the 9/11 victims lawsuit bill. the first time congress nullified a veto by president obama. extended government funding until december 9. the senate resumes legislative work after the lame-duck election of october 8. : 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. eternal god, you sustain us with your unfailing love, for your faithfulness reaches beyond the clouds.

use our senators to accomplish your purposes in our nation and world. may they tackle the complex challenges of our times with the confidence that your providence will prevail. train them in the school of humility so they will walk safely without stumbling. may they remember that humility precedes honor. lord, bless and protect america, making it a land that provides freedom's lamp to our world.

incline each citizen to hear your words of truth and to apply his or her heart to knowledge. we pray in your great 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. reid: snrp. the presiding officer: the democrat leader. mr. reid: mr. president, this republican congress and especially as we head for yet another unearned recess, i feel compelled to comment on how republicans have treated the president of the united states during the last eight years.

history will look back and note the republicans in congress president obama with unprecedented disrespect. no one expected them to agree with everything that he did or tried to do, but americans deserve better than the way republicans behaved toward president obama. mr. president, a day or two after president obama was elected the first time, republicans met here in washington -- all the republican big names -- and they came to two conclusions: number one, obama would not be reelected. they failed on that one, quite miserably. but, number two, that they would oppose everything that president obama tried to do, and they have stuck by that, without any question. america will be better with a responsible opposition party that found a way to make its differences with president obama

clear without treating him with such contempt. but, sadly, that's not what they saw from the republicans over the past eight years. president obama is the first president to be denied a hearing on his budget. he's the first president to be deny add hearing on a supreme court nominee. president obama is the first president asked to show his birth certificate. president obama is the first president to face over 500 filibusters here in the senate. in this republican senate, president obama will receive fewer nominees confirmed than any president in many, many decades. republicans have not done their basic work of government. they have not stood by their commitments to restore regular order or to pass a budget. republicans have spent their time doing everything in their power to discredit president obama and empower donald trump. that's not a legacy that any senator should be proud of.

i listened to public radio this morning, and the "arizona republic" from the big city of phoenix, right next to nevada, for the first time in its history of more than 120 years, the first time in its history, endorsed a democratic presidential nominee. never been done before. it's a republican newspaper. i listened to the editor of the newspaper on the radio this morning saying they couldn't. why? because of donald trump. the legacy of donald trump should not be anything the republicans are proud. the only thing republicans have done this year was to prove that they are the party of trump. they are the party of trump. they say they're not the party

of trump, but they are. they would have us believe that trump just fell out of the sky and somehow mysteriously became the nominee of the party. but that's not the way it is. everything that he's said, stood for, done in this bizarre campaign that he's run has come, fil-- filtered up from what's gg on in the republican senate. disagreeing with everything, anything that president obama wanted. they filibustered things they agreed with just to slow things down. trump is no anomaly. he is the monster the republicans built. he is their frankenstein monster. they own him. all you have to do to see that the republicans are the party of trurchl is to look -- of trump is to look at the way they've treated him. he is a good family man, great

education, good communicator, written two best-selling books. everyone knows he can communicate orally. he deserved better than the unprecedented disrespect republicans have shown toward him. america, which twice elected barack obama to be its president, deserves better. but it has not been done, and it is a shame what has been done. mr. president, i would note that my friend, the republican leader, is not here. i would suggest the absence of a quorum, and the chair can announce the business of the day following his appearance here. i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

mr. cornyn: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mr. cornyn: mr. president, i'd ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. under the previous order, the senate will be in a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each. mr. cornyn: mr. president, i

understand there's a bill at the desk that's due for a second reading. the presiding officer: the clerk will read the title of the bill for a second time. the clerk: h.r. 954, an act to amend the internal revenue code of 1986, and so forth. mr. cornyn: in order to place the bill on the calendar under the provisions of rule 14, i object to further prokeddings. the presiding officer: objection having been heard the bill will be placed on the calendar. mr. cornyn: mr. president, i want to start today by offering a word of gratitude to retiring dallas police chief david brown, who will retire from his long career of public service this tuesday. chief brown became the face of a terrible tragedy that occurred in texas a few weeks ago where five police officers were gunned down in cold blood. and, frankly, i had many colleagues and other people i would run into ask me about him because he made such a positive

impression with his calm under difficult circumstances and his leadership qualities. of course this was last july when 12 law enforcement officers were shot and five were killed. i remember attending the memorial service with president obama and his wife and president george w. bush and laura bush, and the chief spoke then along with mayor rawlings. i can't tell you how grateful i am that at a time when people have, frankly, think that washington has lost its way that we still have strong, articulate, compassionate leaders like chief brown and like mayor rawlings. the chief, though, as i said, is retiring after 33 years of service to the dallas police force. as a result of the attention he got from all of the publicity surrounding this terrible tragedy in july, the chief

became a little bit of a folk hero, i guess, and people began to listen to what he had to say about a lot of different things. but one of the things he liked to say is that dallas loves -- and he made that a little bit of a rallying cry following the attack. and his actions, though, in the aftermath of that tragedy certainly demonstrated his belief in that statement. of course while many americans know chief brown from his leadership during the shooting in july, dallasites have benefited from his service for a long time. he grew up in southwest dallas in o' cliff and has been on the dallas police force, as i said, for the last 33 years. i know the people of dallas will miss his leadership and hearing him sing a little stevie wonder from time to time. so i want to express my gratitude and thanks to chief brown and wish him well in the

next chapter of his life. mr. president, yesterday we finally were able to move legislation forward that would keep the lights on here in washington, at least until december, and provided very important relief that i want to emphasize. flood relief for states like texas, but not just texas. maryland, west virginia, louisiana, and other states. iowa, i learned as well, all of which will benefit from the flood relief that was provided for in this continuing resolution that we passed yesterday and was passed by the house as well. more importantly, or perhaps is support for veterans' programs and military construction. this is really important that we pass legislation in meeting our responsibilities to support our men and women in uniform wherever they may be serving, whether here at home or abroad.

