to protect american jobs. there is much ahead that will lie ahead in the new term and in the new administration. we could act with certainty now for at least the funding for next year if we acted and we acted with a long-term c.r. mr. president, i could elaborate on more, but, please ... let us do our job. let's work together. there's still a few days where we could really get this done the right way. mr. president, i yield the floor. mr. thune: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from south dakota. mr. thune: i ask unanimous consent to be able to conclude my remarks. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. thune: mr. president, two years ago the american people entrusted americans with the senate majority. at that time, things were in a bad way here in the senate. under democratic control, the legislative process had almost ground to a halt; important

bills weren't getting passed; and those that did get passed were frequently drafted behind closed doors with republicans and many rank-and-file democrats shut out of the process, which of course means that the american people's voices were shut out of the process. when republicans duke control, we know -- when republicans took control, we knew that getting things working again had to be our first priority. we opened up debate so senators from both parties could make their voices heard. we started drafting legislation in committee again so that bills were the result of discussion and compromise instead of being dictated by democrat party leaders. and we got the senate passing real substantial legislation again: a bawrkts appropriations -- a balanced budget, appropriations bills, the first major energy bill since the bush administration, the first significant education reform since 2002. mr. president, i'm particularly proud of two bills that the committee i chair -- the commerce committee -- worked on:

a federal aviation administration bill with major airport security provisions and the first long-term transportation bill since 2005. the terrorist attacks in brussels andistanbul that occurred this year broadcast airport security problems. those were problems that we have been working on in the commerce committee before the attacks. in july we passed an f.a.a. bill that addresses them and more. the bill we passed requires the t.s.a. to look at ways to improve security checkpoints to make the passenger screening process more efficient and effective. and it significantly increases the security presence in unsecured areas in airports. it also improves vetting of airport employees to address the insider terrorist threat, the risk that an airport employee would give a terrorist access to secure areas. the senate passed this bill in july and the president signinged

it into law -- signed it into law a couple of days later. aim proud of this law, mr. president, which is the kind of substantial legislation we should be passing for the american people. i'm also proud of the transportation bill we passed, part of which came out of our committee. when congress fails to provide certainty about the way the transportation funding will be allocated, states and local governments are left without the certainty that they need to authorize projects or to make long-term plans. important investments in infrastructure that support the economy are shelved and jobs that depend upon transportation are put in jeopardy. the transportation bill that we passed changes all that. it reauthorizes transportation programs for the long term and provides five years of guaranteed funding. that means states and local governments will have the certainty they need to invest in big transportation projects and the jobs that they create. and that, in turn, means a stronger economy and a more

reliable, safe, and effective transportation system. mr. president, i'm proud of what we were able to accomplish over the past two years, but there is a lot left to be done. some of the most important measures we passed in the 114th congress went nowhere thanks to opposition from the democrats and the white house. and obamacare -- an obamacare repeal, legislation to overturn some of the obama administration's most burdensome regulations, legislation to address the dangerous problem of so-called sanctuary cities, which refuse to work with federal immigration officials to deport illegal immigrants convicted of crimes. i'm hopeful that with the republican we'll be able to address these h issues and many more in the 115th congress. republicans have big plans for the 115th. if there's one thing that this election made clear, it's that the obama economy is not working for american families.

and republicans are committed to fixing that. growing our economy is going to be our number-one priority next congress. and there are a number of nings that we can -- and there are a number of things that we can do to get our economy healthy again. we can reform our tax code to reduce the burden on american families and businesses. right now our nations has the highest corporate tax rate in the world. more and more, american companies are focusing their business operations overseas because the tax situation is so much better abroad. and that means that american jobs are going overseas with them. we've lost our competitive edge in an increasingly global economy. instead of pushing corporations out of that country, we should bring our nation's corporate tax rate in line with those of other countries to keep more jobs here in the united states. another big thing we can do is repeal some of the burdensome government regulations that are weighing down businesses. while some regulations are

necessary, every administration has to remember that regulations have consequences. the more resources that individuals and businesses spend complying with unnecessary government regulations, the less they have to focus on the growth and innovation that drive our economy and create new opportunities for workers. the overregulation of the last eight years has left businesses with few resources to dedicate to growing and creating jobs. another thing we need to do is address our national debt, which has nearly doubled over the past eight years. all that debt is a drag on the economy. it cellulose growth and it re-- it slows growth and it reduces economic opportunity. it is time to get our government back on a budget. another way, mr. president, that we can help lift the burden on american families is by repealing and replacing obamacare. i don'-- i don't need to tell ee

that the president's health care law is broken. that is i have goin' way to the reality of -- it has given way to the reality of giant premiums. 80% of americans want major changes to obamacare or want the law repealed and replaced completely. it's time to give the american people health care reform that actually works. another priority, mr. president, for the 115th congress will be national security. americans are rightly worried about the threat posed impi terrorist -- by terrorist groups like isis which has expressed violence and devastation not only in the middle east but across europe and beyond. republicans are committed to defeating isis abroad and keeping americans safe here at home. we're also committed to keeping americans safe by securing our borders. we must have secure borders and policies that encourage legal

immigration while discouraging illegal immigration. and then there are other prierts we need -- and then there are other priewrts we need to address. -- other priorities we need to address. protecting religious liberty and the list goes on. republicans are aware of the trust the american people have placed in us and we are committed to earning it. we're going to spend the 115th congress fighting for the american people's priorities. we have a real chance to get things done in the next congress, and i look forward to working with my colleagues here in the senate on both sides of the aisle to address the challenges that are facing our nation. mr. president, i yield the floor. mr. leahy: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. leahy: mr. president, i ask consent to be able to continue as if in morning business for ten minutes. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. leahy: i thank the distinguished presiding officer,

and i also ask consent that two items be included in the record on my behalf as though read. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. leahy: mr. president, for the past two years the republican party has enjoyed solid majorities in both the house and senate. they control the schedule, and they control the process. they can decide which legislation to call for debate and, frankly, for all intent and purposes, they can actually decide whether anything gets done around here. a good example is the nomination of merrick garland to the supreme court. if he had been treated like all other supreme court nominees throughout the entire history of this country in a presidential

election year, he would have received a hearing and a vote. he almost certainly would have been easily confirmed, just as he was when he was nominated to the d.c. court of appeals. instead, the republican leadership did not even give judge garland a hearing, much less a vote. republican senators refused to do their job. and there are countless examples of this. it would behoove people in this country who complain about the do-nothing congress to remind themselves that it is a congress controlled by the republicans, both house and senate. they can make it possible for work to get done, if they want to, or they can make it impossible. and their track record for the past two years speaks for itself. instead of a congress stheatz a standard for -- instead of a congress that sets a standard for the world' world's democrate

have been treated to an example of how not to get things done. the latest example is the appropriations bills. i went back and reviewed the record. for months the republican leadership extolled the virtues of regular order, and i totally agreed with them on that. they spoke with great optimism and confidence about passing appropriations bills, individual bills, not even an omnibus bill that has become the norm. i agreed with the republican leadership. they said over and over that they were going to do their job and pass these bills the way we used to, and we on the democratic side fully supported republicans in that goasm we negotiated -- in that goal. we negotiate 12-d individual appropriations bills that were reported with one exception: the bipartisan majorities. senator lindsey graham and i wrote the fy 2017 state and foreign operations bill.

