the president pro tempore: the senate will come to order. the chaplain, dr. barry black, will lead the senate in prayer. the chaplain: let us pray. immortal, invisible, god only wise, do not stand far away from

us, for we need you every hour. may our lawmakers remember that their success comes from you. give them the wisdom to seek justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with you. lord, free them from any entanglements that dishonor you. protect them from dangers seen and unseen, as they strive to return good. when they feel overwhelmed, remind them that in everything

you are work being for the good of those who love you. help us all to strive to dploarfy you -- gluerfy you in -- to glorify you in every action, both large and small. we pray in your strong name. amen. the president pro tempore: pleae join me in reciting the pledge f allegiance to our flag. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

mr. mcconnell: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: i'd like to bring a little perspective to today's vote on the clean c.r. zika package. remember, this is a 10-week funding bill. its contents command broad support. it contains zero controversial riders from either party. can it really be that democratic leaders have embraced dysfunction so thoroughly, that they tack a noncontroversial 10-week funding bill over what exactly? now remember, mr. president, the reason we're in this position is because our friends on the other side didn't want to have a regular appropriations process. does anybody know what the issue

is? do they even know? the rationale seems to change by the hour. what we do know is it has almost nothing to do with what's actually in the bill. they've agreed to its spending levels, so it isn't that. they've agreed to its compromise zika package, so it can't be that. they've agreed with us to help veterans and those hurt by floods and the heroin and prescription opioid crisis, too, so it can't be that either. we also know that the senate has already voted to pass assistance for families affected by lead poisoning in flint -- in its proper vehicle, the water resources development act -- with chairman inhofe pledging to continue to pursue resources forbe flint -- for flint once the bill goes to conference. so flint really can't be an issue either. and the white house said yesterday that the wrda bill is

an appropriate vehicle for the flint funding. it's almost as if a few democratic leaders decided long ago to that bringing our country to the brink would make for good election-year politics. and then they've just made up the rationale as they go along. but that couldn't really be true, could it? could it be true? that would mean democrats have been playing politics with the lives of expectant mothers and babies suffering from zika, after a few months ago demanding immediate action. that would mean democrats have been playing politics with the lives of those struggling from the heroin and prescription opioid crisis, after promising they'd help. that would mean democrats have been playing politics with the lives of flood victims, after saying they cared. now i know our democratic friends wouldn't want the american people to think that.

i hope every one of our democratic friends will show us today that they're actually serious about supporting veterans and tackling zika and flood relief and the heroin appeared prescription opioid -- and prescription opioid crisis, and we all know the dwie that: -- and we haul know the way to do that: by supporting the legislation before us that thrill does those things. this 10-week funding bill need not be some titanic struggle for the ages. it's just a 10-week funding bill, mr. president. it's hard to believe democrats would really be willing to hold up this commonsense package and its critical resources to address zika, the heroin and prescription opioid epidemic, and floods. the clean c.r.-zika package before us is fair. it is the result of literally weeks of bipartisan negotiations. it does the very things members

of both parties -- and more importantly, our constituents -- have been calling for. we cannot afford to delay any longer. passing this clean c.r. -- zika package should be one of the easiest votes we cast. mr. president, i ask unanimous consent the senate recess from 3:00 p.m. until 4:00 p.m. today for an all-senators briefing. further, that the time from 10:45 until 11:30 a.m. be under the control of the majority and 4:00 until 5:00 p.m. under the control of the democrats. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. reid: mr. president?

the presiding officer: the democratic leader. mr. reid: the republican leader just said that, what are the democrats trying to do, have built-in dysfunction? mr. president, during the eight years i was majority leader, we had overcome 644 filibusters led by the republicans -- 644. in a comparable time, lyndon johnson, who was a majority leader for six years, had to overcome one and arguably two filibusters. two compared to 644. so don't lecture us on building dis-financial. they've in-- dysfunction.

they've invented it in the modern senate. this afternoon the senate will vote on cloture on the c.r. proposed by the republicans, and i appreciate the good work done by appropriators -- ours led by senator mikulski. they've done good work, and tremendous progress has been made. the republican proposal will likely fail to get cloture this afternoon, for good reason. the republican legislation misses the mark. it seeks to keep in place the status quo in regard to undisclosed, unaccountable dark money that's flooding our political system. and the way to work this morning, i just learned that the national rifle association has just placed another $1 million of tv ads in nevada.

now, we all know that the national riesm association was real -- the national rifle association was really good at direct-mail. they raised that money from their members. most of the n.r.a. money comes from the trump brothers -- i'm sorry, strike that from the record. the koch brothers. we're fortunate there's not two trump brothers. the koch brothers. that's the dark money we're talking about. those ads will say n.r.a., but it's not n.r.a. money. the ads will say chamber of commerce money. but it's not chamber of commerce money. and the provision that my frerntiondz the republican leader, has to have in this bill, this resolution, is this: that the securities and exchange commission will be powerless to tell corporations that they have to disclose their campaign contributions. they have to disclose everything

else to their shareholders. but not that. oh, no, that would be tairchlt any -- oh, no, that would be terrible. any type of disclosure -- we want to keep all this secret. all these phony names they advertise is just so unfair. the republican bill includes a rider that prevents shareholders from knowing how their money is being used in political campaigns. again, the republican leader is trying to shut the door on disclosure. now, mr. president, the republican continuing resolution also ignores a two and a half year crisis in flint, michigan. lead has poisoned all 100,000 people, almost 10,000 children, some of whom are babies.

lead is a killer for children. after a short period of time, a month, a few weeks, a child who ingests lead in any way -- whether eating paint off the floor but certainly drinking water -- will affect them the rest of their lives. they won't be as smart as they could be, they won't be as agile as they could be. it really hurts them. and it's not good for adults. so after two and a half years, don't those people deserve something? the republican leader said, well, there's a water resource development act bill. and i acknowledge that, and i think good work was done to get that passed here. i've said yesterday, i will say again today, i appreciate the work of senator inhofe. he's worked with 0 one of the most liberal members of the senate, barbara boxer. he is one of the most conservative. they did good work. i appreciate it very much.

but would it be asking too much for the speaker of the house, the leader of the senate, the republican leader of the senate, to stand and say, we're going to get that thing done, we're going to pass it, we're going to make sure that the bill that passed overwhelmingly in the senate is going to become law? but they ignore that. they ignore the people of flint. now, we are happy to help with the disaster that took place in louisiana. since the republican leader is here, we have been happy to help with all the problems that -- the emergencies that they've had in texas. we've stepped up to the plate and we took care of that. we're happy to do that in louisiana -- and that -- and this won't be the reason that i would not support this legislation. but i think louisiana deserves more than what's in this bill.

$2.8 billion, and in this bill, there's $500 million -- most of that, some will go to west virginia and some, a little bit, even less, will go to maryland. it will be divided on a proportionate basis. but couldn't they help flint? the junior senator from louisiana, here was his response: that's someone else's grief. that's what he said. "that's someone else's grief." louisiana wasn't someone else's grief. when the hurricane struck. it was our grief. the junior senator from louisiana should understand that he is a united states senator, not a state senator from louisiana. it's not someone else's grief. it is our grief. the republicans are essentially saying the disasters in our states are more important than the disasters in your state. it is unfair and it is wrong.

this morning my leadership team sent a letter to the republican leader. durbin, schumer, and murray. they sent a letter to the republican leader and speaker ryan encourage the republicans to come back and give us a solution for the people of flint. after the vote on the republican c.r. fails this afternoon, i encourage my republican colleagues to help us have some degree of certainty that the people of flint will be helped. it's not -- it's not deficit spending, even though it's an emergency and i believe it should be taken care of just like we're taking care of louisiana. it's paid for. and in fact, i commend senator stabenow and senator peters. they took money from a program they have in michigan and it pays for this. it's not deficit spending, so why can't they do that? the reasons are apparent, and that's too bad.

this doesn't need to be a manufactured crisis. we know the republicans know how to close the senate. they did it for 17 days. and they've done it another time. we don't need to have a manufactured crisis. we want to make sure that flint has some degree of certainty after two and a half years they're going to get some help. we need to work together to keep our government properly funded and the people of flint protected. certainly we should be able to do that. finally, mr. president, last night, the republican nominee for president failed to give any assurance of any kind or a coherent explanation as to why he refuses to release his tax returns. well, because there is no

coherent reason. it's a little hard to give one when there isn't one. he said he couldn't release his tax information because of an internal revenue service audit. everyone debunks that. everyone except donald trump. but even as trump tried to say nothing about his tax returns, he revealed his, at least one shocking truth. donald trump thinks that paying taxes is a fool's errand. people shouldn't pay taxes. he said -- it was reported at least five times in three decades trump paid nothing in federal income taxes. when secretary clinton alluded to the fact in last night's debate, donald trump's response: that makes me smart. so what does that make the rest of us? suckers, unintelligent, dumb? he's smart, does that make us dumb because we pay our taxes? he knows that refusing to pay his taxes makes him, as we've

come to learn, a scam artist. he's good at that. every day donald trump refuses to release his tax returns is another is slap in the face to the american people. i'm sorry, i shouldn't say president. people running for office for scores of decades have released their income tax. that may be a little exaggeration. let's say from the last 70 years, have released their income tax returns. so why won't he release his? why won't he do this? it's because his tax returns would show he isn't the rich guy he thinks he is. tax returns would show that he's a spoiled, rich brat who inherited his daddy's money and hasn't done so well with it. with $14 million, he hasn't done that well. that's how much his dad gave him. trump's tax returns would show he isn't as generous as he claims to be and uses trash 'tis as a personal -- uses charities as a personal slush fund.

