congress will act, we can lower their rates next year for up to as much as 40%. 40%. now, that's according to oliver wyman, one of of the leading health care consulting firms in this country. who announced on monday that a set of policies which we call alexander-murray-collins-nelson, which president trump supports, which congressman walden, the chairman of the house committee in this area, supports, which senator mcconnell supports, which i support -- we have broad support thor this -- this policy that we have been working on for months cork to oliver wyman, over the next three years assuming the states take full advantage of all the options we're giving them, could lower rates by 40%. that means if you're paying $20 in our your health insurance, you're this $6,000-a-year --

ayou're that $60,000 a year plumber, that's by my math $8,000. that cuts your insurance to $12,000. you get down towards something you might be able to afford. can you imagine anything more frightening than approaching next year knowing that you might not be able to afford health insurance for your family and you're thinking, well, look, i'm doing everything i'm supposed to. the government has not gotten me on any kind of subsidy to buy health insurance. i'm out here working. i'm paying my taxes. maybe i got a little tax cut that the republicans put through last year, but the thing that's really a problem for me is my health insurance. if i'm making $60,000, $70,000, $80,000 a year, i cannot afford $15,000, $20,000 a year. if i'm a farmer or a song write in nashville. you can't afford that and you shouldn't have to. and you won't have to if

congress will act next week to accept a set of policies that i'm about to describe briefly. there are three things we propose to do. the most important is three years of reinsurance or invisible risk pool. this is an idea that house republicans have strongly supported, that senator collins and senator nelson have strongly supported here. but it would allow more states do what the state of alaska has done. the presiding officer is from alaska. alaska took the very sickest people in alaska and put them in one pool and called that the reinsurance pool and paid for their health insurance. and when they did that, it so reduced the cost for everybody else that it lowered the rates for everybody else by 20%. what we're talking about is lowering the rates for everybody else by 40% if states take full

advantage of what we're proposing next week. so reinsurance is the first thing. three years of reinsurance at $10 billion a year. the second thing is three years of cost-sharing subsidies. now, you have to stop and think about it a minute, but the cost-sharing subsidies pay for the reinsurance because cost-sharing subsidies are payments that are made to insurance companies to pay for the copais and the -- copays and deductibles for low-income people. that allows the companies to reduce the premiums. when you reduce the premiums, you reduce the obamacare subsidies. according to conversations we've had with the congressional budget office, if we do three years of cost-sharing subsidies and three years of reinsurance at $10 billion, the cost-sharing subsidies more than pay for the

reinsurance, if you base it on reality, which is if congress passes a law, costs $30 billion over three years for reinsurance and three years of cost-sharing subsidies, the cost-sharing subsidies pay for the reinsurance and leave $2 billion over to reduce the federal debt. and then the third part is a set of proposals that would give states more flexibility. this streamlines section 1332 waiver in the affordable care act. it makes some changes that permit the agency we call c.m.s. to approve waivers from states like the state of alaska or nebraska or tennessee who may say, we would like to spend our obamacare subsidy money in a different way, and we would like to add some of this reinsurance money to it. and by doing that, that's how you achieve the 40% saving for

the nebraska self-employed farmer or the nashville songwriter in their insurance policies. so that set of proposals plus within there is a provision for what we call a catastrophic policy, which is a policy that has somewhat lower -- higher deductibles but lower premiums that people may choose to buy. now, all of that policy has broad bipartisan support. the reinsurance provision i think in the republican discussions we've had in the senate, almost everybody seems to agree that the only way we can have an individual market which is the market for people who buy insurance on their own, people who don't get it from medicare, people who don't get it from medicaid, people who don't get it on the job, let's say you're between jobs or you're self-employed. you're the songwriter. you're the plumber. those people, those are the people that we're focused on here.

there are about 11 million in the united states. but there could be a lot more because all of us know what it's like to think about, well, i might lose my job or i might change jobs. what do i do for insurance in that interim. i have the so-called cobra available but it's very expensive. you might suddenly go out there and find out you're losing your job, and i'm changing jobs and i'm worrying about insurance. that's the person that we're talking about. now, where did these ideas come from? did we just write them on the back of an envelope and give them to congress? no. we went through a very serious process here in the senate. senator murray, the ranking democrat on the senate help committee, i'm the chairman, held four hearings last fall after republicans failed to repeal and replace the obamacare law. and we invited all senators to participate and we had more than

half the senate come to our hearings and to our meetings with the witnesses. and out of that came the proposals to streamline the 1332 waiver. that's flexibility for states. and the need to pay for the cost-sharing subsidies temporarily because people began to understand that they don't cost money, they save taxpayer money because they reduce the need for federal taxpayer subsidies. so that's where that came from. the single, most important idea that was not part of the original alexander-murray proposal was reinsurance or on the house they call it invisible risk pool. senators collins and nelson have championed here. representative meadows, representative costello, others have championed it over there. it was part of the republican repeal and replace legislation in the house of representatives. so the idea of three years of reinsurance really has come from

both bodies from both sides of the aisle. and what -- it is the most essential part of any long-term policy to create an individual market where people can buy insurance if they don't get it on the job or get it from the government. and this would give states a half million dollars in the current year 2018 to plan for their reinsurance pools. it would then create $10 billion over three years that the states could use to help pay for their reinsurance pools. and they would use their 1332 streamline waiver in the second and third year so they could have a combination of state money, reinsurance federal money, and obamacare subsidy money and hopefully in that process create their own way of helping to pay for the needs of the very sickest people in the state and by taking them out of the insurance pool, lower the rates for everybody else over that four-year period according

to the oliver wyman consulting firm as much as 40%. now, the congres congressional t office has also reviewed the set of proposals i just described. my staff has been working closely with them because we want to know what it costs if we want to put it in the omnibus bill. and the preliminary feedback from the congressional budget office is more conservative than the oliver wyman estimate. the congressional budget office says that it would reduce premiums by an average of 10% in 2019 and 20% in 2020 and 2021 if states take full advantage of the 1332 waiver that they have. as can you imagine, mr. president, state commissioners are delighted with this package. first, they would like to see us do something in a bipartisan way to stabilize the health insurance market so people aren't scared to death that they may not be able to buy a policy

next year. but second, they think it's sound policy. it's sound policy. much of this started when the president called me last august and said, between now and the time we make a final decision on what to do about the affordable care act or obamacare, the president said, i want to make sure that people aren't hurt. so he asked me if i would work with senator murray and see if we can come up with a bipartisan set of proposals that would stabilize the individual market. he called me several times about that, and we've worked together since then. that's when we came together with the original alexander-murray proposal. then we had a big disagreement here within the senate, and we had our tax bill. repealed the individual mandate in the affordable care act. republicans thought that was a good idea because it made people buy insurance that they didn't

want and it was a tax on low-income people so we got rid of it. democrats didn't like that at all. the fact is true that it -- that taking the individual mandate out, even though states could add it back if they want to, does increase the cost of insurance in the individual market. but despite that, this set of policies that i've described, the state flexibility, the three years of cost-sharing subsidies, and the three years of reinsurance -- invisible risk pools, those three policies according to oliver wyman consulting, one of the leading health consulting firms in america, could lower rates 40% lower than they otherwise would be. and according to the congressional budget office, a nonpartisan agency that looked at things for us, it will lower them 10% in 2019 and as much as 20% in the next two years after that. even if it's only 20% and not

40%. 20% of $20,000 is $4,000 for marty, the self-employed farmer, in nashville who stopped me at the chik-fil-a who said her insurance had gone from $300 to $1,300 to $1,400 a month. madam president, i ask consent to include in the record the report of the oliver wyman consulting company that says that the combination of policies i just described, reinsurance, cost-sharing subsidies, and section 1332 waiver, the state flexibility, those three policies will reduce rates by up to 40%. the presiding officer: without

objection. mr. alexander: finally, i would ask. what if we don't do this? i'm generally an optimistic person. i'm results oriented. you don't get results if you don't work across party lines. i always think we will succeed. this has been more difficult to do than it should have been. i would like to suggest to my colleagues and to the american people that we should focus on october 1 of this year because that's the date when insurance rates for next year, 2019, will be announced all across the country. mr. alexander: insurance comes are working with insurance commissioners in every state to try and figure out what's going to be happening, what the rates will be. they'll be announced on october 1. about a month before the next election. there are a lot of people who are going to be looking at that. because in my state of tennessee, rates were up 58% this year. that's for the plumber making $60,000 a year, the songwriter, marty, the farmer, the people

i've been describing, 58% increase. so they're going to be looking october 1 to see whether they can even afford any insurance in 2019. if we do what we're proposing here, the alexander-murray-collins-nelson set of policies which has broad bipartisan support in the house and in the senate and the support of the president, if we do that next week, marty, the self-employed farmer in tennessee, will be able to see on october 1 that her rates will go down and that if oliver wyman is correct, instead of her rates going up 58% like they did this year, they'll go down 40% over the next two or three years. that means she could afford insurance. if we don't do it, rates will go up. the individual market will probably collapse. it was near collapse a year ago. by collapse i mean there will be

counties where people can't buy insurance at all. there will be 11 million people who are between jobs who are self-employed, who are working, who literally cannot afford insurance and they're not going to be very happy campers. and they're going to blame every one of us and they should. they're going to blame the president. they're going to blame republicans. they're going to blame democrats. they're going to blame insurance companies because we have an opportunity next week to solve that problem in a bipartisan way developed through a bipartisan process, incorporating ideas that virtually everyone who looks at it says made very good policy sense. we have a couple of things to work through on ancillary issues. but that shouldn't cloud the fact that we can reduce rates for the working american who can't afford insurance by up to 40% and we can announce that -- the insurance companies will announce that on october 1 or we can do nothing and we can let

the markets falter. some counties there will be places where you can't buy insurance at all. someplace counties there will be places where you can't afford insurance at all and have people look at us and say, my goodness, why did we send them up there to do nothing about that? so i'm optimistic, madam president. i think we can do it. i appreciate the hard work on both sides of the aisle. it has been a very difficult negotiation in many respects. i appreciate the president's consistency over the last several months in supporting this, the vice president's work, senator mcconnell has been very supportive of this, which makes it very helpful in terms of getting it into the bipartisan agreement next week, and i look forward to being able to say to my songwriters and self-employed businessmen and women and marti the farmer that they're making $ $60,000, 70,0,

we've put something in place that will lower their rates by 40%. thank you, madam president. i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

mr. reed: i would request to dispense with the calling of the quorum. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reed: madam president, i rise today as i have many times for nearly two decades to shed light on the long struggle of liberian refugees in the united states and to make the case for this administration to extend deferred, enforced departure, for d.d.e., before they face separation from their jobs and family when their current d e.d. expires.

