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 it now takes two jobs to do

what one job covered a generation ago. and unemployment is down, but the numbers fail to count for the millions living in rural and urban american communities alike that have given up on the search for a job. corporate profits, the stock market, and unemployment, these statistics tell us everything about the american economy, but they tell us very little about the lived experience of today's americans. they do not speak to the citizen who fears police violence or the police officer who fears gang violence or to the immigrant who cannot speak out about sexual assault at the hands of her boss or the toxic rhetoric flowing through our politics and seeking to turn neighbor against neighbor. they do not account for our devotion to our communities, to our churches, to our children. they tell us virtually nothing about our trials or our challenges or our hopes or our

principles. robert kennedy understood this. he knew that we cannot simply unrun an -- run an economy for those at the top and assume it will solve america's problems. in the intervening 50 years since his speech, america ran that experiment anyway and watched it fail miserably. it's time to try something different. it's time to challenge each of us to do better by each other, to see the dignity in one another and to put our values first. i believe that we can make robert kennedy's legacy a reality, and i am proud to fight for it. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call: a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from missouri. mr. blunt: mr. president, if we're in a quorum call, i move we suspend the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. blunt: mr. president, in the next few days, we'll begin the debate on this important bill on sex trafficking. this is something that for whatever reason the country turned its back on for too long as the ways to communicate, the ways to offer so-called adult services grew, the government and law enforcement didn't have

the new tools that they needed to fight back. this is a bill that senator portman and others have worked so hard on this side of the bill. we're actually taking up the house bill. the house bill, the principal sponsor was anne wag never, who i worked -- wagner, i worked closely with her. when the house passed this bill overwhelmingly, anne wagner said that they sent a clear message to trafficking victims that you are not alone and justice is no longer out of reach. hard to imagine a more lonely place, i would think, thank someone who is being trafficked, some young child, boy or girl, who has fallen into the hands of traffickers who for drugs, or for whatever reason, has been sold into this or become dependent in a way that put them into this.

congresswoman wagner said it will produce more prosecutions of bad actor websites and put more predators behind bars and will give victims a path way to justice and provide a meaningful criminal deterrence so fewer businesses will ever enter the sex trade and fewer victims will ever be sold. the whole idea we're selling people to be used in whatever terrible way someone else wants to use them is so offensive. the idea that weed have -- we'd have websites this that you could go to -- websites that you could go to and someone who is helplessly in this system, is something that congress should stand up for. congresswoman wagner's bill has

done that. senator portman has worked to find time to get this on the bill. we have a bill that passed the house, all we have to do is pass that bill and send it right to the president or make some changes that senator portman and others may want to suggest -- send the bill back to the house where hopefully it can be dealt with in the same overwhelming way they passed it the first time and get this bill on the president's desk and do just exactly what congresswoman wagner said this bill will do. it's time for us to do everything we can to end this. we'd be foolish to think that one piece of legislation ends this, but working with law enforcement, looking at trafficking, looking at locations like at intersection of major highways where it is easy to pass people along to someone else, not only are they disoriented, but your actual contact with that person doesn't

last very long before you give them to somebody else or sell them to somebody else who can use them in a terrible way. this needs to stop. and next week i'm confident, mr. president, the senate will do that. i will just say it's about time. also next week we're going to move forward on an appropriating process that's gotten way out of control. i'm glad that the leaders have decided to appoint a special committee to look at this. you and i are on that committee to look at the budgeting process to look at what's happened here that instead of bringing these bills to the floor one at a time and letting every member of the senate to look at every bill as song as you -- long as you don't add more money, if you would like to take some money from here and spend it here instead, and have a debate about that, that's what congress did for a

couple of00 years and it's time we did it again. the idea that the bills come together one big when we call omnibus -- ominous might be a better word, but an omnibus bill that includes everything that it would possibly carry is not the way this should have to work. it is how the process will work this year because we missed all of the opportunities that are now behind us. as soon as we start this year, we need to start this new process. we know what the top-line spending number will be and there's every reason to believe this will be a big step in right direction, but the guidelines from the house and senate committee will do even more. i would like to say as the chairman of one of the appropriations committee, chairman of health and human services and education