this morning there was news, he appeared on a tv show, they owed him money, they paid that into his charity so he can say i gave this away. trump's tax returns would show that in spite of getting nearly $1 billion of assistance from new york, in new york city alone, donald trump is a failed business man buried under a mountain of debt and they would show he refuses to pay his federal income taxes. so, mr. president, i would hope that donald trump would release those tax returns. hillary clinton has released 40 years of hers and her husband's. mr. president, i would ask that the chair announce what we're going to do the rest 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 h.r. 5325, which the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 516,

h.r. 5325, an act making appropriations for the legislative branch for the fiscal year ending september 30, 2017, and for other purposes. the presiding officer: the assistant majority leader. mr. cornyn: mr. president, i came to the floor to talk about the pending business, but i have to just comment based on what the democratic leader has said, apparently he has so little confidence in his party's nominee for president, he insists on coming to the floor every day that we're in session and trying to assist her in making arguments either she cannot make or that she has not made. we do have pending business that's very important, which i know he would agree is important, and that is to keep the government running past the end of this fiscal year, which ends on friday. and that actually is the subject of my -- that i came here to talk about. we are continuing to work on a

continuing resolution to fund the government through the end of the fiscal year, and the fact of the matter is we would not find ourselves in this distasteful position were it not for the filibusters of our democratic colleagues who tried to use the leverage -- in fact, pretty effectively have used the leverage to shut down the normal functioning of the appropriations process in order to gain some leverage to spend more money, not withstanding the fact that we're over $19 trillion in debt. and they've simply shifted from excuse to excuse to excuse in order to refuse to do their job, which is actually to work in a bipartisan way through the appropriations process to fund the functioning of the government at agreed-to spending levels. so we're now staring at a friday deadline to keep the government

open, and of course this was their design all along, to drag their feet and delay and turn from one excuse to another in order to keep from actually working in a bipartisan way to appropriate the money to fund the government so the government would continue to function. we could have finished this job a long time ago, but our democratic colleagues simply made clear they won't lose any sleep even as we get closer and closer to the funding deadline. this is actually the narrative they hoped for all along. they want to talk about shutdowns or potential shutdowns that they in fact could cause. not because of anything we've done on this side of the aisle. the appropriations committees, chaired by the -- the appropriation committee chaired by senator cochran and the appropriation subcommittees now voted out on a bipartisan basis all 12 appropriations bills,

and they've done their work. many of them have passed unanimously. most of them have passed overwhelmingly with bipartisan support, which is very encouraging. so our democratic colleagues have had a lot of participation and a lot of influence, as i know they would want, in the priorities of the federal government as reflected in the appropriations bill. but of course that wasn't good enough, and that didn't meet their underlying need, which is to try to gain any advantage they possibly could when it comes to spending levels or in the upcoming november 8 election, which very much appears to be on the democratic leader's mind as he continues to come to the floor and talk about the presidential race rather than the pending business. but of course we know we're running out of time, so basically the majority leader, senator mcconnell, has now proposed to call their bluff.

they said they wanted a clean continuing resolution. as a matter of fact, the democratic leader said last week that if a clean continuing resolution were brought to a vote, we could -- quote -- "leave in ten minutes." that's what the democratic leader said last week. but as of yesterday, we know he changed his tune. he said a clean c.r. wasn't near enough. he said we want more. well, we'll soon have a chance to vote on that clean continuing resolution after lunch. this continuing resolution that the democratic leader said we could pass and leave in ten minutes, this continuing resolution funds the government at levels this chamber has already agreed to. there are no riders or anything that the democrats could claim as controversial. it's a simple continuation of funding at current lesms under the same -- current levels

under the same terms that the president has already signed into law last december. it also receives, includes resources for bipartisan priorities like veterans programs, flood control, fighting the opioid epidemic that's devastating communities across our country, and dealing with prevention of the zika virus, something the democrats said they wanted money for since last may. well, this is it. this is the $1.1 billion agreed to on a bipartisan basis. but now that's when they shift their argument to something else. we remembered during the summer our democratic colleagues were quick to call for action on zika funding. ironically, after they filibustered a bill that would have provided that funding. but when push came to shove, they flat-out refused to act to get communities the funding they

needed to fight this health crisis, which is real. we know from what's happened in florida, where they have had domestic infection of people from zika mosquitoes carrying the zika virus in florida, that it's just a matter of time before this will spread to other parts of the united states, including warmer-weather states like mine in texas. i've spent some time in houston, texas, with the mosquito and vector control folks at the harris county health department where they're monitoring these mosquitoes on a daily basis to see whether there are signs of the zika virus in those mosquitoes. thankfully, there is none yet, but they are identifying things like west nile virus and other mosquito-borne diseases. and thank goodness for the good work and the leadership there shown at the local level. it would be nice if the nation's

congressional leaders would demonstrate similar leadership in getting our job done and getting the money to the people who need it and can put it to good use. i've shown the picture of the devastating birth defects caused by the zika virus in women of child-bearing age. it's devastating. how our colleagues across the aisle could continue to block this funding and getting the money that would actually help address those potential public health crisis is beyond me. but we've given them what they wanted, and they refuse to take "yes" for an answer. they still talk a lot about it and the urgent need to get it done while dragging their feet the whole way. the democratic leader even said at the beginning of this month that we need to handle the zika threat first and foremost. well, i guess that's why he

continues to delay a vote on the continuing resolution and why if they continue to do what they say they're going to do, they're going to block the cloture vote this afternoon, again, because now they changed the subject. this is their chance to act on it and send resources to fight the virus in communities across the country. i'm glad the senior senator from florida, a member of the democratic caucus, has already said that he'll support this clean c.r. in light of the public health threat zika poses to his constituents in florida. he clearly has his priorities straight. it's not politics first and foremost. it's public health. and i hope more of his colleagues follow his lead and vote to get on this continuing resolution so we can get our work done and so the money can go to those communities like those in his state and my state

that need it most. now some of our democratic colleagues have said they don't like the continuing resolution because it doesn't allow for funding for the water problems in flint, michigan. but i have to say, mr. president, this is just another manufactured excuse. it ignores reality. we just passed overwhelmingly the water resources development act with more than 90 votes in this chamber. that bill provides funding for the crisis in flint, michigan, and the house is taking up their version of the bill this week. the chairman of the environment and public works committee, the senior senator from oklahoma, has made clear he's committed to sending this water resources development bill, including funding for flint, to the president for his signature. so that excuse doesn't hold any water either. now our democratic friends may say, well, that's not included

in the house bill, and that's true. but with the commitment of the chairman -- and i know the ranking member of the environment and public works committee, senator boxer, who worked so well with, again, with the chairman, that there's no way in the world that a conference report is going to come back to the senate without that flint, michigan, money in the bill. so that excuse doesn't hold water either. so, once again -- i guess because they think it helps them somehow politically -- our democratic friends are marching this country closer and closer to a shutdown. they've been slow-walking the process, starting months ago when they refused to consider to pass bipartisan appropss billsification bills -- appropriations bills, bills that

passed earlier on a bipartisan basis. why in the world would they do this, i guess is perhaps the question before us? well, a member of their leadership implied in yesterday's "washington post" that it's purely for political purposes. now, i'm not naive. i understand that politics is part of this process. burkes clearly, the priorities are -- but clearly the priorities of our colleagues across the aisle is not to do their job and to address the funding needs for the federal government, including the zika crisis. or even to deal with the very issue that they have identified, the flint, michigan, issue in a bipartisan way that is going to get the money to that community. well, in the article that i mention in "the washington post," the senior senator from montana, who heads the democratic campaign committee, gave us just a momentary glimpse

into our democratic friends' playbook this election cycle. he said that in order to win more seats in the united states senate, democratic candidates need to show that -- quote -- "republicans haven't done anything." that's the campaign chairman of the democratic senatorial campaign committee saying, in order for them to win seats, they have to show that under republican leadership, nothing has been done. well, the facts would show otherwise. there is -- this reminds me of the story of a propaganda technique where if you tell a big enough falsehood and you tell it over and over and over again, there are some people who are actually going to believe it.

but facts are a stubborn thing. democrats are marching us down a path that needs to are a shut down -- to a shutdown in order to gain some sort of political advantage. what a terrible thing to do to this country, to be brought to the brink purely for some perceived temporary political gain. well, the facts are this: under the leadership of senator mcconnell, as the majority leader, and under a republican majority, the senate has been brought back to regular order, which means we're actually doing the people's business. committee chairmen have had the freedom to flush out legislation which -- on a bipartisan basis and to craft good policy decisions for the american people, rather than to have bills cooked up in the democratic leader's conference room which have never seen the light of day in any committee and certainly were not

bipartisan. that's the record when the democratic leader was majority leader during the last conference -- during the last congress. now, we've had more votes on more bills so that individual senators could offer up specific ideas on how to make legislation better, and the results speak for themselves. it's a long list, but the senate has passed much-needed overhauls of our education system and our transportation system, both on a bipartisan basis. we've passed bipartisan bills to help root out the dangers to our society, from opioid addiction and heroin addiction and human trafficking. we passed foreign policy measures that have made our country safer, including a bill to impose stronger sanctions on north korea. again, it -- it's a long list. last week we passed the water resources development act bill that i was referring to earlier, thanks to the leadership of a

republican, the senior senator from oklahoma, and a democrat, the senior senator from california. that's the way this process is supposed to work. the point is, until pretty recently this congress has been marked by a willingness of folks on both sides of the aisle to work through the issues and to find a path forward that would represent the best solution for the people we represent, the american people. but according to the senior senator from montana, in what appears to be an act of desperation, that doesn't make for good campaign strategy in the days leading up to the election. apparently now they want to try to sell this propaganda, this gigantic falsehood repeated over and over again so that people at some point -- at some level begin to believe it. they want to paint this congress ains effective -- this congress as ineffective under republican control when our friends on the

other side of the aisle put the "d" in dysfunction during the 113th congress. that's the reason why republicans won the majority in the 2014 election, among other things, is because democratic incumbents running for reelection in 2014 had no record of accomplishment that they could point to. so that strategy really backfired on our democratic colleagues, and you would think they would have learned sphrg that experience -- learned something from that experience. they had senators -- for example, the incumbent senator from alaska go home and ask to be returned to the united states senate. he couldn't foints a single amendment -- he couldn't point to a single amendment on a single bill that he had actually sponsored that had got an roll call vote in the united states senate. and that was pretty hard to explain, especially when you're in the majority. but that's what happened. so you would think our colleagues would have learned something from that.