and thanks to the leadership of the senator from ohio, the senator from new hampshire, we passed legislation that would provide additional funds to deal with the opioid epidemic that's ravaging many parts of our country. unfortunately, as the presiding officer knows, since he is a medical doctor, people get hooked on the opioid prescription drugs, but then frequently when that runs out opt for cheaper, more plentiful heroin, unfortunately mixed with other ingredients like fentanyl, i believe, which make it even more deadly, make it even more likely that people will overdose from the use of this heroin laced with fentanyl. but we provided some additional funds in this continuing resolution to deal with that. and then finally, but very significantly, we also were able to finally break the impasse over funding for zika. of course zika, as we've come to learn, is a mosquito-borne

virus that has the potential of causing terrible birth defects in children. and we've seen some pictures of those, children with shrunking skulls, microcephaly, caused by this terrible mosquito-borne virus. we've been trying since last may to get that zika funding done, and for some reason, even though the amount of the fundins agreed upon, for some reason or another our democratic colleagues wouldn't take yes for an answer. but finally yesterday they decided to give up their filibuster and allow this legislation and this important funding to be done. but my point is we could have done this a long time ago. in fact, we wouldn't have even had to pass a continuing resolution taking us over into december, just ten weeks from now, where we'll have to start all over again, if it weren't for the obstructionism and the filibustering of our democratic colleagues. of course the cause of this is

all about a fight over federal spending. we know that there are caps on discretionary spending, and many of our members -- me included -- have become very concerned in this very dangerous world we live in that we have shortchanged our military and our national security support. and so in order to get additional spending for our troops abroad and at home and to make sure that we're prepared for the next threat to our country, we increased spending for the department of defense. but the cost of doing that was increased as a non-defense discretionary spending. and thus we get back into the same old fight which unfortunately has left us $19 trillion in debt where spending is simply out of control. so that's the reason we ended up in this posture. it's highly regrettable.

nobody would have chosen this, or certainly i wouldn't have as a first option. and now we're going to be confronted with the responsibility in december of passing appropriations bills that will take us through the next year through the end of the fiscal year. so we've gotten this taken care of, this behind us now. that looms large ahead of us. i want to mention some of the good work being done in texas by folks like the harris county mosquito and vector control unit. a few weeks ago i had a chance to go on the rounds with them and set some of the traps for the various mosquitoes. i got this idea actually from listening to mike roe, who had this dirty job series, and i notice one of them happened to be mosquito control. so it occurred to me that maybe there was something for me to learn there about how local leaders like harris county

identify these mosquitoes that bear this zika virus and how they deal with it. so i got a firsthand look at how much work it takes for our local public health officials to protect our communities from mosquito-borne viruses. it's not just about zika. it's about the west nile advisor which unfortunately has taken the -- west nile virus which obviously has taken the lives of some texans. denge fever. and the presiding officer knows all of them. our folks at the local level do have their work cut out for them. they trap these mosquitoes nearly every day to test them for the virus, and they spend a lot of time educating the public about how to better protect themselves. i walked around with them, and they pointed out places where water has been pooled in old tires or in -- in the swimming pools in the back yard or perhaps bird baths or other places where the mosquitoes, if

they're given an opportunity, will simply breed, and this is one way, by being better educated, that people can help themselves, help protect themselves from these mosquito-borne viruses, by eliminating the breeding ground for these mosquitoes. and if you're a woman of child-bearing age being able to dress appropriately and spray yourself with mosquito repellent and otherwise help yourself while we were waiting on the federal government to live up to its responsibility and provide the funds, which now we have finally done. but it became clear to me on my visits in houston that our local officials need more help. more specifically, what they need is the research that will lead to a vaccine. we went through this experience in another context with the ebola virus not that long ago, and it's important that our scientists and our researchers develop a vaccine to protect

public women of child-bearing age from the consequences of the zika virus. so we need a whole government response, and we finally got one yesterday, one that deploys local, state and federal authorities. the funding bill we passed yesterday outlines a way forward for the federal government to do its part. it will provide funding for communities in texas and throughout the country who are already working diligently to safeguard folks against the virus, and it will go a long way in helping local and state officials with prevention efforts like i mentioned and even working to create a vaccine. so i'm glad we finally were able to get that done and overcome the impasse created by the objections and obstruction and filibusters of our friends across the aisle. but beyond getting this funding for the zika research and prevention done, i just want to identify a few other things that we have been able to accomplish

because as i came to the floor and said a couple of days ago, the senator from montana, the senior senator from montana who happens to head up the democratic senatorial campaign committee got caught basically telling the truth when he said that one of the things that they are depending on as a narrative to help democrats in the selection is this false narrative that under republican majority, under republican leadership we simply hadn't been getting any things done. well, the events of the last few days including the water resources development act legislation that passed here with 95 votes, which includes additional funding for flint, michigan and their lead pipe water challenges, we have been doing a lot to take care of the nation's business. i mentioned the opioid crisis and heroin crisis. we passed a bill called the comprehensive addiction and

recovery act by more than 90 votes recently. and then the junior senator from ohio and new hampshire i mentioned have been providing such great leadership in that area. we have also passed other major reforms for chemical safety. the so-called tsca bill which provides companies with pregnant certainty so they can continue to create products that americans use every day. this bill proves that we can responsibly protect the environment at the same time we are growing our economy. this legislation passed the senate by voice vote and got more than 400 votes in the house. we've also passed legislation and imposed stronger sanctions on north korea in february. it sailed through this chamber are no no vote. of course, we also took care of big intractable problems that we have had trouble getting any traction on for a long time, major energy reform bills like

