people have this perception that trump went out and didn't talk about any issues in the sort substantive way. one of theue things that is interesting that donald trump is during the 2016 primary you at 17 candidates on the republican side running for president. to my knowledge donald trump was when you spent significant time talking about the opioid crisis when he went into a lot of these states. i slightly when its effect would be different in new hampshire if you more people paying attention to this so i hope that anybody who's running in tennessee and west virginia and southwestern virginia, the appellation section of ohio, et cetera, et cetera, i do know people those areas and candidates from his fairies are listening to what ashley has to say. because we do have the capacity to pick some vote up on this if they're willing to show political courage. it is a heart issue to. i'm not totally convinced he can be done -- >> we will be the last few minutes of this "washington journal" discussion. you can see the rest of it on our website c-span.org.

u.s. senate continues debate on the house approved water resources development act today. they will be gathered in in just a moment. a procedure book to limit debate on the bill set for 530 eastern this afternoon. and now to live coverage of u.s. senate here on c-span2. the president pro tempore: the senate will come to order. the chaplain, dr. barry black, will lead the senate in prayer. the chaplain: let us pray.

most loving god, the source of our hope, abide with our lawmakers today. fill their minds with thoughts of your love, wisdom and strength. lord, use them to be a voice for the voiceless. keep them from all evil, purifying their hearts to be instruments for your use. take away from our senators anything that hinders them from hearing and obeying your voice. teach them, this day, to see you more clearly, love you more dearly, and follow you more

nearly now and always. we pray in your sacred name. amen. the president pro tempore: please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance to our flag. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the leadership

time is closed. under the previous order the senate will resume consideration the house imagine to -- message which the clerk will report. the clerk: house message to accompany s. 3021, an act to designate the united states courthouse located at 300 south fort street in indianapolis, minnesota, and so forth.

mr. mcconnell: mr. president. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: first i want to convey a few words of thanks to our dedicated ambassador to the united nations who we just learned will be stepping down at the end of the year. our nation has benefited greatly from the tough, skilled leadership that nikki haley brought to the u.n. her tenure will be remembered for her proud reassertion of american moral leadership and her fearless willingness to turn a bright spotlight on critical challenges from israel's

sovereignty to iran's sponsorship of regional violence. ambassador haley has been a key part of the administration's team that has faced down a wide variety of critical challenges and done so with distinction. she took on this role after an impressive six years as governor of south carolina and quickly proved to be both a skillful advocate for our national interest and a forceful spokeswoman for our pridges. -- principles. i hope this is not the end of ambassador haley's distinguished career in public service. i want to thank her for her significant contributions to our country. now on another matter, yesterday i was pleased to attend the ceremonial swearing in for the newest member of our supreme court, justice brett kavanaugh. justice kavanaugh's remarks yesterday affirmed yet again what his record and his

testimony clearly told us. he'll be a thoughtful, fair-minded justice who is committed to applying our laws and our constitution as they're actually written. this confirmation last week was a victory for the very same principles of fairness and justice that we can now count on with him, along with his fellow justices to uphold. so, mr. president, saturday's vote was also a victory for the senate, for this institution, and for the integrity of this institution. reason and deliberation triumphed over what was literally, literally an attempt to sway the senate using mob tactics. i wish this were an exaggeration, but it isn't. while many came to washington peacefully to share their stories, the loudest voices proved to be those of the politically motivated far left. the same far-left special

interests that had pledged total opposition to any supreme court nominee before the ink was even dry on justice kennedy's retirement. they pulled out all the stops. they did everything they could. when it became clear justice kavanaugh's nomination would not be stopped on the merits, well, as we know, that was only the beginning. far-left activists decided that the united states senate and their members should be harassed and intimidated wherever they might be. in a restaurant, with family, getting out of their own car, or in their own homes. anything went. when they did not get their way, when these tactics failed to sway us, they just turned up the anger even more. protesters disregarded the men and women of the capitol police, trampled barricades,

stormed the steps of the capitol and the supreme court, climbed on statutes and tried to literally shout down senators right in the middle of a roll call vote here in the senate. when the dust settled, literally hundreds of arrests had been made, extraordinary security measures were required to protect the senate, the supreme court, as well as the kavanaugh family, and members of this body and senate staff have received threats of violence and murder. after all that, i'm afraid the far left has only succeeded in only one thing. they made it even more difficult for the vast majority of americans to take them seriously. they made it difficult for most americans to take these people seriously. but the madness hasn't stopped. they are already signaling that even more drastic steps may be necessary now that justice

kavanaugh is on the court. some left wing publications are trying to lay the groundwork for, you guessed it, literally packing the court with more justices. that's right. the far left has gone scrounging through the ash heap of american history and they are ban did iing about that -- bandying about that fantasy from the 1930's. while the groundwork is laid for that scheme, one far-left pressure group is already trying to circulate petitions that justice kavanaugh should be impeached. justice kavanaugh should be impeached. the mob would like to make itself perfectly clear, mr. president. if democrats, quote, progressives expect them to use their full power to get kavanaugh off the bench. so it's pretty obvious the

all-consuming animosity toward this nominee, independent of all the facts and all the evidence, still being stoked. the far-left mob is not letting up. earlier today former secretary of state clinton sent this signal as clear as today. this is secretary clinton. she told cnn exactly how she views millions of americans who hold different political views from her own. here's what she said: you cannot be civil with a political party that wants to destroy what you stand for. if we're fortunate enough to win back the house and/or the senate, that's when civility can start again. no peace until they get their way? more of these unhinged tactics? apparently this is the left's rallying cry.

but fortunately the american people know that the fact-free politics of hate, fear, and intimidation are not how we actually govern in our democratic republic. the senate and the nation will not be intimidated. mr. president, on an entirely different matter, earlier this year the president challenged us to seriously address our nation's crumbling infrastructure. in congress, we've wasted no time on working to tackle this challenge in a bipartisan way. here are just a few highlights. the funding bill for fiscal 2018 included a $21 billion increase in an infrastructure funding. we continued to build on that significant commitment in our

historic return to regular appropriations for fiscal year 2019. just last week we passed the latino -- the longest f.a.a. reauthorization in more than three decades on a bipartisan basis and this week we have the chance to keep the momentum going and advance another major victory for the american infrastructure by passing america's water infrastructure act. chairman barrasso and ranking member carper deserve a lot of credit for getting this important bipartisan legislation across the finish line. it's important for every state in our nation and cannot be overstated. america's ports and inland waterways give our producers access to markets around the

world. more than 60% of our grain exports, for example, move through our inland waterways. so do other commodities such as fuel, coal, and agricultural inputs. no wonder the american farm bureau federation wrote the senate explaining that this legislation will put america's inland waterways and port infrastructure on a solid and sustainable foundation to contribute to u.s. economic growth, jobs, and global competitiveness for generations to come. this legislation covers big projects like deepening ports and ensuring the navigability of inland waterways. but it also focuses on the unique challenges communities face that will help ensure access to functioning sewer systems and clean drinking water on this last point there's good reason why the chairman of the e.p.w. committee calls this

legislation the most significant drinking water infrastructure bill in decades. and when you look at its contents, it's hard to reach any other conclusion. there's more support for our rural communities as they grapple with aging water, sewer, and flood control infrastructure. the legislation includes senator boozman's s.r.f. wind act which puts low interest financing within reach for small and mid-sized rural communities like those in my home state of kentucky. and for the first time in over 20 years, this legislation reauthorizes federal funding to states to help ensure the safety of our drinking water. the legislation also addresses environmental protection. to name just one example, it includes an important effort championed by senator rubio and senator scott to help address and -- and governor scott to help address harmful algae blooms that have plagued florida's waterways.

these are just a few of the significant accomplishments this legislation secures. dams and levees, flood control for our communities, safe drinking water, sewer systems in communities big and small, the bill before us addresses real needs in my state and across america. i hope each of my colleagues will join me in voting to advance america's water infrastructure act later today. and now one final matter. i'd like to conclude where i started with a few words of thanks for a job well done. justice kavanaugh's confirmation could not have happened without the tireless work of so many. so while i certainly can't mention everyone who deserve it, i want to take a moment to express my gratitude. first, of course, is president trump himself for sending the senate such a talented and qualified nominee. he and vice president pence are stalwart champions for the

judiciary that the american people deserve. my deep gratitude is also with white house counsel don mcgahn. without don's total dedication to ensuring judge kavanaugh received a fair hearing, we would not be where we are today. here in the senate, i can't compliment enough our dear friend, chairman grassley, for his leadership of the judiciary committee. he balanced strong leadership with generosity and flexibility to all the members. he oversaw the most thorough, painstaking review of a supreme court nominee in our nation's history. scoring chairman grassley and the committee, i'd like to mention staff director colin davis, chief nominations counsel mike davis, steve kinney, lauren mailer, andrew ferguson, taylor foye, rachel mitchell, katherine wiley, jessica bugh, george

hartman, jill cazini and jennifer heinz in senator grassley's office, and an entire team of outstanding staff. thanks are also due to the republican whip senator cornyn and his excellent team led my monica popp. all of the dedicated floor staff who make this function did you laura dove, bob duncan, clerks, reporters of debates, sergeant at arms, and our doorkeepers. on my own team, i cannot imagine this process or really my office at all without the crucial leadership of sharon soderstrom, my chief of staff. she works harder and she is under more pressure than almost anyone i have ever had the privilege of working with. don stewart, my deputy chief of staff is the expert hand who helps keep us on a course and shapes our communication

strategy. hazel marshall, my policy director, helped to keep this and other priorities on track, including the other bipartisan policy win the senate delivered during the nomination debate. and john abeck, my chief counsel and right-hand man for every step of the process. for 15 weeks, john poured his determination, his experience, and his wisdom into the process. he started working the moment justice kennedy announced he was stepping down and did not stop until the gavel fell. we wouldn't be here without his work. i'm grateful to my policy advisors, my communications team, and my operations staff for all the hard work and late nights they poured into the process. and to phil maxon and my personal office team for their assistance. but most important of all, mr. president, i need to close with this -- to the men and women of the united states capitol police and all the other law enforcement officers who kept members, staff, and

citizens safe, even in extremely difficult and often hostile circumstances, we really can't thank them enough. our representative government and the rule of law depend on their dedication, their bravery, and their sacrifice, so thank you so much for keeping the senate safe. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

mr. cornyn: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mr. cornyn: mr. president, are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: the senate is. mr. cornyn: i would ask consent that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cornyn: mr. president, it was good to get back home to texas over the weekend, and on columbus day, i this a chance to travel to far west texas, to el paso, texas, and catch up with some of my friends and constituents there and some

important issues that they care an awful lot about. while we in washington have been focused on brett kavanaugh's confirmation to the united states supreme court for the last 90 days or so, a lot of other important things have been happening back in texas and around the country. for example, on august 1, dr. jim allison, affiliated with the university of texas m.d. anderson cancer center in houston, won the nobel prize in medicine, along with a researcher from japan. this is really important work, and it was a culmination of 25 years of effort, and i'm sure something jim would have never even dreamed of as he grew up in the small town of alice, texas, 45 minutes from corpus christi. he has come a long way since then. we are very proud of him, and today we send our congratulations to dr. allison and to the entire m.d. anderson

team on a tremendous accomplishment. dr. allison developed a new way to treat cancer using t cells, his method unleashes a patient's immune system to attack tumors. in other words, it's your own immune system that is triggered to attack the tumors that are attacking you. this is called immune checkpoint therapy, and it's resulted in the development of numerous drugs that have the potential to save lives, none other than our former president jimmy carter is now cancer free because of this tip of therapy, but he is just one of the most famous of many examples. in the not-so-distant past, cancer could be treated in only one of three ways -- through surgery, radiation, or chemotherapy. a friend of mine gave me the book. i think it was a pulitzer prize-winning book called "the

emperor of all maladies," which was also a documentary. to be honest, the way that the medical profession treated cancer in the early days was pretty primitive. surgery, radiation, or chemotherapy. but now, thanks to people like dr. allison and m.d. anderson, cancer patients have other options. dr. allison sometimes is referred to as the godfather of cancer immuno therapy and the drugs he has helped develop have now been approved to treat not only melanoma and lung cancer but also hodgkin's lymphoma and cancers of the kidney, bladder, liver, and stomach. but despite the great straidz made by this nobel prize-winning texan, immuno therapy is still relatively in the early stages of development. dr. allison said that there are nearly 2,000 immuno therapy trials in progress around the nation, including 200 at m.d. anderson alone.

that gives you an idea of some of the number of people and the ongoing efforts that are working to extend the scientific frontiers of cancer treatment. much of this work, of course, would not be possible without the funding that's provided by the american taxpayer through state and federal funding. the national institutes of health remains the largest funding mechanism, but in texas, we have done our part by investing $3 billion over ten years through the cancer prevention and research institute of texas commonly known as cprit. here the senate and the house, we have been working in promoting research on cancer in several overlapping ways. recently i met with dr. shanlon shaw and learned about the fascinating proton therapy that m.d. anderson has pioneered. conversations like that are a great way that we in congress who are obviously not experts

could try to stay on top of rapidly advancing research. but even more important is what we do here collectively to fund that research. we have increased funding by $2 billion to the national institutes of health, and with that increase, close to $6 billion is now going to the national cancer institute and an additional $100 million is being put toward the so-called cancer moonshot that snow biden and others touted, and which all of us working together voted to create. the moonshot will accelerate research regarding high mortality cancers. as a part of the moonshot initiative, the national institutes of health has partnered with biopharmaceutical companies to launch what's known as the partnership for accelerating cancer therapies. p.a.c., as it's called, a public-private research

collaboration totaling $250 million. hopefully it will identify new biomarkers and develop new immunotherapy treatments. dr. allison who i mentioned earlier has spoken about how triewcial this government funding effort really is, and -- how crucial this government funding effort really is. and of course as i said while we are caught up with the fights of the day here on the floor of the senate, a lot of good work gets done that the american people don't hear about. that's why it's so important to emphasize this point. while biotech and pharmaceutical companies fund the late-stage research that brings well-developed therapies into clinical trials, the early funding of basic science which makes that possible often comes from the money provided by the u.s. government through the national institutes of health. without it, dr. allison said many of the therapies that currently treat millions of cancer patients worldwide simply wouldn't exist, and that's an important point, too. it's not just treating cancer here in america. the science and the

developments, the research and the cures that are developed at places like m.d. anderson hospital in houston, texas, benefit the whole world. i remember one of the last times i was at m.d. anderson for a town hall meeting with senator mcconnell, the majority leader, and senator john mccain, our recently departed colleague from arizona. at the time i was told that patients from 90 different countries come to m.d. anderson in houston, texas, because of their expertise treating cancer. so this is not just a local or national phenomenon. this is a worldwide phenomenon. but it's not just the government, of course, that helps fund this important research. philanthropists are also invaluable when it comes to this sort of research as well. i'm thinking about my friends peggary and lowry maize of san antonio, texas. thanks to their generosity, san

antonio's premier cancer center which is only one of four in texas with the national cancer center's elite designation is entering into an entirely new era. their donation, their generosity will provide an endowment to direct the support of the cancer center and also fund recruitment and retention initiatives for generations to come. this is just another way where generous people with big hearts are making a difference. it's it's not just government, it's people working together to get things done. what all of this shows is when a series -- serious sustained effort is applied and money is invested, that there's a lot of progress that we can make in dealing with things that were not considered treatable years earlier. there's always more to be learned. this calls to mind something the great thomas edison, the

inventor of the lie bull -- light bulb said. he said when you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this. you haven't. we haven't exhausted all possibilities as dr. allison's path shows. we have so much more to discover and understand. and with science advancing at practically lightning speed, i believe it's not a question of if we du jour cancer but when -- if we cure cancer, but when. that is good news for families across the country because almost no family has been spared. when we -- we have had a friend undergoing chemotherapy, we know of people like steve jobs, aretha franklin and even john mccain, they passed away from pancreatic cancer and brain

cancer. cancer respects no persons and observes no differences between wealthy and the poor. or race or ethnicity. but if water lucky, we're also blessed to know cancer survivors, who thanks to medical innovation have a new shot at life. they have undergone hardships that the rest of us would find difficult to imagine, but they have endured by their spirit and they've inspired all of us to keep working, whether it be at the maize cancer center or m.d. anderson or here in washington where we look to fund research through legislation. like thomas edison said, we'll never exhaust all of the possibilities, so we must not give up. we must keep trying. working with generous donors and the undaunted scientific researchers like dr. allison and

his team, i hope we will find into your and greater discoveries. to all the younger generation out there, some in towns unlike alice, texas, to all wondering what they might like to be when they grow up, look no further than jim allison. look at what he has accomplished through life's work. he's a good example of what you could aspire to be and what is possible if you try. mr. president, i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: quorum call:

quorum call:

a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from minnesota. ms. klobuchar: mr. president, are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are. ms. klobuchar: mr. president, i ask the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. klobuchar: mr. president, i rise today to talk about something that is such an urgent, urgent challenge for our nation and the world and that is climate change. we received over the weekend the most recent and most dire warning of the cost of inaction

yesterday when the united nations intergovernmental panel on climate change issued its report. now, it wasn't easy to break through the news in the last week. we all know that there was a lot going on, but this one did. why did it break through the news? well, first of all, it was such a comprehensive report. it was the product of 91 scientists from 40 countries. they looked at more than 6,000 studies, and they concluded absent major changes in our greenhouse gas emissions, the devastating consequences of climate change are coming much sooner than previously expected. and i think that's why it made front-page news, because of the time line. i think a lot of times people think of something that, you know, maybe their grandkids or great grandkids are going to

have to deal with but no, tale, the pages in this room, young people today, people of my generation are going to have to be dealing directly with the front line consequences of climate change. the report predicted that the atmosphere will warm up by as much as 2.7 degrees fahrenheit above preindustrial levels by 2040. that means that just over 20 years. you think about the pages in this room, right. 20 years from now. might seem long to you but it's not that long at all. just 20 years ago we could see persistent droughts. we're already seeing a number of droughts now. food shortages, worsening wildfires. think of what we've already seen out in california, colorado, on the west coast. and increased coastal flooding, damage that could cost $54

trillion. so this is about loss of life. this is about loss of quality of life. and this is about loss of money and loss of people's incomes. as the authors of the report make clear, it will take immediate action to avoid these catastrophic consequences for our country and our world. first, by 2030, we must reduce greenhouse gas pollution by 45% from 2010 levels. second, by 2050, we must increase our use of renewable energy like wind and solar by as much as 47%. you know what? we can do this. but if we don't do anything, we are going to face those dire consequences, because when i first came to the senate, we started hearing from military people, from scientists from all over the world about what we could see even in the next ten years, 20 years, 30 years.

and so much of that has already come true. well, imagine if we do nothing and we keep on this trajectory. the american people understand it. i hear about the climate issue everywhere i go in my state, from hunters in northern minnesota to people who like to snowmobile and cross-country ski, to business leaders in the port of duluth, to students at the university of minnesota. increasingly, warmer temperatures are having dramatic effects all over the northern part of our country. lime disease has spread further north. aspen forests are shrinking. moose range is declining. 37% more more rain falls as a result of mega rain storms than we saw just 50 years ago. and the ragweed pollen season has extended three weeks in the twin cities in just the past 20

years. those are facts. when you think about the effect that has on animals, you think about the effect that has on our daily lives, and then think about what would happen if we kept going that way, not just this way but that way in the next 20 years. this is in stark contrast to comments made by some who still suggest that the climate change debate isn't settled. i couldn't disagree more. and i know we had a vote in this chamber where something like 98 or 99 senators voted in fact that climate change is occurring. there may not be agreement on what we should do about it but there better be soon. i'm a former prosecutor so i believe in evidence. and as this u.n. report -- and i really suggest everyone read about it or at least read summaries. it's easily available. as this u.n. report shows us, the facts and the science couldn't be clearer.

every week seems to bring fresh evidence of the damage climate change is already causing, and americans will feel the consequences. my state may be miles and miles away from rising oceans but the impacts are not less of a real threat to my state. climate change isn't just about melting glaciers although we sure have seen those. anyone who visits glacier park -- i went there on vacation with my family and you literally can see over time decade by decade the changes to those glaciers. i once visited with a number of senators, including republican senators, greenland. you can see what's happening there as major icebergs and parts of their ice sheet are just breaking off and disappearing. you can see the physical evidence of this. you can see the photographs of this. but it's not just about that. recently we've seen the devastating impact of natural disasters, like hurricane

florence and the catastrophic flooding this summer throughout southern minnesota and in duluth. there may be some political division around climate change. that's putting it mildly but there isn't any real scientific division because nearly all of the scientists in this world believe that this is happening. i will never forget an episode from the john oliver show which is a humorous program to watch but brings some real issues to light, and to show that kind of scientific division, he decided to have a bunch of scientists on the stage with him. and he -- they were wearing their white coat. he had something like 97 or 98 scientists on one side in their white coats and one or two on the other side. that's the division. it's not real division if you're someone that believes in evidence. climate change is occurring and this u.n., this latest report from the scientists all over the world who would have no reason to do this except to warn people

about the truth. that's why they're doing this. and as citizens we have an obligation to learn about it, to understand it, and to support ideas that won't hold us back dramatically but will allow us to tackle this head-on. because if we don't tackle this issue, we're going to continue to struggle with the fire-reaching economic and environmental consequences. this report makes clear that those risks aren't far off in the future for your great, great, great, great, great grandchildren. no, they could become a crisis as soon as 2040. shifting global trends have the potential to wreak more subtle, long-term havoc on our businesses and industry. that's why so many of the businesses in my state support doing something about climate change. sometimes it's because they have customers all over the world, all over the world in areas that

are going to be the first hit by tsunamis and other weather events, or it's because they simply want to be good corporate citizens or it's because they see their bottom line and how it's going to be affected if we don't do something about this. the u.n. report details the economic damage that will happen if we fail to act, including losses of roughly 1.2% to our gross domestic product for every 1.8 degrees of warming. it gets hotter, the g.d.p. goes down. and as the senator from a state with a strong agricultural industry and a tradition of hunting and fishing and snowmobiling and skiing, climate change is not only a direct threat to our state's economy, it's also a threat to our quality of life, to the way we grew up, to enjoying the outdoors with our friends and our families. so when president trump announced that the united states would withdraw from the

international climate change agreement last summer, i heard a lot from people in our state. as you all know, 195 countries made a pledge to come together to combat climate change. and in withdrawing, the united states was initially one of only three countries who would not be in the agreement. the worry countries that were not in the agreement were sere why and nicaragua. well, now syria and nicaragua have signed the accord. so the united states is now the only country not to sign the accord. our decision to leave this agreement sent the wrong message to the rest of the world. the wrong message. the lack of leadership has led to other countries discussing backing out of the agreement. that's not leadership. that's not leading from the front. we can't have this happen. america should be leading and helping the world move forward.

by the way, there's such an innovation space here, so much money to be made by responding to this in a smart way and developing new vehicles and developing new ways and new energy and new ways to deal with this challenge. it isn't just a challenge; it also is an opportunity. and if we don't seize that opportunity by getting our own act toably admitting that it is a problem, and giving incentives to our businesses to go the right direction and bring other countries with us, we're going to lose that opportunity to other countries that are part of this international coalition. i have already talked to people who work in government or who work for businesses that have gone to international meetings and said, you know what? some of these people in other countries say, i think we're going to work with china on this. they're part of that agreement. hey, we're going to buy our solar panels from them, or we're going to do work with them on this. you can't hide from the fact that we withdrew from that agreement, and it hurts us not

just our environment, it hurts our economic opportunities going forward. look at minnesota and what's happened because we were out front on this t i'm proud that our state has taken an incredibly proactive and innovative approach to energy use and sustainability, which is critical to addressing carbon emissions. our state renewable energy standard requires 25% of our electricity compromise renewable sources by 2027. we passed that back in 2007 with a republican governor, governor pawlenty. he worked with the legislature of democrats and republicans to pass what was at the time seen as a very aggressive standard. and we did it by combining it with doing something about biofuels, something that's important not just in minnesota but in the presiding officer's state of north dakota. and we were able to put together that kind of coalition, the leaders in our legislature and

the governor, of farmers and workers, environmentalists to move forward on both biofuels so we have diversity in our fuel supply as well as diversity in our energy supply, so we don't just rely on one type of energy, but we reduce greenhouse gases by having an all-above energy approach. legislation back then in 2007 received overwhelming bipartisan support passing the minnesota house 123-10 and the minnesota senate 63-3. it's been a while since we've reached that kind of consensus on the federal level when it comes to energy. what's happened? well, we have more than met those goals. what's happened nationally? well, there was progress made during the obama administration. i personally thought when i first got here in 2007 that we should move to some kind of a renewable electricity standard

for the whole country, maybe making differences by geographic areas and regions. sadly, that decision was not made to go that way. i think we lost it by one vote. we lost it by one vote. but instead the decision was made on one side that we wanted to be more aggressive, and we tried with cap and trade, but that didn't end up getting passed in the senate. and then on the other side to kind of say, well, let's just see what happens. as a result, in my mind, we have not done nearly enough. well, what has happened instead? well, the states, our laboratories of democracy, have moved ahead, many of them, like minnesota, coming up with their own standards, are doing it by regions. our universities have moved ahead. our cities have moved ahead and our businesses have moved ahead. by 2015, 154 companies, including companies i'm aol repeal -- i'm really proud of, target, best buy, general mills,

cargo, signed a pledge demonstrating their support for action on climate change that takes a strong step -- that takes a strong step towards a low-carbon, sustainable future. these companies collectively employ more than nine million people representing more than $3 trillion in annual revenue. last month at the alliance to save energy gala, i got to present an energy efficiency award to target because of the work that they've done with sustainability and fighting the impacts of climate change. they've created an electric car program that's up and running in five states and they plan to expand that number to 20 in the next two years. they've signed a virtual power purchase agreement with stevens ranch wind farm in texas as part of the their goal of sourcing 100% renewable energy in their u.s. operations and they are doing like so many companies in the u.s. a major solar program committing to establish rooftop

solar panels on 500 of their stores by 2020. as of last year they've already finished 436 of their projects and they're not alone. xcel energy was an early supporter of the obama administration's clean power plan. imagine if we had allowed that to go through and had that in place, what better position we'd be in when we read those headlines this morning about this u.n. report on the dire predictions of what we're going to see in 20 years? but, no, we are in what i consider a state of paralyssa is. maybe we're not making things worse? although when we went back on that, we made them worse. but we sure aren't making them better. thanks to cities and states, we are making progress but we should be doing this it is a a nation together. xcel energy, another example of a company that appears to be ahead of the federal government. they supported the obama

administration's clean power plan and announced plans to reduce carbon emissions by 60% in the next 15 years. so i look at it this way. if companies like target and xcel energy understand the need to reduce our use of fossil fuels and embrace the energy. future, then so should members of congress and so should this administration. we know that energy innovation can't take root not in any serious way without certainty and stability about what those incentives are. that's what that clean power plan was about. it took what i considered a more moderate route than some people thought it was going to takers but then it got pulled back by this administration. so it's very hard to start planning for the future if we don't have a route for these companies to go. the rest of the world is getting on board. we don't want to be following. we wasp to be leading in america. -- we want to be leading in america. as this week's report made

clear, it is not an option for our economy, environment, country, or world. military and security experts have repeatedly reminded us that climate change is a threat to our national security. increasing risks of conflict, humanitarian crisis, and damage to critical infrastructure. when you see the stories of some of the refugees that are not coming up from conflict but are coming up from parts of africa where they used to do subsistence farming but can no longer do that kind of farming because it is too dry, there's too many droughts and the world has changed. we're going to see these humongous movements of people because they can't lift where they used to live. it is much better for us if we take this on as a world and do something about it than deal with the repercussions of this. more severe weather -- heat waves that could reduce our water supply, extreme rainfall that could damage critical

infrastructure, a decrease in agricultural productivity that could threaten my state's $20 billion agricultural industry. people around the country understand the stakes. but this place -- i think it needs just a little more imagination. if you ever visit my office, i have a picture on the wall and it is a picture of an angel, and she's handing off a globe, the world, to some outstretched hands, and the words on the picture read, "the angel shrugged and she said, if we fail this time, it will be a failure of imagination." that is what we need right now in washington, washington, d.c.n to deal with a very clear threat that the scientists have put right in front of us. 20 years from now it's going to be worse than those wildfires we see raging in california and in colorado. 20 years from now, it's going to be worse than what we're seeing when it comes to the hurricanes

and the tsunamis and all of the icebergs melting and what we're seeing in our national parks. why would we just let this happen? we are america. we are leaders. it is time to act. thank you,man. i yield the floor. i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll.

mr. schumer: mr. president?

are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the quorum be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: thank you, mr. president. the presiding officer: the democratic leader. mr. schumer: well now that the senate has conclude add very divisive debate about the supreme court, it is time to talk about the number one issue to the american people -- health care. we begin that debate tomorrow when the senate will take up a democratic motion to repeal the trump administration's effort to expand short-term insurance plans. let me be clear. these so-called short-term plans are junk insurance. short-term plans are junk insurance. people who buy them are going to be extremely disappointed. because they bait the consumer in with low prices but hardly cover anything. they might not cover maternity care, mental health care, prescription drugs, you name it. even worse, the plans draw consumers out of the health

insurance market making it more expensive for everyone else to purchase insurance, especially more expensive for those with preexisting conditions. that is why so many prominent patient and consumer groups have filed a lawsuit against the administration's rule to expand these junk plans, groups like the american cancer society, the aarp, the lung association, diabetes association, and others. -- that represent millions of americans with preexisting conditions have clearly said this is sabotage -- sabotage -- of the health insurance market and will drive up costs for millions and millions of americans. so senator baldwin has introduced a c.r.a. disapproval resolution, a resolution brought under the congressional review act to repeal this fundamentally

misguided policy from the trump administration. all of my colleagues should vote for this, but i suspect my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have a different idea because ever since taking control of congress and the presidency, republicans have deliberately, relentlessly undermind americans' health care. this particular policy is part of a long campaign to sabotage our health care system. remember, nearly every republican was silent when president trump canceled the program that helped low-income americans afford insurance. remember, every republican was silent when president trump directed his administration to stop helping americans sign up for the right policy. remember, nearly every republican was silent when president trump's justice department refused to defend protections for preexisting conditions, and a large number

of republican attorneys general, some running for senate right now, were part of the trump administration's efforts to say it's just fine to get rid of protections for those with preexisting conditions. and remy republican voted to gut medicaid, raise premiums on older americans, repeal protections for americans with preexisting conditions, and move us towards a future with 20 million americans -- fewer americans have health care. and remember, every single republican voted to repeal the coverage requirement and cause premiums to be much higher this year than they needed to be. so americans, when you're paying more for insurance and you hate it, when those deductibles go up, those co-payments go up, and you say where's the insurance that's supposed to protect me? i have to put so much money out

of my own pocket, it's hardly worth it, look to the republican side of the aisle here and what our senators, your senators if you come from a state that represents them has done. as a result of republican sabotage, premiums are up, out-of-pocket costs are up, prescription drug costs are up, and the quality of insurance is down, in many cases way down. under this republican president and this republican congress americans paying more to get lower-quality health insurance. again let me say that. americans under this president, this congress, are paying more to get less when it comes to health insurance. and protections for preexisting conditions are under assault in so many different ways. no wonder why in poll after poll americans rank health care as the number-one issue in the upcoming election. tomorrow the senate will have an

opportunity to undo a portion of the republican campaign to sabotage health care. and in november the american people will have a golden opportunity to move our country in a dramatically different direction by voting for democratic candidates who will work to improve our health care rather than so many of those republican candidates who work to destroy it. i yield the floor. i note the absence -- no, i don't note the absence of a quorum because we have a quorum right here. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from arkansas. mr. boozman: thank you, mr. president. i want to thank chairman barrasso, ranking member carper, senators inhofe and cardin for all of their hard work to advance the america's water infrastructure act of 2018 to the senate floor so we can

make much-needed improvements to our nation's water infrastructure. i would also like to express my appreciation to the hardworking staff of the environment and public works committee who spent literally countless hours working on this important water infrastructure legislation. the path to getting this bill to the senate floor has not been easy and it would not have happened without the strong bipartisanship shown by e.p.w. leaders. this bill gets us back on track to authorize a critical water infrastructure projects across the country every two years, assuring our economic vitality and competitiveness. america's water infrastructure act is in lock step with president trump's vision for infrastructure by growing our economy, cutting red tape, protecting our citizens and

their economy and improving transparency all the while being fiscally responsible. i'm particularly pleased this bill also includes the securing required funding for water infrastructure now, or s.r.f. wind act legislation that i had the opportunity to introduce with senator booker. the s.r.f. act was a truly bipartisan effort. i would like to give thanks, a special thanks to our cosponsors, senators barrasso, cornyn, inhofe, capito, wicker, feinstein, casey, baldwin, manchin and senator whitehouse. the fact that the s.r.f. act has cosponsors from across the country with vastly different political ideologies makes an important point. infrastructure investment is not a rural issue or a big city issue. it's not a red state problem or a blue state problem.

this is a national emergency, and it's time that we put partisanship aside and show the american people we can work together and provide safe and reliable drinking water and wastewater services to americans in every part of the country. the s.r.f. win act is the result of months long negotiations. it lends the best ideas available to make sure this commonsense bipartisan legislation will work effectively and efficiently providing potentially billions in project dollars to communities that have trillion-dollar -- not had access to these funds. what it does is combine the efficiency and trust associated with the state revolving funds with the leveraging power with the water power finance act. this legislation makes the process easier and more

affordable for states and communities to access federal water infrastructure funding. simply put, the s.r.f. win act is a critical component to future water infrastructure financing. congress needs to do a better job providing basic public services such as safe roads, bridges, and an an up-to-date infrastructure water system. by passing america's water infrastructure act of 2018, congress is making water infrastructure investment a top priority. this bill is a victory for job creators, small and large businesses, every single state across the country, and consumers. i'm pleased to see support for this bill in the house, the senate, and the white house. i urge my colleagues to pass this important legislation, and i thank again chairman barrasso, ranking member carper, senators inhofe and

cardin for their strong bipartisan work. they set a great example of the good policy outcomes that can be accomplished if we work together. and with that, i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

the presiding officer: the senator from illinois. mr. durbin: i ask unanimous consent the quorum call be suspended. promise without objection. mr. durbin: --. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. durbin: and consent to speak in morning business. we receive a lot of mail in our home office but pay attention to those from our home states. people expect me as a senator to read the letter and to least

consider their point of view. some of these letters are kind of routine, almost form letters, some e-mails come in in a volume that you can hardly keep up with. in illinois, i receive 10,000 e-mails a week. a week. that's a lot. there was a time when i was a college kid working here on capitol hill when the senator from illinois signed every letter that went out of the office. sat at a desk at night and signed the letters. it is inconceivable now that we can respond to the all the letters each day. we try to keep up with them and pick letters out that are personal and important enough that the staff think i should read them personally. and i make a point of doing it. sometimes the stories they tell really give me an insight into the issues we debate on the floor of the senate. most of the time the american people kind of look at us, are puzzled, what are they talking about? or why does this mean anything to me and my family and my future? let me give you an example of a

couple letters i received that relate to a vote we're going to take this week. the first letter was from richard lapeman from naper illinois. richard and mary wrote, quote, our 13-year-old sam was diagnosed with leukemia. after the no existing preconditions exclusion for kids collusion went into effect. they went on in their letter to say to me obviously, we're feeling dependent on all of the clauses of the affordable care act, obamacare, right now, including the one that protected those like our family with a child with a preexisting condition. and the bottom line, the lademans say, is that junk insurance plans -- you know, the ones that are so cheap that they don't cover anything important. junk insurance plans wouldn't cover their son. they would leave him and the family to fend for themselves in

the individual market. do you know what it's like to go into an individual market as a mother and father and try to find health insurance for a 13-year-old son who has been diagnosed with leukemia? maybe you can't find any, but if you could, it would be so expensive you might not be able to afford it. the affordable care act changed that, and it said if you're going to offer a health insurance plan in this country, you cannot discriminate against americans with preexisting conditions. you have got to cover everybody, bring them all in. we do that with medicare, you know. we say that when you reach medicare eligibility, all aboard. everybody's invited in. but for the longest time, private health insurance companies wanted to pick and choose. they want healthy people who can pay premiums. they would rather not pay these bills. and so they exclude them, a lot of people, with preexisting conditions. sam here, age 13, diagnosed with leukemia, would be one of the victims of that old-time approach. the leukemia and lymphoma society recently stated, and i

quote, people diagnosed with cancer while on a short-term plan soon discover these plans fail to cover even lifesaving cancer treatment. if patients on short-term plans can get access to cancer therapies at all, they will often be left with hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills. so what does that mean about our debate this week? tammy baldwin is a senator from the state of wisconsin. she is going to offer to the senate tomorrow a chance to vote against president trump's plan that would eliminate protection for preexisting conditions. we'll get a chance to be on record here, and i think it's long overdue. none of us know what tomorrow will bring. you don't know if tomorrow will bring an accident or a diagnosis, and all of a sudden your happy, healthy family has a challenge you never dreamed of. it's happened to my family. i bet it's happened to most of ours, most of yours. and the question is are we going to demand of health insurance companies that they cover those

with preexisting conditions or are we going to just tell those families fend for yourself? see what happens? see how much it costs. another letter from watseka, illinois, the taggert family. watseka is in southern illinois. great little place. here is a letter from christina taggert from watseka. originally diagnosed with stage three inflammatory breast cancer. given this type of aggressive cancer, her prognosis was not good. she went through 16 cycles of chemo, a bilateral mastectomy, 33 radiation treatments, failed reconstruction and chronic tissue issues and a thyroid cancer diagnosis. after all that, she learned the breast cancer was back. this time she was stage four. in her letter to me, christine said when the affordable care act became law, i have no -- i

had no idea that my life would come to depend on policies such as preexisting conditions, not excluding me from coverage. she ends with this quote -- i thank you for your tireless advocacy on this issue. my life literally depends on it. we pass a lot of resolutions here for national pickle week and saluting the flag. all of that is part of our job. but occasionally an issue comes to the floor of the senate that really is going to affect life-and-death issues for americans all across our nation. this is one of them. this is the number one issue in this election. you might think our debate last week about a supreme court justice was important, but if you ask families back in illinois what do you really care about, senator, that was an important debate, i care about my family. i care about my health insurance. i want to make sure of two things. i want to make sure i can afford it, and i want to make sure that when i buy it, it's worth owning, that it's there when i need it.

the republican view on this is buyer beware. go out in the marketplace, shop around, buy yourself something cheap, junk insurance plan. it may not be there when you need it, but boy the premiums will be low. well, that's not much confidence and assurance if that's the case. that's why when tammy baldwin, the senator from wisconsin, offers us a chance to vote -- i think as soon as tomorrow on this trump rule, i hope we'll get at least two republicans who cross the aisle and join us. if they are listening at home, they will, because if they are listening at home, they know that families really care about this issue on preexisting conditions. it's so important for us. and you look at the groups that have come out in opposition to president trump's junk insurance plans, they're the most important groups that you could think of. listen to what the american cancer society said about president trump's junk plan rule. leave older and sicker americans in the individual market with few, if any, affordable health

coverage choices. and that, quote, patients living with serious conditions will be left paying more for the coverage they need if they can afford coverage at all. in recent months, i have heard a lot of congressional republicans proclaim to care about people with preexisting conditions, especially those up for reelection. these are the same ones who eagerly voted to repeal the affordable care act in the middle of the night. i have been in the senate a few years. that was one vote i will never forget. john mccain walked through those doors in the middle of the night, stood at that table, and with his arm still restricted because of the torture he went through as a veteran in the vietnam war, he could barely lift his right arm with his thumb pointed down, saying no. that vote, that no vote together with two other republicans saved health insurance coverage for millions of americans. but the trump administration isn't finished. they found new ways to reduce

coverage for american families and to raise costs. that's what the president trump plan is all about. that's what we get a chance to vote on. the senate is broken up with 51 republicans and 49 democrats. if all of the democrats vote for tammy baldwin, and i think they will, we still need two republicans to see if they will come over and vote not only against the trump plan but vote for the millions of families like those that i've read about today on the floor who are counting on quality health insurance to be there when they need it, who believe that no one should discriminate against someone because of a preexisting health condition. that to me seems fundamentally fair. i have raised a child with a serious problem. we faced this time and time again. nobody should have to face it. a vote for tammy baldwin's resolution of disapproval on the trump plan tomorrow will put america on the right course for families that need health insurance that he can count on. mr. president, i yield the floor, i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll.

quorum call:

mr. cardin: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. mr. cardin: i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cardin: mr. president, i rise to speak about the krd krd -- water resources development act that we'll be voting on shortly on the cloture motion. i strongly support moving forward with this legislation and the support by this body of that important work. i want to begin by thanking chairman barrasso and ranking member carper and senator inhofe for their great work on this bill. in the environment and public works committee we have the leadership of senator barrasso and senator carper and on -- and i work with senator inhofe. we work in the best tra diss of the public works committee and the united states senate to bring forward legislation that really does represent the

priorities of all 100 members of the united states senate. i want to acknowledge from the beginning the amount of work that was done in order to accomplish this. and it was done in great measure by incredibly gifted staff people who have been working for a long period of time in order to bring this bill to completion. obviously there are rough edges and problems as far as a lot of negotiations, and i know that senator barrasso, senator carper, and senator inhofe would acknowledge that. i want to acknowledge may stevens of my staff for the work she has done in advancing the priorities that are important for the people of maryland and to make sure we have a well-balanced bill for our country. as i think my colleagues know, the focal point of my environmental work has been to restore and protect the chesapeake bay which is considered one of america's

greatest resources and a national treasure. the chesapeake bay is the nation's largest esh weary, it contributes $1 billion in economic benefit to the watershed region. it is incredibly important for who we are, the quality of life, economy, and its rich environmental treasures. the shoreline stretch for over 2,000 miles. more than 100,000 streams and rivers, and thousands of acres of wetland provide the fresh water that flows into the chesapeake bay. if we do not protect the health of this incredible network of waters, we cannot hope to restore the chesapeake bay to its former glory. additionally, the effort to clean up and restore the bay creates new jobs and economic growth opportunities around the bay states. for example, work to repair and upgrade our urban and wastewater and storm water systems put people to work as engineers and

operators and so many more jobs that are created. though we are making great strides in improving the quality of the chesapeake bay, and i'm very pleased of the progress we made. you will see that when you visit the inner harbor of baltimore or our shorelines, we still have a long way to go. this act will help support the chesapeake bay and it will help our nation's economic competitiveness, our environment, and the health and welfare of our citizens. i'm pleased that america's water structure act of 2018 will help with poplar island and wind bay projects. both of these projects are located in the state of maryland. both are critically important for us to maintain the environment and economy of the chesapeake bay. i have seen firsthand the results of the u.s. army corps of engineering efforts, their

expertise spearheaded the replenishment appeared expansion of poplar island. it is quite literally bringing life to our region, restoring a habitat that for years suffered from erosion and environmental die -- we are taking an island that used to exist in the chesapeake bay that had ban down to a few acres and restoring it is an environmental restoration project bringing back wildlife and species diversification, at the same time it is a location where we can put dredge material. i can tell you having been in congress, it's not always easy to find locationings where you can put -- locations to find dredge materials. poplar island is also popular with the community. so it has been a win, win, win situation. the expansion of the island to

715 acres, has the benefit for our plants an animals to thrive and will efficiently utilize dredge materials to build the island beyond its original footprint. we are over 1,700 acres. this creates a system that improves the vitality of our treasured echosystem and sets a precedent for beneficial practices in the future. the army corps has collaborated with local and state communities for input on this project ensuring that its benefits will extend to all within the region. the mid-bay project is a continuation of the very successful poplar island project. poplar island will reach capacity in a few years, and that's how we planned on it. in order to make sure that we have another site that's

available, we have to move that project now so that the planning process did be completed in time and engineering work can be completed in time so there is no loss of activity in keeping the harborses at the needed dredge levels for shipping and have the site where the dredge material can be located. that's why it was so critically important to move forward with mid bay now. we need policies to keep up with the demand of the infrastructure backlog while addressing the needs of our community and environment. we can and we must do both. i'm pleased that the america's infrastructure act of 2018 will help prince george's down watershed get off the ground. this is the third wrda bill, water resources development act, in a row. congress is including updates to the nation's wastewater and storm water infrastructure, including much-needed funding.

the american society of civil engineers has yet again given our drinking water and wastewater a grade of d for 2016. in states that we need 32-point -- $32.75 billion a year just to get the infrastructure in working order. that's more than $1 trillion. yet we are spending only $2 billion per year on the clean water and drinking water state revolving funds. every community in rural, urban and suburban neighborhoods have a right to have safe water coming from their tap and congress will do everything in its power to ensure that happens. clean water means good jobs and better health throughout maryland and our nation. clean water is not a partisan issue. i have been proud to work with my colleagues to work to have better water resources and infrastructure. congress has the responsibility

to be a strong partner with states and locals to repair our water infrastructure and waterways and to improve the chesapeake bay watershed. a lot of the water infrastructure is hidden. you don't see it. you notice it if you don't get clean water to drink and you notice it if it affects the water of the bay. we really need to pay attention to this. we need to increase our capacity to be a partner in modernizing our water infrastructure, and this legislation absolutely takes a major step forward in carrying out that commitment. so, mr. president, let me talk about some of the specific provisions that are included in this act. first, the bill includes s. 1137, the clean, safe, reliable water infrastructure act introduced by myself and senator boozman, inhofe, and duckworth, which will invest in

our drinking water and storm water systems and to provide for increased water efficiency. the clean, safe, water infrastructure act specifically includes $450 million to protect the sources of our drinking water and the funding to repair and eliminate combined sewer overflows, which dumps raw sewage into the nation's waterways every time it rains. this is especially timely as the mid-atlantic region has seen historic precipitation events creatingly -- increasingly in the past decade. they cause the wastewater treatment plans to r -- plants to take on more water than they can handle. this is the same water that supplies our drinking water and the fish, crabs, and oysters marylanders love to eat. in fact, there was a storm so massive in frederick, maryland, just a few months ago, the city officials asked residents to

stop using their water in order to prevent equipment failure at the wastewater treatment plant. in is a across -- this is a crisis situation. this $450 million will go far to divert storm water away from the storm water treatment plants in frederick and those all over the state of maryland and our nation. the clean, safe water infrastructure act will help with the water sense program that identifies and promotes water-efficient products through voluntary labeling. it makes it simple to find water-efficient products that meet e.p.a.'s pry tira for -- criteria. water-sense label products are certified to use 20% less water, save energy, and perform as well as or better than regular models. the program should help individuals reduce their water demand priel protecting -- while

protecting water quality. mr. president, this benefits all of us. we save water, we save energy, we can save costs. the e.p.a.'s water sense program partners with manufacturers, retailers, and distributors, homebuilders, irrigation professionals, and utilities to bring efficient products to our communities and their partnerships encourage innovation in manufacturing and support sustainable jobs for american workers. secondly, the wrda bill creates a multiagency federal task force to study the problem of funding and financing storm water infrastructure. the task force will -- with the feedback from state and local governments and other programs stakeholders provide a report to congress suggesting for improving the funding and financing of storm water systems, especially important as maryland sees more frequent and severe storms like the deadly floods in ellicott city 22

months apart. i have spoken on the senate floor about what happened in ellicott city, maryland. within 22 months we had two 1,000 year floods. we had flooding in ellicott city before because of the water rises in the river that go through ellicott city. these are the first floods we've had as a result of the storm water run-off that literally ran down the main streets of ellicott city destroying homes and costing people their lives many we need to deal with this. storm water pollution is not only an urgent and deadly threat, but a long-term one as well. storm water pollution is the fastest growing source of pollution in the chesapeake bay. yes, we talked about our farmers and we have to do better for our farmers, and we talk about the other problems we have, including the airborne pollutants that go into the bay, but the fastest growing source of the chesapeake bay is storm

run-off, and that is as a result of more people living in the community, that is the result of more concrete and the result of more severe weather events. the bill addresses the need for nervous about onsite wastewater recycling as one alternative for communities who cannot afford the upfront costs or ongoing maintenance costs of tra additional waste -- traditional wastewater infrastructure. this is especially important in rural parts of my state like maryland's eastern shore. fourth, the bill includes s. 451, the resource amendment act which addresses the need for additional research into increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of new and existing water treatment works. funding from this program helps support the maryland water resource research center and the department of civil and environmental engineering at the university of maryland college park. we want to have the latest technology. we want to be the best as far as

technology in the world dealing with our water. this particular provision in this bill will help us achieve those objectives. fifth, the bill reauthorizes wfia, a low-cost financing mechanism for water structure products. we first started it with the environment and public works committee where we found creative ways so we could have larger infrastructure projects for roads, transit, and bridges. now we're doing the same for water infrastructure, and this bill reauthorizes the wipha program -- wifia program. baltimore is on the list to receive one of the first low-interest loans. the loan will complete a set of projects to repair, rehabilitate, replace, and upgrade wastewater collection and treatment, water treatment, and distribution and storm water management systems. these projects will help improve the city's sanitary sewer

collection system and ensure the reliability and performance of the drinking water and wastewater systems, and improve storm water management to meet clean water act permit requirements. this will help the 1.8 million people served by the baltimore department of public works, continue to have some of the cleanest, safest, and most reliable drinking water in the country. there's no more fundamental responsibility of government than to make sure that they provide safe drinking water to its population. and sixth, this bill creates the water infrastructure resiliency and sustainability program. a bill that i have long championed to help drinking water plants combat the effects of climate change. this program will award grants to increase the resilience and adaptability of water systems, increasingly severe storms and droughts, as well as sea level rise all caused by climate change. water utilities can use the grants to assist in the planning, design, construction, implementation, operation, or maintenance of the plant, really

anything they need to increase their climate preparedness. mr. president, i applaud the great work that has been accomplished through this legislation. i look forward to continuing to work to advance water infrastructure investment, including integrated planning and affordability. i said from the beginning that this was a bill that was done in the right process in the united states senate. every member of the united states senate input was solicited. the committee reached out to all of the members, and all the members of our committee have had input into this legislation. it's bipartisan. it's fiscally responsible which was a key requirement that we brought into the bill. it will benefit all of our communities. it will help us meet our fundamental commitment to provide the citizens of this nation clean, safe drinking water. it will deal with the challenges we have in storm runoff as it deals with environmental challenges that we have. it's a well balanced bill.

and once again, i applaud the leadership of senator barrasso and carper and my colleague on the subcommittee senator inhofe for their tremendous work. i look forward to voting for this bill, and i urge my colleagues to do the same. with that, mr. president, i would yield the floor. mr. grassley: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mr. grassley: before i speak, i ask unanimous consent that colleen urnst, special counsel on my judiciary committee staff be granted floor privileges for the duration of today's session. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. grassley: i come to the floor to speak on two different subjects. the most important one is the first one, to thank a lot of people who helped me chair and oversee the confirmation of

judge brett kavanaugh. and i should have given this speech 72 hours ago, but i was in a hurry to get to the airport. so i'm making up for lost time now. as everyone knows on saturday the senate confirmed judge brett kavanaugh as our newest associate justice on the united states supreme court. so i come to the floor to thank the senate staff who helped make that confirmation possible. senators don't always recognize their stuff as much as we probably should, but i'm proud of the work that my staff accomplished over the last three months as we considered the nomination of kavanaugh. they've worked very diligently, and most of it behind the scenes on this confirmation process of our new justice. they put in long, long work hours required, and they did it

seven days a week if needed. the chairman's team tarkled -- tackled the heavy workload before them, and i'm tremendously grateful for all that they did to make this nomination a success. first, on my staff, i'd like to recognize my judiciary counsel staff director colin davis. colin experienced -- colin's experience and sound judgment keeps me out of a lot of trouble. i value his consult today just as i have for the last 33 years that he's been on my staff. by my side right here today is mike davis, the judiciary committee's chief counsel for nominations and also an iowan graduating from the university of iowa and iowa law.

mike brought the tenacity and diligence and everything else that was needed to lead kavanaugh's confirmation. the permanent nomination unit for the senate judiciary committee working with mike davis includes lauren maylor, steve kenny, katherine willy, and jessica voue. each of them worked incredibly hard. they worked hard on all nominations of lifetime appointments to the federal judiciary and over a long period of time not just on judge kavanaugh. and their hard work is shown by the record number of judges the senate has confirmed this congress. i think the number is 67 so far besides two supreme court

justices and i believe 41 that are on the calendar right now. now, in addition to this team, andrew ferguson joined my staff to lead the team of special counsels to assist specifically with the supreme court nomination. andrew led by example with his tireless work ethic and of course his legal talent. i also want to thank special counsel's tyler badgely, lucas lowe, colleen urnst, megan mclean, and colin white. this team read every word of justice kavanaugh's more than 500,000 pages from his time as an executive branch lawyer, the 307 opinions he authored on the d.c. circuit court, and all

other documents relevant to his nomination. rachel mitchell was part of this special counsel team offering her expertise and many years of experience at the time that we needed extra help when we had dr. ford and judge kavanaugh before our committee for a second set of hearings. law clerks tom rodriguez, camille people, abby hollen hollenstein, derry, elizabeth donald, michael talent, bob mitchin, nathan williams, sam atkinson and ashere perez had the opportunity to contribute and learn during this nomination. i thank them for their hard work and service here in the senate on top of their rigorous education.

i thank the intern jacob raymor for his contribution as well. justice kavanaugh's confirmation process resulted in a record number of pages available to senators, including questions for the record. this team handled it all. over the course of my senate service, i've established a reputation from my oversight work and am equipped with a permanent staff of experienced investigators. when allegations of sexual assault were brought to my attention on september 13, i was fortunate to have this experienced and highly regarded division on my staff already on the job to help run down every question and allegation that we received. so i thank lisa laye, patrick davis, josh flynn brown,

katherine nicas, daniel parker, and executive branch detailee andy romiac for their dedication to this investigation, oversight, and accountability. i also want to thank my talented communication team taylor foye, communications director george hartman, judicial -- judiciary committee press secretary, as well as michael zona, nicole tyman, and alex is a -- alexa for their hard work. october 6 will be a memorable date for taylor marking both his wedding anniversary and the day that justice kavanaugh was confirmed. i'm thankful for my personal office staff led by my chief of staff jill cosney who has been

on my staff for 23 years. i've long appreciated jill's advice and all of her hard work on my behalf. i'm also grateful for jennifer hynes who makes a tremendous contribution every day and every staffer who was part of this confirmation process, including penny barton, zak schultz, kaitlin schultz, josie wagler and my state staff who had to answer a lot of telephone calls over a period of three months just dealing with people for and against the nomination of justice kavanaugh. i appreciate very much the rest of my judiciary committee staff, including my deputy staff director rita laher who took care of things while i was on the floor and during the long hours in the hearing. i appreciate the work of leader

mcconnell's staff most importantly john aback. i yield the floor. mr. president, tomorrow, october 10, is the 107th national day of the republic of china on taiwan. i would like to extend my remarks to the people of taiwan on this very important occasion and to express my appreciation for the u.s.-taiwan relationships. we were allies in world war ii and have been close strategic and economic partners for a very long time. however, as the government of the republic of china and taiwan has evolved into a thriving free market democracy that it is today, our relationship has even deepened and strengthened in a

way that can only happen when two countries share core values. there are times when the economic or geo political interests of the united states are aligned with those of another country that does not fully embrace freedom as we do, whether that freedom is in the marketplace of goods and services or the marketplace of ideas in a democratic context. we can and should seek to engage with countries that do not share our values where it is in our national interests, and we do that. still, those relationships remain contingent on weighing economic and security costs and benefits. on the other hand, with free market democracies like taiwan, there is at the heart of our relationship a very high degree

of mutual understanding underpinning all of our interactions. our shared values mean that our long-term economic and strategic interests are likely to remain aligned. for instance, market economies are more likely to seek mutually beneficial free and fair trade. democracies tend not to seek gem any but mutual cooperation. in short, our shared values provide the basis for an enduring and stable bond that can only exist between free peoples. one of those fundamental values that is dear to my heart is religious freedom. i know my colleagues are aware of the disturbing reports out of the peoples republic of china

about the closing and destruction of churches and the burning of bibles. that's something we in the united states just do not understand how anybody, any country could take -- could take this situation and think who's afraid worshiping god? well, it seems they have some problem in china. practitioners have long had their freedoms to practice their beliefs suppressed. this should disturb all free

peoples. of course, the communist leaders of china have excuses for their behavior. one of these is the need for them to -- sinnization of lon native religions. in other words, they think religions like christianity as freely programmed or somehow not compatible with chinese society. and of course from our point of view, that's strictly nuts. just look at taiwan. it has the same chinese language and culture as mainland china. and yet on taiwan, christians and another -- and other religious groups practice their faith freely.

no one gives even a second thought to whether this is compatible with their history and tradition because it's a matter of conscience, not a matter of undercutting the government. that's why i don't understand why it's a problem for beijing. in fact, taiwan has arguably preserved traditional chinese cultures better than on the mainland. jungki she can was able to rescue and bring to taiwan some of the most valuable treasures from chinese history. these items from taiwanese society were spared the horrors of the cultural revolution. and of course the cultural revolution was when the communist party of china destroyed an untold number of historical artifacts as well as

cultural and religious sites. ancient chinese texts were burnt and there were massive human rights abuses. some have suggested that recent developments in china are the beginning of a new sort of cultural revolution. i hope not because we know what the results of that were 50 or 60 years ago. whatever the communist chinese government is thinking, it's actions have -- its actions have shattered many illusions. the hope held by many in the united states was that robust engagement with the people's republic of china on an economic and political level would help it to evolve into a free market democracy. that hope has now dimmed significantly.

things seem to be going quite in the opposite direction. this is a bad sign then for u.s.-china relations. if the chinese leaders would like to correct their current course and improve relations with the united states, just take the example of taiwan. just look across the taiwan straits for that model. chinese people, just like they are in beijing, as the people of taiwan celebrate their national day, i would like to thank them for their friendship with our great country. the republic of china and taiwan continues to be a strong partner in trade, security, and human rights. in fact, i should note that a delegation from taiwan recently visited my home state of iowa to increase their purchases of soybeans, and i greatly appreciate that, along with

88,000 iowa farmers. finally, i would like to thank taiwan for being a model of a free and democratic society. what it can have a mutual beneficial partnership with the united states. i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from montana. mr. tester: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, i rise today on behalf of 152,000 of my constituents in montana with preexisting conditions. these are folks that are struggling with things like diabetes and heart disease and asthma and cancer. many of them are just one medical bill away from bankruptcy. thankfully, their health insurance is there for them when they need it, whether it be a

joint replacement or chemo or having a baby. federal law holds health insurance companies accountable to guarantee that their plans cover us when we need it. unfortunately, those rules are being tossed out so the big insurance can make a quick buck at the expense of working families. just last week health insurance companies started flooding the market with junk plans. these plans are marketed as cheap insurance that will keep you healthy. $50 a month for full coverage, they say. $8.95 a week for top-rated coverage, they claim. now, that's a heck of a deal. well, not so fast. they're total and complete shams. if you read the fine print, you will discover that dial circumstance blood pressure pills, x-rays aren't covered. in fact, most things aren't covered. originally insurance companies

designed these plans to provide stopgap coverage when you change jobs and needed health care for just a few months. they figured you could get buy with a baerbones policy for a month or two. they were never designed to provide coverage for an entire year, let alone three. but now that has all changed. starting last week, health insurance companies now have permission to sell long-term junk plans to montana's families. what was once a short-term solution is now becoming a long-term problem. so let's ask ourselves why we buy insurance in the first place. it's for risk management. why do i buy auto insurance? it's in case you get in an auto wreck. hope you never have to use it, but if you do, you need that insurance to take care of that automobile to get it back on the road again. why do you buy fire insurance? in case you have a fire.

hope it never, ever happens, but every once in a while it does, and if you are unfortunate it happens to you, you have fire insurance to rebuild your home. aim farmer. why do you have -- i am a farmer. why do you have crop insurance? you have crop insurance this in that case where mother nature may not be smiling you on, may not get the rain at the appropriate time or you may get a hailstorm that wipes you out. you hope it never african americans but if it does, you've got that -- you hope it never happens, but if it does, you've got that crop insurance. so why do you buy health insurance? is it because you plan on getting sick? i don't think so. it's because if you get sick, you'll need the coverage. if you end up with high blood pressure, you have the coverage to help offset those costs. unfortunately, with these junk plans, they're called junk for a reason -- because they don't cover anything. they give you a false sense of hope and a false sense of

coverage, and you have no coverage. i want to take you back to 1965. in 1965 my parents bought an accident insurance policy. it was supposed to cover accidents. and guess what happened in 1965 i got in a little accident with a meat grinder. and that insurance policy covered nothing. my folks had to dig deep and pay for the cost. when they thought they had insurance, they had nothing. i was young, but i can still remember how angry my father was that they had been sold a bill of goods. and that's exactly what it is with these junk insurance plans. montanans are getting gristed, they're being sold a bill of goods. they're being lied to, deceived, and i will do whatever i can do to keep the junk out of our

health care. we must hold big insurance companies accountable. we cannot let corporations swindle folks who need health insurance when in the end they have nothing. the bill before us does that. it keeps short-term plans short-term. it stops insurance companies from selling garbage plans that don't cover preexisting conditions. and that's why i'm urging my colleagues to vote for this resolution, to stand up for montanaians across the state and americans across this country. these are folks who work hard to put food on the table and they shouldn't have to choose between a doctor's appointment and a utility bill. today i rise for those folks from mile city to arlington to libby and promise to defend them from these shoddy plans. with that, mr. president, i yield the floor. i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

mr. carper: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from delaware. mr. carper: in a few minutes

shortly -- the presiding officer: the senate is? a quorum call. mr. carper: i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer:, would. carp respect in a few minutes hopefully -- mr. carper: in a few minutes the senate although vote to invoke cloture on the motion to concur in the water resources development act of 2018. i want to remind our colleagues why this bill is important, not for our country's economy but for our environment as well. the senator from wyoming, senator barrasso, will mention shortly that this is a comprehensive bill that is supported by the army corps of engineers is supported e.p.a.'s drinking water and waste water programs' programs. it authorizes the corps to conduct and expedite and study thest more than 100 water sources, resources, development projects. it prepares our country's water infrastructure for extreme weather events, to avoid devastation caused by storms like hurricane florence. by reauthorizing levee and dam

safety programs through 2023 and it establishes programs to make communities more resistant to sea level rise. it reauthorizes for the first time in 23 years the drinking water state revolving fund which provides for needed investments in water and sanitation infrastructure all across our country. this bill would also nearly double the size of this critical loan program for $1 billion to almost $2 billion by 2021. and it expands the existing $60 million annual disability program to allow for the testing of drinking water systems. and it provides schools with resources to test lead water contestimony nation. it is a major win for families across this country. passed the senate environmental and public works committee unanimously. and i urge my colleagues here in the senate today to vote yes on this cloture motion. before i yield, i just want to say to my friend, john barrasso,

how glad i have been to work with i am had. our staff is really a model of how this place should work. working not only with our colleagues on our committee and outside of our committee but also with the folks over in the house of representatives. i'll talk about them later today, but to my chairman, it is a real pleasure to work with you on this. mr. barrasso: mr. president,. the presiding officer: the senator from wyoming. mr. barrasso: i ask unanimous consent to complete my brief remarks before the roll call vote. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. barrasso: thank you. first i want to thank my colleague and friend from delaware, senator carper, for his friendship, leadership and his advocacy on this important piece of legislation. we worked closely together and i rise today in support of cloture on s. 2031 america's water infrastructure act of 2018. every day americans depend on our nation's water infrastructure systems. clean water, flood control structures, working irrigation systems, they're all necessary for health, for safety and for prosperity for our communities. this legislation is going to

authorize important water projects. it will maintain the navigability of inland waterways and coast ports, increase water storage and it will fix aging irrigation systems across the country. it will create jobs. it will spur economic growth and give local leaders an increased say in which projects and the way that projects are prioritized. it's going to rebuild flood control, systems. this is the most significant drinking water legislation in decades. america's water infrastructure act will cut washington red tape, help grow the economy, it will keep communities safe. the legislation is good for all 50 states. it's bipartisan, bicameral. the legislation passed the environment and public works committee by a vote of 21-0. it passed the house by unanimous consent on a voice vote. it was the support -- has the support of a broad array of stakeholders from the american farm bureau to the u.s. chamber of commerce to the national association of manufacturers to the family farm alliance.

as a testament to just how broad the support is for this bill, both the american petroleum institute and the sierra club have endorsed its is passage. you don't see that every day, mr. president. it's time to pass this important water infrastructure legislation and send it to president trump for his signature. i encourage all supporters, all senators to support cloture on this bill. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the motion to go invoke cloture. the clerk: cloture motion, we, the undersigned senators in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the motion to concur in the house amendments to s. 3021, an act to designate the united states courthouse located at 300 south fourth street in minneapolis, minnesota, and so forth, signed by 17 senators. the presiding officer: by unanimous consent, the

mandatory quorum call has been waived. the question is, is it the sense of the senate that debate on the motion to concur in the house amendments to s. 3021, an act to designate the united states courthouse located at 300 south fourth street as the diane e. murphy united states courthouse shall be brought to a close. the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. the clerk will call the roll. vote: vote:

vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: are there any senators wishing to vote or change their vote? if not, on this vote the yeas are 96, the nays are three, three fifths of the senators have voted, the motion is agreed to and the pendings thereto fall -- amendments pending thereto fall. the senator from wyoming. mr. barrasso: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, water infrastructure, a move we have just moved positive cloture vote 96-3, water infrastructure is important to every state, as we see about this vote, every

territory, and community, and every tribe in this country. it supports our economic growth and competitiveness, they deliver drinking water and provide water for crops, cattle, and small businesses, ships american-made goods from the heartland to the coast and around the world. they keep homes safe from dangerous floodwaters and store water for times of drowvment these systems are vital to our country. we must maintain, upgrade, and where necessary, build them. during the state of the union address this year, president trump called on congress to act on infrastructure. he said, we will build america's infrastructure, he said, with american heart, american hands, and american grit. water infrastructure is a major part of the president's call. that's why i introduced america's infrastructure act, along with my fellow leaders of

the environment and public works, senators carper, inhofe, and cardin, cosponsors were senators cap tow, wicker, van hollen, boozman, and sullivan. "politico" america's the infrastructure act to be the most important act to be taken up so far. it passed the environment and public works unanimously 21-0. last year the leadership of the committees in the house of representatives reached a deal of historic -- on historic comprehensive water infrastructure legislation. america's water infrastructure act now has broad, bicameral, and bipartisan support. our bill will help grow the economy. it will cut washington red tape, and it will keep communities safe.

authorizing important water projects will create jobs, it will spur economic growth. the legislation will help deepen nationally significant ports and maintain the ability to get around the water waste, it will build new flood management infrastructure. this bill will fix aging dams and irrigation systems across the country. upgrading these systems will ensure that ranchers and farmers will get the water that they rely on. it will also help communities recover from devastating storms like hurricane florence and the damage it left along the east coast, especially in north and south carolina. america's water infrastructure act also cuts washington red tape. as chairman of the senate environment and public works, i heard time and again how state and local leaders know better than washington which projects would have the most positive impact on their community. our bill will give local experts

an increased role in prioritizing which army corps projects get built. when a local partner takes over an army corps of engineering flood control project they will no loren need to -- no longer need to get new permits, they will transfer it to the new partner. the government will provide technical assistance to smaller communities to make it simpler for them to comply with environmental laws. leveraging federal dollars is an important element of president trump's infrastructure plan. we include language to help smaller rural communities leverage their resources so they can build water infrastructure projects. federal leveraging programs, particularly the water infrastructure flexibility act allowed taxpayers to get the most banking for their buck. -- bang for their buck. in the past, mr. president,

smaller rural communities have had access accessing these dollars. the language in our bill will give these rural communities the chance to compete for these funds and the ability to participate in these successful programs. cutting red tape and increasing access to the leveraging programs will help us get projects done faster, better, cheaper, and smarter. that's just common sense. america's water infrastructure act is also about safety. in recent years we have seen the damage that floods and droughts can cause. we must maintain and improve our dams, our beachfronts, our levees, and our reservoirs. our bill takes steps to address the backlog of maintenance needs of these infrastructure systems. it also creates a permanent program to find solutions for flood caused by ice jams. in the spring, and certainly in wyoming, thawing ice and snow

create jams in rivers an can cause them to -- and can cause them to overfloa r- flow their -- overflow their banks. it has been devastating for the towns in my state. america's infrastructure act authorizing important programs to find permanent ways to prevent these types of floods. this bill is about more than just flood prevention. it is the most significant drinking water legislation in decades. the bill authorizes funds to repair aging drinking water systems. for the first time since 1996, that's 22 years ago, congress will be authorizing the drinking water state revolving funds. these funds give states certainty -- certainty that they can meet their drinking water needs. now, that is a big deal, mr. president. there's a line of people -- there's a line of people in wyoming, whiskey is for drinking, water is fighting dr

for fighting over. that's not the case with america's water infrastructure act. democrats and republicans are working together in a bipartisan way. the house of representatives in the senate are working together in a bicameral way. the house of repr the house of representatives passed this consensus bill unanimously by voice vote. now it's the senate's turn. we all know how important this legislation is for our country, for our states, and for our constituents. the bill is bipartisan and it is fiscally responsible. america's water infrastructure act actually reduces the deficit. so i want to thank ranking member carper and subcommittee chairman inhofe and subcommittee ranking member cardin and their staffs for their leadership in working through this process. they have been wonderful partners in writing legislation that will have a real impact all across america. this bill is for all of america. it will have a real impact in our rural areas and in our big

cities. it will help communities in the heartland and communities on the coasts. it's time now to pass this legislation. let's pass the america water infrastructure act and send it to president trump for his signature. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from delaware. mr. carper: mr. president, i rise today to follow senator barrasso to further discuss a very important peetion of legislation -- piece of legislation that he's outlined that will positively affect the states of every member of this body, every member of this body. i want to encourage each of our colleagues to support it. over the course of august and early september, the senate environmental and public works committee reached an agreement with our counterparts in the house to advance america's water

infrastructure act of 2018. our chairman john barrasso and i coauthored this bill and did so with the invaluable help of both the majority and minority staffs of the environmental public works committee over the better part of this year. i want to take a moment again to thank our chairman as i have earlier, thank our chairman for his leadership. i want to thank the chair and ranking members of the infrastructure subcommittee of e.p.w., senator inhofe and senator cardin for their leadership for producing this critical bipartisan legislation. i want to thank the members of their staffs and especially the majority and minority, member of the e.p.w. staffs without whom this bipartisan bill would not be before us today. collectively you've all done a terrific job. i'm proud of you. as we say in the navy, bravo zulu. blesh -- bless you. bravo zulu which means well

done. the senate version of the bill was reported out of the environmental public works committee unanimously a few months back. on september 13, the bill passed the house of representatives unanimously on a voice vote. people say to me back home, why can't you just work together. well, in this case we have. and i think the results speak for themselves. i'm hopeful and encouraged that this bill will receive the same strong support in the senate this week. in a congress and a country that are all too often divided, just refreshing to me and probably is to others that we've been able to come together to authorize water infrastructure and drinking water programs that are both vital and critical to the american people's way of life. america's water infrastructure act of 2018 is a win-win, a win-win both for our nation's economy and for our environment. this bill should serve as a model for how we can get that meaningful legislation done in congress and i hope that it will serve as a model.

this legislation supports the ongoing work of the u.s. army corps of engineers. it does so by reauthorizing the corps' programs for flood control, for beach and shoreline maintenance, and for the maintenance of inland and coastal waterways through which the goods that enter and depart from american ports travel. the civil works program is our nation's largest and i believe the world's biggest water resources undertaking. this program addresses a wide variety of priorities, including ship navigatability, flood risk management, beach and shoreline protection, renewable energy like hydropower, water supply, and environmental restoration and stewardship. in fact, over 99% of u.s. overseas trade moves through the waterways of the u.s. -- and the u.s. army corps of engineers is responsible for maintaining. think about that. 99%. in fact, this bill supports the

corps' operation and maintenance of 13,000 miles of commercial deep draft ship channels and 12,000 miles of commercial inland waterways. these ports and waterways serve a combined 40 states and they transport much of our country's water-borne cargo. the new authorizations that this bill provides are critically needed. much of the tbrawrkt that the -- infrastructure that the corps is responsible for across our country now exceeds its usual lifetime. as a result we have an enormous construction backlog of needed infrastructure investments. the latest estimates from the army corps indicate the overall construction backlog is in the neighborhood of $96 billion. while the annual budget of the army corps hovers around $4.6 billion. think of that. $96 billion on the one hand.

$4.6 billion on the other hand. those two numbers reflect the extraordinary change that the army corps faces, a challenge that we began to address with this legislation. this bill starts to address that backlog by providing new tools that will allow government to partner with the corps and leverage existing resources to make sure that we get the most bang for our bucks. this legislation also increases local participation, transparency and accountability in developing the army corps' annual budget. it's my hope that enhanced local participation will allow for a more transparent and a long-term look at the corps' activities and help build a greater groundswell of support for increased appropriations to fund the agency's initiatives. the measure before us also authorizes critical corps of engineers disaster programs. when disaster strikes the federal government often steps in and helps as it did last year

in puerto rico, in florida, louisiana, in texas, and this year in the carolinas. a large part of that help is provided by the army corps of engineers. something that may come as a surprise to a lot of americans who don't realize the critical role that the corps plays in responding to all sorts of emergencies. in addition, this bill includes authorities to help bolster communities and ecosystems in coastal states like delaware, maryland, and states across our country. from some of the worst impacts of extreme weather events. this measure includes provisions that allow communities to recover more quickly, too, when disaster does strikes and facilities rebuilding in ways that are more resilient to future storms. this legislation also makes key changes in emergency response, in port disas -- in post disaster recovery and resiliency efforts so the army corps thinks

long term instead of short term when is selects the disliewtions it implements -- solutions it implements. the bill goes further. it enables the corps to have the best possible solutions to make communities more resistant to storm damage. whether a constructed leverage or natural alternative like the reconstructed dunes along the delaware coast and other places, too. earlier this year, the national oceanic and atmospheric administration estimates the total cost of extreme weather and climate change in 2017 exceeded $300 billion. that's a new u.s. annual record. $300 billion, one year, last year. it's not a matter of if the next extreme weather event is coming. it is a matter of when. storm events such as hurricane florence grow more powerful, more prevalent, threatening

american lives and infrastructure. this the passage of this bill, a bill that will help protect coastal communities from the risks of flooding has never been more important. in addition to strengthening key programs, this bill also addresses programs at e.p.a. for drinking water and wastewater needs across our country. for the first time in over 20 years, this bill reauthorizes the drinking water state revolving loan fund, too. that program provides federal assistance to help communities with clean drinking water. it does so through no interest or low interest and forgivable loans that help communities in a variety of ways gain access to capital that it would otherwise be unavailable. it's my hope that one day we could eventually add grants back into this program for communities that need the help the most but that's probably a longer conversation for somewhere down the line.

the ongoing crisis in flint that we are seeing play out in far too many communities in our country is tragic but it's avoidable if we invest in water infrastructure more wisely. this bill makes it clear we've learned our lesson, we're beginning to take some steps to address this enormous challenge. some of my colleagues may recall earlier this year senator duckworth and i hosted a drinking water roundtable here on capitol hill. the image of her holding up a baby bottle with formula made from contaminated drinking water is an image that's hard for me to forget. this bill authorizes more resources for e.p.a. to make sure every parent, every parent no matter what the zip code is, where they live, can be confident that the water coming out of their tap at home or at their children's school is safe for their kids to drink. toward that end this legislation not only reauthorizes safe

drinking water revolving loan program, it nearly doubles its funding. by fiscal year 2021 the program will grow from $1 billion to almost $2 billion perhaps most notably, especially in light of the voidable guess nation and -- devastation and tragedy we saw in the wakes of hurricane maria, this authorizes $100 million to repair drinking water systems damaged by storms and creates a new program that helps protect drinking water systems from extreme weather events. this legislation also allows states to protect contaminants in drinking water, to provide assistance to residents who depend on private water wells. this provision should matter to every member of congress whose residence -- residents rely specifically on wells for water consumption needs and we have them in every single state across america.

i don't know about other states, but one in six delawareans depends on private wells for their drinking water. one in six. it's just not fair that if contaminants end up in their water through no fault of the resident, the resident has to find a way to rectify that situation on their own. on their own. without this bill these taxpayers get no support. that's just not right. this bill goes well beyond just addressing emergency situations. it provides a framework, a framework for updating and expanding water infrastructure systems throughout our country at both the e.p.a. and the army corps of engineers. as i mentioned earlier, the bill authorizes $50 million for technical assistance to help schools and day care centers deal with led contamination in -- lead contamination in their drinking water and another for remodeling and replacing the lab components that are causing water contamination. this provision is going to be

particularly helpful in places like chicago, like baltimore where there are schools operating. get this. no usable drinking water found. oftentimes our water infrastructure is the forgotten leg of the infrastructure school. we worry about the infrastructure we can see like bridges, like highways and airports, like railroads, but our water infrastructure, our pipes, our shipping channels, our flood control structures, the infrastructure we don't see but we rely on every day is also in desperate need of investments in many parts of america. before i yield the floor today, i want to again thank our chairman senator barrasso and again our senators from maryland and oklahoma who are the cochairs of the infrastructure subcommittee of environment and public works and other members of our committee and frankly those who aren't fortunate enough to serve on our committee. i want to thank them for their

hard work through this process. i want to thank our colleagues over in the house, congressman schuster, defazio, walden and pallone who are great partners of ours. when we work together as democrats and republicans in both chambers, we're stronger and when we're stronger here, we're stronger across our country. finally, i want to thank the assistant secretary of the u.s. army, r.d. james who's made this legislation a real priority for the army corps, for the administration. he and his teamworked with us to craft a -- team worked with us to craft a bill i think we all can be proud of and i am. i want to make sure again as smart as john barrasso and i are and the other senators who serve on our committee and here in the senate, this bill wouldn't be before us if we didn't have some really smart people on our staffs. one of them suggest right here next to me today and some behind me and i see over on the republican side, the majority

side, some terrific members of the staff who work under the leadership of our chairman. but i want to take a moment, take my hat off. i wish i were wearing my hat but if i were i would take it off to all of you as well. i w why don't we end today with an african proverb that i think is particularly relevant here. it goes shrike this. if you want to go fast, travel alone. if you want to go far, travel together. by working together, we crafted legislation that's both substantive and needed. this proposal stands as a timely example of how we can set aside our differences, get meaningful work done for the people that sent us here, and expect us to accomplish really important things like this on their behalf. so, mr. president, the underlying bill before success one that delivers a lot of good to the american people. and at the same time it represents good public policy that is fiscally responsible. it is deserving of the support of our colleagues here in the

senate, and i hope they will join us in supporting its passage. with that, i yield the floor. mr. barrasso: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from wyoming. mr. barrasso: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, i would really like to sincerely thank my rank member and partner in this bipartisan bill, senator carper. you could not have asked for a better colead in moving this legislation forward. i agree exactly with the sentiments of this just been -- that have just been expressed by the senior senator from delaware, that america's water infrastructure act could not have happened without a lot of hard work from a number of dedicated legislators as well as dedicated staff. i also want to thank the chairman and ranking member of our transportation and infrastructure subcommittees, chairman inhofe, ranking member cardin, their staffs for their important contributions and their strong support. and as senator carper mentioned, the house, our colleagues there, partners in this effort, chairman shuster and ranking member deas ifio, the ranking member and infrastructure

committee, along with a their staff. they did a significant amount of heavy lifting to get this important water infrastructure bill to the finish line. finally, i want to thank the staff of the environment and public works committee for their tireless work on the legislation. senator carper just mentioned them from both sides of the aisle. on my staff, richard russ el, brian clifford, lizzie olson, craig thomas and my chief of staff dan coonsman. on the minority staff, marie frances repco, andrew rogers, christine into basinger, ashley morgan and avery mullly began. it would not have happened without all of their hard work, dedication and commitment to this piece of legislation. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

mr. wyden: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. wyden: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent to vacate the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. wyden: and while it is perhaps not in line with the official and genuine senate protocol, i also want foe use this opportunity -- want to use this opportunity to congratulate

my good friend from the chair of the wonderful events of last weekend. mr. president, i have come to the floor today to discuss my colleague, senator baldwin's resolution that would protect the millions of americans in wisconsin, oregon, and all across the land who are faced with preexisting health conditions. and this has been an area that i have focused on since my days as codirector of the oregon gray panthers, because preexisting conditions is kind of fancy lingo that people talk about as it relates to health care policy but really what it's all about is if you have cancer or diabetes or heart disease or

asthma or any one of a score of health care conditions, before the affordable care act, you were just in a world of hurt, literally and figuratively. in effect, the health being system then was for the healthy and the wealthy. if you were healthy, nothing to worry about it. no preexisting conditions. if you were wealthy, you just paid the bill. but if you had preexisting conditions, as millions and millions of americans have, then you were really out of luck. so then along came the affordable care act, and i have written a piece of legislation, the healthy americans act. seven democrats and seven republicans as cosponsors with air-tight loophole-free protection for americans against discrimination if they had a

preexisting condition, and that provision from the healthy americans act to a very great extent made its way into the affordable care act, and that's why millions of americans were able to go to bed at night with a sense of comfort and a sense that if they did have health care conditions, the insurance companies wouldn't be able to just clobber them with higher costs. and unfortunately, we had the trump administration wanting to bring back the days when health care was for the healthy and wealthy and allowed discrimination against people with preexisting conditions, and the flip side of the preexisting condition coin is junk insurance, selling junk insurance that really isn't worth a whole lot more than the

paper it's written on. and boy do i know something about junk insurance because that's how i started my time in public service, when senior citizens were sold 15, 20 policies. again, the rip-offs were built in. back then, if you had one policy and you had another policy that offered similar coverage, they canceled each other out and the senior got nothing. it was junk insurance. and if you go back to the days when you can discriminate against people with preexisting conditions, we're going to have junk insurance all over again. so i'm going to start my remarks now beginning with the trump administration's record on this. first of all, if you're a scam artist who is peddling junk plans, the trump administration has your back. if you're a person with preexisting conditions, the trump administration is

advancing policies that will make both your health and your wallet in far worse shape. now, the trump officials get up and talk about the benefits of short-term plans. they will use bug words like flexibility and patient-centered care, but i want everybody to be clear it's junk insurance, plain and simple, and it's putting a whole lot of lipstick on a frog. these junk insurance plans the trump administration has revived represent the very worst of industry tricks and abuses. they punish americans who really need health care. if you're young, if you're healthy and you're wealthy, as i have said, nothing to worry about, but with junk plans, you have got a glide path to put a scam on those with preexisting

conditions like heart disease, cancer, mental illness, and they exist to prey on older americans, on women, on the less fortunate, particularly a group that i have thought was the heart of where health care reform ought to go, and that's folks between 55 and 65. now, as i have indicated, junk plans are not new. the congress and the american people have rejected them before. i mentioned my history with the oregon gray panthers. big thick stacks of legalese that nobody could understand. always hyped, always hyped to the seniors they were going to fill the gaps in in medicare. it was called medigap. and back then it was really just a and b. you didn't have d and medicare advantage and all kinds of other things. it was just a and b, and you had

seniors frightened that the gap in medicare were going to consume any savings they might have, and so every time a fast-talking salesperson came through, a senior would buy a policy. and when i was director of the gray panthers, mr. president, it was common to go to a senior's home, and they would actually go to a closet and pull out a shoe box full of these worthless policies. and i really fear we're looking at going back to those days, and, you know, the fact is the congress finally cracked down on those medigap rip-offs, and i had an opportunity to be part of that effort as a member of the other body in the house, but a lot of people got hurt in the

process. and junk insurance wasn't just a problem for seniors. a few years ago, the affordable care act was designed, as i mentioned, in terms of the healthy americans act to make sure that junk insurance would be eliminated across the board. across the board we would say if our country we are going to have iron-clad, loophole-free guarantees that no american would ever face discrimination over a preexisting condition. and by the way, that used to be a bipartisan proposition, and the fact is, mr. president, still serving in this body are a number of my colleagues on the republican side who are cosponsors of the healthy americans act with that iron-clad, loophole-free protection for those with preexisting conditions. so it's not as if somebody just kind of brought this up as a partisan issue.

it was bipartisan then. republican members of this body, distinguished colleagues, were cosponsors of that healthy americans act proposition. but now the trump administration's trying to turn back the clock. they want to make junk plans great again, a forced march back to the days of days that i describe as being only for the healthy and the wealthy. now, the open enrollment period for health insurance is coming up very quickly. the trump administration has cut it in half so it's going to only last a few weeks this year. that means during the holidays when americans are traveling, shopping, and spending time with family, they are also going to have to make some judgments about health insurance. because of the trump administration's actions, these junk insurance policies are going to be peddled at the same time as insurance that would

actually cover meaningfully the health care that our people need. what they are going to be doing with these trump changes is making life easy for the scam artists, but a nightmare for so many americans who day in and day out walk an economic tightrope just trying to pay for essentials. these rip-off artists under the trump plan are going to have a green light to steal the money americans pay in premiums and other expenses. according to a recent study, sometimes as much as two out of every three dollars is wasted on overhead with these administrative costs and junk insurance profits in these flawed policies that the trump administration wants to foist off on americans, and the disastrous effects of junk insurance aren't limited to those who get conned into buying

it. by bringing junk plans back, the trump administration in effect goes out and swings a wrecking ball into the private health insurance markets in our country. it raises costs across the board, and americans waste their hard-earned dollars. senator baldwin's resolution -- and i want to commend my colleague from wisconsin on her effort on this. she came and talked with me about this early on as the ranking member on the senate finance committee. we have jurisdiction over something like a trillion dollars worth of health spending, and i really appreciated the expertise and the passion that senator baldwin has brought to this issue, and we saw it in her very first presentation on what she wanted to do. her resolution is the senate's best opportunity to put a stop

to the scams that i have described. it would throw the trump administration's junk insurance rules out and with senator baldwin's proposal, it would restore the protections that millions of americans count on each day. democrats in the senate are going to stand up for americans with preexisting conditions, and i hope that colleagues on the other side will join us. i recognize that the trump administration is not, but my hope is that we will have colleagues on the other side supporting us for senator baldwin's resolution. in addition, as if this wasn't enough of an injury foisted on vulnerable americans, the trump administration has put forward a nominee for a seat on the sixth circuit court of appeals who made health care sabotage one of

his top priorities at the trump justice department. chad reidler, currently the deputy assistant attorney general, in my view is the wrong choice to be a federal judge. earlier this year, the trump administration decided it just wanted to get out of the business of enforcing the rules that protect americans with preexisting conditions. in fact, it had to argue in court that it could abandon that essential part of the affordable care act which was still the law of the land the last time i looked. who did the administration turn to when it needed to cook up a dubious legal argument that it had no obligation to enforce the law of the land? chad reidler. and in fact, three career attorneys from the department of justice looked at his argument and they actually withdrew from the case. three career lawyers from the department of justice refused to

participate. the judiciary held a hearing on mr. reidler's nomination earlier this month. his nomination could be sent to the floor of the senate in the coming weeks, but it ought to be clear that this is a nominee who is not an impartial individual with a judicial temperament americans expect. that's not somebody who ought to be handed a seat on the federal bench with the power, with the power to sign off on the trump administration's agenda of health care sabotage. i'm going to close with this -- the senate has an opportunity to stand up this week for the millions of vulnerable americans who have these preexisting conditions. the millions of americans who under the affordable care act can go to bed at night knowing

that if they have a preexisting condition, they're not going to lose everything. and i'm serious when i talk about losing everything. once you go back to discriminating against people with preexisting conditions, you're going to go back to job lock and all the problems we saw associated with discrimination. if you were in montana, if you were in oregon, you had a preexisting condition and you got offered a better job on the other side of town, you couldn't go get it because you wouldn't be able to get coverage because there was discrimination against people with preexisting conditions so this week, the senate is going to have an opportunity to stand up to the trump administration and go to bat for the millions and millions of americans who are watching this debate, who have preexisting conditions and are just counting on this body to not turn back the clock and

leave them vulnerable again. senator baldwin's resolution would prevent the trump administration from bringing back the worst abuses of junk insurance. if it doesn't pass this week, this is an issue that in my view is going to come up again and again and again until it's fixed. and finally, the readler nomination, in my view, ought to be stopped in its tracks. the senate ought to tell the administration it is not going to rubber stamp judicial nominees with a proven demonstrable track record of twisting the law in a way that harms the most vulnerable of our citizens. with that, mr. president, i note that the majority leader is here. i yield the floor. mr. mcconnell: mr. president. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection.

mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the appointments at the desk appear separately in the record as if made by the chair. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent that notwithstanding rule 22, following leader remarks on wednesday, october 10, senator schumer or his designee be recognized to make a motion to proceed to s.j. res. 63. further, that the time until 11:30 a.m. be equally divided between the leaders or their designees for use on the joint resolution and message concurrently. further, that at 11:30, all postcloture time on the motion to concur in the house amendments be considered expired and the motion to concur with further amendment be withdrawn. finally, that following the disposition of the motion to concur, all time on s.j. res. 63 be considered expired and the senate vote on the joint resolution. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 10:00 a.m.,

wednesday, october 10, following, the prayer, the journal of proceedings be approved to date, and the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and morning business be closed. further, that the senate recess from 12:30 p.m. until 2:15 p.m. to allow for the weekly caucus. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: if there's no further business to come before the senate. i ask that it stands adjourned