so what did they gain by edging our country toward a government shutdown this friday? i don't sa-- i don't see how ths anyone. that's why we're here trying to hammer out a stopgap spending bill. this only gets us to december 9. again, the reason we find ourselves having to do this is because they have simply shut down the senate appropriations process, forcing us into a position that no one who actually has any interest in performing the duties of their job actually likes. this is not the way the senate is posed to work, but this is the hand we've been dealt -- is supposed to work, but this is the hand we've been dealt because of their obstruction. so i would hope more democrats would join the senior senator from florida and take "yes" for an answer. -- when it comes to funding the government, when it comes to dealing with the zika --

potential zika crisis in the country. i hope our colleagues on the other side will reconsider their decision to block the vote this afternoon. we're ready to move forward with a solution that our democratic colleagues have called for: a clean continuing resolution. but again, it's like charlie brown and the football. you remember that cartoon? every time lucy would put the football out, she would pull it out at the last minute and charlie brown would end up on his back. well, all we need is a partner who would work with us. i would encourage some of our friendfriends across the aisle o reconsider their position. late on friday afternoonan, the -- late on friday afternoon be, the president fulfilled his promise to veto the justice against sponsors of terrorism act. i have a hard time understanding the president's rationale. this legislation was approved

unanimously in the senate and in the house. had a doesn't happen very often, where democrats and republicans, where senators and house members unanimously support a piece of legislation. but tomorrow afternoon we will vote on an override of that veto. president obama made clear in his message that he doesn't understand how limited and narrow in scope this legislation is. as a matter of fact, he misrepresents what this legislation actually does, which is an extension of current law, and it's well within the bound of historical practice and modern court guidance under the foreign sovereign immunities act. the victims of terrorism in this country need an ability to seek justice in a court of law. that is all this bill is about. it doesn't identify a single country, and it doesn't purport to decide the merits of a case. a you will it says is -- all it

says is, yes, you can present your case to a judge and a jury in a court of law. why people would -- why the president would object to that is lost on me. this legislation will help victims of terrorism on u.s. soil seek compensation, and by doing so, it will deter potentially other terrorist acts. if there are consequences associated with sponsoring terrorist attacks on american soil, don't you think that this might have some modest deterrence effect, including our counterterrorism measures that our national security forces are engaged in? this also sends important message that the united states takes care of its own and that we will never tolerate terrorism and we will never, ever shy away from the pursuit of justice for americans. i realize there are some of our

colleagues that say, well, saudi arabia or some other country might be upset with us. well, frankly, i could care less. we are here to represent the american people, not some foreign country. and the fact of the matter is, our colleagues -- our friends in saudi arabia, to the extent that we have aligned interests, we work well together, and that will continue, despite this veto override. but to simply say because some foreign country or some king or some prince of some other country doesn't like legislation so the president is going to veto it is simply unacceptable, when clearly the american interest here is for these victims of terrorism to find recourse in our courts of law. mr. president, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the assistant democratic. mr. durbin: mr. president, while the republican whip is still on the floor, i believe there is an agreement at 10:45 that the republicans will have control of the floor.

i have waited patiently while the senator from texas has given his speech, and i wonder if he would allow me ten minutes on the floor to speak before the republicans claim their time? mr. cornyn: gladly. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. durbin: thank you very much. mr. president, why are we face ago continuing -- why are we facing a continuing resolution? because our budget expires on september 30. we are supposed to pass spending bills, appropriations bills, budget bills that will koh cover this next year, and we have failed. the senate appropriations committee has done its job on a bipartisan basis. we've reported out all 12 spending bills but had very little luck on the floor of the united states senate moving those bills forward. the first one we took up w's the military construction -- was the military construction bill, which passed with good bipartisan support, was sent over to the house of representatives and they loaded

it up with every political issue they could think of for this campaign season. that bill started floundering at that point. that's why we're at this moment in time where we need to pass a continuing resolution. this is no way to run a government, but i'll be honest with you: both political parties have been guilty of finding themselves in this mess before, where we've had to buy a little extra time into the fiscal year where we've had to agree on the budget for the remainder of that year. so what the president said to the leaders of the house and senate last week is if you want to do this continuing resolution bill, just keep the government running until you can agree on all the appropriations bills, give me a continuing resolution bill until december 9 and if you would, please acknowledge that we are face ago public health crisis with the -- facing a public health crisis with the zika crisis. seven months ago, the president notified the congress that this was going to happen, that we were going to see these

mosquitoes carrying the zika virus infecting people in puerto rico and in the united states and endangering mothers who were carrying babies. so the president asked in february for congress to give $1.9 billion to eradicate the mosquitoes, to lessen the danger, and equally important, to develop a vaccine, a vaccine which frankly when it's developed all of us will want to take that protects all of us from zika virus infection in the future. what did the republican congress, republican-controlled congress do with the president's emergency public health crisis request for zika? nothing. they ignored it. until may of this year, when in the senate we finally passed with 89 votes -- democrats and republicans together -- not $1 .9 billion but $130eu 1 billion to deal with the -- but $1.1 billion to deal with the zika virus, this emergency public health crisis.

it took three months. it should have taken three days. we sent the bill from the senate with 89 votes over to the house of representatives to deal with this crisis in may. what did they do with it? instead of passing the abou bipartisan bill which the president requested, they decided to load it up with politically controversial issues that they thought would help them in this election cycle. listen to some of the things they added to this bill, this emergency public health crisis bill. first they put in the provision that there was a prohibition of funding any efforts by planned parenthood on family planning under this bill. why? because mothers facing the prospect of a pregnancy and the possibility of an infection would seek family planning help at planned parenthood, two million american mothers did last year. so they put this provision in to defund planned parenthood. they knew that that was going to be a fight. they put it in anyway.

they eliminated $500 million from the veterans administration funding to process the claims of veterans, something we desperately need. they took the authority that environmental protection agency to monitor chemicals that would be used to kill the mosquitoes. and then to add insult to injury, they put in a provision which said that you could display confederate flags in u.s. military cemeteries. what does that have to do with the zika virus? nothing. it was a political gamesmanship. it was going nowhere. the president will never sign it under those circumstances, and they knew it. now the president said give me a clean zika funding bill, and we will move forward with this continuing resolution. finally, finally last week the senate republican leader gave that clean bill as part of the c.r. if that were all he did, weed weed -- we'd be finished. we'd be home. but he kept moving forward in other areas of controversy.

you see, there was terrible flooding in louisiana. a lot of innocent people were hurt and lost their homes and businesses. it has been a custom in the united states congress to rally to the aid of victims of disasters. i voted for it over and over again, in maybe every state across the united states because i knew the day would come -- and it has -- when illinois would need a helping hand and i wanted to be there for my colleagues. so we said this. we said to the leader on the republican side, if you want to help louisiana -- and i do -- also help the people living in compliment. flint, michigan. remember when their water was contaminated and the damage is obvious? imagine 9,000 children in flint poisoned with lead-contaminated water. that happened. that poor city, they're drinking out of bottles every

single day. we said to the republican leader we care about louisiana. you should care about flint, michigan. but he refused. he said there will be money for louisiana but there won't be any money for michigan. why? we think there are victims in both places, and in the past the senate and congress have risen to those tragedies and those demands. and i've done it on a bipartisan basis. it makes no difference to me that we have two republican senators in louisiana. it should make no difference to senator mcconnell that we have two democratic senators in michigan. let's think about the americans who are hurting in both places instead of playing political games. but, no, senator mcconnell said we will help louisiana. we'll provide no help to flint, michigan. that is unfair and it complicates the situation. if that were all that he did, it would be bad enough. but senator mcconnell has a pet project that he needs to put into this bill. listen to what it is.

it is a prohibition at the securities and exchange commission that would promulgate a rule to require america's corporations to publicly disclose the campaign contributions that they're making. under citizens united, in warped thinking at the supreme court, they said corporations are persons when it comes to contributing money. look what's happened. a flood of millions of dollars, republicans were boasting they raised $43 billion in their superpack -- super pac in august and got $20 million from a rich republican out in nevada. but senator mcconnell is determined, determined to keep secret the source of these funds. and so he wants to put a prohibition for the securities and exchange commission from requiring corporations to simply state publicly that they're making these contributions.

we do. if corporations are persons, individual persons like myself, have to make a disclosure of contributions that are made, why should corporations have the benefit of being treated as a person to make contributions but not the responsibility facing persons to disclose this publicly? senator mcconnell wants to keep that secret, and that's why he included it in this legislation and made it as controversial as it is. a simple word to the leader on the republican side and to the wise who want to leave and go home and campaign, there's a way out of here. treat the people in p flint, fl, michigan with the same respect we're treating the victims in louisiana. provide resources for opioid funding which we desperately need. leave out the special interest provision protectings corporations that want to make political contributions but keep it secret. and make sure that we finally, finally seven months later

adequately fund the zika crisis so that we can deal with this and develop a vaccine to protect all of america. mr. president, i ask that my entire statement be made part of the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. durbin: i yield the floor. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the time until 11:30 a.m. will be controlled by the majority. mr. barrasso: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from wyoming. mr. barrasso: thank you, mr. president. the senate minority leader, senator reid, came to the floor a couple of days ago and talked about health care. he said if people -- this is a quote. he said "if people would just look at the newspaper, they would see that obamacare has changed america" in senator reid's words "for the better." well, mr. president, millions of americans do pick up the newspaper. i hope many of them saw your editorial in today's "wall street journal" about some of the travel and some of the things you've seen about our nation's security. but i'd like to point out to senator reid that there have been headlines in the paper

repeatedly, including one in the "reno gazette journal" this month that said nevada, his home state, ranked 48th in health care by a finance web site. a finance web site. they're talking about just how bad the health care law has been for the people of his home state of nevada. it was about a new survey that looked at things in health care costs and access to care and how they impact people at home. so if obamacare was so great, at least as great as senator reid says it is, then why is his home state ranked almost dead last? americans are seeing headlines like the one that appeared the day that the senator came to the floor, the front page of the "washington times," had he picked up and looked at the paper on the way to the floor, he would have seen a headline on the front page saying "failures of obamacare" front page, the day he came to the floor and said check out the headlines. it says "democrats see need for

a fall-back plan." they need a fall-back plan because this health care law has been so devastating to people all across this country. if obamacare is so great, why do the democrats need a fall-back plan? people across the country seeing head lines like this every day. "the washington post" headline, "health care exchange signups fall short of forecasts." "new york times," obamacare options: in many parts of the country only one insurer remains another "new york times" article, cost of health care law plans set to rise more sharply. this in the paper, "the hill." damage to g.o.p.: help us fix obamacare. they didn't turn to republicans for solutions and ideas when

they forced it through on a party-line vote. they didn't listen to us and our concerns about the impact of this law on the families of this country. now they come to us and say help us fix the mess they made. "usa today," and i want point out to senator reid, "obamacare rate hikes rattle consumers: could threaten enrollment." "new york times," "the incredible shrinking obamacare." and since senator reid came to the floor and made this statement a couple of days ago, let me point out a few other headlines that have arrived since that time. bloomberg, friday, "failing obamacare nonprofit co-ops add to death spiral fears." didn't have to turn to the newspaper. could have turned on the radio, national public radio just friday about people who are

buying insurance for their insurance because the obamacare program is so bad for them personally. and then sunday's "new york times," the business section, "why obamacare markets are in crisis." and i would suggest that the minority leader look at today's newspaper in indiana. indiana university health plans quit obamacare exchange, citing heightened financial uncertainty. those are the headlines people are seeing all across the country, so i'm not sure exactly what newspaper the minority leader is reading, but he's not reading the same papers that americans all across the country are reading. all across the country people are hearing about their rates going up. in georgia, 33%. illinois 45%. tennessee 59%. people are feeling the pinch from this rising cost of the obama health care law. it's hurting the people who buy

insurance through obamacare exchanges and it's hurting the people who get their insurance through their jobs. a new report by the kaiser family foundation says that for people who get their insurance at work, the deductibles have risen four times faster than the premiums did. so it's not just the premiums that are going up. the deductibles are going up. and all of those are new costs as a result of the health care law. the american people are feeling it in their wallets. millions of americans are rejecting obamacare insurance because they know it's not a good value for them personally. according to one article, eight million people face tax penalties this year for not buying obamacare coverage. these are people who can't afford this expensive second-rate insurance or they don't think that it's right for them or their family. the democrats who wrote this law who are now asking for help in, quote, fixing it, they don't

really care. they just want people to write their checks to the i.r.s., their penalties because of the mandates of the law, the taxes, the fines. these are for people who have no options, no options is exactly the situation that most americans are facing. major insurance companies have decided to leave most of the obamacare markets. you just look at the insurers who are fleeing the obamacare exchange. humana is selling coverage in 19 states this year. it's going to be in just 11 states next year. look at united health care, 34 states this year. down to three next year. aetna, going from selling obamacare plans in 15 states this year to just four states next year. on november 1, millions of americans will go to sign up for obamacare, and they will find that their insurance plan has disappeared.