the energy policy modernization act to help bring our nation's energy infrastructure up to date. as well as to expedite the permitting of liquefied natural gas export which the presiding officer has worked on a lot. i was just down at the sabine pass, sabine nature's pass which cheneer has a huge pass and others have been trying to get their permits but they have been waiting a long time, and this legislation will provide a shot clock which will hopefully expedite that process. but this is a great natural resource for the united states, a great economic engine. the energy that we have been able to produce here in this country and make it available to our friends and allies around the world is very important. so this energy policy modernization act as well as lifting the export ban on crude oil, which we did last december, have been very important steps. and then i was discussing with

the senior senator from tennessee, senator alexander, chairman of the health, education, labor and pensions committee the important work that we did reforming the bill known as no child left behind, with the every student succeeds act. this legislation was very important because many people had gotten the impression that washington had simply taken control of our k-12 public education system, and under his skillful leadership, working with senator murray in the health, education, labor and pensions committee, they were able to write a piece of legislation that passed here with overwhelming bipartisan margins that would devolve the control of k-12 education back to the states, local school districts, parents and teachers, and it literally removed the common core mandate that so many people had chafed under. we also finally have passed a

medicare payment reform system that had long plagued our medical community. i know many physicians in texas told me they simply would not be able to take any more medicare patients, which are, of course, our senior citizens because the federal government kept cutting their payment rate, and the uncertainty created by that. we finally fixed that in a bipartisan basis. under the new majority in this congress, we also saw president obama sign other important laws like the freedom of information improvement act, a bill that will make our government more transparent and more accountable to the people we serve. we passed by an overwhelming 99-1 vote the justice for victims of trafficking act, a bill that will help victims of human trafficking recover, and we will support law enforcement in their fight against active shooters by passage and signing

into law of the police act, legislation that allows existing grant programs to be used for police training to deal with active shooter situations. i've traveled all around texas with local police departments in both urban and rural areas, and they find this training very, very useful and timely. unfortunately, it's necessary in times like these where we've had to learn from hard experience that if you enact -- that if an active shooter is loose, that they will continue to kill and people will continue to die unless the police can crash that site, stop the shooter and then rescue with emergency medical personnel the people who are -- who are injured. so i've got to say by all accounts the senate under republican leadership with cooperation from our democratic colleagues -- because, of course, nothing happens around here unless it's bipartisan.

that's the way this place is constructed. that's the way the constitution is written. but i'm grateful that under the leadership and steady hand of majority leader mitch mcconnell of kentucky, we have gotten back to work and taken care of the country's business. of course we still have disagreements like we have had over spending bills that led us up to this continuing resolution and lead us with -- leave us with the lame-duck necessity of having to deal with the long-term spending bills come december. but i just simply want to make the point that leadership matters, and under the leadership of senator mcconnell, our committees are now actually actively producing legislation on a bipartisan basis instead of available to the majority leader to bring to the floor for us to debate for senators to offer suggestions for improvement by way of amendment and then to allow everybody to participate in the process and vote that

legislation and then put it on the president's desk. so i hope we can continue to put sound policy over the sort of partisan politics that left us in the uncomfortable and unenviable position we were in yesterday trying to meet a deadline to keep the government up and running, but with a little cooperation and a little elevation of responsibility to our constituents and the people we serve rather than partisan politics, i think we can continue to do better. mr. president, with that, i'd yield the floor and i would note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

a senator: mr. president? i ask consent to vitiate the quorum call. the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee. without objection.

mr. alexander: mr. president, senate offices have been hearing about something called the overtime rule on a daily basis. we're hearing about it from colleges, from universities, from boy scout troops, from church camps, from other nonprofit, from employers, from employees who don't like to be suddenly considered employees who punch a time card. and today i would like to talk about action that congress could take to change the effect of the overtime rule that the administration has proposed that will go into effect in december unless we do something. yesterday in this body, the senator from oklahoma, senator lankford and the senator from maine, senator collins, introduced legislation that would delay for six months the implementation of the rule. i cosponsored that legislation and i fully support it.

and yesterday the house of representatives passed that same bill, a bill with that same language which would delay for six months the implementation of the rule. that would be my preferred solution, but today i would like to introduce another piece of legislation that local address the problems with the overtime rule that i hope will gather more bipartisan support. a similar bill has been introduced in the house of representatives by 10 democrats and seven republicans. my hope is when we come back in november, that senators on both sides of the aisle will have heard from their boy scout troops, from their colleges, from the universities, from their restaurants and ploy qlees who say -- employees who say wait a minute, the overtime rule makes no sense the way it's being implemented. do something in november and january to change its effect on our country. so i'm introducing a bill today

with the cosponsorship of senator collins of maine, senator lankford of oklahoma, senator scott of south carolina, senator flake of arizona that would protect america's nonprofits, church, colleges, and communities from the effect of the administration's so-called overtime rule that will go into effect on december 1 unless we act. when we talk about employers that will be affected by overtime, we're talking about places like operation smile, a charity that funds cleft palate operations for children. operation smile says this rule may cost them 3,000 surgeries a year. the effect of this rule may mean 3,000 children won't have surgeries each year for cleft palates because of the cost of this regulation. we're talking about the great smoky council boy scouts. that's my home boy scout

council. that's where i grew up wrrks i rich. they tell me the new rule will cost about $100,000 in annual costs during certain seasons because employees staff weekend camping trips which mean longer hours. that's what do you in boy scouts, mr. president. you go on camping trips, and they're not eight-hour trips most of the time. if you're going to start saying you have to pay overtime to scout masters and others -- scout masters are usually volunteers but to employees who work longer than that, you're going to have fewer boys and girls have a chance for scouting. senator isakson of georgia spoke on the floor a few weeks ago about a phone call i got from the pastor of johnson ferry baptist church in marietta, one of the largest baptist churches in georgia. that church provides day care and early childhood development and sports activities and vacation bible schools. a 24/7 program for

