vote:

the presiding officer: on there vote the yeas are 14, the nays are 84. under the previous order requiring 60 votes for the adoption of this amendment, the amendment is not agreed to. a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: there will now be two minutes of debate equally divided prior to a vote in relation to baldwin amendment number 3524. ms. baldwin: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from wisconsin. ms. baldwin: i rise today to urge my colleagues to support my bipartisan amendment with my

colleague senator susan collins, that would spur innovation in the dairy business. this amendment would do three simple things, foster the development of dairy products that respond to consumer demand, support new dairy entrepreneurs to develop their businesses and expand their markets and provide technical assistance to dairy farmers. dairy farmers are facing extremely difficult times. these farmers are facing uncertainty about trade deals and export markets and low milk prices. this would provide technical assistance for dairy entrepreneur so they and other businesses can find new ways to compete, increase their efficiency and find more surpluses for the milk they

have. i urge my colleagues to support this amendment. i yield back. the presiding officer: all time is yielded back. the question is on the amendment. is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: any senator in the chamber wishing to vote or wishing to change their vote? if not, on this vote the yeas are 83, the nays are 15. under the previous order requiring 60 votes for the adoption of this amendment, the

amendment is agreed to. there will now be two minutes of debate equally divided prior to a vote in relation to cruz amendment number 3402. mr. cruz: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mr. cruz: madam president, one of the most significant victories for the american people that was in the tax cut legislation that we passed this year was this body and the congress came together and repealed the obamacare individual mandate. it is one of the most cruelest aspects of obamacare. every year the i.r.s. fined six and a half million americans because they couldn't afford health insurance. sadly for the politicians in the district of columbia is to reimpose those fines on the poorest residents in d.c. my assumption is that all, if

not many, of our democratic colleagues will vote to do that right now. let me point out in d.c., in 2017, 1,017 people were find by the i.r.s., and of those 70 -- 33% had less than $25,000 a year in income. if you vote to table this amendment, you are voting to raise taxes on low-income d.c. residents who are struggling to make ends meet. the presiding officer: the senator's time has expired. the senator from vermont. mr. leahy: senator shelby and i worked hard through this process to keep poison pill riders out. this amendment is a poison pill. we talked about repealing the federal mandate. well, of course, by doing that you saw a direct premium increase as a result of that

repeal. the district of columbia and states like vermont passed their own mandate to keep premiums down. just like vermont, d.c. should have the ability to make their own laws. we're telling the district of columbia, we'll tell you what to do. that's not democracy. so i move to table the amendment. i ask for the yeas and nays. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient -- is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the senator from alabama. mr. shelby: madam president, i'll be brief. i appreciate the senator's amendment. on policy grounds i would agree with senator cruz 100%. my position on this, though, is clear, i've consistently voted to repeal obamacare and the individual mandate. so it's with reluctance, madam president, that i support the motion to table this amendment. i do so, i believe, for the good

of the appropriations process. madam president, we've been able to cut a path back to regular order by moving in a bipartisan manner. this i believe would poison this and eliminate the bipartisan support. if we go down this road, i believe we will find ourselves back on the path to disorder in the appropriations process. i don't believe any of us want that. so, again, madam president, i support the motion to table this amendment. not because i oppose it on policy grounds, but because i want to maintain the progress that we're maying in the appropriation -- making in the appropriation process to go to regular order. thank you. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion to table. the yeas and nays were previously ordered. the clerk will call the roll. vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: is there any senator in the chamber wishing to vote or wishing to change their vote? if not, the yeas are 54. the nays are 44. the motion is agreed to. mr. mcconnell: madam president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: could we have order in the senate. the presiding officer: the senate will be in order. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent that notwithstanding rule 22, that following disposition of h.r. 6147, the senate proceed to the consideration of the conference report to accompany h.r. 5515.