companies are running for the exits. the program is collapsing. it is in a death spiral. and the co-ops, mr. president, the co-ops, 23 co-ops under the health care law, so far 17 of them have failed, including the one in senator reid's home state of nevada, went out of business at the end of the last year. with all these companies shutting down and dropping out, people living in one-third of the country are going to be left with just one option for where to buy obamacare coverage in november. one option is no choice. it's not a marketplace. it's a monopoly. under obamacare, we've seen medical costs skyrocketing, people losing their insurance. so it's no plan, no surprise that there is enormous anger and anxiety about the health care law to the point that in a gallup poll earlier this month

29% of american families say they have actually been hurt personally, personally hurt by the health care law and only 18% say they've been helped. mr. president, republicans said this is what was going to happen. democrats ignored them. they ignored our concerns to try to improve health care for americans. democrats went into a back room behind closed doors in harry reid's office. they wrote a law they passed. no republican support. and this is the result. we have offered, mr. president, direct solutions to the problems. we have offered relief, relief for the american people. and my colleague from arizona, senator mccain, who is on the floor, has offered a bill to provide that relief for people who were hit with mandates, taxes, fines, penalties, because of the law, the mandates and the law that is too expensive, too costly, hurting american families. and i'm proud to cosponsor senator mccain's legislation to provide that relief.

so, mr. president, when people say will you work with democrats, i will say this: if the democrats want to work on a plan that provides nothing but more obamacare and more federal control, count me out. but if they want to work on a plan like i've interdrused with senator graham and senator ayotte to provide opportunity, freedom, choice, flexibility at the state level to empower individuals and states, then count me it in. so, mr. president, when you look at a program that is impacting america, 29% of people hurt by the president and his law, only 18% helped, i would say to the president of the united states, you shouldn't have had to hurt so many good people trying to help those who didn't have insurance. mr. president, this is a law that needs to be repealed and replaced, and right now i'm proud to stand with senator

mccain in his efforts to provide relief to the families who feel betrayed by this president and this law. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. mr. mccain: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from arizona. mr. mccain: i thank the senator from wyoming, dr. barrasso, who continues to be the voice of reason and the voice for so many millions of americans who feel betrayed by obamacare. who have not been given their choice of a doctor if they wanted a doctor, who have not been able to keep the policy that they -- the president promised they would be able to keep, period. he is the voice of those fellow citizens of mine who in all counties but one in my home state of arizona have one choice. not a choice of their doctor, not a choice of their health care policy, but one and one only, and now are looking at as much as 65% increase in the rate

of their premiums beginning on the first of november. disgraceful. i thank the doctor. i thank my colleague and friend from wyoming. mr. president, i ask unanimous consent to address the senate for 30 minutes as if in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mccain: mr. president, i ask that i engage in a colloquy with my colleague from south carolina, senator graham. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mccain: mr. president, last night, there was obviously one of the most watched political events in american history, the debate between donald trump and secretary clinton, and a lot of issues were addressed or not addressed depending on your point of view, but the thing that was stunning to me, the aspect of this, is that there was not a single comment about the genocide that's taking place in syria as we speak. not a comment about this

terrible situation which has taken the lives of over 400,000 innocent wen, women and children in syria, driven six million into refugee status, destabilized the european europe and continues to this day in an endless flood. i think the american people deserve better than what they got last night, to be honest. so, mr. president, the beat goes on. the genocide goes on. the slaughter goes on. only at an increased tempo. today's "wall street journal," " syria defies calls to end offensive." of course it defies calls to end the defensive because their whole job is to take aleppo, to consolidate their control, to kill off anybody who is in opposition and then, and then

declare a cessation of hostilities once they have solidified their position, slaughtered thousands more and whatever happened to the united states commitment that bashar assad had to leave power. obviously, that's not happening and it's being abetted by, of course, our intrepid secretary of state. but it's not the secretary of state's fault. it's the president of the united states' fault. secretary kerry said -- quote - "it would be diplomatic malpractice not to pursue talks, ." mr. kerry said. it would be diplomatic malpractice. mr. president, one of the greatest diplomats that i have ever had the honor of knowing is a man by the name of george shultz. one of the major reasons why the cold war ended and we won. i'd like to give you a quote in direct contradiction to

mr. kerry's continuous quest to bend the knee and hope that vladimir putin will agree with him and stop this slaughter in syria time after time after time. here's what secretary shultz said on diplomacy, and i quote -- "americans have sometimes tended to think that power and diplomacy are too distinct twarns. this reflects a fundamental misunderstanding. the -- distinct. the truth is power and diplomacy must go together or we will accomplish very little in this world. power must always be guided by purpose. at the same time, the hard reality is that diplomacy not backed by strength will always be ineffectual at best, dangerous at worst. i wish the secretary of state would read what secretary -- former secretary, one of the great diplomats and leaders of our time, george shultz, said.

meanwhile, the slaughter goes on. this morning's "washington post" entitled -- and, mr. president, i ask unanimous consent the editorial "as aleppo burns" is made part of the record. mr. president, here we are. what russia is sponsoring and doing in syria at the city of aleppo is barbarism, u.s. ambassador to the united nations samantha powers said on sunday. she is right. for days, russian and syrian planes have rained bombs, plug white phosphorous, cluster munitions and bunker busters designed to penetrate basements on the rebel-held side of the city. hundreds of civilians have been killed. as many as half are children. ms. powers said instead of giving life-saving aid to civilians, russia and syria are bombing the humanitarian

convoys, hospitals and first responders who are trying desperately to keep alive. by monday, the administration's response seemed clear. it will hotly condemn the assault on aleppo but do absolutely nothing to stop it. on the contrary, secretary of state john kerry insisted he will continue to go back to the regime of vladimir putin with diplomatic efforts, hoping it will choose to stop bombing. quote -- "the united states makes absolutely no apology for going the extra mile to try and ease the suffering of the syrian people, he grandly declared after a meeting thursday on syria. by extra mile, he didn't mean actual u.s. stops to protect civilians, just more futile and debasing appeals to moscow. we are now treated to the seeing the secretary of state of the most powerful nation on earth

going to moscow, begging his friend lavrov to stop this, to stop this slaughter. did anybody not see the picture of the little boy covered with dirt and blood? did no one see that? putin and russian assad regimes are well aware that the only u.s. action president obama has authorized is diplomatic and they are they ever under no pressure to alter their behavior. they already obtained via mr. kerry u.s. agreement to the principle that the assad regime should remain in power while the united states and russia join in fighting those rebels deemed to be terrorists. remember the president of the united states said it's not a matter of whether bashar assad will leave but a matter of when. if it succeeds, damascus will have essentially won the civil war and will have no real need for the negotiations. mr. kerry says the cease-fire should lead to. if the offensive falls, mr. putin can send the foreign

minister lavrov back to renew the deal with mr. kerry. either way, russia wins. the losers are the civilians trapped in eastern aleppo. 250,000-275,000 human beings who are cut off from supplies of food and medicine being bombed mercilessly. they are being offered the same choice the regime has successfully imposed on other towns across the country. surrender or starve. those who try to approach the evacuation corridors, russia says, have been established are shot at. they are indeed victims of barbarism, but the rhetoric of u.s. diplomats and continued petitioning to mr. putin won't help them much. mr. president, i don't claim to be -- i am a student of history. there was a gay named calcagus

who were talking to his people who were fighting against the romance. once described the roman conquest of carthage where one stone was left on top of the other, the ground was salted and the carthaginians were slaughtered. and he described it -- they made a desert and they called it peace. we are seeing a repetition of history. my friends, mr. assad, mr. punitive, the iranians, the iranian revolutionary guard, hezbollah are making a desert, and they will call it peace. this is one of the most shameful chapters in american history. so i would ask my friend and colleague how many hospitals, markets, schools and playgrounds do russian and syrian regime aircraft have to bomb before we

realize that punitive and assad are not interested in stopping the violence? they are interested in victory. they are not interested in stopping the violence. how many aid warehouses and humanitarian convoys do they have to destroy before we realize punitive and assad are not interested in delivering aid to those in need? 400,000 syrian civilians have been murdered. six million are refugees. when will the president of the united states do what's necessary to stop this slaughter before they make it a desert? mr. graham: thank you for your passion and your caring for the people of aleppo and syria. history will judge you well, senator mccain. i'm proud to be by your side. but let's be honest with each other. it's just not the obama administration that's the

problem here. where is the united nations? a convoy carrying aid to aleppo was bombed, and we all believe it was by the russians. what about the countries in the region who border syria, what have they done? our friends in france have been attacked several times based on raqqah's act to project force -- excuse me, isil's ability to project force by having the caliphate and syria. they have dropped bombs. all of us have used air power. where is trump? if you can understand what he would do differently, i'd love to hear you. i don't understand. i can tell you this -- secretary clinton really disappointed me when you said no ground forces in iraq and syria. so the bottom line is the world -- mr. mccain: could i ask my

colleague, when former secretary of state clinton said no ground troops in iraq or syria, do you think that means the 4,500 have to be withdrawn that are there now? does she really believe that you can destroy yiestles with air power alone, which was basically what she said last night? mr. graham: yes, i agree. we have over 5,000 troops on the ground in iraq. if you count the people who come and go, it's closer to 7,000. so from their point of view, i think that's a pretty offensive statement. we have lost one seal and other people are definitely at risk. so we live in an interesting time. it's probably much like the 1930's when hitler was building up, and i'm not saying assad is hitler. i'm not saying punitive is hitler. but i am saying that there is evil on the march, and most people are not doing anything about it. if you're in aleppo right now, you feel like the jewish people must have felt in the 1930's and other countries who are being

overrun by evil where a lot of people just sat along the sidelines and issued statements. samantha powers, which i have known and actually personally like her, do you think anybody listens to you, samantha? do you think anybody cares what you say, because it's just all words? you have been up there for months now, and every cease-fire agreement has been broken. to my good friend, john kerry, you said it would be diplomatic malpractice not to try to get a cease-fire solution. at what point does it become malpractice to misread the person you're talking to? at what point will you understand that the russians are not interested in a cease-fire agreement? they want to install assad in a military fashion so that he cannot be ever taken out of power, which means they win. so to me, the real crime here is that the world, not just obama, has let this happen, and to the