to end nearly 30 years of your honor certainty by finally giving these liberians the opportunity to aplay for permanent residency and a pathway to citizenship. i would also to take a moment to express my gratitude for those advocates who have stood with me as i have worked for a solution including shell done whitehouse as well as our colleagues from minnesota, senators klobuchar and smith. the case of these liberians is a tragic and historically unique situation. in 1989 a seven-year civil war broke out in liberia that would claim the lives of over 200,000 people and displace more that have half of the liberian population. this conflict devastating liberia, halting food production, collapsing the nation's economy, and destroying its infrastructure. by 1991 an estimated 14,000 liberians fled to the united states seeking refuge from the conflict and in march of that year the attorney general granted them the opportunity to

register for temporary protective status or t.p.s. every subsequent administration has renewed t.p.s. for liberians each year until the end of the first civil war. but the prospect for a safe return ended when liberia plunged into a second civil war from 1999 to 2003. this horrific conflict ended with the departure from power of former president taylor who is currently serving a 50-year prison sentence by the special court of sierra leone for war crimes. liberia had fewer than 200 licensed doctors to contend with the ebola outbreak. throughout this suck ssess of

conflict and tragedy, liberians who sought refuge in the united states have had the option to remain here lawfully under t.p.s. or d.e.d. while conditions remained unstable in liberia. but this is not amnesty. in order to participate, these liberians are required to pass periodic background investigations, pay hundreds of dollars in fees, and stay out of trouble with the law. many of these liberians who have been through this process for decades are perhaps the most vetted and rigorously examined individuals in the united states today. they've also received work authorizations, enabling them to work and start businesses, pay taxes and raise families. many have fully grown american citizen children who attend american schools and serve in our military. at the same time, they have not been afforded earned benefits available to american citizens. so they were responsible for their taxes, responsible to conduct themselves as

law-abiding citizens, but they are not building up any type of social security benefits or other benefits that american workers are. in the years since 1989, they have become our neighbors, friends, and an important community that contributes a great deal to the diversity and prosperity of states like rhode island. today liberia has only just completed its first democratic transfer of power in decades and there are still serious concerns about the nation's ability to maintain peace and deliver essential services to its population. if the trump administration fails to extend the d.e.d. deadline for liberians, hundreds of liberian american families could be separated and uprooted from their jobs and homes and forced to return to a country that is unrecognizable to them. moreover, it is at best unclear how liberia's recovery could be affected by a sudden and unexpected influx of newcomers from the united states. this is why each time congress

has taken up comprehensive immigration reform, and more recently discussed these issues in the context of the deferred action for child hood arrivals, or daca program, i worked to ensure that it includes relief for liberians who have become americans in every way except on paper. congress continues to debate the best path forward for agreement, but liberians cannot wait another month or another year. they have just over two weeks before their time is up. at the very least the trump administration should extend d.e.d. for this population for three additional years while congress debates the path forward on comprehensive immigration reform. in my -- with each year that has passed since the first these liberians arrived, the case has grown stronger that they should have the option to adjust their status and remain in the

communities where they've made their homes and raised their families. we have long since reached the point where congress extend this to these liberians. congress has afforded the opportunity to apply for permanent residency when their stays were prolonged by dangerous conditions in their home countries. in 1988 congress passed a law offering permanent residency to temporary residents from poland, uganda, afghanistan, and ethiopia. following the events in tiananmen square in china, congress admitted 52,000 chinese nationals to apply for permanent residency. in nicaragua and central american relief act permitted the same for 259,000 nationals of nicaragua, cuba, el salvador and guatemala. the syrian adjustment act

permits 2,000 syrian jews to obtain permanent reserve deny civility the list goes on. but the fact of the matter is that there is ample precedent for providing relief for this relatively small liberian population. like past congresses, this congress must acknowledge the simple fact that the united states is now home to these law-abiding, taxpaying liberians. to ignore them or to stay otherwise not only threatens to break up american families but also to turn away a group whose story is quintessentially american. they fled violence and disease to come here. they worked hard and raised families. they followed our laws and subjected themselves to rigorous screening and vetting. they deserve the opportunity to make their own decision on whether to stay here or return to liberia. i can say with confidence that rhode island would feel their absence if this liberian community were forced to leave after contributing to our

communities for so long, and our country would be poorer for their loss. there are many examples i could discuss of how the liberian community in rhode island has enriched our state, but i will name two. two individuals. lance corporal abraham tawoe of the united states marine and providence police sergeant maxwell dorlen. both came to rhode island from liberian to start their chapters of the american dream. they led exemplary lives in the form of military service and a member of our local police force in providence. both of them serve with distinction and our state tragically lost both of them in the line of duty in 2012. they are emblematic of the extraordinary contributions that liberians have made to my state, and no discussion of what liberians meant to us without mentioning both of these gentlemen by name. i strongly urge president trump

to do the right thing and extent the d.e.d. for liberians living legally in the united states. i also urge my colleagues to take up and pass the liberian refugee tkpwraeubgs fairness act and -- immigration fairness act and put an end to uncertainty for this population after decades of disappointment. on that note, madam president, i would yield the floor and also note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

ms. klobuchar: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from minnesota. ms. klobuchar: madam president, are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are. ms. klobuchar: i ask the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. klobuchar: madam president, i come to the floor today for a number of reasons, but first and most pressing is to call and ask the administration to extend deferred enforcement departure status for a group of liberians. this is a pretty unique situation. senator jack reed was just on the floor in the last hour talking about it as well. both the state of rhode island and the state of minnesota have a number of liberians who didn't just come to this country. they didn't come to this country

illegally. they came to this country decades ago, and they came because of a civil war in their country of liberia. and then after that war was basically resolved, they were allowed to stay. so they are all registered in this country. they are all working legally in this country. and they're in a special status called deferred enforcement departure. and ever since george h.w. bush, president, democrats, republicans, george bush of course and president clinton, president obama, every one has allowed them to stay. so as you can imagine, since this happened back in 1991, these are people who have been working in our country for decades now. some of them -- i met one that was 65 years old. some of them are now 70 years old.

they have obeyed the law. they have paid their taxes. and if they -- they tend to be working consistently. a lot of them are working in our assisted living facilities in minnesota. they are working in our hospitals. some of them had health care experience in liberia before they came to minnesota. so they are a thriving community who has integrated well into our state, into rhode island. and we are a state that unemployment rate is somewhere around 3% and even lower in some of the areas where this community is working. and it would literally be a big jolt to our economy, and not to mention immoral if they were suddenly deported and lost the legal status that they have had literally for decades. so unlike some of the other things we talk about with people that maybe just came here -- and i've worked so hard on the dreamers to get them a path to citizenship -- this is a pretty

unique situation, and so we hope the administration will be practical about that. and that is why senator reed and i are working on this issue and hope to get it resolved since their status is ending on march 31, as in just a few weeks from now. liberians are the only group of people, and it is the only country with deferred enforced departure, or d.e.d., as it's known, which is a temporary legal status that requires the president to reauthorize it every 18 months. so one idea here is the president could reauthorize it, and then they could look into it more, as there is a lot going on, as we know, in our country, and a lot of changes at the right now secretary of state's office. one idea is they could allow it to go for another 18 months and then come to a conclusion of what they think they should do

about it. as i mentioned, in 1991, president george h.w. bush first issued temporary protected status to liberians in response to the nation's civil war. since 1991 presidents on both sides of the aisle have extended legal protection to liberians in the u.s. under either t.p.s. or d.e.d., this deferred enforcement departure, because of civil wars, there is the ebola outbreak and other instabilities. all liberians covered by d.e.d. have been living in the united states since 2002. so this isn't, as i said, new people coming in under this status. this is people that have been living here with the status for decades. as i mentioned, some are now in their 70's, and all of them have lived here legally, paid their taxes, contributed to our community, and worked at our employers. if d.e.d. is not extended by march 31, they will lose their

legal status and work authorization and face deportation. minnesota, as i mentioned, has one of the largest liberian populations in the country. many of these people are business owners. they are teachers. they are health care workers. and according to one organization, nearly 40% of liberians in minnesota work in our nursing homes as nurses' assistants and other support staff. imagine if you took thousands and thousands of people away just like that on march 31 because they wouldn't have legal status to work, out of the nursing homes where they have worked for decades. i've also called for action on the liberian refugee immigration fairness act, a bill that senator reed has introduced every congress since 1999, and i cosponsored this bill. the bill would actually provide permanent protected status, including a path to citizenship,

for those liberians who have obeyed the law and been here in this temporary status for decades. that is not what we're asking for today. we understand and we hope negotiations are ongoing so we can have a more comprehensive immigration bill. we are simply asking the administration to continue those 18 months that have been started back in 1991 by a republican president. i met with a number of members of our liberian community yesterday. they are in very big fear right now that their livelihoods, their families will be ripped apart, and i am hopeful that we'll be able to resolve this at least for their temporary 18-month period. secondly, a different topic. i'd like to take a moment to discuss a bipartisan bill that i introduced this week that would help reduce the burden of relocation for military

families. when service members relocate to comply with military orders, they and their families make sacrifices to help protect our nation. right now there's a problem with the way that the law treats some military spouses that make frequent moves, and the law ironically makes it even harder on them rather than easier on them. current law allows active duty service members to maintain one state of legal residence for tax and voting purposes, even when military orders require them to relocate. that makes moving a lot easier. unfortunately, this convenience does not apply to a service member spouse unless they were living together at the same residence before they got married. so in other words, if you were not living with your service member before you got married, you have to establish residency every single time your family

gets moving orders from the military. from filing taxes or registering to vote, a military family then has double the paperwork and stress each time they move. this is a loophole that must be fixed. why would we make it harder for the spouses of those who are making a sacrifice by having their loved one serve overseas and not make it easier for them to vote and to pay their taxes and to basically be the citizen that they deserve to be? that's why on tuesday, senators cornyn, kaine, kennedy, manchin, and i introduced the support our military spouses act, legislation that would ensure that spouses have the same residency protections, regardless of their living arrangements before marriage. from titling a car to filing taxes to registering to vote, everything is a little easier when the law ensures that you can stay a resident of one state

and it's the same state as your spouse. that's just common sense, and it cuts a lot of red tape out for military families. the bill has the support of the built spouses' network, the military officers association of america, and the council of state governments. this bill passed the house in july of 2017 with bipartisan support, and i am going to work with my cosponsors to get it done in the senate. we ask a lot of our military members and their families. when we can make life easier for them, we should. this is one simple thing we can do. finally, madam president, a third topic. i would like to mention the sanctions that were just announced against russia for interfering in the 2016 election. it took 14 months, multiple indictments, and a poisoning in britain, but the administration is finally imposing the

sanctions, the same sanctions that were passed by the senate 98-2 and 419-3 in the house last year. sanctioning russia for undermining our democracy is what we should do. but we must remember that it is not enough to protect ourselves from future attacks. there is no longer any doubt that our elections will continue to be a target for foreign adversaries. intelligence reports make it clear that russia used covert cyber attacks, espionage, and harmful propaganda to attack our political system. trump administration officials, not obama officials, trump intelligence officials continue to sound the alarm that russia is continuing its efforts to attack our democracy. the c.i.a. director said that he has seen no signs that russia has decreased its activity and

that russia is currently working to disrupt the upcoming 2018 elections. the director of national intelligence, director coats, who was once a senator here, said that russia is boulder -- bolder. it would be a mistake to think the saingz passed today are all we need to do to address these warnings. they will no doubt help, because if you do nothing, then you just embolden them to do more. it is the policy of the united states to defend against and respond to threats against our democratic system, and we need to start acting like it. we need to be as sophisticated as those that are trying to do us harm. we know that the russians attempted to hack into 21 states' election systems. in illinois, they actually got into the voter data system. that is why senator lankford and i have led a bill to take the amount of money which is just 3% of one aircraft carrier to invest it in our states, to let

them on a decentralized basis, their own decisions about the kind of equipment they want, to be able to upgrade it, because 40 of our states have not upgraded their equipment in ten years. ten of our states do not even have backup paper ballots. so what would happen if they were hacked, as they got so close the last time? well, there would be no way to prove what actually happened. you would have to vote again. that is why we have democrats and republicans supporting this effort. representative mark meadows, the head of the freedom caucus, is leading the bill that senator graham and i have, which is similar to the one i have with senator lankford over in the house. senator coons from the appropriations committee has been a strong supporter of this effort, as has senators harris and senator graham and a number of other people. this is a truly bipartisan effort because people understand that it's no longer only going

to be traditional ways of warfare when we're attacked. it's going to be cyber. it's not just going to be election infrastructure, it's not just going to be government infrastructure, it's also going to be our businesses, our power companies, you name it, and that is why we need to upgrade our cyber protection. the last thing i would mention on this front as we look into this next election and how we're going to protect our democracy is the honest ads act, and this is a bill i have with senator mccain, also cosponsored by senator warner, the ranking member of the senate intelligence committee. this is based on the fact that we know russia spent millions of dollars buying ads. that was reflected in the diplomat of 13 russians and what they did and how they plotted to disrupt elections and to spend money on political ads. a number of these ads were even purchased in rubles. so what senator mccain and senator warner and i are trying

to do is simply apply the same rules that are already in place to protect americans in our elections by making sure that we know who is paying for the ads and what those ads are. who is paying for the ads, although the simple disclaimers you see in the ads where they say whoever the candidate is, i paid for this ad. who discloses the ads, well, that's just simply when any radio station, tv station, you can go into the station, see it online, see what the ads are. that is not true right now of some of the most sophisticated companies if not the most sophisticated companies in america. companies like facebook and twitter that have made millions and billions of dollars, companies that are profiting off of political ads. it is no different than when a newspaper allows someone to buy an ad or a tv station does. they make money off it, so it's their duty to protect the citizens to make sure that the ads don't contain falsehoods, that

are not criminal, -- that the ads are not criminal, the ads are not applied to everyone. when you see political ads on issues or candidate ads -- and the f.e.c. did something yesterday but it was so very narrow about candidate ads. what you see on candidate ads and issue ads, that you also see the same disclaimers and most importantly the disclosure on ads that are on social media companies. i use those words carefully. media companies. newspaper, print and radio, we love it, they are media companies. facebook, twitter, we love them. they are media companies. we are not here talking about recipes and cat videos. we are not talking about free stuff that people put up. no, we are talking about paid political ads that need to be treated the same. so while we are pleased these sanctions have been put in place, while it is good the f.e.c. is narrowly trying to do something within their jurisdiction about disclaimers

on candidate ads, we must pass the honest ads act, because if you think it was bad last election when 1.4 billion dollars was spent on election ads, try this next one out. forecasts are $3 billion to $4 billion are going to be spent on social media ads against candidates on issues, and there is no way to track it. it's just going to go out to your facebook page. you're not going to know if it's true, you are not going to know who paid for it, and the ads will just vanish. i think americans deserve something better, and i ask my colleagues to support the honest ads act. thank you, madam president. i yield the floor.

mr. brown: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from ohio. mr. brown: i particularly species senator klobuchar's service, who has been a pioneer as the first female senator from minnesota, and i believe the senator in the chair is the first female snowe from nebraska. if you are allowed to talk. i believe she is. senator fischer is, in fact. i rise today to honor my colleague and my long-time close friend marcy kaptur. marcy kaptur serves on the other side of the building. she has dedicated her life to serving the people of toledo and northern ohio. this sunday, she will officially become -- she will make history, she will officially become the longest serving woman in the history of the united states congress in either house. on sunday, she will have served in the house of representatives for 35 years, two months, 18

days, breaking a record that was set in 1960 by, i believe, a massachusetts congresswoman. three and a half decades, she has been principled, she has been passionate about her family, her community, our country, and she has advocated for ohioans she serves like nobody else. she is the granddaughter of polish immigrants. that's important to her. she comes from a working class family. that's important to her. she is a practicing roman catholic. that's important to her. that describes much of who marcy is -- polish immigrant, working class family, catholic faith. her father was a trucker and auto worker. he became a small businessman. her mother worked at the champion spark plug factory where of course she helped to organize a union. her story, i say, of course because of marcy's not just understanding the importance of the labor movement but feeling it in her bones that a unionized work force is good for those

workers, good for the company, good for the community, and we need more of that. marcy's story echoes that of so many of our generation. her parents worked hard. with the help of a union card, they earned the way for a better life. she became the first of her family to graduate from high school and then college. then she ended up in the united states congress. what a great country we live in. marcy has never forgotten those roots. if you want to know one thing about marcy kaptur, who has i said works down the hall in the other end of the building, if you want to know one thing about marcy kaptur, you know she has never forgotten her roots. that's what drives her, that's who she is, that's why she is such a terrific public servant. that's why she will break the record of 35 years, two months, and 15 days. she remembers her roots as ohio's polish and ukrainian communities and how much they matter. unemployment reached 19% in toledo in the early reagan years

when marcy first ran for office. she said it was the condition of working people that drove me to change my life and run for office. she has lived up to that ideal fighting for working families in ohio for every one of the nearly 13,000 days she served in congress. my first year in the house, marcy was a mentor to me. i worked with her to fight against the north american free trade agreement. she showed me the way in understanding these trade agreements because she knew it would mean job losses in ohio, and you know what else she knew, madam president? she knew these trade agreements would push wages down. that's sort of the untold story, something i don't think the president quite understands when he talks about nafta, even though he's right that nafta was bad for our country, but what nafta has done that marcy has explained to me and understood for 35 years, 25 years, is that nafta also pushed down wages and one of the reasons working class americans, whether they are in omaha or cleveland so often don't get a raise.

unfortunately, marcy was right. since then, as we fought bad trade deal after bad trade deal, marcy has been a reliable ally and leader in our fight for a trade policy that puts workers in toledo and everywhere else in this country first. we have also worked together to protect another major very important love of marcy kaptur, and that is our greatest natural resource, lake erie. we fought for the great lakes restoration initiative. we joined with senator portman bipartisanly to stop the president's all but elimination of the -- why would a president of the united states want to stop our cleanup of lake erie, and that's why marcy steps up. she works to protect the lake from invasive asian carp. she worked with farmers to prevent runoff into lake erie, all to protect the lake. it's what that lake means to us in terms of drinking water and jobs and commercialism and commercial development and people just enjoying the beauty of the lake.

she has gone to bat time and time again for the auto industry. when some called the auto industry dead, she fought back. never bet against american workers. never bet against the american auto industry. never bet against marcy kaptur. that -- that scrappy spirit is what i love about ohio and you find it in abundance in marcy kaptur. her district goes from toledo to ohio, all the way to the city of cleveland. she has already in only five years, the people of cleveland have gained the same affection for marcy as the people for toledo. you can see the love and respect they have. i remember once, madam president, going to a rally in toledo for president obama. people were excited to see him, of course. i guess a few people may have noticed i was there too. but when marcy walked in,

someone screamed marcy, and it was panned momentum. she fights for the people of ohio, fights for her district. she is known as a fighter for working families. it is so fighting she reaches this milestone during women's history month. when she first joined the house there were fewer than two dozen women serving. she helped blaze a trail for others and told the stories of others who helped blaze wait for her in her book. she matters to the hundreds of thousands of ohioans she serves, it matters from the perspective she brings as the daughter of working-class family. she was the first in her family not tone go to college but to graduate from high school. it matters, madam president, as you do in nebraska, it matters to the little girls in toledo who for 35 years -- you know --

you know how when you go -- when you're in school and there's often a map or chart of the presidents -- i remember this as a calendar at the b rirch nke -- brinkeroff grade school, every year there would be a calendar with all of the presidents apictures. they all kind of looked a like because they were all white guys. that changed in 2008. i was kind of hoping it would change in 2016. it didn't, but that's beside the point. but marcy kaptur, little girls in toledo, since 1982, have had someone to look up to. i hope in scots bluff and lincoln they will look up to having a women senator from nebraska. they've never had a woman senator or governor, but they had marcy kaptur. that mattered to little girls

when they see her picture in the newspaper. not just another man in a suit but someone who looks more like them, someone they can groi up to -- grow up to. i wanted to thank marcy for her service to ohio. i hope we get to keep working for marcy kaptur for another couple of decades. the voters would have to approve of that. i also want to talk about somebody else that's -- that's benefited -- i want to unanimous consent for a different place in the record, madam president. talk about somebody else who is sitting in this chamber that will continue as her career advances to be a role model for the people of this country and the people of her community. a daughter of eastern ohio, rachel petrie, has done communication work for me for a number of years. she is leaving our office to return to her home state of ohio. she has been a joy and pleasure to work with. she is so smart and committed

with an incredible work ethic. i'm honored she spent part of her life working with me and in our office in washington, d.c., and wanted to thank her for her service. madam president, i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

mrs. fischer: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from nebraska. the senate is in a quorum call. mrs. fischer: i would ask that the quorum call be vitiated, please. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. fischer: mr. president, i have the request for seven committees to meet during today's session of the senate. they have the approval of the majority and minority leaders. the presiding officer: duly noted. mrs. fischer: mr. president, i rise to continue my tribute to nebraska's heroes. those who have lost their lives defending iraq and afghanistan. each has a special story to tell. today i will tell the story of lonnie calvin jr. calvin grew up in a military family. his father, lonnie allen -- both

he and his wife sally thought they would only be there for a short time. however, they enjoyed the good life and soon after the birth of their two sons, naru and calvin, they decided to stay. as a young child calvin spent much of his time in the kitchen. his he mother talks about how calvin learned to cook at the age of five. sally has vivid memories of calvin in the kitchen in the early mornings or on the weekends experimenting with new recipes or dishes. there would be times when she would still be in bed and calvin would bring food or a new dish to try. she said he was always open to trying new things whether it was in the kitchen or elsewhere. this also pertained to sports where calvin played basketball and football, ran track, and

wrestled. calvin also had a caring attitude which extended to church on sundays. calvin was widely known amongst the congregation at mount carvel mountain church and he was often an usher and displayed his musical talent in the choir. calvin had an open relationship with god and happily shared it with everyone he met. throughout his high school years at bellview east, calvin spent much of his time with friends and family. sally recalled many video game parties and sleepovers at their house which would end with many of calvin's friends sprawled out on the allen living room floor. calvin was a member of a close-knit family who spent time playing games together. whether it was card games or board games, the competitive

spirit would always come out in the allen boys. they loved to compete. after graduating from bellview east in 1998, calvin enrolled at northeastern junior college in sterling, colorado, to study criminal justice. he long envisioned a career in law enforcement and thought this would be a good starting point for him to launch his career. after completing two years at northeastern, calvin enrolled at colorado state to finish his criminal justice degree. soon after enrolling at colorado state, however, he returned home to bellview. calvin's vehicle had been involved in a wreck, which left him without any means of transportation. due to this, he enlisted in the army as a way to pay for a new vehicle while also pursuing his law enforcement career while serving his country.

sally still laughs about the fact calvin returned to nebraska due to a wrecked car. although many expected he would follow in his dad's footsteps by enlisting in the air force, sally knew better. calvin wanted to pave his own road in the army. following his enlistment, calvin soon shipped off to fort benning to complete his one station unit training for the infantry. shortly after graduation, he was assigned to a station in germany. it was in germany where calvin met his wife brigitte, a german native. after dating for some time calvin was assigned to fort drum in new york, as part of the first brigade combat team, tenth mountain division. brigitte came with him to new york where they wed in 2004.

shortly after their marriage, calvin served in iraq for the first time and brigitte moved to bellview to be closer to calvin's family while he was deployed. after a brief stint at home, he deployed to iraq for a second time. in august 2005, calvin was stationed near baghdad. during sergeant allen's second deployment, patrols became increasingly dangerous. at the time the baghdad area experienced a large increase in suicide bombings and sectarian fighting. on may 18, 2006, while on patrol in baghdad, sergeant allen's humvee was struck by an improvised explosive device killing him and three other service members. sergeant allen's memorial service was held at the kay park

chapel in belleview. over 500 people attended the standing room-only ceremony to pay their respect, including over 200 patriot riders who lined up with american flags. calvin was laid to rest on may 30, 2006, in arlington national cemetery, the day after memorial day. fellow friend and air force captain bill ecley talked about how calvin was a man of honor. belleview also honored him by naming a street after him and his high school established the sergeant lonnie calvin allen, jr., scholarship. sergeant lonnie calvin allen, jr., received the bronze star and purple heart posthumously. i join nebraskans and americans across our country in saluting his willingness and his family's sacrifice to keep us free.

i am honored to tell his story. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. i would suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

quorum call:

mr. cornyn: mr. president. the presiding officer: the majority whip. mr. cornyn: mr. president, are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are. mr. cornyn: i'd ask unanimous consent that the conform call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cornyn: two days ago the president of the united states announced his decision to

replace secretary of state rex tillerson with c.i.a. director mike pompeo. i respect both of these men immensely but want to talk about secretary tillerson's public service. i know it was quite a transition, but he provided able leadership to the department of state during a period of transition from one presidency to the next and a period of diplomatic turbulence. he worked hard to strengthen and in some cases repair our global alliances. i've known secretary tillerson for a long time. he is a man of character who has led the boy scouts, which continues to be one of his abiding passions, developing young men as persons of character. and i respect that. at the same time he advanced his own career as the head of one of the largest businesses in the

world, at the pinnacle of success as we count success. but i wish him the best and i hope that his statesmanship, professionalism and deep and abiding friendship spanning the globe are remembered and maintained after he's gone from public life. i also want to say a few good words about my friend mike pompeo. after graduating first in his class at west point and then graduating from harvard law school he had a successful career in law and business before transitioning into public service. as a member of the house of representatives, he represented kansas' fourth congressional district and served on the permanent select committee on intelligence. then he was named by president trump, as we know, to lead the central intelligence agency. director pompeo is a terrific guy, smart and well respected by all. he has a keen sense of the delicate nature of global diplomacy and the crucial role that america and american

intelligence agencies have to play. i know he has a great rapport with the president, and i think he will make an excellent secretary of state. finally, i want to state my utmost confidence in gina haspel, director pompeo's deputy who has been nominated to take over after he leaves as director of the c.i.a. as a career professional, intelligence professional, she is tough, she is direct, but she is collegial too and much beloved by the people who work out at the central intelligence agency. as my colleague, the senior senator from california has previously stated, ms. haspel has great experience acting as deputy director, and she has the confidence of the central intelligence agency, no small feat. i support ms. haspel's nomination and look forward to working hard to ensure her confirmation. of course there will be groups who will waste no time trying to

tarnish her reputation over efforts that she made doing her part to keep our nation safe after the terrible tragedy of 9/11, but i think it's more telling that those who know her best commend her in the strongest of terms. take, for example, president obama's former director of national intelligence, james clapper, who has called her tremendous. and president obama's c.i.a. director leon panetta has expressed his support and said he's glad the nominee is ms. haspel because she knows the c.i.a. in and out. in the days ahead we'll be discussing ms. haspel but let's not just buy into the phony narratives that other people will give about her public service. the views of those who doubt her qualification and who question her experience will continue to attack and denigrate ms. haspel, no doubt, in the open debate.

