[inaudible conversations] >> c-span where history unfolds daily. in 1979 c-span was created as a public service by america's cable television companies. and today, we continue to bring you unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the supreme court and public policy events in washington d.c. and around the country. c-span is brought to you by your cable or satellite provider. provider. >> the u.s. senate is about to gavel in on this thursday and lawmakers will take up a number of white house nominations today. they'll also take a final vote on can jeffrey clark assistant attorney for the environmental and natural resources division at the justice department.

that's scheduled for 12:10 eastern. and lawmakers take a procedural vote on eric dryban on assistant attorney general for civil rights. this is live coverage 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. eternal god, who has given us life, we praise you that

your tender mercies are over all your work. today, may we represent the glory of your kingdom on capitol hill, living in a way that will glorify your name. thank you that the work you have given our lawmakers and those who labor with them is crucial for our nation's future. lord, uphold our senators with your might, surrounding them with the shield of your grace, as you provide for their needs. deliver them from impatience, irritability, and anger as you keep them from the selfishness

that can see only its point of view. help them to reflect your grace, purity and love. we pray in your great 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.

mr. mcconnell: hurricane michael made landfall along the florida panhandle. the storm has already claimed multiple lives and left gulf coast communities wounded by surging waters and high winds. as michael continues inland, those left in its wake can count on the senate support for response and recovery efforts and trust in our continued prayers. we remain grateful for vigilence of first responders and emergency preparedness organizations as they work to keep residents of affected communities safe. and for all those who will help them rebuild after the storm has passed. now, madam president, on an entirely different matter, with the bipartisan progress the senate has made this week, it's

hard to believe what was happening just a few days ago right inside this capitol and right outside the building. it's hard to believe it was less than a week ago that far-left protesters were literally storming the steps of the capitol and the supreme court, running my colleagues out of public places and attempting to shout over their voices right here in the senate chamber. of course it didn't work. the senate stood tall and did the right thing. but the far left isn't done yet. if we take them at their word, this may have only been the warmup act. here's the advice former secretary of secretary of state hillary clinton gave to her fellow democrats just a few days ago. this is what she said.

if we're fortunate enough to win back the house and/or the senate, that's when civility can start again. that's when civility can start again, she said, when they win back the house and and/or the senate. just yesterday we saw president obama's attorney general eric holder offer his own version of a slogan made famous by our former first lady, michelle obama. here's mr. holder's new vision for civil discourse. this is the former attorney general of the united states. here's he urged democrats to treat the other side. he said, michelle always says when they go low, we go high. no, no. when they go low, we kick ' em.

when they go low, we kick 'em. former attorney general eric holder. that's what this new democratic p party is all about, he said. the new democratic party, madam president. remember these comments come less than a year and a half -- less than a year and a half after republican members of the house and senate were literally shot at by a politically crazed gunman. our colleagues were nearly killed just a few minutes from the capitol. just these past days there have been graphic death threats, senators and staff have needed extraordinary police protection protection, and the democrats calling for more incivility and more rage. calling for more incivility and

more rage? look, there isn't a former defender of the first amendment than me. it is vital than citizens be heard. americans with strong opinions on both sides of last week's debate spoke up in a civil, respectful way, and our nation was better for it. but look, only one side -- only one side was happy to play host to this toxic fringe behavior. only one side's leaders are now openly calling for more of it. they haven't seen enough. they want more. and i'm afraid this is only phase one of the meltdown. we're already seeing desperate voices on the far left explain that because they lost this fight, even more drastic steps

are in order. this is crazy talk, crazy talk about impeaching justice kavanaugh. there are left-wing writers demanding that democrats pack the court, a zombie idea from the 1930's they've dug up just in time for halloween. and how about this? one columnist for a national newspaper called the result a coup. a coup, and implied that the founders got it wrong and designed the senate incorrectly. want to rewrite the constitution the founding fathers got it wrong? handling defeat badly is one thing, madam president, but regretting the constitution

itself because you don't like how a vote turned out, really? this is something else. but i guess it's not entirely surprising given the outright embrace by many on the left, including elected officials, of radical concepts like open borders and socialism. anyone who thinks that intimidation and scare tactics might rule the day must have missed the senate's vote last saturday. maybe they weren't tuned in. this body, madam president, will not let unhinged tactics replace reasoned judgment. we will not let mob behavior drown out all the americans who want to legitimately participate in the policy making process,

on all sides. and the senate, i assure you, will not be intimidated. now on an entirely different matter, yesterday the senate passed broad bipartisan legislation to maintain our nation's waterways and drinking water systems. now we're turning back to the personnel business and confirming more of the president's qualified nominees to important executive branch positions. we voted yesterday to advance the nomination of jeffrey clark to serve as assistant attorney general for the environment and natural resources division. mr. clark's qualifications include several years of prior service as deputy assistant attorney general in that same division. he's also built a strong reputation in the private sector as the leading litigator with subject matter expertise in administrative law. mr. clark's legal colleagues describe him as one of the most capable lawyers with whom they've ever worked, and no

fewer than seven former assistant attorneys general for the environment and natural resources division tell the senate that his well-rounded background and prior experience in the division make him an excellent choice for this position. after we confirm mr. clark, we'll consider another assistant attorney general nominee, eric dreiband for the civil rights division. mr. dreiband is also well prepared to serve. his resume includes several stints of public service, including as general counsel of the eeoc in addition to private-sector experience. others have praised his service at the eeoc as, quote, widely respected in the highest rung of the agency's general counsels and a record of superlative performance.

those that worked with mr. dreiband emphasized his strong commitment to protecting all americans' civil rights. in the words of one leader who has known and worked with the nominee for 15 years, his commitment to fairly enforcing the law is without question. mr. dreiband will -- after mr. dreiband will comes james stewart, the president's choice to serve as assistant secretary of defense for manpower. mr. stewart's experience managing military manpower runs deep through his distinguished career in the u.s. air force from which he retired as a major general. he has most recently served on the north carolina military affairs commission and on the secretary of defense's reserve forces policy board. each of these nominees deserve confirmation, and i would urge our colleagues to prove all of them. it has been more than nine months since republicans passed the most sweeping tax reform in a generation.

here are just a few of the economic headlines we have seen minutes it took effect. consumer confidence at an 18-year high. faster year-on-year wage growth than at any point since 2009. the lowest national unemployment since 1969, almost 50 years ago. behind all these numbers are middle-class families whose lives are changing for the better, and the effects are reaching all kinds of communities, even the places most neglected for nearly a decade by the obama administration's so-called recovery. after years of investment and job creation being disproportionately concentrated in the biggest metropolitan areas, 2018 has been a different story. so far this year, it's been smaller and rural communities, smaller and rural communities that have led the nation in relative job growth.

out across the heartland, empty storefronts and stagnant local economies are giving way to vibrant transformation and new opportunities. so when we hear that states like missouri are thriving again over republicans' pro-growth, pro-opportunity agenda, it really shouldn't come as a surprise. it shouldn't surprise us that missouri's statewide unemployment rate has reached its lowest level since 2000, the lowest unemployment in 18 years. and news like this won't surprise anyone who has been listening to the accounts of missourians. like mary beth hartman who runs a small construction company in springfield, she says the new tax law has given her the flexibility to expand vacancies and bonuses for her employees and invest half a million dollars in new equipment. or brandon fister. he used his tax reform bono

to -- bonus to help his family cover medical expenses and put money into savings. the junior senator from missouri can be proud he voted for the historic policies that helped unleash all this good news. it's a shame that his colleague, the senior senator from missouri, chose to vote in lockstep with senate democrats and tried to block tax reform from taking effect. republicans will keep sharing success stories like these from missouri and keep helping the american people write more. the presiding officer: the detector -- the clerk will call the roll.

quorum call:

the presiding officer: the democratic leader. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: first, let me say to the people of florida, georgia, and everyone else affected by hurricane michael that our thoughts and hearts are with you. having lived and worked through the recovery from hurricane sandy in my home state of new york, remembering vividly the anguish of families who lost their homes and businesses the day or two after, and then realizing it took years for areas of new york and long island to recover, we're still in the process of recovering, i know, a, your pain and suffering, and b, the challenges that await you.

so we hope everyone stays safe as the storm passes through the country. we know that americans and the senate will pull together as they always do to help one another build and recover. this year has seen a huge number of powerful storms and hurricanes buffett the atlantic seaboard and the gulf. maria, harvey, florence, and now michael have all wrought severe damages. according to noaa, 2017 was the most expensive year on record for disasters in the u.s. at some point, we have to acknowledge the intensity of these storms that is much greater than in past years and is a symptom of changing climate. climate change is real. it's being driven by human activity. it's happening right now. these are facts. they are not in dispute. our scientists know it, our businesses know it, the world knows it, and the american people know it. but too many senators on the other side of the aisle just put

their head in the sand. it costs us more and more and more. we're not going to leave these people high and dry. but if we would do more on climate change, we would have fewer of these hurricanes and other types of storms. everyone knows that except a few. why? why don't they admit the truth? maybe there are two words that explain it -- oil industry. just this week, the u.n. released a report on climate change saying the world has only a short time, maybe a little more than a decade, to get a handle on carbon emissions. so far, the current administration has done nothing but move the issue backward. amazing that we, the leading country who is supposed to be the moral force, the economic, political military leader, we are the ones who pull out of the paris climate accords. and then the administration has

been repealing environmental protection after protection. so while we're thinking about the people of florida and georgia and south carolina and north carolina, and everyone in hurricane michael's path, let's remember we are running out of time to do something about climate change, and the kinds of storms we are seeing now will only increase if this body continues to keep its head in the sand ostrich like and ignore the scientific realities. now, on another matter, health care. yesterday, 50 of my republican colleagues voted against insuring -- ensuring protections for people with preexisting conditions. people with asthma and cancer. people with diabetes and all kinds of gynecological problems. republican senators sided with the trump administration to expand the ability of insurance companies to sell cut-rate junk insurance to americans, to dupe

americans. these plans will destabilize the health care market and raise the cost of insurance for people with preexisting conditions who may end up priced out of insurance altogether. let me say that again. republicans yesterday voted to let insurance companies offer junk insurance plans that don't cover essential health benefits, allowing them to nickel and dime patients out of the medical care they deserve. our constituents, democrat, republican, north, west, east, south, say i want better health care at a lower cost, and what do republicans do? they offer worse health care at a higher cost ultimately to people because the plans don't cover anything and they need you to pay out of your pocket. and what do they do in the name of freedom? freedom? this is like the 1890's. who is going to have freedom? the insurance companies. the big shots. who is going to have no freedom

from illness and disease? average folks. it's terrible, terrible thinking, once again siding with big, powerful special interests, not the average person. the only people who want these junk insurance plans are two groups -- the insurance companies and the right-wing ideologues who believe that the government shouldn't be in health care at all. they want to cut medicare, they want to cut medicaid. they want to cut social security. that's who it is. so let us remember the junk insurance plans are hardly worth the paper they are printed on. they lower consumers in with low premiums, but the deductibles are so high, the co-pays are so high, the coverage so skimpy that the plans hardly offer any benefit to the consumer at all. while every republican save one voted to hand the keys to the insurance companies, every single democrat, every single democrat stood up to the sabotage from the trump

administration and voted to not allow the expansion of junk insurance across america. i warn my colleagues these are the kinds of issues that voters remember come election. health care is the number one issue in america to the broad majority of voters. the american people will head to the polls in november and ask themselves which party will defend the people's right to quality health care, which party won't? the answer to that question could not be clearer. democrats have spent the past two years offering several plans to reduce the cost of health care while maintaining or increasing the quality while president trump and republicans in congress have done nothing but drive costs up and quality down in obeisance to the big special interests, the insurance industry. they have tried to repeal the health care law. they have tried to gut medicaid,

eliminate health care for millions of americans and put the insurers back in charge. they have eliminated the program to help low and middle-class americans afford insurance. and worst of all, republican attorneys general, including two running for the senate, one in missouri, one in west virginia, are suing as we speak to eliminate protections for americans with preexisting conditions. these actions are ungirded by a bleach on the other side of the aisle that american people don't deserve help affording adequate health care. republicans continue to believe and act on it, unfortunately, that insurance companies should rule the roost, just like in the 1890's. the consequences are clear. as a result, premiums are up by several digits, quality is down. as a result of the republican health care agenda americans are

paying more and getting less. but, in a few short weeks, i say to the american people, you will have a choice. you can vote for two more years of health care sabotage from a republican congress, more attempts at repealing the health care law, more premium increases and uncertainty, more actions that undermine protections for patients with preexisting conditions, or our colleagues can vote to flip the script, support -- or the american people can vote to flip the script. support democrat candidates who will not only protect the care that americans have today but who will work every single day to make it better. i yield the floor. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. morning business is closed. under the previous order, the senate will prove to executive session to -- proceed to executive session to consider the following nomination, which the clerk will report.

the clerk: nomination, department of justice, jeffrey bossert clark, of virginia, to be assistant attorney general. a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from missouri. mr. blunt: madam president, i think by any standard as we conclude this congress, the congress and the senate, the house and senate working together, have put more legislation on the president's desk that has long-term impact than any time in a long time, whether it was the opioid legislation or health care research funding or i want to talk a little bit today about the federal aviation administration extension that just last week the senate passed and the president signed. it's, i believe, the longest reauthorization, the five-year reauthorization is the longest reauthorization since the 1980's. so the traveling public, the f.a.a. itself, the department of

translation and the airlines, the carriers of both people and freight have an understanding of what the next five years should look like. now, one of the things that will happen during the time that begins right now is that the senate and the house listened, the president listened to the traveling public about their concerns about what happens on airplanes and in airports. this is a bill that i worked with, along with senator cantwell. we were the chairman of the subcommittee, the aviation subcommittee. our chairman, senator thune, and our ranking member, senator nelson, worked almost two years to get this bill to where it was when the president signed it to address safety and security and, actually, the comfort of the traveling public. in the wake of consumer complaints about shrinking seat size on airplanes, the law

directs the f.a.a. to set minimum leg room standards and width and length requirements for airline seat size to ensure passenger comfort and safety. i think all of us had some experience with seeing those seats get smaller all the time, like every other member of the senate, when i'm flying back and forth every week, usually in one of those coach seats, somebody said, oh, i thought you came back and forth on a the private plane. well, actually a few members, maybe less than a handful are able to do that. most of us fly like most everybody else does with no particular benefit, but you can see the seats getting smaller and the leg room getting tighter, and we've given new responsibility for the f.a.a. to set those standards so the traveling public knows that somebody is paying attention to them and how long they will be

in that seat and what it will be like when they are there. we also made it -- have a provision that you can't take somebody off an airplane once they've been allowed to board because you somehow oversold. if somebody is on that plane, they can't be taken off that plane unless they agree to be taken off that plane or the passenger acts in a way that safety and security and the health of other passengers could be a problem. so there's no more involuntarily bumping passengers who are on a plane. the law prohibits placing live animals in overhead compartments. more and more people seem to travel with pets and we had some bad experiences. people had bad experiences with that in the last few years so that overhead storage not an appropriate storage any longer for your pet if you're traveling with a pet, and also sets minimum standards for service animals that are allowed on flights. we all see that more all the

time too, a pet not in a cage but important to the individual that has it as a service animal. many veterans have a service animal, but some standards on what that animal can be and how they have to be behaved on a plane. going to ban in-flight cell calls. if you ever set by somebody before the plane takes off and learn way more about them than you want to know, you can imagine what it would be like if you had to learn way more about them based on every call they could make all the time you were flying. so that's not going to happen. and the next time you're on the ground and somebody continues to talk until they are told they can't do that any longer, just be grateful that can't continue once the plane gets in the air for the whole time of the flight, which would have technically been allowed if wifi

allowed that phone to be connected. that's not going to be the case now. the airline fees have changed. i don't like airline fees. most people don't like airline fees. but if you pay for a fee and you don't get the service, if you pay for a seat assignment that doesn't work out to be the kind of seat you paid for or early boarding and that didn't happen or baggage that somehow wasn't handled the way that your special fee was charged, the airlines now have to keep track of that and get you that money back as soon as they reasonably can or face a penalty. the law requires air carriers to submit to the department of transportation a one-page summary of passengers' rights, including compensation for flight delays, cancellations, mishandled bags. every airline has to have that available for you to look at. by the way, the department of transportation is going to have

an advocate for consumer aviation. if you're on there -- there will now be somebody at the department of transportation that is their job and their own job to respond to you for they and it their team to respond to you if you had a problem on an airline and want to see what can be done about it. the provisions are included to address disability issues on planes, whether restrooms are accessible, whether anything happens that would harm a disabled passenger or damage their wheelchair or the other aids they have. we have a three-year reauthorization of the travel security administration. there are some real needs there in both t.s.a. precheck and t.s.a. generally that are met with this. by the way, one of those needs is more access to dogs. we all see dogs in airports, but every study since 9/11, and

there have been a lot of them, indicates that nothing is more effective than a doing to -- dog to find out most of the things that you're looking through. some of us have gone through security lines lately where the line moves pretty fast, but the dog checks everybody in that line. we'll see what happens there. but dogs, generally, are doing the kind of things that need to be done. so whether it's the f.a.a. reauthorization or america's water infrastructure act that we passed yesterday, i think the vote on that was 99-1, you about -- 99-1, but it doesn't mean it was easy to get to the floor and it doesn't mean it was normally done by the congress, and that's happened as well. the insurance policies that democrats voted to take away yesterday have been mentioned here this morning. those short-term health policies were available until the very last days of the obama administration, and i don't know

what the reason the administration had to suddenly decide, well, we don't want that ability that several hundred,000, maybe a cup of --00 thousand people had to get the rate they can afford. you're in a job transition or something else, those were available that entire time. the urban institute says 1.5 million people that otherwise would have no insurance will be able to have insurance under those short-term policies. the policies under the affordable care act are still available, they are still subsidized. they still do everything that's the maximum of obamacare if that's what you want to have, and particularly if you're subsidizing that marketplace, that's probably where you should be. but a lot of people anter, and a -- aren't, and a lot of people don't have immediate access and a lot of people are in transition. and the urban institute is not

normally seen as a conservative watchdog, but they say 1.5 million people have insurance with these policies that will continue to be available that wouldn't have insurance if they hadn't been. you can say whatever you want to say. you're entitled to your own opinion, you're not entitled to your own facts. i think the facts on the vote we took this week on the short-term policy is pretty clear. with that, i would yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from georgia. mr. isakson: madam president, i want to acknowledge what senator blunt just said about the success of this congress over the last two years. it's been remarkable what they did on the f.a.a. is tremendous, and i enjoyed working with on that. i want to rise and talk about our veterans, about what we've done for your veterans and what we need to do for our veterans. before i do, my state of georgia has had a tough day and tough night last night.

a hurricane hit at about 10:00 p.m. last night. we lost one 11-year-old with a tree crashing through the roof. we have 1,500 national guard troops deployed to help law enforcement, emergency medical and p hospitals to meet the -- and hospitals to meet the needs of people in our state. we were blessed that a lot of things didn't happen, but we were hurt by those that did. for the families who lost property and families who need help, not only is our sympathy with them, we will take action. fema is working hard, the government is it working extremely hard many we -- hard. we recovered in the past from hurricanes, and we'll do it again. on behalf of myself and senator purdue, and the united states senate, i want to send our best wishes to the people back in georgia and also in north carolina, south carolina, and florida. florida was hit worst last night but now it is going over south

carolina and now north carolina who just came back from almost the worst sphorm storm in -- worst storm in history. we had so much rain. they are recovering and doing it nicely. they are doing a good job with it. everybody knows that the acts of nature and act of god, we have to do what we could to protect our citizens. i ask that everyone there pays close attention to what their emergency management people say, if they tell them to evacuate they should or hunker down, they should. everybody that we have to rescue takes a law enforcement officer out of play that could help somebody else, and we want to do that. as chairman of the veterans' affairs committee, i have the honor of representing the united states senate to our veterans in responding, along with the house committee, chaired by chairman rowe, of tennessee, on veterans issues. all of us are for veterans. there's one place you never have

an argument on appropriations, that's veterans. we don't have partisan arguments about veterans. you don't see veterans on the battlefield, you don't see republican veterans or democratic veterans, you see american veterans. we're all veterans. we have had some great successes with our veterans but we had some failures over the decades. sometimes they are on the front pages of newspapers, most recently last week when the hospital ratings came out, two of my hospitals went from a three star to a one star and we want to improve that. we also want to let everybody understand how big the problem is. what we've done in the last two years to address the problem and what's coming soon for all of us, which i think is good news for everybody. first of all, starting two years ago, senator tester, who is the ranking member on the committee and myself, sat down and made a pledge that we want to work together from the beginning to address the tough issues that have been put behind the

backdoor for a long time, hadn't been dealt with, and we've done that. in fact, we tackled every single one much them except one which we will tackle in a couple of weeks and in so doing we helped our veterans and the help of the president as well. president trump embraced our commit's work from the beginning. we had to find a new secretary because the old secretary resigned. we had a few bumps in the road. we got that done. the president has given us full support. robert will key, the new -- robert wilke, the new secretary of the v.a., loves the v.a. and worked for d.o.d., department of defense which is the precursor in working for v.a. in you're a veteran because you've got to be in d.o.d. first to be a veteran second. robert wilke is a godsend for us and has proven to be a big help for our veterans. in fact, he's willing to tackle hard problems. interoperative software for medical information has been a problem at the v.a. for years.

the d.o.d. and v.a., our software didn't talk to each other. we had a guy leave the battlefield in afghanistan, come back to georgia, go to fort benning, decide to leave the military and retire and go into veteran status, we couldn't get his records transferred from active duty to veteran status because we didn't have interoperable software and didn't have a way to do it. this committee worked hard. we developed the largest contract in history with sooner, a great software company. they have a tremendous product. they're now installing that and hopefully over the next 15 years we'll have an interoperative system around the world to service our veterans who need medical service and has their records available instant deign yusly and -- instantaneously and immediately. we have a 20th century soldier t century soldier on the battlefield and have a 15th century v.a. we've invested the money and are going to get it done. i appreciate the cooperation of

the employees at the v.a. i tell them as i make these remarks, we're going to see to it they have every bit of backing they can get from us. we've had too many vacant spaces in the v.a. we have too many acting this and acting that. i hate it when we appoint acting directors. we don't need them to act. we need them to take action. we're going to do that to see if we can fund the places that go vacant and hurts our veterans. i thank president trump and secretary wilke for their support. it's been complete and seamless. we signed the v.a. act in the rose garden a few weeks ago and the president came out. he said as long as he was there he would give us the best of all of us like they have given us the best of the veterans. president trump has been a great leader for our v.a., understands the problems and has been supportive of us trying to make the changes we want to make. senator tester has been a great ranking member and great partner on those things and made sure everything we did was bipartisan. to be honest with you, we passed 22 pieces of legislation

and made 14 appointments. we had one no vote on one bill. so we had complete unanimity on the committee democrats and republicans all the way through because we worked together, we set our goals. we decided to make us work as seamlessly as our military works for us. let me talk about a few of those things that we've done because i think they're impressive when you look at them. we passed 22 pieces of legislation that include the v.a. mission act, most recently passed about a month ago. we redefined the mission and the actions of the v.a. to see that it does everything it needs to do to be a 20th century benefit program, like the new modern-day g.i. bill which is a part of that. the new g.i. bill says the old rule in the v.a. that says you have to use your benefits within 15 years or you lose them within education is gone. skills are changing about every five years or six years and if a veteran doesn't, or a person, a job doesn't keep up with their particular education, they're going to lose their job.

they lose their benefits because they have been in the v.a. 15 years. well, that's ridiculous. we moved that cap so now they can take new courses and new training with their v.a., g.i. benefits for 25 years if they want to, if they're still eligible. we're not putting any time limit on it because there is no time limit on education. education is the necessity product we have to produce to produce the military of the 21st century. there used to be we drafted our soldiers. you can't really draft your soldiers anymore. the average man can't operate the equipment the men and women operate in the battlefield. you've got to have people that understand technology, understand the stem subjects. video games are one of the biggest qualifications for pilots because all our airplanes are video games. it looks like pac man when you get in the cockpit. they don't just learn that when they come out of school. we can't draft. we have to have an attractive job for them, attractive v.a.

benefits for them to see if they want to work for the united states of america and stay with us or else we'll never be able to keep the military we have today as strong and as powerful as it is. we also put a new law in on accountability. i want to tell you this. i served in the national guard. i understand accountability. and in the military you really understand accountability. you don't ask questions in the military. you give answers. your drill sergeant tells you to do 20, you drop and you do 20. if you can't do 20, you practice until you can, and you get it right. that's what we've got to do in the military because you don't fight wars with people who say i'm not interested today, i'm not going to fight. you've got to take orders, know what you're doing, you've got to do it right. we have to do the same thing and provide services for those veterans once they leave. we don't need to be casual about it, be committed about it and make sure we're doing everything to make sure our veterans get the services they want, the services they need and the information they need. veterans day is coming up in about four weeks. every veterans day we're usually

here. i don't think we're going to be here on veterans day this year, if i understand the calendar right. so i'll be making speeches back home. but every year i've been here to make speeches on the floor about our veterans and how important they are to us and try to point out a few people i've known in my lifetime who are veterans in the united states military who made a difference in my life. i talked about jack cox, a capital of the united states marine corps killed by a sniper in vietnam in 1968, my best friend. he volunteered. he came to the fraternity house, two years older than me so he was still in school when he graduated. he graduated and went from the university of georgia and signed up for o.c.s., went to paris island, went to vietnam and in the 12th month of his 13 month sniper was killed by a sniper in vietnam. he went to vietnam because he wanted to represent his country, fight for his country and pay his price and do his due diligence. jack was a great man. i've got a bracelet on, two of them as a matter of fact. one of them is a prayer bracelet from matt cooper, a law

enforcement officer in georgia killed a few weeks ago. the other is for john mccain. john mccain a former member of this body who a few weeks ago was buried at the naval academy and the national cathedral for his funeral. a pilot in the vietnam war who was captured, held captive by the north vietnamese for six years, got owd, badly wounded, badly injured, badly hurt. came back and rehabilitated himself, went in the v.a. health care. they rehabilitated him for his broken arms, broken back and all the other problems that he had. ran for the united states senate, came to the united states senate and was a star, as you know, in the senate chamber from the day he got to the senate to the day he died. he had a pervasive commitment to his country. he was exactly for our country, what i want all of us in the senate to be for this body. committed to his job, committed to the task, always ready, always prepared. the marines are that way, the army is that way, the air force is that way, the senate ought to be that way. we're committed that way to our

veterans and what we do today. we also hold them accountable in the military. accountability is important. the veterans want us to hold the v.a. accountable. that's why we put in the accountability bill which among other things allows us to fire senior executives in the v.a. for not doing their job. you have can't do that in many government jobs. in fact, a lot of people were surprised we were able to pass it. it passed bipartisan. it passed bipartisan because everybody knew that if your job wasn't subject to you doing your job, you really didn't have accountability. the first person taken to court for violating the law for not doing their job was in georgia. i saw to it we prosecuted that case because i wanted the people in the v.a. to know that we're not going to take bad behavior, break the law behavior or bad attitudes in the v.a. we're only going to give the best to our veterans. we have a number of title 38 veterans, leaders who have been suspended, moved or otherwise fired because they weren't accountable for their job. we have got openings that need

to be filled because we made them openings because we got rid of them. we got rid of people that weren't doing their job and put in people who did the job. in the military your accountability is doing l job and no excuses. we've done a lot of other things to help our country and help the country and i commit we'll continue to do so. three quick things i want to talk about. i want to thank the private sector and its support of our veterans. morehouse medical school in atlanta, georgia, is helping the atlanta v.a. with our doctor shortage in the v.a. yes, we've got a doctor shortage. we need the doctors to do the job. some of these waiting times that you've heard from a lot of our veterans are not because we're making them wait because we're slow. we're making them wait because we don't have enough doctors. working joint ventures with medical schools to do so. our residency, 72% of the doctors in the united states of america did a residency or an internship at the v.a. we've got to expand that and continue to

improve it. on the process for benefits, we've had people having to wait two and three years to get a benefit. we've got one veteran who's been on appeal for 25 years. you can keep it on appeal as long as you file new information every year and he found a way to file new information for every year and for 25 years he's put something new in his file. he's blocking other veterans who need to get their attention to get their service because he's making the line longer than it should be. we put an accountability on the veterans administration as well to see to it our benefits are handled quickly, expeditiously, the appeals are fair and veterans can get an answer. we're cutting the average time to wait instead of half a year, year and a half, we're going to get below a half a year pretty soon and pretty soon as instantaneous as you can make it because you shouldn't have to wait to have a benefit paid, to complete an order from your officer that you work for. i want to thank shepherd spinal center in atlanta, georgia.

that's my hometown and my home state. shepherd takes the most seriously injured veterans in the united states, they take them and they help them. more often than not they turn their life around and make it where they can communicate, where they can work and do their job. in other words,s the veterans are getting the best of care and the best of attention. the veterans administration, the veterans' committee of veterans affairs in the senate is getting 100% of their attention from us. i'm proud of what we've done, proud of what the senate's done, i'm proud of our military and i'm proud of our country and i hope we continue to do in this senate what we've always done, and that's do our job, do it well and support our country. may god bless the united states of america, and i yield back. i suggest 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 oregon. mr. merkley: mr. president, i ask that the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. merkley: thank you, mr. president, today i rise to bring attention to the no internment camps act. this is an important bill to make sure that america does not repeat the mistake of world war ii and develop and expand internment camps here in the united states of america. now, you may think that this is something that is far-fetched.

of course the united states would not establish internment camps, but the fact is we already have three and we have the house having passed a bill to greatly expand those internment camps. we have 35 sponsors of a bill here in the senate to expand internment camps. we have the president issue an executive order asking congress to expand internment camps, and most recently the president putting forward draft legislation to expand internment camps without congress. where does this story begin? it begins as far as public awareness on may 7, when the attorney general jeff sessions, gave a speech. he called this his zero tolerance policy. i listened to his description of zero tolerance policy about arresting people on the border.

i said, you know, you take away the fancy rhetoric, and it sounds like he's criminalizing families who are fleeing persecution from overseas. i thought that's a pretty stunning situation because we here in america often look to lady liberty and the words inscribed on the base or pet -- pedestal of lady liberty where it says give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to live free. the attorney general is going to persecute them and that they would immediately throw adults into jail and rip away the children from their families. that's not possible. that's not possible here in the united states of america. so i arranged to go down to the

border and went down on june 3, and visited the mcallen processing center. now, the mcallen processing center is a location that the press had never been allowed into, and so they were stationed outside saying, what are you going to find? what are you going to see in what's in there? i was surprised that the press had been secluded from this facility to see what was going on. so when i went in, i was given a tour, what i found was pretty shocking. a room in which huddled masses of families were shoved into wire-linked cages with nothing but an aluminum foil blanket, a mylar blanket and then in a larger space, we saw larger cages, 30 by 30 cages, where

families were separated. mothers in one cage, fathers in another, daughters in a third, sons in a fourth. i stood in this one 30 by 30-foot chain link cage and said, these young boys who were lining up by height who were being prepared for being fed, these small boys, the smallest knee high to a grasshopper, maybe 4 years old, these young boys had been separated from their parents? and the answer was, well, senator, not all of them. some of them arrived unaccompanied. but i said many of these boys in this cage were taken away from their parents? they said yes. i said, well, where did that happen? they said, well, we brought the family in that door over there, and then with some explanation, we said we need to take your son

away, we need to take your daughter away, we need to take your spouse away, and they were locked up in these various locations inside that warehouse. so it was -- it turns out it was real. the administration was criminalizing a flight from persecution, a flight that our ancestors know all too well, fleeing from civil war, fleeing from religious persecution, fleeing from famine to come here to the united states of america and seeing that beautiful, welcoming statue of liberty, give us your tired, your poor, your hulled masses. -- huddled masses. but instead of that welcoming embrace, prison for the parents and, quite frankly, prison for the children, separated. so i went from there up to brownsville. i had been told by immigration advocates that many of these young men were being stuffed into a single building up in

brownsville, a former wal-mart run by a nonproflt called southwest -- nonprofit called southwest keys. i was going to visit this location, but i was told that i had to give two weeks notice. i asked for a waiver to be able to see what was inside this wal-mart. the waiver was turned down. clearly the administration did not want any member of congress to see what was going on in that building. since i was there in texas, i drove up the road to brownsville, and i said, well, i'll call them up when i get there and say, surely you have enough members of your staff that one of them can come out and talk to me or maybe one of them can give me a tour of what's inside. so when i arrived, we walked up to the door of this former wal-mart, and there's a phone number posted on the front of it. so i proceeded to call up that phone number and talk to the

assistant to the supervisor of the facility. and the assistant said, yes, the supervisor would be happy to come out and talk to you. i waited ten minutes, no supervisor appeared. i called up again, and they said, oh, no the supervisor is on his way. well, what the supervisor was really doing was waiting for the police to arrive. they called the police to arrest me. very interesting. you're arrested for knocking on door and asking to have a supervisor talk to you? they didn't proceed to arrest me. they hadn't formally asked me to leave the property, but they certainly weren't going to let me inside to see what was going on or even towc to me about -- talk to me about what they were doing. immigration advocates said that we heard a rumor that up to 1,000 young boys were stuffed into that wal-mart. i thought, that is not possible. and as i was standing there and talking to the press, i repeated that, and i thought i shouldn't say this.

i shouldn't say this because that's so outlandish surely no administration would try to stuff 1,000 boys into one building. and so that went roong and i was refused -- went along, and i was refused entry, and i brought attention to this scandalous child separation strategy, this strategy of deliberating inflicting trauma on children in order to send a political message. no one in the world can justify inflicting trauma on children to send a political message. it's not acceptable under any moral code. it's not acceptable under any religious tradition. but from the dark heart of this administration had hatched this evil plan, and it was being implemented. well, i went back two weeks later on june 14, and i went

back with reinforcements, other members of congress. and we went to that facility and this time they granted a waiver and said, yes, you may see what's going on, and they allowed the press in as well. so we go in for this tour and i asked, you know, how many boys are here, thinking at most a couple00. and they said -- a couple hundred. i said we are going to put more boys in this facility, i think they were at 1,460 residents in this one building. they took me out to the outside area where they had a soccer field. they said, isn't it wonderful, we have a soccer field. imagine how long it takes for nearly 1,500 young boys to circulate through the soccer field and they took me to the game room and they showed me a

single foosball machine. maybe there were a couple of them, but i saw one. they were proud that they had this soccer field and this game room. and i said, you know, you expanded so fast at the beginning of the year, how many boys did you have? they said, well, we planned for 300. we had 300 bedrooms and 300 boys. and then they said two months ago we increased that to 500, and now we have the 1,500, or almost 1,500. i said this rapid expansion, you planned carefully for this? oh, yes. well, was there anything you needed that you fell short on? and the director of southwest keys said, yes, we don't have mental health counselors or at least we're short. i said how many are you short? he said 90 mental health counselors. 90, wow.

that's a big shortfall. now, realize, these boys were fleeing persecution from overseas so they had experienced trauma in their lives abroad. they probably experienced trauma en route, and now they experience trauma being ripped away from their families and shuttled off to this warehouse. and, yet, no planning to have the mental health counselors needed for this population. just kind of one feature of the incompetence and the callousness of this administration in implementing this policy. so public outcry was significant, and i thank all americans who participated in that public outcry and said this is not our america. criminalizing a flight from

persecution, locking people up while they away asylum hearing, that is not our america, and you must stop. and the court said the same thing because it was actually illegal to lock up children for more than 20 days under the flores consent agreement. so president trump sent a message, an executive order, and the executive order was titled as follows, affording congress an opportunity to address family separation. oh, how nice. the president is giving us an opportunity to address family separation. and what did the president ask for in that executive order? he asked for us to pass a law to overrule the flores consent agreement and allow the administration to establish family internment camps. imagine family internment camps

here in the united states. that is what the president was asking for and that is exactly what the house of representatives passed. it is exactly what 35 members of this body have signed on to cosponsor, family internment camps in the united states of america. that is absolutely wrong, it is absolutely unacceptable, and it is absolutely unneeded. you may say, wait. you're saying that the children shouldn't be separated from their parents and that you shouldn't lock up families together. so what do you propose, senator merkley? what do you propose that we do? well, the answer is we had a very good program. it was called the family case management program. now, this family case management program said when a family comes and is seeking asylum, they will be placed into the community, they will have intensive case management, someone who speaks

their language, an individual who is in continuous contact with them, who makes sure they know exactly when their check-ins are and how to attend them and who knows when the court hearing is and how to get to those court hearings. and so, i wondered, does this work? how well does this program work? it turns out there is an i.g., an inspector general report for homeland security that came out, and i think the date was november 30, 2017. and here's what the inspector general found. he said, according to ayes, -- i. c.e., overall program compliance for all five refugeeson is an average of the 9% for i.c.e. check-ins and appointments as well as 100% attendance at court hearings.

100 %, you can't get better than that. an inspector general saying 100% attendance at court hearings. so if you hear a member of the senate saying, well, we're concerned about this catch and release because people don't show up for their hearings, that is a lie. that is inkralt. -- if you hear the president say, well, we're going to lock families up if they don't appear for their court hearings, that is inaccurate. that is a lie. inspector general of this administration found 100% attendance at court hearings. so fortunately, members of this body have come to their senses, rejecting the language from the house. fortunately members of the senate have come to their senses and abandoned their effort for now at least to establish

permission, authorization, and funding for internment camps. as well they should. because it doesn't fit with the vision of america, a nation where most of us are the children of immigrants, if not immigrants ourselves, a nation where in our family tree we have individuals who fled persecution , religious persecution, who fled famine, who fled conflict to be welcomed by the vision of the statue of liberty. but the story, unfortunately, doesn't end here. the president has now issued a draft regulation, and that draft regulation says we in the executive branch are granting ourselves the authority to establish internment camps without permission or direction from congress. are you kidding me? a lengthy regulation designed to authorize them selves without congress acting to establish family internment camps totally

out of sync with the traditions of america, with the value, of america, or the law as it exists under the consent agreement. let me put this as simply as i can. children belong in homes and playgrounds and schools. they don't belong behind barbed wire. and i will fight as fiercely as i possibly can any proposal to put children behind barb wire as they await their asylum hearing. it is wrong. it is morley wrong. it is from a policy perspective totally unjustified as was child separation. that's why i'm introducing the no internment camps act. let us not repeat the mistakes of world war ii. this act ensures that no federal dollars will be used for the operation and construction of

family internment camps. it creates a one-year phaseout of three family detention centers currently in operation. and it saves money from the family detention centers and transfers it to the alternatives for detention program in order to reestablish the families case management program, the program that had a hundred percent success rate in getting people to their hearings, 100% success rate. put money into programs that work, not into prisons that afflict children. there are many groups that have said how important this is and that have endorsed the no internment camps legislation. the japanese-american citizens league, human rights watch, asian-americans advancing justice, women's refugee commission, the antidefamation league, the asian pacific

american network of oregon, the american immigration lawyers association of oregon, human rights first, the leadership conference on civil and human rights, the daughter of fred care matsu, the lead plain tifs that challenged internment camps in world war ii. so let us put an end to the prospect of the administration expanding on its own through executive order internment camps in the united states. let's do so by passing the no internment camps act. thank you, mr. president.

mr. cornyn: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mr. cornyn: mr. president, after the vote was called on the kavanaugh nomination, i should say immediately before it, the minority leader, the senator from new york, told america that the most important thing they could do in response to that vote is to go to the polls in the mid term election. it is true on november 6, americans will head to the polls and select their members of congress, including the united states senate, and it will be as ronald reagan's famous speech said, it will be a time for choosing. many people are wondering how they should choose, how they should exercise that most fundamental privilege of american citizenship, and that is the right to vote. should they choose to vote for

mob rule or do they choose to vote for the rule of law? do they choose to endorse threats, intimidation, and insightment or do they choose to treat everybody, no matter how much you disagree with them, with dignity and respect. that, i believe, those are our choices. i was very disappointed to hear the former secretary of state, mrs. clinton say you cannot be civil with a political party that wants to destroy what you stand for and what you care about. she said that civility is only possible if democrats were to win back both the house -- or i should say win back the house or the senate. in other words, her commitment to civility in our political discourse is contingent upon political outcomes. and did you notice the verb she

used? she used the word destroy which i think is telling. it's not that people may disagree with her or her party, it's that people who disagree with her want to destroy what you stand for and what you care about. in other words, this mindset, i think, is very disturbing and should be of concern to all of us who want to restore some civility and decorum and bipartisan cooperation. we're going to have our differences. there's no doubt about it. and i welcome the opportunity to debate those differences. that's what the united states senate is all about. but there is a line that we saw crossed last week during the confirmation hearing. we learned that it is our democratic colleagues unfortunately who have associated themselves with special interest groups that are willing to go to just about any

length to achieve their desired ends. in other words, the ends justify the means. that includes climbing statues, disobeying capitol police, getting arrested, chasing senators and their spouses from restaurant, screaming at members in elevators, sending coat hangers to senators at their offices and offering what amounts to as a bribe. that doesn't sound very civil to me. and then you have former attorney general eric holder who was captured video saying things that i just frankly am shocked about. he said you would think the former head law enforcement officer for the united states government, the attorney general, would understand the need to be careful with your words and not stoke the embers of conflict and civil unrest. but apparently disregarding that, he intentionally poured

gasoline on the fire. he said last week it's time to ditch the old slogan when they go low, we go high. he attributed that to michelle obama and good for her. he said instead when they go low, we kick them. that's what the new democratic party is all about. "the washington post" has said that holder's proposing the party pursue a, quote, meaner, more combative approach and noted that he was alluding to metaphorical violence. and this is from the former attorney general of the united states. i believe former first lady michelle obama rightfully condemned this ugly and shameful statement. meanwhile, one democratic member of the senate has recommended activists get up in the face of your congress people.

another one has justified mob rule is entirely appropriate to our current political situation. we had members of the senate judiciary committee during the kavanaugh hearings say i'm violating the rules intentionally. i'm releasing committee confidential information in violation of the rules. and apparently they were proud of it. i hope the voters are listening. i think they are. they're coming from some of the most powerful voices of the democratic party, voices that could represent you in the next congress. but that is the choice between incitement, intimidation, mob rule, or civility, and treating

people you disagree with with the respect that all of us are entitled to in a democracy. i don't think the voters will reward a party that is spitting out this sort of venom about what our politics should be about and sewing division, rejecting civility. is that what supposedly passes for leadership? should the voters reward that in this midterm election? i think our forefathers would be shocked. but this election is more about than just about the rhetoric. i think the voters also have a choice when it comes to looking at who is interested in solving the problems that confront our country. who is willing to work on a bipartisan basis together with the administration to make the country a better place, more prosperous place, a safer place.

and all they need to do is look back at the last 22 months. yesterday, for example, we passed a major water infrastructure bill that will keep our communities safe by maintaining dams and levees and addressing drinking water and wastewater systems across the country. it will also expedite in my part of the world an important coastal study and authorize flood mit gaix projects -- flood mitigation projects back home. then the president signed just two days before that -- i'm sure most of this was lost in the furor over the kavanaugh nomination but just two days before that, the president signed another bipartisan bill that i cosponsored called the justice serve act. it will provide funds to prosecute cold cases solved by d.n.a. evidence obtained from rape kits. and then, of course, there was the supreme court confirmation

last saturday. so in the last six days, we have accomplished three major things. water infrastructure, funding cold case prosecutions and filling justice kennedy's seat on the united states supreme court. i would say that's a pretty good week. but our record of success is much lengthier than that. judge kavanaugh was far from the only federal judge we've confirmed. last year we confirmed another superb justice neil gorsuch. on top of that we have confirmed 69 judges under president trump. that includes three texas judges on the fifth circuit court of appeals and four that preside over texas district courts. those numbers begin to show you, mr. president, that since president trump took office in january, we have -- of last year, we haven't taken our foot off the gas when it comes to doing the people's work. under this congress we have confirmed the most appellate judges ever during a president's

first two years. and of course these nominees, these once confirmed have lifetime tenure so they will be there long beyond this president's term or maybe our term in the congress. but our work extends far beyond filling the courthouses of this country. what we have done working together with the entrepreneurs and the investors and the small businesses of america is we've helped reenergize the state of the american economy. this started with tax reform which has been the biggest game changer. this was the first major overhaul of the tax code in 31 years. it lowered rates, doubled the child tax credit to help working families, and made american businesses more internationally competitive. i'm sorry that we had to do that all by ourselves without a single democrat vote, but we thought it was so important to do, we stepped up and we did it. and i think the benefits are

pretty manifest. miss pelosi likes to say the savings individual taxpayers got were merely crumbs, but i would like to tell her about some of my constituents and what they've told me. one of them, kim ewing in mesquite wrote to me and told me how tax reform is hugely helpful because she hadn't had a raise in seven years. now she's enjoyed a boost in her paycheck each month. she called tax reform a no-brainer in her words or what she referred to as merely common sense. then there's claudia smith, owner of the aggie land carpet in college station. she bought new equipment for her small business as well as provide health coverage for her employees.

-- and she tells me she's also have enough over to hire more people. more than 700 businesses have used the tax savings to benefit their employees and customers. they've announced pay raises, 401(k) match increases, bonuses and other benefits to american workers. these developments are just part of the reason why this economy is growing again, why people have renewed confidence and optimism in their future. as the majority leader reported yesterday, unemployment in this country has now fallen to 3.7%, which is the lowest rate since 1969. people are going back to work. they're earning more. they're keeping more of what they earn. and they are investing. this is what it looks like when that sleeping giant of the american economy is -- wakes up and is unleashed from the

constraints of high taxation and overregulation. but it's not just the economy that deserves mention. one of our accomplishments has been repeopling burdensome regulations. i -- repealing burdensome regulations. i mentioned that. we did that through the congressional review act. previously it had only been used one time but we've used it 16 times to eliminate agency rules which really had been the ropes that tied down that sleeping giant of the american economy and allowed it to come roaring back. we have repealed the independent payment advisory board under obamacare, which will allow seniors and their families to take greater control of their health care decisions without being subject to the whims of unelected bureaucrats. and we've eliminated the root of obamacare, the individual mandate. this was literally a coercion by the federal government forcing

people to buy something that in many cases they couldn't afford and they didn't want. we literally made obamacare voluntary now, so people have choices. but this was essentially a tax on some of the most disadvantaged people in the country who were coerced into buying health care they didn't want or couldn't afford or that they were unable to even do that, they were forced to pay a tax or a penalty. recently we've been accomplishing a lot more for our men and women in uniform. our intelligence officers and our veterans. we've helped restore america's defense with the greatest investment in the military in decades, including the largest troop pay raise in nearly 10 years. we've reauthorized important intelligence-gathering tools like section 702 of the foreign intelligence surveillance act, a vital tool in tracking foreign terrorists abroad who try to

hurt us at home. and for our veterans, we passed the v.a. mission act which will strengthen health care and community care options available to those who served our nation in uniform. last but not least in this series of accomplishments, we've taken other important steps, like passing the federal aviation administration reauthorization act. just last week, legislation that modernizes our airports, improves service for travelsers, enhances safety, and boosts industry innovation. and then almost without anybody paying any attention at all, we passed a huge bipartisan bill to address the opioid crisis. senator alexander, the chairman of the health, education, labor, and pensions committee ushered this bill through the house and the senate along with senator murray and others.

it has contributions from 70 members of the senate and five stands committees. that takes a lot of hard bipartisan effort. but it's important because it combats the nationwide epidemic that's led to the death of 49,000 americans in just 2017 alone. we've done important work in terms of improving public safety by enacting a bill that i sponsored and that was supported by our colleagues here called fix nics, that's a national criminal background check. we also passed the stop school violence act. the fix nics bill ensures that catch and release aren't able to firearms after their convicted. in the wake of the shootings in santa fe and sutherland springs,

we know there were a lot of people crying out for congress to do something. this was the one thing we could all agree to on a bipartisan basis, across the ideological spectrum. these two bills, mine and senator hatch's, are a part of the way that we have answered that call. we've tried to protect our young people, especially women, in another important way as well -- we enacted what's known as sesta -- s-e-s-t-a shall the stop enabling sex trafficking act. this helps to stop online track trafficking and adds to a bill called the abolish human trafficking act. this strengthens programs that support survivors of human trafficking and provides resources to law enforcement officials on the front line of the fight against modern-day slavery. so i understand why most americans have not heard of all

or many of these accomplishments, but i think it's important to note what we have been able to do. while we have fought mightily over some things like judicial nominations, we've also worked on a bipartisan way to get the people's work done. and we've done so, i believe, in the main by treating each other respectfully, by demonstrating civility -- not by yelling at each other or inciting people to violence. that's not the american way. and i'm hopeful that after we've seen the scenes we saw here last week during the confirmation proceedings for the supreme court that the american people will reject that sort of conduct and demand that their elected officials act in a way they can be proud of. yes, we put money back in america's pocket.

we rolled back regulations to make their lives a little bit easier. we strengthened our military, given our veterans access to better health care and protected our communities from harm. so as the minority leader, the senator from new york, said right before the confirmation vote on judge kavanaugh, he said, people need to vote. and they will, i hope, exercise that franchise. that right of every american citizen to determine the direction of our country and who will represent them in the halls of congress. and it's my sincere hope that they will remember some of these accomplishments that we have made together during this administration and that we can continue to do more for them in the future. mr. president, i yield the floor. mr. durbin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from illinois. mr. durbin: mr. president, the

front page of "the washington post" this morning tells a story about our intelligence agencies intercepting some communications among the saudi government officials. it appeared that they were exchanging information about how to lower a man named khashoggi back into saudi arabia. khashoggi is a person who has been openly critical of the saudi arabian leadership, has published articles around the world, including in "the washington post." we have a video that shows mr. khashoggi entering the saudi consulate in istanbul, turkey. we have no video that shows him exiting that same building. he has disappeared. this intelligence data, as well as other information, lead us to believe that he has been assassinated, assassinated because he was critical of the leadership of the saudi arabian ding come. that's what happens in a country of authoritarian rule that does

not protect the right of dissent. we see it over and over again, the history -- strong authoritarian rulers can't stand dissenters. many of them are killed, imprisoned, tortured, run out of the country. it happens in china still. it happens in russia still. it happens, obviously, when it comes to saudi arabia. turkey and other countries. we're different -- i hope we are. and the reason we're different is because of 45 words. 45 words that were written over 200 years ago worth repeating, 45 words that have guided our country and still should guide us today. i'm going to take a minute to read them. it's the first amendment to the constitution of the united states, the first amendment to our bill of rights, credited to james madison, and here's what it says. congress shall make no law respecting and establishment of religion or protecting -- or --

pardon me, prohibiting the free exercise thereof or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. 45 words that distinguish us from virtually every other country in the world, where we expressly guarantee to ourselves and our posterity freedoms that are fundamental to being an american. i've heard my friend from texas, the senior senator, come to the floor repeatedly to talk about what happened last week during the kavanaugh nomination. and i might add, in the weeks before during the committee hearing. and there were people who came to this capitol because of their intense personal and political feelings about that nomination and what it meant to them

personally and what they believed it meant to the country. and they brought their emotions to this place, and they did it because they are guaranteed the right to do it in this constitution. each of us is guaranteed the right to peaceably assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. the senator from texas, who's referred to this as mob rule -- well, i will tell you, if you believe these 45 words and what this first amendment to the bill of rights instructs us in terms of this democracy, then it gives these people -- all people in this country -- the right to speak, the right to express their opinion, and the right to petition their government for redress of grievances. now, of course, that should never -- never -- condone violence, nor the incitement to violence. that's where we must draw the

line. but if you're going to stand and defend this article of the constitution, wit we've all taken an oath to defend, then you're going to defend right of individuals to speak in this country and say things that are unpopular and maybe even unacceptable to you personally. i found myself in that position, gritting my teeth and thinking, i wish to heck that person wasn't saying that they're saying. but they have a constitutional right to do so. they don't have a constitutional right to be violent or to incite violence. and i might add, i think they cross the line when they go after politicians' family members and others. that clearly crosses a line. i've seen it happen in my political life. i'm sure all my colleagues can tell a similar story. but to call this mob rule is to take the actions of a few and to really use those as standard to judge everyone. that is fundamentally unfair.

there were people on both sides of the kavanaugh nomination who had intents, strong personal feelings and used their constitutional right under the bill of rights to express that. they did it peaceably. they did it in a constructive way. as far as i'm concerned, they have a constitutional right to do it. for those who crossed the line, they need to accept whatever consequences come their way. for some, it means being arrested and maybe more. but for those who complied with this article in the bill of rights, i think we all understand -- i think we can all stand up and say, regardless of party, this is the constitution both parties swore to uphold. but to say that what happened last week, even in this chamber, even in this gallery here, is really the whole story is to ignore the obvious. my response to the gentleman -- the senator from texas when he asked about mob rule is to say three words -- lock her up.