people in this body. several years ago, we had an authorization to use military force debate after assad used chemical weapons in violation of the red line that president obama drew. to senator mccain's credit -- and i went with him -- is during labor day several years ago. the president called us up and said i'm going to take action because it's clear to us that assad used chemical weapons. we went outside the oval office in the driveway and stood with mr. boehner who stood with the president. there was a lot of republican support for the idea that the president must act to put this brutal man back in check. that was early in the week and by friday president obama takes a stroll in the rose garden with denis mcdonough and all of a sudden now we're coming to congress. i've yet to get a call. i read it in the paper. when it came to congress, it completely melted down. people on our side objected to

the use of force saying we'd be the air force forking a could i d.a. people on -- alki came. people -- al qaeda. people on our side did not understand what it meant to draw a red line and use some force. there's plenty of blame to go around. people on the democratic side almost never come to the floor and challenge what's going on in syria. president obama is getting a complete pass except from pockets like senator mccain and every now and then an editorial. why? most people don't care about syria because it seems distant. when you talk about the young boy, it breaks our heart. then we move on. most people thinking that we can't get involved ever again in the mideast because it's just hopeless over there. here's what i would suggest to you that we learn. that if you let syria continue to deteriorate, you'll regret it. the king of jordan, one of our best allies, is being overrun with syrian refugees. one in five children in lebanon

are syrian refugees. this war will never end until america leads back to obama. you and your administration are very deceitful when it comes to foreign policy. you're the ones that told us in benghazi that this was a protest caused by hateful video rather than an organized terrorist attack for weeks. secretary clinton in the debate last night said that the reason we had no troops in iraq is because the iraqis did not want them and would not agree to leave some troops behind. all i can say is that's a lie. i know that to be a lie because i was called by her before the decision to leave was made and she asked that myself, senator mccain, and senator lieberman go to iraq to talk with the parties about a force. we did. we went to prime minister mali maliki, the president at the

kurds and mr. allo aalawi representing the shiite group. the bottom line is we left there with the understanding that all three groups would work with each other to have a fall-on force because they understood the need for it. but this is the moment i will never forget as long as i live. during the meeting with prime minister maliki when it was my turn to ask him questions, he turned to me before i could speak and asked, how many troops are you talking about leaving? i turned to general austin who was the commander, ambassador jeffries who was the ambassador at the time. i said, general, what is the absence to the prime minister's question? and he said, we're still working on that. here's the truth. there never was a protest outside the consulate in benghazi. it was always a terrorist attack and they should have never had the ambassador there to begin with and they left him hanging.

here's the truth. they wanted to leave the -- the obama administration wanted to leave. they wanted to get to zero to fulfill a campaign promise, and the reason that the general could not answer prime minister maliki's question is because the white house was trying to get the numbers down to the point where it wouldn't matter if you left anybody because they were so low. so you can say a lot about trump. you can say a lot about republicans. a lot of it is true. you can say a lot about president obama and hillary clinton when it comes to iraq, but the one thing you can't say, it was the iraqis' fault that we left. and the reason i will not tolerate that is because too many people fought and died to get iraq back in a better place. the surge did work and they held it as a success back to syria. if you don't realize that we have several hundred people on the ground today in syria,

you're dishonoring them. if you don't realize that the strategy obama has come up with and never worked, you're not doing your homework. the people we're training, ladies and gentlemen, to take isil down and to hold raqqa are kurds. that may not mean anything to you but it means a lot to the region. the kurdish element that's being trained cannot hold raqqa, cannot liberate raqqa. so the people relying on the -- on to destroy isil can't take them down and hold the territory because it's an arab town and the people we're training to fight isil, the vast majority of the force has no interest in going after assad. and if you leave assad in power, the war never ends. 450,000 people have been slaughtered by assad's forces, mostly through barrel bombing and brutal tactics and there is no plan to create a military counterpush coming from the syrians themselves to create

negotiating space without power. there is no diplomacy so the force to destroy isil will never be successful in holding the territory. the force we're training to destroy isil has no interest in going after assad. and if you leave assad in power, this never ends. so this whole foreign policy approach of the obama administration is ill-conceived, shortsighted, and deceitful and they know everything i'm saying is true. there are people in the white house who know that the reason we left iraq was because of politics in the white house. there are people in the white house who know and the pentagon who know that the kurdish force being trained can't get the job done. they're just trying to buy time until the next president comes along. so all i can say about syria is it seems to be a far away place with strange sounding names. it seems to be something we shouldn't get involved in in the minds of a lot of people.

the one thing i would challenge you to think about is that the last time powers gathered up to murder and butcher hundreds of thousands of people, it eventually mattered to us. it's going to matter to you sooner than you think because all these children who've lost their parents and all these parents who have lost their children are looking at us and they are going to hate our guts along with the world community at large because we sat on the sidelines and watched it happen. come to me, come with me and senator mccain to a refugee camp and look into these kids' eyes. i see broken hearted children who need somebody to help them and a good investment. the terrorists see a recruiting opportunity, a literal gift from

the world at large. so you may not think it will affect you but our properly -- but i promise you the policies of the obama administration when it comes to syria are going to haunt the world for generations if we don't do something about it soon and change course. mr. mccain: i mention to my colleague who mentioned this meeting that we had with maliki about maintaining residual force. i'd also like to point out to my colleague that the reason given by obama and then secretary of state clinton was that we couldn't get a status of forces agreement with the iraqi government which then would not make it tenable for our troops to remain. we now have 5,000, whatever it is there. where is the status of forces agreement that was so necessary then? it's not there because they

wanted out. by the way, i believe it was the president of the united states that said we are leaving behind the most priestful, prosperous and democratic iraq in its history and last night, mr. trump was right when he said that al qaeda went to syria and became isis. we had al qaeda defeated. it was over. but i'd also remind my colleague at the time where one of the most consequential hearings in the history of the armed services committee was when we were about to have a resolution through the congress calling for the withdrawal of all troops because our strategy had failed. there was no strategy. the senator from south carolina and i called for the resignation and the firing of the then secretary of defense of our own president, george w. bush, because we were failing. then along came the surge and

david petraeus. and it was then senator clinton at that hearing who said and whoever wrote it for you, clever style, i would have to have a willing suspension of disbelief in order to think that the surge will work. she was wrong then. she's wrong now. because the surge did work, thank ses to the -- thanks to the sacrifice of so much precious american blood at places like fallujah. and then we had it won. and then the worst lie that i have seen in my time in the united states senate was this, well, we couldn't have stayed because we had to withdraw. that is a lie. we could have stayed. the senator from south carolina just described the meeting we had with maliki. the fact is clear al qaeda then moved to syria. it became isis and now we have

seen the consequences of the abject failure of that administration, that president, and that secretary of state. you cannot deny the facts. all i'd say to my friend from south carolina, this didn't have to happen, but what is happening now as a consequence of that failure as much as we want to revisit history is we could stop it now. we could stop it now. we could declare a no-fly zone. we could have a hundred thousand person force, 90% of them sunni arab countries and going to rack can and take them -- raqqa and take them. we could tell bashar assad he's got to stop the slaughter. the barrel bombs have to stop. the bucket buster bombs have to stop or we will take their planes out of the air. and you know what would happen, i'd say to my friend from south

carolina? the next time one of them was shot down after dropping a bomb and these terrible weapons on innocent civilians, it would stop. mr. graham: you've been a fighter pilot in combat flying for your nation. you know what it's like to risk your life. i would say this. if we had an american president who would tell the russian president that we're going to train forces inside syria to replace assad because assad must go for the benefit of the region and the world at large, and if you come after the forces we train, then you put your own people at risk, they wouldn't come. if you shot down one syrian jet who was trying to bomb innocent people or the people we're training, it would be hard to get the next pilot to fly. that's the fact. that's a fact, i think. here's the other fact. we're doing none of that. we're watching people get

slaughtered. but here's the question for those who want to be president and for this body. you're never going to win in iraq again unless you have some troops left behind this time. so here's the question. let's say we liberate mosul and that's going to be hard to do with the number of troops we have on the ground because every american soldier is a force mult employer, a trainer advisor bringing capability to the fight that the iraqis don't have themselves. so everyone we have over there within reason ensures the demise of isil and accelerates the chance of destroying isil and not having to rely on the shia militia from iran. if you're worried about iran being the big inwinner, you should be because they are. the only way to stop this dynamic is have more american forces, somewhere around so,000, and we're getting close, about 7,000 now, and they have to stay behind to keep iraq from falling apart again. that's my humble opinion. john mccain has been far more

right than he's been wrong. and everybody tells us every time we suggest something, well, that would create a lot of problems. all i can say is that what point do you realize that we've got a lot of problems? this thing is going to get worse if it doesn't get better and the only way for it to get better is to do something different. so the 5,000 troops are appreciated. incremental they're doing what we suggested three years ago. we're still not there. but look at syria. here's my warning to the american people and the world at large. what we have on the ground in syria cannot possibly destroy isil and hold the territory. you're going to need a lot more troops from the region who would be welcomed in the area in question. the kurds cannot liberate raqqa. they cannot destroy isil. they cannot hold the territory until you get regional forces involved, this will never work and you'll never have any diplomatic solution until there's military pressure put on assad.