cloture motion on the conference report be withdrawn and there be up to one hour of debate on the conference report with 30 minutes under the control of senator rubio and 30 minutes under control of the managers and that following the use or yielding back of that time, the senate vote on the adoption of the conference report without intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. mcconnell: now, madam president, very briefly on another point, i want to take a moment as we wrap up this appropriations package to recognize a distinguished tenure and leadership of our chairman richard shelby. earlier this year, senator shelby cast vote number 10,000 right here on the senate floor. like so many of his accomplishments, that landmark seemed to slip by without a whole lot of fuss. but what a remarkable mile post in a very distinguished career. i imagine this year's appropriations process holds special significance for our

chairman as he took the reins of the committee, made it clear that working with senator leahy, regular order would be the name of the game. he set his sights on restoring the kind of collaborative process that historically made our institution so unique. as we all know, that's a little bit easier said than actually done. and yet the committee completed a markup process that reported out all 12 spending bills faster than it had in any year since 1988, three decades ago. and when we close out this package, the senate will have passed a majority of its annual appropriation measures by the beginning of august for the first time since 2000, 18 years ago. i'm sure my fellow members of the appropriations committee would agree with me that this productivity is due in large part to the leadership of our chairman richard shelby. so on behalf of the whole senate, mr. chairman, i want to thank him for the work he's done so far, for the accomplishments

on behalf of the american people that are yet to come, and i want to thank senator leahy as well and all of our other colleagues on the committee for their contributions. mr. schumer: madam president? the presiding officer: democratic leader. mr. schumer: i'd like to join my friend, the majority leader, in congratulating dick shelby on his 10,000th vote. i knew him before he cast his first vote in the senate when we were fellow democrats in the house of representatives. a long time ago. but dick shelby has one thing has been consonant throughout his clear. his decency, his honor and his desire to get things done for his home state of alabama and our country. that has led him to be an outstanding leader of the appropriations committee as the majority leader mentioned we are working in a remarkably smooth, bipartisan way. we hope that's a precedent of things to come. we hope that we will continue to

work together and not let any outside forces mess that up, not to mention any names. and he's just a wonderful guy. he really is. we see each other in the gym in the morning and let me tell you, shelby is as fit as ever, huffing and puffing away on the bike and that gives all of us solace because it means he has even more strength to guide us through the appropriations process for many years to come. i'd also like to acknowledge his partner in this. they couldn't have done it without working together, senator leahy. it's a great team and we look forward to more bipartisanship. the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. leahy: i yield to the senator from alabama. the presiding officer: the senator from alabama. mr. shelby: thank you, senator

mcconnell and senator schumer for your kind remarks. i hope my wife was listening to that, but what the heck. but we have been working together and we've got to continue that to make the process to reach out to each other and, gosh, it's hard work. senator leahy he and i differ on a lot of things, but we are together on bringing the regular order to the appropriations committee because i thought all along we owe it to the american people, both parties, both groups, and that's what we've been about. so thank you, again, to mr. leader, and senator schumer, thank you for your kind remarks. senator leahy. mr. leahy: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. leahy: madam president, i thank the senior senator from alabama for his kind words. but i also thank our two leaders

for their kind words. senator shelby and i met with senator mcconnell and senator schumer earlier this year. and we said that we want to get the senate back to what it should be and what it has been. and what better way than do it in the appropriations bills? i served here longer than anybody in this body, and i have seen what works and what hasn't worked. senator shelby and i felt we could do it. and i would urge an aye vote, of course, on this final passage. each of these were reported by the appropriations committee unanimously. republicans and democrats voted together. some have said we couldn't agree on the sunrising in the east, but we agreed. incidentally, with my friend,

the senator from alabama, i would note that the tie that i'm wearing is one that he and dr. shelby gave me for my birthday this year, and i thought that would be a good touch. i thank both what senator schumer and senator mcconnell said. we worked hard. if we pass this, we will have passed seven out of the appropriations committee. it wouldn't have worked if the chairman had not committed himself to what the rest of us did, but also the chairs and ranking members of the subcommittee, udall, collins, reed, lankford, and coons, but also the majority staff, shannon heinze, jonathan gradfield, as well as their subcommittee staff. i often say senators are just

