vote: vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: are there any senators wishing to vote or change their vote? if not, the yeas are 54. the nays are 43. the nomination is confirmed. under the previous order, the motion to reconsider is considered made and laid upon the table and the president will be immediately notified of the senate's actions. the senate will resume consideration of the following nomination which the clerk will report,. the clerk: nomination, department of state, callista l. gingrich of virginia to be ambassador to the holy sea. mr. cornyn: mr. president? the presiding officer: majority whip. mr. cornyn: i have eight requests for committees to meet during today's session of the senate. these have been approved by both the majority and minority leaders. the presiding officer: duly

noted. mr. cornyn: mr. president, not too long ago, i believe it was 2011, a president came to a joint session of congress and before the american people, and he said what needed to be said about our tax code. he was pretty blunt. he said our tax code is rigged. he said it makes no sense. and he said it has to change. and of course you can imagine that was met with bipartisan applause in the house chamber and across the country. the same president called on democrats and republicans to simply simplify the system, get rid of the loopholes, and lower the corporate tax rate, one that i might add ranks among the highest in the industrial world. that president, like the rest of us, know that our tax rate, our business tax rate is a

self-inflicted economic wound because businesses figure out how can i move money offshore and my headquarters offshore if i earn money overseas. how can i avoid bringing that back to the united states for better wages and more jobs and to build their business. that's all because of our self-destructive tax code. but the president's name -- and i gave it away by saying the year the speech was given -- the president's name might surprise you given the nature of the current debate here in washington. it was barack obama who said that. and the straight stalk came from his 2011 state of the union address. well, now let's fast forward a few years. we have a new president from a different party beating the same drum. president trump has called our tax code a relic and a colossal barrier standing in the way of

america's economic comeback. he's right, of course, but so was president obama. tax reform, you see, doesn't have to be partisan. in fact, it shouldn't be because the ramifications are much more important than just the politics and the score keeping of the day. the job creators in my state of texas are the ones who really understand what's at stake because they're living it. they're the ones who are getting slammed by our current system. take lisa fullerton, for example, who owns a small retail business in san antonio, my hometown. miss fullerton is an accountant with 33 years of experience who used to handle her own business' tax compliance in house. eventually, though, the code became simply too complex and enforcement too punitive, and she couldn't take that risk anymore. so she set her outsourcing and

tax deployment functions now cost her small business roughly $280,000 per year, more than it did in 2,000. let he -- 2000. let me say that again. it's $280,000 more per year than it was in 2000. lisa is far from the only one that's frustrated. cirt somers is the president of austin generation service, a small residential power company in the texas capital. for him a lower tax rate would mean the difference between his company turning a profit or a loss, literally make the difference from being able to keep your doors open or have to lock them up permanently. he explained any extra profits realized through tax savings might enable his company to grow more aggressively. to him the need for change is very simple. it means more hiring and more jobs.

so texans like alaskans, like all americans get the picture. but the picture is pretty messed up and it doesn't make any sense. greg brown, president of w.w. cannon, an industrial storage company in dallas, his compliance costs have gotten to be truly astronomical and a herculean task. it's gotten so difficult, he's simply had to outsource that to a c.p.a. again, because it's so complex and because people just don't want to risk the burden of not doing it right because of the punitive nature of the penalti penalties. daryl lion, c.e.o. of pacs financial group has done the same thing. he's harmed each year by the pass-through taxes on his small business income which impairs his ability to save for business emergencies as well as to pay off his company debt.

and lastly in terms of my stories here, andy allard, the owner and general manager of a machine company in dallas. he regularly purchases his expensive computer numerical control equipment to stay competitive in his industry, and i have no idea what that is, computer numerical control equipment. but he said the tax ramifications of every purchase have to be considered. almost every day he asks can we expense it? do we have to depreciate it? and if we do, over how long? mr. allard isn't shy with his words. he calls the complicated deduction scheme for business expenses chaos. clearly something needs to change, mr. president. and as i said at the outset, that's been acknowledged on a bipartisan basis by the current president and the past president. and i even brought out some quotes yesterday or the day before from the democratic

leader, senator schumer, making exactly the same argument, and the ranking member of the senate finance committee, the senator from oregon, saying that lowering the corporate tax rate will make america more competitive globally and will bring money back home for jobs and investment here in our country. so it's important for us to be consistent and unfortunately they haven't been. well, things are starting to change. last week the so-called big six led by speaker ryan, treasury secretary steve mnuchin, kevin brady, chairman of the house, ways and means committee and chairman orrin hatch released a framework which contains core principles for reform. among them was a simplified rate structure, the elimination of the alternative minimum tax, and many itemized deductions and incentives for companies to keep jobs on american soil. perhaps most importantly, the framework recommends what is