currently if you are joining the american effort to destroy isil, you're prohibited from going after assad. the people in syria and the region want two things, the destruction of isil, the removal of assad who has been the butcher of damascus. we're not providing the second. the russians and iranians are all in behind assad. we have abandoned the people who have joined our cause years ago, four years ago assad was on the ropes. obama blinked. the rest is history. but going forward, if we don't have a different ground component in syria, we'll never destroy isil and hold the territory. we'll never end the war without putting military pressure on assad. that's going to require regional commitment with an american component. if you don't do that, another 9/11 is coming here because they have the ability to plan and project force. you've seen it in pairs and other places. i am not talking about one or two people. i am talking about a group of people that can do a lot of

damage to the united states. every day that we let syria get worse, every day isil enjoys the ability to operate, the longer it takes to get them destroyed, the more at risk we are. so this strategy won't work. secretary clinton's approach is no different than obama's. she is he's for a no-fly zone. i give her credit for that. if you don't realize we need a new ground component in syria, then you're giving isil the time they need to send their forces throughout the world, including here. and they're coming here, if we don't stop them over there. and our plan to stop them over there will never work unless you change it. mr. mccain: i would leave my colleagues with -- again, with the worlds of former secretary of state george shultz, and i quote, "the truth is, power and diplomacy must always go together, or we will accomplish very little in this world. power must always be guided by

purpose. at the same time, the hard reality is that diplomacy, not backed by strength, will always be infectual at best, dangerous at worst." that's the situation we are in trade. -- we are in today. mr. president, i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

mr. rubio: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from florida. mr. rubio: i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. rubio: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that i be recognized to speak as if in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. rubio: mr. president, i awoke on sunday morning early to familiar news in florida, that two boaters had lost their lives in an accident. at the time their names were not known. it happens quite often at night and during this time of year. a couple hours later as i was driving to church, i got a text that i didn't get to look at until we had parked. it said that the all-star pitcher from the miami marlins had lost his life in a boating accident and immediately i was able to connect the accident. and i was able to realize that the three boaters who lost their

life. his death at just 24 years of age has devastate the his family but its will an extraordinary impact on our community. its shakening the miami marlins, the organization and its fans, it's rocked tampa florida where he played high school and south florida communities where he lived and where he was making his mark. it has had a deep impact on immigrant communities and of course the entire baseball world and sporting world. his talents were unquestionable, but he had only a brief but shining career in major league baseball. he had played for a year. the last two years he had been gourd, had come back and had a better year than 12013 when he was rookie of the year sms he was a young man headed to a distinguished career that i believe would have led to the hall of fame and perhaps along the way a couple of pennants. but it's interesting that his impact goes well beyond of that

you would think for a baseball player. why would the death of this young man lead to +sufp an outpouring of grief by a community? it is all anyone can talk about. to understand it you have to understand his story. i never met jose fernandez and yet i feel as if i knew him. that's how millions of people feel. they never met him, but they feel like they know him. they feel like they know him because his story, his family, his passion, it is at the end our story. as cuban-americans, as americans. by now most of the nation has seen tributes to jose, they've seen commemorations, footage of what he accomplished on the field and the way most baseball fans knew him, as jose fernandes, the dominant baseball player, the phenomenon, the rookie of the year, the two-time

all-star. as baseball player, there were few better than jose. but off the field as a human, a son, a grandson, a teammate, a neighbor, i believe he was even better from everything we know. he was born in santa clara, cuba in a place where tree branches and rocks are what passes for louieville sluggers. he would spent countless hours swing graunchessality rocks. his mother would take him to the ballpark. he started to demonstrate a special talent at a young age. by the time he was a teenagers like more than a million cubans during the past 50 years, jose face add difficult choice. his stepfather had defected after 13 attempts and made a life for himself in tampa. now jose could stay in cuba, place that to this day is still

ruled by a despotic regime where your talent and work can only take you as far as unelected dictators say you can go. or he could risk it all for the chance at freedom. and he risked it. not once but on four separate occasions. so desperate was he to leave that island that he took his chances crossing the florida straits on boats that had no being a few miles offshore. the cuban government put him in government for three months. he was 14 years of age at the time. he was placed in a cell with hardened criminals. a boy among the worst. then came a fourth try. but instead of a short and treacherous journey to miami, they chose a longer and dangerous journey to mexico. at one point on a boat being tossed by crashing waves, he heard a splash. he saw someone in the water thrashing about 60 feet away

from the boat. he didn't know who it was. he juched in to save the person. it was once he got close it that person in the water that he realized the person who had fallen overboard was his mother. he recalled swimming towards her. he finally reached her. he calmed her appedz, told her, grab my back but don't push me down. let's go slow and we'll make t she held his left shoulder. with his right arm, by the way, his pitching arm, he paddled. he swam 15 minutes back to the boat in waves he later described as "stupid big" and he pulled himself and his mother to saivment jose was 15. before america ever met jose fernandez, before his facilityball earned him millions of dollars, against all odds at just 15 years of age, this young man that jose wasvealing himself to be. the hardest part of his life was

still yet to come. for like so many immigrants his first years here were difficult. he struggled, feeling overwhelmed. he was helpless and alone and missing his family, especially his grandmother who he once called "the love of my life." he said it was the toughest period of his young life, tougher than the time he spent in a cuban period trying to defect. but he overcame and eventually came into his own. avenues star on the high school diamond in tam pavment scouts took notice. before the 2011 draft major league baseball released her scouting report on him. he got high marks for his athletic acts. what set him apart was how he was rated when it came to his poise and aggressiveness. "exudes confidence." no fear approach. this was not cockiness or arrogance. it was the kind of peaceful self-assurance that comes from a

kid who had known life and dhoarnlings had known freedom and captivity and who had lived more life in 19 years than a kid his age should have to. he finally reached the major leagues with the marlins and right away you saw a young man blessed with hall of fame talent, a blue-collar work ethic, of a boy who understood and aappreciated just how blessed he was. one of jose's proudest accomplishments, in fact he said his proudest, was not on the diamond. we know this because he told us. last year jose became an american citizen. and afterward he said, "this one is my most important accomplishment. i am an american citizen now. i am one of them. i consider myself now to be free." i thank this amazing country for giving me the opportunity to go to school here and learn the language and pitch in the major leagues. it is on honor to be a part of this country and i respect it so

much." jose knew. he knew how special and fortunate and blessed he was and we are. he knew how improbable his journey was from the rocks and branches in santa clara to the brightest lights of the show, from a cuban prisoner to a major league clubhouse, from living in a communist nightmare to living the american dream. and this is why his death has hit so many so hard. because jose's story was our story. because he reminds so many in my community of someone they know, of a brother or the son or the nephew. jose represented not just all of us who were fortunate to lift our own american dream, he represents countless others who never made it, the ones who lie in unmarked graves along the florida straits, who sent their children to america hoping to

join them later never to see them again, who gave up hope that life in cuba could return to what it was. we loved him just a little more and took more pride in him than most but jose didn't just belong to cuban-americans. a young man from santa clara, cuba, playing baseball on a team with players from tie wouldn't and the dominican republic and mobile, alabama, and panorama, california, jose was the pride of miami. he belonged to every fan who loved to watch him pitch. when miami saw jose on the mound, they saw more than just a great aght leevment they saw their hopes and dreams and aspirations. all we are and all we could be and we said to ourselves, this is what the american dream looks like. and, boy, is the american dream alive and well. this young man meant a lot to a

lot of us for different reasons and in different ways. now just as quickly as he came into our lives, just as he was coming into his own and starting to fulfill his athletic potential and just as we were getting to know him, he is gone. in their moment of unimaginable grief, i want to thank his family for bringing him in this worlgd, for raising him to become the man he was, and for encouraging him to never give up in the search for freedom, a freedom that eventually allowed him to share his many gifts with us on and off the field. jose fernandez made tampa's team better, he made the miami marlins better. he made all of baseball better. he made famil miami and tampa b. he reminded us of how blessed we are to live in this, the greatest nation on earth. my friend, that's not bad for a 24-year-old kid from santa clara, cuba. with that, mr. president, i yield the floor and i suggest

the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: will the senator withhold his request? mr. rubio: yes. mrs. boxer: mr. president, thank you so very much -- the presiding officer: the senator from california is recognized. mrs. boxer: i want to associate myself with those remarks that were made. tragedy when you lose such a fighter like that and such a talent like that. and such a hero like that. and speaking of heroism, we need a little bit of it on the floor here. we need to have a leadership here that understands that when children are being poisoned by lead in their water, we do something about it. we need leadership here that understands that just as the people of louisiana deserve every bit of help, so do the families of flint. we need a leadership here that

understands our responsibility to children. what good are we, what good are we? i got to say, i stand here as the ranking member of the environment and public works committee, and we're responsible for the safe drinking water act and the clean water act. the and -- and my partnership with senator inhofe, which has been noted by a few around here, has extended to taking care of the people of flint. we took care of the people of flint and all of the kids who were exposed to lead in water in the water resources and development act that passed here with over 90 votes. that is good. that says that there is goodness here in the united states senate. but unless we can deliver this bill and put it on the president's desk, it's a meaningless goodness.

it's for show goodness. and i got to say it's so simple to take care of this. the continuing resolution has in it help for louisiana, those people deserve that help. so do the people of flint. and i have to say how easy is it. it's already paid for. we figured it out. it doesn't cost a penny. unlike helping the people of flint when we put that into the emergency spending. we have paid for the way to help the people of flint and the children all over this country who have suffered from the impact of lead. i want to show you some charts that demonstrate what it's like. mr. president, this is what corrosive water has done to leech the lead out of these

pipes. these are the drinking water pipes. why did it happen? because unelected people in flint, appointed by the governor there, decided they wanted to save a few bucks and they changed the source of the drinking water and they switched to a very corrosive drinking water, and it leached all this lead out and the lead poisoned the children. that's a simple fact in evidence we need to fix it. we need to replace it. i'm going to show you something else. this is what it looks like, mr. president. if you saw this color water coming out of your tap, you'd get out of the house with your family. i'd get out of the house with my family. we're lucky. we have more resources than a lot of folks. i'll show you some more pictures and some more charts.

here's other cities. pregnant women, kids cautioned over jackson water, lead. this is "newsweek." with lead in the water, could sebring, ohio, become the next flint? the next flint? these are other cities in our country where the lead is leaching into the drinking water. now, this is not a democratic democratic-republican issue. we fixed it over here, all of us together. but now we're being told by the republican leader he can't possibly take care of it in the continuing resolution while he takes care of other places. since when do we play god and decide which people are deserving of our help? when there's suffering, you help people. when there have been terrible mistakes made with the drinking

water supply, you help people. and we did it in a way that's financially responsible, fiscally responsible. we figured out a way to pay for this new program that will not only help flint replace their pipes but will help cities like this all over the country. here's another one. "elevated lead levels found in newark schools' drinking water." "lead in water not confined to flint." so our provision that we put in helps people all over this great nation of ours. what else do we have to show? okay. i want to tell you the list of organizations who were calling to add aid to flint and these other cities into this

continuing resolution. the afl-cio, catholic charities, first focus campaign for children, the congressional black caucus, human rights, representing 200 national organizations, a. phillip randolph institute, aclu, african-american ministers, american association of university women, american family voices, american federation of government employees, american federation of state, county and municipal employees, american federation of teachers, american islamic congress, american rivers, american-arab antidiscrimination committee, americans for democratic action, andrew goodman foundation, asian and pacific islander american health forum, asian americans advancing justice, asian pacific american labor alliance, bend the arc jewish action, campaign for america's future, catholics in

alliance for the common good, center for community change action. you can see all the interfaith groups, every religion is asking the majority leader to take care of these children. for god's sakes, where's your heart? where's your heart? we paid for it. we've taken care of it. we're helping flint, we're helping all the communities. let's continue to see these groups. center for law and social policy. children's defense fund, children's health fund. common cause. disability rights education fund, environment america, every child matters, international association of official human rights agencies, national association of social workers, the black justice coalition, the national council of asian pacific americans, the national council of jewish women, the jewish council for public affairs, jobs with justice, the league of conservation voters, the league of united latin

