elon value less qez who serves as the commissioner. ms. o'gradyy states under his leadership, there's strong evidence that csic routinely throughouts the rule of law and tramples civil liberties in violation of the guatemalan constitution. his methods cannot be supported by a republic that pledges allegiance to transparency and human rights. end of quote. powerful institutions have a tendency to amass more powers to themselves and stretch their authority far beyond their legal mandates. even its most strident supporters have acknowledged that csig now essentially answers to no one and needs to be reformed. nowhere is this contention better supported than csig-backed persecution of the bit cove family on behalf of the russian government. for all its flaws which are

numerous, csig's decision to conspire with russia is the most outrageous. gore and arena bitcove built a successful paper mill company, the northwest timber company in russia's enclave. this rare example of successful private enterprise in russia was once valued at nearly half a billion dollars. but success comes with a price in putin's russia. in 2005, a senior officer of the state-owned server bank demanded that they sell him a controlling sake in their company, an offer the bitcove's refused. later the bitcove's daughter was kidnapped and raped until they

paid a ransom. b.t.b., server bank forced the bitcove's family into bankruptcy by calling in a repayment of $160 million in loans. traumatized and threatened with detention and death, the bitkofs decided to flee russia. moscow opened a criminal case in 2009. the bitcove's eventually immigrated to guatemala after paying a legitimate law firm with new identities. they settled into a new life. they began to teach at a local school, their daughter began to heal from their ordeal and they

had a son in 2012. the reprieve was short-lived. v.t.b., one of the russian banks, collaborated in 2015 with csic and the guatemalan attorney general to arrest the bitko vs for passport violations. their daughter was denied medication and had a breakdown. the 3-year-old son was sent to an orphanage. the father returned to his family with an upper-respiratory infection and clear physical and psychological abuse. this is modern-day csic in guatemala. under the direction of csic, the bitkovs were sent to trial.

the guatemalan court of appeals, however, enjoined the bitkov's prosecution stating that the family was not criminally liable for passport violations. despite this injunction, a lower court, at the behest of csic, went ahead with the case an eventually sentenced egar bitkov to 19 years and his wife to 14 years in prison. let me repeat 19 years and 14 years for passport violations. passports that they believe were legitimate based on legal advice they had been given. for infractions that usually are settled with a fine at worst. and all in collaboration with cs ig and the russian accusers.

following more convoluted legal wrangling, egor bitkov was released under house arrest but his wife and daughter were still in prison, more torturous legal proceedings. the mother and daughter were finally released on bail in mid-june. this is csig in guatemala. pushed by csig, the constitutional court, the highest court in guatemala, ordered a retrial for the bitkovs which began last week and supposedly continues. american taxpayers who are footing the bill for csig have a right to ask commissioner velz -- is this the way to fight it. they have gone from fighting

corruption to doing vladimir putin's dirty work going even so far as to persecute victims of corruption like the bitkov. the billkov affair demonstrates how bad csig has gone astray and why it should be out of their country. csig was to investigate moffas and yet it gets involved in a passport violation case against a family clearly fleeing russian persecution. csig is supposed to be above reproach, yet it collaborates with a state-owned russian bank that incidentally is currently under u.s. sanctions. csig is doing the bidding of putin's henchman acting as the long arm of russia's dictatorship.

the intervention of a kremlin-controlled bank shows that influencing csig is a support of the kremlin's campaign to exert pressure across latin america, and we ought to be concerned about that, mr. president. earlier this month, ms. o'grady wrote in the "wall street journal" that the creeping intervention from moscow is designed to damage u.s. interest by destabilizing liberal democracy. admiral craig fowler, the commander of u.s. southern command, told the u.s. senate committee that russia has been using propaganda to sow doubts about the u.s.' intention and russia has shown support for the maduro regime in venezuela.

another strategic investigator, china, has also -- is also seeking to influence important u.s. partners in latin america. china has provided more than $ 140 billion in loan commitments. beijing is latin america's second-largest trading partner. although csig once prosecuted serious corruption and now it has fallen victim that power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. president morales has made the decision as the duly head of a sovereign country that he will no longer tolerate an increasingly neocolonial force. the united states should stand behind this decision. csig was never supposed to stay

indefinitely. this move by the guatemalan government does not absolve its own responsibility to fight corruption. indeed, we should demand a redoubling of these efforts as a critical country in the western hemisphere, a return to pre-csig conditions would be unacceptable. this is the chance for guatemalans to work toward the justice that csig abandoned with its complicity in moscow's vendetta. this should begin with an end to the bitkov's long nightmare. their ordeal has gone way beyond a miscarriage of justice and with csig guatemala must do the right thing without further delay or excuse. in conclusion, mr. president, the duly constituted government of guatemala has made the right decision and should be congratulated for yesterday's action. the country's leadership took a

necessary step in asserting its sovereignty and in ending a dysfunctional relationship with csig, a well-intended agency which exceeded its mandate and outlived its usefulness it may initially have had. thank you, mr. president. and i yield the floor.

mr. gardner: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from colorado. mr. gardner: i come to the floor to honor our men and women in law enforcement. as members of congress and their staffs head home this holiday season, we must remember the sacrifice of those who make our community safety, those who make our safety possible. across the united states 143 law enforcement officers have paid the ultimate price. in colorado we honor three fallen officers, deputy sheriff mcdonald gum. we will never forget his bravery. and deputy brick after serving in the sheriff's office for 11 years. i would like to honor the memory of sergeant matthew morano who

was killed just last week. he was responding to reports of domestic violence when his cruiser and that of another officer crashed into a civilian vehicle. unfortunately, the occupants of the other vehicle, including a 1-year-old child lost their liestles. the pain of losing loved ones this close to the holidays is unimaginable. sergeant morano ends his watch after serving honorably for nine years and leaves his three beautiful children, summer, morgan, and jared. he has been described as a super hero to his kids, which seems fitting given the bravery he has shown. he is remembered for his sense of humor and something that almost all coloradans can reality to, our prayers are certainly with the family of sergeant moreno and with the families of those in the other vehicle. i'd also like to offer my sincere condolences to the

sheriff's department who lost a fellow brother. each was a neighbor, a loved family member, an extraordinary coloradan. although the need is great, so few of us are blessed with the level of bravery and courage shown each and every day by the men and women in law enforcement. as we all enjoy the warmth of this holiday season, law enforcement officers around the country will stand guard in cold and uncertain streets. this includes the men and women who serve in the capitol who work to medicare sure that everyone visiting the nation's capitol can do so safely. it is important to keep them in our thoughts as we gather with family and friends to celebrate. i would like to take a moment to thank the families of these brave men and women whose sacrifices cannot be forgotten. they endure time apart from their loved ones so we know peace and security.

when thinking about the brave men and women defending the thin blue line, i think of lieutenant colonel dave grossman who said law enforcement is the brave sheep dog always standing watch for the wolf that stands in the dark. it's my hopes that the thoughts and prayers we offer to those wearing the blue uniform will bring them comfort as they carry out their solemn duty. i'm thankful for their service and thankful for the families for their continued sacrifice. and i am reminded of the words of joe rice who said during the holiday, who said this prays after serving in iraq an afghanistan. he wrote this, for all those around the world in harm's way, we pray with you. please, god, just not today. each and every day we echo that same prayer. thank you to the men and women in blue. i'd also like to thank my colleague from new jersey, senator menendez, to allow me to

speak out of turn. i greatly appreciate it and i yield the floor and to the president pro tem for taking the chair. mr. menendez: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from new jersey. mr. menendez: i am going to be shortly joined with senator whitehouse in an exchange we look to have, but in order to to preserve time on the floor here, i will start. i come to the floor today to once again join the senator from rhode island in calling attention to the crisis that is climate change. and i want to thank my friend, senator whitehouse, for his passion, his persistence and his refusal to let the united states senate be silent in the face of one of the gravest threats to ever confront our nation and the world. some say we can't afford to

invest in clean renewable american-made energy. well, i say we cannot afford not to. the fact is every year that goes by without a comprehensive strategy to reduce the carbon pollution responsible for warming our planet is another year in which the federal government of the united states fails to protect future generations from the immense environmental economic and human costs inflicted by climate change. i yearn for the day that this body summons the courage to stand up to the special interests and boldly confront this challenge, for the longer we wait, the more expensive and the less effective we will be. and if you don't believe me, just look at our national flood insurance program, which is already in dire need of comprehensive forward-thinking reform. i spent the better part of the past two years bringing

democrats and republicans together in support of such a plan, and yet the majority has stubbornly refused to debate our legislation, forcing us to pass short-term reauthorizations that preserve a broken status quo. and like the totality of the climate threat, when it comes to flood insurance, every time we kick the can down the road, the can only gets heavier. for our coastal and inlet communities, climate change isn't some farout problem. it's here. we're already feeling the effect in bearing the cost of the form of rising sea levels and increasingly powerful storms. and even if the president of the united states suddenly reversed course and put america on a path to slow our changing climate, we would still need to address how we managed a heightened risk for flooding. from fishing to tourism to trade and so much more, the fact is

america's coastal communities are vital to our long-term economic competitiveness, and to give up on them in the face of rising sea levels would be to give up on our country. according to the union of concerned scientists, sea level rise will put an estimated 325,000 homes and businesses worth more than $135 billion at risk of chronic flooding in the next 30 years. with increased risk for flooding comes a whole host of challenges. falling property values will further strain local budgets, leading to downgraded government credit ratings. and as communities lose out on approximately $1.5 billion in property taxes per year, hardworking taxpayers will feel the pain. it will cut away at middle-class families' most valuable assets, the foundation of their

financial nest egg, which is their home. according to a paper published by the university of pennsylvania libraries, and i quote, at sea level -- as sea level rise manifests along the coasts, reducing property value, impacts on revenue will present new challenges in servicing debt and present a greater probability of default by local government. we cannot simply keep spending money to preserve the status quo. we need a system for managing flood risk that pushes our country towards resiliency and treats our people in the communities they live in fairly. but unfortunately, we have remained at an impasse for over a year now, unable to fix a program that we all know is badly broken. we in new jersey witnessed firsthand the pervasive problems plaguing the national flood insurance program or what we call the nfip after superstorm

sandy hit in 2012. it was bad enough that so many new jerseyans had to grapple with the heartbreaking loss of their homes in the raft of sandy. so it made my blood boil to see the suffering compounded by a badly broken flood insurance program. we found ourselves lost in a system that put the policyholder last, that looked for every reason to deny legitimate claims and made up some when they didn't exist. we had homeowners who found the foundations of their homes had washed away into the ocean. only to have their claim denied because their insurance company claimed it wasn't floodwaters but moving soil that caused the damage. the insurance adjustor didn't stop maybe to consider that maybe it was the five-foot storm surge that moved the soil in the first place.

this is doug quinn who served honorably in the united states marines. it's a constituent who i have gotten to know very well who got snagged by this very loophole. as you can see from this picture, the storm surge from sandy inundated his home and it ripped apart his foundation, leaving a large hole in his living room. but despite paying his flood insurance premiums for years and despite serving our nation honorably as a united states marine, doug's claim was denied. supposedly it was earth moved, but the earth never moved until the five-foot storm surge came along. we saw a mitigation program that was so cumbersome and delayed that so many homeowners simply gave up. we had new flood maps come online that were 80% inaccurate in some counties. we had fema using taxpayer dollars to drag homeowners to

expensive -- through expensive litigation until they gave up on their flood claims. the struggles of everyday new jerseyans revealed to me the dramatic shortcomings of our flood insurance program and left me determined to fix them. so i began working on flood insurance reform and took the lessons we learned after sandy and turned them into action. in the summer of 2017, i introduced the sustainable, affordable, fair and efficient or safe nfip act, a comprehensive flood insurance reform bill cosponsored by four democrats and three republicans here in the senate. and i know this town already has too many anagrams, but this one clearly spells out the four major goals we have in this bill. we want the nfip, the national flood insurance program to be sustainable, we want it to be affordable, we want it to be fair, and we want it to be efficient. now, let's start with sustainability. we have to put the nfip on a