underprivileged kids in the atlanta area. under the overtime rule, this proposed rule we're talking about that goes into effect in december, a camp counselor for their vacation bible school will have to be paid overtime for many hours of the day when they're with the children, even if the children are sleeping. so this rule could price the johnson ferry baptist church out of the business of providing bible school, church camp for underprivileged children. so fewer cleft palate operations, less scouting opportunity, fewer church camp opportunities for underprivileged children. hourly workers in this country are usually paid for overtime, but salary workers generally don't earn overtime unless they're making plow a so-called threshold set by the labor department and required by the fair labor standards act. today that threshold is a little over $23,000.

but this new rule issued by the obama administration just four months ago raises the threshold from just over $23,000 to just over $47,000 all at once on december 1. in other words, in four months it's double. this is a 100% increase and on december 1, employers will have had only about six months to prepare for this. reclassify employees, put time clock systems in place, adjust worker schedules, and find new revenue to pay for all of this. it's thrown small businesses and colleges into a mild panic in the state of tennessee when i'm home visiting with them. one poll released this month found that 49% of business owners were not aware of the rule that goes into effect in two months. the legislation i'm introducing today would stretch out over

five years the administration's increase in the salary threshold for overtime pay. i have not met many people who don't believe that the threshold ought to go up. i've not met many people who think it ought to be doubled in six months and automatically increased every year, that it should be jumped so high and all at once. on december 1 under the legislation i'm introducing, it would still increase significantly from $23,660 to $39,780. so this is about a 50% increase for the legislation i'm proposing. but this bill would modify a rule that many believe goes too high and too fast and will result in employers, nonprofit, colleges, and others cutting hours and limiting their workplace benefits and flexibility as well as costing students more in-- more in

tuition. if there's one subject i hear about on the senate floor, it's senators from every side of the aisle saying college costs are too high. yet the independent colleges of tennessee have written me and they detail as well as public colleges how the cost of this rule will have the effect of raising the tuition charges by hundreds of dollars per student. so how can you go around complaining about college increases on the one hand and on the other hand issue a rule that raises college tuition by hundreds of dollars in thousands of schools? my bill will do four things. number one, it will modify the rule so that it's phased in over five years rather than all at once on december 1. most people i talk to think it ought to go up just as i've said, but they don't think it ought to go up all at once. there's no need for that. phasing in over five years. number two, make a significant increase on december 1 but then prohibit any increase in the year 2017 to give employers and

employees an opportunity to adjust while our independent accounting watchdog, the government accountability act, the g.a.o., studies the impact of the rule on american workers after the first year of implementation. what i've said is, on december 1, the threshold goes up 50% and then for a year it doesn't go up at all while the g.a.o. studies the impact of that on colleges, church camps, businesses and others. number three, it would prevent the administration's automatic increases to the overtime threshold which are currently set to occur automatically every three years starting in 2020. number four, it would require a study of the rule's impact after the first year of implementation and if the study finds the impact is negative, the bill will exempt certain employers from future increases. nonprofits including churches,

colleges and university, state and local government, men medicaid and medicare eligible facilities such as nursing homes or facilities serving individuals with disabilities. in other words, if there's a negative impact, exempt nonprofits. these are employers who can't just raise prices. they're dependent on tax dollars or on charitable donations. if they're in trouble because of this rule, our communities will lose critical services, surgeries for cleft palate, scouting opportunities, church camps for underprivileged kids. this is not a partisan proposal. my proposal is very similar to a bill introduced by house democrat kurt shader of oregon and cosponsored by ten democrats and seven republicans in the house. so my hope is that our democratic colleagues will take a look at this bill and say this is a reasonable bipartisan proposal to make the overtime

rule have more common sense when it comes to employees, employers, and nonprofits that serve our country. without these bills on december 1, the salary threshold for overtime pay will more than double from just over $23,000 to just over $47,000. representative kurt schader, a democrat said the following, since the department of labor's immediate phase-in date was announced we heard from business owners and their employees who are worried about implementing this increase overnight. without sufficient time to plan for the increase, cuts and demotions will become inevitable and workers will actually end up making less than we made before. as democratic representative -- that's democratic representative schader of oregon. he has 10 democrat cosponsors including congressman jim cooker from my state of tennessee who said, quote devote i'm hearing from lots of middle tennesseans who are worried about how this new rule will affect them.

the overtime rule hadn't been adjusted in years and needed updating said congressman cooper but it's good to make common sense changes and add flexibility so the rule works for all businesses and workers can actually have a chance to get ahead. we don't want to see lost hours or shifts in job responsibility. so, mr. president, i congratulate senator collins of maine and senator lankford of oregon -- of oklahoma for the legislation they introduced yesterday to delay the overtime rule's effect for six months. i support that bill. and i'm grad the house of representatives last night passed that bill. but i'm also introducing this alternative. for those in the body, especially my democratic friends who might not be willing to delay the impact of the overtime rule, who believe it should go up, who believe it should go up

as high as the president has proposed but not as fast as the president has proposed, who believe we have created a problem or the rule has created a problem for nonprofits like boy scouts or surgeries for cleft palates or church camps, and who would like to avoid the automatic increases, i hope they'll seriously consider the proposal that i've made today along with senator collins and lankford and flake. over the next five weeks between now and the election, we'll all be home. we'll have a chance to see our boy scout leaders. we'll have a chance to see our doctors. we'll have a chance to see our churches. we can go by our colleges and ask how much this is going to raise the tuition. the fact is most americans feel to impose this rule on december 1 when they come back, there will be two alternatives to deal with. one is a delay if six months and