american citizens, moms rising, the naacp, the automobile aerospace and agricultural implement workers of america, the jesuit conference of canada and the united states. where are your values? where are your religious values, i say to the majority leader? you can take care of this. it doesn't cost a penny. and you will shut down the government rather than do this? you've got to be kidding. here's some more -- national council of la raza, national disability rights network, national education association, national employment law project, national fair housing alliance, national jobs for all coalition, national urban league, national women's law center, the national

w.i.c. association. do you know what w.i.c. stands for? women, infants and children. and they make sure that our babies are healthy, and they know, they know that there's no safe exposure of lead in a child, and they know that that lead builds up. sorry. restaurant opportunities centers, service employees international union, the sierra club, the united church of christ justice and witness ministries, the united methodist church, the general board of church and society, voices for progress, people for the american way. and you don't want to listen to democrats? listen to the churches. listen to the great religions. listen to the people who fight for children. put flint in the continuing resolution. it doesn't cost a penny. i want to go back to the photo of what it looks like when lead

comes out of the water fountain. i want to show you that picture. that's what it looks like. that's what it looks like. now, the majority leader, when asked, he says oh, i don't have to put this in the continuing resolution. i can just know. i know that we're going to get this in the water resources development act bill. now, i don't want to say something. as i started out, i said this senate voted by more than 90 votes to fix flint and to fix this problem of lead in drinking water by setting up a paid-for program, and it's in the wrda bill. thank you to senator inhofe, my chairman. what a joy to work with him and his staff on this. he is committed to this. i am committed to this. well, what about the house, because i don't have to tell you or explain to you how a bill

becomes a law. it has to go to the senate, it has to go to the house, it has to go to a conference committee to debate the differences. then it has to go to the president. he either signs or vetoes. okay? the house has a wrda bill. guess what is not in their bill. flint. guess what is not in in their b. any provision to deal with lead in drinking water. they say trust us. we don't need it in the c.r. let's take care of all these other people, but we don't need it in a continuing resolution. don't shut down the government. come on. we'll take care of it. really? well, they had a chance yesterday to allow an amendment, to allow an amendment to add flint provision to the wrda bill. guess what they did. they said no. they said no.

they won't even allow a vote. chairman sessions, not senator sessions. this is chairman sessions over there in the rules committee said, you know, flint can be an earmark. number country, it is not an earmark because we take care of all areas where there is lead in drinking water. number two, what did paul ryan say, the speaker over there, the one who says he is so compassionate for poor people? he said this is a local matter, a local matter. how is it a local matter where the people of flint were being governed by appointed people by the governor, and they decided to save money and they didn't care what happened. they went to a cheaper water supply and they poisoned the people. local matter? really, is it a local matter to not have safe drinking water?

really. ask the people who served when richard nixon was the president and he started all the environmental landmark laws. people have a right to clean air. people have a right to clean water. people have a right to safe drinking water. people have a right to these things. and we have a responsibility to ensure that they have that right, because the consequences are dire. a local matter. that's speaker ryan, the republican speaker who said he's so compassionate. why isn't he making this happen? why isn't he helping us? we cannot trust the house to address flint. they proved it yesterday. they won't even allow an amendment. all they have to do is allow an

amendment, the amendment passes the same as the senate, it's in the bill, we're done, we're happy. then you don't have to put it in the continuing resolution. all you have to do is take up and pass the senate bill, the senate wrda bill, which passed here with over, i think, 95 votes, 95 votes. do you would think they would te it, pass it, in a time when we can't even agree on a resolution commending mother's day, we can't even agree on something simple, we agree with 95 votes on a wrda. take up and pass it. get it off the plate. then we can get this esh behind us. they won't do it. the suffering in flint has gone on far too long. the crisis began in 2014 when that unelected flint leadership appointed by the republican governor of michigan cut costs by switching the water supply to the corrosive flint river.

the city managers failed to use corrosion control measures, and that was a disaster because lead began leaching into the water from the city's aging drinking water pipes. we'll show those pipes again. look at that picture. that is a frightening one. and it wasn't until january, 2016, the governor declared a state of emergency. meanwhile, a local dorgan warning of the high level of lead in children's blood but state officials assured those parents their water was safe to drink. 100,000 working class americans in flint. african-americans, white americans, hispanic americans, 41% living below the poverty

line use contaminated water for drinking, for cooking, for bathing for months without knowing about it because these so-called local officials, pinted by the republican governor, refused to tell them there was a problem. and the republican leadership here has the temerity to say those people don't deserve relief or say we'll take care of it in the water resources development act, when yesterday the house refused to do it. 12,000 flint children were exposed to lead-tainted water according to nbc. those children will be dealing with the harms if consequences of lead contamination for the rest of their lives. no safe level of lead is known. there is no safe level. and the exposures are generally

irreversible. what does lead do? it harms the developing brains and nervous systems of children and fetuses. this is a tragedy, a tragedy. and yet the republican leader comes down here and says, oh, we'll take care of it after the election. don't worry about it. no, that's wrong. that's not right. in my position as the ranking member of the environment and public works committee, and before that as chairman, i swear i could stand here and tell you i gave my heart and soul for the people of louisiana and the gulf coast when they were hit by strife. i went there to louisiana. i stood with the people of louisiana. i stand with them now. they deserve our help. and so do the people of flint and so do the people of all the communities that are suffering

from lead in drinking water. it has been nine months, over nine months since flint was granted an emergency declaration, and the citizens continue to deal with the horrible water crisis. they do not have access to safe drinking water. this started in 2014, and in 2016 the republican leader doesn't understand that that's wrong, that we haven't helped those people. come on, don't hide behind the water resources development act, because they have not agreed to fix it in the house. why are republicans picking and choosing communities who deserve our help? we're going to have a vote today, and that vote is important. and we need to be strong.

we need to say we are for helping the people of louisiana, we are for helping them. but we are not for leaving out these poisoned children, this community that's been suffering, when we can fix it without a penny of taxpayer cost. so i hope we're going to vote "no" on that, and maybe then the leader will decide to put flint into this continuing resolution. we cannot play games with this. we cannot. this can be fixed. 95 senators know how to fix it. this can be fixed. we are very worried about this issue of lead in drinking water because millions of homes across america receive water from pipes that date to an era before scientists fully understood the harm of lead exposure.

so there are lead pipes. and if you put the wrong type of water into those pipes, it will leech the lead out and unknowingly families are bathing in lead. they're drinking lead. they're cooking with lead. this is wrong. and i'll say, and you have to hear this, mr. president, this is very important to hear. we don't just fix the problem in flint. we set up a new program to help communities all over the country. the american water works association estimates that as many as 22 million americans have lead service lines. 22 million americans. so what are we going to say? we won't take care of this in the c.r., continuing resolution. we'll just throw it over into the water bill. and yet the house is very disinterested in this, the republicans in the house. and i have read the

organizations. you know, this is the first time i've actually looked at all those organizations. and i just want to make this last plea to the republican leader and to all of you who run this place here for now. and that is this: if we're here for any reason, if we're here for any reason -- and we thank god we're here. what an honor it is to be here. as i look at my days dwindling down here, i'm filled with emotion that i've been able to help so many people. why are we here? not to hurt people. not to turn a blind eye to the suffering of people. but to step up to the plate and to say you know what, we understand, and we're going to help. we have a chance to do that. i was so proud of my partnership with my republican friends on the environment and public works committee, that we took care of this in the water resources development act bill. and we solved the problem in a

fiscally responsible way and a judicious way. we've got it solved. mr. president, it's done. the work is done. and 95 senators stood behind that work. so what we want to say to the house is take up and pass the senate bill. take care of this matter. and if you can't do that, give us an ironclad commitment that you will absolutely get it done. short of that, it has to go in the continuing resolution. until then, what we're doing in the continuing resolution is saying yes to the suffering and pain of some of our beloved citizens and no to suffering and pain to another set of our beloved citizens. this is the united states of america, not the divided states of america. we care fofer -- for all our

children, for all our families. we look at safe drinking water as a right. that's why we have the safe drinking water act. that's why we have the clean water act. these were passed by republicans and democrats, signed into law by republican and democratic presidents. i hope that the leader, who i've had some very excellent relations with of late, i hope that he will rethink this and we can leave here in an election year knowing that we helped all the people. thank you very much. i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from mississippi. mr. cochran: mr. president, the senate is now scheduled to vote at 2:15 on the continuing resolution.

the resolution will provide $1.1 billion in emergency funding to respond to the zika virus outbreak. funds are included to accelerate vaccine development, provide mosquito control in areas where the virus is being transmitted, and to address health conditions related to the zika virus. the bill also includes $500 million to help louisiana, west virginia, and other states recover from devastating floods. we will continue to assess the total recovery needs in those states. but this funding is needed immediately to help get residents back in their homes and businesses. the fiscal year 2017 military construction and veterans affairs appropriations bill is also included in this

legislation. the bill provides record levels of funding for medical care and other important veterans programs. it also funds housing for military personnel and their families and supports infrastructure that sustains u.s. military forces. enactment of the military construction and veterans affairs appropriations bill would mark the first time since 2009 that a regular appropriations bill has been signed into law before the end of the fiscal year. this would be another step in the right direction as we seek more regular consideration of appropriations measures. this legislation also includes a continuing resolution to sustain government operations at current

levels until december 9. this will give us additional time to complete work on the fiscal year 2017 appropriations bills. i am pleased that the appropriations committee reported all 12 of the regular appropriations bills for the second year in a row. the senate has approved three of these bills. we look forward to completing our work on the remainder. i urge the senate to approve the continuing resolution. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from west virginia. mrs. capito: mr. president, i have five requests for committees to meet during today's session of the senate. they have the approval of the majority and the minority leader. the presiding officer: duly noted.

mrs. capito: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, i rise today to ask my colleagues to support this cloture motion this afternoon and move forward in passing the continuing resolution to fund our government through december 9. flooding is a national emergency. i've heard many members talk about the flooding in louisiana and west virginia and texas. and it is a devastating, devastating circumstance we find ourselves in the state of west virginia. 23 west virginians lost their lives. amazingly, the last victim was just found probably just a month ago, a 14-year-old girl. 12 counties were declared federal disaster areas. and for some areas of west virginia, this was a 1,000 year event. it came up so quick. some of our oldest and our poorest communities suffered serious destruction, and nearly

90% of the homes and businesses affected did not have flood insurance. i toured most all of the affected areas and talked to some really brave people and really brave local mayors doing a great job. 5,100 homes and businesses have suffered a loss as verified by fema. 75% of the affected homes have been deemed unsafe by inspects. we've got thousands of people who are not living in a he permanent home situation. some are still living in more temporary situations that are unsafe and certainly moving into the fall would be very, very unhealthy. there is significant need for resources to help communities, individuals, and small businesses recover. and disaster-related needs go beyond the reimbursement provided by fema. our governor, west virginia's governor, earl ray tom lynn wrote to president obama earlier this month outlining the significant need for disaster aid. the governor's letter identified

