how difficult it is in sexual harassment cases. most of the time, women don't come forward. because why? as my colleague mentioned, they are very often not believed. we have to create an environment where women can come forward and be heard and be listened to. the proper channels in the proper investigation should occur. that's certainly not happening here. >>. [inaudible question] >> we want all of this to be out in the open, under oath. why do they think this is something they can just push under the rug?let's just have a call with certain staff. not all the staff. this is so important. we are talking about a nominee to the supreme court. >> we will have to break away

from these senate democrats and take you inside the senate chamber as the senate returns for afternoon business. we will have this online for you. senate democrats on c-span.org and get more on our network, later on today.

mr. mcconnell: mr. president, are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are not in a quorum call. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous

consent that at 5:30 p.m. on monday, september 24, the senate proceed to executive session for the en bloc consideration of the following nominations. executive calendar 849 and 850. i further ask there be ten minutes of debate equally divided in the usual form and following the use of yielding back of time the senate vote on the nominations en bloc with no intervening action or debate, that if confirmed, the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table en bloc, the president be immediately notified of the senate's action, that no further motions be in order and that any statements relating to the nominations be printed in the record. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection, so ordered. mr. mcconnell: i move to proceed to executive session to consider calendar 938. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion to proceed. all in favor say aye. those opposed no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it.

the motion is agreed to. the clerk will report the nomination. the clerk: nomination, consumer product safety dmition, peter a. feldman of the district of columbia to be a commissioner. mr. mcconnell: i send a cloture motion to the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the cloture motion 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 to bring to a -- on the nomination of peter a. feldman to be a commissioner of the consumer product safety commission for the remainder of the term expiring november -- mr. mcconnell: i move to have proceed to legislative session. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. all in favor say aye. those opposed? ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. mr. mcconnell: i move to proceed to executive session to consider calendar number 941. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. all in favor say aye.

opposed. the ayes appear to have it and the motion is agreed to. the clerk will report. the clerk: peter a. feldman of the district of columbia to be a commissioner. mr. mcconnell: i send a cloture motion to the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: cloture motion, we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22, do hereby bring to a close debate on the nomination of peter a. feldman to be a commissioner of the consumer product safety commission for seven years, signed by 17 senators as followed. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent that the reading of the names be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

mr. thune: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from south dakota. mr. thune: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. thune: mr. president, many in the carolinas and other communities in our eastern states are dealing with wind, flooding, and storm surge damage caused by hurricane florence. in the leadup to this hurricane, federal agencies have played and continue to perform critical roles in forecasting, public safety, rescue, and recovery. one of the key agencies involved

is the national -- is national oceanic and atmospheric administration. they are responsible for issuing watches and warning and forecasts. despite its responsibility for these critical functions, noaa has been without a senate-confirmed administrator for nearly two years due to obstruction by senate democrats. barry myers, the president's nominee to lead noaa, was first approved by the commerce committee, which i have the privilege of chairing, in december of 2017. ten months later, his nomination sits stalled on the senate floor. and he is far from alone, mr. president. during and after disasters like a hurricane, americans use products such as portable generators, ladders, power tools in greater quantity and frequency than during other

times. the consumer product safety commission has a mission to ensure that such products sold on store shelves or over the internet are safe. when there are safety issues, the commission is are charged with taking action, but nominations for this critical agency have also been blocked in the senate. the same is true for the country's leading highway safety regulator. for months democrats have blocked the nomination of heidi king to be the administrator of the national highway safety traffic administration. she has shephered the agency, she has been denied the full weight and authority of a senate confirmed leader. so are other areas, the departments of transportation and commerce, amtrak and the surface transportation board. all of these agencies play critical roles in promoting public safety. what's most frustrating is that

this all feels like deja vu. we've already seen this disturbing pattern play out with other safety nominees earlier in this congress. the nomination of ronald batory had been stalled in the senate for more than six months over demands by senate democrats concerning a parochial infrastructure project. le only after three dangerous accidents was he allowed to assume his full leadership duties. in another instance, senate democrats blocked nominees for the national transportation safety board. this opposition only subsided following a deadly missouri duck boat tragedy that claimed 17 cliefs. once the -- lives. once the board was sent out to investigate, the attention moved towards the blocked agencies,

democrats finally relented to their confirmation. maybe are hurricane florence will have a similar effect on some of these other blocked nominees, but, mr. president, it shouldn't take a national -- a tragic national disaster for democrats to stop making unrelated demands that obstruct nominees from working in critical posts. i urge my colleagues to stop this dangerous obstruction and instead give qualified nominees approved in committee the chance to lead their agencies so that we are all well prepared for the next natural disaster safety recall or serious accident. mr. president, in 2017, more than 72,000 americans died from drug overdoses. 49,000 of those deaths were

related to opioids. opioid overdoses have surpassed motor vehicle accidents as the leading cause of accidental death in the united states. whole communities have been devastated by the opioid epidemic. the situation is rightly described as a crisis. mr. president, here in congress we are focused on doing everything we can to support the fight against substance use disorder. in 2016, we passed the comprehensive addiction and recovery act which authorized a variety of grants to states to boost their efforts to reduce opioid deaths and help individuals overcome opioid addiction. that year we passed the 21st century cures act which provided state grants over two years to combat the opioid epidemic. in march of this year, congress passed an appropriation bill that provided $4.7 billion to address the opioid crisis. and today we voted on an

appropriations bill that will provide another $3.8 billion to fight this epidemic. overall, federal funding to address the opioid across has increased by 130% over the past four years and then there's the bill we passed last night, the opioid crisis response act which passed the senate yesterday evening is the product of months of work by five senate committees. it contains more than 70 proposals by senators from both parties and it addresses the opioid addiction on a number of fronts. this will support critical treatment and recovery efforts. it will help babies born in opioid withdrawal. it will help support family-focused residential treatment programs, and more. just as importantly, it will also take steps to address what

i see is the supply side of the opioid epidemic. it will help stop the movement of illegal drugs across our borders through the mail. the work of the senator from ohio, senator portman. it will promote research into and fast-track approval of new, nonaddictive pain management alternatives. and it will help stop the practice of doctor shopping by improving state prescription drug monitoring programs. the bill also provides grants for law enforcement agencies to help protect law enforcement officers from accidental exposure to deadly drugs in the course of their duties. i'm proud that this legislation includes a bill that i introduced, the expanding telehealth response to ensure treatment act which will help expand access to substance use disorder treatment for medicare recipients by using telehealth technology. the opioid crisis response act

includes my legislation to close a safety gap in railroad drug and alcohol testing regulations and require the department of health and human services and the department of transportation to include fentanyl in the drug testing panel. mr. president, opioid addiction destroys lives, not just the lives of the addicted but the lives of their children, their parents, their siblings, their spouses, their relatives, and friends. the opioid crisis response act and the funding we voted for today about help to move past this epidemic and we will continue to make combating opioid addiction a priority in the congress. i want to mention the good economic news that continues to poor in. -- pour in. the economy created more than 200,000 jobs in august, beating expectations, and the

unemployment rate was below 4%. economic growth in the second quarter was stronger than we thought, a robust 4.2%. hourly average earnings for workers are rising at the fastest rate since 2009. middle-class income -- middle-class income hit its highest level ever last year in 2017. u.s. job openings have hit a record high of 6.94 million jobs. in fact, mr. president, the number of job openings has exceeded the number of unemployed in this country for the past five months. think about that. the number of job openings -- the number of jobs available to people in this country has exceeded the number of people who are unemployed this country for the past five months. that has never happened before in the history of tracking those

two statistics. consumer confidence is at an 18-year high. small business optimism shattered its previous record high to reach a record high in august. the poverty rate has propped to -- dropped to its lowest level since 2006, the percentage of americans listing economic issues as the most important problem facing the united states has dropped to a record low, and the list continues. mr. president, these are all facts. these are indisputable facts and they are the results of policies that are put in place with an eye toward growing this economy at a faster rate, creating better paying jobs and higher wages for people in our economy. since president trump took office, republicans have focused on fixing those things that have been holding the economy back. we removed burdensome regulations. we passed historic comprehensive reform of our tax code to put more money in americans' pockets

and to remove barriers to job creation and economic growth. and now we are, mr. president, seeing the results. strong economic growth, as i mentioned, 4.2% in the second quarter of this year, thriving small businesses with optimism and investing and confidence unlike anything we've seen in recent history. more money in families' paychecks. new jobs, better paying jobs and better benefits. and more opportunities for american workers. mr. president, america is back in business, and it is american families and american workers who are benefiting from that. we intend to continue to work on an agenda that createses policy -- creates policies that will drive and fuel economic growth in this country and provide more opportunities and a better standard of living and a higher

quality of life for all americans. mr. president, i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. whitehouse: mr. president, as i rise for my 220th time to wake up climate speech, there is abundant evidence that meaningful action on climate change in the united states is unlikely. we have a president who against all the evidence claims that climate change is a chnsz hoax. this is the same -- chinese hoax. this is the same president who announced last year that he was pulling the united states out of the paris accord. this is the same president who installed the theatrically corrupt scott pruitt who owed

his entire political career to the fossil fuel industry to lead, of all things, the environmental protection agency. when pruitt's endless string of scandals finally proved too much, even for this especialically swamp -- epically swampy add, president trump then made a coal industry lobbyist the acting e.p.a. administrator. the fundamentally rotten bargain at the heart of today's trump politics is that his party is essentially bank rolled by the fossil fuel industry. this is why you see republicans seeking to freeze voluntary fuel economy and greenhouse gas emission standards for cars. if consumers pay more at the pump to fill up, fine. what matters is that the oil companies get to keep pumping.

this is why the republican clean power plan doesn't really reduce carbon emissions. in fact, e.p.a.'s own numbers show that the replacement plan will result in poorer health for americans, including 1,400 additional deaths a year. but what matters is that the coal companies sell coal. republicans even plan to weaken standards on methane leaks. it doesn't matter that methane is an extremely potent greenhouse gas. what matters is that the oil and gas industry doesn't have to spend any money to prevent those leaks. so there is lots of evidence that meaningful action on climate change in this country is unlikely. and yet -- and yet friday i

attended the global climate action summit organized by california governor brown to keep up progress reducing carbon emissions and fighting the effects of climate change. at the summit, states, cities, provinces, and companies from around the world, indeed foreign nations made new announcements about climate change and to reduce carbon emissions. governor brown himself signed a law requiring 100% of california's electricity to be carbon free by 2045. and committed the cal -- that california would be carbon neutral by the same year. plus, there's satellite to measure carbon emissions. new jersey announced plans to install more than 3,000 megawatts of offshore wind. states and cities in india

announced plans for thousands of electric buses, cool roofs, and solar-equipped public buildings. ikea, the furniture store, announced that all of its delivery services will be zero emissions by 2025. that's just a small sample of the new commitments, evidence of the determination of governors, mayors, c.e.o.'s, investors, and n.g.o.'s to combat climate change despite the failure of republican leadership in washington. but if we are to have any hope of keeping global warming under 2 degrees celsius or better yet, 1.5 degrees, we are going to need leadership here. we are going to need a federal price on carbon. that's why last week's

announcement from the climate leadership council was so important. the c.l.c. has been working with former republican secretaries of states george schultz and james baker and former treasury secretary hank paulson for a $40 per ton carbon fee and return all of the money raised by that carbon fee to american families in the form of a dividend. this plan shares a lot of similarities with the american opportunity carbon fee act, which i introduced with senator schatz of hawaii. the c.l.c. plan is supported by many corporations, business leaders, and former republican officials. last week the c.l.c. announced that its $40 per ton carbon fee would result in emisses -- emiptions reduction -- emissions

reductions better than our present national targets. the c.l.c. also found that 56% of americans including majorities, democrat, independents, and republicans support it. 71% of millennials support a carbon fee which shows that a carbon price is coming. the only question is how soon. americans intuitively understand that it makes sense to impose a fee on something we want less of whether it's carbon emissions or cigarettes. and when the revenues from those fees are returned to the american people, it's better still. last week's climate summit featured a discussion on carbon pricing organized by the business community. the fossil fuel industry and its array of front groups will, of

course, attack any effort to put a price on carbon emissions. so having companies like gap, exelon, pacific gas and electric and steel case speak out in favor of carbon pricing was a good start. when the business community shows broad-base support for carbon pricing, it will be very difficult to argue that it's bad for business. but let's remember that the fossil fuel companies bring heavy artillery to this fight. washington state has a carbon feeble lot initiative right now which has provoked big oil to spend $20 million to defeat that initiative, including companies who claim they support a carbon price. among the donors are b.p.,

philips, and others who have contributed over $3 million each to oppose the carbon price initiative. so against that big oil blowback, it would sure be nice if washington state's corporate leaders stood up on this. starbucks, after all, has a whole web page about climate change and has committed to purchasing 100% renewable energy. amazon has a web page on its efforts to reduce its carbon footprint and it, too, is aiming to go to 100%renewable. jeff bezos, one of the richest people, is investing in clean energy along with another corporate icon of washington state, microsoft's bill gates. in fact, microsoft is hard at work reducing carbon emissions in its operations. it even has an internal carbon

price to encourage reductions in carbon pollution. boeing has a web page cataloguing its efforts to combat climate change by making its airplanes more efficient. so where are they when it comes to their own home state's plan to actually do something about climate change? as we have seen so often here in washington, d.c. as well, it's radio silence. the interesting thing is that big oil is actually tiny compared to microsoft, amazon, starbucks, boeing, and the rest of the tech companies, wall street banks, insurance companies, consumer goods companies, retailers, and food and beverage companies that all claim to care about climate

change. tiny. the difference is that big oil shows up. it shows up here in congress. it funds its are a mat take -- its armada of front groups and trade associations and phony think tanks to steer republicans here in congress away from anything limiting carbon pollution just like it's showing up right now in washington state to kill an initiative that would limit carbon pollution. here is the problem. the good guys aren't showing up. they don't show up here in congress. and they're letting big oil outgun them even in washington

state. in my experience, if you don't show up to the game, you don't win. it's as simple as that. so that's the message i took to last week's summit. i truly appreciate business leaders who talk about the dangers of climate change and the value of carbon pricing. i truly appreciate business leaders who work on reducing carbon emissions within their corporate footprint. but it also matters what you do in the public arena. so show up to fight for the policy you already espouse. show up here in congress and in washington state.

challenge big oil rather than forfeit the game before it even begins. this is a fight. there are hydraulics in politic politics. and if no one pushes back, the only team on the field will win. well, we can't keep having the fossil fuel industry win this fight because we will all be losers if their win -- losers in their win. we have got to win, but to do that we will need companies talking a good game to actually show up on game day. it's not just time to wake up, mr. president. it's time to show up. thank you and i yield the floor.

a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from alabama. a senator: thank you, mr. president. i rise today to talk about an issue that i quite frankly do not think gets enough attention on the floor of the united states senate or the floor of the house of representatives. that is the state of historically black colleges and universities or as they're commonly known, hbcu's. mr. jones: alabama is home to 14 of these institutions, the most of any state in the country. and with all due respect to my colleagues, we don't just have the most hbcu's. i believe we have the best. tuskegeeee university is the only hbcu with the college of medicine and the school produces over 57% of african american veterinarians in the world.

it also has just hired its first female president dr. lilly mcnair. alabama university is the only 1890 land grant university offering four ph.d. programs. they're also the leading producer of african americans with ph.d.'s in physics. oakwood university, the nation's highest producer of undergraduate african americans to our medical schools. alabama state university, whose president, dr. quentin ross, has joined us in the gallery today, is home to the national center for the study of civil rights and african american culture. a.s.u. is currently doing preservation work on some never- before seen documents, such as court plead, bond documents and other official papers connected to the montgomery bus boycott and lawson state community college was named a champion of change

in 2011 by then-president barack obama. today there are over 100 accredited hbcu's across the country, both public and private. in 19 states and the district of columbia and the u.s. virgin islands. they enroll approximately 300,000 students, 80% of whom are african american and 70% are from low-income families. while hbcu's only make up 3% of the country's colleges and universities today, they produce nearly 20% of all african american graduates. among hbcu graduates, there are countless trail-blazing americans who have quite literally changed the course of our nation's history. dr. martin luther king jr., thurgood marshall, marion wright edelman, langston hughes, katherine johnson, among so many others. and according to the national science foundation, between 2002

and 2011, the top eight institutions where african american ph.d.'s in science and engineering earned their bachelor's degree were all hbcu's. hbcu's annually generate $4. 8 billion in economic impact. they add more than 134,000 jobs for local and regional economies. in 2014, alabama hbcu graduates can expect to earn total earnings of $130 billion over their lifetimes. i could go on and on with these remarkable statistics for these remarkable colleges and universities. for all of these incredible achievements, though, every achievement that i just named, hbcu's in alabama and across the country are working against strong headwinds of serious financial struggles. the government accountability office recently investigated the

capital finance needs of hbcu's at the request of my colleagues, senators pat at this time murray and senator casey, also congressman bobby scott and congressman g.k. butterfield s the report indicates that 46% of all hbcu buildings are in need of replacement or repair. this is due to deferred maintenance, the evolution of higher education and technology, and the fact that many of these buildings are state or federal-registered historic places. for example, tuskegee university is designated as a national historic site by congress. this is a remarkable figure. 46%, a remarkable figure, of all buildings in need of repair or replacement. and it's one that i hope all of my colleagues will agree is wholly unacceptable. but this is not a surprise for those who understand the

challenges that these institutions have long faced. hbcu's lack a plethora of revenue sources. public hbcu's rely heavily on state and federal grants, appropriations, and bonds. private hbcu's have-to-a how private and alumni giving and fees. on top of that the g.a.o. found that an hbcu's average endowment is half the size of a similarly-sized non-hbc. that's half the size, not of all non-hbcu's, but half the size of similarly situated non-hbcu's. none of the 90 institutions of higher education in this country with endowments of greater than $1 billion is an hbcu. this results in an endless cycle for these schools that have contributed so greatly to our country and the talented students that they serve. whether limited revenue

resources and the discrimination that they face in the bond market, it's difficult to maintain campus buildings that attract higher enrollment. lower enrollment just leads to even less tuition and fees that are collected by each institution. and, thus, the cycle continues. but i didn't come down here today just to talk about these problems that our hbcu's face without offering some type of solution. so today i will be introducing the strengthening minority-serving institution act which permanently extends and increases federal funds to all minority-serving institutions. these federal funds are currently set to expire in fiscal year 2019. my bill goes beyond just supporting hbcu's but is inclusive of other minority-serving schools, like those that primarily admit asian americans, pacific islanders,

costa rica natives, and native hawaiians, native americans, and hispanic americans among others. with this legislation, we increase mandatory funding from $255 million to $300 million for each of these institutions. they will be able to put that money to good use for infrastructure improvements, technology upgrades, and other critical needs that have gone unfulfilled. i'd hoped that we can make this a bipartisan effort, i haven't just yet heard back from any of my colleague -- republican colleagues. my republican colleagues represent a fair share of these institutions, and i hope we'll still be able to gain some support across the aisle and move this bill through the senate. this bill won't solve all of the challenges that hbcu's face. all of the challenges that they are working so hard to overcome. but i submit that it is a step in the right direction.

and, more importantly, it is the right thing to do for these schools that are part of the very foundation of our higher education system in alabama and across the country. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor.

a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from alaska. mr. sullivan: mr. president, it's tuesday. normally i come down here on thursday. i think it's tuesday, yes. it's tuesday. i come down here to the senate floor on thursdays and do what is the favorite part of the week for me. i do something, our series called the alaskan of the week. so we're going to talk about the alaskan of the week this week, which is a great opportunity for me to talk about somebody in the great state of alaska who's done something good for their community, their town, their state, maybe their country, and get to brag a little bit about what i think makes my state the best state in the country. it's the people, it's the community. it's people who are doing wonderful things and an inspiration. so today i want to transport you to a village called antuvik pass

, north of anchorage way up north beyond the arctic circle smack dab in the brooks range surrounded by beautiful, majestic mountains, alaska's real-life version of the mythical shangri la. it's the place where stanley riley, an amazing young alaskan calls home. stanley made his village proud recently by bringing home a gold and two second place finishes from his first world eskimo indian olympics. let me spend a minute or two talking about the world eskimo indian olympics, another unique alaskan institution.

the games began in 1961, and they test the skills and strength and ability and agiity and endurance of alaska natives who for millenia have been able to needed to survive in some of the harshest conditions in the world. the games leave no part of the body untested. there's the seal hop, the four man carry, the ear pull -- that one's really popular -- the high kicks, the muck tuck eating contest. that's whale blubber. and they also reflect what is very unique about the great state of alaska. stanley won a gold for the head pull. it's another competition at these incredible world eskimo indian olympics. you lie down on the ground facing your competitor.

both of you are up on your hands, and you share a strap looped around each other's neck. whoever is able to use enough neck and shoulder strength to pull the other over wins. that's the head pull. he almost won the four man carry where you walk for as long as you can with four people clinging to all sides of you. that's the four-man carry. he spent all summer training for it, climbing up the mountains that surround his village and hauling game back down the mountains that he had shot. it's a good way to train in alaska. that honor went to cedo evans from fairbanks, riley's best friend. riley has his sights on gold for next year's world eskimo indian olympics, and it seems like when he wants something badly enough, he gets it, particular

lib now since -- particularly now since he has found his calling. what is his calling, you ask. his calling is to be a role model for his people, especially the young people. mr. president, stanley has overcome incredible odds to get to where he is now. that's the inspiration part i was talking about. he's had some rough times as a youngster and he's overcome them and is now an example for so many alaskans in his community and beyond. as is the case for too many people, too many children across my state and really, mr. president, across the country, stanley grew up in a single parent household without a father around. and that took its toll. when he was 12, he left anatuvik pass, got bounced around in the foster care system. he had almost 20 foster care parents he said until he emancipated at 16 years old.

but then he started to succeed. he was able to get his g.e.d. and he had enough internal drive, and along the way he had some good-paying jobs. but then again setbacks, as happens in the life of our young people, whether in alaska or across the country, when drugs and alcohol got in the way. finally about four years ago he looked in the mirror and didn't like the person staring back at him. he was unhealthy, unfit, had gained all kinds of weight, over 400 pounds, and he lacked purpose. so he packed up, moved back to anatuvik pass, intent, he said, on changing his life for the better and on becoming a positive role model for his community, especially the youth in his community. and so he started to do this.

and slowly his mind cleared, his soul brightened and he began to get in shape. now he spends his summers climbing the mountains around his village and hunting. and he guesses he's climbed up about 1,000 miles this summer. the man's in shape. he's lost all kinds of weight, and he works as a tour guide and as an inspiration to so many members of his community including his nephew jacob, who is a talented basketball player and the light of stanley's life. he said, quote, when you're with your community, it's easier to keep yourself together. you don't want to let those people who you live with and are part of your community down. that's a great sentiment. stanley is now a full-time student and is studying to be a

nuclear a -- nupiat language and culture teacher. he wants them to know that even though you had a hard upbringing you can do anything you set your mind to, he said. he's also an amazing chef mixing the old and new in alaska. for instance, one of his signature dishes is fettucini alfredo with muktuk, whale blubber. people should try that. i'm sure it's really good. i kind of look forward to it. his next goal is to compete in the arctic winter games, something that he's been training for every day, and we certainly in alaska are rooting for him. so stanley, thank you for being an inspiration, especially among the young people, showing them that when you have hard times you can get up, brush yourself off, set high goals

and standards and then achieve them. and thank you for being our alaskan of the week. i yield the floor.

a

mr. barrasso: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator for wyoming. mr. barrasso: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, as you know, president trump has called on congress to take up major infrastructure legislation. passing an infrastructure bill will create jobs and grow our economy and keep families safe. water infrastructure is a key part of the president's call. drinking water systems, dams, levies, ports, reservoirs, waste water systems, they matter to just about every community in america. so infrastructure is essential and an essential part of everyone's life. water infrastructure brings water into our homes, protects us from flooding caused by catastrophic storms like the one we had this past week on the east coast. many of these aging water systems are in need of

significant attention. several need to be repaired or fully replaced while other long-awaited projects need to get started. the time to upgrade our water infrastructure is now. last week, committee leaders from the senate and the house of representatives reached a deal of historic proportion -- comprehensive water infrastructure legislation. now passed in the house, awaiting passage in the senate. the name of the consensus bill is america's water infrastructure act. the chairman of the senate environment and public works committee had worked closely with ranking member carper, with infrastructure subcommittee chairman inhofe, subcommittee ranking member cardin to reach this deal with the house. this is by far the most significant infrastructure bill this congress -- of this congress, and it is the most significant water infrastructure bill in decades. it's bipartisan and it helps all 50 states. the legislation does three big things. it grows the economy, it cuts

washington red tape, and it keeps communities safe. america's water infrastructure act spurs economic growth by creating jobs and authorizing vital projects. this bill authorizes projects to deepen nationally significant ports, maintain inland shipping lanes, upgrade aging dams and increase water storage in the west. these projects ensure that american-made goods can be shipped from the heartland to the coast and around the world. access to consistent water supply is key for america's ranchers and farmers. they expect that their water will be delivered when they need it. ranchers and farmers will directly benefit from this legislation as crumbling irrigation systems will receive badly needed maintenance. in my home state of wyoming and across the west, water storage is a serious issue. this consensus bill will increase storage capacity and expand water reservoirs like the fontanel reservoir in wyoming. the legislation cuts red tape by

making it easier to get projects through the army corps of engineers process. it will give state and local leaders an increased role in prioritizing which army corps projects are built. when a local partner takes over the army corps of engineers flood control project, that nonfederal partner will no longer need to worry about obtaining new permits. the bill mandates that the army corps transfer its authority to the local partner so new permits and the time required to get them will no longer be necessary. we have also included important language to help smaller rural communities leverage federal dollars so they can complete needed infrastructure projects. leveraging federal resources is an important component in president trump's infrastructure plan. federal learning leveraging programs -- leveraging programs like the water infrastructure flexibility act, they can get taxpayers the most bang for the buck. in the past, smaller rural communities have had trouble

accessing these dollars. the language in our consensus bill will give these rural areas the chance to complete -- to compete for these funds and be able to participate in this very successful program. cutting redd increasing access to learning programs will help us get projects done faster, better, cheaper, and smarter. finally, the bipartisan agreement will help keep communities safe. the critical infrastructure projects included in this package will help prevent damaging flood waters by maintaining dams, levee, and beach fronts. it will also create a permanent program to address floods caused by ice jams like the one we saw in wyoming. the legislation allows for the army corps of engineers to more effectively assist communities recovering from devastating storms and surging rivers. this bill isn't just about flood prevention. it is the most significant drinking water legislation in decades. this bill invests in repairing

aging drinking water systems. for the first time since 1996, congress will authorize the drinking water state revolving funds. this fund gives states certainty that they can meet their drinking water needs. the bill is also fiscally responsible. the nonpartisan congressional budget office said that america's water infrastructure act will authorize these important projects and reduce the deficit at the same time. america's water infrastructure act has received broad bipartisan support from democrats, republicans, local governments, and stakeholders. it originally passed out of the senate and environment and public works committee unanimously by a vote of 21-0. after reaching this consensus agreement, the house of representatives passed the updated bill unanimously by voice vote. simply put, america's water infrastructure act is good for the entire nation. president trump called on congress to pass major infrastructure legislation,

america's water infrastructure act answers that call. by reaching this bipartisan agreement, my home state of wyoming and the nation will see upgrades, reforms, and new initiatives that deliver on the president's commitment to rebuild our aging water system. now is the time for the senate to take up this important bill and send it to the president for his signature. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator for ie would. mrs. ernst: mr. president, i rise today disappointed and frustrated. once again we have passed an ill-advised continuing resolution to fund much of our government. once again, folks, we have passed the buck. once again we have failed to do

our job. one of congress' most essential roles is to fund a responsible government that runs efficiently and effectively. we have a duty to taxpayers to not just simply give a thumbs up on spending their money but to debate and consider whether programs are working to serve their needs. unfortunately, we have been negligent in this solemn duty. like myself, americans are tired of the shortsighted habit of kicking the can down the road. how did we get to this point? you might be asking yourself that. after all, we've worked across the aisle in an open and collaborative way and found a path forward to fund our

national defense and the vital departments of labor, health, and human services, and education. we recently passed a similar bill related to energy and water, the legislative branch, military construction and veterans affairs. but as we've seen, a continuing resolution was attached to this legislation for the rest of the government, including our vital department of homeland security. worst, this continuing resolution doesn't fund the government fully until the end of the fiscal year. it simply punts the ball to december 7. that's it. we'll be back here before christmas and if experience is any sort of guide, multiple times after that before we can get the government fully funded.

i ultimately chose to vote yes on this continuing resolution because of what it means for our national security and our service members who risk their lives every day for our security. also, the continuing resolution included the violence against women act, a bill i could not allow to lapse given that this bill provides services for our most vulnerable. vawa addresses the scourge of domestic violence that is so prevalent in our communities, crimes that often hurt women and children the most. often requiring them to be displaced from the only homes they know. i believe we can strengthen this act in several ways by addressing changing circumstances since its last

reauthorization five years ago by tailoring its language too better fit -- language to better fit the needs of our communities. there are provisions we need to change and to work on, but we are not afforded that opportunity. tying our nation's security and the violence against women act to the c.r. made it both the carrot and the stick. we are leading services and programs that the american people rely upon open to partisan delay and political jer mandzerring -- gerrymandering. the people of iowa elected me to come to washington to be their voice and to instill much needed fiscal responsibility. rather than pushing, procrastinating, and postponing for another three months, we

should buckle down and build upon the great progress that we have made this year by getting the remaining appropriations bills across the finish line. we should debate the violence against women act in regular order so that we can strengthen it and provide protections for those who need it the most. mr. president, there are items that i support in this continuing resolution, but we need to do our job. we need to fund the government. if we don't take action now, we will be back here month after month, year after year doing the exact same thing. thank you, mr. president. i will yield the floor and i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll.

quorum call:

the presiding officer: the senator from indiana.

a senator: i ask that the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. a senator: thank you. i also ask unanimous consent that my defense fellow john galer be granted floor privileges for the remainder of the 115th congress. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. donnelly: i could to the floor to bring attention to suicide prevention, immense importance to families and communities across indiana and our country. the senate will be introducing a resolution very soon recognizing suicide as a serious public health problem and expressing support for designation of september as national suicide prevention month. every year we lose nearly 45,000 americans to suicide. it's the tenth leading cause of death in this country and second leading cause for those age 15 to 34. think about that for a moment. 45,000 lives every year, 123 lives every day, one life every

12 minutes. the american foundation for suicide prevention champions the message be the voice, stop suicide. whether we're senators or family or friends or coworkers or even strangers, we can all play a role in helping to prevent suicide. we all must be the voice. so what is our voice? it is recognizing suicide prevention month. that's a start. i'm proud to cosponsor that resolution. but it can't just be about a day or a week or a month. this is a heartbreaking challenge for our communities. we must be working year-round and across the aisle. there's no democrats or republicans in this -- to find the solutions that provide americans with the help they need to get through the most trying times. over the past several years

congress has found a number of bipartisan solutions to help address this tragic problem, but our work is far, far from done. there's still 45,000 americans every year -- their families, their friends. they need our help, they need our action. as i started my time here in the senate, i made it a focus to fight -- to find bipartisan approaches to suicide prevention. in indiana, suicide claims over 1,000 lives every year. that's one hoosier lost every eight hours. in 2013, my fellow hoosier jeff sexton reached out to me to share the tragic story of his son jake. an indiana national guardsman tragically took his own life in 2009 while on leave to a

deployment to afghanistan. his story is far too familiar for active and guard and reserve service members. and for veterans as well. despite representing less than 10% of the population, these americans comprise almost 20% of the suicides. their communities lose over 7,000 members every year as they struggle with the stresses of the military service that we as a nation and as a congress asked of them. so the question is, what can we do to help them and prevent these tragedies? hoping to answer that question, the first bill i introduced here in the senate focused on suicide prevention in the military and in our veteran communities. introduced in 2013, signed into law in the 2014 national defense authorization act, my jacob

sexton military suicide prevention act addressed a critical gap in mental health care for our troops. all too often many of our service members would go years without any mental health assessment, without a medical professional going, how are you doing? how are you feeling? if you're feeling a little off or a little unsure, we have all the means you need to get help. congress worked together to pass that bill into law. now we've ensured every service member, active guard and reserve alike, receives an annual mental health assessment, a professional look to make sure the member isn't fighting a battle he or she can't win on their own. that's why i was pleased to hear from every service secretary and chief last fall that annual mental health assessments have

been 100% implemented throughout the services, even with an avenue for help, though, many service members were cautious about reaching out for assistance. they feared the stigma could hurt them professionally or personally. they feared repercussions to their dough ployability, their promotions, their security clearances. so we also made sure to include privacy protections as a part of the sexton act. it is critically important these brave men and women who came forward can get the support they need without suffering professionally for just seeking help. building upon the sexton act, my service member and veteran mental care package which was signed into law as part of the national defense bill in 2015 is a three-part bipartisan effort to ensure service members and vets have access to quality mental health care, whether they seek it through a provider in

their community, the department of defense, or department of veterans affairs. first the military and veteran mental health care provider assessment act guarantees that the department of defense primary care and mental health providers are trained, trained to recognize signs of suicide risk and other mental health care best practices. next, the community provider readiness recognition act developed a new designation for community health care providers that demonstrate a strong knowledge of military culture and medical treatments focused on service members and veterans, specifically pertaining to mental health. finally, the frontline mental health provider training act helped the department of defense establish a pilot program to expand the availability of physician assistance to meet the increasing need for mental health care evaluations and services for service members and

military families. i'm proud to have helped pass each of these efforts. i believe they are some of the senate's most important achievements in the past five years. the demand for military mental health services has never been greater. it's extremely important we leverage all of our assets in support of our veterans, service members, military families, through legislation like the sexton act and the care package. it's critical our support for mental health extends beyond active and guard and reserve duty, and we continue to honor this commitment to our veterans. another piece of bipartisan legislation i was proud to work on was the clay hunt suicide prevention for american veterans act, signed into law in 2015. this law is key toest going timely -- this law is key to getting finely and effective

mental health care to prevent suicide in our veterans communities. the bill's namesake was a decorated veteran of iraq and afghanistan who tragically took his own life after struggling sg with ptsd and depression. the clay hunt s.a.v. act requires annual third-party evaluations of v.a. mental health and suicide prevention programs. it creates a centralized website providing information on v.a. mental health services. and it requires the v.a. to collaborate on suicide prevention efforts with nonprofit mental health organizations. with our country still facing a rate of more than 20 veterans taking their lives every day, we must continue to find opportunities like these to help prevent veteran suicide and improve the mental health care services available to our heroes.

it shouldn't come as a surprise that the law enforcement officers who keep our communities safe often face some of the same stresses that affect our service members and our veterans. it's becoming increasingly common for them to repeatedly experience challenging and even horrific situations on the job. protecting the psychological health and well-being of those who serve our communities is a critically important issue. with fellow hoosier senator todd young, i was proud to introduce the law enforcement mental health and wellness act in early april 2017, helped get it through the senate unanimously in may of 2017, signed into law by president trump this past january. this bill was inspired in part by lebanon, indiana, police officer taylor nielson who in 2016 was called to an horrific

crime scene with the gruesome images from the scene etched in her mind, taylor began to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. at one point she sought to take her own life. fortunately, her fellow officers recognized her situation, sought help for her, and saved her life before it was too late. the law enforcement mental health and wellness act helps our law enforcement officers get access to the mental health care they need as they keep our communities safe every day. the law authorizes grants to initiate peer mentoring pilot programs. it directs the departments of justice and health and human services to develop resources for mental health providers based on the specific mental health challenges faced by law enforcement. and it studies the effectiveness of crisis hotlines and annual mental health checks. it also directs the departments of defense and justice and

veterans affairs to confer about existing d.o.d. and mental health services and practices that can be adopted by our law enforcement agencies. working together with my colleagues, i'm proud of these successes. but mental health and suicide impact every part of our nation. they don't discriminate. we must look for ways to ensure our workplaces, our schools, and our rural communities to make sure that they have the mental health care and the treatment resources that they need. one critical resource -- the national suicide hotline. by calling 1-800-273-8255, every american can access free and confidential emotional support 24 hours a day, seven days a week. it's a wonderful service and

we're working to make it even better. the bipartisan national suicide hotline improvement act, which i introduced with my friend senator hatch, was signed into law a month ago. it will increase the effectiveness of the current suicide prevention lifeline system in the veterans crisis line by requiring the federal communications commission to study the system, to make recommendations -- how can we improve it? one of these improvements -- seeing whether we can include a three-digit hotline number that would boater connect folks to crucial crisis resources. now, in the time i've been here on the senate floor today, just this short time, we've likely lost another american life to suicide. at the current rate, in 12 more minutes, we'll heartbreakingly lose another.

as a parent, this is so heartbreaking and so tragic. we have to do whatever we can to prevent these tragedies. 123 americans every day, 45,000 every year, people who every day could make our lives and our country so much brighter and so much better. it doesn't have to be that way that they'll be gone. it's incumbent on all of us to harness the sobering reminder of this national suicide prevention month, to ensure that every american knows there's hope, that support is just a call or a conversation away. there are people, there are resources, they are available to help get through any challenges that you have. and you are loved and you are cared about, and we want to make

sure that you have everything you need to get through whatever difficult time you may be facing. i'm proud of these efforts, proud that we put aside any party politics to address this issue. it affects all of us. our job is not done, though. we have to exhaust every avenue to provide all of our americans with the support they need to prevent suicide. let's tackle this program together. let's be the voice. mr. president, i yield back. and i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mr. cornyn: mr. president, are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are. mr. cornyn: i'd ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cornyn: mr. president, last night the senate judiciary committee an -- announced there would be an additional public hearing for sexual misconduct of brett kavanaugh nominated to the united states supreme court. so far all we have is an accusation, one that frankly has a lot of holes in it as far

as time and place and circumstances under which this alleged event occurred. but it is a very serious allegation nonetheless, about misconduct that one claims happened when she and judge kavanaugh and others were involved about 36 years ago as teenagers. judge kavanaugh and the other individual allegedly involved has said that this incident did not happen. they unequivocally deny the claim, and thus far no other individuals have corroborated the accuser's statement. the reason we find ourselves in this unusual situation where we've had the confirmation hearing of the nominee and we find it necessary to have a supplemental or additional hearing is that our democratic colleagues failed to raise this accusation so that it could be handled in a bipartisan regular

manner none of the judiciary committee handles background investigations. understanding that when somebody goes through a background investigation, sometimes information comes up that is particularly sensitive, sometimes embarrassing. maybe it's about financial matters or other personal matters. and so the practice of the judiciary committee is to have those background investigations handled with great care by specially cleared individuals. and then following the hearing, the open hearing, that information will be shared with the members of committee, and they can then ask any questions that they may want to ask in a closed session. so we did not have that opportunity because the ranking member did not even alert members of her own party of the existence of this accusation that she had had for some six weeks. so we weren't able to do the sort of due diligence that we

have -- that's come to be the practice of the judiciary committee on a bipartisan basis. the ranking member who forwarded the allegation did not even attend the closed session where we considered the background investigation that had been done on judge kavanaugh. and as i said, she didn't do anything with the allegation for almost two months. what is clear is that this allegation has been handled, or i should say egregiously mishandled up until now, but that's no excuse for us to continue to do the same. we need to return this process to its ordinary rules and procedures. we will take these accusations with the seriousness that they deserve, and that's in a way that's fair both to the alleged victim and the judge himself. so far fairness, because of our friends on the other side's fondness for got cha moments and

commit theater throughout the confirmation process that fairness has mostly been lost. it's denied the victim who says she wanted privacy and it's been denied judge kavanaugh who has flatly disavowed the claims and had no opportunity during his confirmation hearing, either in open or closed session to answer questionses about these allegations. this has been really a drive-by attack on the character of this judge. again, a serious accusation that we will and have taken seriously. but unfortunately this process has gotten away from being about getting to the truth and been more about gamesmanship and delay. the timing and nature in which this allegation was sprung will attest to that, and that's why initially i was somewhat skeptical about rewarding this

bad behavior by calling for another public hearing. i had confidence in the committee's usual process for dealing with situations like this, that they would ensure that both sides would be heard and that sensitive matters would be handled with the sensitivity they deserve. when i spoke to him yesterday, judge kavanaugh's commitment to transparency and eagerness to address these false allegations head on was clear. and when members of the committee met yesterday to discuss a possible path forward, we agreed that a supplemental hearing was in order. and i went along with that con seb u.s.s. point of -- consensut of view. i want to commend chairman grassley for his leadership and i certainly support his decision to hold an additional hearing next monday. as he said yesterday, anyone who comes forward under circumstances like this deserves to be heard in an appropriate, precedented and respectful

manner. how our colleagues across the aisle conduct themselves will prove whether or not they're actually interested in getting to the truth of these allegations or whether this is just an exercise in character assassination. mr. president, on another matter, last night we voted on a very important piece of legislation called the opioid crisis response act that came to us from the help -- that's the health, education, labor, and pensions committee. thanks to chairman alexander, chairman of the help committee, and as a result of his hard work and the contributions of 70 senators and five standing committees, we were able to come up with a package that had overwhelming support. i believe it was 99-1 if i'm not mistaken. the house has already passed its version of this legislation, so it was important that we do the same and get the bill to the

president soon. and i'm happy to report that now we've done that. included in this opioid crisis response act was something called the stop act, which is a bipartisan piece of legislation that imposes new requirements on the u.s. postal service and customs and border protection. it will close loopholes that are currently being exploited by drug traffickers to evade detection when shipping synthetic opioids like fentanyl, because so few of those postal packages are actually inspected to find out whether they include -- they include drugs like fentanyl. the package we voted on also includes a bill i sponsored with the senior senator from california called the substance abuse prevention act, believing that we need to do something not only about the supply side of the problem, but the demand side as well. this piece of the legislation is

important because it will reauthorize the office of national drug control policy. we need a strategy and we need an office of national drug control policy to not only articulate but to help execute that strategy. this bill will also seek to reduce demand for illegal drugs in a variety of ways. education, for medical providers expanding drug awareness campaigns, and by funding drug courts and nonprofits that provide interventions to people struggling with addiction. i've seen drug courts in action, and they actually work, because people who commit offenses involving illegal drugs, they can actually be monitored and given wraparound care and support to help them not only deal with their addiction, but to help them reenter productive society. unfortunately texas is no stranger when it comes to

illegal drugs. in fact, one in three texans responded to a recent poll saying they knew somebody addicted to painkillers. one in three said they knew somebody addicted to painkillers. and last year close to 3,000 texans died from drug overdoses. that's nearly triple the number in 2000. that's simply unacceptable. 18 years have passed and the number is three times higher. experts have said it's estimated to rise again 6% this year. those numbers are about real human beings and are a tragedy. clearly something is not working. that suspicion is confirmed by the researchers who are saying that overdoses are now the leading cause of maternal deaths in my state. in texas emergency room personnel have said that they're seeing younger and younger children graining access to these addictive opioids and

patients are making violent threats when they're not given the prescriptions that they need to address their addiction. i wish i could say this was just some bad movie or an episode of "breaking bad," and that we could turn it off or change the channel, but we simply can't. this spike in drug use has occurred across the entire nation, and it has multiple causes. there are enterprising drug entrepreneurs, some in china with new equipment and labs and marketing schemes and sales platforms. and then there's the role of the drug cartels, primarily south of the border. these drug cartels' operations are increasingly sophisticated and their income streams have become diversified, including everything, including fuel theft. they are in the words of one

person with knowledge in this matter, commodity agnostic. these cartels will ship drugs, they'll ship people, they'll traffic in children for sex. they will do anything to make money, and they care nothing about their victims. and then we know there's also the social isolation and breakdown in american communities that help contribute to this crisis. there are those men and women who for their own reasons turn to drugs for relief, either unaware of the dangers they pose or naively thinking perhaps they're strong enough to avoid the attraction of addiction. illegal drugs in many places are now resulting in more deaths and criminal homicides, car crashes, or h.i.v. so we know we have a jaw-dropping, society-wide problem on our hands when

according to the centers for disease control, 72,000 americans died last year as a result of drug overdoses. 72,000. so it's incumbent on us to do everything we can, including passing this opioids legislation and working in tandem with state and local governments as well as nonprofit groups and religious ministries. in the texas capital of austin where i live, one of these groups is called bridge of angels. every sunday it meets under an overpass. drug users and others struggling go there and they find people who will listen and people who will help. but if you stay on highway -- interstate highway 35, instead of exiting, head south for three and a half hours, eventually you will hit mexico. it will head to loradeo.

that interstate and the others are some of the conduits to transport drugs from mexico to america's doorstep. u.s. customs and border patrol, led by leaders like my grend rio grande valley sector chief padillo and car lowe p -- karlo provo are doing what they can to protect these boards, and many times they are successful, the the -- but they hide drugs inside of food, drink containers, inside metal panels, inside their cars and trucks. they are quite clever about with when and how they cross the border. and so times these drugs get

through and then they spread. one of the ways that chief provo testified recently that drugs make their way across the border is that the cartels, who are moving people from central america, both unaccompanied minors and family units, because they know that that's such a labor intensive job to process these children and these family units at the border because they require special -- special procedures. many times the drug cartels will use that as a diversionary tactic to move drugs through another part of the border. and so we are more vulnerable than perhaps most of our people recognize. of course, we know these drugs are hawked to children, teenagers and distributed throughout the country. what starts south of the border doesn't stay south of the

border, it ends up in our neighborhoods, hospitals, schools, and unfortunately, in the funeral parlors. the point i'm trying to make is that our war on drugs is mexico's war on drugs too. i was in mexico city about three weeks ago, and many of our outstanding professionals at the american embassy say that many of the people in mexico regard the drug and the immigration problem as our problem, not their problem. well, it is their problem when more people died of violence in mexico, drug-lee lated car -- drug related cartel violence, from 2007 to today than have died in iraq and afghanistan combined, and it's getting worse many to me that's not just an american problem, that's a mexican and american problem. in 2006, the president of

mexico, initiated and armed response to the cartels that were wreaking havoc in their country and based on some estimates now control one-third of the geographical area. now, according to some estimates, the drug cartels control one-third or more of mexico itself, a country of 125 million people with a 12,20e border with the united states of america, and that's just the texas portion. well, because of their success in displacing traditional authorities and usurping the role of law enforcement and government in many parts of the country, these cartels have sometimes created what has been -- been referred to as a parallel state in mexico.

as a matter of fact law enforcement can't even get into these areas for fear of being wiped out. the mexican legal system tries to keep up, and certainly the country has developed laws and institutions that certainly that i in no way want to dent great, but because -- denigrate, but because of corruption, a genuine rule of law is missing in many large swaths of the country and has been for generations. again, our mexican friends say, well, if it weren't for the demand for these drugs in the united states, it wouldn't fuel these cartels and the violence that goes along with it, and they have a very important point. but this is not just an american problem, this is, as i said, a mexican and an american problem. so i hope that i've been able to sketch how difficult these

deep-seated drug problems are, but we don't have the luxury of ignoring them or pretending like they don't exist. they are real and they are taking the lives of americans on a daily, hourly, minute-by-minute basis, and they affect all segments of our society. thankfully, the united states has partnered with mexico in recent years with programs and directed funds by strengthening communities and helping with the judicial systems so that a culture of impunity no longer exists. what i mean by that, if criminals feel like they can commit crimes, including murder, and they'll never be charged and convicted and imprisoned, then there is no deterrence, and so the killing continued. we also collaborate on intelligence matters and have

cooperated on a variety of ways of providing security. but we have to do even more, i believe, together on our side of the border the drug demand and on the mexican side, at least based on the criminal violence last year rising to perhaps its highest levels ever before sooner. our investments are not paying off and we need to double down on not only our commitment to provide the rule of law and to eliminate impiewnlty, -- impiewnlty -- impunity but to slow down and stop the use of illegal drugs killing americans. consumption of these drugs in mexico at least is not as high as in our country, but it is growing. there are people suffering severe harm in that country, harms due to cartel violence and

criminals. in addition to the addictions. in the u.s., as i mentioned, our overdose levels have skyrocketed. so my point is, mr. president, the opioids package that we have now passed is one way we show our commitment to address these developments. it is how we say enough is enough. but, again, i wish our efforts -- i could be confident that our efforts could stop and fix this problem, but they represent a step in the right direction. with this legislation, we will encourage recovery of those suffering from addiction. we'll support caregivers and drive innovation and long-term solutions. it is a powerful first step as we continue to work together with our friends in mexico to

work together hand in hand to fight this terrible scourge. mr. president, i yield the floor, and i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

quorum call:

quorum call: mr. mcconnell: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: i ask consent that further proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the en bloc consideration of the following nominations -- executive calendar 766 and 868. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. the clerk will report the nominations en bloc.

the clerk: nominations -- department of defense. john e. whitley of virginia to be an assistant secretary of the army. department of energy, charles b.erverdon of virginia to be deafty administer of defense for defense programs. mr. mcconnell: i ask consent the senate vote on the nominations en bloc with no intervening action or debate, if confirmed, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table en bloc. the president be immediately notified of the senate's action, no further motions be in order and any statements related to the nominations be printed in the record. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. question is on the nomination en bloc. all those in favor, say aye. those opposed, say no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the nominations are confirmed en bloc. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to legislative session for aered pooh of morning business with senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. mr.mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimos

consent the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of s. con. res. 47. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: senate current resolution 47, directing the clerk of the house of representatives to make a correction in the enrollment of h.r. 6157. the presiding officer: there objection to proceeding? without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the concurrent resolution be agreed to and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of s.3479 introduced earlier today. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. 3479, a bill to amend title 38, united states code, to extend certain expiring provisions of law and so forth and for other purposes. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding? without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the bill be considered read a third time. the presiding officer: is

there objection? without objection. mr. mcconnell: i know of no further debate on the bill. the presiding officer: if there is no further debate, the question is on the passage of the bill. all those in favor, say aye. those opposed, say no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the bill ais passed. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of calendar 147, h.r. 46. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 147, h.r. 46, an act to authorize the secretary of the interior to conduct a special resource study and so forth. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding? without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the committee-reported substitute amendment be agreed to, that the bill as amended be considered read a third time. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. mcconnell: i know of no

further debate on the bill. the presiding officer: if there is no further debate on the bill, the question is on passage. -- of the bill as amended. all those in favor, say aye. those opposed, say no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the bill as amended is passed. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of calendar 87, h.r. 698. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar 87, h.r. 698, an act to require a land conveyance involving is the el corn ranch and so forth and for other purposes. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding? without objection,ment mcconnell i ask unanimous consent the bill be considered read a third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the senate now proceed to the en bloc consideration of

the following senate senate sens which were submitted earlier today -- s. res. 638, s. res. 639, and s. res. 640. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measures en bloc? without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the resolutions be agreed to, the preambles be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, all en bloc. the presiding officer: is there objection no without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the appointment at the desk appear separate lay in the record. the presiding officer: without objection.

s

a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from utah. mr. hatch: i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of the calendar number 300 h.r. 1551. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 300, h.r. 1551, an act to amend the internal revenue code of 1986 to modify the credit for production from advanced nuclear power facilities. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection. the senate will proceed.

mr. hatch: i ask unanimous consent that my substitute amendment at the desk be considered, the alexander amendment to be agreed to, and that my substitute as amended be agreed to, and that the bill as amended be considered read a third time. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. hatch: i know of no further debate on the bill, mr. chairman. the presiding officer: is there further debate? if not, the question is on passage of the bill.as amended. all in favor say aye. all opposed say no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the bill as amended is passed. mr. hatch: i ask unanimous consent that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. hatch: mr. president, i want to thank senators alexander,

whitehouse, grassley, feinstein, and coons and kennedy for all of their hard work on this important bill. it's a very important bill. i'm touched by this gesture. i also want to thank all the staffs involved, including those in the cloakroom and the legislative council for their assistance. i feel like we have been really blessed to be able to get this bill through. i also want to thank senators alexander, whitehouse, grassley, feinstein, coons, and kennedy for all of their hard work on this important bill. i am touched by this gesture. again, i want to thank all of the staffs involved, including those in the cloakroom and legislative section. i particularly want to thank senators alexander, whitehouse, grassley, feinstein, coons, and kennedy for all of their hard work on this important bill.

a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee. mr. alexander: mr. president, if the senator from utah has concluded his remarks, i'd like to say a word or two. naming this legislation, we have just passed in the senate a bill that is named the orrin g. hatch music modernization act. it was an amendment that i had offered to the bill. it wasn't senator hatch's amendment. he's the principal sponsor of the bill, along with senator whitehouse, and 82 members of this body. but i ask that it be named in his honor. it's fitting because it's the most important piece of legislation in a generation to help make sure that songwriters in our country are paid and are paid a fair market value for their work.

fitting because senator hatch is a songwriter himself and has long been an advocate for musicians. so i can think of no better way to memorialize his four decades of service to the united states senate than renaming this legislation the orrin g. hatch modernization act. under his leadership, as i just mentioned, the bill has gained nearly unanimous support here in the senate. it passed the house earlier after being thoroughly vetted and compromised and changed. it passed unanimously. it came to the senate judiciary committee where it was considered and it passed by voice vote. and then tonight it passed by voice vote. i want to especially join with senator hatch in thanking the other senators who have worked so hard on this, both democrats as well as republicans. senator whitehouse, snowe durbin, the assistant democratic

leader who enjoys going to nashville on a regular basis, has lots of good stories about it. senator coons of delaware. and what this means is that the bill which has passed the house unanimously has now passed the senate, and it will go back to the house because we have made some changes in the bill. that's the way the process works. we have stayed in close touch with the house of representatives as we have done this. representative doug collins and a number of others in the house have been really extraordinary leaders in pushing this. and i know that representative collins and others will work hard. my hope is that the house will be able to pass the senate bill next week, and the bill will then go to the president and become law. earlier this evening, senator chuck grassley of iowa was on the floor and he had to leave. i want to join senator hatch in

thanking senator grassley who is chairman of the judiciary committee who expedited consideration of this bill and was here to speak about it. he asked me to say these words on his behalf. this is from senator grassley -- the music modernization act will really help songwriters, artists, publishers, producers, distributors, and other music industry stakeholders. this bill is the product, said senator grassley, of long and hard negotiations and compromise. senators hatch and alexander especially, but many other senators contributed to this bill. i am pleased to support this bill, so said senator chuck grassley. one reason this bill has been able to be successful -- and one of the senior members of the staff of the judiciary committee was talking to me tonight and said it's a really remarkable piece of legislation because it touches so many of the aspects of the creation of music in our

country, and i think that's true. it's a very complex piece of legislation. i ask some -- asked some of those who were working on this the other day, will this really help the songwriters? the answer is yes, it would. that is why -- and here is -- here is why we were able to do this so far. it's because the songwriters and the publishers and the digital music companies and the broadcasters and the record labels and others decided to work together over the last two or three years on what they agree on instead of what they disagree on. it's taken several years to do this, but i believe it will be worth the effort. what has happened is that the internet has changed the music business in the way it's changed politics, other businesses, and the world. more than half the revenues in the music business now come from

music played over the internet. and the legislation is necessary because the copyright laws of our country haven't kept up with the arrival of the internet, and in addition to that, they were way out of date before the internet ever got here. those copyright laws haven't been modernized since the days of the player piano a century ago. so as a result of that, today's songwriters are -- are often not paid royalties for their songs when their songs are played online, and when they are paid, they aren't paid a fair market value. and as a result, it's become almost impossible for songwriters to make a decent living. songwriters in nashville -- and we have them all over tennessee, but nashville has thousands of them -- they typically are taxi

drivers, teachers, waitresses, all working to write their first hit. last saturday, i was at the bluebird cafe in nashville where senator hatch has been before. bob depiro was there. he was playing some of his songs. he told a story of how in the 1980's, he was teaching guitar lessons at the river gate mall. that's how he was earning a living. he had moved to nashville from ohio. he fell in love with country music. he said he would take a bus out to river gate mall. that would take about an hour, hour back, teach these kids in the afternoon, after school from 3:00 to 9:00, and during the day he would write songs. well, nothing happened until he wrote a song called "my baby's american made," which almost everybody knows the words to. so that song has done pretty well. but to give you an idea of what this bill can mean to most wrone tell you a story. i mentioned that songwriters can

be taxi drivers or waitresses. they can also be united states senators like senator hatch who actually has a gold record, maybe two to his credit. he's often written, so written with national songwriters. i had an experience, too. a few years ago, i was in my hometown of maryville, tennessee. i went into the drugstore. as i was coming out, there was an older couple sitting in a pickup truck. i said how are you all doing? the woman in the pickup truck said we are just falling apart together. it so happens that that weekend my son who is in the music business had a group of songwriters at our home and they were writing songs. so i said to one of them whose name was lee bryce, who is a well-known songwriter and performer, i told him that story about the lady saying falling apart together. lee bryce said hey, we could do something with that. so he and billy montana and john stone wrote a song, "falling apart together." falling apart together went on

lee bryce's album. it was played a lot. according to the national custom, i got a one-fourth royalty for the song whenever the song is played. lee is a pretty good singer. you'd think those royalties would add up to give me a nice income in addition to my salary as a united states senator. i checked, and in 2016 i reported on my ethics form that my royalties only added up to $ 101.75. that's for one-fourth of a record that's played on an album of a pretty well-known singer and writer. if you're a songwriter in nashville or anywhere else, you can't make a living on that. but the music that orrin g. hatch music modernization act will help fix that, will help make sure that songwriters are played a fair market value when their songs are played. and that they're actually paid

when their songs are played. first, the legislation will make sure songwriters are paid by creating a new entity. now, this is really an elegant solution to a complicated problem. this new licensing entity will make it easier for digital music companies like spotify or amazon or pandora to obtain a license. let's say they want to play "falling apart together. requestings "all they have to do is go down to the entity and get a license from thattent toy make sure that the four of us who helped write that song are paid whenever a song played. that's can be a big problem for one of the internet companies because they deal in hundreds of thousands, millions of songs. and songwriters end up everywhere in the world. and so finding them is sometimes impossible. that's not good for the songwriter who doesn't get paid. it's not good for the streaming

company because they might get sued. as i said earlier, half the revenues in the music industry come from songs -- come from internet songs. so this new entity will collect royalties each time a song is played, look for the songwriter, and hold on to the royalties for three years until the songwriter can be found. and as i mentioned, it'll help the digital music companies because it'll reduce the number of lawsuits and make it a lot simpler to be able to get a license for a some of the second, the legislation will make sure that songwriters are paid a fair market value for their songs. by doing three things -- first, it revises the outdated songwriter royalty standards, as i mentioned earlier. go back a century to the days of the player piano. it will replace those with a standard of willing seller and willing buyer. what would the song be worth in the free market, not the

statutory rate that's set today. then the second thing that will help is the legislation will allow the two largest performing rights organizations to present new evidence about the fair market value of a songwriter's work like what the performer of the song might earn for their songs. to perform that to a federal court rate judge when there is a dispute about what the royalties are worth. then, finally, the third thing it will do to make sure that songwriters are paid a fairer rate, it will ask them to have judges in the federal district of new york where the cases are heard to be randomly assigned to the cases rather than having all the proceedings before the same judges. we believe that will produce a fairer outcome for songwriters. so this is a big day for songwriters in nashville and in memphis and in knoxville, tennessee, as well as all over

the country. it's the most important piece of legislation in a generation to help make sure that songwriters are, a, paid when their songs are played, and, b, paid a fair market value. i want to thank senator hatch for his leadership on this. because he led this effort, because of his prestige here in the senate, we have 82 cosponsors of the legislation, we're able to pass it by voice vote tonight, bring it to the judiciary committee. i would not want anyone to think that because it passed by such a wide margin that this was a simple exercise. it was a very complicated exercise, and it was in doubt until about an hour and a half ago in terms of whether we would be able to do this tonight. but we wouldn't have been able to do it without senator hatch. so i thank him and i think it is fitting, as he retires this year

after four decades in the senate, that we name the most important piece of legislation to help songwriters in a generation, that we name that legislation after the senate songwriter, the or lynn g. hatch music modernization act. i thank the president, and i yield the floor. mr. hatch: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from from utah. mr. hatch: i want to thank my dear colleague from nashville for his kind remarks. i covered this really well. i've had this experience of writing some pretty nice songs, mainly because of my cowriters. and i have to say that i was shocked that even though hundreds of thousands and even millions have been -- of records have been sold on some of these songs, how little the songwriters are paid.

and in many cases, not paid at all. and this will -- this will enhance songwriting in america and give songwriters a chance to be able to hopefully make a living, especially the good ones. and even some who just are not necessarily in nashville or hollywood or any number of -- new york, or any other number of places. i just with aens to say that we all are very lucky to have senator lamar alexander as one of our chief advocates in this area. he understands these problems. he's lived with these problems. he has anguish over them. and he's played a tremendous role in getting us finally to this passed bill. this is a very important bill. people don't realize, but they will once this bill really is

utilized the way it really is allowed. all i can say is this -- that i can't say that i am a he a great songwriter, although i do have one platinum and one gold record and some others that will probably go gold and platinum. but i can say this -- it's been one of the most enjoyable, productive, interesting experiences to write songs, for me, and for those who write with me. and all i can say is that i feel really, really indebted to everybody in the senate and the house for doing this to help spur on the music industry in this country and to get people treated properly. from a remunerative standpoint. i am grateful for lamar alexander and for the leadership he has provided. we couldn't have done it without him and frankly it's always a

pleasure to work with i am had. he's got such a great sense of humor. he has a tremendous -- he is a tremendous musician himself. he plays the piano as well as anyone i know. and has frankly done so for all of us around here and has uplifted us with his talents. he is a good guy and i think nashville is very lucky to have them as their united states senator. mr. president, i'm grateful to the senate for allowing us to get this done. i'm grateful to my friends on the democratic side for opening the door here. i'm grateful for my friends on the republican side, all of whom realize how important this bill is and how much good it's going to do for america. and the music industry to enlighten us all, to lift us all during times of difficulty and grief and so forth, and to provide the incentives to do even better in the future than we've done in the past. this is an important bill.

i'm pleased that i've had a role in helping to pass it. i'm very grateful to senator alexander. he's one of my favorite people hear. i used to chair the labor and human resources committee that he now chairs. i understand how difficult that committee has been. but it is a great fountain of legislation, and he has done a tremendous job on that committee. he's one of the great senators, and i'm not just staying because he's helped me on this particular bill -- and i'm not just saying that because he's helped me on this particular bill. but i am very grateful to him, grateful for his leadership in the senate, grateful for my friendship with him and his friendship with me. he's a really wonderful man and he makes a real difference in this body e. he just want to thanking -- i just with aens to thank everybody in the senate for allowing this to happen and i'm just very, very appreciative and

would feel badly if i did not make that very clear today. i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee. mr. alexander: i thank the senator from utah for his remarks. i think we would both feel remiss if we didn't properly acknowledge all of the senators and especially all of the staff members who have put in such long hours and used such professionalism to help with this. we'll come back to the floor next week and do that. do that properly. lindsey darcy are here with me. i sonar hatch's staff is on the floor, some from the finance committee. i want to make sure that we do a complete job of acknowledging the highly professional work in this complex, important piece of legislation. as i said, it's -- the most important piece of legislation in a generation. to help make sure that american songwriters are paid fairly for their work. thank you, mr. president.

the presiding officer: the senator from utah. mr. alexander: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee. mr. alexander: i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today, it adjourn to then convene for pro forma session only with no business being conducted on thursday, september 20, at 3:00 p.m. i further ask that when the senate adjourns on thursday, september 20, it next convene at 3:00 p.m. monday, september 24, and that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day.

further, the senate be in a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes until 5:30 p.m., for -- ten minutes each until 5:30 p.m. at 5:30, the senate proceed to the consideration of the wolcott nomination under the previous order. finally no the withstanding rule 22, the cloture motions filed during today's session ripen, following disposition of the wolcott nomination. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. alexander: if there is to further business to come before the senate, i ask that it stand adjourned under the previous order. the presiding officer: the senate stands adjourned until senate stands adjourned until >> the senate today approved $855 billion in 29 in federal spending that would cover the departments of labor, health and

human services, education and defense that the bill include short-term funding for the federal government through december 7. as always, live coverage of the senate here on c-span2. >> the senate judiciary committee postponed a vote scheduled for thursday on brett kavanaugh's nomination to the supreme court because on monday

the committee is holding a hearing to hear from christine ford was alleged that the nominee sexually assaulted her when they were both in high school. judge kavanaugh will testify about the allegations at 10:00 a.m. eastern on monday. you can see it live on our companion network, c-span. after the party lunches, senate democrats on senate republicans talk about monday's hearing on the confirmation process. [inaudible conversations] >> thank you. leadership or could not be here today because he is now headed to new york for yom kippur but i'm very happy today be joined by senator renaud, blumenthal,