-- for six months and the other is go on up, raise the threshold as the president proposed but do it over five years. take half of the increase the first year. no increase the second year. and exempt nonprofits if they're negatively affected. that is the kind of commonsense proposal that congressman cooper talked about, the democrats as well as seven republicans have supported in the house, and i hope will have serious consideration here. i thank the president, and i yield the floor. and i notice the absence of a quorum. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. lankford: ask unanimous consent to vitiate the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. lankford: mr. president, i'd like to join senator alexander in discussing this overtime rule. as mentioned multiple times, senator collins and i dropped a companion bill here in the

senate that was already passed in the house that delays the overtime rule's implementation by six months. i am most certainly a cosponsor of his bill as well. that is another approach and quite fangly we're all looking for different approaches to be able to accomplish something that needs to be done and done immediately. that is to address a regulation that has been put in place that can have serious, i believe unintended consequences, but most certainly serious consequences across our economy. i'll have more accusation that this administration wants to be able to damage the economy, wants to be able to damage small businesses, or wants to be able to damage universities and nonprofits. but i believe absolutely that is what is occurring. i am concerned, though, that the administration seems to have been deaf to the message that's come up over and over again from many of us here in the congress to be able to highlight. these are serious issues, have you evaluated it? the small business administration has real concerns

that the data that they presented to the department of labor was not used. and the advocate for small businesses even within the department of labor is challenging the department of labor to say, why didn't you use the dhat we provided -- the data that we provided to be able to evaluate this? there are a lot of questions about how the regulation was promulgated itself or what the end goal is. but let me tell you what the real consequences are on the ground. let me give you a couple of hypotheticals. right now a single mom who has a couple of kids at home is able to telecommute into work a couple of days from her particular job as maybe a sales marketing manager. she could be in the office for three days, telecommute a couple of days, saves her child care costs and gives her flexibility. under this rule, those same places would not typically allow someone to telecommute because they have to see exactly the hours that someone is working, and so she would have to physically be present in the office every day so that the

work hours could be tracked, removing that flexibility and causing her increased child care costs and actually moving her to more of a situation where she's in a more structured environment, less suitable for her kids. the let me give you another thought on this. what if you reach into a situation with any -- as any of us face, that many of the millennials that are right now leaving college and going into the workforce -- well-trained, well-equipped, wanting to go and get an assistant managers' position or want to work into a salaried position. it will be much more difficult for those individuals to land into a salaried position because, overall, individuals around the country in hiring don't want to hire salaried positions anymore. they want to be able to higher hourly people. so it will be tougher for the generation coming out of college to be able to land in those early mafnght positions. is that -- early management positions. iit's a already occurring.

when i was home in august traveling around the state, this overtime regulation was the number-one question that came up when i talked to any business owner, any business person, any manager. the first thing they raised was the coming overtime rule, both in its complexity in trying to figure out how to be able to actually implement this and the cost to their business and the conversations that were already occurring with employees, where they were moving someone from a salaried fogs an hourly position -- position to an hourly position. and their employees hated it because they liked working to a spot where they were in a salaried position. i also during the time period had a conversation with a youth pastor at a church, and that youth pastor said they had just left a conversation with their pastor a couple of days before where he said, you're going to have to start documenting your hours. each hour that you're actually working with kids, even your time at home, that you're preparing a bible study to

actually teach the kids because we can't afford for you to go over 40 hours. now, this is someone who feels a calling to be able to work with students that literally their pastor has to tell them, i know you want to help. l you can't help more than 40 hours. now, i would say most youth pastors don't go into youth ministry because they really anticipate getting wealthy on it. they go into it because of a sense of calling and passion to be able to help students. this regulation is telling that person, turn your passion to work with the next generation down. you're limited in what you can actually do. and if you choose to volunteer beyond that you put your employer -- that church -- at risk. the osage nation, their h.r. folks said this. this is william scott johnson. he said, "i am an an h.r. professional at the osage nation and concerned about what the

impact of the regulations sl have on my employees. the ywya battered women shelter wrote me. she said i am a human resource member. i am concerned about the impact that changes in the overtime regulations will have on this nonprofit organization and its employees. all employees here make less than $50,000 except two top management. the impact of this new legislation could be catastrophic for payroll as employees will have to be moved from exempt to nonexempt status simply due to the salary base being proposed. the counseling and recovery services in cul is a, oklahoma -- tulsa, oklahoma, wrote me. i'm concerned about the impact that the change in the overtime regulations will have on my

organization and employees as a nonprofit, our agency is a clinical staffing heavy. thus about 80% of our workforce will be impacted. the cost to meet the proposed regulations is expected to be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and will be a devastating impact to the community, mental health industry over-awvment" i received a note from a small business owner in h edmund. that's right in my hometown. they said the proposed changes will require us to make significant changes in the way we do business. if the proposed salary threshold moves forward, we'll be forced to change all our employees to hourly which will result in the elimination of our bonus program. our salaried workers make a significant amount of their income based on bonuses. calculating bonuses for employees that have a potential over-fipple is extremely complicated, labor intensive and opens up a huge liability risk if miscalculations occur. one of the universities in my state wrote me and said, this

rule essentially would turn millions of professional -- would turn millions of dollars of professional salaried jobs into hourly positions overnight, resulting in limited flexibility for workers, increased costs for colleges, universities, and other nonprofits and public-sector employees that operate under very tight budgets. as we attempt to keep the cost of education as low as possible for constituents. we do not disagree the overtime rules need to be updated to ensure the law remains relevant for today's workforce but we're deeply earn canned about the scontions of a massive increase in such a narrow implementation window which will impose serious hardships on our students, employees, and institutions. last week i met with leadership of the department of labor at a hearing. we discussed this exact issue. i talked about engine profits and what a unique dynamic that they really are. nonprofits actually raise money based on their low administrative costs.

