from health care to tax reform. there's no doubt that some days it feels impossible to get the majority of republicans on board with policies that truly help the families we represent. but there is one thing that unites not only a large bipartisan contingent in congress, but also the vast majority of american people. and that is finding a path forward for the estimated 800,000 young men and women whose lives are right now in limbo. 800,000 people, including nearly 17,000 men, women, and boys and girls from my home state of washington who shared their information, paid a large fee, and upheld their end of the bargain only to have president trump rip the rug out from under them three months ago when he and attorney general jeff sessions announced the end of the daca program. mr. president, this congress may not be able to change the trump administration's hateful rhetoric or short-sighted

policies overnight, but we can and we should pass the dream act as soon as possible. and that's why we need more members of congress on both sides of the aisle ready to roll up their sleeves and get this done. because every single day that republican leaders refuse to bring the dream act to the floor to a vote, another 122 young people lose their daca status. they lose their ability to work legally. and they lose their protection from deportation. that means every day 122 of our neighbors, students, coworkers, friends could be forced from the only country they know despite the promise the federal government made to them when they signed up for daca. and despite their immeasurable contributions to our schools, our hospitals, our universities, our stores, our farms, our churches, and our offices and so much more.

that means small and large businesses are forced to lay off daca resip yentsdzs -- recipients each day. vital employees that businesses have invested money in to train and support, employees that help our economy and the small business in my state grow. my friends on the other side of the aisle are constantly claiming they want to help our small businesses grow. i listened to weeks of their speeches on this as they tried to justify the tax bill. but instead of a giveaway to the wealthiest 1%, one way my friends across the aisle could actually help small businesses is to bring the dream act up for a vote. now, this morning, i had the great honor of sitting down with dreamers who traveled all the way here from my state across the nation to fight for action. young people who had no control over how they came to this country but have made conscious choices to improve their lives and make life better for their

community. they are passionate. they are frustrated and their stories need to be heard. here is just one of them. paul was brought here to this country at the age of 7 to be reunited with his father. paul excelled in school and pasco, washington, not far from where my own dad grew up. paul and his parents worried that despite paul's success in k-12, going to college, starting a career might be impossible. but daca provided him and his family with stability. paul went to gonzaga, university, in spokane, washington, as a double major in political science and economics and he now works in our state legislature. now, with daca in question, it's not just paul who isn't sure what comes next for him but also his younger brother, jose. jose who was only 2 years old when he came here. he grew up seeing what paul, his older brother, was able to achieve. he saw that daca allowed paul to

live without that constant fear. jose was ready to follow in paul's footsteps and enroll in the daca program so he could pursue his dream of an engineering degree at the university of washington. now if congress doesn't act, we will have one less engineer in this country. mr. president, paul and jose are just great examples of dreamers who have worked hard. they have aimed high. and they participate in their community and our economy making our country a better place. this country should be rolling out the welcome mat to our dreamers, not slamming the door shot on them. and that's why i'm here today with my colleagues to echo their fear and frustration on the floor of the united states senate and to call on republican leaders to work with us. stop letting so many promising young men and women fall off the rolls of this program each and every day. stop kicking this can down the road. come together to do what is right for these young people.

ending the daca program is not what our country is all about. it doesn't do anything to fix our immigration system, prepare for our future, or grow our economy. ending daca won't heal the devices we've seen in our communities or make them any easier to fix and ending the daca program certainly doesn't reflect a country of opportunity or promise, something the u.s. has always aspired to be. i urge my colleagues here in the senate and over in the house think about the communities you represent, think about the young men and women who are currently studying for finals or caring for our sick or teaching our children or responding to natural disasters or opening businesses in the communities you travel to and live in. think about the young men and women who hope to serve in our military and defend your freedoms some day. think of the dreamers who have grown up in our country and whose children are the future of our nation.

think about how much good we could do for these young men and women if my republican friends brought the same commitment and zeal to this task as they did to their tax bill. and finally, work with democrats to find a real solution to end this unnecessary uncertainty. mr. president, i want to thank paul as well as all the other advocates from my state whom i met with in my office this morning and the many thousands of others who are showing up in every way that they can do to make their voices heard and call on us here in congress to can't a. dr. martin luther king once said that justice too long delayed is justice denied. and dreamers are not asking for anything other than what we have promised to them. this is an incredibly difficult and uncertain time for so many people, but dreamers need to know many of us in congress and so many across the country have your back. we will get this done. we have to get this done. thank you, mr. president.

i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from massachusetts. ms. warren: thank you, mr. president. just yesterday the republican-controlled congress passed a massive tax giveaway that will shovel truckloads of money into the pockets of giant corporations and the super rich while it leaves working families behind. and that's just the latest in a laundry list of presents that have been dolled out to folks at the top. for everyone else, it's been one broken promise after another. and one of those promises was to protect 800,000 dreamers who were brought to the united states as kids. trump broke this promise when he ended daca, the program that allows dreamers to live, work, and study in the united states without fear of being deported to countries they barely know. and because trump broke his promise, it's up to congress to

stand up and protect dreamers and passing a dream act, that gives a path of citizenship to those young people. i want to introduce you to one of those dreamers, alie yas rosen felt. he was 6 years old when his parents brought him and his sister to the united states. now, he doesn't have many memories of his life in venezuela, but he does hear stories from his parents and his grandfather about the everyday risks that they faced. one day while his mother was driving, she pulled up to a stoplight and a man pulled a gun on her. another day his grandfather withdrew money from an a.t.m. and then was robbed at gun point. so when alias mother, an executive at a multimedia company, had the opportunity to transfer to a office in miami, florida, she jumped at it. his family came to the united states legally. they applied for and they

received a visa that allows executives and managers from other countries to work in the united states and eventually apply for permanent resident status. under that visa, the entire family would become permanent residents and would never have to worry about losing their status in the united states. permanent, that's the key word here. well, at least that had been their plan. only things didn't go the way they had been planned. when elias was 11, his mother died of cancer. now, he didn't know it at the time but the day his mother died, elias and his family lost their path to permanent resident status and became undocumented. after his mother died, elias clung to the belief that an education was his ticket to a better life. he challenged himself academically taking 13 advanced

placement courses and earning a's in almost every class. he also juggled a number of extracurricular activities including speech, debate, student government, volunteering with children and the homeless, and starting his school's first traveling model united nations. his excellence earned him a place on the dean's list as well as a long list of award, including the miami-dade homeless trust change maker award. now, elias so impressed the school staff that his high school activities director called elias a hero and said, quote, i've been teaching for 20 years and i have never seen a student like this young man. scholarship committees also recognized elias' accomplishments and he won a coveted myra craft transitional year program scholarship which provided him a full ride to brandeis university, in waltham,

massachusetts. he is now a sophomore at brandeis where he continues to make his mark. before daca came along, elias lived in constant fear that i.c.e. would break down his door and deport him and his sister. daca changed his life. the fear subsided. he knew i.c.e. agents wouldn't break down his door or seize him on his way to school. elias has told me daca has been a source of optimism and a light of protection. america is the only country that elias knows. it's the only country that many dreamers know. this is their home. dreamers like elias have had the courage to step forward. they have come out of the shadows to tell their stories. now, congress could show some courage and protect dreamers by passing a clean dream act. we have waited too long already.

every day that we delay, more than a hundred dreamers lose protected status. they must return to the shadows. they must think about i.c.e. agents breaking down their doors or seizing them if they go to school or to work. the time for congress to act is now, right now, today. we should not leave here so that we can celebrate the holidays with our families while nearly 800,000 dreamers fear being ripped apart from their brothers, their sisters, their mothers, their fathers, and deported to a country they barely know. if we held a vote today on the dream act, it would pass. so my question to senator mcconnell is this. what are you waiting for? let us vote. thank you, mr. president. i yield.

the presiding officer: the senator from virginia. mr. kaine: mr. president, i also rise to advocate the passage of a clean dream act now. i had a youngster say to me -- and i'm going to tell the stories of a few of the youngsters -- but at an event in november who is a dreamer in northern virginia, you may say i'm a dreamer but i'm not the only one. it's a beautiful line as we know from the song "imagine" by john

lennon. 800,000 dreamers in this country, more than 800,000. more than 13,000 of the dreamers live in virginia, and they're from all corners of the world. i've met with dreamers in virginia who were originally born in sweden, nigeria, latin america. many countries in asia. they are a rainbow but also a source of strength for our country and we need to act on their behalf. i also stand here in the christmas spirit and so many of us will hear the retelling of the christmas story and in the aftermath of the birth of the poor child in the manger, the story goes he was taken by his parents to another country, essentially as a refugee. there were threats of violence against the first born children of the land. so he was spirited across a border into egypt to be protected. i know many of these dreamers and i know so many like them.

i worked as a missionary in honduras in 1980 and 1981 and had the opportunity to work with youngsters in a country that was then and still is beset with violence and poverty and where so many parents have to make an agonizing choice and in some instances they make the choice to try to find a better land for their children, just as jesus and mary did as they fled to egypt at the christmas season more than 2,000 years ago. and so i stand here in that moment, in that spirit, knowing that there are -- that hundreds of thousands of dreamers who need our protection and, frankly, deserve it. are we less compassionate than those societies of old that have found refuge for those who have come fleeing hardship? i don't believe we are. i know the american public isn't. i know the virginia public isn't. the question is, is congress as compassionate as we need to be. we tell the story of some of the

dreamers in virginia. i made many speeches on this floor and told many of their stories. juan delerosa is a daca recipient, a richmonder. i actually first kind of came to know juan when i was the mayor of richmond. he arrived at age 5. in a comment to me he said in one way or another, you have always been an active part of teaching me how being involved in the political process is a key toward positive change. he started when he arrived here at 5 years old and he excelled immediately, went to manchester high school in chesterfield county, was a drum major in the marching band, class representative and president of honors society. after graduating at the top of his class at this competitive suburban high school, he continued at virginia tech. at virginia tech he started tech dreamers which is a student organization there of trying to create a more inclusive

environment for the dreamers on the campus. through tech dreamers he's hosted dialogues around immigration reform and other issues, not just with hoak yition but with student -- hokeys but with students all around virnlings and the country. this past may he graduated magna cum laude from virginia tech and continues to be active. he works in the admissions office as a dreamer, traveling the country and telling students all over this country about the opportunity that was offered by this great university in the commonwealth. and he says, quote, all of this would not have been possible had it not been for the opportunities afforded me because of daca. juan like so many other undocumented young people is the very embodiment of the virginia tech motto, the motto of virginia tech university is latin for that i may serve. that's what juan is doing. he wants congress to pass a clean dream act now so there's a permanent solution for he and so

many others. alejandro is the internal president of dreamers of northern virginia community college. i sat down with him a few weeks ago at a roundtable i held with these dreamers from bolivia. lived there til he was 7. his parents brought him here and he was not fully aware of what it was to be undocumented until he was getting ready to go to college and his parents explained it to him. his favorite thing as a kid growing up in the d.c. area was to go to the air and space museum. now he's at northern virginia community college making honors grades, studying to be an aerospace engineer. i sat down at the richmond public library with a group of dreamers. a few of them stopped by my office on a day i wasn't there and asked for a meeting. so we sat down together. let me tell you about some of them and their parents. matayo is a dreamer and sophomore at b.c.u. he went to the same high school my daughter went to. my daughter graduated from the

governors school in petersburg in 2013. he was a freshman that year, graduated in 2016. he's part of a group called undocurams, the organization fostering inclusion for dreamers. his mom came with him to the meeting to show support for her son. she's heart broken seeing him work so hard. and so afraid of what might happen to him. and so afraid of what might happen to her. and she praised that this system may find a just result for her child and herself. and finally at the same meeting, i had better that, -- bertha, both a dreamer and a mom. her parents brought her here in 199le from next -- 1998 from mexico as a young child. she works at a local catholic church. she volunteers with the p.t.a. at her children's school and she coaches her children and other children's soccer teams. she told me that she's learned

the values of volunteering and helping others from being here in the united states. this is interesting, mr. president. i hadn't heard this before. she told me where she came from in mexico, there wasn't a great tradition of volunteer organizations. there was sort of the government and churches. she said, coming to the united states, she's become aware of a whole sector of society that was not familiar to her. volunteer organizations, groups of people that get together to try to tutor other kids or be big brothers or big sisters. she said what she has learned from the united states more than anything else is this amazing power of volunteerism and the network of social service groups that are run by volunteers. she said, i want to be just like that. and that's what she's doing. why woe we want to -- we want to lose a mother, a dreamer like her. folks here on the hill engaged in rallies have explained with tears in their eyes the fear that they feel.

they had a president had said some tough things about immigrants. he said that dreamers will have nothing to worry about. these dreamers are good kids and they were taken by complete surprise when in september the president announced that he would terminate the daca program in six months. from that moment it has been unremitting fear for these young people and for their families the only thing in the president's announcement that i think we could probably all agree to, even though i was a strong supporter of president obama's executive action, i believe it was in his legal power, a statutory fix is better than executive action. the executive action depends on the temperament of the president and a statutory fix provides confidence and security. that's what we are called to do. again, in the spirit of the christmas season and because i'm seeing in particular presiding

officer, i'm reminded of a beautiful phrase of pope francis that we have talked about before. he called on us to -- speaking speaking -- islands of mercy in the middle of a sea of indifference. that's a powerful phrase. let's be an island of mercy in a sea of indifference. what's different is that he didn't say in the middle of a sea of hatred or prejudice. but what he said was in a sea of indifference many sure -- indifference. surely as we hear of the virtues and dreams and accomplishments of these young people we can call on our spirit to be merciful rather than different. that is my hope that this body will pass a clean dream act.

with that, mr. president, i yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk should call the roll. quorum call:

ms. klobuchar: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from minnesota. ms. klobuchar: mr. president, i ask that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. klobuchar: mr. president, i rise once again today to express my strong support for taking action on the dream act. i want to thank all the dreamers who in recent weeks traveled from all across the country to washington to make their voices heard. last month i met with 50 minnesotans who traveled here by bus to show their support for the dream act. they took time away from their jobs, from their education, from their families because this issue is so critical to them and to their loved ones. i want to get this bill passed, and while i remain hopeful that we will reach an agreement soon, i know that this has real consequences with each day and every day as over 100 dreamers lose their status per day.

we have already seen the harmful effects of the administration's decision to end daca and the situation will continue to get worse until we take action. for the eligible daca rerecipients, the uncertainty is unbelievably difficult. these are people who were told previously by our government that they could stay. they registered -- they registered with our government. and now with each and every day more and more are losing their status. since i spoke about this issue on the senate floor last week, and estimated 800 additional dreamers have lost their daca status. in march, the number of dreamers with expiring protections will increase to 1,000 a day if we have not found a solution by that time. this is an issue where we should be able to find bipartisan consensus. americans want us to protect dreamers.

in fact, one recent poll found that 86% of americans support action to allow dreamers to stay here in the united states. the dream act, which my colleague, senator durbin, has led in the senate for 16 years now, is based on a simple principle. are dreamers who are -- dreamers who are brought to the united states as children and only know this country as their home should be given the opportunity to contribute to our nation and become citizens. they were brought here through no fault of their own. on average, when they came here they were only 6 and a half year old. imagine being told you have to go back to a country that you may not -- you have not stepped foot in since you were 6. to receive daca status, all dreamers have paid fees and had a background check and have educational requirements so they

can stay here in the united states and contribute to our communities and across the country. dreamers are already contributing. more than 90% of these dreamers of the daca recipients are now in school are in the workforce. in fact, 72% of them currently in school are pursuing a bachelor's degree or higher. the american medical shaition urged us -- association has urged us to being -- to take action. noting the shortage of physicians, there is an estimate that passing the dream act could add 5,400 physicians. according to the medical association of medical colleges, more than 100 students with daca status applied to medical school and 70 dreamers are currently enrolled in medical school. in minnesota, our large refugee

and immigrant community has contributed so much to the cultural and economic vitality of our state. we are proud to have the second larger mung population. we have the biggest population of smolies, biggest population of sigh birrian -- syberians. ending daca in my state where the unemployment rate is hovering in the 3% range, ending daca would cost minnesota more than $376 in animal revenue. last week on the senate floor, i talked about how i've always tried to find examples of dreamers so that the citizens in my state can understand what we're talking about when we talk about the fact that someone could be brought over to our

country and not even realize it and have this dreamer status. i talked about joseph medina. he was a decorated army veteran. he served in world war ii. he was in minnesota. and i'm sad to say he passed away last july at the ripe old age of 103 years old. there was a story about joe in today's edition of our largest newspaper in minnesota honoring his contributions to our nation during world war ii and through his nearly a century as a proud and hardworking minnesotan. so joe lost both of his parents before he was one year old. he was brought to the u.s. from mexico by his aunt when he was just five, and he didn't find out that he was undocumented his whole time growing up. when did he find out? when he tried to join the army in world war ii. so what he did then, because he wasn't a citizen -- and back then it was pretty simple. what they would do is they would

have people go to canada, especially if they lived in minnesota, and that is how they would become citizens. so they sent joe medina to canada for one day. i remember him telling me this story that that's what they did during world war ii when they wanted people to sign up and serve. and he stayed in a hotel for one night, and he came back, and with the help of our military, he became a citizen. he then served under general macarthur in the pacific. he then came home, got married, and had a son. and that son served in the vietnam war. joe came to washington, d.c. with his son for the first and last time to see the world war ii memorial at age 99. and i got to stand there by his side as he looked at the minnesota part of that memorial and thought of the people he knew that were no longer with us and thought of his service and how much he loved serving our country in world war ii.

but at his side, along with his own son who had served in vietnam, were with two dreamers, two high school students who were in high school in the suburban part of the twin cities, and they also wanted to join the military. if i remember right, they wanted to join the air force. you know what? with the rules the way they were a few years ago, they weren't allowed to do that. and joseph medina couldn't understand that because the proudest part of his life was serving in our military, serving despite the fact that he was born in another country but lived almost his entire life, 98 years of his 103 years were spent in america. so i join with all those in my state in remembering joseph medina and honoring his service to our country as we continue to work toward finding a solution for the dreamers in the senate. i know that we should also take action here at the end of the year, and we should be staying

to get a number of priorities done, including a long-term reauthorization of the children's health insurance program, dealing with the medical device tax, renewing funding for community health centers. there are so many things that we need to do. but in closing, mr. chairman, i just want to make clear, i stand with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle who have spoken out in support of the dream act. we need to pass this bill. thank you, and i yield the floor, and i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

the presiding officer: the senator from florida. mr. rubio: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. rubio: mr. president, as i try to do every year -- this will be my seventh year in the united states senate -- if time permits sometimes our work here finishes in a different fashion but if possible i try to come on the last day of the legislative year and give a speech kind of recapping the year behind us and outlining the challenges of the year ahead. and for me, it was obviously an

eventful year and a productive one, and i believe it's been one for this chamber as well in what is a unique political environment in which politics today is practiced and covered in ways we've never seen before, almost like entertainment. nevertheless, it was a year that we got a lot of good things done and i wanted to highlight some of them. and in the hopes that that gives us momentum into the new year. any time you, my first experience at a new president and obviously not just a new president but a new administration that brought with it a set of individuals in different positions. so i think for all of us was a transition in that regard. it also was the beginning of a second term that at one time i didn't know i was even going to pursue. and in arriving here early this year and getting to work, we slowly but surely got going on a number of key priorities that we have been working on for a very long time. the first one that happened was the v.a. accountability bill, and this was a bill that i had been working on for a number of

years. and it basically gave the secretary of the v.a. the power to fire people at the v.a. that are not doing a good job. it's that simple. there's no, anything more complicated than that. it made it easier to fire people that were not doing a good job. they'd still have due process to defend themselves. there was a lot of objection to that proposal for the better part of three years. in the previous administration and some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle. but then everything lined up this year, and senator tester and senator isakson, who are the ranking member and the chairman of that committee, came on board and really helped push this and moved it forward. and it passed in both chambers and was signed into law by the president. and this was a substantial achievement. what's interesting about it is that because it was bipartisan and because there was coopers -- cooperation and because no one was fighting with anyone on it it didn't get a lot of press coverage but it happened and people need to know about it. do it make the v. perfect? are there still challenges to be confronted? absolutely.

but this is something that has to do with accountability and the ability to get rid of people that were not doing a good job and it was something that for years could not get done because somebody always objected and found a way to stop it. then it came together, people working across the aisle to make it happen. today it's the law. and today there are people that were not doing a good job that were no longer employed at the v.a. thanks to it. and that's an important thing that people need to know. and i always remind everybody the overwhelming majority of people that work at the v.a. are doing a good job. it's the ones that are not that we need to replace. the year went on, i had an opportunity to interface and interact with the national security council and with the white house on two foreign policy issues that didn't really require legislation but that i am grateful and excited about having the opportunity to help craft. the first was the new direction on u.s. policy towards cuba. the previous administration had basically changed our policies towards cuba, opened it up to much fanfare and, quite frankly, a lot of editorial board

excitement. it was the enlightened position, apparently, to argue that doing more trade with cuba was going to somehow transition, help cuba transition to a democracy. but after two and a half years it's become apparent that that change has doing nothing than flow more dollars into the hands of that regime and help them in their efforts to normalize. when president trump was elected, one of the things he wanted to talk about was what we needed to do to change that relationship back to something that favored the cuban people and not the cuban regime. and those changes came about and they were announced earlier this year in an event in south florida. and to cut to the chase, what it does is this, it says that people can still travel to cuba. americans can still go to cuba as part of a group or as part of an individual going on behalf to support the cuban people. but if you go to cuba whether off a cruise ship, an airplane or there in support for the cuban people, you have to spend your money at places that are

owned by cubans, by everyday cuban people. not by the cuban military, which is trying to create a monopoly. for the first time in the history of that tyranny, there is a u.s. policy that places individuals in cuba, private individuals in cuba in a favored position in comparison to the military and the castro government. and i believe that that law will surely, slowly but surely pay dividends as it becomes abundantly clear to the small independent private sector in cuba that the reason why they aren't growing and the reason why they aren't attracting more customers has nothing to do with u.s. policy. it is because their own government does not want to allow them to be able to grow their businesses. and the cuban government feels threatened by private business. that's why, number one, because they're communists. and, number two, because they don't want people in cuba to be able to support themselves. they want people dependent upon

them. that's how they control politically. we'll see what decision the cuban government makes in the months and years to come. here's what's abundantly clear, there are people and americans who under our law can travel to cuba, can spend money in cuba, and they'll have to stay in an air bnb, or private home or if the cuban government allows it a hotel that's owned by a private entity. or they cannot. or they cannot in places controlled by the cuban military or companies controlled by the cuban military. the second foreign policy issue that we were able to get involved in is another tragedy in our hemisphere, and that is what is happening in venezuela. to cut to the shays, you have a tyrant. the tyrant lost control of the national assembly, which is the legislative body. what does he do? he basically figures out a way to create an alternative congress called a constituent assembly, basically modeled after the fraudulent cuban

constituent assembly-like model. what it basically does is it guarantees that certain sectors in society have seats of representation. instead of seats in congress by a district or state, they are represented by different sectors, labor, electricians, you name it. but here's the funny part about it. the only people that can run for it are the people they allow to run for it. they all took it to count the vote. as you can imagine, that fraudulent constituent assembly basically votes 100% in favor of whatever he wants. literally with very little dissent. it's not democratically elected. meanwhile, the legitimate democratically elected congress, to use terms that we would use here, has basically been intimidated and stripped from its power. the majority doesn't allow it to be paid anymore, they are not on the staff anymore. all sorts of things of that nature. so we encourage the president of the united states to pursue first individual sanctions to grow the list of individuals in venezuela that are sanctioned, no longer able to benefit from

ill-found gains here in the united states, but ultimately all to continue and prevent them from doing something they have been doing for far too long, and that is they are stealing the oil of venezuela. they are selling it in global markets at a discount. and then they use -- to use rough numbers, they will take a million dollars worth of oil, sell it for half a million dollars. they will take some of that half million dollars and use it to pay the interest on the debt they already owe. and then the rest of that cash, they use it for themselves and they sprinkle a little bit of it to some of the elites around them just to keep them loyal to the regime. that's since the mid level or higher level military officials who decide, well, things aren't great in venezuela, but at least my family is better off than everybody else because we're loyal to the regime. and the president moved to stop that. today, u.s. entities can no longer trade with in these fraudulent, in these illegal bonds that are stealing from the people of venezuela, and it's a tragic situation. this is not an embargo. this is not economic warfare the way maduro calls it.

this basically is preventing them from continuing to steal. and i would add one more point to this. i encourage everyone if you can last weekend, "the new york times" ran an article, a pretty extensive series on starvation. children literally starving to death in venezuela. the richest country in the hemisphere, the richest country in south america in terms of one of the most oil-rich countries in the world, a nation with a long history of stable economics and even the longest democratic tradition in south america. and there were children starving of images that you normally associate with other continents at other times in our history, children starving to death in venezuela. meanwhile, maduro looks like he weighs more than he ever has before. and all the people that surround him in his government are heavier, fatter than ever before. children are starving, because of them. not because of u.s. policy, not because of sanctions. there is no one in the world other than his handful of cronies that would argue it has anything to do with any

sanctions. it's because of them. in addition to being incompetent, they're criminals, they're criminals. the venezuelan government from the top down and everywhere in between is filled with narcotraffickers, with people that allow narcotraffickers from mexico and from colombia to fly and use airports in venezuela to traffic drugs. so just imagine for a moment in this country if our elected officials said to certain drug dealers, if you pay us, not only will the d.e.a. not stop you from trafficking drugs, but they will help you move it. that's what happened in venezuela. imagine for a moment that the department of defense went to drug dealers and say if you pay us, not only will we allow your planes to fly, we'll tell you what time to take off and we'll escort you when you are in our airspace. that's venezuela. state-sponsored narcotrafficking at every level. and by the way, they offer another service. if you don't pay them, they tell you don't worry, we will arrest the rival drug dealer but we

will protect the ones who pay us. they are some very wealthy people in that government. in addition to stealing from the people of venezuela, they are narcotraffickers. the vice president of venezuela is a narcotrafficker, sanctioned by the united states as a drug kingpin. and it just goes on from there. the vice president of the party who controls their intelligence services, a thug by the name of carvio, is a drug trafficker. the nephews of the president of venezuela, the nephews of his wife, the first lady, were just convicted and sentenced last week in a court in new york for drug trafficking. and so it just -- and by the way, in their testimony, it's all filled with evidence. i hope in the new year that we can find a way to continue to support the brave people of venezuela and a better way forward. you would hope, by the way, even in the venezuelan government, even in that fraudulent constituent assembly, you would hope that there are people there

that like hugo chavez and believe in the stuff he believed in, but have to see that this thing is a disaster. that this incompetent man is destroying that country and starving their children, that there's no future in the direction that they're headed. we hope that this situation improves in the years to come. senator cardin was on the floor yesterday discussing this. i want to reiterate it. i hope next year early we can move on a bill that we have introduced together called the venezuela humanitarian assistance and defense of democratic governance of 2017. this helps address a lot. it puts in place a plan to help with this humanitarian crisis. you need a government that allows us to do it, but knowing that the united states working with canada and mexico, argentina, colombia, peru, brazil, spain and the european union, knowing that there are these countries ready to step in and help might be an incentive for decent people still left in that government to step forward and begin a process of transition. it was an interesting year in one more legislative thing that

we took on, and that's the race for children. it's a pediatric cancer initiative. there are not enough innovations in pediatric cancer when you compare it to adult cancer. and this law requires pharmaceuticals to begin testing adult drugs on pediatric populations so that hopefully we can develop more pediatric medicines. i worked on that with senator bennet of colorado. we got it passed, signed into law. again, not something that got a lot of attention because it was bipartisan and not controversial, but it's important. we're proud of it, the good work that we have put on this year in that regard. we had hurricanes that impacted florida, not once but twice. first, hurricane irma, and then hurricane maria that struck puerto rico and had an impact on florida as well, as approximately 200,000 u.s. citizens from puerto rico have moved to florida because there is no electricity, because the island already had been hit previously and because it's facing a financial disaster, and now it got hit by the storm. we were very involved in helping

there, in particular working with resident commissioner jennifer gonzalez who is a true and a dedicated public servant to the people of puerto rico. number one, in getting the right response. it took a little too long for the response to get going, but it finally started moving, but there is still so much to be done. the estimates are it will be another eight months before power is restored. and a disaster like that is never good news. but for the first time at least in seven years, i feel like my colleagues know more about puerto rico than ever before. they understand the challenges it faces because of its unique status. they understand the preexisting challenges it faced before the storm, and they understand what lies ahead. this is not -- there was a time -- i don't mean this disrespectfully, but there was a time when people sometimes would talk to me about puerto rico like it was a foreign country. we had to remind them, these are u.s. citizens. on a per capita basis, they volunteered to serve in the armed forces, as much or more than anyone else in the united

states. and so i hope that in the year to come, we will redouble our efforts, particularly on disaster relief, to ensure that puerto rico doesn't just recover but is rebuilt stronger than ever so that we don't have to continue to revisit this in the future when the inevitable happens, and that is that they will face a storm again because of their presence in the tropics. and, of course, just a few days ago, we passed tax reform. not everybody likes it, but i think more people will as they start to see its true implications. by march of this year, an overwhelming majority of americans are going to notice that their paycheck is bigger than it was a year ago. if you didn't get a raise, it will be solely based on tax reform. if i were king for a day, the law would look a little different, but we don't have kings in america. we have a constitutional republic in which making things better is our goal, and sometimes if you get 70% or 80% of what you want, that's certainly a victory.

sometimes if you get 50% of what you want, that's a victory. most change in america happens incrementally through our constitutional republic. every now and then we can take major steps forward. here's the bottom line. america's tax code today is better than it was before this bill passed. do i think we went a little too far in the direction of multinational corporations? perhaps. not that it's going to hurt the economy, but i thought some of that could have been geared towards working families through a further expansion of the child tax credit. but overall, i do believe it will help grow our economy and more importantly i do believe it will leave more money in the hands of americans to be able to spend it for their families. it's their money, not ours. the best way to look at it is if i came here and said i wanted to spend $2 trillion over the next ten years of borrowed money, to give it to the government so the government could stimulate the economy, there would be a lot of support from the other side of the aisle and from the press. they would call it genius and enlightened of a republican to think that way. but if we say we want to leave

$1.5 trillion to $2 trillion in the hands of the american people and the private sector so they can stimulate the economy instead, it's a disaster and it's irresponsible. just a philosophical difference of opinion. there is a role for government. we must fund it. we have to rebuild our military. we talked about disaster relief. there are important things for government to do. but by and large, a dollar spent by the private sector or by an individual family is going to generate more growth than a dollar spent by the government. we fund government not to grow the economy but to help sustain it and protect it and keep us safe in the food that we eat, the airplanes we travel on, and certainly from threats foreign and domestic. but economic growth is a function of the private sector and of individuals, and tax reform helps to achieve it. that alone won't be enough. one of the singular challenges in america today that we must confront in the new year, hopefully, is the skills gap. it's not just a throwaway

phrase. it's the fact that the best-paying jobs, the ones that actually pay you enough to raise a family and save for retirement , those jobs require skills that our schools aren't teaching. those jobs require skills that millions of americans do not have. and we have got to change that. we have got to make it easier, not just to graduate people at 18 years of age ready to work. we've got to make it easier for people at 45 to be able to go back to some sort of school and acquire the skills they need for a better-paying job. that will lead to economic growth. that will help fill the two million to three million unfilled jobs that we cannot find people in this country to fill with the right skills. that's how you get people apart from economic growth. i hope the new year provides an opportunity for that. i would add that in addition to that, the new year will provide us an opportunity to focus on infrastructure, which is critical. my state of florida is particularly impacted by not just storms but sea level rise

in coastal areas, and there are things we can do to mitigate against it. we need to restore the everglades. and of course we need roads and bridges to improve our infrastructure and airports. hopefully we can confront that as we work on infrastructure. 2018 will be a year that will deal with the farm bill, and i hope action will be taken to reform crop insurance to ensure that my state's farmers are never in the position they have been put in after hurricane irma. with either a reliable safety net nor a reliable commitment from the federal government to step in when federal programs fail to meet disaster needs. next year would be a water resources year, a water bill year. and again, it's an opportunity for us to do critical things for our infrastructure. and florida beach renourishment, intercoastal navigational projects are important. not just to our way of life but to our tourism industry. so, too, are harbor dredging projects, with the expansion of

the panama canal. so it's important that these things get done next year. they won't get as much controversy or fan fair, but these are critical things that we can do. another opportunity next year that we have heard some talk about is the ability to reform the social safety net. on that front, i would say that's an issue that i pushed for for a very long time, but sometimes when you talk about reform, people think you're coming at it because you want to cut. for me, it's not so much about cutting. it's about improving the way we deliver the same services. how can we use the money we are already spending in the safety net but in a better way? these programs, i believe in the safety net. i actually don't believe free enterprise works unless we have one. people are not going to take risk. people are not going to strive if they think that if they fall the consequences are economic devastation. you have to have a safety net to take care of those who cannot take care of themselves, the permanently disabled, the elderly, and the like, but you also have to have a safety net for people who have come upon tough times, until they can get

back on their feet and try again. but i fear -- in fact, i have realized long ago that our safety net programs treat the symptoms of poverty, but they do not cure it. and that's why i hope when we tackle the social safety net and i hope we will in 2018, it will not be so much about cutting as it will be about reorganizing and improving. yes, we will take care of people in their emergent needs and immediate needs, but we will also make it easier for you to go back to school and get a degree or a technical certification so you can find a job and never again rely on the government. and in fact, if we do that for enough people, it will save us money because less people will be on the social safety net. but that should not be the reason why we tackle it, not as a cost saving exercise but as a way to lift up more americans because we are in a global competition. and our chief geo political competitor in the economic space in the 21st century will be china.

china has over three times as many people as we do, and we have to compete against them. they have a billion. we have 380,400,000 people. we need everybody. we are not a nation that can afford economically to leave anyone behind and we are a nation that leaving anyone behind would be a betrayal of our founding principles. and that's why i hope we will owe what i hope we will tackle next year if we tackle the social safety net with job training programs. in a few moments the senate will hopefully take up and vote on -- i know everyone is anxious to return to their states or homes for the holiday -- a continuing resolution. i will say i'm disappointed we're leaving here at the end of this year not having taken on a disaster relief bill that i know the people in florida and texas and the wildfires out west, puerto rico need. i believe that we will confront

it. i believe that we are going to do that in the early part of next year along with a permanent extension of the children's health insurance program and other matters. next year will bring an opportunity as well to deal with things like immigration security, the opportunity to deal with young people brought to this country through no fault of their own by their parents who now find themselves here illegally in the country. and there's i believe a real chance next year to make progress on providing them certainty and the ability to stay in this country for the future. all these things are there. and they'll happen in the early part of this year but at least when it comes to disaster relief, it's disappointing that we won't be able to do that here. largely for legislative strategic reasons, not for policy ones. but i'm confident that we will deal with it in the early part of next year. and i actually think 2018 despite being an election year, if we allow the momentum that closed out this year to carry over to the new one, that we're

going to have a chance to continue to do good things for our country. and in the end, given our differences that exist in this country today, it's hard to imagine we will ever always agree that every idea is a good one. but i hope we can all agree that our job here is to make things better. and sometimes making things better means one step forward and sometimes it means 50 steps forward. but as long as we're moving forward in a pattern of perpetual improvement, i think we should be proud of the work we're doing. and i think by and large in 2017, despite the fits and starts, despite the controversy, despite the headlines every morning about the outrage of the day or questions in the afternoon, that usually began with how did you feel about the tweet on this or on that, despite all those distractions, i think 2017 will go down as a year of consequential improvement where things happen in this chamber and in this city

that made america better, not worse. on that i hope we can continue to work. and so i thank you. i wish all the people of florida, all of my colleagues, all the people of this great country and around the world a happy chanukah, a merry christmas, and a happy new year. i look forward to working together to make things better in the year to come. with that, mr. president, i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. reed: thank you very much, mr. president. yesterday we saw a very unusual celebration at the white house as members of congress took turns exalting the president and speaking glowing terms about the tax bill they passed. there appear to be quite a contrast between the celebration at the white house and the reaction of working americans. why weren't working middle-class americans celebrating so vigorously? why poll after poll find that this is the most unpopular tax bill since 1980's? in fact, including tax hikes by

president george walker bush and president bill clinton, this bill is even less popular than those tax increases. speaker ryan seems to think the tax bill is unpopular because americans don't know what's in it. he's wrong. the american people are smart. they get it. they don't like this tax bill because they do know what is in it, lots of goodies for president trump and his family, very little for theirs. this tax bill isn't popular with working people because they know that if republicans really wanted to give them a tax break, republicans would give it to them directly and not to corporate executives. middle-class americans remember the corporate excesses that led us to the terrible losses of the great r recession. they sacrificed and worked hard to help the economy recover. they remember the tough choices we had to make to get our economy working again. and they don't want to see that

progress turned back. but the recovery -- in danger of backsliding with this trickle-down approach with the republicans breaking the federal bank to give huge tax breaks to the wealthy. middle-class americans weren't popping champagne bottles yesterday because they know they will be on the hook again when reality sets in on the massive deficits and irresponsible excesses of the trump economy. the real economy isn't a chart or a graph to them. it's their ability to put food on the table, to send their children to college and pan for retirement -- plan for retirement and republican economics have not historically worked out well for them. the economy created over 11 times as many jobs under president clinton as it did under president george herbert walker bush. it created over ten times as many jobs under president obama as president george w. bush.

today u.s. job openings are nearing all time highs and 15 million americans have gained employment since 2010. now, we've got much, much more work to do to address issues like unemployment, labor force participation and wage growth, but the economy the republicans are gambling with today is one that middle-class families worked hard and sacrificed to create. moreover, middle-class americans are not easily fooled when it comes to their bottom line. it will take more than focus groups and political publicity activities to convince them that this republican bill was written with their interest in mind. many americans opened their paper this morning to read that major corporations like wells fargo and others were boosting u.s. investment or providing bonuses in the wake of the huge tax breaks provided to them by the republican legislation. now, it's certainly a good thing that many of these companies are considering greater investments

in their american workforce, but the relationship between these tax breaks and higher pay or bonuses seems to fall apart under scrutiny. some companies like wells fargo have already admitted that the pay raises were preplanned and not the direct result of the tax bill. indeed, this coordinated announcement appears more intended to appeal to the trump administration than to prove anything about the effectiveness of the republican tax bill for american workers. moreover, it appears the real problem that many americans have with the republican bill is that they believe it will balloon the public debt in order to disproportionately benefit the rich. based over credible analysis of the bill to date, they are very likely correct. so rather than watch for publicity stunts americans should in the coming weeks, watch how much corporate executives take in bonuses. they should look at the more than $70 billion -- $70 billion in share buybacks that major

corporations have announced since the senate passed the republican tax bill. once corporations gut the clear -- got the clear signal that this legislation will likely pass, their reaction was not to raise wages, not to stabilize their pension funds, but to buy back their shares, which is a double benefit for the managers of these companies. first and for the shareholders. first, it typically raises the price of the stock on the market which makes the value go up. it gives direct benefit to shareholders. and for the managers, most of their pay is -- or much of their pay is related to their shareholdings. oh, by the way, they're usually incentivized to increase share price, so their other pay is increased. so it's no surprise that that's the reaction of most corporations. and in fact, it was quite

telling that some company executives have made it clear that their plan for the funds released by this tax bill will be devoted to share buybacks. in fact, it's ironic because many of these companies were having to pay an effective tax rate of less than 10%, much less than now the new statutory rate. and does that mean that they're going to -- give even higher wages? just stop. if a company was paying an effective tax rate of 8% and wasn't raising significantly the wages of their workforce, what is the new statutory rate of 20% do to that incentive? nothing at all. americans can and will also consider the fact that 35% of american company stock is owned by foreign nationals who are projected to pocket $48 billion

windfall by 2019 as a result of corporate tax breaks. yes, this tax bill will incentivize corporations to buy back stock, a significant amount of which is owned by foreign entities, individuals and corporations. so that $48 billion of these funds will go overseas. they won't be devoted to salary increases, wage increases. they won't be devoted to r&d. they won't even be devoted in some sense to the united states because they'll flow overseas. you should ask in light of these historical huge gains for the corporate investor class, how many of these corporations will turn around and make sure their pension funds, for example, are fully funded? there is no requirement that would prevent a company from buying back stock, even while its pension fund is not

actuarially sound. that has happened in the past. that's likely to happen in the future. so you have to ask yourself as working families are, if i have a company that's giving its shareholders huge benefits and huge benefits to its management, and my pension is questionable, it's not fully funded, is that right? i think the answer is obviously no, that's wrong. and how many companies will ship jobs overseas because they'll see a financial advantage? in fact, corporate executives will feel a fiduciary duty to the shareholders to do that. and how many companies will begin and continue to replace their workers with contractors who may have no benefits, no health care from the company, no pension benefits, and jobs that could be filled and were filled in the past by real employees with real benefits will now be

shipped away from the company to contractors. now, i supported efforts by several of my colleagues on the democratic side to place conditions on these massive corporate tax breaks so we'd be -- so there would be at least some requirements american workers would share in the multitrillion dollar giveaway, but all of these proposals were rejected by my republican colleagues. and i believe that they'll have to explain to the working men and women of america why shareholders are getting huge benefits and they don't have a fully sound pension fund. why are additional americans being laid off by these corporations at the same time they are providing huge buybacks of their stock to their shareholders? there are a series of questions i think that the american working families, middle class, will continue to ask. they're already aware that this bill was not designed for them.

it was designed for the wealthiest corporations and the wealthiest individuals in america and indeed globally. and when the evidence mounts, it will further confirm those views because those views, i think, are very, very accurate. now, i know we'll continue to work hard and build the economy, but with the passage of this bill, this is clearly now president trump's economy. all the sacrifice and effort that built those jobs under president obama, that gut the unemployment rate from double digits down to 4.5%, 5%, all those now could be jeopardized by what has transpired here. and the president literally owns it. as we go forward, i think we have to realize that this

legislation is not going to help working families. i've heard my colleagues very sincerely and very eloquently talk about some of the challenges we face, like job training. we're facing a situation in which many experts predict that within the next 12 years, by 2030, we will lose a third of the jobs in the united states. they will go away because of technology, because of artificial intelligence. what is going to happen to the 30 or 40-year-old working person? what is he going to do when the job he has done well is taken over by a machine? will they turn to a private corporation and say, please help me? i know what the answer will be, what is our responsibility. we have a responsibility to our shareholders to enrich them. that's what we do, thank you very much. they'll turn to government and what we do. well, we'll say we're sorry.

we're already $1.5 trillion in the hole. we can't afford career transition, long-term unemployment. those retirement benefits that are under huge pressure, we can't help you. we have a pension guarantee corporation, but that is so under water that, sorry. by the way, the natural phenomenon, the floods that are coming. we're talking about a disaster relief bill. we're all aware in this chamber that our national flood insurance program is in deep, deep hole. it is, no pun intended, under water. where are we going to get the money to pay the obligations we've already put on our books through the national flood insurance program? what are we going to do to citizens and communities when we say we don't have it anymore, we

gave the money away? so we are now facing very, very difficult situations. we know they are coming, unavoidable costs, national defense. we have to rebuild our nuclear triad, our submarines, our land-based systems. that over hundreds of years is -- that is over years is hundreds of billions of dollars. instead of doing that yesterday, we decided to give $1.5 trillion or more in deficit to the wealthiest americans and wealthiest corporations. i don't think it makes good sense and i think working americans and middle-class americans understand that very well. in fact, better than -- better than we do collectively. and what they've done, essentially, and what they are saying to anyone who asks is, this is a terrible piece of

legislation. why did they pass it? and that's a question that will reverberate throughout this year, next year, and, unfortunately, i think for a long, long time. because it will take us time and effort and sacrifice and tough, tough votes, as we did in the 1990's, and again in 2009 and beyond to get back on track for working families. with that, mr. president, i would yield the floor. mr. thune: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, i rise today to voice my strong support for the nomination of ronald batori to be the administrator of the federal railroad administration at the department of transportation, and to express my deep frustration that this noncontroversial, highly qualified nominee has been languishing in the senate for over four months due to

objections by a handful of democrats over a parochial issue entirely unrelated to the qualifications. his nomination was on july 26, 2017, and reported his nomination unanimously out of committee with a unanimous voice vote on august 2, 2017. at that time not a single senator on the committee, republican or democrat, expressed any doubt about mr. batori's expertise on rail safety issues. he has over 45 years in experience in management and operational positions, and he's a respected leader in driving organizational change and advancing safety improvement. railroad age called him noncontroversial and said, i quote, he's the best federal person to be a railroad

administrator perhaps in the agency's history. end quote. despite his unanimous approval from the committee, he has been blocked of doing his duties. the f.r.a. has critical safety decisions to make on a daily basis and the agency needs strong, strategic direction and management on time-sensitive safety issues. a senior advisor, which is mr. batori's current role does not have the same legal authority or ability to lead an agency as does a senate confirmed administrator. it is time to stop hamstringing mr. batori and get him confirmed. unfortunately it appears we will not be able to do that without engaging in the cloture process. this takes up valuable floor time that could be spent on other priorities yet will undoubtedly lead to him being

confirmed by a large bipartisan majority of the senate. this pattern of obstruction, burning up a week or more of time to confirm two or three nominees who end up with cloture and confirmation votes must end. the batori nomination is also significant for another reason, mr. president. earlier this week we saw the terrible tragedy of the derailment in washington. our heartfelt prayers are with all of those affected, especially during this holiday season. as the ntsb continues on ongoing investigation, we will learn more about the causes of this derailment and the measures that might have prevented it. to be clear the tragic events of this week were not cautioned by a vacancy at the helm of the transportation. but we must act now to advance any safety and oversight solutions that will be needed as

a result of the action. today must of the discussion has been around positive train control. it is early to know what impact p.t.c. would have on this accident, i could not agree more with the majority leader who said that we need positive train control. he said that the department of transportation is not pushing federal p.t.c. hard enough. well, if you truly believes that d.o.t. needs to do more, why is he, along with a few of his colleagues standing in the way of mr. batori's nomination. congress has tasked the f.r.a. administrator with the strong push that will be needed to ensure railroads meet the deadline for full p.t.c. installation and training. make no mistake, mr. president, a strong push is what many passenger railroads need. according to the f.r.a.'s latest quarterly progress report for

passenger railroads, only 50% of locomotives are equipped. 64% of required p.t.c. radio towers are installed and only 24% of required route miles are -- conducting strong oversight of p.t.c. implementation including holding a hearing in 2018. however, what i do not expect the commerce committee to do is frant any change to the p.t.c. deadline framework established in current law. that, mr. president, is why we need mr. batori. when finally confirmed he will play a significant role in successful p.t.c. implementation. this is not just the view of the commerce committee which approved mr. b.a.t.o.r.i. -- mr. the states for passenger rail

coalition which includes 25 department of states, they say that the issues facing the railroad industry today is significant and it is vital that we have a dedicated leader like mr. batori who will help to build a national rail system with an emphasis on reliability while enhancing safety and security now and in the years to come. end quote. likewise, rail labor, representing conductors and communicators, urged to proceed to mr. batori nomination as soon as possible, stressing the importance of having mr. batori's leadership at the agency responsible for railroad safety. that letter was written in september. it's now december. mr. president, there is no reason for this delay. i ask unanimous consent that

both of these letters be entered into the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. thune: mr. president, we have had an immensely qualified leader ready to lead the agency for over four months. the time with playing political games with this agency should be over. it's long past time that my democrat colleagues end the obstruction and this body must confirm ronald batori. mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to executive session for the consideration of calendar number 262, ronald batori. i further ask that the senate vote on the nomination with no intervening action or debate and if confirmed the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, the president be immediately notified of the senate's, and the senate then resume legislative session. the presiding officer: is there objection? mr. schumer: i object.

the presiding officer: objection is heard. mr. thune: mr. president, again, i'm kind of beyond words to explain why we are objecting to someone who was unanimously approved out of the committee is highly qualified, noncontroversial, and would run an incredibly important safety agency in this country. this -- you can't -- you just don't have words to explain what that objection might be. so i hope that this is the last time that the democrats here in the senate will object to getting this important position filled with an individual who has -- comes regarded as highly -- comes highly regarded and qualified and answered all the questions in his confirmation and is ready for a final vote in the united states senate that would allow him to get into the job and get about the important work of ensuring there is safety with the

railroads in this country. i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from indiana. mr. donnelly: mr. president, at some point this evening, we expect the house of representatives to send the senate a bill that would keep the federal government open for another few weeks before heading home for christmas. for most families the holidays are an opportunity to take a break away from our busy lives and enjoy time with the people we love. it's same to say, however, that won't be the case for tens of thousands of american families who have lost a loved one this year to a drug overdose. the centers for disease control released two important new reports this week, first, they found that life expectancy decreased in the united states for the second year in a row. second, the likely cause of that decrease, in 2016 over 63,000 people died of a drug overdose.

that's more than 144 deaths per day. it's a 21% increase from 2015. this is a crisis. people are dying in communities across this country every single day. congress must do much more to address this scourge. here in washington, we talked at length about the massive size and scope of the problem. last year, we passed bipartisan legislation that was signed into law and is providing our local communities with more tools to fight the epidemic and we approved initial funding to begin to support these and other efforts. i was proud to help bring nearly $11 million of that funding to indiana. earlier this fall, the president rightly declared the opioid abuse epidemic a nationwide public health emergency. on the front lines in places like my home state of indiana,

however, the battle is raging. despite a unified response, there's more work to do. our governor, governor holkum, has made this a priority. he and his administration are working with local communities to provide resources and support. we have engaged our health care providers, public and private, the business community, our educators, p the colleger -- educators, and the clergy, who are all committed to this cause. yet the message i hear from people on the ground is that we need more resources, we need to expand treatment capabilities as soon as possible. we all know this is not a partisan issue. over the last few years i've been honored to work with seven of my republican colleagues to introduce seven bills and amendments addressing everything from prescribing practices to

the shortage of addition treatment professionals. many of these ideas have already been signed into law. i'm partnering with my state's republican governor to make sure we do everything in our power to help those who are battling with addiction. but it's not enough unless we provide our communities with the resources they're asking for and they need. this is the time of year that many americans reflect on the year that has passed and identify the priorities in the years to come. in congress, we need to do the same. more than 63,000 americans died last year from opioid abuse. 63,000 moms and dads, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, sons and daughters who are not here with us this year. we must make this issue a

priority. i hope congress will demonstrate to the american people that fighting opioid epidemic is a priority. one way to do that is to include meaningful resources in a bill to fund our federal government in key programs when we deal with this again before january 19 of next year. i implore my colleagues to make this a priority, to provide the robust but meaningful funding our communities need to meaningfully and seriously address this problem. we are in the midst of a crisis. we must do more in 2018. we have families all across our nation with broken hearts tonight for the ones they love and the ones they miss. let's make sure there's no more in 2018, that this ends today.

mr. president, i yield back. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from arizona. mr. flake: i ask unanimous consent to speak for five minutes and then after i speak senator wyden be recognized. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. flake: mr. president, six months ago on a beautiful june morning, just a few miles from here in alexandria, virginia, a man with a gun opened fire on me and on several of my republican colleagues. in the chaotic aftermath of that awful morning, the gunman's purpose slowly became clear. because of our beliefs and our political affiliation, this individual believed that my colleagues and i should die. since that day i've struggled to understand this thinking. how could any american look on to a field that june morning where a bunch of middle-aged men were playing baseball and see the enemy? some of the bombastic rhetoric being offered this week in

response to the tax reform bill has given me pause, though. if you listen to some of the haoeurb -- hyperbolic vitriol, the attitude that nearly killed my friend steve scalise and threatened many more lives begins to make a perverse kind of sense. when respectable public figures go on television or take to twitter and announce that thousands if not millions of americans are going to die as a direct result of the passage of the tax reform bill, what impact do we expect this to have on the thinking of many americans? if a person takes such outlandish statements as truth, attacking members of congress who supported the measure almost appears to be a moral action. this horrifying logic could lead someone to believe that killing a few legislators might save the

lives of millions of americans. these claims do grave harm to the legislative process. how are we expected to work together to achieve anything if one side's position is viewed as the end of america as we know it? one of my colleagues called this tax reform bill the worst bill in the history of congress. upon the bill's passage, one media pundit went so far as to encourage young americans to flee their country and declared america died tonight. full throated and passionate debate should always be encouraged. we all love arguing the merits of supply-side economics, but this is not that. this is demonizing of the worst kind. it leaves us all in this body unable to engage in the kind of negotiations and compromise that congress was created to foster. now to be clear, this is not a problem of one party or of one

moment. during the public debate over the affordable care act, members of my party engaged in similar tactics. i was in the house chamber when one of my republican colleagues stood and yelled, you lie, at the president of the united states. the accusation that passage of health care reform legislation would result in so-called death panels was promoted far and wide by many republicans. one conservative commentator suggested the government would begin educating seniors on how to end their own lives. a republican legislator chimed in that the bill would put seniors in a position of being put to death by their government. this rhetoric was wrong then and it is wrong now. the threat posed to all of us and to the democratic process from giving in to extreme rhetoric is not theoretical.

some of us faced it on that be baseball field in alexandria in june. all of us have witnessed its corrosive effect on congress. i urge my colleagues, all of us, let's end this practice where raw politics drowns out the supplications of the better angels of our nature. let us all be more humble as to our predictive powers when it comes to placing a value on the work that we do here. in reality, this legislation will probably not turn out to be as good as the proponents assert nor as bad as the opponents contend. mr. president, the country is watching. it is my hope that we, all of us, can eschew contempt and vitriol in our speech and be more measured in our tone. i yield the floor. mr. wyden: mr. president. the presiding officer: the

senator from oregon. mr. wyden: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, i come to the floor tonight to discuss the senate's investigation into russia and the 2016 election. specifically, i have been reviewing for months documents in the possession of the senate intelligence committee. i regret to say tonight the depth of the committee's investigation is completely unsatisfactory into the crucial issues of what i call following the money. early in 2017 i began asking the committee leadership to look into any and all financial relationships between russia and donald trump and his associates. in an open hearing, the committee held in march, i noted

a number of public facts. first, there is an extraordinary history of money laundering in russia. billions of dollars from corruption and other illegal activities have been moved out of the country. second the president's son said in 2008, and i quote, russians make up a pretty disparate cross section of a lot of our assets. third, entities associated with the president had already been the subject of millions of dollars of fines for willful, repeated and long-standing violations of antimoney laundering laws. and fourth, the congress and the american people still hadn't seen the president's tax returns. since then there have been

numerous additional press stories about associates of the president and their financial connections to russia. these stories, in my view, require thorough, detailed investigation. and it's not just by the press. the special counsel's indictment against former trump campaign manager paul manafort included extensive detailed allegations of laundering of millions of dollars from pro-russia ukrainian interests. this indictment provided a clear example of how a foreign influence campaign could be financed through illicit means and why the importance of following the money is so crucial. there have been other acknowledged financial connections, such as former national security advisor michael flynn and his payment

from r.t., the television station that is part of russia's state-run propaganda apparatus. and then there are the strange denials such as when jared kushner wrote in his statement in july, and i quote, i have not relied on russian funds to finance my business activities in the private sector. i can tell you, mr. president, that is some kind of good lawyering. because the word rely is subjective. mr. kushner didn't deny financial ties to russia. he said he hadn't relied on those funds. not whether he had any. not whether he had ever had any. but he hadn't relied on them. that's about as lawyerly and subjective a statement as you

can imagine. my bottom line is that these financial ties need to be a central focus of the intelligence committee's inquiry. and the reason i say this, and i want to spell out what the connection here is, is our inquiry covers counter intelligence concerns related to russia and the election, including any intelligence regarding links between russia and individuals associated with political campaigns. following the money is counter intelligence 101. if you want to compromise somebody, money is one of the best ways to do it. so let me repeat that. that's the connection. that's the connection between the counter intelligence work

that is so important and part of the committee's charge, that counter intelligence work involves following the money because that's key to really getting into the question of whether somebody's been compromised because one of the best ways to do it is through funds. so tonight based on this review of documents, i call again on the committee to follow the money aspects of this inquiry, including by holding public hearings, specifically on this topic. in addition, it is not just the intelligence committee that ought to focus on these issues. as i've been saying since march, the senate finance committee, of which i'm the ranking democrat, has a crucial role to play on

follow the money issues as well. relevant documents produced by elements of the treasury department, which are outside the intelligence community, such as the financial crimes enforcement network, ought to be sraoufrd. there's a -- reviewed. there's a need to review these documents by the finance committee staff because we have specific experience and expertise in financial investigations. in addition, the finance committee specifically has oversight responsibilities for tax matters. the manafort indictment, which included tax evasion, demonstrated clearly that taxes, tax evasion, offshore accounts, and suspicious real estate transactions are all connected.

they're all connected, and they ought to be part of any serious investigation into ties between russia, the president, and his associates. unfortunately, i and our committee has gotten no cooperation from the treasury department, despite my repeated requests as the ranking democrat on the finance committee, the treasury department has just stonewalled, plain old stonewalling the lead committee with jurisdiction for the agency. for that reason, i want to announce tonight, mr. president, that i will hold indefinitely the nomination of the individual to be assistant secretary of the treasury for intelligence and analysis until the department cooperates with the finance

committee and provides the committee with documents it needs to do its job. again, i regret that i have to take this step. by the way, many of these documents, mr. president, they're unclassified in nature. so the treasury department is denying the finance committee access to unclassified documents. that's just completely unacceptable. we all understand we are in the midst of extraordinary and dangerous times. as our own intelligence community assessed in january, russia interfered in our election with a clear preference for donald trump. no one other than donald trump has apparently called this assessment into question. for the sake of our national security and the future of our country, it's important to get to the bottom of every aspect,

every aspect of this attack on our democracy. the american people have clearly, clearly stated the urgency behind them. my view is the congress has an obligation to follow the money wherever the evidence leads, conduct a thorough investigation that leaves no stone unturned and presents to the public what we find. and i'll close by way of saying that i don't see how you can do the essential counterintelligence work that is so important to our committee. and i note the distinguished president of the senate, the senator from missouri, is a member of the committee and a valued one. i don't see how the committee can do its counterintelligence

work without following the money because we know that those financial issues are absolutely key. that money is the key to compromising an individual which is obviously so important in trying to ensure that we have policies in this country that protect our security and our role in the world. mr. president, with that, i yield the floor and i note colleagues are waiting. i yield the floor.

the presiding officer: the senator from kentucky. mr. paul: the question is do deficits matter? we often say they do. you will hear republicans say they do. for the last week or two, you have heard from democrats that they were against cutting taxes because it might add to the deficit. well, if this is true, tonight we'll get a chance to vote on the deficit. because, you know, congress about six years ago put something forward called pay-go budget caps. what does that mean? they kept seeing the deficit explode so they kept putting these budget caps. if we would adhere to them, they would actually get the deficit under control. guess what? congress has evaded them 29 times. so doesn't we will have a bill that will be the 30th time that congress has evaded their own rules on the debt. is it any surprise that the debt under george w. bush went from $5 trillion to $10 trillion? is it any surprise that under

president obama it went from $10 trillion to $20 trillion? is it any surprise that the debt continues to rise? no. because both parties are responsible for it. look, i was all for the tax cut. i think it's good for the country. but i'm also for restraining spending. so we did the tax cut earlier in the week. now we're going to do a spending bill. we have rules in place. the rules in place say that there are budget caps, so they have got a special little waiver they put in the spending bills because we're now going to exceed those caps. so the question is are we serious about the debt? are we serious about adding a million dollars a minute to the debt? that's what happens. we borrow a million dollars a minute. the deficit this year will be over $700 billion. $20 trillion in total. the total debt is bigger than our entire economy. so both sides give lip service

to it, and yet both sides want more spending. on the republican side, this year's request is $80 billion above the caps for military. on the democrat side, they say you don't get yours unless we get ours, and yet nobody cares about the debt. so really the debt's being driven by the g.o.p. wants more military money, but the only way they can get it is giving the democrats more welfare money. so the interesting thing about this vote is you've heard the other side of the aisle saying they can't vote for the tax cut because of the debt. if they care about the debt, let's cut spending. this is their chance. this will be a vote on cutting spending. this pay-go budget caps were put in place by the democrats when they were in the majority in 2010. these are their budget caps. and yet, everybody's clamoring to waive them on both sides. we have a real problem in our country, and we must do something about it.

ultimately, there will be a day of reckoning. you cannot continue to borrow so much money. ultimately, it bankrupts a nation or the currency becomes worthless or you get to a point where the interest on the debt actually becomes the number one spending item. within about a decade, interest will push out all other spending, it will be the number one item. we will spend more on interest than national defense. we will spend more on interest than welfare and everything else. so those who say we have to have more money for military, we have to have more money for welfare, you're going to have none of that if you keep spending money at this rate because we're going to ruin the country through debt. so can we have a strong military? yes. we spend about $600 billion, but you can't necessarily spend $700 billion. that extra $100 billion is making the debt worse. but it's the same on the other side of the ledger with the democrats. so we have a chance. there really is a chance. the media would say you're irresponsible for voting the tax cuts. no, you're irresponsible if

you're not also willing to vote for spending cuts. so tonight i will put forward in a few minutes a motion, and this motion will be to say we should obey the spending caps. we have put them in place. if we truly care unless our outrage over debt is fake outrage, if we truly care about the debt, we should vote to keep in place the rules we put in place. these are spending caps. if we care about the next generation, we should vote for the spending caps. so i would put forward a motion that says let's obey our own rules, but it will be interesting to watch the vote and see how it turns out. who truly cares about the debt on either side of the aisle? who's willing to say you know what? i'm for tax cuts, but i'm also for saying across the board we need to have spending restraint? will we obey our own rules? we have broken our own rules 30 -- this will be the 30th time we broke our own rules on budget caps since 2010.

to go back farther, it's in the hundreds of times. if you were scoring congress on integrity and honesty toward the own rules that we have set up, it would be a zero. we aren't adhering to our own rules. so what i would admonish my colleagues to do is if you care about debt, vote for this point of order that says we should adhere to our budget caps, and we should really, truly care about the budget deficit. thank you, mr. president.

ms. collins: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from maine. ms. collins: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, i rise in strong opposition to the point of order that will be offered by the senator from kentucky that would have the effect of allowing harmful, indiscriminate budget cuts to be triggered. while there are certain safety net programs like medicaid and food stamps and social security that are exempt from these automatic cuts, the medicare program is not exempt, and there are a number of other vital programs in addition to medicare, including federal education programs, agricultural support for farmers, funding for citizenship and the immigration services, among others, that would be subject to immediate

automatic cuts if we fail to take action tonight to avert that outcome. mr. president, it has been deeply disturbing to me to see seniors frightened about the possibility that a $25 billion cut in medicare that's 4% reduction would be automatically triggered. by waiving this point of order, we will prevent such cuts from taking place, reassuring our nation's seniors and their loved ones. although the law that could cause this reduction has been waived some 16 times and indeed never implemented since it was enacted, i felt that it was essential that our