as we always do we wrote a balanced bill. as reported -- it was reported unanimously by the appropriations committee by a vote of 30-0. our staffs have been meeting for weeks with our house counterparts to hammer out a conference agreement that the house and senate can vote on and the president can sign. we could easily be finished by december 9 when the current funding resolution expires. so what's the problem? it's simple: donald trump was elected president, and now the republican leadership has a different idea. forget all those uplifting speeches about passing appropriations bills, forget about so-called regular order, forecast about do our jobs. what's -- forget about doing our jobs. what's the new plan? throw ten months of work in the trash can. now we're going to punt the ball down the field for another 12

months? that's not doing your job. there's no way to predict. for members of congress who may not be familiar with the intricate operations of the federal agencies and would prefer not to think about it, the idea of another four month s -- four-month continuing resolution may not be a big deal. for those of us who do know, it is an example of government at its worst. funding the government by continuing resolution means putting priorities and budgeting decisions on autopilot. it stops us from having any kind of a voice in what our government does. it negates the hard work that has gone into reevaluating priorities from one year to the next. it negates the careful process of looking at federal agencies account by account to make adjustments as needed. it means largely being a carbon copy of earlier bills regardless

of changed circumstances or compelling need to modify earlier priorities. i could give all kinds of examples in appropriations bills. but let kne -- but let me give u an example. a continuing resolution will provide $433 million less than senator graham's and my bill for economic development. governs and security programs like the power africa initiative. it will mean $59 million less for programs to counter violent extremism. can you imagine cutting money to counter violent extremism? these programs have strong bipartisan support and did in the appropriations committee because they're building blocks for starmt, where we have -- stability where we have critical

national security interests that affect all americans. a continuing resolution will provide $162 million less in our bill for global health, including for maternal and child health programs like vaccines for children and to combat malaria and tuberculosis. these programs literally mean life-or-death for millions of people, which is why they've had bipartisan support. or at least they did before the republican leadership scrapped the appropriations bills that we had passed with overwhelming bipartisan support. in fact, one of the things that we'll do with a continuing resolution is provide $450 million less than our bill for security for u.s. diplomatic and consulate personnel. for security upgrades for u.s. embassies at facilities overseas and for cybersecurity programs. i mention that because the

republicans in the other body spent tens of millions of dollars, tens of millions of dollars of taxpayer money decrying the lack of security at our embassies, even after they had already voted to cut money for security for embassies and now they're going to cut $ 454 million less. they stopped their talking points about how terrible it is we're not doing enough for our security? of course they won't because they hope the american people won't look at the fact that they've cut nearly $500 million out. so when the republican leadership blames others for not doing enough to protect our embassies and diplomats, as they have a habit of doing, they need only look in the mirror and see they have not done their own work. in fact, the continuing resolution then provides $538 million more for u.s. contributions to international

financial institutions, the amount senator graham and i put in our bill. that is because the 2016 omnibus provided $220 million for the strategic climate and green technical funds which is not needed in fy 2017 because the u.s. will not be contributing to any of those funds. the balance of $18 million is not needed because of u.s. contributions to several financial institutions are lower than fy 2017 and fy 2016. it boggles the imagination to cut out money for our security of our people abroad and our embassies, but then you put in $5million more for contributionn $500 million more for contributions that we don't need. in fact, the continuing resolution provides $161 million

more than senator graham's and my bill for contribution to international organizations. we don't need to pay that additional amount because of reductions in exchange rate costs. it would be nice instead of putting this money in that we're not going to spend and don't need, we'd actually put the money in to secure our embassies we saw by happenstance, escape from a devastating blast in the philippines within the last few hours. the continuing resolution will provide $90 more than our bill for assessed contributions to international peacekeeping. again, we don't need to pay that additional amount because of reductions in several peacekeeping missions. these are just examples for state and foreign operations. every appropriations bill has its own laundry list of reasons why a continuing resolution makes no sense, it wastes taxpayer dollars, wreaks havoc

for the agencies that run the government. the continuing resolutions beyond a few months are illogical, wasteful and harmful. we end up spending less for things both republicans and democrats strongly support and we waste money on things we don't need and nobody wants. it is bad government 101. it's just what the republican leadership ten months ago said they wanted to avoid, and we all agreed with them. but that was then, this is now. it's whoops, forget what we said before. we changed our mind. let's waste the money. let's go with the continuing resolutions. i heard senator mccain, the chairman of the armed services committee, denouncing his colleagues for abandoning the regular appropriations process. he knows what it's going to mean for the u.s. military. he knows that the leadership of his own party in stopping regular appropriations bills hurts our military.

senator mikulski, the vice chairwoman of the appropriations committee, has called it absolutely outrageous. she called it procrastinating instead of ledges is slating. i -- instead of legislating. i agree with her. another four months of a continuing resolution is unnecessary not to mention outrageous, wasteful and irresponsible. it can still be avoided. speaking for the state and foreign operations, we can complete our conference agreement in less than one week. we're perfectly willing to work into the evenings to do that. i suspect the other subcommittees could do the same or close to it. certainly we could finish these bills before christmas. so why don't we? that's what the republican leadership said they wanted. that's what regular order is. that's all the congress is supposed to work. we should do it. we ought to just show the american people for once we'll

actually do our jobs, what we were elected to do. that's what this vermonter wants. i would hope others would. mr. president, i give my full statement for the record and i yield the floor. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the senate previous order, the senate

>> this is about one hour. >> good morning your my name is richard cohen. on the president of the southern poverty law center.

