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

mr. markey: mr. president, the presiding officer: the senator from massachusetts. mr. markey: p mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the

order for the quorum be rescinded. mr. markey: thank you, mr. president very much. mr. president, i ask consent to grant floor privileges for tesla revels for the remainder of the session. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. markey: thank you, mr. president, very much. this summer chip turned 20 years old. i served on the house committee that created this bill and was proud to support providing the affordable comprehensive health insurance to low-income children and pregnant women. it is a bipartisan program and it's an effective program. last year alone chip covered nearly nine million children throughout the country. in massachusetts, chip has been instrumental in achieving near universal insurance coverage for our children in the bay state. yet, instead of celebrating chip's successes over the last two decades, congressional

republicans have placed chip in programmatic purgatory. that's because they allowed chip to expire at the end of september. instead of focusing on reauthorizing this critical health care lifeline, republican leadership chose to waste months of time trying to repeal the affordable care act. let just one of these successful programs lapse while they are trying unsuccessfully to end another. they were more interested in ripping health care coverage away from millions of americans and taking a machete to medicaid rather than protecting our nation's children, because we should not forget that chip stands on medicaid's shoulders. any fundamental changes to how medicaid operates, whether it is block granting or capping the program will hamstring chip's

ability to serve children as effectively and efficiently as it was intended to do so. but instead of immediately returning attention to insuring that this lapse deadline is not effective, house republicans have further delayed action by inserting partisan policies to pay for the program. this has not only caused an unnecessary delay in passing a bill to reauthorize chip, but it has dragged chip on to the political game board, turning it and our children into pawns in their ruthless game of partisan chess. chip has historically been and should be above such games, because chip is not just an insurance program, it is a reassurance program. it reassures states that they can provide comprehensive health

care coverage to some of their most vulnerable. it reassures doctors that their patients will be able to access care and treatment. it reassures teachers that their students can be healthy enough to learn. and it reassures mom and dad that their children can still get well in the face of financial hardship. continued inaction on chip is dangerous and damaging. every day we delay reauthorizing chip is another day parents across the united states live in fear that their children may soon lose their health insurance. they panic at the thought of leaving their child's asthma untreated. they skip a trip to the dentist and it could be harmful to the child. they could delay a doctor's office visit because they can't afford to pay for the treatment

or medication that may be prescribed. if we don't act soon, this fear may become a terrible reality for families. in massachusetts, chip funding will expire early next year. this could impact coverage for 160,000 children in the commonwealth, potentially delaying access to treatment and services that could have ramifications into adulthood. in congress, we're celebrating the 20th birthday of successful children's insurance program by effectively threatening to end it. that's what congress is now doing to the state of massachusetts. that is what they are saying to the state of massachusetts, that they are going to effectively try to shut down a program that for 20 years has served the children in our state. that makes no sense, and i urge my republican colleagues to put their partisan games aside to

provide certainty and stability to states, to providers, and to reassure families by reauthorizing chip. president trump says that he wants to make the health care system in america better. when president trump says he wants to make sure that families are able to take care of their children, we have a program that does that already, and it is successful, and families love it, and the states love it. and all we're going to need is the republicans in the senate to work together in order to make sure that that program continues for the health of all children in our country. mr. president, with that, i yield back the balance of my time, and i doubt the presence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. inhofe: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call in progress be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. inhofe: mr. president, i just came back just a week ago from visiting our troops stationed all around the world. we were in all the commands, africom, centcom and talking about the threats in all these regions. at a time when i hear colleagues across the aisle and political pundits ask the question, why do we have troops in various places like africa, it's important to remember the strategic importance of africa. i remember ten years ago we had -- we didn't have a command for africa. it was a part of three commands. you had pacific command, the central command, and european command. now we have africom, its own

command. and it seemed a little unreasonable we were treating africa as somewhat of a stepchild when that's the breeding ground that is out there for a lot of things that are happening in terms of the terrorism. so despite our military's reach and influence, our nation's shrinking defense budget has put africom at risk during a time when the commanders are saying that we face the most dangerous world that we've ever faced. and we have. right now we are -- i've often said i look wistfully at the days of the cold war. we had two super powers. they knew what we had. we knew what they had. it doesn't mean anything any more. so you have people from all over the world are putting together equipment that we never dreamed that they would have. we just gone through eight years of another administration.

i don't say this critically of him. one thing about president obama is he is a committed, sincere liberal and liberals generally are -- they don't pay a lot of attention to military. so now we find ourselves in a situation we really are hurting. we know that a lot of people think -- they assume that we don't have any problems militarily. sometimes i remind people up until about 1962, we spent more than half, 52% in 1962 of all of our revenues on defending america. what is it today? it's 15%. when we tell people that, they're in shock that we're in the situation we're in. we have terrorist groups in africa like isis, al-shabaab, boko haram and they're all growing in capability and have expanded their areas throughout

africa. this year we've seen horrific events occurring at the hands of these extremists. on october 14 a truck bomber killed 300 people in somalia's capital. in niger, it just happened, that we had four of our u.s. soldiers were killed in action on october 4 by an isis group. so we know that we have really serious problems. and i think it's a great disservice for people to say, well, we must have known that we had the threat that was out there in niger when in fact we didn't know. and they even compare it sometimes with benghazi. i can remember benghazi. i was there at the time. i remember chris stevens. chris stevens was the ambassador that went there. he was in my office right before he left talking about the threats that were there, talking about the taliban training there, talking about organized