$310 million in flood-related needs from the federal community block grant program. i'm a member of the senate appropriations committee. i really appreciate our chairman, senator cochran, coming to the floor today to implore after all this hard work, trying to get this continuing resolution confirmed. and i've worked hard to secure niece resources in this -- these resources in this bill for our west virginia flood victims. the legislation we will vote on today takes an important step to address flood recovery and disaster-stricken portions of west virginia, certainly our friends in louisiana and other parts of the country. i thank my colleagues on the appropriations committee. i thank the leader for listening to me. chairman cochran and senator collins, who chairs the subcommittee, for responding favorably to my request for these desperately needed resources. this bill begins to address this

by including funds for the community block grant disaster recovery program. those funds will help housing, infrastructure needs and communities impacted by the flooding in west virginia and all across the country. given the need in my state and other states like louisiana and texas, additional disaster funds beyond these in this bill will be needed. this is an emergency. this means now. now. these floods occurred several months ago. i could have easily come to the floor today and heralded the record funding that this bill includes for our nation's veterans. or the important resources that it provides for our opioid -- to help combat our opioid and heroin epidemic, something that's devastating my state and many states across this country. these are needs facing all states and should have been addressed by our regular appropriations bills. no one likes the fact -- well, i don't think anyone likes the fact that a continuing resolution is necessary.

the senate appropriations committee, of which i'm a member, passed all 12 of the appropriations bills, many of them bipartisan worked out between the chair and the ranking member. and i wish that the senate had acted on all of these. we tried. for weeks and weeks and weeks to get cooperation to move through these bills in a predictable and very responsible manner. so that we could have addressed our nation's priorities in a fiscally responsible way. but this bill today keeps our government open and provides the additional resources to help our flood victims who are still suffering so much. helps our veterans, and it helps to address those who are suffering this new and devastating scourge of opioid and heroin addiction. i ask my colleagues to join me in supporting this legislation. thank you and i yield the floor.

a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. ms. mikulski: mr. president, i want to -- i rise also to speak about the continuing resolution and i'm speaking in opposition of the continuing resolution. i just want to comment to the gentlelady from west virginia. i so respect her role and leadership she's played in the senate. what a diligent senator she is and her advocacy for west virginia and the flood victims really have not only my sympathy but as the vice chair of the appropriations committee would like to be of help to her, to the people of louisiana and west virginia, but we can't leave out flint, michigan. we just can't and we don't want to christmas tree the bill. you and i are experienced legislators.

but really when you think about flint, can you imagine living off of bottled water? can you imagine trying to run a small business? i don't know if my father who had a small grocery store could have kept it open. so i do hope, though, we can put our heads together, come up with a solution, get rid of the poison pill riders, meet compelling human need as the gentlelady so well articulated and find a solution. keep the doors of government open and right now we need an open mind to talk with each other. and i look forward to being able to do that. so, mr. president, i come here to discuss keeping the government open. it's very important to me. i have 300,000 federal employees in maryland and they do everything from working at n.i.h. to find a cure for cancer, find a cure for alzheimer's, to working at the weather service so that we could provide to communities large and

small throughout america information about the weather to avoid -- to prepare for everything from natural disasters to how things are going to go to make sure that oranges and peaches don't freeze on the trees. the senate has until friday of this week to avoid a government shutdown. as i said last week and have said this, democrats are ready to negotiate. we're willing to compromise, but there are certain things we cannot capitulate on, and flint, michigan, is one. last week the majority leader, the distinguished senator from kentucky, senator mcconnell, filed a republican continuing funding resolution. the leader has -- quote -- filled the tree, that's senate speak for meaning we cannot amend the continuing resolution before us. so we're stuck.

we're stuck in the same old wa ways. drama until close to the deadline that can threaten showdown and slam down. this is not where we want to go. what do democrats want? well, we want what the american people should want. number one, let's keep the government open through december 9. no, i'm not saying shut it down december 9 but by december 9, that we would come to a complete omnibus bill, meaning -- meeting our total funding for fiscal year -- the fiscal year that lies ahead. second, as americans, we need to look at each other across the aisle, across state borders and meet compelling urgent needs, like zika, like the floods in louisiana and west virginia and other states, and in flint,

michigan. we need to be free of poison pill riders, like a rider preventing the securities exchange commission from requiring companies to tell invest ooshes where -- investors where they're putting their political contributions. now what's wrong with that? shouldn't we have an open and transparent process here? we're not asking any company to reveal their trade secrets, but trading in political contributions should not be a trade secret. it's about are you trading? are you ashamed, are you ashamed of your political contribution? well, is that what you want to do? you want to hide it? i don't think that's america. all we're saying is not to tell you who you should give to but tell us who you did give to. and let's also provide a full year of funding for our veterans

and military construction. most of all, for our veterans. well, you talk about compelling human need, we're just weeks away from once again celebrating veterans day. celebrating veterans shouldn't be one day a year. it's got to be every day of every year. we had men and women, some who served in the senate, like the distinguished senator from virginia and others who bear the permanent wounds of war. we need to pay the permanent responsibility for caring for those who did serve. we need to be able to back our veterans and not just with lip service, wonderful yellow ribbons. we need to be able to do our duty. we got the funding ready for the defense of the nation and the things that protect america outside of d.o.d. we agreed on helping zika and on louisiana, but the republican

continuing resolution doesn't help flint, michigan, and it includes poison pills. i want to end partisan gamesmanship. no shutdown, no slamdowns, no showdowns. that's why i'm going to be clear about three changes i strongly recommend. number one, we need print, mitch -- flint, michigan, funding. i noticed the distinguished lady from michigan is on the floor. well, a sister social worker who her unabashed, unrelenting, unflagging support, particularly for the children and particularly for the small businesses for flint, michigan, has been so steadfast, unflagging, and unrelenting. and we need to be the same way. $220 million for water infrastructure passed in the water resource development act

on a vote of 95-3 and guess what? it's fully paid for. so what's the problem? what is the problem with flint, michigan? well, when you think about flint, you think about little children with lead in the drinking water. what does that do? it stifles intellectual development. it inhibits you for the rest of your life for fulfilling your god-given full intention. you know, in we respect life, we should do all we can to sustain it. and then think about small business. think about trying -- what you think when you don't have water. water, water everywhere. water, water, not any fit to drink. how do you run a little diner?

how do you run a little diner? how do you run a produce stand? as i said, my father owned a small grocery store. everything was spotless. everything was meticulously cleaned. he made sure his fruits and vegetables were cleaned. everything was. you can't have lead in the water. so let's get on with it. we know that there are people in this country that have been hit by floods. they had too much water. flint has too much of the wrong water. we can right that wrong by joining our hands, understanding compelling human need doesn't come from a democrat or republican zip code. it comes from the united states of america, and we should be united in dealing with it. we should strip out the poison pill riders like the s.e.c., political contribution and transparency request and we should reduce the zika offset

package to $375 million. these are reasonable changes and if the republican caucus is willing to agree, we can pass the continuing resolution today. i remind my colleagues when i became the first woman to chair the appropriations committee upon the death of the esteemed senator inouye, the response to hurricane sandy was on the floor. working together we were able to pass that bill and meet compelling human need. i'd like to be able to do that now. throughout my tenure as the chair or vice chair of the appropriations committee, i live by the principle that we owe the american people help when disaster strikes. and we must. we should respond to zika that now is affecting 23,000 people, 2,000 pregnant women. we need to help with the victims of louisiana and other states that have been hit.

we just saw the terrible things going on in iowa. we must help the 100,000 people of flint still waiting for their water pipes to be clean and safe and their children with lead exposure to be protected. the people of flint need now. so we pass the wrda bill. we need now to pass a c.r. that gets rid of poison pill riders, meets compelling human needs in every part of our country. also make sure that our veterans and that funding is there to make sure that there's no backlog in applying for your disability benefits and no backlog when you're trying to get to see a doctor. i'm so proud of my appropriations committee that worked on v.a., the veterans bill. we have a wonderful bipartisan bill looking at the needs of rural veterans and veterans who have had to wait in line, the mental health needs and the support that we need to do.

so let's do our job. really, hello, let's do our job and make sure -- i believe there's still time to work this out but until we do, i oppose cloture on the mcconnell substitute. mr. president, that concludes my remarks and i yield the floor. ms. stabenow: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from michigan. ms. stabenow: thank you, mr. president. i would ask for unanimous consent for ten minutes, up to ten minutes to speak. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. stabenow: thank you. first thing i want to do is thank the very, very distinguished lead, our democratic ranking member on appropriations committee, former chair senator mikulski who has been with us every step of the way. i've learned a lot about lead exposure. i thought i knew a lot but by sitting down with senator mikulski, we've had an opportunity to have discussions

about potential treatments to help and impacts regarding lead. it's very flittenning, particularly -- frightening, particularly for children what lead poisoning mean. senator mikulski over the years, her advocacy and leadership with national institute of health and center for disease control and other areas on health care has made a tremendous difference, including helping to create a way to have some options on treatment for children. i want to thank you. we are going to greatly miss you. i don't think we're going to let you go. it's just amazing, senator mikulski and her staff, for your commitment and support and understanding of what the people in flint be going through. mr. president, you know, two weeks ago now, we were feeling like we were on our way finally. we spent the last eight months getting through various procedural hurdles and objections to get help for flint and other communities with lead

poisoning issues and water. we had a bill come to the floor. i greatly appreciate the majority leader bringing it to the floor. we had a terrific bipartisan team with senator inhofe and senator boxer who led us in passing a very important bill. and as we have said, it passed 95-3. doesn't happen a lot around here. 95-3. and we thought we were on our way. the families of flint were in town at that time, and felt like finally maybe there was some hope. and then we were told that wrda would be coming up quickly the next week in the house. didn't happen. we've not -- what we saw instead were comments that the house leadership, the speaker, the chairman of the committee would not support flint being a part of the house wrda bill. and we've heard on the one hand that we should wait for wrda, and then the same people say but

we don't support putting flint in wrda. okay. we have the same people saying this is a local issue while the house government and oversight committee and chairman chavis did hearings bringing in the e.p.a. administrator and challenging her to step down because of what the e.p.a. did in flint. so okay, it's local. no, it's the e.p.a., which is federal. we feel like we're being bounced back and forth and back and forth, and the bottom line, people in flint still can't drink the water. since mid august, we've had more than 611,000 cases of bottled water delivered to families and friends. in fact, delivered is the wrong word because most of the time they have to figure out a way to go pick it up. if you're riding a bus, that's pretty tough, or if you're walking and you have a car and you're trying to figure out when you will go get the bottled water that you can bathe in and

feed your childn