i'm joined today by brenda, charities program director from muslim advocates. janet, the president of the national council of la raza. randi weingarten the president of the american federation of teachers. wade henderson the president of the leadership conference for civil and human rights. i would also like to acknowledge the presence of two people who are important to us, gloria from moms rising, -- from salt. thank you both for joining us. we are here today to release two reports that document the president-elect donald trump's own words has sparked incidents around the country and have had a profoundly negative effect on our schools. the first report is called 10 days after, harassing and intimidation in the aftermath of the election. it describes 867 incidents of

hate that we collected from around the country into 10 days immediately following the election. i had no doubt whatsoever this is a tremendous, tremendous undercount. the incidence we're talking about have taken place in schools, on public streets and parks and in retail establishments. many people have been targeted in their homes. incidents have been ugly. they have been aimed at people because of their ethnicity, their race, their religion, their sexual orientation and their gender. time after time the perpetrators have invoked mr. trump's name, his slogan or his words in their assaults. time after time those who reported hate incidents to us said that they'd never experienced anything like that

before. the level of hate that's been unleashed by the election, they told us, is something entirely new. our second report is called after election day, the trump effect. it is based on the first 10,000 reports that we've received from educators from around the country about the impact of the election on their students and their schools. that impact has been incredibly disturbing. 80% of the educators, teachers who responded to us have reported heightened anxiety among their traditional marginalized students. students who are recent immigrants are living in real fear. 40% of the respondents, 40% of the teachers who responded to us reported hearing derogatory comments directed against students of color, muslims, immigrants and lgbt students.

over 2500 specific incidents were reported to us where the teachers told us that mr. trump's name has been invoked, where rhetoric from the election had been employed. again, most disturbingly perhaps, 85% of the teachers who responded to us told us that they were worried about the long run. they were worried about the continuing impact of the election, mr. trump's rhetoric on their students. they don't think that this is going away anytime soon. now, since his election, mr. trump has disavowed white supremacy. he's told the harassers to stop

it, but what he hasn't done is acknowledged that his own words has sparked a barrage of hate that we are seeing. instead, once he's done? he same ignorance. he said he is surprised that any of his supporters would be harassing or intimidating anyone. he says he has no idea why white supremacist would be energized by his election. really? neither of these faction be a mystery to anyone, much less to mr. trump. he has been singing the white supremacy song since he came down the escalator in his tower and announced his candidacy, calling mexican immigrants racists. instead of pretending to be surprised by the grace of hate that has infected our country, mr. trump needs to take responsibility for it and repair the damage that he has caused.

he needs to speak out forcefully and repeatedly against bigotry. he needs to apologize to the communities he is injured, and demonstrate that they will be protected and valued in his administration. he needs to go to jersey city and apologize to the muslim community there for casting aspersions on the patriotism by lying about the reaction to the 9/1nine 9/11 attacks. he needs to go to los angeles to ensure dreamers there that he will not use any information on the applications for deferred action to deport them or their families. and he needs to go to chicago to apologize to the black community for his grotesque stereotypic descriptions of their lives and neighborhoods. more importantly, his words must be followed by concrete actions both in his policies and in his appointments that repair the wounds of division his campaign has caused.

600,000 people have signed the petition on our website asking him to do just that. if he does not come anything less come anything less than an apology, repairing the damage is he is caused to reaching out to marginalized communities and having his actions follow his words, if he doesn't do those things, the hate that mr. trump has unleashed during this election season will continue to flourish. i'll be happy to answer a few quick questions and a few minutes. but first i would like to turn the podium over to my colleagues. brenda? >> thank you, richard. good morning. ..

when the data for 2016 is tabulated and released. in fact, muslim advocates has been tracking hate crimes since november 25th teen and we have recorded nearly 175 hate crimes in american months on the or those perceived to be muslim in the days leading up to the election. we are disturbed by the increased frequency of reported hate crimes and hate incidences the election all across the country. president-elect trump's recent statements against a violent and white supremacist groups that support his election is a step in the right direction, but there must be more. we need him to strongly reject bigotry in all its forms, unequivocally call on americans

to stop the hate violence and ensure that his administration will prosecute perpetrators of hate crime to the fullest extent under the law. furthermore, president-elect trump must reconsider some of the selections he has made his top advisers to administrations. otherwise the selections of individuals like steve bannon, michael flynn and senator jeff sessions indicate the bigoted and divisive rhetoric we saw in the campaign will continue as a matter of policy and practice in the white house. america is hurting right now and all of us need to come together and feel safe. children are getting bullied. women with headscarves are being attacked and bigoted rhetoric has become commonplace across the country. hate crimes have skyrocketed and american muslims like many americans are genuinely fearful. if president-elect trump wants

to bring america together and be a leader for all americans, he will need to disembowel the dangerous proposals and ideas that singled out and demonize muslims and other communities. now is the time for president-elect trump to make changes in his rhetoric, his selections and the policy under consideration by his incoming administration in order to send a strong message of unity to all americans. thank you. >> my name is janet murguia and a president and ceo of the national council. less than 48 hours after election night, and clr hosted a check-in call with all of our affiliates across the country. our affiliates or community-based organizations that provide health, education, economic and social services to

millions of latinos and others every single day. many of them run charter schools are afterschool programs. more than 100 organizations come in nearly 150 participated in what we heard from them trouble this deeply. virtually all of these affiliate focused on the same issue. we ask that what were they here in an seen in our community even in those two days after the election. and what they said was the devastating impact of the election. it's tall, divisiveness, harsh rhetoric and yes the outcome is having on the children they know in there. they reported on countless harassment of verbal and political taunts of widespread bullying and most tragically of many students contemplating

taking their own lives. they also stress the profound anxiety and fear that has gripped these children about the future. they are deeply worried. these children are deeply worried about their parents and other family members do to the immigration status. these kids are frightened and with reason that their families may be broken up by the policies of the incoming at demonstration. they are left to wonder whether the troponin statements of candidate trump will be carried out by president trump. in short, everything splc chronicled in its new critically important report is cooperated by the calls and conversations we've had over the past several weeks. we are angered and saddened, but not surprised by the fact 90% of

teachers have witnessed a negative impact on their student and 80% noted how anxious their students are. this is unacceptable. nclr has begun working with affiliates to provide support including mental health services and teacher training to address bullies. we are working with partners like our friends today to combat this issue together and on a national level and we are grateful to splc for documenting what is going on for issuing reports and helping us document what is going on in our community. for example, we've always translated and made some forest report form from english to spanish and posted it on our website. but much more needs to have been and it has to start with the president-elect. what he has said he wants to be

the president of all americans, and we've heard precious little in response to what is going on in his name. especially when it becomes to the impacted his hat on on children and young people. president-elect trump needs to reassure or at the very least address the anxiety and fear of so many communities for whom he will now also be president. president-elect trump, we are asking you. we need you to protect and defend all americans and condemned the violence and hate committed in your name. reach out to marginalized communities. repair the damage. thank you. >> thank you, richard thank you,

brenda and janet and wade. my name is transfixed. i'm the president of the 1.6 million member american federation of teachers. we are the largest college union and the second largest teachers in them. i am here today not just to thank richard, the splc, the other speakers who while in big and small ways have been spending their adult lives fighting hate and bigotry while at the same time increasing opportunity, economic and educational opportunities for americans. this is not an either/or situation. this is a host and the situation in these united states of america. i appreciate what splc has now done because we cannot live in an evidence free society. during the campaign, donald trumps rhetoric and policy proposals pitted americans against each other and created a