widely agreed upon as overdue, which is lowering our uncompetitive corporate rate that puts american employers and workers at a disadvantage. today it's sad but true that we are divided on many issues in america, but as president trump and president obama suggested, tax reform does not have to be one -- i listened to our friend the senator from new york, the democratic leader, senator schumer this morning, calling for bipartisan tax reform. well, they're going to have a chance to do that because after we pass a budget resolution, i anticipate in the senate finance committee, senator hatch, will call up a base bill known as the chairman's mark, which will be open for amendment in the senate finance committee. that's what people have been asking for, a chance to participate in the writing of the legislation in the committee and then to have it come to the

floor for open debate and amendment. it's what we call regular order around here. but what i'm hearing from our democratic colleagues is, yes, they want bipartisan legislation, but they don't want to participate in the process of writing it. it strikes me as pretty hypocritical. this shouldn't be partisan, as president obama and president trump have demonstrated and as democrats and republicans alike have said time and time again. so we in washington have no magic wand that will make our tax code suddenly disappear, but that doesn't excuse us from working to make taxes and tax compliance a little less painful. mr. president, i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from colorado. a senator: thank you, mr. president.

mr. bennet: last weekend a man camped out on the 32nd floor of the mandalay bay hotel in las vegas. he stockpiled 23 weapons, hundreds of rounds of ammunition. he set up bipods and scopes. he brought a hammer to knock out the window. and then on sunday he opened fire. and he kept firing for 15 minutes. stopping only to reload and switch weapons. in over 15 minutes he murdered 58 americans and injured more than 500. the day after the shooting, mr. president, i was in washington. i had seven or eight meetings, and not a single person in those meetings brought up the worst shooting in modern american history, not one. i'm not sure if it was two mass

shootings ago or three when we started to accept this as a normal condition of american life. when we lost our belief that it was within our power to protect our fellow americans at a country music concert or at a nightclub, a movie theater, or at a school. i know there's strong beliefs about guns in america, principle beliefs. but there are also steps that the overwhelming majority ever americans -- of americans want us to take. 90% of americans think we need background checks for every gun sale, including 74% of n.r.a. members. $% of americans think we could -- $% of americans think we should prevent the mentally ill from purchasing guns. 82% of republicans want us to bar gun purchases for people on

the no-fly or terrorist watch list. yet congress has done nothing to respond to the american people. we did nothing after aurora, after newtown, after orlando. nothing. unlike washington and colorado, our legislate,after two mass shootings in aurora and at columbine, our legislators rose to the occasion and made tough choices after we suffered two of the worst mass shootings in our nation's history. after the massacre at columbine, we closed the gun show loophole. after the tragedy at aurora, we strengthened our background checks -- in a western state last year those background checks people from buying guns. that may sound like a lot, but

380,000 people applied for guns in colorado last year. that means just 2% of those folks who applied were blocked and 98% were able to buy a gun without a problem. who was that 2% that colorado is blocking but this congress fails to block? among them were murderers and rapists and kidnappers and domestic abusers. who one can come to this floor and tell me that cool is worse off because we kept guns out of the hands of those people. the average wait time was 12 minutes. that strikes me as a fair trade-off to keep guns out of the hands of murderers and kidnappers and rapists. but here in washington, despite now an annual tragedy, tragedy

after tragedy congress has done nothing. we haven't even done simple things like close the gun show loophole. or stop people on the terrorist watch list from buying weapons. this isn't about taking guns away from people who have them. it's about keeping guns out of the hands of people who nearly everybody agrees shouldn't have them. it's about stopping more people like the las vegas killer from modifying his rivals to become almost fully automatic. -- and far more deadly. it's cosponsored a bill this week to ban those modifications. and i'm encouraged that some of my republican colleagues seem to be open to that idea. i know we can't stop every madman or every random act of

violence in this country. we can't -- we -- just as we can't stop any murderer, every murder from happening. but that doesn't mean we shouldn't make them less likely or that we can't take steps to limit their harm, steps that are backed by the overwhelming majority of americans and that are fully consistent with the constitution. i remember after the shooting at pulse nightclub, i was supposed to take my daughter to camp that day. she was going to be away from us for a month. i can remember i did everything that i could to keep her from hearing the news that day. as the numbers of fatalities increased during the course of the day. because i didn't want her to

leave us -- she was about 12 at the time -- with a sense of fear. a fear that i felt and the country felt. and i am so sorry that my children and america's children have to grow up in a country where mass shootings are common, where we're beginning to see them just as part of our life. i heard somebody the other day on the television say, that's the price of freedom. what a shame that somebody would say that. -- in the united states of america. what a surrender that represents to our children, to the victims of these crimes.