terrorist activity. and i have to remind people that the persons who are responsible for advising the secretary of state who at that time was hillary clinton and the president who was president obama at that time, they are the d.n.i., the defense -- that was james clapper at that time. the secretary of defense and the secretary of -- or the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, all of them, when the -- when the benghazi thing happened, the annex was blown up, they all said at that time and advised us and the president and the secretary of state that they were forewarned by more than a month that on the anniversary of 9/11, things would blow up and it was going to be an organized attack. to suggest we have no evidence -- right now there's an investigation going on to determine whether or not there's any way that we could have

anticipated that in niger this would be happening. and so far that hasn't come up. so despite the best of intentions, many of our partners in the region lack the capacity and the effectiveness to adequately defend themselves. when people say would do we have to gain there, this is exactly the same situation that we saw in afghanistan prior to the war there. the terrorists have to have a safe harbor to train in, and that is what was happening. during my travel i had the opportunity to meet the prime minister, benjamin benjamin netanyahu -- benjamin netanyahu. i have never seen him so e ecstatic. a lot of us look back at what we were trying to do during the obama administration. and it was disheartening to think that they put together this iran deal that our secretary of state at that time john kerry talked about how great it was and all these

concessions that were made when in fact that wasn't the case. nonetheless, when the president -- our president came out and said that he was not going to recertify the iran deal, that was kind of -- that was kind of neat because people don't realize that it takes every 30 days of recertification by the president in order to keep the -- keep the iran deal together. well, he has not done that. i happened to be shortly after that talking to prime minister netanyahu and it was an incredible relief to him that we are going to be looking at this thing because still today, i think we all understand that iran is the -- that's the one that is financing terrorism all around the world. anyway, we discussed these shortcomings. i look forward to working with my colleagues on this in the future and iran does not become

a nuclear nation, not now or never. perhaps what's most encouraging is the message that this approach sends to the rest of the world, specifically north korea. president trump's approach shows me and more importantly shows kim jong-un that an american first foreign policy means we refuse to take a single-minded approach to global threats. i recall the change that's taken place eight years ago when our new president, president obama started his appeasing by going over, talking about how america hasn't been doing the right thing. and now all of a sudden we really changed that around. and that's what was -- is taking place now. but at that time we didn't have the threats that are out there today. you know, when you look at north korea and here's north korea that's run by a questionable person totally unpredictable, according to our own military

leaders, and he is rapidly getting the capability not just of an icbm. he's already proven he has an icbm. but could range not just alaska and some of those areas but the entire continental united states. on july 4 he launched his first successful icbm. now, if that were fired on a standard trajectory, that missile could have reached alaska and some experts think it could have reached even further into the continental united states. well, in light of that test, the defense intelligence agency updated their assessment by the timeline by which north korea would have the capability of hitting an american city instead of being two years out and three years out, it's now down to one year out and some people say they've got it right now. we have that threat that's out there, the greatest threat in my opinion that we are facing now

or that we have ever faced. so following this on september 3 north korea tested what is believed to be a hydrogen bomb that would be seven times the power of what was dropped on hiroshima. even if delivered by a relatively inaccurate icbm would be horrible damage it could impose on our continent. so it's important to remember all this power is being wielded by an erratic, desperate king jong-un. north korea officials have stated that they are not interested in diplomacy until they have an icbm capable of reaching the east coast of the united states. well, what does that tell you? it tells you that they're on their way. and this stresses the need for the united states to enhance and accelerate our ballistic missile systems and to continue to put pressure on north korea through every other means we can, diplomatic and otherwise. my recent travels enforced again what i've been saying for some time. that is, this is the most

dangerous we've had certainly in my lifetime. but we have an opportunity to counter that threat right now. we're in the midst of our ndaa. one thing about the national defense authorization act is that this act is -- it's going to pass. it's passed for 55 consecutive years so we know it's going to pass now. but we need to go ahead and get it done. it's important because the primary constitutional responsibility that we have is to provide for the common defense of our great nation. and we have a serious readiness issues that are going to have to be addressed, and they are being addressed in this bill. the chairman of the readiness committee, that's me, we have fought hard to ensure that this year's ndaa has -- takes care of these shortfalls that we have had. our forces are smaller now than in the days. we actually had a readiness committee hearing and we had the

vice chiefs of all the services. they came in and they said right now we are in the same situation we were when we had the force following the carter administration in the 1970's. well, speaking in january, the army readiness committee, and this is just january of this year, the vice chief of staff of the army, that's daniel allen, general allen, he said, what it comes down to, we're going to be too late. our soldiers will have arrived too late. our soldiers will require too much time to close the manning, training, and the equipment you v. the end result is excessive casualties to civilians and to our forces. we're talking about deaths. that's what's at stake right here. just last week i met with secretary of the air force heather wilson to discuss aviation readiness. you know, right now we've got 1,500 pilots short. 1,300 of those are fighter pilots. only 50% of the air force's squadrons are actually trained and ready to conduct all their