they can tell donors, the money that you give will get directly to the individuals who need it most because our administrative overhead is low. this overtime regulation will increase their administrative overhead and will make it harder for them to raise money p. when i raised that issue to the department of labor, the officials at the department of labor told me, we understand that. so we met with the leadership of some of the nonprofit foundations around the country and told them that they should donate more to be able to cover the increased cost. i have to tell that has to be one of the most out-of-touch statements i've ever heard from swrun in the federal government. my responges was in such shock to say, you know how many hundreds of thousands of nonprofits there are in the country? you met with a few foundations and told those foundations you should dough mate more to be able to cover when most every church, most every small nonprofit around the country

that deals with mental health, that deals with domestic violence shelters are not tapping into big, massive fowngsz. they're individuals within communities that donate. and they anticipate their donations are going to help those of greatest need. and the pooh emthat work in those locations, those nonprofits, are most often volunteers. but the very few number of individuals that are paid salaried individualsing within nonprofits, they make a meager salary because they choose to, because they have a passion for the work of helping in domestic violence shelters or helping at a church or helping reach tout people in poverty, or helping with a clothing shelter or a food pantry. now you're forcing those organizations to dramatically increase salary, which will dramatically decrease services to those in greatest need across our country. i'm astounded that the administration believes they can talk to a few people in a few

foundations and just tell them, donate more and that will fix this. there aren't more donors to just donate more. there are real needs in a lot of communities around the country. the small business owners that i've spoken to of late all tell me about the complexity of this. it is not just a matter of every employee. there's a tremendous number of exemptions as they work through the process. they want more time, and they don't like the cost increase, and they don't like what this is doing to their relationships within their business, and they do not like telling salaried imleerks i'm sorry, you're going to have to move to hourly. all of this headache was created by an administration that knew all this in advance. the letters that i read to you earlier, those letters that were written to me i presented to the

department of labor a year ago. the secretary of labor assured me they would take those things into account. we've seen the final rule. i can assure you, they were not taken into account. and as tuition goes up in universities, this administration needs to stop complaining about the high cost of tuition in higher education, because this overtime rule will directly increase the cost of tuition at every university in the country. the day the final rule was proposed, the first text message that i received about it was from a university president who text me and said, "don't blame me next year when tuition goes up. there's no way i can stop it now." to which i responded back to him, don't blame knee for this overtime rule. this is not one we put in statute. this is one the administration created.

all of us want to see workers protected. all of us want to see things happen well in the united states. but the way this rule was implemented, the short period of time in the implementation, the size of the salary increase and the few exemptions that are put into place have created an incredibly toxic effect for business across the country. whether you are a large business, medium, small business, university, nonprofit, and i haven't even mentioned local government, which will be forced to raise taxes to be able to cover the cost of this -- all of them are dramatically affected and all of them are affected in this short period of time. that's why senator collins and i proposed a bill that lines up with what the house has already passed to say, delay this six months. most businesses are just trying to figure out what in the world they'd do with this and how they

mannehandle the implementation. delay it for six months. i would say there is a tremendous amount we have to deal with on top of just the delay. but at a minimum, let's delay it. there's no reason it has to go into effect right now. and it directly harms our economy in the days ahead. mr. president, these are serious issues. and i would hope the administration would take it seriously. and would understand the effect of the coming economy. many a very well aware that this administration will be out of office when most of the economic effects will be felt. but the economic effects will most certainly be felt by this economy, and the long-term effect for those individuals graduating college right now, trying to land their first job in into management, will be even tougher based on this one rule. there's no reason to do that to the next generation of leaders. there's no reason to raise tuition at every college. there's no reason to do this

rule right now. i would challenge it to be readdressed, and at a minimum to be delayed for six months. with that, i'd yield the floor. i would note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: quorum call:

a senator: mr. president?

the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mr. grassley: i ask that the calling of the quorum be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. grassley: mr. president, the senate's going to adjourn this afternoon. so before we do, i want to remind my colleagues that into - national domestic violence awareness month begins this saturday. throughout the month of october, we're all called to increase public awareness and understanding of domestic violence. as noted by the national network to end domestic violence, domestic violence thrives when we remain silent. that's why i recently introduced a resolution to commemorate national domestic violence awareness month. as stated in our resolution, congress should continue to

raise awareness of domestic violence within our country. we also should pledge our continued support for programs designed to assist survivors, hold perpetrators accountable and bring hopefully an end to domestic violence. i thank my colleagues, senator leahy, ayotte and klobuchar, for joining as original cosponsors of the resolution. it passed the senate unanimously september 15. through the enactment of other key measures, such as the violence against women act, the family violence prevention act, and the victims of crime act, congress has made support to survivors a national priority for over three decades. through the enactment of laws criminalizing domestic violence

at the state and local level, we also sent a strong signal to abusers that domestic violence is not a private matter but a very public issue. we've come a long ways, but our work is far from complete. even now domestic violence affects more than 12 million people each year within the united states, including women, men, and children of every age and every social economic status. research also suggests that young women between the ages of 18 and 34 are particularly vulnerable to domestic violence. the negative effects of this crime go far beyond the confines of individual households. it impacts our communities when

the victims of domestic violence are forced to choose between continued abuse or financial insecurity and in some cases homelessness. it impacts our economy when the victims of this crime miss work and school. thankfully there are many individuals and organizations in iowa and elsewhere around our great nation that work around the clock to meet the needs of the victims of this sort of violence. they include the crisis hotline personnel who provide peer-to-peer support or counseling to victims all across our country. they include the staff and volunteers at shelters who provide safe havens for victims fleeing abuse in our communities. they include the advocates who