i didn't grow up in that america. but conditions have changed. we've let it happen. the result is that we now have an entire generation of americans, of our countrymen, our sons and our daughters who are growing up with a reasonable fear that they could be a victim of a mass shooting or that their mom or their dad might not come home one day. madam president, i think our kids have enough to worry about and they've got every right to

see a movie with their parents, to go dancing with their friends, to see a concert on their one night off without the fear of being shot down by people who have no business carrying such powerful weapons. and they have a right to expect this congress will finally do something about gun violence in our country. violence far greater than anywhere else in the industrialized world. madam president, in the wake of these who are horrific acts, as always, as always, americans spring in reaction. first responders secure the area and care for the wounded. neighbors hold vigils to honor the victims, support grieving families. journalists shed light on what

happened and why. citizens speak out to demand action from their elected officials. they are doing their jobs, and it is time for congress to do ours. madam president, i yield the floor. mrs. capito: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from west virginia. mrs. capito: thank you, madam president, for the recognition. last week i rose to speak about tax reform. this is an issue that we cannot talk about enough and cannot emphasize enough. today i rise to talk about how important the reform is to our small businesses.

and in the coming weeks, i will be up here to talk about other important aspects of tax reform. we all know, we're all from different states and different parts of the country, but we all know that small businesses are a major economic driver in our country. 95% of businesses in the united states are small businesses, and that number is even higher in my state of west virginia. small businesses employ more than half of west virginia's workforce. yet our small businesses face a marginal tax rate as high as 39.6%. at the same time, their effective tax rate are vary widely. in fact, a cnbc survey showed is that 22% of small businesses can't really say what their effective tax rate really is. so think about that. if you're a small business, a partnership, or an l.l.c., then

your profits are going to pass through to you and be taxed at the individual rate. there are currently seven individual tax brackets. then you have credits and deductions. and then there's also self-employment tax. the list goes on. on top of that, small businesses can have social security and medicare taxes, federal unemployment taxes, employment taxes, and that's not even taking into account state-level taxes like a state-level property tax and more. that's why businesses and individuals spend business of dollars a year annually complying with the tax code. that is more than 18 hours for every man and woman and child in the united states of america. it's the equivalent -- i like to think of this in terms of what will -- if you could give me a visual here, that's basically 3

million people working full-time on taxes for small businesses at a cost of $195 billion. the point is, it's complicated. our tax code is too complicated. and that's part of what tax reform is about -- simplifying the tax code. if congress can simplify the tax code, just to cut compliance costs in half, think of how many significant resources that would free up that would be better used to grow the economy, create jobs, raise wages, expand businesses. the national federation of independent business, which represents 325,000 small businesses throughout this country, called our tax reform framework a good start, and has urged us to take swift action. according to a survey by paychecks, 41% of small business

owners want tax reform to be the very top priority. so who will these reforms really help? we're going to have a long discussion on this. this is just part of who they'll help. they'll help the small businesses that employ so many people in my home state of west virginia. they'll help people like eric haute of e.h. chocolates and more. eric group on a farm in kirby, west virginia. her mother was from germany and growing up his grandmother was always cooking something. after graduating from high school, eric moved to gentleman remain to begin -- to germany to begin a culinary apprenticeship. he went on to serve as events like the g-8 summit and for guests like the german chancellor and his first lady. after running a patiesry in

germany, he moved to switzerland where he refined, perfected the art of chocolate making. sounds good to me. and then what did he do? he wanted to come home. he returned home to west virginia. he came back to kirby, west virginia. and he started his own small businesses. first, e.h. chocolates and more, and later, farm fresh produce. both are growing and delicious businesses. small businesses employ middle-class americans that power this and other small businesses across the country. we need more folks like eric. lots more -- that are willing to take the risk, have a good idea, that want to stay and work in their homes in rural america and certainly in our state of west virginia, which mass had a major economic downturn, we need more erics. we need to simplify the tax code for small businesses and focus on what they do best -- which is

refining their products, providing their services, providing jobs for people in their various areas. tax reform, as much as any other policy that congress can advance, will promote growth and provide job opportunities across this great country across the entire country only two in five distressed communities have seen any job growth during the past five years. fully 50% of u.s. job growth has occurred in just 2% of our country's counties. we need to change that. we need to help small businesses that are the major economic drivers in every part of our country. it's no wonder that small businesses have found it difficult to open, let alone succeed, in many parts of our country. because of our outdated tax code, real wages for most workers have barely increased for decades. so by modernizing our tax code,

we can create more opportunity and higher wages for americans. we can achieve a simplifier system with lower rates that's good for business and workers and from the description i just put forward, it would be a big time safer, too, and resource safer. and it would also -- the best thing about this in terms of small business, it would lead to more jobs. let's create an environment that leads to more investment in our states and continues to grow and build jobs. these are the changing, hardworking west virginians that americans are hungering for. in order to make west virginia the best place to live and work, now is the time for tax reform. i look forward to working with my colleagues to make this a reality. doing it will benefit so many, everyone in this great country. thank you, and i yield the floor.