assigned misses. a third of our brigades on the ground, our ground brigades don't work. they're not ready for combat. a fourth of aviation brigades, the same thing. right now as we know, the marines use the f-18 of our fleet of f-18's, 62% of them don't work. they don't have the parts for combat. so we have this situation that is -- going to have to be direct. and this year's bill will increase the troop levels. we'll do what's necessary to correct these problems. we need to get moving on that and i think people who are aware of the threat that we're under need to know help is in fact on its way. by the way, one of my concerns in this bill and there are a lot of people interested in the brac process, we do prohibit base realignment and closing commission to take place for another year. and the reason for that is not that -- there may be excess right now, capacity, or excess

resources out there that when we're in a rebuilding mode, we would rather be able to use those resources that aren't used now than build new ones. and one thing that's true about a brac, it always loses money the first few years and right now we can't afford to lose money that goes to defending america. anyway, the additional funding, there's going to be an $8.5 billion for the missile defense that's been suffering. we're going to be doing some good things. so as we continue the conference process which started today -- we had our first conference committee meeting today. we need to ensure we focus on where we are. so again, i'll just repeat that the threat is there. we understand that. we know what's happening in africa. by the way, the number of people that we have, troops that we have over there, you've got to quit using this thing about 6,000. it's really 1,300 troops for the entire don't innocent that are

-- continent that are not committed to working in some of the emembassies -- the embassies. we need to get busy on that i have another thing i wanted to visit about. a lot of people are critical of what's happening right now in the environmental protection agency. i feel i've got to really talk about this because first of all, i was chairman of the committee that was -- had jurisdiction over the environmental protection agency for about eight years. and i see the things that are happening now and the improvements that are being made. one by the guy named scott pruitt. scott pruitt happens to be from oklahoma. he's doing things now. i don't know of anyone who has been abused during a confirmation process like he was. poor scott sat there. as a general rule, after a committee gets through with that process, they have questions for the record. normally they're somewhere between 15 and 20 questions for

the record. do you know how many scott pruitt got? he got 675 questions for the record. but anyway, he sustained that. he's now doing great things. over the last eight years i've had little if any chance to praise the work of the e.p.a. but i can sure do it now. after eight years of being relentlessly targeted to shut out by the obama administration our farmers and ranchers, manufacturers, energy industries have an administration that will listen to them and work with them. this is what jobs are all about. a lot of talk about the visit that was made to our conference by president trump yesterday. and he talked about most of the time was jobs. we're in a position to correct it. now, what have we done to do that? the overregulations, a lot of them have been eliminated. now, there's a character of

businesses as greedy but in reality businesses are run by people who want what is best for america, for their families, and for the stockholders. now, like any secretary of society, you're going to find a few bad actors, but we have laws and remedies in place to make sure that we go after those individuals. the last administration treated those and regulated the enemy not as a partner in ensuring the environment is taken care of and leading to harmful and unworkable legislation. all of that is changing. president trump is, in his administration -- the administration realized that working with those they regulate produced better outcomes than listening to those that wish to drive industry into the ground. administrator pruitt has been meeting with farmers, ranchers, and energy producers and other

industries to listen to and learn about how regulations affect them and how worthwhile regulation might be implemented in a way that is producing intended harm. i really can't see why this is a bad thing as the goal of the e.p.a. is not to put companies and farmers out of business, it is po put forward policies that protect the environment and don't have a heavy cost. just meeting with those that have been shut out of the process in the -- in the past, the extremists on the left seeing red, i guess, they are just upset that they've lost their monopoly and their ability to write rules for the e.p.a. pruitt and the e.p.a. are also moving forward to repeal the unlawful waters of the united states. this is one of the things. if you talk to the farmers throughout -- not just oklahoma, but throughout america, they'll

say of all the rules and regulations that are the most harmful, that's number one. mr. buchanan is in charge of state of oklahoma and he says that is the problem. in my state of oklahoma, it's dry out there. i mean, there's -- it's -- about as arid as any part of the united states, and yet we know if they move that jurisdiction of the water away from the states and to the federal government, as was proposed by a rule promulgated by the previous administration, that area in western oklahoma would be considered a wetland before it's over. so, anyway, the -- that is probable singularly the best of the rules that have been changed much by the way, if anyone wants to see the rules, a lot of people say that the president hasn't been doing anything. most of these rules -- there are up -- there are up to 48 rules

and regulations costing jobs, putting people out of business and have now been addressed by this administration, by the trump administration, and -- and very successfully. so right now we're in the process of getting these -- some of these things done. it is going to take a way to get the potus done because it will take some hearings and so forth. another of the rules that the e.p.a. was working on repealing was the clean power plan. this came from the paris show and i wish that people -- in fact, i've done this before, talked about the history of these things that were put forth for 21 consecutive years now by the -- by the u.n., that is they have these meetings. they get 196 countries together and see what they can do to reduce co2 emissions when, in

fact, they have not been able to do this. besides that, if you take -- if you stop and realize that 87% of the power that's developed to run the country of -- or the -- our country are either fossil fuels or nuclear. now, if you extract those, as they tried to do, how do you run the machine called america? but the answer is they can't. anyway, as far as the power -- the clean power plan that was put together by president obama and it was something that you can talk about as long as you want to about the fact that it was not good for the country. the rule was so unpopular that 27 states, 37 rural electric co-ops challenged it in court. the cost of the rule was estimated to be $292 billion, but i have seen estimates well in excess of $400 billion. and the plan would raise electricity prices in 47 states, 40 of those states would see