pediments to their staff. i might get home on a saturday or sunday and they are working, jessica barry, rachel taylor, dabney hague, allen murray, all the subcommittee staff, and finally i would thank jessica shelkin who will be leaving the appropriations committee after nearly 18 years on the agriculture subcommittee. her expertise, her hard work, her working bipartisan in a professional way has advanced our nation's agriculture policy, helped our rural communities, and has kept u.s.a. and the f.d.a. answerable to congress. i thank her and wish her all the best. i have a list of all the staff and i ask unanimous consent that be included in the record. the presiding officer: without

objection. mr. leahy: and also in conclusion, i thank senator shelby. i thank senator mcconnell and senator schumer. we worked together. it's kind of nice when something works out. i yield the floor. the presiding officer: under the previous order -- under the previous order, the murkowski amendment, number 3400 is withdrawn. the clerk will read the bill for the third time. the clerk: h.r. 6147, an act making appropriations for the department of interior, environment, for the fiscal year ending september 30, 2019, and for other purposes. the presiding officer: there are now two minutes equally divided prior to a vote on passage of h.r. 6147, as amended. mr. shelby: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from alabama. mr. shelby: i ask unanimous consent that my written statement be made a part of the record before we vote. and i just want to say again

what we've been doing here, working together in a bipartisan way, is something senator schumer and senator mcconnell were talking about hadn't been done basically in 30 years. and we're on the right track of the we want to stay there, and i said many times, both parties, it's in our interest, the american people expect it. let's keep working together. thank you. the presiding officer: the written statement with be -- will be entered without objection. mr. leahy: i yield my time and ask for the yeas and nays. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. question is on passage of the bill, as amended. the clerk will call the roll. vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: if not, the ayes are 92. the noes are 62. the bill as amended -- i'm sorry. the ayes are 92. the noes are 6. the bill as amended has passed. under the previous order, the senate will proceed to the consideration of the conference report on h.r. 5515 which the clerk will report. the clerk: conference report to accompany h.r. 5515, an act to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2019 for military activities of the department of defense and for military construction to prescribe military strenes for fiscal year and other purposes. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the cloture motion is withdrawn and there will now be one hour of debate

within 30 minutes under control of the managers and 30 minutes under the control of the senator from florida, mr. rubio. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from north dakota hoaf thank you. i ask for comments are he lated to the appropriations bill for three minutes prior to the ndaa bill. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. hoeven: thank you, i want to thank my colleagues for advancing the appropriations bill, specifically the ag appropriations bill. also, i want to thank senator merkley, my ranking member on the committee. throughout the process, we've had open communications and have worked to advance the bill and to address amendments brought forward by our colleagues. also i want to thank specifically senator merkley's staff jessica, diane neller and bob ross for their work as well as my crew, carlo clark, patrick

carroll, elizabeth and rita endrew. this has been a process that's involved other subcommittees as well. i want to thank all of those who have worked on these appropriations bills, including senator collins and senator reed and their staff on transportation, housing, and urban development. senator murkowski and senator udall and their staff on the interior bill, senators lankford, senator coons on the financial services subcommittee. this has certainly been a deliberative process. again, the way regular order is supposed to work. more than a dozen amendments that affected, for example, our agricultural bill have been accepted over the course of the bill. we voted on others. so i'm glad that we've had the open debate and been able to advance these bills and, of course, particularly the agriculture appropriations bill. and i'll just conclude with what

i always like to remind people of, whenever we talk about agriculture, and that's good farm policy, benefits every single american every single day. because when our -- what our farmers and rankers do, they produce the highest quality, lowest cost food supply in the world which benefits every american every day. thank you, madam president. i yield the floor. mr. rubio: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from florida. mr. rubio: madam president, this -- we are now halfway through my eighth year in the united states senate and in my time year, i have never once

spoken against, voted against, or opposed in any way any of the national defense authorization acts that have come before the senate. and the reason being that despite whatever flaws one might find on most owequations in any -- occasions in any piece of legislation, the defense of our country is the fundamentallologies of our federal government. -- fundamental obligation of our federal government. it comes before anything else. state governments run schools and build roads and do all sorts of activities at the state level. communities do all sorts of things at the local level. but nothing is more important than the defense of our country in terms of a federal obligation. and so i had never opposed an ndaa, and i have supported every single one of them, despite the fact that they didn't have everything i wanted or everything i liked -- until today. there is a lot of good in this legislation, and it makes it difficult to be an opponent of it. for florida it's been -- it's

authorized over $200 million for military construction in the state. littoral combat stations, air traffic control towers, f-35 fighting capabilities at eglin air force base, flight simple laters at macdiller air force base. it authorizes the secretary of the air force to build a cyberspace test facility at eglin. it authorizes the conveyance of land at the air force of enlisted village, 80 acres next to i.g.land for independent living and apartments. it authorizes the continuing development of the b-21 bomber. it fully supports the gulf range complex, a true treasure for our country and it's the largest military range in the continental united states. as for the country, it also has all sorts of other important things, an over 2.6% military pay raise. it increases the active duty

workforce by -- an increase in the active duty force of 15,600 personnel bringing the total to over 1 .3 million. this tries to address the pilot shortage. it authorizes $10.7 billion to buy 77 more f-35 joint strike fighters. $193 million in research and development funding for new software and improvements to be incorporated in that program in future years. it authorizes new missile defense, including $175 million intended to integrate the thaad and patriot systems in south korea. it authorizes $23.7 billion for navy shipbuilding, an increase of close to $2 billion over what the president requested. to go on and on it does many important things in rebuilding our military strength in this country. but it failed on one important front, and that is what i believe to be a very significant and serious threat to the

national security and the future of this country, one that we are only beginning to wake up to. for the first time since the end of the cold war, the united states is engaged in a geopolitical competition with a near pier adversary. there's been no one who could project power close to what the united states could do until now. unlike our country, china is a country with an ancient history, one that leaves them with a long-standing sense of victimhood, but also one that leaves them to believe that they have a preordained destiny to be the most powerful nation on earth. this is what they mean what they use the phrase historical determinism. what they are saying is they are predestined to be the world's most powerful country and therefore they believe they are predestined to pass the surpass the united states. politically, and militarily. this is not a new ambition, by

the way. for two decades they have followed a policy called hiding their power and biding their time. in october at their party congress their president for life, xi, he laid out a vision for china and did it in very clear nationalist terms. backed by the invincible force of .3 billion, an incontinue italy vast stage of our era an historical era of incomparable resolve. we have arrived at a new era where china? a leading position in terms of defense capabilities and composite national strength and with a military which can fight and win. and you see evidence of these beliefs. you see is it in their ggressive and massive military buildup and kwanive leaps in technology. you see how they're working to destroy the current world order that was built by america and a lice and seek to replace it with one that they built and one that will be led by them. that's how they offer loans, not

just to get their companies more business but to give them leverage and footholds in countries and they do so with no questions asked about democracy or human rights. that's what the asian from bank is all about. that's the road initiative. you see what they're doing to take us over economically. their state-led economy runs large trade deficits with everyone while at the same time prohibiting market access to china. you see it in the widespread force technology transfers and cyber theft, and it is working. 5-g will dominate most of the industries of the future and they are on course to be the world's standard on 5g. huawei was the first company to join 5-g approval to sell stations in the european union. they are also moving hard to dominate genome editing and other sources of leading

industries for tomorrow. what's outrageous is how much of these advances are built not just on ingenuity and hard work but on the theft of intellectual property from american companies, oftentimes through research funded by american taxpayers. they've done it through cyber espionage. they do it through the forced transfer of technology where they tell steps to do business -- tell companies to do business with china. you have to give them the secrets to your trade. you see how they're now buying up companies, buying off researchers and american universities and their research. now, this is what they're moving for -- to become the most powerful country in the world. why is that an issue despite the fact that we seek to not be in second place to no one, to anyone? because you can see what kind of country they will be and what kind of world we will have if they become the world's most dominant power. you see it, for example, in the conquest of the south china sea, through the military harassment of southeast asian nations.