path to solvency. since katrina in 2005, the nfip has been in the red, borrowing from the treasury department to pay claims. some say we should just jack up the premiums on homeowners and keep charging them more to get at this imbalance. that if we ask homeowners to pay more and more and more, eventually the nfip will have enough money to pay all the claims without borrowing. but higher premiums alone are not the answer. of course we want everybody to pay their fair share, but the undeniable reality is that the more that we raise the premiums, the more homeowners leave the national flood insurance program altogether, and that guarantees the program's failure. so instead of looking simply to raise prices, i want to focus on reducing costs. i believe the best way out of this hole is to make proactive investments in resiliency and mitigation to reduce the damage in the first place. in other words, we must build coastal communities that are resilient and strong so that the

damage inflicted by the storms of the future are less expensive to recover. that's why the safe nfip act includes a billion dollars per year in mitigation funding and more than triples the maximum increased costs of compliance or the i.c.c. grants from 30,000 to 100,000. we also require that this funding be spent more wisely, allowing homeowners to use i.c.c. grants before, before their house is destroyed. i've never understood why we require homeowners to sit in harm's way and wait for the next storm to come before we help them reduce their flood risk. it makes no sense. our bill would fix that by giving americans the tools to reduce their risk, we can save the nfip and the taxpayer billions of dollars. our legislation also goes after wasteful private insurance company fees which consume about 30 cents of every premium dollar, despite taking on none

of the risk. that's a good business if you can get it. don't let me get it wrong. that's good business if you can get it, and i have no problem with private companies making a profit, but every dollar that they make comes from the pockets of policyholders. the nfip also currently pays about $400 million in interest every year. that's 10% of its annual premiums, money that could be going towards flood prevention and mitigation. that's why our bill freezes interest payments on the nfip debt and redirects that funding towards mitigation. rather than paying interest to ourselves and forcing the nfip to borrow even more, let's use that money to reduce future damages, save taxpayer dollars, and build safe communities. we cannot have a solvent and sustainable flood insurance program if it isn't affordable to the people who depend on it. the nfip's debt and major

hurricanes have put upward pressure on premiums, making it more and more expensive to get coverage, so it's no surprise that a lot of people have been forced to drop their flood insurance. indeed, in the face of rising premiums, the nfip lost more than 650,000 policies, over 10% of its total business just since 2009. has the risk of flooding decreased since 2009? absolutely not. are there fewer homes and flood plains now? no. of course not. when you consider the floods that have struck louisiana and texas and new jersey by way of example in recent years, the answer is an unequivocal no. what's happened is that the premiums have just gotten too expensive for middle-class families to afford. at the end of the day, this also hurts the solvency of the nfip because just like every other insurance model, a smaller pool means a more risky, more expensive pool. so our bill creates a first of

its kind means-tested affordability program that helps middle-class and working families afford flood insurance. pricing families out of coverage and leaving them without a way to protect their homes does nothing to address the underlying risk. on the contrary, it will be taxpayers who ultimately assume the risk when they are asked to fund uninsured disaster assistance. it's our responsibility to taxpayers to make the nfip as fair and as patient as possible. i have no doubt that hundreds if not thousands of new jerseyans drop their -- dropped their flood insurance after sandy because of how they were treated. they faithfully paid their premiums for years, often decades, without filing a single claim. then when sandy struck them, they tried to collect what they were entitled to, they had to suffer another disaster. this time it was a man made one. the storm after the storm. after losing everything they

worked for their entire lives, they now had to fight against an insurance company and a daunting federal bureaucracy. some appealed, some sued, and some just gave up. i pledged to them that we would never let this happen again. our legislation makes good on that promise by putting the customer -- in this case, the policyholder -- first. we close notorious loopholes that allow insurers to deny claims like the infamous earth movement exclusion when we know floodwaters caused the damage. we fixed the appeals process and forcing owners' own deadline to respond to homeowners for people who just wend through a disaster more time to file their appeal. we require engineer studies to be conducted by -- and imagine this -- actual licensed engineers in the state that they're operating. we require insurance companies to provide policyholders with all of the documents used to

