passion, do something. now, whether that's that city council has a different process that we're talking about here, the federal, at the federal level. all right, well, thank you for all of your questions. thank you for out tonight. please thank my wonderful pane panel. [applause]. >> and, of course, thank you to the iop and the unirsity chicago. have a great night. [inaudible conversations] . >> the u.s. senate is about to gavel into session this morning for work on judicial nominations with votes on the nominations coming up at1:00 this morning. senators will recess 12:30

eastern to for their party lunches and vice-president pence will be there. they will be tlt at 2:15 for more nominations and later in the week consideration of the 2019 national defense authorization bill. live coverage of the senate here on c-span2. the president pro tempore: the senate will come to order. will lead the senate in prayer. the chaplain: let us pray. holy one, light of light, you

continue to reveal yourself to us. because you know our thoughts before we think them, we lay before you our lives to be purified and strengthened by the power of your spirit. lord, prepare us to absorb the fragrance of your forgiveness, as we trust you to keep us from stumbling or slipping. today, use our lawmakers for your glory. may they be salt and light to this generation. give them the knowledge and wisdom to startle the world with the confidence of their hope in

you and with the generosity of their love.we pray in your sacr. amen. the president pro tempore: please join me in reciting of to our flag. i pledge allegiance to th of the united states of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. mr. mcconnell:

madam president. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: yesterday the senate advanced the nomination of robert wier to serve on the eastern district court of kentucky by a vote of 90-1. this was a needless delay, but i look forward to confirming this well-qualified nominee next this morning. nexthe senate will turn to fernando rodriguez jr. tor judge for the southern district of texas. he is a graduate of yale and the university of texas. he earned recognition for his tireless efforts to combat human trafficking. his peers praise his work ethic and his knack for tackling complicated issues. president trump sends us judicial nominees with sterling qualifications. i would urge o colleagues to join me to promptly confirm this slate. on another matter the senate took another step forward on behalf of our national defense.

after years of harmful spending caps undermining the combat adiness of our armed services we brokered a two year spending agreement that included the largest increase in defense funding in 15 years. it laid out a road map on the promises we make to our war fighters. now it's time to take the next step and authorize the programs that are most needed. that's why the senate will soon be turning to the john s. mccain national defense authorization act. each year reviewing the president's budget request provides an opportunity to hear directly from our nation's military leaders about their needs. months of hearings and markups allow congress to direct resources and authorize programs equipping our brave service men and women to confront emerging challenges. the armed services committee should be commended for their earnest bipartisan work this year, the legislation they produced is strong, following

our agreement that eliminated arbitrary caps on defense spending, this legislation will add to the process of untying our commanders' hands. it authorizes $716 billion for national defense,ugh for the department of defense to implement the national defense strategy and replenish and modernize america's fighting forces as long as we meet our overall responsibility and pass the defense appropriations bill later this year. this authorization would expand our capabilities on the sea and in the air, provide long-term certainty and support for our all-volunteer force, renew oversight efforts, streamline personnel management, modernize accusations and ete duplicative and wasteful programs. it sends a clear message that we have our war fighters' backs. how fitting then that it's named for our colleague, senator mccain. a stalwart champion of our

service men and women if this chamber has ever seen one. i look forward to discussing this legislation at length in the coming days. now to a finally matter, madam president, i spoke yesterday about the new job opportunities flooding into the u.s. economy. it's all thanks to the ingenuity crears with assist from job republican policies. just this year more than one million new jobs have been created. more than three million new jobs since january of 2017. the unemployment rate has sunk to 3.8%. it hadn't been that low in 18 ars. and in a big shift from the deeply uneven obama era, communities all across america are getting in on the action. rural areas led the whole nation in relative job creation last year. let me say that again. rural areas led the whole nation in relative job creation last year. republicans are proud of the historic tax reform and dramatic

regulatory reform that helped make that happen. but in addition to these nationwide policies, we're also delivering targeted strategies to help the specific communities that have suffered the most. in many parts of the country, including my home state of kentucky, the obama-era economic lag has intertwined with another major problem: the opioid epidemic. by one estimate, in 2016, more than two million americans -- two million -- were addicted to opioids. this crisis that's shattering families and communities is not an isolated medical issue. there's a reason why experts describe many of these fatalities as, quote, deaths of despr. it is in part a symptom of declining opportunity and communities literally falling apart. recent studies suggest that opioid use increased the most in precisely, precisely the communities where unemployment

rates had fallen the most, particularly in the manufacturing sector. complex problems demand comprehensive solutions, and that's exactly what this congress will continue to deliver. wee attacking this from all angles. in a strong bipartisan fashion, we passed a sea -- a comprehensive addiction and recovery act to bolster enforcemt., treatment and law introduced the career act to help aicts fin jobs and stable housing. the senate allocated billions in resources in treatment and prevention on the front lines. the robust federal response is helping our first responders and professionals combat the dangers of abuse. but as is always the case, major challenges are rarely solved here in washington. congress can provide resources and support to vulnerable communities, but often we do the most good by getting

government's foot off the brake and letting american innovators get back to business. for example, i reard some great news from one private sector problem solver in my home state of kentucky. u.s. wor ms, in my hometown, has spent the last 15 years working to bring relief to millions of americans touched by opioid addiction. they have been working on introducing a medicine in the united states to help ease the symptoms of withdrawal. and just last month we got word they received f.d.a. approval. u.s. world ms c.e.o.'s brett jones believes that this nonnarcotic medicine can help more addicts kick the habit altogether. i had the opportunity to visit u.s. wor ms facility last year. i was so impressed by what i saw. now that team can scale up their efforts and begin getting their treatment into the hands of

americans whose lives it could help transform. all of it made easier when washington offers targeted support where it's needed, but mostly gets out of the way of the innovators. talk about a winning combination. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. morning business is closed. under the previous order, the senate will proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the following nominations, which the clerk will report. the clerk: nomination, the judiciary. robert earl wier of kentucky to be united states district judge for the eastern district of kentucky. mr. mcconnell: i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent that the quorum be dispensed with. the presiding officer: no objections. mr. schumer: over the past few weeks, madam president, we have all endured the increasingly novel legal theories dreamt up by the president and his lawyers regarding the special counsel's investigation into russian interference in the 2016 election. over the weekend, we learned that the president's lawyers wrote a memo that asserted unfettered authority over all federal investigations. rudy giuliani actually suggested that the president could have, quote, shopped -- shot james

comey, unquote, and not be indicted or prosecuted, because according to him, quote, in no case can the president be subpoenaed or indicted. is that incredible? is that incredible? the president himself tweeted yesterday that he had the solute right to pardon himselfaa special counsel was unconstitutional, despite the fact that he regularly called for a special counsel to look into hillary clinton during the 2016 campaign. the two-facedness, the hypocrisy of saying hillary should have it but now it's unconstitutional that it applies to him, how can the american people tolerate that k of thinking in a president? this morning, again, president trump faulted attorney general sessions for recusing himself from the probe instead of helping to end it. the president's tweet regarding attorney general sessions this morning is part of a pattern where the president admits out loud and shamelessly that he was trying to take steps to end the

russia probe. first in a television interview, the president admitted that stopping the russia probe was his motivation for firing director comey. now he says he would never have hired sessions if he had known he was going to recuse himself, even though recusal was required by department of justice rules. this latest stunning admission is just more evidence that the president may have something to hide. if he did nothing wrong, president trump should welcome a thorough investigation to exonerate him, and each of the claims that i have mentioned has the same theme -- the president believes he is above the law. of course we know that the idea that anyone in america is above the law is antithetical to the very idea of america, antithetical to the very idea of millionsf americans haveto what fought for and hundreds of

thousands -- millions have died for in the course of our grand history. we don't have a king. we have a president bound by the same constitution and the same laws that govern the average american citizen. the founding fathers didn't set out to create a monarchy. they set out to construct a system of government entirely distinct from the monarchies of their time. that's why they installed checks and balances and devolved power between three branches to ensure the liberty of the people and guard against the encroach of tyranny. that was their great gift to us, and their ideas have kept american democracy alive for two and a half centuries and the admiration of the world for an equal period of time. trump is besmirching all of that with his recent activities. so despite what the president and his allies may feel about his authority or his be a

solution from legal -- or his absolution from legal repercussions, the constitutionr country tell us he is dead wrong. president trump, we are not a monarchy, you are not a king. we are a constitutional democracy, so act like it. on another matter, this week, the senate is processing a number of judges. some of these jges are noncontroversial. as i have said in the past, democrats are committed to working with the majority to process these noncontroversial nominees, but there are several highly controversial nominees after this slate that bear attention. tomorrow, the senate judiciary committee will consider the nomination of david porter for the third circuit court of appeals. despite the fact that senator casey has not returned a blue slip on mr. porter who was nominated by the white house over the home state senator's repeated objections. mr. porter, like so many of the

nominees submitted by this president, is far outside the judicial mainstream. throughout his career, he has maintained affiliations with anti-lgbt organizations and expressed personal views that are contrary to the interests of american workers, the very people president trump depends -- defends. the american working people, he appoints judges who undo their rights, their opportunities, their ladders up. this is an example. unfortunately, the majority is once again bucking a century-old tradition of respecting the opposition of home state senators and moving forward with the consideration of yet another hard right, anti-working class ideologue. on thursday, the judiciary committee will consider the nomination of ryan bounds for a circuit court seat in oregon, although neither senator wyd nor senator merkley, the two senators from oregon, have returned a blue slip on his

nomination. recent, we learned that mr. bounds had some offensive writings that he failed to disclose to the bipartisan federal judicial selection advisory committee established by the two oregon senators to recommend potential nominees. nonetheless, of course, the repuican majority, prodded on by the hard right ideologues, is moving ahead with his nomination. over the tradition of the blue slips or these recent revelations. and next week, the senate will likely move to the pending nomination of thomas farr to the eaern district of north carolina, currently the longest vay in t united states. part of the reason why this seat has remained open for so long is because republican senators blocked an obama nominee for nearly threeears. with mr. farr's nomination, we have another example of a vacancy that only exists because decrats recognized and respected the blue slip

tradition, a tradition the republicans have so unceremoniously discarded. not only has mr. spent his long legal career working againsthe rights of unions and the rights of workers to organize, farr has demonstrated himself to be a partisan. ter challenging multiple congressional maps drawn by north carolina's democrats, mr. farr vigorously defended the most recent maps drawn by north carolina's republicans, which, e supreme court for discrimination. mr. farr also defended north carolina's restrictive voter i.d. law passed by republicans, arguing that voter i.d. was a minor inconvenience for voters. might i remind you, this is the same voter i.d. law that the fourth circuit of appeals determined was passed with discriminato intent, which targeted african americans with almost surgical precision. those are the fourth circuit's

words, not mine, and that's who we are putting on the bench. people who support laws that blatantly discriminate against people of color. where are we coming to in thisc? where are our ideals when it comes to picking people for the bench? i'm sure they can find conservative folks who don't have these kindsf egregious pieces of behavior. i have long argued that we should judge our judges on three metrics -- excellence, moderation, diversity. by dint of his legal career in defense of partisan republican issue lacks moderation, that he is willing to defend the most strident attempts by north carolina republicans to game the congressional maps and make it more difficult for minorities to vote. i will strongly, strongly oppose his nomination and urge my colleagues to do the same. finally, mr. president, on the economy, during the eight years of president obama's term,

democrats worked to turn the economy around, to dig our country out of the recession and get back to growing the economy and the middle class. now that republicans are in charge, their policies are almost the reverse. instead of focusing on the middle class, republicans have elected to turn over the keys to big corporations and the ser wealthy, their benefactors. instead of trying to bring down the costs of every day items, republican policies have driven up the costs of things like health care and gasoline by sabotaging our current health care system, president trump and republicans have caused surance rates to increase by double digits across several states. yesterday insurers in the states of washington and new york, both announced an average rate increase of 20%, similar to double-digit increases in virginia and maryland. americans were already struggling with the high cost of

health care before these increases. republican policies have only made these problems worse. what about gas prices? by pulling out of the iran deal and failing to get tough with opec, president trump has contributed to the increase in gas prices. he hangs out, seems to be friendly with the crown prince, the head of the eau. why isn't he jawboning them to help the average american family not pay increases in the high price of gas? president trump was quick to blame president obama when gas prices went up. well, what's good for the goose is good for the gander. american families are now paying over $3 for a gallon of gas in many places, and the prices are expected to continue to rise over the summer. meanwhile, as costs go up for the middle class, in many, many

cases, far outweighing any break they got on the tax bill, corporations and the rich are reaping a windfall from the republican tax bill. so far, listen to this, so far in 2018, corons ha announced plans to spend $450 billion in corporate stock buybacks, a maneuver that fills the pockets of wealthy executives but little for workers. even republican senator marco rubio has said, quote, there's no evidence whatsoever that the corporate tax cut republicans passed last year is overwhelmingly benefiting workers. unquote. in a nutshell, this new republican economy, bonanza for the corporations and the rich, gher costs for everybody else, and in november the american people will get to decide if they want a government that works on their behalf or more of the same top-down, trickle down -- top-down, trickle-down

policies that have failed time and time again and are failing once again. i yield the floor. mr. cornyn: madam president. the presiding officer: the majority whip. mr. cornyn: madam president, i want to take just a few minutes to talk about the last 18 months and what a republican-led congress has done during the first 500 days of the trump administration. i heard myend, the democratic leader, call this a republican economy, and i'm proud to embrace that for the reasons i'll mention here in just a moment. contrast that to a life in america post-recession in 2008

where slow economic growth, high unemployment, and a disproportionate number of people not even seeking work were accepted as the new norm. well, the american people rsunnd they don't have to accept that as the new normal. that we can aspire to better, and we can do better, and that's exactly what we've seen manifested in the american economy, and the rank and file american worker and every american family and everybody in this country, regardless of race, ethnicity, whatever identity you might want to talk about, everybody has benefited. there have been many accomplishments, but perhaps the greatest, as i said, is the new energized state of the economy. there's a sense of hope and optimism once again. we can see that reflected in

people's retirement accounts, mainly invested in the stock market. the stock market has boomed since the trump election. that is not just for the big corporations, that's for the teachers, pension funds, the fire first responders, for average americans who invest their retirement savingsn mutual funds or in the stock market and they benefited. the unemployment rate has reach a -- reached a 48-year low -- 48-year low, and 14 states have hit record low unemployment as well. now, my friend from new york talked about gasoline prices. oil output judged to -- jumped to the highest in march, including a jump in my home state. in other words, we're depending less and less on imported oil

from saudi arabia and middle east countries, which have been the focus of our geo politics for so many yea becau they have been the main source of the energy that drives the world economy, and now we're producing more of that here in america, and that means more jobs, more national security right here at home. consumer confidence is at a 17-year high. people are feeling optimistic and hopeful about the future. and nearly three million jobs have been created since president trump took office, including 304,000 in the manufacturing sector, 337,000 in construction, and 223,000 in may alone. what i hear time and time again when i go back to texas is employers saying, we're having ar hard time finding the -- having a hard time finding the workers we need because there's so much demand for workers, for

labor, thatow employers are going to compete for the workforce they need in order to perform the jobs that they have. now, as a result of the growing economy. what does that mean? ll, iteans that paychecks go up as their labor shortages and employers have to compete more for that workforce. 67% of americans believe that now is a good time to find a quality job. the biggest challenge we have is giving the rapidly evolving nature of our global economy and of technology and the jobs that are being created is to train and equip the workforce of tomorrow for the jobs that will be available. and that's why we invested so much money in our community colleges and workforce training, and partnerships with -- with industry to make sure that more and more people can qualify for

those good, well-paying jobs. i'm thinking about a single mom, a hispanic woman in amarillo, texas, who worked as a jail guard until she went to amarillo community college and learned how to be an aircraft mechanic, and today she works on the production line for the v-22 as aspry aircraft, one of the most advanced air platforms in the world. and my recollection is she's making $18 an hour now. that's a real solution for a real problem. and i bet every member of this -- of this chamber could talk about similar stories. i know in houston, as a result of the natural gas renaissance in this country, thanks to the science, thanks to the creativity and innovation of the american energy companies, now we're seeing a huge influx of

petro chemical companies re-establishing themselves in places where they can get access to this low-cost feedstock fuel. what that's doing is creating even more jobs. so in the pasadena school district and around the houston area, they are working with the local community college to get people who don't yet have the skills they need to get the certificates they need in order to qualify for those good, well-paying jobs. not everybody needs to go to a four-year liberal arts college. if they want to, i'm all for it. but many people want to get a good job and join the solid mile class a do jobs that need to be done but they need access to the training in order to get the qualifications they need. that, to me, is one of the big challenges that confronts us, particularly as the economy changes so quickly because of

technology. well, another big reason t economy has taken off like a rocket is the tax reform package we passed lt summer. that's been perhaps the biggest game changer. and the problem my friend, the democratic leader, has is every single democrat voted against it. you remember nancy pelosi called the benefits of that crumbs. well, what it has done is oped doors and new opportunities for american families. according to the white house, the american families have received $3.2 trillion in gross be tax cuts and seen the child tax credit double. the top corporate rate lowered from 35% to 21% so american businesses could be more

productive. you know, when president trump talked about the need for america to be more competitive by lowering that corporate rate, he talked about our need to compete in the global economy. when we debated the tax cuts and jobs act, democrats called it a corporate giveaway. it's just absolutely indefensible, but the results of the tax cuts and jobs act have been profound, indeed. more than 500 companies have used these tax savings to benefit their employees. they announced pay raises, 401k -- 401(k) match increases, and cuts for utilities because investor-own utilities have had to lower their charges in order to comply with the law which allows them a reasonable rate of return, but they can't charge what the market will bear.

they need to comply with their local laws. so what we have seen is many invest-owned utilities have lowered utility rates for seniors and peoplen fed intersection. we have seen -- incomes. we have seen businesses offer bonuses and other ben physical. a recent survey by the national association of manufacturers, showed that 77% of manufacturers in america intend t increase hiring and 9 o them have a positive outlook. now, i know one of the things that president trump talked about during his campaign is that so much of our manufacturing had moved overseas. but what these numbers indicate is that the manufacturing sector is alive and well here in the united states when given the opportunity to compete on a level playing field. this is the kind of optimism i'm hearing when i visit places like amarillo, home of the big texan,

the 72-ounce establishing. if you can -- steak. if you can eat it in an hour, along with the baked potato, you get it for free. i've never done that, but some people have, but not a lot of people. college station, austin, and elsewhere, austin where i visited with one of the owners of wally burgers, and other businesses, pest control and the like, and they talked about the benefits they are seeing in their small business from the tax cuts and jobs act. and the stories just go on and on and on. i've also had constituents write my office explaining how the boost their monthly paychecks makes a big difference when it comes to buying groceries and paying bills and starting long, delayed projects. maybe no democrat voter lives

paycheck to paycheck, but i can tell you some of my constituents do and they appreciate the additional money in their paycheck as a result of the tax cuts and jobs act. i think what happened when our democratic colleagues voted against -- unanimously voted against the tax cuts and jobs act, they were making a big bet, that we would fail to deliver that bill and it would somehow be an embarraback for this side of the aisle. well, they bet against the american people and they bet against our commitment to make sure that the benefits of this bill would be delivered to the average american family. and one recent piece of news -- in one recent piece of news, cost co, announced that it will increase wages for 130,000 employees, not because the government mandated it but

because they need to do that in order to be competitive and they passed the benefits on to their employees. but that's just the iceberg. we also need to remember, amidst all of this good news, that there are two specific tarted measures often -- targeted measures that are often overlooked. it repealed obamacare's burdensome tax on the middle class who refused to purchase washington-mandated health insurance. this is the so-called obamacare mandate. it basically was a tax on poor and middle-income people who couldn't afford to buy the high-priced obamacare policies. and we also opened up something that has been a point of contention for many, many years, the arctic national wildlife refuge to energy exploration. senator scott from south carolina would talk about his

opportunity zone provision which provides tax benefits to businesses that start a business and grow a business in poor and blighted areas. senator fischer from nebraska would talk about her tax provision which provides encouragement to employers to provide family leave when families need that in order to deal with a family illness or a newborn child or whatever the case may be. those are real and tangible benefits to the people we serve. our colleagues want to talk about corporate giveaways. that's pure demagoguery, short and simple. but what else do you have when you've made a bet and you've lost that bet by betting against the benefits from this bill.

well, it's not just the economy that deserves mention. another important accomplishment has been the confirmation of judges who will interpret the constitution faithfully and say what the law is, not what, because of their personal policy preferences, what they wish it might be. now back in a former life i served on the bench, the state bench, not the federal bench, for 13 years at the trial court level and on the texas supreme court. i believe very strongly in the importance of having judges, that third branch of government, who will understand and appreciate their role in the u.s. government. in other words, the reason we don't elect judges is because we don't expect them to gauge public opinion. the reason we don't expect them to campaign on an agenda, we expect them to interpret the law, including the constitution

of the united states, the fundamental law. not to promote policies based on their preference or based on some ideology. to me, that's the opposite of what we want judges to do. the donald trump has seen confirmed 21 circuit court judges. these are the intermediate appeals court judges who are essentially the court of last resort since the united states supreme court only hears about 80 cases a year now. they provide the guidance in the most difficult cases where the circuit courts are divided. this now means that one in eight appeals court judges has been appointed bid president trump and confirmed by the united states senate. these are people who will serve not just four years, not just six years, not just eight years, but perhaps 20 years or 30 years or longer. lifetime tenure. of course these circuit courts

will hear appeals from district court finding precedent for those lower courts in a wide range of issues. well, it's worth pointing out that president obama's 21st circuit court nominee was not confirmed until 33 months into his administration. so it's not just that we're confirming good judges, we're doing it at a very good clip comparatively speaking. we've done, we've appointed -- the president has appointed two skwrublgs to the fifth circuit that serve the state of texas. don willett and jim ho. we have one in the queue, andy olden, nominated to the fifth circuit. that's not to mention some very talented district judges, the people who are at the ground level of our civil justice system, people like karen

scholer and david counts. we hope to have one more federal district judge confirmed before the end of this week, fernando rodriguez, that senator cruz and i recommended to the president and that he has nominated. the other major accomplishment of this administration in the last 18 months is repealing burdensome overregulation from the previous administration. many of these regulations were passed by the obamacare as they were heading out the door, without a real opportunity for public input and review. and we have repealed a historic number, 16 of them, using the congressional review act. previously there have been only one example where the congress had repealed a regulation using the congressional review act.

well, we have, we've also appealed, thanks to the junior senator from pennsylvania, something that was really a bullying tactic by the federal government. this was a scheme by the previous administration to use guidance from federal agencies where they didn't pass a rule where they were required under the law to gain input as part of that rule making process. what they would do, they would issue guidance, which you can imagine how that was treated by people in the private sector. they didn't want to have tond a lawsuit, so they begrudgingly complied with the guidance even though there wasn't any process and input from the public on what that guidance should be. we have successfully used, thanks again to our colleague,

senator toomey, a repeal of those sorts of quasi regulations as well, using the congressional our the conessional review act has been referred to as the most ambitious regulatory roll back since ronald reagan. and as i talk to people, the job creators in our country, they tell me that not only has it been the tax cuts, but it's been the regulatory roll back, it's been the signal that washington is setting that businesses, small and large alike, will have more freedom to pursue their ends, their dreamsut the wet blanket of government regulation. well, president trump has also used his executive branch pen to

issue 22 deregulatory actions for every new regulatory one. so these are big wins, including for our farmers and energy oder on top of that, when it comes to obamacare, one of the aspects of obamacare was something called the independent payment advisory board. we repealed that in our budget agreement earlier this year which will allow seniors and their families to take greater control of their health care decisions without being subjected to the whims of unelected bureaucrats. what unelected bureaucrats translates into is unaccountable bureaucrats. in other words, if you don't like what the bureaucrat is doing, you have almost no recourse. that's by design, and this independent payment advisory board, when it comes to your health care, you sure want to maintain your ability to petition your representatives if you feel like t government's not treating you correctly,

which this independent payment advisory board eliminated. a fourth major accomplishment is providing relief to our community and mid-sized financial institutions, which have been hit hardest by some of the one-size-fits-all rule making approaches under dodd-frank. we all remember dodd-frank was a response to the financial crisis of 2008 followed by the great recession. congress, as it often does, went too far. the pendulum swung too far and affected our community banks and credit unions. i tell my it community bankers back in texas, you weren't the target perhaps, but you were sure of the clot ral damage. we want -- collateral damage. weant small businesses and working families to succeed. we want them to get access to credit, the credit they need in

order to succeed. but regulating community banks out of business is not the answer. this bill was sponsored by the senior senator from idaho, senator crapo, and was passed on a bipartisan basis. this bill, which just passed the house, is a big win for smaller financial institutions, and it will make it easier for them to serve their communities by approving mortgages, providing credit, and lending to businesses. but this isn't mainly a win for th small banks. this is a win for their customers, for the small businesses and individuals who need access to credit that they could not get under the status quo. another thing that we've done recently which i think bears note, and unfortunately so much happens here in washington, and it seems like every 15 minutes there's breaking news, and

sometimes we overlook it. we don't celebrate these great victories. and in this case on behalf of our veterans. we've been accomplishing a lot for our service members and veterans. last year we helped restore america's defense with the greatest investment in our military in 15 years and largest troop pay increase in eight years. you know, we have a bad habit here in congress. after we have fought a war, we start to begin, we can cash the peace dividend. we start to think okay now the world's safe. now we can roll back our money spent on national security. but unfortunately, the world continues to be a dangerous place, and america needs -- i mean the world needs american leadership. and unfortunately, that's expensive. but there really is no option,

because if we don't have peace, if we don't have stability, none of the other benefits of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness can exist. getting back to our veterans, we passed the veterans mission act just in the last couple of weeks which will make significant reforms to the department of veterans affairs strengthening the health care and community care options available to veterans. this bill provided $2.5 billion for the veterans choice program. for example, if you're a veteran and you call to make an appointment and they say, well, come see us in august and you can't wait, or if you have to drive 100 miles, 200 miles, which in the rio grande valley in south texas, if you really

need to go to the veterans hospital, you have to drive all the way to san antonio to get your health care. what the veterans choice act did and what we passed on a bipartisan basis, allows veterans a choice. you can go see a local health care provider, you can go to a local hospital if they can provide that service quicker and more efficiently. we also provided for expanded caregiver assistance. now this is a big deal, and i used to -- at times i've been out to walter reed visiting texans who have been injured in afghanistan or iraq, frequently that injured service member would have a spouse or family member who basically would have to give up their job in order to take care of their injured spouse. it's only right and it's only just that we provide expanded

caregiver assistance to those individuals who do that. finally, madam president, we've seen the crackdown on imported illegalgs. as april the border patrol has seized 284 pounds of fentanyl already greatly surpassing the tal amount seized in fiscal year 2007. i don't have to repeat what a devastating impact the opioid crisis, prescription drugs werer the alternative, which is heroin and fentanyl, how devastating those have been to our communities. so, madam president, these are just a handful of ways that we are doing what the american people elected us to do. we put money back in their pocket. we rolled back regulations. we strengthened our military. we've given health care flexibility to our veterans. and we protected ourommunities the best part of the story is

we're just getting started. the presiding officer: all postcloture time has expired. the question isoning the nomination -- the question is on the nominations. is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll.

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 95. the nays are zero. 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 clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture. 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 tex signed by 17 senators. the presiding officer: by unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum call has been waived. the question is, is it the sense

of the senate that debate on the nomination of fernando e ited states dtrt judge, to be for the southern district of texas shall be brought to a close. the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. the clerk will call the roll. vote:

vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: are there any ?oshes wishing to vote -- senators wishing to vote or change their vote? if not, the ayes are 94. the nays are 1. the motion is agreed to.

the clerk will report the nomination. the clerk: nomination, the judiciary, fernandoodriguez, jr., of texas to be the united states district judge t uthern distrt of texas. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the na for minnesota. a senator: i ask unanimous consent to speak as if in morning business for as much time as i may consume. the presiding officer: without objection. a senator: i also ask unanimous consent tha jennifer ask consistyou, a fellow in my office be granted floor privileges. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. smith: i am so proud to be here. this is my first time speaking on the senate floor. because i represent the great statof minnesota, i thought i would do the right thing and start out by proper introducing myself. i came right out of business school with my husband, a beat of orange car and a ton of

student loans. most people who have never been to minnesota remember us for our weather but we have a hrinbusineomni with a number of fortune 500 companies and i got my start working for one of them, general mills. the winters are every bit as cold as you heard but archie and i fell in love with minnesota anyway. before long we put down roots. we had --eavwo sons, sam and mason. instead of just building a career, suddenly we were building a life. i am so glad that archie and my dad, harland, who's 88th birthday is this saturday could come to washington to cheer me on today. so that's the story of how i became a minnesotan. the story of how i wound up here in the senate really starts in 1990. i had left general mills and start add small business that i ran out of our house. sam was 3. mason was 1. it was a busy, exciting, and happy time for us. but my parents had raised me tov thaif you'reruly

it's not just enough to pay your taxes or keep your lawn nice or say hi at the grocery store. you have to find a way to get involved in civic life. wasng, they h been involved in local politics. so i looked around the community where archie and i had decided to raise ourid a saw tha wead a state senator who was out of touch with the values neighbors and i shared and not only that, but there was a young, energetic, young candidate running against her. he had young kids just like we did. so in those days, campaigns tended to put their focus on tritio nghborhoods with single-family homes. i guess the idea was that if you own your own home, that probably means you're old enough to be likely to vote and invested enough in our community to really care about what's happing. but a lot ofy neighbors lived in apartment buildings and they had a lot to say about h they thought things were going. frankly, they were kind of tired of being ignored. as i have always seen it, if you

really listen to people, you'll find that everybody has a story worth hearing. everybody has a problem that's worth working to solve. d when it comes to making big decisions as a community, everybody deserves a seat at the table. so i packed up the stroller with sam and mason and we went off to organize the apartment buildings. people were surprised to see me. but i had a great time. i got tono neibo. i asked a lot of questions iistened to their answers. and we built relationships. and the guy i was o became the first democrat to win that seat in a decade. after that, i stayed involved in campaigns and issues that i cadut, especially when it came's iue my dad had been on the board of planned parenthood in ohio, and i got a chance to work for planned parenthood machine machine. then one i got call from the mayor of minneapolis, archie ryback. he had been in officfo few years and was working on a who rae challenges starting with an epidemic of violence

am people. r.t. is a really creative thinker and he thought if i could bring my business experience to the position of chief of staff, weo se good wor together. i was intrigued. so i made the leap. it was one of the bt professional decisions i ever made. i loved the challenges of that job. and later, i head the same job for the governor of minnesota mark dayton. then one day, to my utter shock, governor dayton a m r with him and serve as lieutenant governor. i will be honest. that took a little bit to get used to. when it comes to public service, i've always been a lot more comfortable with the service part than the public part. but that job evolved and involved a lot of the same skills that i used in my business career. building relationship, looking for new solutions to old problems and creating coalitions to get things done. and it novelled one -- involved one of the favorite parts of mine in politics which is listening tories you know, a lot of times when a

big powerful politician walks into the room full of people, everybody kind of clams up and waorit f him to say what's on his mind. after all, that's why people came. and at the end, maybe he has time for a couple of questions before he has to run off to the next event. but there's rarely a chance for a real conversation. and this is where being kind of a low key person works to my advantage. i'd come into coffee shops or community centers or even people's homes, and i'd introduce myself and just ask people questions. family?going on with your what have the last few weeks been like for you? wh keeps you up at night? and that's when people really start to open up. and you know, it's one thing to go around the table atorum and have s say health care is my big issue. but when you're in someone's living room and you're drinking their coffee and we love coffee in minnesota, you've met their dog, you get a chance to hear what that really means. you hear -- you hear stories just like this. i just went to visit my mom in a

nursing home, which is 40 miles aw a the kids -- with the kids in soccer and playing rate in school band, i'm so busy. i only get there a couple times a month. and the nurses are great and they work so hard, but they only stay there for sixons at a time becau they get h awa by the big hospital system who can pay them more. so i worry, say the people in my stories, that my mom is never going to get the same nurse for more than six months at aime, and i wish there was some way those nurses could get paid more, get pay so they don't have to leave. i can't tell you how much these conversations mean to me. and so when i was lieutenant governor, i made minnesotans living room my office and i spent as much time as i could just talking to people. and i have always found that when you ask people what they think and then you really listen to what they say instead of just waiting for the answer that you were expecting, that's when you start to get a sense of what you can do to improve people's lives. and now that i have this

opportunity to serve the people of minnesota in washington, i am so focused on the issues that they tell me about. when i'm sitting in their living s,un family picture, and talking about what's happening to them. and the thing that keeps coming up in these conversations, it's a very simple but a very powerful idea. and it's freedom. in this -- ms. hyde-smith: in this country, you're supposed to have the kind of fre thato build the life you want. if you're putting in 16, 18-hour days and still struggling to make the rent and put food on the table, let alone pay for child care, or if you've got a child who doesn't want to go a four-year college and you've got no idea how he or she is going to find a decent job out of high sc or if someone in your family is sick and the cost of medicine is blowing a gaping hole in your budget, wellhe you're n getting that opportunity, are you? you don't have that freedom. minnesotans who aren't getting

that opportunity, who are being denied that freedom, they deserve to have a voice here in washington, and that is the kind of senator that i want to be. so this is the story of how i came to be here and what want my work here to be like. but i'm also well-awith a irthat the way the story sometimes gets told in washington, it's not actually a story about me at all. sometimes i'm barely a characteristic in the -- a character in the story. instead it is about the a man who held the seat before me, a man who i consider to be a good friend and a champion for the ssive values that brought me into politics, or maybe it is a broader story about how we should hold men accountable for their actions and that the hope that we have that this represents a turning of the tide. -- and i get that. ms. smith: my presence here in the senate will always be seen by some as a symbol of the broader conveation we're having in this country today about the experience o women. so i want to give my perspective

about that and where i hope this conversation goes. so my grandmother, avis, was born in 1898. this is avis here standing in the background with a cigarette, i think, in her hand. she was 17 years old when the sufftt crashed woodr wilson's inauguration and demanded the franchise. she grew up to be president of a small community bank in rural, rural, -- in rural indiana at a time when such things were unheard of.is's atherwn bk. he had three daughters. the only way for him to keep that bank and the family was to pass it on to them. when he did that, instead of handing it over to their husbands, what my grandmother and her sisters did is they went ahead and they ran that bank for themselves. avis' daughter, my mother, chris, was 33 years old, the year that griswold versus

connecticut was decided, confirming that married women had the right to contraception and thus to control their futures. but when mom graduated from college a few years earlier, the options for women werell et limed. my mom wanted to be a journalist, but her father told her that she better come out of school prepared for a career that would allow her to take care of herself. back then, that meant she could be a teacher or a secretary or a nurse, and mom picked teacher. we lost my mom not quite two years ago to alzheimer's, and she was such an inspiration to me. i think she would have been an incredible journalist, but mom didn't sit around and feel sorry for herself. just like her mother before her, she was a fighter. she figured out how to make the best possible life for herself and for the people that she loved, no matter what the constraints anyone else tried to put on her. as for me, i was 16 the year roe v. wade was decided. i grew up in a time of incredible progress for women, and with women like my mother

and my grandmother in the family tree, i believed it when my mother and father told me that i could do whatever i wanted to do when i grew up. which isn't to say i didn't notice the way the world worked. you know, it's interesting. i graduated from business school in 1984. that year, the big story among m.b.a. types was mary cunningham. mary was a grill yant woman. she was saito be possibly the first female graduate of hazard to be chairman of a noncosmetic company. that was what passed as a compliment back then. she didecome one of the first women to ever hold a senior leadership role in a fortune 500 company. that's not why she was famous. mary was famous that she slept her way to the top of the corporate ladder. i remember my graduating class

was about a third women. all d like men, shirts and power ties. we were dreaming of a which women could best dream of success but the best way to do that w to pass like a man. i have been fortunate i m career and in my life. i have always been surrounded by strong women and thoughtful men. i don't have a horror story to share like the ones we have heard from so many women in the metoo movement or the millions of similar tors that have gone unheard simply because the men in those stories weren't famous. but when you really listen to women, you begin to understand the million little ways in which all women are less and denied the opportunity contribute to their communities and their country. the day that governor dayton announced that he was appointing me to fill the senate seat, i ood ready to serve the people of minnesota why not? here i was with a graduate degree, having worked at general mills, started my own company, had managed 34,000 people and a

multimillion-dollar budget as chief of staff for the governor, served as lieutenant governor, and then a repr raised his hands and he asked, so do you think you'll be able to d this? like a lot of women, i brushed it off. like this.deal wit the indig o thing but there are also injustices that are holding women back and otftahe w policies that get made right here in washington. there's the stuff that gets a attention, like trying to defund planned parenthood, which millions of women rely on for health care,li bk women's access to basic reproductive services, standing in the way ofqu for ual work. then there's the stuff that you only really understand when you listen to the realities in women's lives -- the high cost of child care isn't a woman's issue per se, but who winds up having to drop out of the workforce when a family can't afford child care? women do. the high cost of prescription drugs isn't aan'som issue per se, but who winds up shouldering

the responsibility of caring for aging parents? women do. and just last month,he conservative majority on the supreme court deced tha employers should bebl to force workers into signing mandatory arbitration agreements that prohibit them from going to court when they're mistreated. and that isn't a women's issue mehr say either, but millions of women who are sexually harassed or abused in the workplace lost their ability to seek justice in the process. all these things add up to a world in which women areirly dei was talkibout of lives they want. we may have moved past the days when freedom depended on their father or your husband, but much of it still depends on what we do here in walkers and we're letting too much -- in washington, and we're letting too many women down. you don't have to be a woman to care about these problems or to be part of the solution. in fact, senator franken led the

fight to bang those arbitrary -- to ban those arbitrary clauses when he was serving in this seat. a lot of these problems have endured because women haven't had a seat at the table here in washington. i am the 51's women to take the oath of office as uned states senator. but we've had 50 different natorsamed charles, and i mean no disrespect to my minority leader. put another way, nearly half of all the women who have ever served in the united states senate have serving right now. you can slice and dice the er a million different ways. they are a all sobering. since i took office, my friend from minnesotae the senate's 52nd ever woman and the 22nd smith. so instead of mylace in the senate reminding people of all the ways in which women have been held back from contributing in our country, i want it to be a reminder of the can contributions women can make when we have the freedom to do

so. one of the best things about my time here so far has been getting to know the other women in the senate. some of us are very progressive democrats and some of us are very conservative republicans, but we get together once a month and we listen and we talk to each other and we find a lot of common ground. my friend lisa murkowski and i ha sething in common. turns out we both worked on the trans-alaska pipeline on the north slope of alaska. now, i know i don't look like somebody who worked on a pipeline, but after high school i joined the union and i spent a summer working in t kitcht a construction camp on prudhoe bay. it was an entry-level job. i wasn't allowed to touch anything hot or sharp, but it was an interesting summer and all those years later it gave something for lisa and me to talk about. and once we started tug about that, we found ourselves talking about something else we have in common. we both are really concerned about the fact that kids in rural communities don't have access to the mental health services they need.

we've both met with too many parents and too many teachers who worry that kids are slipping through the cracks. so we decided to team up and now we have a bipartisan bill to bring mental health professionals in the national health service corps into more schools so more kids can have access to he wases is -- to services. when women are empowered to contribute more fully, we all benefit. we've seen it in our economy for the last generation. we're seeing it in our politics as women drive the resistance to policies that hurt, woulding people and -- that hurt working people and leave our children vulnerable to gun violence and we're seeing it more and more he i the senate. and i am so proud to be a part of that. i no he that i am -- i no he that i am always going to be know in part for the circumstances that brought me here. but do not underestimate me. bieve that as a woman and as a progressive sand as a minnesota minutian, i have a lot to contribute. and i am so ready to do that

work. i intend to stand up to this administration-and-. but i am also ready to listen and to learn and so ready to work with anyone who wants to expand freedom and opportunity for women and men across this country. i believe we can find ways to work together and make progress for the people that we represent, and i'll tell you something else. i believe we can actually enjoy doing it. i know that's not a trendy thing to say. i know we're supposed to come me and immediately srt complaining about how broken everything is and how horrible the other side is and how much we hate these jobs that we spend all this time and money campaigning for. and i have to say, i don't get it. i think it is so amazing that we get to go out and talk to people about their lives and then bring their ideas and their concerns to the table here in washington and try to figure out how to make progress for them. i grew up out west in new mexico. in fact, senator udall and

senator heinrich tell me that i am the only senator currently serving who was born in new mexico. our town was informally divided into two parts and mine was one of the only white families in our neighborhood, which was mostly populated by hispanic families who'd been there for generations. most of the kids i grew up around spoke spanish 00 at home and so from a very early age, i grew up with this sense that everyone around me had something different to offer. my pents sent me to the public school in our nbo and my school frankly lacked some of the resources that the schools from where more of the white kids had. so my parents got involved. my dad joined the school board and my mom volume tease and they both devoted part of their lives to making things better. you know what? they loved it. they loved doing that work. i was raised to believe that the world is full of people who share the same hopes and dreams but have very different

experiences and perspectives. and that part of being a good citizen is to go out and listen to those different experiences and perspectives and do yourrt . and that it can even be fun. maybe that's why minnesota was the right place for me to go into public service. minnesotans really love doing the hard work of democracy. we vote in higher numbers than anyone else. we love talking about the issues of the day in the checkout line in the supermarket along with the western, which we really love talking about. and we almost always elect people who enjoy working to protect people's lives, to improve people's lives, and there is no better example of that than my friend and senior senator, amy klobuchar. she is effective because she doesn't buy in a that cynicism. weelieves that by listening to peopled and working hard to make a differee for them, progress is possible. and she proves it every single day. the same was true ofy predecessor, senator franken,

who brought not just wit but heart and passion to his work. and it's been true for a long line of minnesotans, from hubert humphrey and walter monda to paul wellstone and dave durenberger. the other thing you learn when you spend a lot of time listening to minnesotans is just how hard they are willing to work to create opportunity for their families. they deserve aator who will work just as hard on their behalf and i am not just ready to do that, i am excited to do that. now, i know there will be some rough days here in the senate. but what an honor to have the chance to do this work alongside all of you. and with my mother and my grandmother beside me, i am so thrilled to be here and i am full of hope about the progress we can all make together. thank you. i yield the floor.

the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: quorum call:

the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are. mr. mcconnell: i ask consent that further proceedings be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent that notwithstanding rule 22, all postcloture time on the rodriguez nomination be considered expired a at 2:15 and the senate immediately vote on the nomination. if confirmed the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid on the table. the president be immediately notified of the senate's action. the presiding officer: without objection. under the previous order, the under the previous order, the >> the senate recessing the party lunges with mik vice-prest pence. they will be back at 2:15 work on judicial nominations.

later in the week senators will began consideration of the 2019 authorization bill. senate subcommittee her testimony for us gymnastics president and former michigan state university president about sexual abuse of athletes during their tenure spread you can watch this tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span2. >> in anticipation of the upcoming us and north korea the poetic meeting set for june 12 booktv will feature authors with books about the region. the sunday starting at 5:00 p.m. eastern with in order to live.

>> up next, a look at the increase of autonomous weapons and how international law and rules of engagement are being interpreted. the brookings institute hosted this event last week. >> good morning, everybody. i'm the vice president for foreign-policy here at the brookings institution. it's a pleasure talking all here today. i will start the very unusual announcement. at some point in the next hour, not by our design, our emergency management systems will send off blair of tax et cetera, please, ignore them. my apologies for that rude interruption. it is a pleasure to welcome you all to the fifth annual