subcommittee, that one bill of the 11 left after the defense bill is decided on, that one bill has about a third of all the money to be appropriated of the discretionary money, and senator murray, my counterpart on the other side, and i have worked hard on this committee for three years now. in the house chairman cole and congresswoman delora, the chair and ranking member on that side. these are big decisions to be made. these programs matter, but some of them matter more than others, and par of our job should be and needs to be setting priorities, doing things that increase the commitment to the programs that are working, and eliminate or change the programs that don't work and hopefully we'll continue to do more of that this year and even more of that next year. programs that touch the lives of so many americans like apprenticeship programs, medical

research clearly touches the lives of virtually every american and every american family, what we can do to develop a flu vaccine that actually hits the mark every year instead of misses the market often, things we can do in special education are all parts of this one part of the bill that senator murray and i and congressman cole and congressman delora have been working on. i think everybody should work on this. we know a lot about these topics. i think our debate is a good debate, but it is not nearly as good of a debate unless every senator had a chance to debate on it. there's a wide variety of programs here that need to be funded and i want to spend a few minutes talking about some of the priorities that we're looking at that need to be part of this bill and create a sense that this is really a process

that matters. you know, first we're on track to increase the third straight year of significant increases of the national institute of health and health research. what do they do? in the last decade, we failed to make any increase at all. in fact, two years ago when i started chairing this committee and congressman cole chaired the committee on the other side of the aisle, it was 12 years since there was one penny increase in health research. during those 12 years we figured out so much more about the human genome and how you're different from me and i'm different from you and that whatever is attacking my system we could fight back. not one penny of increase in 12 years. the research people said that we

were 22% below in research buying power than we had been 12 years earlier. young researchers who never got a grant before weren't likely to get one when you had less effective money to spend than you had over a decade. hopefully, at 22%, our goal would be to get most of that 22% in three years. we already restored 13% of it. i hope we have a big number next week that gets us back to where we're at least back where we were in -- in 2005 or so. you know, we made a commitment at the end of the last century to double in a short period of time national institute of health funding, and then somehow we thought we were done. we would be done any time there is no more research to be done, we would be done as soon as we

developed a cure for cancer and found out what to do about alzheimer's and determine what we can do to make heart attack risk less and found the answer to every orphan disease, a disease that only a few people have. let me tell you, mr. president, we're a long way from doing that. in the last three years, we tripled the amount of dollars going to alzheimer's research. and without a cure for alzheimer's or a way to slow down the onset of alzheimer's, the projection is that by 2050, we'll be spending twice as many tax dollars on alzheimer's-related care and dimentia related care than we have spent in the country. in my case it's pretty hard to get a handle on what does that mean? how much bigger is that than

$1.1 billion. $1.1 trillion is twice what we spend to defend the military in the world, every paycheck for every soldier, training dollars, that's about $500 and some billion, we would be spending twice of that of today's dollars in tax dollars, not what families would spend to try to deal with the tragedy of alzheimer's, but twice of that in just tax dollars if we don't find something to do. we can -- a cure would be great. just figures r iewrg -- figuring out -- how you could determine early in an effective way you would likely to get alzheimer's and find an offset of alzheimer's because it doesn't affect you at all because some

other health concern does or you get it a few years later. if we could delay the onset of alzheimer's by five years on average, that $1.1 trillion of today's dollars in 2050 would be reduced by almost half, by 46%. so knowing how to detect this. some great studies going on. this has continued. i think what we're looking at in the brain initiative, the cancer -- the war -- the cancer moonshot, as vice president biden referred to it, diabetes. again, these are diseases that not very many people get are particularly the diseases that the national institute of health needs to be doing research on because there's not much of an economic driver for private sector reap search on a -- research on a disease that almost nobody has. a lot of the money we put into

n.i.h. research we try to put in without any specific category where we say you take this money and you do what you think needs to be done and we'll have oversight on what you did but a bunch of members in the house are not going to try to become the research deciders for the united states of america and by the way for the world when you do that. we're also looking at in this bill the crucial fight on the opioid epidemic. the president says it's a crisis, and he's right. it's the number one cause of accidental death in the country today. it exceeded car accidents as a cause of death in the country, in missouri, and in many other states. the last two funding bills have put almost an additional $1 billion into opioids from where we were just three years ago. mr. president, you will remember

that in the last continuing resolution, some specific money, about $3 billion more dollars was given to this cause as the job of our committee and then the congress to decide how to spend that $3 billion. we need more resources. there's no reason to think that the opioid addiction epidemic leading to heroin and other drugs is slowing down. so we need to do things that improve treatment and prevention efforts -- prevention obviously better than treatment, but if prevention fails, better treatment systems than we have now. we need to look for alternative pain medications that aren't addictive. and i will say that in the 1970's and 1980's in medical schools they thought opioids weren't addictive. so we have to be sure that when we have an alternative it isn't

addictive. we need to think of the workforce needs and what happens when people become addicted to pain medication partly because their addiction doesn't go away. and behavioral health that affects so many families and communities. if you're going to recover from oip adecks -- opioid addiction, you have to have a place to go. and too many programs and policies say we'll work with you for 14 days or a lot of them say we'll work with you for 28 days, four weeks. not many people get this behind them in 28 days. so we're doing that. we're also looking in this bill at ways to support students and parents and teachers. obviously, a safe environment, what can we do to provide more flexibility to schools to spend the money they currently have from the federal government to create a safer environment. and then what can we do to increase the money available for

that. we need to be doing things to prepare people not just for college but for careers. if you can get a certificate that puts you to work at a job you love quicker than you can get a college degree that maybe doesn't do those two things, we ought to be thinking about whether or not our post-high school dollars are equally available to both college and other kinds of training. and we need to see that people have access to higher education. we're doing that by increasing the funding for the pell grant. this is not a loan. it doesn't have to be paid back. given specifically based on economic need and performance in school. you have to stay in school. you have to get passing grades. but in many colleges in my state, missouri, in every single community college, and in several of our four-year schools, if you qualify for the full pell grant, that's more than enough to pay tuition,

books, fees, and that part of your education is there. year-round pell means if you're putting yourself through school or returning to school as an adult, if you're the first person in your family to graduate from college, year round pell means if you have something working, you need to stick with it as long as you can, as quickly as you can. you can take that summer break which is always well intentioned because pell for ten years didn't pay for school in the summer. it does now. it started last year. this will be the first year when both students and colleges and universities could really prepare for summer pell. but if you don't break the rhythm you're in where things are working for you, you're much more likely to graduate from college than you would otherwise be. we need to be sure we prioritize funding for elementary and secondary education grant programs so that they're fair across the country, so that

we're not only supporting stem education but we're also supporting idea wit for students with learning disabilities. that's all an obligation that the federal government has taken on itself. so we're going to have a chance, mr. president, next week to deal with this important, lon long-awaited bill on trafficking. i think there will be more than one vote on funding for the government that we're already in. as i talked about today, there are many reasons for americans and american families to be focused on the job we do and, frankly, mr. president, we need to spend our time to figure out how in the future the american people can watch the congress more closely and watch the congress openly debate the priorities of the government, that the government sets nowhere else quite like it does when it decides how to spend the money

that we've been entrusted with. and, mr. president, with that i would yield the floor and notice the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

the presiding officer: the senator from utah. mr. hatch: i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. hatch: mr. president, i rise in support of economic growth, regulatory relief, and consumer protection act which passed the senate yesterday. this bipartisan bill protects and boosts the u.s. economy. i commend chairman crapo, members of the banking committee, and my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for their hard work in getting this particular bill -- proposal across the finish line. making the rules simpler and fairer for small and mid-sized financial institutions is a commonsense idea that has garnered broad, bipartisan support. that's because, done right, it helps hardworking americans who aspare to invent things, start businesses and manufacture goods

and services exactly the kind of entrepreneurship and growth that america needs more of. now, there are plenty of people with different viewpoints on thousand improve the financial system. some, however, say that almost any modification to the 849-page dodd-frank act equates to a bonfire of financial legislation, a gift to wall street, and so on. i think we need to cut through such patronizing, derisive mudslinging and instead focus on commonsense solutions for the american people. so met me tell you a -- so let me tell you a plain truth. the bill that the senate passed yesterday is the result of sensible debate, reasonable compromise, and hard policy choices. without compromising the safety and soundness of our financial system, it provides regulatory relief to small and midsized banks, credit unions, and

financial institutions, the kind most familiar on main street in my home state of utah. our constituents deserve regulatory relief. between 2010 and 2016, compliance with dodd-frank cost $36 billion and required 73 million paperwork hours. dodd-frank alone enacted more than five times as many restrictions as any other law passed by the obama administration. and more than 22,000 pages of regulations. with their vast resources, large banks could stomach those regulations, mainly through automation. but smaller banks could not. saddled with extra compliance requirements and with no material benefit to resilience, many buckled under the weight of these burdensome regulations. consider that there are 1,736

fewer community banks today than when dodd-frank was signed into law. since 2010, the number of fdic fdic-insured commercial banks in utah dropped from 52 to 42. in a similar time span, the number of ncua-insured credit unions in my home state fell from 94 to 65 -- 66, excuse me e over the past decade, the percentage of small business and commercial loans dropped more than 15%. indeed, eight years since the passage of dodd-frank, it is high time for congress to reflect and make adjustments as necessary. -- to improve our financial regulatory system. let's focus on resilience and efficiency. this bill does just that. i would like to briefly highlight these -- three reforms

in the bill that benefit our national and local economies. first, the bill provides relief and flexibility to small financial institutions. more small bank holding companies will be able to raise capital, which will help bank lending opportunities for families, businesses, and start-ups. this policy was based on a bipartisan bill -- the community bank relief act -- that i introduced along with senators king, nelson and pursue. it is -- perdue. it is common sense to know that utah's community banks are different from wall street banks, but the regulations treat them the same. second, the bill increases the bank asset threshold for enhanced standards from $50 billion to $250 million. i've long supported raising or

recalibrating the asset threshold. it takes -- it makes little sense that regional banks undergo stress banks and capital reviews similar to some of the largest, most complex global financial institutions. similar to the unrealistic expectations put on community banks, this one-size-fits-all approach negatively affected regional banks. third, the bill easies the regulatory burden on -- the bill easies the regulatory burden on five banks. for small banks and credit unions, this legislation provides relief from some of the requirements from the qualified mortgage rule allowing them to devote more resources to serving their members rather than spending hours complying with regulatory overreach. in today's era of extreme partisanship, this bill is a

breath of fresh air. what the senate has been able to accomplish this week is based on practical consensus-led policy choices. while there remain other reforms that could relieve the stress of burdensome regulations, this bill is a much-needed start, which is why i wholeheartedly support this legislation. members both sides of the aisle agree that the broad scope of dodd-frank created some harmful, unintended consequences, so let's make the rules simpler and fairer. it's appropriate. but not at the expense of safety. this bipartisan bill does just that, and the american people would be better off because of it. mr. president, i yield the floor. mr. roberts: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from kansas.

mr. roberts: i thank you, mr. president. mr. president, i want to associate myself with the remarks of the distinguished chairman of the finance committee, a committee that i feel very privileged to serve on with the distinguished chairman. he has a message that i think should be required reading for everybody on this side and more especially on the other side, and i really appreciate his remarks and his leadership. mr. hatch: thank you. mr. roberts: mr. president, i want to speak today on the confirmation of mr. mr. gregg d, who is the president's nominee for the chief agricultural negotiator at the office of the united states trade representative. here in the senate, we often say -- or i hope we often say that we're only as good as our staff.

and i have been blessed with the very best. gregg is one example of why that is true. gregg served as the senior professional staff on the senate agriculture committee for me during my time as ranking member in 2011 through 2013. we like to say in kansas that congressional staff are bucket toters. during those few years we toted a lot of buckets together. from the early days of the super-committee and the sequestration, multiple iterations of farm bills to animal disease scares and the oversight of the m.m.f. global mess or situation, gregg handled everything that was thrown at him, and all while wearing his cowboy boots with a pointed toe. but capitol hill certainly wasn't where gregg started

cutting his teeth in agriculture. he hails from mankato, kansas, where he was raised on wheat, sorghum, swine, and cow calf operation -- talk about diversified agriculture. he attended kansas state university, home of the wild cats -- good luck to them tonight. just last september gregg was back in manhattan, kansas, where he was honored as the 2017 kansas state university department of agriculture economics distinguished alumni award. from k state, gregg went on to work for the u.s. wheat associates where he was tasked with developing wheat markets all around the world. eventually he worked for the american beef association. one of the very first trials that gregg faced was the cow

that stole christmas when just before christmas in 2003 a case of mad cow disease was confirmed in the united states resulting in the devastating blow to u.s. beef exports. gregg worked on behalf of the beef industry with the u.s. trade representative, the u.s. department of agriculture, and the state department to rebuild the reputation and reliability of u.s. beef exports. kansas currently ranks as the third-highest exporter of beef to the global market. u.s. trade policy has been a very hot topic last year, and it is one that gregg certainly experienced in his well-versed -- and he's well-versed. he served as a cleared advisor and later chairman of the usda-ustr and animal products agriculture trade advisory committee. a lot of words but a very

important committee. and it was during the negotiations of a variety of trade agreements, including australia, bahrain, colombia, panama, and peru. obviously he's been everywhere. gregg's background and experience gives him a leg up in the challenge of serving as the chief agriculture negotiator at ustr. he understands what trade means to the agriculture industry, and he has the experience to help maintain u.s. agriculture's role as a supplier around the world. certainly a big challenge today. at a time when the agriculture economy is in a rough patch -- the fourth year of prices buy low the cost of production, pretty much across the board, all across the country -- and commodity prices still falling, farmers and ranchers now depend on trade more than ever. we need continued focus on

exporting, not just what we make, mr. president, but also what we grow. let me repeat that. we need to export not just what we make -- there is a lot of focus on that with regards to trade policy now coming out of the white house and this administration -- but also what we grow. kansas farmers and ranchers work hard on a regular basis. they have to make sacrifices to overcome the weather, overcome obstacles and make commonsense decisions that have significant consequences. that is why i know that gregg will be successful in the job of chief agricultural negotiator. he is a kansas cowboy who knows how to roll up his sleeves and certainly get things done. he understands why strong trading relationships are absolutely critical to agriculture, and i am glad he is down at the ustr. we can get to work with ambassador bob lighthizer.

along with partners at the department of agriculture like our champion there, secretary sonny perdue and ted mckinney, gregg will ensure that agriculture has a seat at the table and that our farmers and ranchers are being heard. the u.s. agriculture industry has worked long and hard to increase our competitiveness around the world but their work is never finished and they cannot do it alone. i know that with gregg riding point, the voices. hardworking farmer will be well-represented all around the world. congratulation to our, gregg, as your proceedings to the chief negotiator at the ustr. i look forward to continuing to work with you on behalf of u.s.

ag. one more admonition, one more piece of advice: when you're riding point, just make sure you look over your shoulder once in a while to make sure the herd is still there. if it isn't, don't worry about it. we've got your passage of the thank you. -- we've got your back. thank you. i yield the floor. i note there is an absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

quorum call:

the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: i ask consent that further proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the senate be in a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of calendar number 264, h.r. 3210. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 264, h.r. 3210, an act to require the director of the national background investigations bureau to submit a report, and so forth and for other purposes. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the

measure? without objection. the senate will proceed. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the committee-reported amendment be withdrawn, the johnson-mccaskill substitute amendment be considered and agreed to, the bill as amended be considered read a third time and passed, and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of calendar number 286, s. 1869. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 286, s. 1869, a bill to reauthorize and rename the position of whistle-blower, and so forth. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection. the senate will proceed. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the committee-reported amendment be agreed to, the grassley amendment at the desk be considered and agreed to, the bill as amended be considered read a third time and passed, and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon

the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: now, mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 3:00 p.m. monday, march 19. further, that following the prayer and pledge, the morning business be deemed expired, the journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and morning business be closed. finally, i ask that following leader remarks, the senate resume consideration of the motion to proceed to h.r. 1865, and that notwithstanding rule 22, the cloture vote on the motion occur following the disposition of the mcaleenan nomination. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. mcconnell: if there is no further business to come before the senate, i ask that it stand adjourned under the previous order. the presiding officer: the senate stands adjourned until senate stands adjourned until

>> explore the interactive

constitution created by the national constitution center. there's a link on our website. >> yesterday the house budget committee held a fifth in the series of hearings examining the role of the congressional budget office in the legislative process. former cbo directors alice rivlin and douglas holtz-eakin talk about the offices mission and purpose. >> [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> the hearing will come to order. welcome to the committee on the budgets hearing examining perspective some outside experts on oversight of the congressional budget office. before we begin i ask unanimous consent that