double-digit increases and these increases would be shouldered by the american families, many who already choose -- have to choose between rent payments and their power bills or choose between food on the table or their power bill. the plan would also see the closer of 66 power plants and eliminate over 125,000 jobs in the coal industry, an industry that's already been struggling in recent years. the goal of this rule was to effectively end the use of coal-fired power plants, a cheap and bountiful energy and what benefit would we get out of in? it would be more expensive energy. by the way, the whole idea of the paris thing was not just the clean power plan put forth by our president, but it was also to force other countries. china, their commitment to sign on to this deal in paris that everyone is so upset about, they

committed for the next ten years to continue to increase every ten days an additional coal-fired power plant. that was -- and then they would try to reduce them after that. what kind of a deal is that? they look back at the united states and think they know what's going to happen to our manufacturing base. they are going to go to china if we had to do this thing. besides that, the most ridiculous thing about this, the president's commitment under the clean power plan was to reduce our co2 emissions between 26% and 28% by 2025. the problem with that is it can't be done. we even called in the e.p.a. to tell us how this could be done and they agreed that it could not be done. so, anyway, that's something that is behind us now and i commend scott pruitt for realizing that -- the legal footing of this rule and seeing that the cost to the american

people is not going to happen. last week the e.p.a. announced that it will end its controversial policies known as sue and settle. this is good. the policies cost taxpayers an estimated $67 billion in new regulations stemming from this practice. how this works, though some extremist group will come in and sue the e.p.a. for not doing something and so they come into a settlement agreement with the e.p.a. and the e.p.a.'s in concert with them to come up with the very thing they were not able to get through legislatively. it's called sue and settle. you heard the president talk about ending that practice. it needs to be end and it's going to. this practice irk couple vented the -- circles couple vented the act and it got them what they wanted all the time. my state of oklahoma was a victim of this practice.

in 2011 the e.p.a. used consent agreements stemming from court cases in other states, not in oklahoma, but other states, and -- oklahoma weefnt a part of it -- weefnt a part of it -- wasn't even a part it. they do that to overrule the hayes plan to overrule the e.p.a.'s plan on rate payers. the plan that the e.p.a. has pushed on the state cost an estimated $282 million each year. that's just our state of oklahoma and something that we would have to pay for. the regional haze problem has nothing to do with health. it's all visibility. so this was -- the theme of the oklahoma -- of the obama e.p.a. the regional haze is -- never mind that congress specifically gave states the authority to regulate regional haze under the clean air act and the amendments

that i strongly supported when they came through because it's a visibility issue and not a health issue. but because an environmentalist group didn't like how oklahoma was handling their own business, they sued the e.p.a. in courts outside of coke coke, did not -- outside of oklahoma, did not include oklahoma as part of the case and the e.p.a. entered into an agreement with the -- some of the extremists that conveniently required the e.p.a. to impose their own expensive plan on my state -- my state of oklahoma. so i'm glad that administrator pruitt has announced an end to this policy and i urge my colleagues to take up senate bill 119. it's the sunshine for regulatory decrees and settlement act of which i am an original cosponsor, to end this practice and end it across the government and can't be reimplemented by future administrations. finally, i'd like to encourage the e.p.a. to move ahead with a

hinted -- hinted at pending directive that would restrict scientists who receive e.p.a. grants from serving on the agency's scientific advisory committee. i previously expressed concerns over the compensation of -- compensation of the advisory commission for many reasons, including highlighting the fact that many science advisors under the obama e.p.a., including the majority of those on the clean air scientific advisory committee, they received considerable financial support from the e.p.a. well, they are calling into question their independence and overall integrity and -- which of the advisors. so the national academy of sciences and the e.p.a. own peer-reviewed handbook state

that can constitute a lack of impartiality. we're not talking about small grants. we're talking about millions of dollars in grants. c asak had six of seven members receiving these -- seven members of c asac. they received a total of $119 million in grants, in the e.p.a. research grants, and three of the members received in excess of $25 million each. these are the scientists making the decisions. 22 of the 26 members of csac received more than $330 million in e.p.a. grants. the scientists that received vast sums of money from the very agency they are advising and is a conflict of interest and give an appearance of lack of impartiality. i welcome the news that

administrator pruitt will seek to limit this practice. mr. president, i laid out a few of the many great things that the e.p.a. is doing right now and what administrator pruitt is doing. he was -- i got to know him a long time ago. in fact, i flew him around the state in my airplane back when he ran for the first statewide office, and he's a tiger, he's doing the right thing, and i'm very proud of what they are doing. after this morning, the e.p.a. is advancing five e.p.a. nominees for e.p.a. general council and for thes offices of -- for the offices of air, and safety in water. i talked about this -- scott pruitt has been working on so much of the president's agenda, the conservative agenda and he needs help on these policies. i call on my colleagues and the

leadership to prioritize these nominations. you can't get stuff done unless you get help. in the past we have never seen a time when we got this far into a -- into an administration and had this large a number much people not confirmed. i want to mention one other thing because for some reason the democrats have decided that they are going to run out the whole 30 hours on the confirmation of a guy named scott palk and i have to say that scott palk is -- has been doing a great job. in fact, on the vote that just took place on him, he got 79 votes in the united states senate and yet they are still demanding, just to be obstructionists, 30 hours. he's an experienced prosecutor with a decade of service and is the assistant attorney for cleveland county in oklahoma and

nine years as assistant u.s. attorney in the criminal division in oklahoma and he is committed to fairly applying the law. mr. palk will serve oklahoma with distinction and will uphold the constitution. he's going to be confirmed. we know he's going to be confirmed. he already got 79 votes. there's no other reason other than to hold people here and be obstructionists. i urge my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to confirm the guy. he's going to do a great job. with that, mr. president, i observe the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: quorum call:

quorum call:

mr. durbin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from illinois. mr. durbin: i ask consent the quorum call be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. durbin: mr. president, the rohingya are one of many ethnic groups, largely muslim, who lived for centuries in burma now known as myanmar with the majority of them in the coastal state known at the rakhine state. there have been decades of discrimination of can many of us are aware because of press reports.

they've been denied citizenship. had their movement restricted. it's no wonder the rohingya people are often considered the most persecuted in the world. today as a result of military crackdown why the rakhine state, an overzealous, disproportionate response on attacks on security outposts by militants last october and then getting this august, countless rohingya have been brutally killed and more than 600,000 have fled to overwhelmed and desperate camps in neighboring bangladesh. the scorched earth tactic by the burmese military has left hundreds of villages literally burned to the ground and the reports of rape, starvation, mass killing and afternoon reports of security -- and even reports of security forces burning people, babies alive have been horrifying. satellite images and maps indicate the destruction by the burmese military is not episodic. it's systematic. in bangladesh aid groups have

been unable to keep up with the influx of refugees. the unprecedented scale of the crisis and lack of infrastructure among the makeshift camps has created significant gaps in access to food, medical care, even safety and shelter. the international community has condemned the violence against the rohingya and rightly so. countries around the world, representable, international human rights organizations such as the human rights watch and amnesty international, even the u.n. have denounced the military's campaign against the rohingya. mr. president, i ask consent to suspend at this moment to recognize the republican leader and that my remarks be shown in continuity when i resume. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: mr. president? the presiding officer: majority leader. mr. mcconnell: i thank my friend from illinois. i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to legislative session for a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without

objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the committee on veterans affairs be discharged from further consideration of h.r. 1329 and the senate proceed to its immediate consideration. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: h.r. 1329, an act to increase effective as of december 1, 2017, the rates of compensation for veterans with service connected disabilities and for other purposes. the presiding officer: without objection, the committee is discharged. the senate will proceed to the measure. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the bill be considered read a third time and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the committees -- committee on the judiciary be discharged from further consideration of s. res. 280 and the senate proceed to its immediate consideration. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: senate resolution 280 designating the week of october 2 through october 6, 2017, as national health information technology week and so forth.

the presiding officer: without objection. the committee is discharged. the senate will proceed to the measure. mr. mcconnell: i further ask the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the senate now proceed to the en bloc consideration of the following senate resolutions which was submitted earlier today. s. res. 305, 306, and 307. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measures en bloc? without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the resolutions be agreed to, the preambles be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table all en bloc. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask consent that notwithstanding the provision of rule 22, at noon thursday, october 26, all postcloture time be considered expired on the palk nomination

and that following disposition of the palk nomination, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, the president be immediately notified of the senate's action and the senate vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the mcfadden nomination. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: so i now ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 10:00 a.m. thursday, october 26. further, that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day and morning business be closed. finally, following leader remarks the senate proceed to executive session and resume consideration of the palk nomination under the previous order. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. mcconnell: so if there's no further business to come before the senate, i ask it stand adjourned under the previous order following remarks of senator durbin and senator wyden. the presiding officer: without objection. the senator from illinois. mr. durbin: thank you, mr.

president. in a speech to the u.n. human rights council in geneva last night, the commission for human rights called the burmese operation against the rohingya people, quote, a textbook example of ethnic cleansing, closed quote. many of my colleagues in this chamber joined me when i introduced senate resolution 250 to condemn these atrocities. a large group of us also wrote to the administration recently to urge secretary tillerson and administrator green to help resolve the crisis and provide critically needed aid. just yesterday the senate foreign relations hearing, my friend and colleague senator ben cardin of maryland, labeled the crisis a, quote, genocide, closed quote. and yet -- and yet anwan su chicago, the nobel laureate has largely done and said too

little. now i followed him for over the years. i join many of my colleagues in praising her struggle for dem mock crazy. after 15 years under house arrest she and the national league for democracy won a landslide victory in the first national vote since burma's transition to civilian rule in 2015. more than two decades after her party was denied its victory in the 1990 election. i admire her so much for her nonviolent struggle for political freedom and human rights and while i recognize she still has a fragile relationship with the burmese military which still has considerable power, i'm sadly disappointed in the lack of leadership when it comes to the plight of the rohingya people. her fellow countrymen, men and women who are in a desperate situation. she claims she's committed to restoring peace in the rule of law, yet she's spoken of the so-called, quote, allegations and counterallegations, closed quote instead of addressing the

widespread well documented abuses by her own country's security forces. i was glad that aung san suu appointed investigators led by kofi annan who recommended this summer that burma review a 1982 law that strips most rohingya of citizenship and yet the burmese government has yet to implement any of the commission's recommendations and further continues to deny access to rakhine state to other u.n. investigators, journalists, and n.g.o. groups. some officials have even accused the rohingya of faking rape and faking the burning of their own homes. what a preposterous claim. now i recognize the dramatic progress burma has made over the years. it will too a long time to overcome many of the challenges in such a young democracy and i understand that suu kyi has a

iment willed role under the power sharing agreement with her military which has been largely responsible for the violence i described, but i would urge her to live up to her own words upon delivering her nobel peace prize lecture in 2012 to address the historic and brutal suppression of the rohingya and support ethnic reconciliation in burma. in fact, suu kyi quoted the following passages from the preamble to the universal declaration of human rights which was apresident dod by the u.n. general assembly in 1948 as the answer to why she fought for democracy and human rights in her home country of burma. she said, disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in basherrous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and fear from free doom and want has been claimed as the highest

aspiration of the common people. it is essential if man is not to be compelled to have recourse as a last resort to rebellion against tyranny and oppression that human rights should be protected by the rule of law. these are wise words used by aung san suu kyi when she received her nobel prize. they are words that apply today for this crisis in her own country. i'm committed to doing what i can in congress to hold those in the burmese military personally accountable for the reprehensible human rights violations against the rohingya. mr. president, i want to note that i've also had the opportunity over the october recess to meet with some members of the rohingya community who have resettled in my home state of illinois over the years. about 1,500 rohingya people live in the chicago area. among them was nasir. he helped found the rohingya cultural center in chicago, the first rohingya community center in america. the center helps provide a safe

familiar space for rohingya people new to the country as well as critically needed resources such as translators, e.s.l. and computer classes to help with paperwork and much more. when i met nasir and the other members of the community about a week ago with my wife, they told me about the phone calls and photos they she have late at night from family and friends fleeing the violence looking for safety in bangladesh. i also heard from community members who recently returned from medical mission to bangladesh. they showed me the photos they brought back. one food line to feed refugees was literally one mile long. health care is limited. safe drinking water, limited. cholera detected. it's a horrible situation for these people who have been tossed out of myanmar and now are trying just to survive in nearby bangladesh. the stories are horrific and they're all the same. here is an image of this exodus

that was printed in "the new york times". it shows families fleeing burma across the border to bangladesh with smoke rising in the background from the villages that they lived in being burned. the stories i heard were of helpless, poor families walking on foot through jungles, crowding on boats along the naff river. leaving behind everything with accountings of rape, killing, arson by the burmese military. they arrive in bangladesh sick, exhausted, desperately in need of the most basic things: food, clean water, medicine, a safe space to rest their head. here is another image which is heartbreaking. it's an indication of what happens in the refugee camps when food arrives. this time in a camp known as camp cox in bangladesh. a unicef report last week stated 58% of the refugees who have

poured into cox's bazaar are children noting they are in hell on earth, they are acutely malnourished. they need clean water, vaccine and they are at risk of exploitation by traffickers. mr. president, this is unacceptable. now i understand the bangladesh and burma have discussed a repatriation plan recently but many refugees don't have any documents. they were literally burned out of their homes. we need to call on the u.n. high commission on refugees. felipe grande was in my office last week and stressed how important it was for us to speak up and help on this issue that we ensure the voluntary right of return and ensure the safety of those who return and ensure the paper rurmts for those who -- requirements for those who return are reasonable. many are wary of returning without assurance of full citizenship given the risk of further persecution or the threat of being placed in camps in myanmar when they return,

and i don't blame them. because the atrocities committed over the rohingya over the past months and weeks are not new by any means, more than three decades ago nasir in chicago told me when he was only 14 he was kidnapped by militants targeting the hoying in burma -- targeting the rohingya in burma. he never saw his parents again. he escaped to bangladesh, made his way to malaysia before he made his way to the green card in 2013. he learned english, worked as a dishwasher in a hotel near chicago, supported his wife and three children and met others of the community and helped to create the rohingya center that i visited. here's a picture of nasir zakaria with their son muhammad. see the flag in the background. he is proud of this nation he calls home. the culture center provides resources to more than 400

families in in the chicago area, one of the largest concentration of rohingya refugees in america. more than three decades after nasir escaped, the rohingya continue to be attacked and demonized. mr. president, let me close by saying we met today with the myanmar ambassador. seven senators sat down with him and expressed the sentiments that i have included in this statement. first let me give the ambassador credit for coming to the meeting. he knew what we were going to raise and yet he came, he took notes and assured us that he would respond to this, that we would be able to come back in a week or two for a progress report on what is being done. that he would allow or plead for access of u.n. personnel as well as n.g.o. groups into the northern rakhine area being denied access, that he would personally make it clear to his government we wanted those responsible for these atrocities held accountable. we want to make it certain as well that those who are repatriated have a fair chance

to return to a safe atmosphere in myanmar and ultimately for citizenship. it was a long list of requirements and requests that we gave to the ambassador. he took them all in a positive way and told us he would literally be back to us in a matter of a week or two with a progress report. i plan to meet -- let me close by appealing to aung san suu kyi to help resolve this crisis. i'm counting on her. i do believe she's a good person. i hope that she will respond to this crisis in her own country the way she stood up with so much courage before. i plan to meet with this ambassador in a few weeks to chart their progress and i look forward to working with my colleagues on a bipartisan basis to end this ethnic cleansing of the rohingya people in myanmar. we cannot allow the burmese military to commit these atrocities. mr. president, i yield the floor. mr. wyden: mr. president. the presiding officer: ?ok oregon. mr. wyden: mr. president, before he leaves the floor, i want to commend our colleague from illinois.

he and i have worked together for many, many years, and throughout that time the senator from illinois has constantly been a voice for those who had no voice on these human rights concerns, laying out why the effort to step up is what we're all about as americans. and i just want to thank him. enjoyed listening to him again. you don't really enjoy it because you hear about the suffering. i'm so glad that senator durbin has made this case, and i thank you. mr. president, across the west west, 2017 will be long remembered as the year when fire was seared into our collective consciousness, and ash rained down on homes and cars. there were mass evacuations and

scores just lost, their hopes and dreams. devastating fires have hit my home state of oregon, but idaho, california, washington, colorado, montana, nevada, and more all were hit by fires that always seem bigger and hotter and more powerful than what we have seen in the past. mr. president, these are not our grandfather's fires. there there -- a whole host of s behind this, and today i want to talk a bit about what happened, what it's meant and at least a commonsense approach that senator crapo and i have advocated for moving forward on a bipartisan basis. the fact is in the west dozens of lives have been lost, entire

communities have been wiped out. an iconic national treasure in my home state, a place that oregonians have always regarded as special, love for our columbia river gorge is practically in our chromosomes, and it was burned over this year. this month a huge part of northern california was burned. we can talk to our colleagues, senator feinstein and senator harris, about that. it's not just rolling hills and unoccupied land as well, the fires swept through entire cities. some of the stories, the accounts about those whose lives were lost in california just break your heart. school has been disrupted for more than a quarter million children. in some cases it could be weeks

before classes are back up and running. now in my home state, more than 600,000 acres were burned. nearly a third of that in the chetko bar fire that burned through southwestern oregon. and i was there. i was there to visit with folks in the community and the volunteers. there were volunteers from all over the country that were stepping up to help us deal with these fires. and it sure was needed because nationwide, almost nine million acres burned. it's an area bigger than the size of eight states in our country, all of it up in flames. compare that to the 1980's and 1990's when an average of around three million acres burned per year. now a brand-new report is out from the department of interior

forecasting how much the cost of fighting these fires is going to climb in the near future. the agency predicts a jump of 20% from fiscal year 2018 to 2019, and they believe that is a conservative estimate. if conditions are dry and temperatures are high, it could be even worse. now i'm of the view, and it's something that senator crapo and i have worked together on for years and years now, sometimes we believe it's the longest running battle since the trojan war. it's based on the proposition that the congress should no longer sit back and accept that these fires can only get larger, cost more, and somehow the forest service is not all that big a problem. we just call it the fire

service, which is what a lot of people describe it as in our part of the world. now, the way the federal budget works for these fires is broken commonsense defying policy, and it literally adds fuel to the fires, and in effect disrupts not just the west but the rest of the country because the consequences of the broken budgeting process for fighting fire takes a toll on communities across the country. a few years ago i came back from oregon for a visit, and i learned our colleague and

friend, the distinguished senior senator from new york, senator schumer, had signed on to legislation that i'm going to describe shortly, that senator crapo and i have been working on. and when i heard senator schumer had signed on to it, i was of course very pleased to have someone of his influence. and i said to my colleagues, what am i missing here? i don't remember there being a lot of federal forest in brooklyn. well, it turns out at that time that senator schumer, because he goes all over his state, was i believe in upstate new york and there was a company that made baseball bats. and as a result of this broken system of fighting fire, when senator schumer's constituents had a problem with the baseball

bats because there was an invasive species that was eating their way through the bats, these baseball bats, the local forest service folks didn't have the money to help them deal with this economic issue. it might seem like a small thing to some people, but when you're talking about these smaller communities, if they don't have the resources because they're victims of this broken system of fighting fire, this is a problem, and it is a problem that senator crapo and i have taken on now to ensure that once and for all we substitute common sense for a system that is everything but common sense.

and what i'm going to describe now, mr. president, is something called fire burroughing, and it starts like this. over the years prevention which everybody talks about -- smoky always is the symbol of prevention. prevention gets short shrift, and it gets shot and dry in our part of the world, in the west, and you don't go in there and do the preventative kind of work. you don't thin out the forest. it gets hot and dry, and all of a sudden you have a lightning strike on your hands, and then you have what amounts to an inferno, and it just whips through the area. knows no boundaries. federal land is affected, private land is affected, state land is affected.

bigger fires, more expensive fires. and i can tell you what we have seen, mr. president, unprecedented fire. in our columbia river gorge that i have mentioned, we saw a fire leap the river. it used to be that rivers were a break. they were a break to ensure the communities were safe. now we have seen in my home state, we have seen a fire actually leap the river. so what's happening is as prevention gets short shrift, these big fires break out, the federal government borrows from the prevention fund to put the fire out, and the problem just gets worse.

common sense defined, absolutely irrational budgeting that ripples not just through the west but through communities all across the country, producing what i think most colleagues would say they would never expect, which would be to see forestry personnel when senator schumer visits in new york having challenges paying for dealing with local forestry matters. now, fire prevention programs that help thin out dead and dying material from forests and clear-dried grasses, from open landscapes, the kindling that goes up in flames when lightning

strikes or a small ground fire goes out of control, those are the very real problems that we have in the west, and the programs that we need to deal with this are being robbed because of the cycle i have just described. fire borrowing, prevention, short shrift, the government borrows from the prevention fund to put the fire out, and the problem gets worse. that is fire borrowing in our part of the world. and you can look at the recent fires in california to see how dangerous this is. fire prevention gotten a fair shake, lives could have been saved, businesses and property might have been spared, and western communities would not be trying to recover from the ravages of summer and fall, 2017. what is needed with senator --

what is needed, what senator crapo and i have been supporting, with a great many of our colleagues in both parties and now 205 groups, timber companies, scientists, environmentalists, academics, people from all across the political spectrum, 205 of them joining senator crapo and i in saying what is needed is a clean fix for the wildfire budgeting system and a complete end to fire borrowing. now, we have been working on this, as i say, for years and years, and we know that some of our colleagues want to see a variety of other policies attached, particularly policies dealing with forest management. one of the reasons i wanted to come to the floor tonight, mr. president, is to say i take a back seat to no one when it

comes to fighting -- or to finding the right approach to forest management, and i have written bipartisan forest management laws. but let's make sure that as we go forward on this issue, that we understand we cannot let other matters get in the way of stopping the cycle of fire borrowing once and for all. and what senator crapo and i have proposed is essentially to say that the really big fires we say once and for all in america would be treated like what they really are -- natural disasters. and you can look at those

relatively small number of fires, say we're going to deal with them from the disaster fund. then you don't raid the prevention fund, and what the government scorekeepers have said in the past is not raiding the prevention fund through fire borrowing will, in their judgment, mean fewer fires in the first place, hence fewer natural disasters if you end fire borrowing once and for all. now, my view is that we are going to go forward this year on the disaster relief issue, and i want it understood that i am going to work with senators of both political parties to finally see this matter wrapped up and an end to fire borrowing.

i think anyone who keeps an eye on the news or has read stories or seen reports about natural disasters understands that unfortunately disasters have visited too many of our communities. hurricanes flooding houston, violent winds, rain to florida, weeks after maria made landfall, millions of american citizens in puerto rico still in desperate need of help. our neighbors to the south suffered with the aftermath of a master earthquake, tornadoes a threat across much of the country. in our part of the world, mr. president, these wildfires are our natural disasters. the congress can't get up one day, come to the floor of the united states senate, and just say we're going to stop all the hurricanes or the earthquakes.

there is something the congress can do about preventing so many wildfires. we with our legislation want to build a new ethic of fire prevention. that's what ending fire borrowing is really all about. is saying that we are in effect going to take -- it's almost like an old stage, mr. president. it's a dilapidated set on it. you just pull it off because it's outdated. that's what we're talking about with fire borrowing. it's like an old stage, dilapidated, doesn't make sense for the times. we're talking about replacing fire borrowing and replacing it with a modern policy so that we can deal with the really big fires, as the natural disasters they are, and get back in the

business of putting fire prevention first and replacing a federal commonsense-defying budget plan which has caused so much harm to folks in the west. so i hope my colleagues will support the wildfire disaster funding act that senator crapo and i want to work with every single senator, every single senator in this chamber to get across the finish line. we're not saying that ending fire borrowing is going to mean there is never another fire in this country. what we are saying is that it is past time to replace such an illogical, commonsense-defying budget system as that presented by fire borrowing, and with that, we can reduce the risk of

major wildfires to communities across the west. with that, mr. president, i yield the floor, and i would note -- the presiding officer: the senate stands adjourned until 10:00 a.m. tomorrow. >> the u.s. senate continued work on the nomination of scott paul to be a district judge for oklahoma. more live senate coverage for the gavel comes down on c-span2. tomorrow is 50 years and senator john mccain's capture vietnam and the we get beginning of his time as a prisoner of war. we spoke with him about his service in the legacy of the vietnam war. you can watch this thursday on our companion network, also available online at c-span.org or listen with the free c-span

radio app. >> this is lois, executive director with the texas book festival. excited have the book festival number 45 in and around the state capital in downtown austin. welcome over 300 authors for over 150 panels and are expecting a huge turnout of 50000 on saturday and sunday. >> join us for the texas book austin, texas on c-span2. for more information visit our website booktv.org. >> c-span, where history unfolds daily. >> in 1979, c-span was created as a public service by america's

cable television companies. spread two today by your cable or satellite provider. >> coming up, paul ryan speaking at the radio and television correspondents association dinner. that's been held at the national building museum. you can watch online at c-span.org or listen on the free c-span radio app. >> house leaders plan final debate of votes on the 2018 budget resolution tomorrow. you can see it live tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. eastern. nancy flows he spoke about it along with richard neal of massachusetts.