the presiding officer: the senator from arizona. mr. flake: madam president, i rise today in support of the border security and deferred action recipient relief act, a bill i just introduced. this bill offers a solution to the serious problems facing us with regard to border security, while at the same time it addresses the needs for a legislative solution to those issues faced by the children who were brought here through no fault of their own. with respect to the border, this bill provides the $1.6 million in funding for border security measures that the president requested and the house has already approved with a bipartisan vote. now, as an arizonan, i'm more than familiar with the steps that we need to take to increase border security. we have a better situation on the border than we have had in a while, but there are still measures that need to be taken. in addition to the appropriate barriers that will aid in preventing illegal crossings, we

need access -- access roads that actually get to the border. there's one issue that i hear from property owners, the ranchers and border patrol agents and others near the border is they need better access. we've had an issue with regard to roads that are used by the border patrol that are paid for by the county. it's a situation that needs to be resolved and it will benefit us all -- all of us who travel near the border. the bill also -- i should mention that this road issue was raised by the g.a.o. i requested a study, along with a couple of my colleagues, to see what we could do with the road and access in that situation, and g.a.o. came back and this would implement some of the recommendations. the bill would also aid law enforcement in the swift implementation of deportation of

individuals deemed to be part of drug cartels. i would like to thank representative barbara con stock on this issue. now, with respect to the children brought here through no fault of their own, this bill takes a measure that has already earned bipartisan support in the house of representatives, the so-called recognizing american children act. that provides a solution for the daca kids. these young immigrants were brought here as children and simply no -- simply know no other country. for all intents and purposes, these young people consider themselves american. so if we can protect these daca recipients and provide solutions to better secure our borders at the same time, that's a win-win. the president and congress both want to improve border security. we both want to respond to the threat of dangerous gangs and drug cartels.

we both want to arrive at a legislative solution for the rescission of the daca program that benefits those who wish to continue contributing to their communities and to the american dream. this bill is the best way to thread the needle, to deliver what the president has asked for, what the congress wants, and what my constituents in arizona deserve. these issues are far too important for us to delay acting on them. to be clear, i will work with anyone and support any number of proposals that accomplish these goals. i believe that the straightforward approach of the border security and deferred action recipient relief act that i'm introducing today is the best chance that we have got to put this bill on the president's desk. i yield back my time. i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

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quorum call:

mr. lee: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from utah. mr. lee: i ask unanimous consent to suspend the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. lee: madam president, i rise today to honor the life of elder ropt b. haels, a member of the church of jesus christ of the latter-day saints. elder hales passed away

peacefully at the age of 85. he leaves behind his faithful wife mary and their two sons steven and david. robert hales was born and raised in a faithful household in long island, new york. he was an all-american boy who played bawmbl through college at the -- baseball at college at the university of utah but traded in his baseball uniform for a flight suit serving in the united states air force as a jet fighter pilot. his service as a military aviator would inform the rest of his life and certainly his entire ministry. he took with him the unit motto displayed on the side of his aircraft, return with honor. after his discharge from the military, elder hales entered the world of international business. he established a reputation as an enthusiastic leader who relished a challenge and dealt fairly with others. because of these qualities,

elder hales rose to become president of papermate, a division of gillette. he assumed executive positions at max factor company, at cheese borough ponds manufacturing company. but he never let work dominate his life, as so many executives do. despite the enormous demands on his time, he stayed faithful to the more important commitments he had made to his family and to his lord. so it was that robert hales, a business executive of international renown, made an unusual decision in the prime of his life. he left the corporate world to give his all to the church. when jesus said come follow me, elder hales left his nest, strayed away and became a fisher of men. elder hales was called to become the presiding bishop of the church overseeing the church's

vast network. as bishop he used his skills as a business executive not for profit but to help the least of those among us. and in 1994 elder hales was sustained to the 12 apostles, a church position he held for 23 years until his passing just days ago. from this position as a watchman on the tower, he boldly proclaimed the gospel of jesus christ and he also spoke out on such pressing societal issues as religious freedom. he saw that the erosion of religious belief in the united states was quickly devolving into social and political intolerance for religious people and institutions. but this prediction did not lead elder hales to despair. no. instead he redoubled his efforts toed phi the next generation -- to edify the next generation, the young men and women who were in the preparatory period of life. his addresses and sermons were

full of practical advice on living well. don't walk. run to holiness he urged his brothers and sisters in faith. elder hales knew that holiness is an activity, a pursuit to which we must consecrate our whole lives, running the race and enduring to the end. through his example and through his words, elder hales taught that virtue is not just a good intention, but a good deed reinforced and compounded by past deeds. elder hales urged young men and women to embrace the joys of adulthood through marriage, child rearing and responsible citizenship. he knew that the way to true happiness lies in those sacrificial activities, not the selfish lifestyles that tempt so many today. during one memorable address to the general conference of the church, elder hales recounted the advice he received as a boy

when he was he had -- when he had been tempted to make a poor decision. robert, his father had said to him, straighten up and fly right. from the testimony of his life, it's clear that elder hales honored his father's advice in the air force, in the workforce, in the household, and in the church. elder robert d. hales flew right. now he's returned with honor to be embraced by his heavenly father. thank you, madam president. i yield the floor and note the absence of of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

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the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. lankford: i'd like to ask to vish rate the quorum -- vis rate the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. lankford: i'd like to update this body about russia and their interference with our elections and how they are trying to engage with us in a way that europe has seen for decades. yesterday senator burr and senator warner stood up and gave an update of where we were in the senate select committee on intelligence. they walked through some of the statistics. we have done over 100 interviews and over 4,000 pages of

transcripts from the interviews, and 100,000 documents that we have gone through so far and there are more to go. we have interviewed as many people as possible and in other areas they quote people, we chase down those individuals and it continues to lead. so parts of it are not done, but some of it is. several aspects are clear from the investigation, though it is not complete and we will have a final document at the end. russia was strieg -- was trying to use active measures in our lax -- last election. why would they do that? this is the way that russia worked for a long time. this asmet rick -- asmet richt warfare where they have done it across europe for a long time and now they are doing it here. some of this -- this is a

product of russia having a weak economy. in the last two years their money was dropped. as they struggled with low oil prices and the way that they function their government with the ol garrics and other folks continue to struggle around the country. as they struggle under the system where they have fake elections, they try to reach out to other countries and try to interfere in ours to try to make us look like them. we have a free press that they try to engage in. we have free speech that they don't have, we have freedom of religion, which they don't have, we have the ability to have disputes on issues, they clearly don't have that in russia. if you disagree with the leadership in russia, you will end up in prison. if you disagree with the leadership in the united states, you will be on tv. it is very different.

they reach in at what we consider to be be a strength and try to make it a weakness. over the next several months as we try to expose what russia is really trying to do. they use some overt propaganda such as sputnik, as it is on all over the tv channels in the united states. they are their version of the facts and designed to place discord in our nation. there are ways that are not quite as overt. they reach in on social media platform, they have trolls in russia that have thousands of fake accounts on twitter and they use those thousands of apps to search around any news in america and find a place where there's conflict in america and then try to am p up the -- amp up the volume.

we disagree on issues. when we disagree on something, we disagree on it publicly and sometimes loud. that's who we are as americans. we try to work things out sometimes at a high volume. but just like two kids fighting on the playground in the fifth grade. remember those two kids who started a fight and their friends watched them and someone on the other side of the playground yelled fight and the crowd started forming. the russians are not in the fight, they are the kids on the far side of the playground trying to get kids to start the fight. they look at where america is divided. issues like race where those troll farms will try to find areas where we disagree on areas of race and reach in and try to amplify the volume on that by repeating accusations, by trying to be even more hostile online to try to stoke disunity in our

nation. it's important that we see that not every time you seeing is with a high number of hash tag accounts that go up, it's not always americans pushing that up. occasionally it's an outside body trying to raise the volume and make a conflict look bigger than it is in america because they are into selling discord. that's what they love to do. that's what the rest of the nations have seen them do and that's why we should be very clear that russia is trying to soak chaos into us. they have reached into our election systems. in the previous couple of weeks the f.b.i. notified 21 different states that during the last election season the russians tried to interfere in their election process as a state. that doesn't mean they did interfere. that means they reached in and

tested system and went into voter database and see if they could access a voter database. they tried to get into a secretary of state's office in a local state to see if they could figure out how to do elections. they tried to reach into systems to see what voting machines they used and try to connect to them. they tried to find out how they could do elections and to learn as much as they could and to see how far they could get. through all of our work we have yet to find a sing the -- a single vote that was changed. the russians didn't get into voting machines, they didn't alter the election in any way, but they were probing through multiple states to see what they could get access to. it's my belief that they are preparing for something else. they are trying to see what they could get access to in the last election to see if they could get back into it and do even more in the next election. we should be aware of that. we should be aware of not only their propaganda, but also aware that they are after your

elections to see if they can find a way to see if we can doubt the outcomes. what can we do? one of them is we need to protect the primacy of states to protect elections. there it is no need for the government -- it is a constitutional protection, but every state is also responsible to do it. of the 21 states that i noted, i did say to everyone here, the russians tried to engage in 21 states, they couldn't get to a single voting machine. the states are doing a good job, but they need help. there's no reason that the state of oklahoma should have to work alone to be able to protect itself from the russians trying to invade it in the cyber attack. they need allies to come along with them but the state should be table to run the system. there should be more sharing between the state and federal government. there should be an opportunity for a federal government to say

to -- to a state, earlier than ten months after the election, that, hey, you're being hacked. for the f.b.i. to notify states after the election is a little late. when it's occurring, with we need to have that engagement between state i.t. folks between federal i.t. folks to have that conversation when it is ongoing so the state can take measures as it is occurring. we need to have that cooperation between states and the federal government. we need to have states -- they should have the ability to audit their systems. they need to audit and check that their systems were not hacked. in oklahoma we have optical scanners. you fill out a paper ballot and they run it through the optical scanner. if there is a question about the optical scanner, they can go

back to paper and do a hand count. we can audit the elections in that process. it is a safe system we have set up in our state. every state does it differently, but i encourage every state has a system where they can audit the system. this year it was the russians trying to engaged in the election, but it could be any number of groups that could try to interfere in our process. it is basic commence to say that a -- common sense that we have a system of election that's we simply audit. perhaps russia in the days ahead hopes that our nation will be more like theirs. we won't. we're the longest constitutional repolitic in the world -- republic in the world many we still lead the world. we still put out our values about free speech, free press, freedom of religion, opportunities for individuals to

actually engage and have conflict with their own government and to be able to disagree publicly on things. we still can disagree with each other but we need to be aware that they want to turn us to them but i would hope for the sake of the russian people in the days ahead they can be more like us. ronald reagan told a story about a friend of his that had a conversation with a cuban refugee in 1964. he said that his friend -- this cuban refugee -- said if we lose freedom here there's no place to escape to. this is the last stand on earth. we're still a role model for the rest of the world. and as much conflict as we have with each other, we're still a role model. i have no issue disagreeing at

times with people on this floor. we can have our disagreements. but i don't want the russians to interfere in our disagreements. they can keep their business over there, and in the days ahead, we'll continue to expose the things that they are doing so that in the days ahead they can back off and go bug someone else because we're akin to what they are doing. with that, i yield the floor and would note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from ohio. mr. brown: thank you, madam president. i ask unanimous consent to dispense with the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. brown: madam president, in the future mr. president, we both appreciated the work you did together, the nominees in front of the agriculture committee, so thank you. mr. president, i rise to talk for a moment about a hearing yesterday which the presiding officer sat through, too, with the outgoing c.e.o. of equifax. we know what happened with equifax or we really don't yet know entirely what happened, but we know this company, equifax,

there was a breach of equifax' information, 145 million americans, that's pretty much more -- well rng it's more than half the -- well, it's more than half of the adults in this country, had their data breached and done where criminals will now have access to far too many americans' data. i'm hopeful that senator crapo and i, the chairman of the committee, and others on the committee, were pretty unhappy, not to speak for others certainly, but were pretty unhappy with equifax's performance and yesterday didn't get a number of answers to our questions. when you think about what we do with medical language, with our personal medical information, we have laws to say our personal medical information belongs to us. we, of course, can share it with a hospital or a doctor, with whomever we want. but our doctor can't share it

with our doctors without our permission. a hospital can't share it with other hospitals without our permission. but our personal financial data doesn't fall under those categories. we know how this happens. equifax, a company that many have rarely thought about and a lot of people -- most have never to the much -- never thought much about it. and many have never really explored who they are president equifax is a company in atlanta. there are three sort of data collection agencies like this that your -- they get your data without your permission. they get it from utility companies or a bank or somebody else. they collect your data. they have two jobs, to collect your data and then to protect your data, your personal financial data. this company and this c.e.o. has been paid $69 million over the last three years, the c.e.o. whom we met with who is retired and who has been compensated very generously and perhaps will -- who knows if he'll end up getting bonuses or golden

parachutes and all, and the american public has come to, unfortunately, expect that these c.e.o.'s that abuse the public trust -- look at what happened with wells fargo, creating all kinds of accounts for people who didn't want to have them, didn't know the accounts were open. look at exfax. in far -- equifax. in far too many cases these companies then don't protect our information the way that they sort of promised they would, makes all of us of the 145 million subject to some kind of criminal activity in all kinds of ways to violate our privacy and take advantage of us financially and all the identity theft and all the things that come with that. if you're a student at bolling green university -- say you graduated and missed a student loan payment after you graduated, you get your credit dinged by equifax. or if you were a homeowner in mansfield, ohio, or in revana, ohio and miss a couple monthly

payments, he get your credit dinged. you're held accountable by exfax but equifax hasn't really been held accountable by much of anybody. the cynicism people have toward our financial steam, towards wall street, we see what wells fargo has done and then equifax. it's time for congress to push away the special interest groups that have far too much influence in this body. the white house has not been helpful. the white house seems -- looks like an executive -- looks like a retreat for goldman sachs executives. all the people around the president that do the bidding of wall street and protect far too many of these wall street firms and the wells fargo and the equifaxs of the world. mr. president, i'm hopeful we'll sit down bipartisanly, begin to figure out what to do here. maybe we do consider the protections we have for people's medical records, we ought to have the same protection for their financial records. it simply makes sense.

and i'm hopeful we can come to a solution. i yield the floor. mr. president, i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

the presiding officer: the senator from new jersey. mr. menendez: mr. president, i ask that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. menendez: mr. president, i rise today like i have on so many occasions to give voice to the three and a half million americans who call puerto rico home. their lives have been turned upside down by hurricane maria. now more than ever, they desperately need to be heard.

i invite my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to join me in amplifying the voices of millions of puerto ricans calling out for help and the millions here on the mainland who have yet to hear from their families. here on the floor with me today are aerial photos of the destruction caused by murk maria, the astounding damage i saw firsthand when i toured puerto rico by helicopter on friday. these pictures are pictures that largely i took. take this collapsed bridge in the municipality situated in the central mountains of puerto rico. the 30,000 americans who live there depend on these bridges to cross the beautiful rivers that run through it every day. but today those 30,000 americans are secluded, waiting in the

dark and wondering when help will arrive. images like these have stayed with me from the moment i left puerto rico, and i share them today because the people of puerto rico need our collective voices and support to stop this humanitarian crisis from devolving into a full-blown american tragedy. this is another example of some of the devastation of a large number of homes in a community. if we hope to overcome the monumental challenges before us, we need a full grasp of the reality on the ground. and i thought that's why president trump went to puerto rico this week, to get a dose of reality. instead, the president continued to feed on his own warped version of reality. the president told the people of puerto rico they should be,

quote, very proud that the death count was only 16 versus literally thousands of people who died in a real catastrophe like katrina -- a real catastrophe like katrina. certainly that was a catastrophe. but this is no less real for the people of puerto rico. yet moments later the a.p. reported that fatalities in puerto rico have tra tragically reasoning to 34. while i pray it is not the case, i fear that it may be even worse. because we have secluded communities that still have not gotten access, soiree don't know exactly what's happening there -- so we don't know exactly what's happening there. in short, the situation is perilous and we don't have a in a moment waste. like many i had hoped that during his visit to puerto rico the president would take the high road, set a new tone off his administration -- after his administration's woefully delayed and inadequate response to hurricane maria. instead the president took to

victim-blaming to a whole new level. he told the emergency responders and local elected officials that, and i quote, i think the tell you, puerto rico, but -- i hate to tell you, puerto rico, but you've thrown our budget a little out of whack -- end quote. well, perhaps we have to roll back the budget-busting tax cuts you want to give to families like yours because it is going to take more of paper towels to help the people of puerto rico. in this country we don't turn our backs on americans in need. we don't complain about how much it costs to restore power to hospitals or rebuild roads in ruin that connect people to their government and essential services or get clean drinking water and food and medicine to the hungry and the frail. we're the united states, and we're there for each other,

whether it is texas after harvey or florida after irma or new jersey after sandy or puerto rico after march y now, if you -- after maria. now, if you heard the president speak, you would hear that everything is going great and he, in particular, is doing the greatest job any president has ever done in the history of the world. the administration will tell you that the majority of hospitals are open but leave out the fact that many are running on emergency generators at significantly reduced capacity. they'll leave out how the shortages of ambulances and fuel and functional roads have made getting to the hospital nearly impossible. and even if you do find a way there, the hospitals might not have the medicine, supplies, or doctors you need. the administration will boast that it has set up 11 distribution points for food, water, and other necessities, but what good is a distribution center that takes hours to reach and is out of supplies before you get there?