you see how they cut tourism to south korea as leverage over our missile defense deployments, house they restricted exports of rare-earth minerals to japan as leverage over the east china sea disputes. we saw filipino agricultural products rot on the docks during the south china sea fights because they wouldn't let it come in. you see the threats to our businesses to deny them access to chinese markets even further if they dare speak in support of president trump's 3001 investigations of china's unfair practices. you see is it in a u.s. citizen living in the united states of america -- not in china or anywhere outside our borders -- a u.s. citizen living in the united states of america was fired by marriott hotel because of a social media post that china complained about. that happened, and you see it most recently by american and united airlines be forced to change how they describe taiwan on their website or they would not be allowed to continue to

fly to china. the tactic they use over and over again is not sweeping changes. it's typically slow but incremental, yet mortgage assertive demands -- yet more assertive demands. these new demands end up sustaining a new normal. it is very much like the example of the frog in the boiling pot of water. you throw the frog in the boiling pot of water. it jumps out right away. if you put it in a cold pot of water and slowly boil it, it will boil to death and not even know it is boiling and that is what china is doing to the united states and to the world. and the only thing that they respond to -- there are only two things that china responds to when you confront them to this. the first is a committed and sustained escalation across the entire relationship between us and them. and the other is invoking the help of our foreign partners. that's why i strongly believe that the u.s. should have worked with the european union and canada and mexico and japan to confront china, not to start a

trade war with them as well. and i'm happy to see that progress is being made on negotiations with mexico and that there's been a pause in the challenges with europe. perhaps now is an opportunity to be able to do that second part of invoking the part of the our foreign partners and confronting these unfair practices. but what about a sustained escalation across the relationship? i would say to you that by and large that is what this administration has done. and it's having an impact. just this morning "the new york times" reports about rare rebukes of president xi's leadership inside china because these disputes have going to have an impact on their economy. but there is one glaring exception and that is an ill-conceived deal to grant amnesty to a telephone and telecommunication company in china called z.t.e. to. have a committed and sustained escalation across the entire relationship means we can't make threats and then back down and

we can't calve out one part of the relationship -- carve out one part of the relationship for a special accommodation. sadly, that's what happened here. z.t.e. is a telecommunication company that was caught -- not once but twice -- in helping north korea and iran to evade u.s. sanctions. and as a result the commerce department imposed a penalty on them that basically was the equivalent of a business death penalty. it said, you can no longer buy american microchips. without those, they can't function. and the company was brought to its knees. and i would argue to you that that sanction should have been imposed on them even if they didn't help evade sanctions because of the theft they pose to this country. if we allow these companies to embed themselves in the telecommunication infrastructure of the united states, it is a severe and significant national security threat to this country and one that grows every single year moving forward. and yet inexplicably at some point for some reason a deal was struck that allowed z.t.e. to survive.

and so the argument was, well, we're going to put a really big fine on z.t.e. and we're going to put people on their board to make sure that they're no longer violating sanctions. and i would tell you that if this was only about cents per gallons relief, that penalty would be -- about sanctions relief, that penalty would be sufficient for me, should be sufficient for all. if that was some other company that did that, i would say maybe it went too far. those two measures will do nothing to constrain the threat that z.t.e. poses to our national security. nothing. a fine when you're backed by the chinese government, a multibillion-dollar fine is nothing. and you can put all the business people you want on their board. it is not the business people we should be concerned about. it is the technical people in these companies. the ones that can get z.t.e. routers embedded in american telecommunications, steal our

research from the universities, to our communications systems so they can intercept our communications in military and economic affairs, conduct cyber espionage, commercial espionage and potentially denial of our command-and-control in the military one day, if left unaddressed. think about embedding these trojan horses inside of our telecommunications systems and networks in america, any company that he is toes that threat should not be allowed to operate, much less remain in business. and z.t.e. is one such company. even if z.t.e. tells the chinese government, we don't want to do this, they have no choice, or they will cease to exist or their leaders will be in jail and somebody new will replace them that will do it. and so this is why this is so critical. and why i'm -- why in the bill that was passed by the senate we reimposed these penalties, and it was taken out in conference and the threat posed by china and its telecommunications as

much as are so severe and significant that it regrettably brings me to the point where i cannot support a bill i have always supported in my time here. we need to wake up to the threat that china poses to this country because we are running out of time to do so. madam president, may i inquire how much time is reminderring? -- is remaining? the presiding officer: the senator has 16 minutes remaining. mr. rubio: i would yield time to the senator from maryland. mr. van hollen: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. mr. van hollen: thank you, madam president. i thank the gentleman from florida, and i thank him for his leadership on the specific issue that was in the defense authorization bill regarding z.t.e. but also for his leadership on the broader issue of protecting the united states

