that's true whether it is by subpoena or not. if that is news to all of you law enforcement people, including the f.b.i., i would encourage you to research the law individually. it is found at title 5, u.s. code section 2303. as you will see there in the law, nowhere in that language do its protections require a subpoena nor do they require the approval of an agent's chain of command or congressional affairs staff approval. moreover, federal appropriations law also forbids the use of taxpayers' dollars to pay the salary of any individual who interferes with or attempts to

interfere with a federal employee's right to communicate directly with congress. the government accountability office recently found that an obama housing and urban development congressional affairs official did interfere that way in 2013, so paying that salary violated the restrictions congress had placed on the money. based on that ruling, housing and urban development initiated collection efforts to recover a portion of the salary paid illegally as a debt owed back to the united states for this congressional -- or this executive branch staffer interfering with somebody's right to talk to congress. congress has the power of the purse and the -- the bureaucrats

need to understand that funding comes with strings attached. you can't prevent federal employees from talking directly to congress. it's pretty plain, period. you can't interfere with any federal employee talking directly to congress, and i should add, you shouldn't even try. if unelected bureaucrats have such contempt for an employee who nervous the people's representatives with facts necessary to do our constitutional responsibility of oversight, then we still have a lot of work to do. that kind of thinking is dangerous and it leads to irresponsible government and it's totally contrary to law. and if that perception is

persisting throughout law enforcement, including the f.b.i. or indeed through our government generally, then the leaders of those agencies are not doing their. job. they are fail pg in their responsibility -- failing in their responsibility as leaders, they are failing the workforce, and they are failing the american taxpayer. i don't want anybody out there to be confused, so it's pretty simple. if you are a federal employee and you want to disclose wrongdoing and waste to the congress or you want to cooperate with a congressional inquiry, you're legally allowed to do so. you should not have to fear retaliation. no f.b.i. agent or other government employee should be afraid to cooperate with congress or with the inspector

general. any f.b.i. agent who has information to provide or questions about their rights to provide it should not hesitate to reach out and ask. contact the committee, contact the inspector general. there are people there who can tell you more about what protections may apply to your sesk situation. it seems to me -- specific situation. it seems to me if you know something is wrong, you have a patriotic responsibility to expose it. transparency brings accountability, and what we don't have enough of in u.s. government is accountability. i yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

the presiding officer: the senator from new jersey. mr. menendez: what is the

pending order at the desk as it relates to the time of the vote? the presiding officer: the vote is to occur at 1:45 p.m. mr. menendez: we are considering mr. james evans to be our ambassador to lux emboring. i opposed his nomination in committee. i again oppose his confirmation on the floor. it centers on his tenure on the georgia state election board from 2000 to 2010. in march of 2005, georgia passed a controversial new law requiring voters to show a vote i.d. in order to cast a vote. despite the fact that both federal and state judges prohibited the law from going into effect, the election board made a decision in 2006 to send a letter to 200,000 voters with the false impression that the law would be in effect for the upcoming election. appropriately, this action caused an uproar and multiple voices accused the board of defying the injunction in a deliberate attempt to mislead

voters and impossibly suppress minority turnout. the board subsequently mailed out a clarification letter, but the damage had already been done. during his confirmation process, mr. evans unfortunately presented conflicting accounts of his involvement in this effort to suppress voter turnout. he first said that he could not remember the details of how the letter was sent or who wrote it. however, other board members who served during that time period as well as summaries of election board meeting minutes from 2006 clearly reflect that mr. evans and the board as a whole appeared to play a central role in drafting and distributing the letters. these conflicting accounts trouble me. the right to express one's vote at the ballot box is fundamental to our democracy. throughout our nation's history, various actors have sought to systematically deny different groups of people this core right. those representing the united states abroad must embody and embrace our fundamental democratic values and ideals,

and i'm not convinced that mr. evans will do that. you can't be advocating for democracy and human rights and seeking to suppress votes here at home. i do not think he has demonstrated the judgment i expect from our ambassadors. for this reason, i will urge my colleagues to reject sending mr. ambassador. because my colleagues are on the floor, i had time to reserve to speak about north korea, but i will yield because i think they have an important act to take place. plp blunt: -- mr. blunt: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from missouri. the clerk will report. the clerk: s. 2952, a bill to amend the congressional accountability ability of 1995 to establish protections against sexual harassment and discrimination, and for other purposes. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection. mr. blunt: i ask unanimous consent that the bill be

considered read a third time. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. blunt: i know of no further debate on the bill. the presiding officer: if there is no further debate, the question is on passage of the bill. all in favor say aye. all opposed say no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the bill is passed. mr. blunt: and i ask unanimous consent that the motion to reconsider be made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. blunt: thank you, mr. president. i would like to turn to my colleague, senator klobuchar, who we have worked together on this bill. we are pleased to be able to bring it to the senate floor today. we're pleased that all of our colleagues had time to see it. it went through the process on both sides without objection, and now has been voted on by the senate. senator klobuchar. the presiding officer: the senator from minnesota. ms. klobuchar: i would like to thank senator blunt for his work on this.

this is an incredibly important moment. we are completely overhauling the sexual harassment policies of the congress. this is an antiquated policy that literally required 30 days of counseling, forced counseling, 30 days of forced mediation, 30 days of a cooling off period, and it's time for a change. that's what we came together to do, and i especially want to thank our colleagues that have worked on this with us, senator gillibrand and murray, mccaskill, harris. our working group on rules including senator blunt and feinstein, cortez masto, capito, fischer, senator mcconnell and senator schumer who worked on this. senator enzi and kennedy would say if you can agree on things 80% of the time, that's a good day, and this is a good day for changing the rules so that the deck is not stacked against victims who should be in a safe

workplace. thank you, senator blunt. mr. blunt: i certainly appreciate the opportunity that we have had to work on this. senator klobuchar and i have worked together on the rules committee as well. i am the chairman and she is the ranking member. the daily activities of the senate come to us often, but this was an action that created an opportunity where we looked at the congressional accountability act from 1995, as senator klobuchar suggested, things that may have been well intended at the time really put too many obligations and too many restrictions in our view on victims. those things are all eliminated. members of congress if they are personally involved in harassment will be personally liable for the agreed to -- the compensatory damages of that. i think it puts the responsibility where the american people think it should

be, and both of our leaders have been very supportive, senator schumer and senator mcconnell. many of our members were involved in drafting this legislation. many more after they had time to look at the final product cosponsored the legislation. i think approximately a third of the senate by the time this bill came to the floor were cosponsors of the bill, and we look forward to this bill being further defining really what we see as our responsibilities and pleased to see the action of the senate today and a unanimous clearance of every senator on both sides that this bill should come to the floor and has now been approved. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the question now occurs on the evans nomination.

is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote: vote:

vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: are there any senators in the chamber wishing to vote or change their vote? if not, the yeas are 48, the nays are 43. the nomination is confirmed. under the previous order, the motion to reconsider is considered made and laid upon the table, and the president will be immediately notified of the senate's action. the senator from oklahoma. mr. lankford: ask unanimous consent the senate resume legislative session for period of morning business with senators permitted to speak up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. klobuchar: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from minnesota. ms. klobuchar: senator blunt and i were here on the floor earlier to talk about the bill that just passed through the senate unanimously and that is a bill dealing with the sexual harassment and other harassment rules of the congress. this was a joint effort, and i wanted to take an opportunity, first of all, to thank everyone

that was involved in this. first and foremost, senator blunt, who has been a true partner. we have worked on everything together from adoption to tourism, and last month when he took over from senator shelby's able leader the rules committee, he and i worked together on changing the senate's rules for the first time in the history of the senate to be more family friendly and work with senator tammie duckworth so that her baby will be allowed on the floor, as will other children of male and female senators going forward. the world is changing, and the senate needs to change with it. and i would argue the senate should be in the lead. it is no surprise then that we've had a number of women staff members take the lead and work with us on this bill. first of all, lizzie paluso, who

is my lead and the ranking member's staff director of our rules committee. she was my chief of staff for a a number of years and moved over to be our lead on the rules committee, and she's done a tremendous job ushering this legislation through, listening to members' concerns, working with people on the legislation. also stacey mcbride, who has the same role for senator blunt and has worked with him on this, and we thank her for her help as well. i also wanted to mention erin sager vaughan, who worked with senatorssured has really done a lot of worken this bill and it's just -- and it just was a team effort. john abig from the senator mc connell's office, thank you for your help as well as travis cavelti from my o i want to thank him for his work on this

bill. mr. chairman, this is a bill that was a long time in coming, and i know there's been some excellent work over in the house, and we want to thank them, representative spear, and others who have been involved in their bill. we know it is a little different than our bill, and we look forward to hearing them out and working with them as we move forward. i did want to thank our colleagues in the senate who supported this bill and worked with us, and that would be senator gillibrand, who's been such a leader on this issue; senator murray, senator mccaskill, senator harris, also our rules committee working group, senator feinstein, senator cortez masto, senator capito, and senator fischer, all women who serve on the rules committee, knowing we had to change the rules. and i would first say this about this bill -- it was senator enzi who would always say about his work with senator ted kennedy, you've got to start with the 80%

that you agree on. and we found a lot to agree on when it came to reforming the process in the senate which was literally stacked against victims, didn't include interns, didn't include a number of people that work in the senate, and was a very difficult process for people to bring claims. our goal here, of course, is a safe workplace, not only in the u.s. senate and in the u.s. house, not only in all of the federal government, but really across the country. so as much as this debate has been focused on people who serve positions of power, as it well should be, we also have to remember the nurse on the front line in the hospital, the factory worker on the poultry line in minnesota, that we should have protections in place at all workplaces. and i know this discussion is going on across america, and we are more than ready to be part of that discussion.

so what is the problem? well, first of all, we have a situation where we had a 30-day forced counseling period, if someone were to bring a harassment claim in the senate. 30 days of forced mediation, even if they don't want to mediate the claim. we had a 30-day forced cooling-off period before they could have access to a court. they could have been forced into a nondisclosure agreement. interns had no protection at all, and there was no actual transparency around awards or settlements. it was literally set up to muzzle the victims in these cases. so what have we done? well, first of all, senator grassley and i worked this last fall, along with senator shelby and others, on mandatory training. and i appreciate the leadership of senator mcconnell and senator schumer in working with this -- on this and getting this

done welcomely so that -- done quickly so that every staff member in the senate, including every senator, now goes through sexual harassment training. and that had to happen for the first time by the end of january, and that happened. we also were concerned that victims weren't reporting incidents. after all, 75% of individuals who have experienced sexual harassment at work didn't report it. so we wanted to make sure we improved the process so that would change. so what does this legislation do? well, first of all, as i mentioned, it overhauls the process. that was our first and major goal, to make it easier for victims. it allows a victim to immediately pursue an administrative hearing or file a civil action. none of these cooling-off periods that are mandatory. it maintains the option for an employee to go into mediation. secondly, immediate protections

for staff. the bill that just passed the senate provides employees with immediate access to a dedicated advocate who will provide consultation and assistance and figure out all of the options that they have and work with them on that. as i mentioned, it covers interns, detailees and histories work in the senate as unpaid staff. it provides opportunities for employees to work remotely or request paid leave without fear of retribution after they have made a complaint. it requires that a notification of rights of employees be posted within every employing office of the legislative branch, including state and district offices. there are a number of other provisions that i will put on the record that are put into immediate -- put in to immediately protect staff. last, accountability for members. this bill holds members of the house and senate personally liable by requiring them to

repay awards and settlements stemming from acts of harassment that they personally commit and ensures members who leave office will still be responsible for repaying the treasury, including garnishing wages of nongovernment wages and retirement annuities to ensure full repayment. it requires public reporting of awards and settlements including identifying if a member of the house or senate was personally liable. and it also requires claims to be automatically referred to the committee on ethics for investigation or further action when there is a final award or settlement. that -- those are the top lines of the bill, but i think we know that there's more than words on the wage. it is more than going -- on the page. it is more than going back and forth about which provision would be better. this is really about the cases that we've seen in the senate and the house, that they be handled correctly, that we have

a new and improved workplace going forward so all people feel safe, so that the culture here feels safe, and so that we can be true leaders for workplaces across the country. again, this wouldn't have happened without the decision of many members that work here to, one, go out of their comfort zone but, two, decide they were more interested in getting something done than having a messaging bill. that is what every senator here decided, that it was more important to change this process, and a year from now, once we get this passed through the house and we work with them and we get this done, i believe we're going to come back and have a much different story tell about the workplaces that we work in. and i want to thank my colleagues for making that decision to concretely get something done instead of just pointing fingers at each other. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from missouri.

ms. mccaskill: thank you, mr. president. i want to thank senator klobuchar for her work on this, and i think the senate has done good work today. i rise just for a few minutes to do what we don't do often enough around here, and that is to recognize extraordinary work of the people that actually labor in the trenches of the united states senate. back in november -- excuse me, september of 2008, a young man came to work in my office as an intern, and now almost ten years later he is an essential part of my life. i'm not sure that people understand what the beating heart of a senate office is, but everything revolves around the schedule. so this young man, lorenzo dalbert, who came to work for me

in 2008, worked his way up from intern to staff senate, which means you -- to staff assistant, which means us answer the phones, then he became a legislative correspondent, then he ran the systems analysis and all the computer stuff in my office, and then eventually his talent was so obvious, i said, please come sit outside my office and make everything work right. and that's what he has done. and it's a really hard job because when you are the executive assistant and the scheduler, you've got to say no to a lot of people, and you've got to say it nicely. you have to make everyone happy, even when you're telling them that the schedule will not allow that to happen. you have to manage phone calls from all seven of my children, my husband who's upset, manage the birth of grandchildren, the birthdays, the schedule of when i can get there and when i can't, and is the plane delayed

or is it not, can you get on southwest? no, maybe you can make the american flight. and on top of it all, get me to a million meetings, a million places, all at the same time with a smile on his face, with kindness in his heart, with a whip-sharp intellect, and with a work ethic that is astounding. so i'm really upset because he has the nerve to leave and go to law school. i am proud of him for his determination to seek a degree in the law. i know he will be an amazing lawyer because he has that touch where even when he's giving you bad news, you know that he's delivering it with kindness. and we need much more of that in the legal profession. lorenzo is really important to

me, and i will miss him terribly. and i think it's important that all of us around here who crave the limelight and want all the attention and want everybody to think that we're moving mountains -- i think it's really important that everybody know that it's the people around us that are moving the mountains. we are just lucky to be on the ride. we will all miss you, lorenzo, and congratulations to you and to linda and sergio, your parents. i know they're here today. i know how proud they are of you. we will miss you terribly and we'll be really mad at you if you don't stay in touch. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor.

mr. portman: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from ohio. mr. portman: mr. president, i want to start by congratulating senator klobuchar who was on the floor earlier to talk about the congressional accountability act and also senator blunt for their hard work to enact legislation that will make this place work better and it's a rare display of bipartisanship coming together to improve our processes with regard to sexual harassment and other issues. so i thank them for that. earlier this week, a number of us talked about the veterans bill which passed this chamber. another sign of bipartisanship, passed with a big vote. this will help our veterans in ohio to be able to get the care they need where they want it. going into memorial day, i'm

really glad we passed it because i have heard a lot of concerns, as i have my colleagues, from veterans who were not able to get the care they wanted in their own home towns, get to the specialist they wanted, be able to be reimbursed appropriately for care outside the v.a. system. that they'll be now be able to do. another part that helps our veterans deals with an issue that's affecting all of the states in this body and sadly has become an epidemic in our country. that's the opioid epidemic. it's an issue that many of our veterans are facing as they come back, some with ptsd, some with traumatic brain injury and other injuries that require procedures and response to the acute man, some of these other conditions. they're given opioid medication. and sadly, a number of our veterans have become addicted to opioid. this legislation will help because what it says is a couple of things. one, cutting back on the overprescribing of opioids but second, using nonaddictive pain

alternatives so the pain medicines that do not have opioids in them and other forms of therapy to been to deal with pain will now be used more in our v.a. hospital system. that's a good thing for our veterans. talking about the opioid issue, sadly, this is gripping my state of ohio in a way that has caused us to have more deaths by opioids than any other cause of death. but it's not just ohio. it's an epidemic because nationally now, it's the number one cause of accidental death and for americans under 50, it is the number one cause of death, period. this makes it the worst drug epidemic that we've faced in this country, worse than you recall back in the 1980's and 1990's which we were very concerned about at that time cocaine and other drugs, this has become the worst drug epidemic that we have ever faced. we had a town hall meeting this

week where i call several thousand ohioans, we had about 20,000 people on the call at any one time. and during that call, we have a survey question. among other survey questions that asks about opioids. and it asks a very simple question. do you know someone who has been personally affected? have you or do you know someone who has been personally affected by this opioid epidemic? the numbers were shocking this week. typically it's over half of the callers who say yes. that's how bad it is in ohio. this week it was 66%, two-thirds of the callers, thousands of people in ohio, reported back from a tele-town hall so it's not a self-selected group. it's people who called in to talk about various issues. 66% say they know someone who's been directly affected by this opioid addiction issue. it's unfolded in three ways. the first wave was really prescription drugs. this was back in the late 199

on's into the 2000's. there were pill mills. other state, kentucky and west virginia were hit hard. this was medication that was being abused in many casessers, leading to -- cases, leading to an addiction. the second wave was the heroin wave. which is when heroin became readily available and was less expensive actually than prescription drugs and many people turned to heroin. that heroin led to a lot more overdoses and other issues, including diseases associated with the use of needles, hepatitis c and others. and now there's a new wave. and the new wave sadly is even more deadly than the first two. and that's what's called synthetic opioids or synthetic heroin, the one that you probably heard of is called fentanyl. sometimes carfentanil also which is even more powerful. it is truly an epidemic -- at epidemic levels in my state and

it's being made worse by this new wave of synthetic heroin. now, there are other drugs as well that are affecting us in our country. in my own state in some regions of ohio, crystal meth now coming up from mexico is creating a bigger problem. cocaine is certainly an issue. but it is clear as i've looked at the statistics and traveled the state that our number one issue is opioids. and that synthetic opioids, 50 times more potent than heroin, is the new face of the opioid epidemic. fentanyl was involved in about 37% of the deaths in ohio as recently as 2015. by 2016, it was responsible for 58% of the overdose deaths. so from 37% to 58% in one year. we don't have all the numbers yet for 2017, but unfortunately, the numbers that we do have from various regions of the state

indicate that 2017 is going to be just as bad if not worse. columbus, ohio, as an example has seen a staggering increase in opioid overdoses due to fentanyl. two-thirds of the county's 2017 overdose deaths were due to fentanyl. two-thirds. i'm told by law enforcement that fentanyl, again a drug so deadly that a few flakes of it can kill you, has also been sprinkled into other drugs. i've talked to recovering addicts who tell me their stories about finding out that they were actually taking fentanyl and they thought they were taking another drug. it's been sprinkled into other street drugs, according to law enforcement, and some of these recovering addicts i talked to, including cocaine. even including marijuana, including heroin. just last week there were two men in the toledo area who were arrested for drug conspiracy with the intent to distribute. a little more than half a pound

of fentanyl was seized upon their arrest. when they were arrested, this half a pound of fentanyl would be equivalent to about one cup of fentanyl. small enough to fit in a zip lock baggie in your kitchen. and yet that one drug seizure of one cup was enough fentanyl, according to the experts, to kill 160,000 people. remember, just a few flakes of this can kill you. that's more than half the population of toledo where this arrest took place. that's how dangerous these drugs are. fentanyl comes mostly from laboratories in china and mostly it's shipped to the united states through a federal agency. that's the united states postal service. it's unbelievable to me that we are not doing more to push back on this, given take it's actually a government entity through which the experts say most of this fentanyl is coming in, primarily from one country, primarily through the post office.

we looked into this in an 18-month investigation of the subcommittee i chair. our investigators revealed just how easy it was to purchase fentanyl on-line and have it shipped to the united states. the drugs can be found through a simple google search and overseas sellers essentialley guarantee delivery if the fentanyl is sent through the united states postal service. by the way, i've spent talking to postal service employees about this, including back home in ohio. they don't want to be any part of this. number one, it's very dangerous. you can imagine. if these packages leak, i talked earlier about the dangers of fentanyl. people can be subject to -- exposed to it, overdose themselves, even die. also, they don't want to be any part of it because they don't want to see these poisons coming into our country that they're delivering, going to an empty warehouse or going to a post office box or even delivered to someone's home which based on our investigation we found all three. we found in several instances

that people had received fentanyl through the mail and then had died of overdoses. we were able to track that by hearing who had died and being able to track some of the payments and shipments. so there's no question that people are receiving fentanyl at their home, taking it and dying. no one wants to be part of that. why is the post office the preferred way for these drugs to come? why do the traffickers say if you send it through the post office, then delivery is guaranteed? it's really pretty simple. the u.s. post office is exempt from a federal law that was passed post-9/11. in 2002, congress passed a law that required the private carriers, fedex or dhl or ups to get advanced electronic data from their customers which would then be provided to law enforcement that would tell law enforcement where the package is from, what's in the package, and where it's going. with that information, using big data analytics, customs and

border protection has been able to identify suspicious packages because they have this data on the packages coming in, every package. a hundred percent of the packages. they then are able to pull these packages offline, test them, and not have this poison come into our community. the same is not true, unfortunately, with regard to the u.s. postal service. until we began this congressional investigation and began to push the postal service, there was very little electronic data being provided on any packages from the postal service. now, remember, there are 900 million packages coming in a year. how can law enforcement possibly find the suspect packages without having this data and without having good detection equipment to be able to find it. it's like finding a needle in the haystack. but with this information they're able to be much more effective as they have been with these private carriers, dhl, ups, fedex and so on.

under pressure from congress, over the last year or so, the post office has been getting some data on the international packages. last year they received data on about 36% of their package, based on the testimony that they have given us. meaning that the united states received about 318 million packages without any of the screening, without any of this data on it at all. so 36% is an improvement but still, the vast majority of packages are not being stopped. by the way, 20% of the packages that were identified by law enforcement as being problematic based on the amount of electronic data that was provided, 20% of those packages were not presented to law enforcement based on the testimony that we received. finally, we learned that even though 36% of the packages had some sort of data, much of that data was not useful. it was not decipherable, not helpful for law enforcement. so we've got a long way to go

and we've got a crisis in front of us. it's time for congress to act because it's clear to me that the postal service needs this congressional mandate to more expeditiously close this loophole that's allowing this deadly poison to continue coming into our homes, on to our streets. again, this is the number one killer in my home state of ohio. and when you look nationally, this is the new face of the opioid epidemic. there's legislation to deal with this. it's called the stop act, a bipartisan bill i introduced with senator amy klobuchar. she spoke earlier on the floor. we talked earlier about getting this legislation passed. this legislation will close the loophole. it will insist that our international mail screening takes place and it will stop some of this deadly fentanyl from coming into our communities. it will simply hold the post office to the same standard as private mail carriers and require that within one year, they get electronic data on all packages entering the united states. it's fair.

it's common sense. and it's going to make a big difference in our communities. by the way, that's why about one-third of the senate and about half of the house of representatives has already signed on as cosponsors of our legislation. it's bipartisan. it's bicameral. the president's opioid commission -- you remember president trump asked a bunch of experts to come together led by governor chris christie to have a commission to look at this opioid issue and to come up with recommendations. one of the recommendations, pass the stop act. keep some of this fentanyl out of our country. last week the house, ways and means committee took up our legislation. and i appreciate them doing that. sadly, what they reported out was a weaker version of the stop act than is necessary to be able to address this problem. their version gives the post office as an example four years to be able to implement these changes. at a time when this is a crisis. remember, increasing every year to the point of being the number one cause of death in my state

and in many other states. it also only requires them to get data on 95% of packages, not 100% eventually. it also gives the federal government the ability to waive the requirement altogether if it is, as i quote, in the national security interest of the united states. end quote. i'd hate to see them use that waiver. how could it possibly be the national security interest of the united states of america not to have information to give to law enforcement to stop something this deadly from coming into our country? that makes no sense. i know from what i've seen and heard in ohio that we need this and we need it now. we need this data on all foreign packages. that is in our national security interest. not setting lower screening standards or creating a loophole to evade accountability. i'm encouraged that the ways and means committee chairman kevin brady has acknowledged these concerns. and by the way, having spoken to him, he has a passion for addressing this issue. i know he is personally

committed to coming up with legislation that works. we need to resolve these differences, get this legislation to the floor of the house and the senate and get it passed so that we can begin to stop the fentanyl flooding into our country. it's at the forefront of the epidemic we see around the country. it's taking lives. it's sidelining workers. it's causing crime, the number-one cause of crime in my state is related to opioids. often it's the criminal acts that are committed, such as burglary, shop lifting, fraud to be able to pay for the habit. it's crippling communities. it's breaking families apart. it's doing so at an alarming rate. this morning we had testimony in the committee on finance regarding rural health care, and some of the providers were talking about the fentanyl crisis. i asked them what they're doing about it and how it's going, particularly with regard to these kids who are born with what's called neonatal

abstinence syndrome meaning they are born to an addicted mother and they have to be taken through withdrawal as a baby. these little babies you could hold in the palm of your hand having to go through withdrawal. and they told me the foster care system in their states is overwhelmed. mine is in ohio. we have more kids under the state supervision in foster care than ever. we can't find foster families fast enough because so many of the families are unable to take care of these kids. there are more grandparents and great-grandparents than ever having to step forward to take care of these kids. it's affecting our communities in so many ways. the stop act alone isn't going to solve all of these problems. we get that. we passed legislation around here in the last year and a half to increase prevention and education, to increase treatment and longer term recovery. that's very important and we need to do more of it. we have new legislation to take that to the next level. but combatting this crisis at its source by making it harder for drugs to enter our country

is certainly a step we can and should take. it's only common sense. at the very least it will reduce supply and help to drive up the cost of this drug. because one of our problems is this drug is so powerful but it's also so relatively inexpensive. we've got an opportunity with the stop act to make a real difference. for families and every single state represented in this chamber. if you're not already a cosponsor, i hope you'll join us in this effort. if you are a cosponsor and support this i hope you'll talk to your leadership. let's get this to the floor and get a vote. let's assure we're doing everything we possibly can to stop this poison. thank you, mr. president. i yield back. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll quorum call:

quorum call:

mr. mcconnell: mr. president? the presiding officer: the leader. mr. mcconnell: i ask consent that further proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i move to proceed to executive session to consider calendar number 542. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. all in favor say aye. those opposed no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to the clerk shall report the nomination. the clerk: nomination, the judiciary, robert earl wier of kentucky to be united states judge for the eastern district of kentucky. mr. mcconnell: i send a cloture motion to the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: cloture motion, we the undersigned senators in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nomination of robert earl weir of kentucky to be united states district judge for the eastern district of queen ken signed by 17 senators as follows.

mr. mcconnell: i ask that the reading of the names be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i move to proceed to legislative session. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. all in favor say aye. those opposed say no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. mr. mcconnell: i move to proceed to executive session to consider calendar number 587. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. all in favor say aye. those opposed say no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. the clerk will report the nomination. the clerk: nomination, the judiciary, fernando rodriguez, jr. of sx to -- of texas to be united states district judge for the southern district of texas. mr. mcconnell: i send a cloture motion to the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the cloture motion. the clerk: cloture motion, we the undersigned senators in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nomination of fernando rodriguez, jr., of texas to be united states district judge for the southern district of texas

signed by 17 senators as follows. mr. mcconnell: i ask consent the reading of the names be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i move to proceed to legislative session. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. all in favor say aye. all those opposed say no. the the ayes appear to have it. the the ayes do have it. the clerk shall -- the motion is agreed to. mr. mcconnell: i move to proceed to executive session to consider calendar number 625. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. all in favor say aye. all those pop posed say no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have t. the motion is agreed to. the clerk will report the nomination. the clerk: nomination, the judiciary, annemarie carney axon of alabama to be united states district judge for the northern district of alabama. mr. mcconnell: i send a cloture motion to the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the cloture motion. the clerk: cloture motion, we the undersigned senators in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules

of the senate do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nomination of annemarie carney axon of alabama to be united states district judge for the northern district of alabama signed by 17 senators as follows. mr. mcconnell: i ask consent the reading of the names be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask consent the mandatory quorum calls for the cloture motions be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from alaska. mr.sullivan: mr. president, is the senate in a quorum call?

the presiding officer: it is. mr.sullivan: i ask that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr.sullivan: mr. president, a lot of our colleagues have been coming to the floor today and yesterday talking about two things actually very connected, the v.a. mission bill that we just passed, that's going to significantly transform how we treat our veterans, how we make sure our vets are getting the care that they earn and that they deserve and, proimently as -- appropriately as that bill just passed the senate and is heading to the president's desk, we are also talking about memorial day and the memorial day weekend that is fast approaching, a very important, sacred time for our country and certainly my state, the great state of alaska. what i'd like to do, mr. president, is talk a little bit about the bill and reflect a

little bit more on the importance of memorial day as we move forward into this weekend. one of the things that we all do, certainly with regard to legislation, we look at the national implications, but we also look at how our own constituents can be impacted and make sure their interests are served when there's broader national legislation that he we've been working on for months, many of us have been working on this bill for almost a year now. the presiding officer and i are on the veterans' affairs committee, so we were very focused on it. my state, we proudly claim more veterans per capita than any state in the unt. we also have -- in the country. we also have unique challenges. alaska is a unique place. enabling our veterans to get the health care they need and the services they need from the v.a. can be a challenge. so one of the things that we worked hard on is to make sure that just because you're a vet

and you live in a big state and a very -- in a very rural part of america, it's still -- it still means that you should get the benefits that you've earned as a veteran. so, mr. president, a number of things in the bill, the v.a. mission acted that we just passed focuses on the unique elements of alaska. let me a couple of examples that are now in the law, in legislation, and it's going to be signed by the president here in a couple of days. the bill requires access to community care, non-v.a. care where the v.a. does not operate a full service facility in the state. well, there's no full service v.a. facility in alaska. so would this enables our veterans to do is to get care from other medical service providers, particularly our members, our veterans who are i