culture of fear and division and unfortunately as the others acres have said and that's this report demonstrates, we have seen a disturbing and unacceptable surge in hateful actions all too often carried out in mr. trump's name, particularly in schools. and while at the other speakers have said, while mr. trump looked at the camera directly into 60 minutes interview and say to the people who are doing it when asked a question to stop it, his appointment are sending a very different message. as teachers know, you need to actually be consistent in your message if you want people to hear it. so the nomination at that session, the appointment of steve bannon and mike flynn all had sent the message that white supremacy and anti-muslim conspiracy series are invoked

these days. why am i here? because there is a tremendous amount of state particularly in our schools. pre-k university public and private, all of which may be safe and welcoming places of learning and acceptance for our students, for her parents, for our communities and for the educators who serve our kids. for our children to survive, for them to grow, for them to drive, they have to feel safest pool and they have to feel that their parents are safe. since this campaign and now since this election, more and more do not feel safe. over the past year, teachers have reported this disturbing trend. we have story after story of community college faculty member in washington state was brought to tears than verbally assaulted with anti-and are great flirts with other students.

one of our members who came and testified last week, scott kasten who teaches at maple grove had black students sign a sign saying white america and a vocal message painted on a stall door. they can go one on non. in my hometown, new york city last week by swastikas in chelsea. my whole life there was not more than one anywhere in that city. 11 days ago, we sent a letter signed by 200 organizations sunday law center as done by a ft to president a black, asking him to denounce these actions done in his name. over 43,000 people signed that letter as well. we know he received it. since then, crickets, silence.

mr. trump has claimed he will keep americans safe and he will stand up for the little guy. but he refuses to speak up for the littlest guys. our children who are being taunted bullied in schools that kid who view his name as a weapon. the president-elect knows how to use his voice. he's done so to denounce a broadway show to the media personalities, but his lack of leadership here, too and they hate fueled acts inspired by his divisive campaign rhetoric is deafening. and don't tell me that others haven't stood up. look what just happened not just here, but just this weekend, even with delta, where we saw that one unruly trump passenger and made more than 100 travelers uncomfortable. what did delta do?

they not only denounce the bad behavior, they barred the man from ever traveling on a delta airplane. they apologized and reimbursed the victim as passengers. we've seen that kind of leadership from governor cuomo in new york, mayor do brasil in new york city, governor wilson has a, mayor garcetti and l.a. it is time for our president-elect to use his boys to effectively and an early denounce these hateful acts that are done in his name. thank you. >> good morning, everyone. first, i want to thank richard cohen and the southern poverty law center for these important report and for their important

research and leadership. i also want to thank my colleagues who are here this morning to bear witness so powerfully. to the challenge of their time and addressing issues of hate and violence triggered in large part of the presidential election we just experienced. my name is wade henderson. i serve as president and ceo of the leadership conference on civil and human rights. the leadership conference is the nation's leading and human rights coalition with over 200 national organizations working to build an america as good as it ideals. i am honored to note that all of the organizations here today are members of our coalition. throughout the presidential campaign as you've heard and especially in its aftermath, many of the communities that we

represent have come to live in fear cometh a basic safety and well-being. and does these reports have made abundantly clear, that fear is unfortunately well justified. during the course of this campaign as we've heard president-elect trump discuss a broad range of proposals that if implemented would dramatically reverse our nation's progress on civil and human rights. in the process, he has vilified innocent americans as ray says, terrorists, criminals, it in citing coworkers and classmates to turn against one another. they hate filled rhetoric of this campaign was shameful and divisive in ways that go well beyond the boundaries of our political norms and traditions.

but the vast majority of americans who voted for donald jay trump did not vote for a trade, nor did they vote for violence, nor did they vote for terrorizing people for being who they are. the america we know, the america we celebrate, the america we strive to create is a nation that honors and respects equal protection of the law for all of its people. it embraces its diversity as a strength and strives to be a place where all people can live and work, study, pray and love as free and equal americans. the same nation that values these ideals and must just be honest about it is it self an imperfect work in progress, but a work in progress nonetheless.

yes, if public schools are notoriously unequal. it's young men and women of color are often profiled by police as are some of the most community or communities thought to be muslim like sikhs, for example, who asked parents harassment. and warehouses people of color in prisons, often with a rational and rationally disparate sentences. but we know as the nation and as communities can do better. but we won't do better with a president who stands the flames of bigotry or treats women with disdain or who responds to this outpouring of hatred and violence within their friends. governors, state attorneys general, u.s. attorneys, members of congress have already responded with programs, initiatives and legislation which we celebrate for enhanced

data collection and enforce meant and public calls for this kind of violence to end. president-elect trump has thus far failed to do his part. president-elect trump, you've got to be the president for all of us. today we are calling on you to make good on that pledge by disavowing the hate speech that has infected our public discourse and by telling your supporters and all americans to stop committing these acts. you must lead by example in both word and deed the nations and world are watching. i will close with this one observation. several of my colleagues have noted the appointments that president-elect trump has made in the early days of his transition and indeed those appointment send a message that is unmistakable and that unmistakable message to

reinforce the very issues that are at the core of our concerns today. we are concerned about the impact of jeff sessions at the day's, general mike flynn or steve bannon just a heartbeat away from the presidency. but the time to discuss these issues will soon arise on capitol hill. right now we are asking the president to stand up and to be counted and honor the pledge is made to the american people to be the president of us all. thank you. >> thank you, wade. thank you, janet. thank you, randy. we will take questions now. we'll have a microphone if people can't hear. [inaudible] >> to see this administration and president of someone you can

work with over the next for years or do you see yourself being the kind of party opposition for the duration of his presidency? >> boodle outweighed answer that. from our point of view it's both. mr. trump is president where there is common ground. we are certainly not going to oppose just for the sake of doing. what we are concerned about is there is precious little common ground and the people he's appointed to lead an important agencies such as the department of justice are going to roll back policies, initiatives that are critical issues and voting on issues in. issues related to the criminalization. in all of those issues, the civil rights community will stand united against those views.

>> let me just say some in. >> you now, it is an important question. we are trying to do our job. our job is to represent these can be chewing phase. our job is to promote the civil rights in interest of these constituencies. and so, when we feel that is the threat, we need to call it out. i want to make it clear we are reaching now. we are asking president-elect trump to hear us and to respond and to meet with marginalized communities and our leadership. and give us a chance to either raise these concerns, provide more education and background or to hear him out. it is not fair for many of our communities to be kept in the dark comment to not know, to have that as urgency and to be a

young child with an american citizen child and perhaps have an documented pair in. or to be a dreamer and not know about your future. it is our job to do that and you call that out to the president-elect. so we want to do both. we want to make sure we are calling our rhetoric and actions of the field are threatening to our communities, but we are also extending a hand out to say we are willing to work with you. you promised you pledge to be president for all of us. we want to help you do that. >> it the end of the day, if we can do things in a bipartisan way, we want to do that. like janet and wade said, our job -- may you use job and my job is to create educational opportunity in america to ensure that we lived and ensured no

hate in the tree and to promote pluralism. we have actually asked mr. trump to redirect letter on november 8 teams to do this. he has not responded. a president of the united states we need to find ways to have that president bring people together. and just like when there is common ground, like there was in the last congress on the education, the new federal bill, we all came together and we all said it was a good bill. at the end of the day, this is first and first. a president-elect has to create a client that keeps americans safe all americans, those who voted for him and those who didn't vote for him. this is a really important test for the president-elect of whether he will keep all americans safe.

>> yes, ma'am. [inaudible] >> thank you for doing this. i have several questions but i'll stick to one here. judging from his tweed, he has said for instance that he wants to take her and flat. are you hopeful that since he's been walking away that he may reconsider some of the cabinet positions or do you see hopeful signs that he will walk away from some of the rhetoric or hear you out and maybe make some adjustments? >> thank you i am wade henderson at the leadership conference and thank you for your question was just a follow-up to the first question about whether of fact were hope that we could work

together. i was reluctant to speak initially because i wanted my colleagues who had organizations, whose communities have been directly affected by these issues to speak first. i thought it was important to be clear about where we as a community in addition to the remarks of my colleagues also said, you know, when someone shows you who they are, believe them. a standard that has to be applied both to the person currently occupied antennae who would hope to replace him. we are deeply troubled that in the wake of what we have described as incidences hate related speech activity and in some of his violence, this president elect has chosen to address the issue only in the most superficial manner.

what we are asking him to do is to provide the kind of thoughtful leadership that he made a pledge to all americans to provide and assuming he does that, we will take his actions for what they represent, a step forward in helping to bring us together. but i don't want to overstate the challenge we face because the appointment of steve bannon as a counselor and a bias or a few steps away from the white house when he has supported and embraced organizations that take direct views that are anti-somatic, islam a fallback, anti-immigrant and racist. all appliances and attorney general someone whose record was just we will have great difficulty in enforcing civil rights laws including hate crime

laws on the books. that is a real challenge and so we are looking to have the congress that the united states and the senate do its job where it can to offer advice and consent in the case of senator sessions and other instant is to implore the president elect to use his discretion wisely. we consider the appointment of steve bannon. we consider the appointment of mike flynn and reflect the interest we all are trying to promote. thank you. >> i'm going to try to articulate this is best as i can. you know, a lot of people are saying he is a media guy so he is just messaging and he's really trying to keep people a little confused, maybe perhaps intentionally as part of his

personality and tactics. i don't know if it's because he ran a reality show and i don't mean that in a disparaging way. the problem is now he is president elect and what he's messaging out there has an impact on young people's lives. these are children who are confused and concerned and in fear for their parents and their families. so perhaps president-elect trump thinks he is playing a messaging game and he's trying to sort of create a new way of communicate and perhaps that's a tactic politically he's using. it's our job to collect a tactic and say they were vulnerable people who are goodbye that and these are young children. they are americans, many of these students and everything minus the certificate.

their lives are really affected. they are hanging on every word that is being fed and they're just not sure that he understands that as he's moved into this now a president-elect. it's important for us to remind him to reinforce that people's lives are affected not just by what he does, but by what he says. >> if i could add just one point, one of our great, great hopes of the southern poverty law center is that mr. trump mightily disappoints the white supremacist and the white nationalists who are celebrating his big jury now. some of the early signs are not hopeful. they are bizarre and disheartening as the chief strategist is a very unfortunate

time. we are not going to let him forget his pledge and we will keep pushing that he does disappoint some of the people who brought him to the party. >> to the point you were just making, richard spencer seems to be beginning what he wants to call his danger to her. he's going to texas a&m next week to speak at the university of michigan following that. he seems to be so determined right now to take advantage of the trump effect and to get on campus, and you know, confront the micro-aggression space-bar points of view that the college every voice needs to be heard. now taking advantage of the public university texas a&m. if he can do that at other public universities, how does your role for what is your role

more of the nation of white supremacist movement on some of our campuses. >> let me turn to someone who has members on each and every one of those campuses. >> so you know, we have a very act of this union at michigan, and oregon, other places, new york city. an amway have some membership in community colleges. not directly. what is happening is our membership is creating a circle of protection for our students that are most vulnerable and for educators that are most vulnerable. they will be out in force fighting -- not fighting against free speech, but fighting against the incitement and

fighting for their rights and dignity and inclusion and fighting against a bias. we are already organizing around university of michigan and we are already organizing in several other places. this is part of what we believe is horrible in terms of as genocide, really protecting our most vulnerable charges and that goes for our universities as well as for our pre-k elementary and secondary schools. so we are working with and trying to get the college administrations to ensure that there are protections against incitement, but we are also going to be out there fighting for the pluralism and the inclusiveness that we believe is necessary in america. [inaudible]

>> there's so much going on right now. answer yes. but we have actually done is we have a platform now called share my lesson which is free for anyone. we've put a lot of materials on the platform about course materials, curriculum materials about how to teach inclusiveness, how do teach against bias, how to do all this in a way that is apolitical and so there is lots of that going around. we are going to use this as an opportunity to educate as well as an opportunity to protest. what we are not going to do is we are not going to take a page from them about suppressing the right. >> yes, sir. >> thanks. just curious as to how systemic

you think this is going to be. going back to the splc. the data you are showing days after the election. does the data show in the last 10 days this trend is continuing or is that declining are getting worse? >> in the days after the election, we saw a lot of celebrations, a lot of people acting out. the gloves are off because political correctness is out the window. we have seen that die down somewhat. to think it's gone is quite naïve. we are going to see spikes again and again around the inauguration for example we will see low-level harassment continuing. the study came out recently that said 35% to mr. trumps twitter followers also followed white supremacist site for white

supremacist twitter accounts among all the white supremacist twitters, the most popular site for the most popular twitter handle a slight genocide. the second most popular was donald trump. this is not going to go away. it's going to continue to fester and flourish and tell mr. trump acknowledges his round doing, apologizes, reaches out come the repairs the damage and this is not going to be something that will fall to religious and people in their communities to assist in repairing the damage. >> thank you again. i'm brenda from local advocates. we started tracking hate crimes against muslims and those perceived to be muslim back in november 2015.

when we started tracking it at one point over 50% of the incidents were against houses of worship in particular. the way we've been tracking that we have a map on our website as well which you're welcome to look at looking towards federal law as solid state law and what may fall within the definition of a hate crime or do we have not seen a slowdown at all since november 2015 and unfortunately with the inauguration, and we are concerned there may be a spike around that time as well. >> yes, ma'am. >> qaeda. i am curling and i work for swedish news. we have daily children's lives for children between 10 and 14. you are obviously adults, but you talk a lot about how children are affected. i was wondering if you could give me a few specific examples so children watching us could understand what other children

specifically are going through. >> report after the election day the trump effect, is filled with very specific examples of swastikas, fights, graffiti, name-calling, bullying that we have seen. i know that the teachers in randy's union could probably multiplied what we have seen by tenfold. in the back of our report we also have recommendations for teachers for how they can set the tone in their classrooms, how they can do what they can within the confines of their four walls to make the world a better place for their students. >> that is why my earlier remarks i gave you one of the examples. so if you are an infidel boys room in a junior high school and

use the written on one of the stalls something that says in, it's frightening. the teachers in the school did, it was also several other places where they saw things written white somite, way to america. but they did in that school is the educators came together, created a plan, created beings we call restorative justice circles, had kids talk about their feelings, had kids talk together in a very diversified settings and try to deal with and create and understand the anxiety and try to create some semblance of security in a safe place. that example is replicated throughout the country. in l.a., we have many to and

teachers who are what we call daca man ted. people who have gone through the daca program that president obama has done and they themselves are scared to death as richard said that the new administration will use this information to not only rescind daca, but to deport them. kids have told their teachers that they are really afraid when they are in school that their parents will be taken away. muslim kids have told their teachers that they don't want to wear anything that shows they are muslim. teachers are hearing this from all over. i've heard those stories in dearborn. i've heard stories about dreamers in l.a. i gave you a story about

minneapolis. the report the splc put together, everyone of these incidents has a story attached to it. >> hi, can you start with cms is. do take a position on the sometimes violent protests against trump being elected president but their silence of the protests? >> i will report our work also collected in second phase of anti-trump violence. i think we documented the train 20 and 30. we would condemn just as well at the same time he would defend free speech rights of the protesters. we didn't ignore that at all. yes, ma'am. >> there is a lot of talk about safe spaces and especially the dreamers. but i am wondering, beyond the

stop a phrase that he is in that interview. i am wondering when you look at social media, it seems to me following what people are seeing on social media that people are really not talking to each other, that they are screaming past each other in repeating whatever the talking points are on the left or read or whatever. i am just wondering where do you get that baffle less than worthy of more forceful. but you see in social media is being replicated in workplaces and schools and other public spaces where people are not talking to each other. >> i think on this one

leadership matters. and now, we are at a time and moment where we need to see that leadership in this particular area. you know, we all have talked about the challenges of social media and the inability to filter what is true and not true. we are going to have a law have a law. here the century about how we reconcile that, how we deal with that. it may well be that in some of these schools is kids are just eating kids. they are pranks, rate? but when you're an environment of heightened anxiety, we have theirs on stability to step in as leaders and to try to create a stable and unified environment we are doing our part. we are trying to make sure as leaders across the country we

give our folks the tools they need. don't panic, but try to educate our folks about what options they have been violence is never the answer. in schools, teachers are being trained and given those resources. we are seeing church leaders, faith-based leaders to see how they can step in. we need the president elect and our future president to also think about what he can do is say. it is not just one person, but that presidency is the most important role that we have in this country and he needs to do us part. he can't do it alone, but we are all trying to do our part. we need him to do his part. >> can i ask a question in the back?

>> hi, i am a reporter for total broadcast system and i am a father of two girls, six and four. i don't mean to personalize this, but my question is when all of these comment and anti-racist fish attitude is shown from your president elect, how are we as adults are parents supposed to explain this to the younger ones? how are we supposed to explain what is going on and get into the right direction. >> i think it's an incredible conundrum. one of the disturbing facts that we aren't covered in our earlier trump report came out in march was that have to teachers in the country have decided they couldn't talk -- they couldn't teach the election because they didn't know what to say about

what mr. trump was singing. so i think that is a problem for teachers. i think it's less of a problem for parents in the faith community. all of those folks have to speak out. the first thing is to protect the big guns, to surround them with love, surround them with kerry adults. i think when the president is saying things that are so discordant with their most cherished values it's an incredibly hard job. >> will take two more. >> sure. >> janet touched on this a bit, that trump has clearly been trying to confuse the media and confuse the public about what his policies will look like, who he will name his cabinet.

he will blatantly lied to men come back and then changed his mind on it. how is this is urgent to you specifically affect human populations to work with and what does it look like when people are uncertain about the happen in the next few months? >> again, i'm brenda. i will take a stab at that. as an advocate, we saw donald trump using divisive and really hate a rhetoric that singled out a number of different communities across the board. i think what is most concerning right now is disappointment. the appointments themselves are a signal that those policies that he tweeted, that he sat on the campaign trail, everything from concerns about a judge is set in the city and being able to, you know, properly

adjudicate cases as well as mass surveillance, all of that campaign rhetoric when you look at the campaign rhetoric and the appointments, they can act. our greatest concern there is really to take a stand right now against the bigotry and campaign rhetoric would call for president elect trump to also change course when it comes to his appointment as well. >> i will take one more question from the room. yes, ma'am. >> i just wonder if you could talk a little bit about the face of extremism. we see richard spencer is a highly educated guy, very polished. could you compare to the old face of extremism like the and groups that are more

generalized? >> spencer, the head of the national policy institute is a committed racist. his words make that clear. he believes in a no national state. he believes men are created unequal and that there should be what he calls peaceful ethnic cleansing. there have been other richard spencer's before. there have been a number of charismatic, highly educated white supremacy is one that comes to mind, the late dr. william pearce, the leader of the national alliance, the author of the book that was the blueprint for the oklahoma city bombing. dr. pearce was a physicist. he was also a follower of george lincoln rockwell, the former american not the party. it is naïve to think that all people in the white supremacist

>> t. have any suggestions for what ordinary americans can do to promote tolerance and inclusiveness and to fight for hate? >> just one thing first. one correction. there is no such thing as an ordinary american. there are only those who advance to the call and those who have not. each and every one of us in our own way has a response ability to push back against anything that is, you know, contrary to our vows in a country. with your family, whether at work, whether in your house of worship, whether in a civic work in his nation, people are powerless. the worst thing one can believe is that individuals can't make a difference. that is always a self-fulfilling prophecy when people think individuals can't make a difference in our history of the civil rights movement or example

shows just the opposite. i don't mean to call you out on the ordinary american thing. you have a question on the phone as i understand it. >> we have the question from the one that can fall from the birmingham news. please proceed with your question. >> yes, regarding the incident in the report, [inaudible] anything that would indicate a blue state, red state,, red state, north, south, east or west? >> it is good to hear you if only barely. kent is from our state. you know, if you look at the map, kent, you can see it please the distribution of the 867 instances that we documented at hate instances. mcauley, marin costello, author

of the trump effect give court is here. [inaudible] >> in terms of the score results, there were no breach in all patterns and we've found many problems in both red states and blue states. it really boils down and close to the demographics of schools. if you have a large number of immigrants do not serve muslims to dance, there is a fear it doesn't break down that easily. >> i just want to make a point as they look in particular with the lens of the latino community. i want to be clear that right now we know that all children under the age -- latino children under the age of 18, 95% of them are american citizens.

i think it is important to know that we are talking about citizen children for the most part. 95% of latino children are american citizens. so many of them find themselves being taunted or attacked or terrorized in their american-born. a lot of times part of what happens in this environment is there's broad brushes painting all of these communities together and it is why this unity matters here today and all of us coming together saying it is not about one per tick to a group. it's really about standing up for the principle of tolerance and inclusion and equal protection under the law. >> i want to thank everyone for coming this morning. together collectively, where our commitment is to hold mr. trump

to the first commitment he made when he was clear that he was the president elect and that was to find the ones that divisions in our country. it has to be done with more than words. it has to be a pledge he takes years later, that he works to repair that with his actions, that he apologizes to communities, that he is injured and his policies reflect that commitment. until he does, it will be a commitment unfulfilled. thank you so much. [inaudible conversations] >> a live picture of the lobby of trump tower in manhattan. upstairs in the building, president-elect donald trump is

planning his transition as he has been a couple weeks now. according to several news reports, the president has settled on his pick for labor secretary elaine chao. she is also the way for senate majority leader mitch mcconnell. other presidential transition, chaired the senate judiciary committee, chuck grassley of iowa says today he plans to hold confirmation hearings for attorney general nominee chat sessions in january before president-elect trump's nomination. c-span's book of trump tower lobby live online. or you can see a on c-span.org.

>> thank you all very much. [cheers and applause] >> the u.s. senate remains in recess so that lawmakers may attend a weekly party caucus meetings. the senate is scheduled to come back into session at 2:15 eastern. of course will have live coverage. earlier today expanding role health care programs and coming up next on the agenda, a ten-year extension of sanctions on iran. yesterday on the senate floor, senator elizabeth warren spoke about a medical research bill. it offers giveaways in exchange for campaign contributions to republicans. up next, senator warner's remarks followed by a republican senator john corning. >> madam president, three weeks ago american presidents went to polls. voters are deeply divided on

whether democrats or republicans should be in charge. donald trump is the president-elect was in the popular vote by more thanhiot 2 million people. but there is one thing that americans are not divided on. one issue that they sent ag message loud and clear. according to exit polls, 70% of voters said they think the american economy and the lawmakers who oversee it are owned -- owned by big companies and special interests.. that is 70% of everybody, republicans, democrats, independents. in the closing days of this congress, big pharma has this handout for a bunch of special giveaways and favors that are packed together in something called 21st century cures w bill. the house this week and then get rammed through the senate. i've been taking a look at the details here. when the american voters say that congress is found by big

companies, this bill is exactly what they're talking about. so now we face a choice. while this congress say if wer are bought and paid for or to stand up and walk to the american people. for more than two years, a congress has been working on legislation to help advance medical innovation in the united states. medical innovation is powerfully important and i spent as much time working on this issue as anything i've worked on since i've joined the united states oo senate. from the beginning, i have emphasized one really obvious theme. in medical breakthroughs come through increasing investments in basic research.off right now, congress is choking off investments in the nih. adjusted for inflation, federal spending on research over the past dozen years has been cut by 20%. most has to take the legs out kw from under future medicalam innovation in america.

we can name a piece of legislation, but if it doesn't include significant meaningful funding for the national institutes of health and food and drug administration, it will cure anything. that is why a month ago senate democrats said and a so-called i legislation must haven significant investment in research and that is why senate republicans publicly committed to do exactly that. but now they have reneged on their promise and that big pharma hijack the cures bill. this final deal has only a big leaf of funding for nih and for the opiate crisis. most of that is that maven rael. most of the money won't be there unless future congresses past future bills in future years to

fund those dollars. so why bother in the cures bill? why pretend to give money to the nih or opioids? this sunday and as political cover for huge giveaways to giant drug companies. more examples than i can count in this bill, but i'm going to talk about three. no .. e drug companies find this rule annoying. after all, they could make a lot more money selling a headache pill as a cure for everything from hair loss to cancer. but pushing treatments without scientific evidence that they work is fraud, fraud that can work is fraud, fraud that can fraud that can hurt people. it also undercuts the development of real cures. and that is why some of the

largest law enforcement actions against big drug companies over the past 15 years has been called off-label marketing your drug companies have paid billions of dollars in penalties. now, one solution would be for those companies to follow the p law. but they prefer plan b. cozy up to enough people in congress to pass this cures bilr that would shoot holes in thet anti-fraud law.for in other words, make it easier for drug companies to get away with fraud. second giveaway, cover up bribery. t right now the log requires drug companies to disclose the buckets of money that they shower on doctors and hospitals to encourage them to prescribe certain drugs. it is by the what all published on a government website. you can go look up your doctor and your hospital right now online if you want to do that. now, the drug companies could

have responded by ending kickbacks to doctors. but instead have chosen plan b again. cozy up to enough people in congress to pass this cures bill that would let drug companies keep secret any splashy junkets or disassociate with so-called medical education. and make it harder for enforcement agencies to be able to trace those bribes. senator grassley, republican from iowa, says he is outraged by this provision. and i've had to say i'm with senator grassley on this one. third giveaway, hand out dangers special deals to republican campaign contributors. according to news reports, a major republican donor stands to benefit financially from selling cellular and regenerative medical therapy. if this guy had his way would be able to sell them to desperate people without a final fda

determination that those therapies were either safe or effective. of course that would be against the wall right now. so this mega- donor has poured millions of dollars into mitch mcconnell's personal campaign coffers and into his republican super pac, and now he wants his reward. the cures act offers to sell government favors. it delivers a special deal so that people can sell these treatments without meeting the fda gold standards for protecting patient safety and making sure these drugs actually do some good. you know, keep in mind, people could die from using unproven treatments.ac in fact, people have already died during carefully controlled research experiments on theseere types of treatments. congress should not be in the business of selling fda favors to the highest bidders, risking

people's lives to enrich political donors.ing let's be clear. what the republicans are proposing is corrupt and it is very, very dangerous. and there is more. republicans decided to hand out gifts for other special interests. the cures act, a bill that is supposed to be about medical innovation, giveaway to the gun lobby. the bill cuts medicare funding to it raised money from the affordable to act. it takes health care dollars that should have gone to puerto rico. it makes it hard for people with disabilities to get medicaid services. there is a lot of bad stuff inil this bill. bill a lot of bad stuff, but not everything in the bill is bad. republican leaders are playing a crappy game here, trying to buy off democratic votes one by one by tacking on good bipartisan gd

proposals that senators in both parties have worked on in good faith for years. there's a bipartisan mental health bill, bipartisan provisions protecting the genetic privacy of patients, bipartisan provisions to give some very limited funding for important priorities like the national opioid crisis, and the vice president's cancer moonshot there's a proposal in your to improve foster care. i support most of these proposals.n i have worked on many of them four years. i even wrote some of them myself. if this bill becomes law, there is no question it will contain some real legislative accomplishments, but i cannot vote for this bill. i will fight it because i know the difference between compromise and extortion the. optimized is putting together

commonsense health proposals supported by democrats, republicans, and by most of the american people. and passing them into law. extortion is holding those exact same proposals hostage unless everyone agrees do special favors for campaign donors and giveaways to the richest drug companies in the world. compromise is when senators, democrats and republicans find the way forward on issues thats matter to their constituents. extortion is telling those same senators to forget what your constituents want. d we will do nothing with the skyrocketing cost of prescription drugs, and nothing to increase medical research.ons instead, every important commonsense bipartisan bill on mental health and genetic privacy and opioid addiction and foster care and anything else will die today, and most

democrats agree make it easier for drug companies to commit fraud, to give out a backs into the patient's lives at risk. this demand is enough to make mr gag. scientists who in the new cures should be celebrated along with the companies that support them. but let me be perfectly clear. while the drug industry may get a seat at the table, they do not own the table. i do not care how many armies of lawyers and lobbyists they send out. i do not care how many campaigne contributions a dump into congressional pockets. i do not care how painful they can make life for politicians who oppose them. i will not be their wacky.nds of i will work for the hundreds of thousands of scientists and a doctors who are committed to saving lives and who are waiting for congress to fund their work. i will work for the millions of families that event touched by

alzheimer's, diabetes, cancer and other deadly diseases who are counting on this research. i will work for the 70% of voters who are sick of a congress that is owned by bigre donors and giant corporations. republicans are taking over congress to their taking over the white house, but republicans do not have majority support in this country. the majority of voters supported democratic senate candidatecandidate s over republican once. s and the majority supported democratic presidential candidate over a republican oneo the american people did not give democrats majority support so we can come back to washington and play dead. they didn't census here to whimper, whine, or grovel. they sent us here to say no to efforts to sell congress to the highest bidder.wh they sent us here to stand up for what is right. and now they are watching,

waiting, hoping. hoping that we will show some spine and start fighting backes when congress ignores the message of the american people and return to the old ways of doing business. republicans will control this government, they cannot hand that control over to big corporations unless democrats roll over and allow them to do so. it is time for democrats, democrats and republicans who should be ashamed by this kind of corruption, to make it clear exactly who they work for. does the senate work for big pharma that hires lobbyists and people who make giant campaign contributions? or does of the senate work for t the american people who actually sent us here? thank you. mr. president ideal and i suggest the absence of a quorum. >> remarks of yesterday. a live picture from the capital as reporters are waiting for

senate leaders. they are returning from their party lunches and they may stop to make remarks as they head back into the senate chamber for legislative business this afternoon. we expect to consider republican leaders first and then from senate democratic leaders. it should be just a moment. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> again, we are standing by waiting to hear from senate leaders as they make remarks to reporters as they head back from their party caucus lunches. while we wait for that you take place we hear from senator john cornyn as he responded to remarks of senator elizabeth warren on the medical research bill. she was commenting on yesterday. >> mr. president, i confess that

i came to the floor to talk about some of the nominations that we are going to see coming from the administration, particularly from one of our time regarding one of our colleagues, senator sessions, from alabama to be the next attorney general and i'm somewhat taken back by the nature of the comments i hear coming from the senator from massachusetts. i had to refresh my memory of the senate standing rules, which i though prohibited the sort of ad hominem attack, the claims o corruption, selling legislation for campaign contributions.nate i thought the rules of the decor but united states senate prohibited that sort of sur demagoguery. but i'm not sure you can write a rule that would prohibit somebody who is actually determined to defy the very

voters they claim to be representing. if our democratic colleagues like the result of the election that just occurred on november 8, i would say keep on keeping on. keep on with the same sort of ar hominem attacks and attacking the motivation of people rather than talking about policy. i thought that's what does it was supposed to be all about. not will be coming here and call it to others names. the wonder the american people are turned off i what they see as politics as usual. i think what they told us onplih november 8 is a action would like to see us accomplished some things. and first of all, start with listening to them. not telling them what's good for them and saying if you don't like it you are going to have to take it, because the people in power, the people working in washington, the elites in america know better than you doe what's good for you. so when i hear the senator from massachusetts, and giveab

essentially apolitical speech such as she did not talk about the merits our the policy but rather making personal attacks against senators and people that support the policy, i just think this is beneath the dignity of the united states senate. and i would hope we would rise to the occasion in the wake of this historic election and say you know what, we can do betterd the american people deserve o better. and what they've been gettingn coming out of washington. the only way we can be able toan turn this country around is by firspersonal listening to what e american people are telling us. and we know what they've said is we are not happy with thet' direction of the country and we happening in washington. but you coming to make make the kind of speech as i just heard a moment ago is disturbing. it's disappointing, and we can do better than that and we must do better than that if we're

going to regain the confidence of the american people that were actually worthy of their support as we try to guide the ship and try to pass laws which will improve the quality of their lives by growing the economy, bt making it possible for people to find work, who want work so they can provide for their families. to try to make sure the american people are safe and secure, to provide for our common defense. those are the sorts of things we ought to be focused on. so it's a little distressing to walk into this chamber and what used to be known as the world's greatest delivered a body come and hear the sort of diatribe and the personal attacks and the name-calling that we just heard from the senator from massachusetts. the reason i came to the fore, mr. president, is to make note of the fact as i alluded a moment ago the president-elect

donald trump announced his intention to nominate one of our own, a member of the senate, to be the nation's top lawr enforcement officer. our friend the junior senator from alabama, senator sessions from is undoubtedly qualified and prepared for this role as attorney general. because of a long career he spent protecting and defending our constitution and the rule of law. speared john cornyn yesterday. we will leave this at this point as the senate has traveled and for more legislative work. h commentary on the senate floor? the presiding officer: we're in morning business with 10-minute grants. mr. nelson: may i be recognized? the presiding officer: the senator from florida is recognized. mr. nelson: mr. president, i want to talk about something that we all hear about and generally support, but the national institute of health needs help.

the national institutes of health