against the grand theft of our technology by china and the risks that china poses to our national security in many areas. i want to just review what happened with respect to z.t.e., which is a chinese telecommunications company. number one, for many years they have been about the business of stealing technology from american companies. if you look at lawsuits and patent lawsuits filed over the last decade, you will see it's been grand larceny. so we have a chinese telecommunications company that's been ripping off u.s. companies in order for them to gain a market advantage. and they have been doing that in coordination and cooperation with the government of china. so, number one, stealing our technology. what are they using it for? well, they are a big telecommunications company and we've heard testimony from the director of the f.b.i.

we have heard testimony from the heads of u.s. intelligence agencies that they pose an espionage threat to the united states. all of them have said it would be a great danger to our national security and the privacy of millions of americans to let them anywhere near our telecommunications networks. so first they steal our technology. second, they plan to use a lot of that, they stole from us to spy on us. and then they went about violating u.s. sanctions on north korea and on iran. and not just once. twice, and then they were caught again. each time they were warned but they continued to flagrantly violate our sanctions. and that is why the secretary of commerce, wilbur ross, finally got fed up with everything they

were doing, and he imposed sanctions on z.t.e., including what's called a denial order saying that u.s. companies should not be transferring technology to z.t.e. which was then using that technology both to get market advantages but also to potentially spy on the united states. that was the right thing to do. secretary ross made a decision based on the law and based on our national security interests. a few days later this is the tweet that went out from the president. so on may 13, president trump tweeted out, quote, president xi of china and i are working together to give massive chinese phone company z.t.e. a way to get back into business, fast. he went on to say too many jobs in china lost.

commerce department has been instructed to get it done. that was the tweet. and with that tweet which caught the secretary of commerce and so many others by surprise, the president reversed the key sanctions provision that the united states had imposed on z.t.e. for violating our sanctions and for other bad behavior. so this senate in a bipartisan basis said wait a minute, wait a minute, secretary ross was right. z.t.e. violated our sanctions. they posed an espionage threat. and by the way, they stole a whole lot of u.s. technology over the years. so he was right. and that's why on a bipartisan basis we passed a provision that was included in the ndaa to reimpose those sanctions that secretary ross and the commerce department had put on in the first place to protect our

national security. and yet, as the weeks went by in the conference committee, despite the best efforts of a ranking member and many others, this got dropped. this got dropped because the white house wanted it dropped based on that earlier tweet. it got dropped because z.t.e., what a bargain, they spent $1.3 million in lobbying fees over the last couple of months. that's a lot of money. it was the highest amount of dollars spent in that period of time of any lobbying issue before this congress, but it's a pittance for z.t.e. to pay to get its way and work with the administration to get the provision that passed the senate, the bipartisan basis dropped. so, madam president, i cannot tell you how difficult this is at this point in time because we have a bill before us that in all other respects is a really

good bill and really a good bill for our national security. i want to commend the chairman and ranking member and others who have been involved in that. but in the middle of a bill that's supposed to help protect our national security, we now have a big hole. we have a big hole because by taking out the amendment we had to penalize z.t.e., the final result creates unnecessary exposure. and so i'm -- it's sad to be here today. i'm glad to join with my friend and colleague, the senator from florida, who has been a leader on this. i think we both very much regret the fact that the senate is in this position now and that the country is in the position now. and i thank the gentleman for leadership and yield back to him the remainder of the time. mr. rubio: may i inquire how much time remains?