champion prevention initiatives and resources for victims at the state and local level. last but certainly not least, they include the first responders who compassionately respond to victims of domestic violence in their most vulnerable moments. these men and women put their lives at risk when responding to domestic abuse calls which can be among the most volatile that these first responders experience. we thank those first responders and other advocates and staff and personnel for their never-ending service. mr. president, once again, i thank my colleagues for passing this resolution unanimously. it's important that we continue to support the goals and ideals

of national domestic violence awareness month. i yield the floor and i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. mr. cardin: i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cardin: mr. president, today i want to pay tribute and reflect on the legacy of israeli leader, two-time prime minister and ninth president of israel, shimon peres. i extend my condolences to the family of shimon peres and to the people of israel. today you have lost a towering leader who leaves behind a legacy of moral clarity and hope. i had the opportunity to meet shimon peres on numerous occasions. after each meeting, i walked away inspired and hopeful, having benefited immensely from his insight and perspective on a number of difficult global issues. shimon peres was not only one of the world's greatest statesmen,

but an ardent and committed advocate for peace. given shimon peres' personal history and journey, it is truly remarkable that in his final years he refused to give in to cynicism and acrimony. as an immigrant to israel, he was part of the grand project that cultivated a thriving country and society. as a warrior, he made sure that israel was always ready and able to defend itself. as a politician, he contributed to the lively and robust democracy that the israelis enjoy today but never shied away from reaching out across lines if he thought that was in israel's interests. as a friend of the united states, his legacy is unshakable bond between our two countries, our governments and our people. as a leader, he showed the world that extending a hand and daring to work for peace is worthy and

just. he shared the nobel peace prize in 1994 with yasser arafat and yitzhak rabin. the legacy of the oslo accords remain active today. we must continue to work toward a two-state solution, a jewish and palestinian state, living side by side in peace and security. shimon peres' legacy is the patient, difficult, taxing and necessary work of negotiations. it's only through direct negotiations, direct contact between the two sides, israel and palestinians, that we can achieve this objective. shimon peres leaves behind incredibly important initiatives like the peres center for peace. this is a peace-building organization that seeks to foster personal and professional interactions between israelis and palestinians, arabs and jews. i want to pay tribute to shimon peres' morality and courage.

he called for reconciliation in times of strife. we can fill his legacy by turning this sober and sad occasion to a call for direct katz between the israelis and the palestinians. for boldness and courage to return to the negotiating table, to fulfill the dream and meet the expectations of so many people living in this part of the world who so desperately are seeking peace. mr. president, i would yield the floor. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from michigan. mr. peters: thank you, mr. president. today i rise to speak about nasa and the future of our nation's human space exploration program. nasa and our industry partners have made incredible progress in space exploration and we are now closer to human missions into deep space than we have been since we left the moon nearly 45

years ago. we have set a lofty but achievable goal, and we are going to mars and we are building the rockets and infrastructure to get us there. achieving a complex long-term goal can be challenging for a government, and this is especially true during an administration transition. but we can't let up on the development if we're going to put a human on mars. that is why i, along with a number of my commerce committee colleagues, recently introduced the nasa transition authorization act of 2016. this bipartisan bill will ensure nasa maintains a continuity of purpose over the next year. the nasa transition act will give nasa the stability needed to keep nasa's important missions moving through 2017, and it's not just important to the agency. it's something that is particularly important to the thousands of small and

medium-sized businesses across the country where dedicated men and women are working hard to move our space program forward. with this bill, we are sending a strong message to companies like future amic tool and engineering in michigan who are so proud to help build the rockets that will take us to mars. and all of us in the united states congress must stand solidly behind their efforts. a few weeks ago, i visited the kennedy space center to witness the launch of a cirus rex spacecraft, a mission that will take a sample from an asteroid and return that sample back to the earth. i saw the launch infrastructure taking place for the massive s.l.s. rocket and the assembly and testing of the orion crew capsule that will launch in 2018 aboard s.l.s. i also saw amazing work by boeing, spacex and the united

launch alliance on their spacecraft which will start sending united states astronauts to the international space station in a couple of years. and when you see the scale of these gigantic structures and the intricacy of the machinery, you really get a sense for how much power, energy and precision it takes to conduct these very ambitious missions. and you see why we can't stop this momentum toward space. we are going boldly and we are going to stay, and this legislation makes that point very clear. importantly, this bill authorizes the entire agency, reaffirming nasa is a multimission agency with important missions in space technology, aeronautics, exploration and education. and i'm particularly pleased that the legislation underscores the importance of nasa's science programs. investing in nasa's science mission leads to the research and development of new

technologies. these technologies increase the competitiveness of our space program and at the same time shed light on ways we can protect and improve our planet earth. i cannot overstate the importance of this work to our nation, our planet and to humanity as a whole. i agree with many in the scientific community who believe we need to increase our investments in nasa science missions, aeronautics and other areas of the agency. and i will work to improve these programs more comprehensively in future legislation. i am also pleased this bipartisan bill reinforces the importance of nasa's ongoing efforts to educate the scientists and astronauts of the future. earlier this year, senator gardner and i introduced legislation to promote american competitiveness through investments in research and stem education. nasa's inspiring exploration and

science missions make the agency uniquely positioned to engage students in stem subjects. i witnessed this firsthand when former astronaut charlie precourt joined me in speaking to a group of michigan students last year. i can assure you the students were much more excited to talk to a former astronaut than a u.s. senator. it is also my hope that we can move forward and pass the space weather bill that senator gardner and i introduced earlier this year. this legislation assigns roles to the various federal agencies involved with space weather and improves the research and observations needed to better predict space weather events. the space weather bill together with the nasa bill represent a strong and positive bipartisan consensus for our space program, including space science. heliophysics or the study of the

sun is a critical component of nasa's science research mission, and it has major implications for life here on earth. i was also pleased to see nasa's new associate administrator for science, university of michigan professor dr. thomas zimmerken has a strong background in space weather, and i wish him the best of luck in his new role at nasa. i want to thank senator cruz, chairman thune, ranking member nelson, senator wicker, senator rubio, senator udall and senator cantwell for their hard work on the nasa transition act, and i look forward to working with my colleagues to ensure that nasa has a steady path forward to keep making ground-breaking discoveries and inspiring americans for years to come. mr. president, i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk shall call the roll. quorum call:

mr. mcconnell: mr. president?