but ultimately their arguments, if believed and accepted, would make the country less safe and less secure. we have to remember that right after the terrible events of 9/11, we didn't have the luxury of hindsight. our leaders were worried about follow-on attacks following the terrible tragedy in new york and the plane crashing into the pentagon. public fears regarding another attack were at an all-time high, and tough calls had to be made. that's what leadership is all about. so i look forward to continuing to make the case for why she is the person that the country needs to lead the central intelligence agency. mr. president, i admit to sounding like a broken record. i'm here again to talk about the fix nics bill, a bill i introduced with the junior senator from connecticut. just as a refresher, fix nics is about fixing the broken background check that's used when somebody purchases a

firearm, but in the case of my constituents in sutherland springs, because of the failures of the federal government, notably in this case the u.s. air force, to upload felony convictions and convictions for domestic violence into the background check system, no derogatory information was reported, and ultimately the individual there in the -- the gunman in sutherland springs took the life of 26 innocent people and shot 20 more. the reason i keep talking about this legislation is it's just too important to let up on. we cannot and we never should just move on after another tragedy like that that occurred in parkland, florida, and sutherland springs, or what happens in las vegas where 58 people were killed and 851 others injured by the use -- by a gunman using a bump stock which essentially turned a semiautomatic weapon into an

automatic weapon. we can't just move on when lives hang in the balance. we have to do our duty and do our part to save lives. we have to fix our criminal background check system so that dangerous felons do not lie their way into obtaining firearms to use to slaughter innocent people. to do that, we've got to sign this bill -- we've got to get this bill to the president as soon as possible. the president will sign this legislation once it passes the house and the senate. and i'm grateful that today 72 members of the united states senate have signed on as cosponsors to the bill. but it's not just the lawmakers here in washington that support it. the country is asking for it too. i have a thursday morning coffee for my constituents from texas, and a number of them, students, came to talk to me about their concerns about gun violence, and particularly the feeling that

not only parents have and worry about for their children, but that students have themselves about whether they're going to continue to be safe in their schools. yesterday a broad coalition of victims' rights advocates, law enforcement, and gun violence prevention groups and prosecutors sent me a letter along to the minority and minority leaders asking them for a clean vote on the fix nics legislation before the upcoming easter recess. they said it would improve key elements of the background check system, particularly domestic violence criminal history, and protective order records. let me just pause there. one of the most frequent victims of shootings are domestic violence victims. family disputes, custody disputes, divorces, and the like. one of the purposes of the background check system is to make sure that nobody who's been convicted of a domestic violence assault can legally purchase or

possess a firearm. these same groups call this bill bipartisan, bicameral, commonsense, and noncontroversial. again, they made a point to note in their letter that the vote should be clean. in other words, not conditioned on other controversial measures. well, they're absolutely right, and i'd ask the minority leader to listen to the 80% of his conference that backed this bill and believed in its promise to help stem the tide of violence and save lives. i'd ask those who are objecting to us considering this legislation on a clean up-or-down vote to reconsider. many of them say, well, there are other things we want to vote on. well, i would be happy to have that happen, but none of these ideas at this point have achieved the sort of consensus that the fix nics bill has. they're waiting for impossibly

outcomes, insisting on votes on other measures when we know those votes will fail. but worst of all, conditioning their willingness to vote on fix nics for those other votes, which we know will not succeed and will fail. so i implore those standing in the way of a roll call vote on this consensus piece of legislation to lift their objections and to join us. their current strategy will guarantee failure, and failure on this issue more than others, we absolutely cannot afford. mr. president, i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from massachusetts. ms. warren: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, i'm here today to commemorate the 50th anniversary of robert f. kennedy's monumental campaign for president. kennedy's brief, tragic run at the presidency has had an enduring impact on so many generations of americans. and the reason i think is

because robert kennedy had the courage to challenge a divided nation to face up to its failings, to challenge a divided people to acknowledge their own contributions to our nation's ills, to challenge us to step back from the stale, cheap politics of the moment, to challenge us to do better by each other. history may not repeat, but it often rhymes. conditions are different now, but a lot of anxiety that swept through the country in 1968 echoes the anxiety of today, especially the economic anxiety felt by millions of americans who are working harder than ever but feel opportunities slipping away from themselves and from their children. too often our political and business leaders refuse to see this. instead they hide behind macroeconomic statistics, using them as a shield to dismiss the concerns of the american people

asphalty, wrong head -- as faulty, wrongheaded or even as nonexistent. but robert kennedy understood that america's national economy is not the same as the economic well-being of its people. in 1968, in his speech at the university of kansas, he spoke eloquently about the differences between them. and here is what he said: our gross domestic product counts air pollution and cigarette advertising and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. it counts special locks for our doors and the jails for people who break them. it counts the destruction of the redwood and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. it counts nay palm and counts nuclear warheads and armored cars for the police to fight the riots in our cities. it counts whitman's rifle and spec's knife and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children.

yet, the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. it does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. it measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country. it measures everything in short except that which makes life worthwhile. and it can tell us everything about america except why we are proud that we are americans. consider three stats: corporate profits, the stock market, and unemployment. today corporate profits are up. corporate profits that count gun sales for manufacturers, whose weapons are used to massacre children in our schools and our

streets. corporate profits that count revenues from drug companies when they quadruple prices for the sick and the desperate. corporate profits that count revenues of banks like wells fargo as they rip off millions of american consumers. the stock market is up as giant companies pocket trillions in taxpayer money, stolen from middle-class families. the market is up as c.e.o.'s shut down plants and factories here in the united states and move them overseas. the market is up as business leaders flush with cash turn their backs on workers while they plow millions and even billions into stock buybacks to goose investors' returns and c.e.o.'s bonuses. unemployment is down, but wages have barely budged in a generation. unemployment is down, but for millions of people, the exploding cost for housing, for health care, for child care mean that i