though brag about half of the people have access to running water but neglect to say that in some rural areas in the north barely over 13% of people have access to running water. they'll boast about all the building being inspected, something even the governor of puerto rico questioned, but look at this image i took five days before the president landed. this is just 25 minutes outside of san juan. hurricane maria destroyed many of the wooden homes that populate the island and weakened many of its immense structures. here is an example of it. you saw the other one where all the homes are destroyed. some of them are not made with the same structure. here is cement structure that's also totally destroyed. so i saw this same sight across puerto rico in communities near

the capital, in the mountains, and along the coast. what does this all tell us? it tells us an unfortunate truth -- that the administration's response to this crisis has been woefully inadequate from the start. for two weeks puerto ricans cried out for help, help acces accessing clean water, help feeding families. yet the president accused them, the victims of this historic natural disaster, of being ingrates clamoring for handouts. he dismissed the urgency of their situation, and he effectively called the mayor of san juan another nasty woman who should pipe down. well, this is the mayor of vaughan wading -- this is the mayor of san juan, wading hip deep in water. does this look like a woman who isn't taking responsibility? no, to me it looks like a leader

that's doing everything she can to save lives. i knew from the start that we weren't getting the full picture. because the administration went out of its way not to provide support for a bipartisan congressional delegation to visit the island, i decided to go myself. after all, it will be the responsibility of congress to fund disaster relief and long-term recovery on these islands, and we need the facts in order to produce the right legislation. so last friday i boarded an american airlines flight to puerto rico. let me be clear, i have visited the island of puerto rico i don't know how many times over the past 25 years, both in my official capacity as a member of congress and personally to vacation. it is no exaggeration to say that the island i saw on friday is not the island i have known and loved. the lush green tropical

landscape that comes to mind when we think of puerto rico was mostly devoid of life. i met with the governor of puerto rico. i spoke to local law enforcement officials, first responders, federal fema officials, and with the help of the governor's office and the puerto rican joint office, i surveyed the damage by helicopter. i saw debris and mudlieds and fallen trees on the inland streets, destroyed homes sprinkled with the occasional yet too familiar blue fema tarp. a dead green hue covered the landscape that was such a foreign sight that i caught myself thinking i was somewhere else. this was an all-too-familiar scene, a seemingly strong cement structure of a building on the surface impervious to the strong winds of a hurricane and yet now on the verge of sinking into the earth. the hurricane eroded so much

land that in some inner parts of the island, landslides have become the new normal. the people who live here may never be able to return. entire generations of close-knit communities may never be the same. and despite these dire conditions, during my visit to puerto rico i felt the spirit of community and commitment shared by so many americans across the island. after hurricane maria, they woke to devastation, no communication, the isolating effects of roads being cut off by fallen trees, electrical posts and depre-. as they wait, they are doing everything they can to survive. they've taken matters into their own hands. they are clearing roads, sheltering relatives who lost their homes, working together to care for the most vulnerable. so through it all, i saw the hardworking spirit alive in puerto rico that i see whenever

i speak with puerto rican families there and across new jersey. -- where so many of my constituents are mobilizing to send help as they anxiously wait to hear from their families. like so many americans, i, too, worried about my family on the island. my brother faces health challenges, and i worried about his care. unfortunately, we had a brief moment to -- fortunate we'd a brief moment to meet. i was able to give him some supplies. he's one of the lucky ones. he lives in a suburb of san warnings which is relatively better off than the more remote rural areas. so let's do a chart of our recovery status figures. 15 days after the storm ravaged the island, where does it stand? well, 93% of our fellow americans are still without power. and i can tell you firsthand,

the heat and the humidity from all the water that came from maria is stifling. it's oppressive. it's hard to breathe. 60% of puerto rico has no cell phone service, meaning people have no way of convecting to their families -- connecting to their families on the island and outside of the island or calling for help if they need it. the if they did, we could have pinpoint accuracy of search and rescue missions. day by day, fewer and fewer puerto ricans have access to clean running water. from october 2to october 3, the population with running water dropped from 29% to 13%. the truth is, this situation would be unacceptable in any major city on the u.s. mainland.

but as the people of puerto rico know all too well, they don't get the same treatment as their fellow citizens on the mainland. the ugly truth is that for generations congress has treated the people of puerto rico not as our fellow americans, not as people who have fought and bled for their country like the famous puerto rican infantry division who received recently the highest decoration congress gives -- the congressional gold medal. i haven't talked -- haven't treated them as first-class citizens but as second-class citizens. hurricane maria didn't create this disparity, but it exposed the long-standing inequities that have hindered the island's success for generations. the people of puerto rico don't receive equal medicaid funding, medicare coverage, or access to tax credits. they aren't just numbers on a

ledger. they're long-term care for a grandparent, treatment for a critically ill child, and a fair shot to make a living wage and raise family. this didn't happen overnight. these wrongs add up over time. as the governor said so eloquently, quote, i invite you to reflect on why puerto rico is in the current state of disadvantage and inequality. it's not something that happened just a few months or a few weeks before the storm. it is a condition that has happened for more than a century in puerto rico. i invite you to reflect on the reality that even after the storm hit puerto rico, even when it was evident that it was a disaster in the united states, only half of our u.s. citizens knew that puerto ricans were u.s. citizens. so when hurricanes irma and maria slammed into puerto rico, these disparities, these inequalities were laid