the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: i ask that further proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of calendar number 573, h.r. 3004. the presiding officer: the clerk shall report. the clerk: calendar number 573, h.r. 3004, an act to amend the gulagichi cultural heritage act, and so forth. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask consent the bill be read a third time and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of h.r. 5147, which was received from the house. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: h.r. 5147, an act to amend title 40 united states code, and so forth. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the

measure? without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the bill be considered read a third time and passed and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of h.r. 5883, which was received from the house. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: h.r. 5883, an act to amend the packers and stockyards act, 1921. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the bill be considered read a third time and passed and motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the tail. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the environment and public works committee be discharged from further consideration of h.r. 3937 and the senate proceed to its immediate consideration. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: h.r. 3937, an act to designate the building utilized as a united states courthouse

located at 150 reed circle in greenville, north carolina, and so forth. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask -- the presiding officer: the committee is discharged, and the senate will proceed. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the bill be considered read a third time and passed, the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the rules committee be discharged from further consideration and the senate now proceed to s. res. 527. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: senate resolution 527 recognizing the 75th anniversary of the opening of the national gallery of art. the presiding officer: is there objection to the senate proceeding to the consideration? without objection. the committee is discharged. the senate will proceed. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous

consent the help committee be discharged from further consideration of s. hes 578 and the senate proceed to its immediate consideration. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: senate resolution 578 supporting lights on after school, a national celebration of after-school programs held on october 20, 2016. the presiding officer: without objection the committee is discharged and the senate shall proceed to consideration of the measure. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the senate now proceed to the en bloc considerations of the following senate resolutions which were submitted earlier today. s. res. 591, 592. s. rest 593, s. res. 594. the presiding officer: without

objection the senate shall proceed to the measures en bloc. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the resolutions be agreed to, the preambles be agreed to and the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table en bloc. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i have two requests for committees to meet during today's session of the senate. they have the approval of the majority and minority leaders. the presiding officer: duly noted. mr. mcconnell: i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk shall call the roll. quorum call:

a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee. a senator: i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. a senator: thank you, mr. president. i rise today to speak briefly about what occurred yesterday on the senate floor. mr. corker: it was a moment where the united states senate

and the house of representatives overrode a veto in order to ensure that the victims of 9/11 had an outlet, if you will, to try to seek justice and compensation. it was not a -- not as satisfactory as most in this body had hoped. i'm hopeful over the course of time between now and the lame duck or shortly thereafter we'll have a way to rectify some of the issues that concern us. i do want to say, and i don't think many members are aware of this, but senator cardin and myself attempted throughout the weekend to set up a meeting with the white house to go over options that could in fact be more beneficial to our country and at the same time give some justice to the people of 9/11. i think many people here know

there are also saudi officials here seeking to try to can up with some option that might work better than the option that we all opted for with none other available yesterday. we were unable to get the president to convene a meeting. we had hoped with the secretary of state who had a couple of conversations with secretary kerry but also i had conversations directly with the white house to set up a meeting between the president, secretary kerry. but of course leader mcconnell, leader reid, ben cardin and myself but also the two major sponsors of the bill. and the purpose was to see if there were issues with the bill that we voted on yesterday was there a better route, was there another option that we could consider and could we develop a time frame where that could be considered to take us to an

improvement over where we were yesterday. for reasons that still are unknown to me, that was not achievable. there was no desire whatsoever to sit down and meet. i'm unaware of any meetings that took place to try to resolve this issue. my friends on the other side of the aisle mentioned that they did have a letter read to them at lunch one day regarding the president's views, but now we've passed a bill. in fact, the victims of 9/11 whom many of us have met with have now an outlet to try to seek justice, and i think there's a desire as us with written yesterday in a letter and many senators here signed and many others have come up and discussed, there's a desire to amend what occurred yesterday to put us in a better place. so it's my hope now that we have a piece of legislation that has become law that maybe the

executive branch who by the way we tried to get to engage in this issue over the entire year, this last year, for us to sit down and figure out an option that might work a little better than what passed yesterday on the floor. that hasn't occurred. there just has been no engagement, even at the last minute with the first veto override facing the administration, there was just an unwillingness to sit down and discuss routes that can take us to a better place. so i know there's a desire on the house side. i know there's a desire in this body as was widely expressed yesterday. there's a desire no doubt for the victims to be able to get the answers to the questions that they've had and to seek in their minds justice. there is a desire for that. but there's also a desire to do so in a manner that might

possibly undermine other equities that the united states government and our people have. so i'm hopeful that over the course of the next six weeks -- i know last night had a discussion with a saudi official who i know is desirous of sitting down and pursuing that as they have been over the course of the last week. i hope now that this has become law, the administration will be willing to do the same. by sense is with some of the comments made publicly and some of the back and forth that will occur over the next six weeks, i'm hopeful the major sponsors of bill who are leaders in this body will be willing to do that and that we'll be able to create some alterations that unfortunately were not available to us yesterday to cause this piece of legislation to better serve u.s. national interests. with that, mr. president, i note

the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk shall call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call: