a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from utah. mr. lee: mr. president, on roll call vote 150, i voted aye. it was my intention to vote no. therefore, i ask unanimous consent that i be permitted to change my vote since it will not affect the outcome. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. lee: thank you.

mr. mcconnell: mr. president. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the senate -- i ask unanimous consent that the senate resume legislative session for a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today, it

adjourn until 10:00 a.m. thursday, july 12. further, that following the prayer and pledge, the morning business be deemed expired, the journal of proceedings be approved to date, and the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day and morning business be closed. finally, following leader remarks, the senate proceed to executive session and resume consideration of the ney nomination. finally, that notwithstanding rule 22, all postcloture time expire on the nomination at 1:30. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: so if there is no further business to come before the senate, i ask that it stand adjourned under the previous order following the remarks of senators rubio and merkley. the presiding officer: without objection.

the presiding officer: the senator from florida. mr. rubio: is the senate in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are not. mr. rubio: mr. president, my home state of florida is once again experiencing an environmental and economic catastrophe, a real crisis. it's a crisis whose cause extends back decades, decades of bad decisions, decisions made on

things people didn't think about, neglect, and myopic water management. nowhere is that crisis more acute or more apparent than at lake okeechobee, the liquid heart of the everglades and our surrounding coastal communities including the city of stuart, which is on the verge of seeing conditions very similar to what they experienced in the year 2016, and that's what this picture here is about. what you see there is algae, thick, toxic algae that is gathering underneath that bridge back in 2016. now, this really goes back decades. you know, the historic florida everglades, the headwaters began in lake okeechobee. this massive lake, reservoir right almost in the center of our state. what would happen is when rainfall would come in and the water would overflow, it would just continue to flow south through the everglades and down into florida bay. but then people began to move in and develop florida, and

therefore there was a need for the army corps to step in and carefully script the flow of water in the southern half of florida. and this all began since the construction of something called the herbert hoover dike. then subsequently the development, beginning in 1948 of the central and south florida project to manage flood risks. unfortunately, this flood control system that was designed to keep the water from coming out of lake okeechobee and flooding the communities to the south of it has significant limitations and neglects to use the everglades' natural flowways. that's why everglades restoration is something that apart from ecosystem and wildlife benefits is so critically important for our nation and for my state of florida, because everglades restoration is not simply about restoring a national treasure. it's also about allowing much more flexibility for water management at greatly reduced

costs and at reduced harm to coastal communities. so the best way to understand it, for those that are new to this issue, is you have this massive lake. the lake used to overflow. when it did, the water would flow down. communities and agriculture moved in to the southern part of the state just south of that lake, and therefore there was a need to construct a dam to hold back the water and prevent the flooding and loss of life, which is natural, and then a canal system to allow the waters to flow east and west. the problem that has developed over the years is what we are dealing with now, and that is that as today when water levels in lake okeechobee rise too high, that water must be released in massive quantities. today the water levels at the lake are nearly 14.5-feet deep, a full two feet higher than the corps would prefer at this time of year as the rainy season kicks in. so they look at the dike, they look at its capacity, and they worry if, knowing that it's

going to continue to rain throughout the summer, if the water levels get too high, you could have the dike compromised, you could have flooding, you could have loss of life. therefore, they are forced to release water. last year, as an example, we already saw large amounts of water and rain -- rainwaters, among other causes, of course, was hurricane irma which caused lake okeechobee to rise to record high levels. and again this year, florida's experienced large amounts of rain, and this rainfall carries nutrients into the lake from upstream. so the lake is in the center part of the state. just north of it is areas kissimmee, orlando, and population, and people move in and they fertilize their lawns and all kinds of nutrients that gets into the groundwater, it rains and it flows into lake okeechobee. the more it rains, the more of that flows. the water level of the lake gets higher but the nutrient flow into the lake also gets higher. as you can see from these time-lapse images, when that

nutrient-rich water flows in on top of the nutrient-rich water that's already there an heat comes into play, the result is algae bloom. that's where it was on june 12. this is where it was on june 20. all that red representing algae. june 21. and now june 24. if you looked at an image of this today, almost the entire lake is covered by thick, toxic algae. now, to make sure that there is no damage or threat to the dike, which itself is being worked on in order to strengthen it, the u.s. army corps of engineers releases water from the lake to the east, through the st. lucie river, and to the west through the calucahachie river. now it's diverted to these canal systems to the east and to the west. so if you are living to the west or you are living to the east, what you know is that when these

releases happen, all of that algae that you see here and all that green algae i just showed new that picture, which is toxic and kills life, not to mention -- it's harmful to people that come into contact, potentially even breathe it in, all that stuff is headed your way when those releases happen. and unfortunately, those discharges have a catastrophic impact on the environment and on the floridians living along our coastal ecosystems. they are especially destructive when these releases export, as i said, nutrient-rich waters with toxic blue-green algae blooms from the lake to the waterways and estuaries that are downstream. because there those blooms, that algae, it kills fish, fouls the water, shutters all sorts of small businesses along the coast, has a tremendous negative impact to property values, to the real estate market. it creates respiratory irritation for people and

contact dermatitis for residents that get too close to this. so imagine you live in this area. maybe you're a small business that depends on visitors. maybe you invest a lot of money to retire near the water. maybe you have grown up there your entire life and summers, the greatest memories with your family are spent on the water, and this stuff is headed your way. i assure you this does not increase your property values. it collapses them. i assure you this does not encourage visitors to come to your area. it not only discourages them from coming now, but the reputation gets out, and all these small businesses that depend on access to the water are now being threatened by that as well. and that picture -- if you see this picture here, that green, that's all toxic algae, all of that. in one of the waterways. that's not chicago on st. patrick's day. this is not food coloring. this is toxic algae in the river. images like this are becoming all too common for residents in

this area. and the picture actually doesn't do it justice. this is not just the color of the water. this is thick, thick algae of a kind that, you know, is inches deep. and you can imagine that everything underneath that is not just being cut off from sunlight and oxygen, but it's toxic. it's killing everything that is underneath it as well. you can't go in that water, you can't touch it, and anything that's in it is going to struggle to survive. now, over the weekend, particularly on sunday morning, i began to raise concerns and the concerns of our coastal communities who are on the receiving end of this. imagine if you live in one of these communities, you see the pictures of the lake. it's basically all green. and you know that on monday morning, they are going to open it up and all of this stuff is going to come pouring down in your area, and they're frightened. it's like impending doom. we reached out to the president, we reached out to the administration, and thankfully they acted quickly. they called the army corps and

the army corps paused the discharges that were scheduled for monday. so on monday -- sunday night, early monday morning, people woke to the positive news that this -- these releases were not going to start on monday. by the way, if you go over to the release points where the water is let out, it's all backed up with this algae. all you have to do is stand there and see it and know as soon as they open, all that stuff is coming out and it's coming at you. they gave us this three or four-day reprieve, however long it takes, to allow water managers to conduct a full assessment of the system's conditions and to look for other available options for moving the water. while this was a positive response, it is not a long-term answer to this problem. at some point over the next few days, this is going to have to be released. it's going to happen. it's just a matter of time. and the result is that 2018 is shaping up to be another lost summer along caloosahatchee and

indian river estuaries, just like it was in 2013 and just like it was in 2016. and i want to be frank. over the last 20, 30, ten, and five years, the federal government has not done enough for anyone to expect anything will change in the next five years. now, here is full candor. there are really no good, viable short-term options that fix this oversight. this -- overnight. this is a fact. we know this. ultimately, no matter how much we push the army corps to hold back releases at some point they will have to because we're in rainy season, and there comes a point where the risk of norwood and loss of life compels them to release some of it. you hope they pulse it, you hope they spread it out, you hope they don't release more than they need to, you hope they stretch it as much as possible, but in the end, we know it's going to happen and so do the residents of this region. what's frustrating is not only the release is coming, but nothing seems to be happening to prevent this from continuing on forever. but that -- that's why it's so

sponsor for us that while we work to try to spread out these releases to minimize to the extent possible the impact that they have, we have to begin to work on the things that ultimately will solve this. what ultimately will solve this are the issues that we're committed to continuing to work on, and it's multi-pronged and it takes a number of years to get it done. so the senate will soon take up the water infrastructure bill, and that bill is going to allow us to move forward with the everglades agriculture area reservoir. this project, by the way, is connected to the broader project called the central everglades planning project, which the congress authorized in 2016 -- in the 2016 water resources bill, and that reservoir is vital to ensuring more water is sent south through the everglades as nature intended. this reservoir will basically be a -- some of that water instead of having to go east and west and go into this reservoir south of the lake, it can be cleansed of many of those nutrients, and

then instead of being released east and west, that cleaner water could be released south into the everglades the way some of it once was back in the historic everglades. and that project, the agriculture area reservoir was at the office of management and budget. and that's why we worked with them and really spoke to them a number of times to get them to quickly approve the army corps' review of the storage reservoir project. and i am happy for the residents of florida, and particularly these impacted areas, that these efforts succeeded. yesterday the office of management and budget approve the corps' review of the project so its design and construction can be authorized by the congress. we will also move to on the expediency of the dike and the supplemental will provide enough

funding to be sure that once and for this is made a priority for completion. so i appreciate the administration's heeding this request. last week the army corps allocated $414 million for the dike. with all the money needed to complete the project is now allocated. all of that money is now available and the dike can be finished by 2022. and what we hope that means is that now that the dike is repaired and stronger, now they will be able to hold become more water for longer periods of time. it won't solve the problem. it will have some impact. we want to see them do it but ultimately that alone will not be enough. we have to do the other things including the reservoir that i spoke about a moment ago. we have to also remain focus on bottlenecks at the bottom -- this includes ensuring our partnership with the department of interior that we all continue to work together to meet the

important time lines and project funding targets. i spoke to president trump about this. i recall at some point in the summer of last year as we flew to miami for an event, we had a chance in our flight path to fly over part of the everglades and the president is a part-time resident of florida. palm beach in particular is one of the areas impacted by this. we talked about the opportunity that the president had to be the infrastructure president and when it comes to florida to be a president that actually gets things done for the florida everglades. i asked him about doubling investment in the center everglades infrastructure, to clean and store and move water into south florida's natural floodplain and away from where people live along the coast. in 2000, congress authorized the comprehensive everglades restoration plan. we've got to continue to move

forward on finally getting it done. there were too many delays. it took too long. hopefully now in the last couple of weers we've -- years we've begun to make headway on it. these infrastructure projects is not just about restoring the everglades. this is not just an environmental project. if it was just an environmental project, that alone would justify the work. it is not just an environmental project. it is about water quality, about water supply, it is about the value of property, it's about quality of life and it impacts millions of our residents and of our visitors, but we have to finish the projects. we have to stay focused. if we lose our eye -- if we take our eye off the ball, if we divert attention somewhere else, if we interrupt the work of these projects, every one of these delays just makes more and more of it these -- of these events likely. if congress in 2000 moved with

the speed we are moving now, some of this would have been avoided and every year we delay in not acting, these are the real-world consequences, and it only gets worse, not better, unless we address it. i am committed, among my highest priorities for the state of florida is to get this done in a timely fashion. and with the federal support and federal commitment necessary to match what the state has already done with great urgency. i hope we can continue to make progress on all of this otherwise we're going to have more lost summers and the lives of millions of people will continue to be impacted in these catastrophic ways. mr. president, i yield the floor.

mr. merkley: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. merkley: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that my intern, whitney wag never, have -- magg -- wagner have privileges of the floor. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. merkley: the most important are words of the constitution are the first three, we the people. it is the mission statement of our country, a nation of the people, by the people, and for the people as president lincoln so eloquently stated, not a nation by, for, and of the powerful and the privileged. and critical to that vision of we the people is a strong,

independent judiciary, and particularly a strong and independent supreme court. since all the decisions from the lower courts can be appealed right on up to the very top. today, mr. president, there is a vacancy on the supreme court with anthony kennedy's announced retirement. on monday night president trump announced his nominee to fill that seat, judge brett kavanaugh. a single vote can make all the difference in the world on the supreme court in protecting the freedoms that we hold dear. a single vote can tip the scales towards the vision of our constitution, the we the people vision of our constitution or can tip the scales away from that vision with a government by and for the powerful. we can see the impact of the single vote when we look at justice kennedy's own legacy,

his own record of 5-4 decisions. time and time again during his three decades on the court, he made the deciding vote in a critical decision, a single vote making a big difference. in 1992, he wrote the majority opinion in planned parenthood versus casey, not only reaffirming roe v. wade, but protecting a woman's fundamental right to make additions -- decisions about her own health care, because as justice kennedy wrote, quote, involving the not intimate and personal choices a person may make in a lifetime are central to the liberty protected by the 14th amendment. the amendment prohibiting states of depriving a person of liberty without due process. in 2005, wrote the ruling in roper v. simmons which brought

up the execution of juveniles, declaring it cruel and unusual punishment. highlighting the evolving standards of decency that mark the standards of a maturing society. justice kennedy said even when a child commits a serious crime, quote, the state cannot ex extinguish his life and -- extinguish his life and potential to obtain an understanding of his humanity. in another case he appealed to the better angles of our -- angels of our nation and channeled the sentiment behind -- those who would give up a little liberty to purchase a little safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. when he wrote about the majority opinion that detainees at guantanamo bay had the constitutional right of habeas corpus to challenge their

detention. and certainly it's worth noting in looking at justice kennedy's legacy and the importance of a single vote, cases that involve the rights of opportunity for our lgbtq brothers and sisters. in that 5-4 vote our nation declared that love is love. that everyone has a light to -- a right to marry whoever they love regardless of gender or sexual orientation. in one of those cases in united states v. windsor, he helped to strike down the defense of marriage act. after the surviving spouse of a legally recognized same-section marriage was -- sex marriage was -- then in obergafeld versus hodges he wrote, and i quote, no union is more profound than

marriage for it embodies the highest ideal of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family. justice kennedy went on to say same-sex couples that sought recognition of their unions in the case, asked for, quote, equal dignity in the eyes of the law and that the constitution grants them that right. think about these powers, these freedoms, these rights, due process under the 14th amendment, protection from cruel and unusual punishment under the eighth amendment, the right to petition for a writ of habeas corpus granted in article 1, section 9 of the constitution, due process under the fifth amendment all upheld by a single vote. and if there's any doubt about

how much difference that vote can make, look at some of the recent decisions handed down by the court. the janus case, a 5-4 decision undermining the rights of workers to organize. the ability of workers to organize. what a fundamental right, a key power to be able to participate in the wealth that you worked to create and yet undermined just the week before last by a 5-4 court decision. trump versus hawaii, 5-4 decision upholding a travel ban against muslims, effectively shutting the door of our country to a group of people simply because of their religion. what a 5-4 assault on the freedom of religion. abbotv. perez, greenlighting gerrymandering in texas. violating the rollcall voting --

violating the voting rights act. one case after another coming down in recent weeks about -- coming down against we the people and decided by a single vote. how many cases are we going to see in the coming years where a single vote transformings the landscape of on your country as we know it? where a sing the vote -- single vote takes away the vision of we the people nation? that's why this nomination is so unlike any other recent confirmation that impacts on the court and on our nation will reverberate for decades to come. so many core issues are under consideration, the influence of money and politics, the power of big corporations to prey on consumers and workers, marriage

equality, the right of every american to have their voice heard at the ballot box. how can you believe in the foundation and vision of a democratic republic if you don't believe in voter empowerment, and yet we have members of the supreme court who don't. the right of every american to receive a quality education, affordable health care, a woman's right to choose. it's clear that the very sole of -- soul of our we the people nation is hanging in the balance, but here's a certain circumstance that we may never have seen before, and that is we have a president who is under investigation for the possibility of colluding with an enemy -- with an adversarial foreign power. in case after case, time after time, he has sought to make it

difficult to conduct an investigation into the presidency and the campaign that preceded it. he said in a tweet, as has been stated by numerous legal scholars, i have the absolute right to pardon myself, but why would i do that when i have done nothing wrong? i ask this, why would we tweet that topic if he's not worried about needing a pardon? so a president who talks openly about the possibility of pardoning himself, something there's no precedent for, that no president has consideredrd consideredrd -- considered. well, this is a situation that we are in and with a president at this moment nominating a supreme court justice who well may have the power to determine whether it is possible under our constitution for a president to pardon himself, who may well

determine under the constitution whether a president can fire a special counsel at will. the march to authoritarian nation is one that should concern us at this moment because that's the issue of the expansive power of the presidency. is it so broad, so large that the checks and balances written into the constitution become irrelevant? this is exactly what president george washington warned the nation about in his farewell address when he said, the spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one and thus to create whatever form of government a real despotism. and he said this. it's a customary weapon -- he said this is a customary weapon by which free government is

destroyed. and so here we have this issue of the president having chosen as a nominee off a long list of possibilities, an individual who has gone to great lengths to talk about the president being above the law. therefore, we have every right to worry. this expansive view on executive power, in a 2009 minnesota law review article, he said we should not burden a sitting president with civil suits, criminal investigations, or criminal prosecutions. he said a possible concern is that the country needs a check against the bad behavior of a law-breaking president but the constitution already provides that check. if the president does something dastardly, the impeachment process is available. so here he's saying directly, his reading of the constitution

is the check on the president through impeachment. the president, he says, should have absolute discretion whether and when to appoint an independent counsel. another point he argued it should be the president who has the power to dismiss an independent counsel and to do so without cause. a 1998 panel discussion, the future of the independent counsel statute said if the president were the sole subject of a criminal investigation, i would say no one should be investigating. when the moderator asked how many on the package believe a sitting president cannot be indicted, it's mr. kavanaugh who raised his hand. in his dissent in seven-sky v. holder, kavanaugh wrote a footnote stating under the constitution, the president may decline to enforce a statute that regulates private

individuals when the president deems the statute unconstitutional, even if a court has held or would hold that statute to be constitutional. wow. not only does this nominee believe that the only power to address a misbehaving president is impeachment, the power granted to the congress, but also that the president has the power to ignore laws just by virtue of feeling that they are unconstitutional even if a court says they're constitutional. that is not the system of checks and balances set up in our constitution. so that is a big concern and it leads us to the conclusion that when a president is under investigation for the

possibility of a serious crime of collaborating with the enemy, that president should not have this chamber considering -- considering, holding hearings, proceeding to take a debate and a vote on that nominee. let that cloud be cleared first. there's more to be concerned about. there's a lot to be concerned about in health care. in garza v. hardgen, a woman's constitutional right to control her own reproductive health decisions. and then there's priests for life v. u.s. department of health and human services, where he wrote a dissenting opinion which he stated that the affordable care act's contraceptive coverage requirement violates religious nonprofits, religious freedom. the nonprofit said that even submitting the one-page forum from the obama administration to

allow rlgious nonprofits to opt out might make them complicit. neat neutrality, he wrote an opinion in favor of striking down the f.c.c.'s net neutrality rule. he argued that the net neutrality rule violated the first amendment by restricting the editorial discretion to internet service providers. the editorial discretion of internet service providers? this issue of net neutrality is whether or not an internet service provider can charge a series of fees based on the content of the information. if you want to protect freedom of speech, then you protect net neutrality. this net neutrality issue was about whether or not an internet service provider could charge fees based on the type of platform you're using or the computer program you're using. it was about whether you can create a fast lane on the

internet for those wealthy enough to afford it while the rest of us in america are stuck in the slow lane behind a truck going 30 miles per hour. that's what net neutrality is about. did he even understand the basic fundamentals of the issue? he said it's about the editorial decision of the internet service providers. talk about a decision warped and twisted and crafted to support the powerful or the fundamental opportunity for us as a nation, to make rules that regulate fair opportunity on the internet. mr. president, our nation really is at a pivotal moment. we have a court that in 5-4 decision and 5-4 decision and 5-4 decision has proceed to weigh in on behalf of the powerful against the people, against the workers of america, against the consumers of america, against the women of

america, health care rights in america, and now we have the possibility of a nominee being considered who wants to make the president of the united states above the law, not subject -- not subject to investigation, not subject to the possibility of indictment, not subject to the courts saying that a law is constitutional or unconstitutional. perhaps appropriate to a king in a kingdom, but not to a democratic republic, not to a we the people constitution. so that is why we absolutely should not proceed to consider this nominee until the president is cleared of the investigation for conspiring, for

collaborating with an enemy of the united states of america. and it's absolutely why if that cloud is clear, we should still be dramatically concerned about the viewpoints of this nominee who doesn't respect the health care opportunities and rights of americans, who doesn't respect the government's ability to create a fair playing field, equal lanes for individuals on the internet, and certainly who doesn't understand that no one is above the law under the vision of the constitution, not even the president of the united states. thank you. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the senate stands adjourned until 10:00 a.m. tomorrow

>> more executive nominations tomorrow. since president trump announced tariffs on steel and aluminium imports, a number of senators have been putting together a measure to give congress more authority when a decision is made to impose taxes on imports. senator david perdue introduces the measure. >> mr. president, i rise today to talk about my opposition to the section 232 motion that will be voted on later today. i have utmost respect for my colleagues who are bringing this motion. i totally understand their logic and i respect their point of view. on this and many other issues. one of the great