the presiding officer: ten minutes. mr. rubio: i'll be briefing in closing because i know the managers need to get to some things so we can get to our vote. three quick points i want to make in closing. first, one of the things the chinese have learned is how to work our system and how to play us. they know, for example, our companies, they go to american companies and tell them go to washington, go to the white house, go to congress and tell them how bad this is for you and you'll get them to change their minds. or they just hire lobbyists, as the senator from maryland outlined. one of the companies involved was kwa*ul.com, the largest seller of chips to z.t.e. they were saying don't do this. quall.com had a deal pending in china to purchase a dutch company. i believe the understanding was new allow z.t.e. to advisor -- survive you'll probably get that deal in china where the dutch company purchased. guess what? on the day it was announced the conference committee dropped

this provision, quaal.com announced it was dropping the deal in china because it couldn't make headway. the chinese government doesn't play. they got z.t.e. to stay alive and still blocked the deal. the second point is this issue here, they are a cell phone maker. the hand held devices they make are the least part of this. they make servers and cameras and they are become embedded in our telecommunications network. that is the way we communicate with each other on commercials, secrets, potentially military secrets, even if it's unclassified sensitive information, all of it potentially vulnerable. we brought them into our network and continue to do so not to mention the role they play around the world, which brings me to the last point. z.t.e. is a big danger. they are small compared to huawei which is a company even bigger than z.t.e., that poses an even greater systemic risk. and if we can't even take on z.t.e. because they lobby and

because of american companies coming here, how are we ever going to take on huawei or any other dangers they pose to us? it's time we open our eyes. we are engaged in in a geopolitl competition not with some poor company trying to catch up but with a global super power who is quickly nipping at our heels and doing so unfairly with the intent of replacing us in the world as the most powerful country militarily, economically, geopolitically and technologically. the history of america is short in comparison to the great empires of history and the great countries of history. 240-some odd years in the scope of history is but a blink of an eye and history is full of examples of nations that became complacent and lost their standing and their way of life. i'm not claiming that z.t.e. alone will do that, but it is a part of a broader problem, and that is that we have yet to realize what a significant threat chinese poses to this country and in every realm and

sphere. until we do, we are going to continue to be in danger of surrendering and forfeiting our way of life and our place in the world, and if we do that, the world will be worse off for it and we will have no one to blame but ourselves for failing to act. i yield the floor. the senator from rhode island. mr. reed: thank you. i concur with my colleagues about the dangers and challenges presented with china in many different dimensions. i'm not going to try to defend president trump's decision to overrule his administration's penalties on z.t.e. for violating our sanctions, but the president's actions created facts on the ground. one of the principal facts was that part of that arrangement was a $1 billion payment by the chinese government to the united states treasury creating for the conferees the issue of trying to

find a $1 billion offset if we reimpose the penalty. that $1 billion offset could only come from military programs of our jurisdiction, end strength of the military, platforms that we might acquire. if we found it difficult to work our way through that issue. but more importantly, i think, is the notion that we did not simply drop this issue. in fact, we imposed by legislation a government-wide prohibition on the acquisition of z.t.e. and huawei products going forward. it is now the law that we prohibit the federal government and government contractors from buying or using or providing grants and loans to entities buying or using telecommunications equipment and services provided by chinese companies z.t.e. and huawei.

huawei is not ignored here. it is legislatively a prohibition in the bill for future purchases. and we understand also that there are some chinese companies in the video surveillance equipment business that also are threats. they also have been banned going forward with respect to government acquisition or government contractor acquisitions. so we have recognized this issue and we have done, i think, what we could do to ensure that our national security is not compromised in the future by z.t.e. or huawei equipment, and with that, madam president, i would suggest we move forward and pass this legislation which does a remarkable job helping the men and women of our armed forces. i'll save my further remarks for later. thank you. mr. inhofe: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. inhofe: yesterday i had an

opportunity to go through and thank all the appropriate people. this is significantly and arguably the most significant bill that we'll have this year, as we've had every year. this is the 58th consecutive year we had a defense authorization bill. this is dedicated, this one is named after senator mccain, john s. mccain defense authorization bill. we're very proud of the input that we had from his staff and from him, and it went through in record time. so i thank all -- i certainly thank my counterpart here, senator reed. he and i worked very, very close together for many, many years. and with that, i will yield back the balance of my time and ask for the yeas and nays. mr. reed: madam president, i would also yield back the balance of my time and urge passage of the john mccain national defense authorization act. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be.

the question is on adoption of the conference report. the clerk will call the roll. vote: