. wednesday, september 7. following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the journal of proceedings be approved to date, and the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day. further, that following leader remarks the senate resume consideration of the motion to proceed to s. 2848, finally, that the senate recess from 12:30 until 2:15 p.m. to allow for the weekly conference meetings. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. mcconnell: if there is no further business to come before the senate, i ask had a is it standard adjourned under the previous order following the remarks of senators rubio, brown, mccain, flake, and sullivan. the presidin mrs. boxer: i ask senator rubio if i could have one minute to respond to your word or comments before he begins. is that all right with the senator? the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. boxer: thank you so much.

i just wanted to say to the majority leader, i'm glad that he put forward the wrda bill. i think it is so important to democrats and republicans. and i want to thank the senator from florida for yielding just a few seconds because i'm just going to read the titles of the bill, take me less than a minute. you could see how important it is. we're talk about making navigation better. we're talking about flood control. we're talking about coastal storm damage reduction. environmental restoration, relief for flint, michigan. improved notification when high levels of lead are found in drinking water anywhere in the country. restores critical ecosystems, invests in innovative water technologies like desalination, water recycling. we're talking about drought assistance. we're talking about improving ports, repairing dams, and allowing states to issue permits for coal ash. this is a critical bill.

it's super-bipartisan. and i will tell you, working with senator inhofe continues to be a joy for me when this comes to infrastructure. on the environment, we're sort of from different planets. but when it comes to infrastructure, we are as one. so i wanted to thank the majority leader for putting this bill out there and i'm asking members on both sides to help us get to this bill. and i yield the floor. again, i thank the senator from florida. ms. stabenow: mr. president, might i take just one minute or less, as well, if it's -- the presiding officer: is there objection? ms. stabenow: i just want to thank the leader as well and thank colleagues senator inhofe and senator boxer for working in good faith, as they usually do, in coming up with a bill that addresses multiple issues that are very important for members, certainly for us in michigan, but others as well. and i thank the leader for bringing it forward.

mr. rubio: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from florida. mr. rubio: thank you, mr. president. before i begin my remarks on the vote we just took on zika, i want to thank the majority leader for bringing to the floor the water bill, that also has important priorities for the state of florida, particularly the central everglades planning proficiency which will allow us to move forward on a series of programs that are important for not just restoring the natural flow of the everglades but for helping coastal areas of florida impacted over the last few months with algae blooms as a result of water runoff from lake okeechobee. there is a lot more to be done. this project alone will not solve this problem, tbus the single beneficiary but it is the single-biggest project out there that can help us move affor tows that goal. i will ask my colleagues to allow this issue to move forward. there are many good priorities here for many states in this country, but for florida in particular. the central everglades project has taken so throng get to this point i thank senator inhofe for working with me on it to ensure

that it is a part of this project. it is important for florida, particularly our coastal areas and those who care deeply about one of the great natural treasures of this country, the florida everglades. on a separate topic, i rise to discuss the spread 69l. of the zika virus. i have been calling for funding to confront this crisis to be included in the continuing resolution that congress is hopefully going to pass in the coming weeks. but first, in light of tonight's vote, i want to take a step back and look at how we have gotten to this point. i want us to think about how long we have known about this crisis. i want us to think about how many warning signs had to be ignored for us to still be having this debate. and i want all the american people who are concerned about and impacted by the virus to know the truth about our deliberations up to this point. the fruit and vegetable is that ever -- the truth is that every senator has known about the zika virus since at least january. we all knew then it was a threat. the world health organization warned in january that zika

would spread throughout most of the americas by the end of this year. in february, as the number of travel-related cases in the united states grew, president obama made an emergency spending request of $1.9 billion. i supported that request. the vast majority of congress for political reasons did not. and so the virus continued to spread. since then i have come here to the floor of the senate to urge my colleagues to take action on zika on at least eight separate occasions. i've written letters. i've written laws. i've supported every single zika proposal that has come before the senate, regardless of which party wrote it. tonight will mark the 12th time that i have voted to move forward on funding to take on zika. but tonight for the third time the minority party, the democrats in the senate, have blocked for funding tovite this anniversary -- to fight this virus. at times my own party has not taken the issue seriously enough either. in the eight times i have come

to the ploor to deliver speeches about this issue, i have called up both parties and i have repeatedly warned that it is only a matter of time before we had a mosquito transmission in the manland of the united states. tragically, that time has now come and with it an increase in infections. when we last voted on this issue in july, there were approximately 1,300 cases of zika in the continental united states and 2,900 cases in u.s. territories. since isince that in the meantin july, these numbers have doubled to over 2,700 cases in the continental united states and over 14,000 cases in u.s. territory, particularly puerto rico. that includes 625 pregnant women whose babies are now at risk of implications. including very serious ones like microcephaly. these are not statistics. these are real people. as the infection rate continues to snowbawcialtion our health officials and experts desperately need additional resources to combat this crisis.

i continue to support supplemental legislation to fund the fight against zika but we cannot afford to wait any longer. and that's why i have requested that any legislation to fund the federal government beyond the 30th of september include additional resources to combat and hopefully through a vaccine eradicate the zika virus. this is for congress our moment of truth on this incredibly dangerous issue. we are going to continue to see more explosive growth in infections of people. keep conspiring in a political election year to do nothing. my colleagues on both sides of the aisle in the house and senate now face a choice. are the political points you hope to gain from posturing on this funding really more valuable than saving the lives and protecting pregnant women and preventing unborn children from being afflicted by this disease? ask yourself this: how will history remember this moment 20 years from now if, god

forbid, there are hundreds or even thousands of children who are born with microcephaly while we stood here playing politics and did nothing? this has the potential to tarnish the leg significant of our generation of national leaders and to cause grave health challenges for an untold number of americans. my colleagues, for the life of me i can not understand why any senator with any chance to do something about this would stand in the way. my message to both parties and both chambers to this month is simple and straightforward: zika is not a game. and if you think it is, then you should take your game somewhere else. this issue is about human beings, not political chess pieces. and we have a duty to solve it. it won't stop until congress does what is necessary to respond to this public health crisis. enough waiting. enough games. congress needs to act, and it needs to act now. with that, mr. president, i

yield the floor. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from ohio. mr. brown: thank you, mr. president. my colleagues were back home in ohio or michigan or arizona or florida over the last number of weeks. this country lost one of the heroes in the fight to eradicate small pox. lakewood ohio native, oberlin college graduate dr. donald henderson. he passed away at age 87 on august 19. he left behind perhaps the most important public health legacy of anyone in the 20th century,ing along with dr. william fayge who is still alive and very active. dr. henderson helped lead the war on humankind's most feared disease, achieved one of the greatest public health victories ever, perhaps a very, very

arguably maybe the most important health victory ever and that's the eradication of small pox. most americans are maybe too young to remember the fear it struck in people across the globe. because of the work of literally 150,000 workers, paid workers and volunteers, thousands and thousands, tens of thousands of public health workers, fewer and fewer of us bear the scars in our upper arms that serve as a reminder of the danger this disease once posed. in the 20th century it's estimated that more than 3 00 million people die of small pox. think of that. more than 300 million people died of small pox at least. some estimates are as high as 500 million, and the numbers aren't particularly precise, putting it mildly, because of where the deaths occurred and how they occurred and what people were dying of in addition to small pox. because of the serious investment our country made and the world made in stamping out

this disease we no longer live in fear. i think the lessons i heard the senator from florida talk, the fact that his party seems to want to load up the zika virus funding from political statements. he wants to take the money from some other public health fund and move it into zika virus, what is different from what we did as a nation to combat small pox. what we did as a nation to combat smallpox had nothing to do with political party. it was all about making sure we came together as a nation and around the world. it was an expensive and a serious investment. it was a massive international effort. it mobilized epidemiologists in laboratories and health care workers in india, south asia and around the globe. dr. fayge wrote house on fire. the small pox vaccine that existed since the late 18th

century, the first successful vaccine ever developed in fighting cow pox which we all kind of learned that in high school, but having the science wasn't enough. to actually get people vaccinated to allay people's fears of what a vaccination can mean, injected a virus into somebody's arm obviously is a bit counter intuitive. that's going to make me well rather than sick. but the outbreak to deal with the outbreaks, we know and to govern and action in coordination on a scale never before seen. "house on fire" refers to the way a young indian doctor described an approach to vaccination campaign. you pour water on the house burning. when outbreak happened, that village and the ones immediately surrounding it needed to be vaccinated. that fire line or ring of vaccination is what doctors will sometimes call that around the virus would stop an epidemic rather than simply mass vaccinations which were highly,

highly expensive to reach into every village and do what needed to be done, hard to transport vaccines and keeping them active, if you will, and just the scale of the whole world, at least the whole developing world, meant they needed to do something different. that's the reason for the ring vaccine or the fire line. nonetheless it required significant investment from governments around the globe. senators and congressmen in those days hadn't taken pledges that they would never fund anything, never raise taxes, never close a tax loophole. we came up with the money because we knew public health counted more important than anything else. we needed money for surveillance and global partnerships. it took a huge amount of manpower, local health care workers, local workers in indian and africa going from village to village. the investment paid off. keep in mind, 300 million

people at least died between 1900 and the late 1970's. 300 million people. the last outbreak in the united states -- the last case in the united states appeared in 1949, a little more than 30 years later after a ten-year campaign from dr. foege and dr. henderson and thousands and thousands of unnamed workers around the world. the last known case was found in somalia in 1977. small pox is the only infectious disease for humans, the only infectious disease to be declared eradicated by the world health assembly. we still have polio, diptheria, cholera. we've made huge progress in polio thanks in part to the rotary club, thanks in part to international efforts on behalf of, by governments, by communities, by doctors, by researchers, by nurses, by health workers, by so many people. but small pox is the only one that's totally been eradicated. it's how we should do partnerships. we know in health care that

upfront public investment is the most effective way to take on the biggest most important projects. private charity works. look what rotary did on polio. but you've got to have the public dollars, the public investment. people in this body think government doesn't do anything right or government can't be trusted to do anything, to accomplish anything, or that there's no role of government. think about 300 million people saved, lives saved -- i'm sorry, 300 million people dying from small pox and now it's eradicated in every place in the world because governments worked together with local communities, with local researchers, with local doctors, with all of that. these investments aren't just about helping individual people who are sick or at risk, whether in our backyard or a world away. when you save one life you help so many others. dr. henderson understood that. so did many thousands of others whose names we don't celebrate but who risked their lives to end the scourge of small pox. in today's world we're more

connected than ever. think of the challenges we face whether it's the spread of the zika virus and think how pathetic this congress's response is to the zika virus. the zika virus we can't even fund out of this body because people want to make it about planned parenthood or people want to make it about taking money from the ebola virus efforts instead of straight funding for the zika virus. we did it with small pox. 300 million people died. we can't stand up and do what we need to do with the zika virus. we have to stand together and commit to public investment to make this a better country for our world and our children just like dr. henderson and dr. foege. dr. henderson, an ohio native, oberlin college graduate, ran the campaign that ended the scourge of small pox, a huge victory for humankind. i yield to senator mccain. mr. mccain: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from arizona. mr. mccain: i ask unanimous consent to address the senate in

a colloquy with my colleague from arizona. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mccain: i'm proud to join my colleague from arizona on several issues important to our constituents and i believe working together we have been able to make some significant progress in a number of areas. we also are facing an enormous challenge. our state of arizona has the unique category of having a county without a single health care provider. not one. and now our largest county, maricopa county, is now down to one. from six. if there's ever an object lesson in the failure of obamacare, it's right there in our home state of arizona, where we have

a very large aging population, we have a very large young population. and we're asking the young people to pay for the health care of seniors when the fact is that it was a flawed idea from the beginning. and the fact is that i sat on a -- stood on this floor until c christmas eve morning fighting against obamacare when it was rammed on strictly partisan basis. 60 votes they had. 60 votes they used. for the first time in history we had a major entitlement reform that was done on a totally partisan basis. and we said at the time that it would fail. it's unraveling as we speak. and now, if i'd ask my colleague from arizona, what's

entertaining is now our friends from the other side of the aisle and in the administration are saying we'd like to sit down with the republicans and fix it, and we could make some much-needed changes. the same people that didn't even allow us a single amendment on one of the most massive entitlement reforms in history. and now our citizenry, our citizenry are paying the price as our citizens all over the country. as i mentioned, we now have one county in arizona which has the unique distinction of being the only county -- pinelle county without a single provider. maricopa county where the majority of our constituents live, guess what? one provider, increases of 65%, 100%, 200%. it's amazing. it's amazing. by the way, maricopa county

where there is one health insurance option in obamacare exchanges, that's about 128,000 people who will now -- and don't forget the immortal words of our president of the united states: if you like your health care policy, you can keep your policy. period. wasn't that clever, the way he said "period" at the end of that, because he was sure that if you liked your health care policy, you can keep your health care policy. and he also said, by the way, if you like your physician, you can keep your physician. how's that turned out? how's that worked? finally, before i ask my colleague, i want to thank him for his work on the ndaa. we have protected the a-10. we have protected our bases. we have protected the goldwater ranges. and there has been no stronger opponent for those wonderful apache helicopters that are made in mesa, arizona, and the

missiles in tucson, arizona. i ask my colleague, what do you think this impact is in our state, our beautiful state, of 10,000 people being without a health care option and 180,000 that are going to be now presented with one? is that what this administration called choice? mr. flake: i want to thank my colleague for having this colloquy. on the ndaa, i want to thank him for the work he's done this year and every year to make sure we get the ndaa passed. that's one of the single pieces of authorizing legislation that we routinely pass and the president signs. and it's important to our military to have that guidance. to know not just we will appropriate the money but we authorize the money and tell them how it needs to be spent. that provides such a better opportunity for oversight. i want to thank my colleague for

the reforms that he got in this year with regard to procurement and to root out waste as he always does in the military. i appreciate that. it's important to arizona. as he mentioned we have five major active duty military installations in the state. luke air force base, army for the huachuca, the army yuma proving grounds, marine air force station yuma, also several national guard and international guards around the state. the ndaa is extremely important to them and arizona is fortunate to have the chairman of the armed services committee representing the state and understanding the importance of these installations and our national defense. with regard to obamacare, senator mccain andively -- and i have both traveled around a lot of arizona during this break. one thing that i know he has heard and i have heard from constituents around the state,

in particular, in panow county, south of maricopa county. and just out of the metropolitan area, some of it within the metropolitan area, these individuals now have no option p. -- 13 counties, 13 of 15 have one option. those in maricopa county last year had eight options. now it's down to one. so 128,000 individuals, as mentioned, have no competition.  so premiums continue to go up. we're hearing it wherever we go. and after spending a day in pinnell county traveling around, hearing from the chamber of commerce, from rotary clubs, from republican organization, from town halls, you name it, people are concerned. there is no option yet despite there being no option and no exchange, the penalty still

exists. if you can imagine that, you have no exchange to purchase if you buy on another exchange, there's no federal subsidy attached to it so it's completely unaffordable for many of our constituents. yet, if they can't buy the insurance and don't buy the insurance, the penalty still comes. the penalty still comes. and so i'm completed that my colleague is introducing legislation. i'm glad to join him on this to make sure that in counties where there is no competition, that those penalties simply shouldn't apply. that's the first thing we ought to do. very legislation as well that will say that -- i have legislation as well that will say the hardship exemptions should currently be expanded, particularly for those who have no option at all. it's not getting better. it's getting worse. we have to sit down and say let's do some of these reforms now because people are hurting. i thank my colleague. mr. mccain: could i just say to my colleague, i think you put

it very well. first of all, we're going to have people that have no option but under the present law are going to be paying a fine. how does that work? and then of course those with only one option are seeing procorrected owe projected premium increases that are as high in one case, 65% and then of course we also have a situation where if you've only got one option and they raise the premium increases, obviously they have no choice. and the deductibles are now in some cases in the thousands of dollars, deductibles. so why do you want to buy an insurance policy that you're going to pay a couple of thousand bucks before you're part of the plan that gives you the health care you need.

so the fact is, i would ask my colleague if he would agree, the fact is obamacare is unarveling. it -- unraveling. it is now proved to be a colossal failure because it was based on the false premise that young people would willingly pay huge amounts of money to care for the health of older, sicker people. and of course our great congressional budget office that predicted there would be 21 million people who had taken advantage, the actual number i believe is 11 million. so this is a fall lure. so in the short term, senator flake and i want to make sure that no one would ever pay a fine when there's not any option available or only one option available. and then i say to my colleagues, we had better start either in the later session of this congress or the beginning of

next year and repeal and replace obamacare. it needs to be replaced. and if we don't replace it, then you're going to see these horror stories like pinnell county, arizona all over america. and that is unfair to average american citizens who right now have seen, thanks to the massive regulations issued by the obama administration have seen very little improvement in their incomes and their lives. in fact, the actual number of middle class has been shrinking. so i thank my colleague for all his hard work on behalf of the men and women who are serving in the military and in our wonderful bases throughout arizona and also for his leadership in this whole effort of trying to make sure that all americans have affordable and available health care. the answer by the way is not the european type health care syst

system. mr. flake: i thank my colleague. i would end by saying i wish officials from the administration could travel around with senator mccain and myself as we travel around arizona and go to pinnell county when people have no option, not even one, no option, no marketplace, and yet they're still being told you're going to pay a fine if you don't purchase insurance. subsidies don't apply to you because there's no exchange here but you're still going to get fined. try to tell somebody that and tell them this system that the administration is making no effort to reform this. they're still defending it saying it will get better somehow or somebody will come before the deadline and enter the market plais. i think -- marketplace. i think it's clear they're not. in those counties that have one insurer, they're looking and saying, well, hey, where are we going to be next year?

are we going to be pinnell county with no options at all? i wish the administration would travel around with us to arizona and see what people are suffering with, see what they're trying to get. it's not just -- it's not just a problem of getting coverage. it's one thing to have coverage but when you get to the hospital and find out that you have to get care and your deductibles are through the roof, your copays are through the roof, putting aside the premiums you're saying. so this competition that is supposed there isn't in arizona. and premiums have skyrocketed as have copays and deductibles. so i thank my colleague for what he's doing. i look forward to working with him on this legislation to give people who have no options or only one choice an option where they pay no penalties at least. let's start there. with that, i yield back. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from alaska.

a senator: i first want to begin by commending my colleagues from arizona. i couldn't agree more with them on what they were talking with regard to obamacare. mr. sullivan: like arizona, alaska is going through the same thing. we're down to one health insurance provider in the entire state. we started with five. we're now down to one for the entire state of alaska. similar to arizona, our premiums are going through the roof. deductibles i certainly want to work with my colleagues from arizona on ways to address states and counties in arizona or places like alaska where we have seen essentially no competition. so we certainly want to focus on that as well. i also want to commend the senator from arizona, th the chairman of the armed services committee on what he has done for our military and how he's been a leader really in the country on national security and

foreign policy issues and his leadership, particularly as the chairman of the armed services committee is absolutely critical for the national security and foreign policy of the entire country. mr. president, i wanted to talk a little bit about -- coming back from our work session, most of us were home for the last six weeks. i had an amazing trip back home in alaska, heard the concerns, hopes, dreams of my constituents across the state. also saw a lot of pride. and one reason i saw a lot of pride is that we have pride in our military forces that serve in the great state of alation came. -- alaska. thousands and thousands of active duty and reserve forces, more veterans per capita than any other state in the country and i certainly had the opportunity to visit with a lot

of our veterans, a lot of our military forces, active duty and reserve forces. also had the opportunity to bring a number of military leaders for the united states military, civilian and military leaders up to alaska, to show them our troops, show them the great training. this was the commandant of the marine corps, the coast guard, the secretary of the army, the head of missile defense, the new combatant commander in charge of north com. so we had a number of military officers visiting alaska. we got to see a lot of our troops, not only alaska troops, high troops all training up in the great state of alaska. mr. president, you know that our troops are doing amazing work, not just the training at different bases throughout the country but really keeping us

safe throughout the world. risking their lives. in combat, throughout the world. i certainly don't have to mention to this body the number of troops we have deployed all over the world keeping us safe in combat, risking their lives. and i mentioned that -- i mentioned the pride americans have in their military because it's really important to understand what just happened on the senate floor about 20 minutes ago. what just happened? because sometimes it's hard to figure out the process. what did we just vote on? well, let me put it bluntly. the minority leader of the u.s. senate once again encouraged the members of the other side of the aisle of his party to filibuster

the funding for our troops. again, that just happened. the press won't report on it. but it's pretty remarkable given that what we have going on in the world and one of the most sacred responsibilities of what we should be doing in this body, we just saw another filibuster of spending for the men and women who serve in the united states military. what a disappointment. and what a disconnect between what's going on in the rest of america and back here in d.c. i want to remind my colleagues that in you went back home regardless of where you live, regardless of what party you're in and you asked your constituents hey, should we be funding our military right now?

should we be funding the mend and women -- men and women who are overseas risking their lives keeping this nation safe? the answer probably virtually every american in the united states of america would be yes. but i want to remind my colleagues that what just happened on the senate floor, another filibuster of spending for our troops wasn't the first time. indeed, this is the bill that the minority leader of the united states senate has decided he wants to filibuster more than any other bill that we have brought up in the last year and a half. this evening's vote was the sixth time that the minority leader of the united states senate has led a filibuster against funding for our troops. he wasn't satisfied to do it one time or two times or three times or four times or five times.

six times. now, mr. president, you and i and many other members of the senate were on the floor in july making the case that we shouldn't be doing this. we, i mean the senate. that the senate should be focused on funding our troops. by the way, they read about this. for those who think that the members of the military don't understand what's going on, that one party consistently denies them funding, nobody understands that? that's not true. the troops know what's going on. we were down here like many other members of the senate encouraging our colleagues to support the troops, to stop the filibuster, this is what our

troops want? this is what the american people want. and this is what the senate of the united states of america should be doing. supporting our troops, not denying them funding. and i know my colleagues and i will continue to fight for this funding and fight these misguided attempts by the minority leader to undercut our troops, undercut our military and undercut the funding that they desperately need and should be a primary responsibility of this bed. i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the the presiding officer: the >> the senate today voting on legislation that would provide funding for military construction projects.

the veterans administration and research on the zika virus. democrats are blocking that bill because it would prevent women's health providers like planned parenthood from receiving money to combat zika. in another procedural vote, the senate blocked legislation. funding for the entire government runs out at the end of the month. without congressional action congressional action by september 30 the government will shut down. the senate earlier this year passing a zika response bill. the house added it to the military construction and veteran spending bill. it included the language blocking planned parenthood from receiving money to combat zika. our capitol hill producer cry clapping says that horse minority set of a standalone zika bill, it's an emergency and it should pass on feathered bite poisoned pills. he he put on the house floor it would pass.

let's take you to greenville, north carolina. donald trump has been speaking for about 20 minutes. we'll bring you we'll bring you the rest of his remarks live on c-span2. >> meaning you are winning, i'm not winning. you are winning. the movement is winning. because this is indeed a movement folks. when you look at this room and you look at another room in this building, and, and you look at thousands of people outside and you learned about it two days ago, this is not just a normal situation. this is a movement. it is it is a movement. we are tired of incompetent people running our country into the ground. [applause]. [applause]. >> the new revelation of hillary

clinton from the just released fbi documents make more clear than ever that she fails to meet the minimum standard for running for public office. [applause]. if she applied for a low level job at the state department today, just a low-level job, she couldn't even get a security clearance based on what she has done. her conduct is disqualifying. let's run through what we discovered in those fbi documents, which by the way were released late on friday just prior to labor day weekend. the the interview took place over the july 4 weekend. it is important and we're hoping matt lauer will ask about it on wednesday night to her when he

does the town hall. because she is being protected by the media, by the press, like nobody ever has been protected in the history of this country. me, on the other hand is a total pile on. actually it couple of the media people have said also in the history of our country there has been nobody hit so hard so viciously, so violently, and i will tell you, so ridiculously unfair late then donald trump. i am proud i am proud to do it for you folks. [applause]. you know the expression, whatever. it is clear from the fbi report that hillary clinton lied about confidential information.

she repeatedly told the country that she understood the last of height system, then she told the fbi she did not understand that the letters seemed confidential or even classified in the documents she e-mailed. on 39 separate occasion, 39, she said she cannot recall details about her mishandling of classified information and she couldn't even name one step she took to make sure foreign hackers couldn't get into her totally illegal server. keep in mind, her insecurity e-mails included e-mails about the drone program. it is also clear from the fbi report that hillary clinton and her top aide knowingly destroyed evidence and covered up their

actions. after her private server was revealed last month her staff deleted all of the e-mails and wiped it clean using a software design to prevent any recovery. sheet bleached hurt emails. nobody even heard about it before. nobody does it does it because it is a very expensive process. why would anybody that is getting rid of e-mails that had to do with the wedding and also wasn't it, remember right, yoga. yoga and the wedding. why are. why are you when you delete 33000, i think you are five for the wedding and two for the yoga, so that is seven. why do you acid wash or bleach the e-mails? nobody even heard of it before. it's very expensive. then, they used hammers to

destroy phones so they could not be turned over, and by the way who uses 13 different iphones in four years? the only people who use that many phones are usually involved in very, very, and i mean very shady activity. [applause]. and now she is running for president. [boo's] by the way, do you ever notice she never talks about policy. she never talks about illegal immigration. she never talks about anything. all she does is a total hit is a total hit job on john. she makes up terms, she makes up terms, temperament, you know what they did they got madison

avenue, that's a big that's a big advertising people and they probably july 20 terms and they said okay yeah let's use that one. so i have to tell you this, i have to to say, i think my single greatest asset that i have is my temperament. and i know how to work it. my single greatest asset. every time you hear it, just remember that this is a donate group of line people and tell her we want to hear about your policy on jobs, on illegal immigration. i. i want to hear what she is going to do to stop the jobs from leaving north carolina going into mexico and other places. okay. let her tell us. because you know what folks, she does not have a clue. not even a clue. not even a clue. people who have nothing to hide don't smash phones with hammers, they don't. people who have nothing to hide don't bleach, nobody has ever

heard of it, don't bleach their emails to destroy evidence to keep it from being publicly archived as required under federal law. when she got rid of these emails after congress, not before, after congress requested them. think of that. can you imagine if i or somebody else did that? can you imagine if rudy giuliani did that, or he would be in such trouble. poor rudy. it's unbelievable. folks, i am telling you, in history there has never been a situation like what is going on with the justice and hillary clinton. there has never been a situation like is going on with the media protecting hillary clinton. [boo's]

>> hillary clinton failed -- >> let's do better than that, let's went on november 8. hillary clinton failed to turn over thousands of documents, then tried to shield her criminal conduct by having her chief of staff declaring herself her private attorney. hillary clinton told others that they cannot recall or cannot remember anything. by the way, if she she really cannot remember, she cannot be president. she doesn't even remember whether or not she was instructed on how to use e-mail.

were you instructed on how to use it? i can't remember. but that is in addition to the guy who set up the server, remember him? he pleaded the fifth amendment. what are are we going to do with this guy? what happened? he pleaded the fifth. right. he pleaded the fifth. where is he? where is he? is he living, where is he? he pleaded the fifth and that was the end, we never heard about him again. boy, i will tell you. this is like a third world country folks. it's terrible. really we bring it up, this is like watergate, only it is worse because here our foreign enemies were in a position to hack our

most sensitive national security secrets. no one takes all of the risks hillary clinton took unless they are trying to cover up massive, massive crimes. hillary clinton using, and and you know this, she was using state departments to dole out special favors and access to her friends into her daughters. totally special favors. it is called pay for play. one example of a paper play play is what they clinton stayed in haiti. so let me stop here for a second. i want to say how much we appreciate the haitian american community in florida. and across our country. [applause]. we have had a great relationship with that community. we send our prayers to the many still suffering in haiti from the earthquake. but while haiti has suffered, the clintons and their pals have

totally cashed in. bill and hillary's brothers have signed housing deals in haiti and one wound up on the board of a gold mining company. clinton foundation donors have seen the clintons pave the way for their investments. in one deal hillary clinton set aside environmental labor rules to help a south korean company with a record of violating workers rights, set up what amounts to a sweatshop in haiti. the facility has produced only a fraction of the jobs it promised of faces reports of a wage theft all over the place. people are asking, where did all of the money go? this november november it is up to the american people to stop the clintons from raiding america at

the way they have are rated so many other people and places over the years. gmac. >> one of those who have her the most is african-americans. she sees them only as votes not as people worthy of a better future. it is called vote for me now i will do lots of things and then you get the vote and i'll see you in four years folks. buyer many african-americans have succeeded greatly in this country, we honor and protect these achievements. so many have really have just succeeded i have such respect and admiration for that success. but that includes, and i have to say lowering taxes because we

are going to do things for them, for everyone. lowering taxes on small business owners to 15 percent. we are going to lower taxes on our businesses to keep our job. we are going to lower taxes on all businesses so jobs don't leave our country. but millions of of african-americans in our inner cities remain trapped in poverty, joblessness, and, and failing schools. these are the worst schools you'll ever see. the democratic party has a run inner cities for 50, 60, 70, and even 100 years. 40% of african american children live in poverty including 45% of those under the age of six. 58% of african-american youth are not working. they cannot get a job. approximately 2900 people have been shot in chicago since the

beginning of the year. nearly 4000 people have been killed in chicago since president obama has took office said that's his home community. nationwide, think of this, nationwide african-americans are nearly 60% of the murder victims under the age of 22. this is a national crisis. anybody who fails to understand the is not fit to seek the presidency of the united states. [applause]. [applause]. >> to those african-americans and hispanics suffering in crime and poverty, i say very simply, give donald trump a chance.

[applause]. what do you have to lose? we are going to bring back your jobs, rebuild your cities, give parents and students school choice. we are going to make your community safe so you do not get shot when you walk down the street with your child. [applause]. what do you have to lose? nothing. i will not let you down. [applause]. we are going to push a new civil rights agenda. we believe every american has the right to a safe community, a great education and government that protects their job not give their jobs away to foreign countries. [applause]. this weekend i have the honor to join a church service in detroit

at the great faith ministries international. it it was an amazing experience, you probably saw it. it was a really incredible experience. i will fight for detroit. i will fight for chicago. i will fight for baltimore, and d.c., and by the way will i be fighting for north carolina, that i can tell you. i'm for every part of this nation, and i will fight to bring us all together as one american people. [applause]. i did not need to do this, i did not need to do this, it is not easy, it is nasty, it is nasty. i talk about the fact that people in the audience, 18 years ago there making more money 18 years ago then they are making

today in real wages. a lot of people, don't raise your hands, but a lot of people, i hear that. 18 years ago they made more money than they make today. and than they make today. and today they are working two jobs in many cases, also partially because of obama care, but they are working two jobs and they are working harder. as you get older maybe it would be nice not to have to work quite as hard. i can only say this, i have also gotten older and i am working a heck of a lot harder than i have ever worked before. that i can tell you. [applause]. true. true. i will fight to bring back our jobs and that means all of those jobs lost right here in north carolina and every other state in our great union.

let me quote the same passage from the bible that i read on saturday. from first john, chapter, chapter four. no one has ever seen god, but if we love one another god lives in us and his love is made complete in us, all of us. [applause]. imagine what our country could accomplished if we started working toward one people, under one god, saluting one flake. [applause]. it is time to break with the bitter failures of the past and embrace the new american future. in this future we will, and we have to, we have no choice, it is just like our military, we have no choice, we have to build

it strong again. we have no choice. in our military we have the greatest people, men and women on earth. but we have to give them what it takes. we have to back them, and we have to back our police, by the way. we have to back our police. we. we have to be a country of law and order. [applause]. in this future we will respect the dignity of all americans and that means great jobs, great schools, and great, safe neighborhoods. we will keep our children safe which requires secure borders, a strong military, and supporting law-enforcement. jobs will return, that is right and the world will happen. prosperity will rise the new new factories and plants will come rushing back to our shores. government corruption will end and the state department will

answer to the voters not hillary clinton's donors and special interests. [applause]. so few people remember but republicans are the party of abraham lincoln. come november 8 we will once again have a government of, by, and for the people. [applause]. you must get out and vote. you must bring all of your friends. you must bring everybody. get out and vote. be vigilant, watch what is happening. watch what is happening. because we are going to win north carolina, we are going to win a lot of different places. watch. watch us. [applause].

because we're going to take back the white house and we are going to make america proud again. we will make america strong again. we are going to make america safe again. and we will make america great again. [applause]. thank you. god bless you. thank you. november you. november 8, get out and vote. thank you everybody. [applause]. [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible]

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[inaudible] [inaudible] >> newly released poll shows the presidential race is essentially dead even. donald trump is slightly ahead of hillary clinton but within the margin of error. yet a new washington post 50 state survey states that donald trump is facing critical weaknesses and trying to get to 270 electoral votes. scott is joining us on the phone. thank you for being with a. >> it is good to be here. >> for small, explained this 50 state survey, what you were looking for, and what you found? >> so, what we're trying to do is pieced together the results from national service we have done but also a handful of estate surveys that have been done by different firms.

we looked at survey monkey to conduct a massive survey, the largest we have ever done with over 74000 registered voters across the country. this gave us the ability to work look at the boat in every state and looking how some groups are voting. and help to peace out the dynamics across the country. what we found was a number of surprises. one of the big themes this year has been how there has been a division among whites with college-educated whites. particularly being held with a trump but being more supportive. we definitely see that but it is particularly notable in places like the midwest. it's helping to breed trump support. >> is a look at some of the states, for example let's take arizona, georgia, texas, in the past these have been solid republican states. based on your

findings with nine weeks to go before election day, these are areas that donald trump needs to win if he has any hope of getting at 270 but at the moment is struggling. >> that's exactly right. we have had close races in all of the states. those were some pretty big surprises. to go along with the theme through out theme throughout the survey where trump is underperforming at a number of solid republican stronghold. first notably, utah which is. [inaudible] he leads by only 11 points there. in arizona we found clinton plus one, intech says that we found clinton plus one. those are contests contests that are probably still uphill battles for clinton. they're not friendly for democrats and they might tilt back to trump. but it signals that the overall enthusiasm issue for trump among

republicans is struggled to unite a party behind his scan to see and it's starting to show and some of the solid republican states. >> let's talk about florida. this is a state that both democrats and republicans put a lot of time and effort into. hillary clinton is ahead only slightly. a state that donald trump says he can win. >> it is a must win for trump. that is one thing that comes out of this survey where he leads by four points or more in 20 states but only they amount to a 126 electoral votes. florida is a top spot clinton is up by two. it is a big state plaintiff clinton whence it state. if clinton wins it really blocks off a lot of a viable path to the nomination. florida's one of the states as well where you see deep demographic divisions between whites, latinos, and african-americans as well as within whites with college degrees and those without. one of the big things this poll does not answer but definitely provides further questions going forward is how turnout will fare

the survey among registered voters but we are focusing on unlikely voters in the coming weeks on trying to figure out which groups are likely to turn out at higher rates. it is not a simple calculus this year i think because both linton and trump are relying on some relatively low turnout groups as their base. >> has donald trump consolidated the republican vote? >> really he hasn't. across all of the states we conducted surveys clinton had over 90% of the vote and the majority of them, only about a dozen did trump have 90% or more of the republican vote. so we were seen as a national polls across the country where he struggled to unite the base. i made there still a vast majority of republican supportive of him but the challenge is getting to that 90% standard that has become consistent in recent

presidential election. >> it to a high-profile third third-party candidates, jill stein and gary johnson was the libertarian party nominee, either candidate either candidate breaking through? >> in some states that is eight they definitely are. gary johnson is running a really fascinating campaign that is faring well in one of his states where he served as governor, and new mexico. he gets 23% support in that state. he is only a few points off where donald trump is in that state. clinton holds a small leave leave when third-party candidates are included. overall he gets at least 15% support in 15 states. i mention that that percentage because that's the threshold that the presidential baits have put on whether he will participate in debates. they're focused on national surveys. he clearly is getting

significant support across a number of the states. he does less well in the deep south than he does in the upper mountain state and i should mention jill stein. she does a bit worse than johnson in the single digits in nearly every state but one where she does very well's vermont. 10% support there. that of course is the home to senator bernie sanders and perhaps could at least cause a little bit of nervousness for supporters of hillary clinton. vermont is still a favorite for her to win. >> finally a potential bright spot for donald trump and his campaign in the upper midwest, most notably wisconsin and michigan. what did what did you find there? >> so this is what trump supporters have been looking for are signs that he can run the table in the upper midwest or at least kickoffs on democratic heavy state. state. in pennsylvania clinton leads by four points.

in michigan clinton leads by only two, wisconsin by by two and ohio trump leads by three. it's a narrow margin in all iowa trump leads by four. those look really good if you are a trump supporter. they signaled these states are in play. some other surveys are showing clinton with smaller leads in ohio and iowa and elsewhere. the bulk of the states have gone democratic for the last five or six elections. that really signals how important these have been to boosting democrats. it's a narrow victory there. the real way real way for trump to pull off the electoral votes. >> as you put it quote it is a long road to the white house and so the washington post pulling all 50 states to find out what each candidate needs to do to get there, the research and reporting of scott clement and

dan along with the mount washington post is available online and in today's newspaper. thank you for being with us. >> thank you. for campaign 2016. >> i will be a president for democrats. >> we are going to win with education in the second amendment. ahead live coverage with the presidential and vice presidential debate. the c-span radio app, and c-span.org. and c-span.org. monday, september 26 is the first presidential debate. . . between hillary clinton and donald trump in las vegas nevada

on october 19. live coverage of the presidential and vice presidential debate. listen live on free cspan radio app or watch live on c-span.org. >> joining us on the phone and this back to work week with congress is up cusack, editor-in-chief of of the newspaper. thanks for being with us. >> thanks steve. >> as your colleague writes today at the hill.com, capitol hill resembled a ghost town for the past two months. that all changed today. >> definitely. members are coming back into town and a lot of the people who are closely tracked including lobbyists are no longer on vacation. it was a ghost town in washington. this was no exception. you have the convention this summer and that was the big highlight last month in july but now there is some legislating to be done and it's coming in the

backdrop of a very heated election year both for the house and senate and the white house. >> including getting a spending plan in place three weeks before the deadline. what can we expect? >> i don't think there will be a lot of demonic ink, but there has to be some before they get out of town. one of the big issues now is dealing with the zika issue. republicans and democrats had been unable to agree on that and hillary clinton, a few weeks back, called on congress to reconvene to get some type of deal, whether that's a democratic deal or some type of bipartisan compromise. of course congress did not do that. i think you are going to see, as part of a government funding bill, that has to be reached by the end of the fiscal year which is the end of september, some type of the language compromise getting in there. that is the biggest issue. other priorities such as president obama's big trade

deal, asian trade deal, that is on the ropes right now. that's not going to be addressed before the election. it's a question of whether they address it after the election. obama made a big push recently and i think he will keep that up that is more a lame duck issue and it's a big? the biggest issues our government funding and zika. a lot of attention on zika. >> i want to come back to ttt the trade deal, and just a moment. with regard to the continuing resolution we heard from democratic leaders last week saying they may extend it beyond the election. they do not want to cac are going cr going into next year. what's the reason behind that? >> that's a big question because there's no doubt there will be a cr. the chances of a government shutdown are really unlikely. nobody wants that and certainly democrats have been extended from that politically but the chances of that are not going to happen.

>> the question is how long do you do the cr? to kick it into the lame-duck, do you kick it into early next year, if if it's early next year to give the new president, democrats think that will be president clinton, time to seek other priorities such as merrick garland, if she re- nominates garland to the supreme court to replace scalia, does garland get the vote in the lame-duck? >> there is a lot of strategies and different people wanting to just push it to the lame-duck, then they have to deal with the funding and other issues or do give the new president some time to get their priorities, the first 100 days agenda and then maybe in the spring of next year, these are all competing strategies, honestly it's hard to say what they are going to agree on now but it's one of the parlor games in washington and that's how long will government funding last. there's a lot of fatigue both

from the voter side as well as legislators that you have this constant deadline where you possibly have a shutdown again and again and again. people get tired of that. >> some interesting dynamics going back to the trade debate, you have the president who wants this is part of his legacy, senator bernie sanders sanders who is keeping a close eye on what the senate democrats will be doing and hillary clinton saying she opposes the trade deal and unions looking at this as well-paid the potential impact it would have on the strength of union support not only on the presidential level but also in some of these key senate races. >> it's a big issue. it's something that the president really wants. one of our white house correspondence asked the president before he went on vacation at martha's vineyard, he pointed out the fact that the next president will likely oppose tt t so how can the next

president, how are they going to get the votes to pass this and the president said while i'm president now and this is a top priority making the case of policy for it, but there is multiple problems for it. the president is at odds with a lot in his own party, as you mentioned including bernie sanders, hillary clinton and many others. most republicans, certainly not all, but most republicans do support this type of trade deal though they don't think it's perfect, but politically there's really not an incentive for speaker ryan or mitch mcconnell who is really downplayed the chances that it's going to be acted upon in obama's last couple of months to move it because it's going to attract a lot of controversy regardless, whether that's the republican or democrat side, there are detractors on both sides. the chances of this are quite slim, way under 50% that doesn't mean that they won't be pushing

for it but i think it comes november 9 after the election. next week one of the former republican colleagues, donald trump's running mate mike pence addressing the gop conference next week, why? >> i think mike pence, and i think he's done a fairly good job, he's been meeting with supporters of donald trump, lawmakers as well as detractors. he is trying to bring down the temperature that has been this interparty friction about donald trump, making the case that you may not love donald trump, but think about the supreme court, think about hillary clinton and trying to get them onboard. mike pence is obviously a former house member, he ran for leadership against john boehner, he lost badly and then pain or subsequently asked him to play a role in his leadership team. mike pence knows capitol hill well and he knows what works and he's respected by most

republicans on the hill. i think it's going to be an interesting meeting with a lot of questions about strategy and fundraising but mike pence certainly wants to unite the party. he's not going to get there completely, but he wants to get more republicans on board and not only campaigning for themselves but campaigning for the top of the ticket and as you know a lot of republicans have balked at that. bob cusack is the editor-in-chief of the hill newspaper. his work is available online at the hill.com. thank you for being with us. >> thank you. >> veterans affairs committee

member phil roe will talk about wednesday's veteran committee hearing on the care that the va provides with the commission on care report courtesy of secretary mcdonald and documents by the va nationwide. also joining us, andrew, contributing editor for the national review discusses his recent story on automation. watch c-span "washington journal" life beginning at seven eastern wednesday morning. join the discussion. >> for campaign 2016, c-span continues on the road to the white house. >> i will be a president for democrats, republicans and independents. >> we are going to win with education, we are going to win with the second amendment. we are going to win. >> five coverage of the presidential and vice presidential debate on c-span,

the c-span radio app and c-span.org. monday, september september 26 is the first presidential debate live from the university in hempstead new york. then on tuesday october 4, vice presidential candidate mike pence and senator tim kaine debate in farmville virginia. on sunday october 9, washington university in st. louis host the second presidential debate that leads up to the third of final debate between hillary clinton and donald trump are taking place at the university of nevada las vegas on october 19. five coverage of the presidential and vice presidential debate on c-span. listen live on the free c-span radio app or watch live or anytime on demand at c-span.org speemac@c-span.org you can watch our public affairs and political programming anytime at your convenience on your desktop, laptop or desktop, laptop or mobile device. here's how. go to our homepage c-span.org and click on the video library

search bar. here you can type in the name of the speaker or the sponsor a bill or even the event topic. review the list of search results and click on the program you would like to watch or refine your search with our research tools. if you're looking for most current program and you don't want to search the video library, our homepage has many current pages available for your viewing. c-span.org is a public service of your cable or satellite provider. if if you are c-span watcher, check it out at c-span.org. >> tonight on c-span2 a look at u.s. china agreements on preventing computer crimes. then we talk to capitol hill reporters against what congress will work on now that they've returned from their august recess. later part of today's act for america's conference on national security and counterterrorism. last year the u.s. and china

reached an agreement on cybercrime including efforts to stop theft of international property and state sponsored computer hacking. computer security analyst discussed the effect of this agreement on attacks coming from china and u.s. china relations. the atlantic council hosted this one hour 15 minute discussion. >> good afternoon everyone and welcome to the new school year. as i told my daughters early this morning, walking them to the bus really early, i'm chair of the atlantic council and we are delighted to have you here this afternoon. today's event, the the art of cyber war cohosted by the centers, ages security and statecraft initiatives are part of the councils cross strait series.

a broader effort to examine ongoing affairs in cross strait relations. i would also like to welcome all of those who are watching online i encourage you to join the conversation on twitter using # ac cyber. by september brock obama and chinese president reached an important agreement to curtail commercial cyber espionage. while many initially doubted the effectiveness of the deal, recent reports by the private sector and the department of justice indicate a sharp decline in chinese cyber attacks against u.s. companies over the past year. china's neighbors in the asia-pacific region however face a very different set of realities. over the past year alone, the region's remarkable pace of economic growth, territorial disputes and increasing military expenditures have all been factors in numerous cy