process their claim so homeowners aren't left in the dark. and we end the practice of private insurance companies spending hundreds of millions of policyholder premium dollars on private attorneys whose main goal is to build as many hours as possible -- to bill as many hours as possible to ultimately deny the policyholder any recourse. taken together, these reforms will not only give policyholders a fair shake, it will also save the nfip resources that can be better directed to mitigation, to mapping, and to other cost-saving investments. now, we have got to recognize that the nfip and its five million policyholders can't solve all of our nation's flooding problems on their own. we need to invest tens of billions of dollars elevating and buying out flood-prone properties that get hit year after year.

those particularly repetitive loss properties. we need to reincentivize homeowners that ultimately will get out of those flood-prone properties so they are not subject to the consequences of constantly getting flooded, and we collectively are not subject to the incredible costs that are assumed as a result of that. there simply aren't just resources in the nfip to even put a dent in this problem. so instead of spending hundreds of billions of dollars on disaster grants each time a storm strikes, why not spend a fraction of that on the front end that will -- that will yield real dividends in the future? when a disaster strikes, our immediate priority should always be to save lives and get survivors back to a sense of normalcy as quickly as possible. but while recovery funding is absolutely vital, it shouldn't be at the expense of rebuilding stronger, more resilient communities, more capable of weathering the next storm.

we have a problem in congress of short term-ism, living in the present and not looking ahead. we're afraid of making tough political decisions in the present even when the future is on the line. we see it with flood insurance, and we see it with climate change. the american people desperately need congress to overcome this shortsighted, short term-ism. we must start thinking beyond the storm that just hit or even the one that is on the horizon. we must begin thinking about the risk over the next several decades because flood risk is a climate risk we cannot afford to ignore. we must think about what kind of future, what kind of environment, what kind of economy we want to live -- leave to our children and our grandchildren. it should not matter who controls the house, who controls the senate, or who sits in the white house. the americans of today are -- i

mean, of tomorrow, i should say, are depending on us, the leaders of today, to be bold, unafraid, and willing to think big. that's why i hope republicans and democrats alike will continue to work with me on the issue of flood insurance and flood prevention when we return in 2019. and i want to thank, as i said at the beginning of my comments, my distinguished colleague from rhode island, who has really been the conscience of the senate on this issue of climate change that affects not only those of us now and here but future generations of americans. i've taken one slice of that in talking about the national flood insurance program and how we can mitigate our way and look to a set of circumstances in which we can save enormous consequences to new jersey families, families across our country, and save the taxpayer money. but the ultimate savior is

beyond a new flood insurance program. it is making sure we don't continue to see the floods that are taking, super-storm san caned other major super-storms across the nation that put us at risk as a people, that put our economies at risk, that really threaten the very essence of our existence as we know t and i appreciate the distinguished senator from rhode island leading us in this regard and with that, i yield the floor. mr. whitehouse: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. whitehouse: i am very grateful to the distinguished senior senator from new jersey for joining me again this week to bring attention to the challenges that climate change and rising seas pose for our coastal communities. our states -- new jersey and rhode island -- shared the unforgettable experience of super-storm sandy, which roared ashore on higher tides and warmer oceans. we know in new jersey and rhode

island how vulnerable we are. as sea levels rise and storms intensify, the national flood insurance program should be one of our government's best tools to educate and prepare our communities for the changes that carbon pollution is driving to our coasts. but the program falls well short of this basic goal. instead of tackling its shortfalls head-on, ahead of the next big storm, for instance, we're getting set to punt again on the flood insurance program. my ocean state, much smaller than new jersey, has 400 miles of coastline threatened by sea level rise and storm surge flooding. so telling homeowners and coastal businesses, we'll get to it eventually, is not good enough. our coastal risk is growing, not shrinking. a 2017 zillow chart showed that

over 4,800 homes in rhode island -- 4,800 families' homes -- valued at nearly $3 billion would be under the water by 2100 using an optimistic assessment of only six feet of sea level rise. rhode island's coastal resources management council is now planning for our state to see up to nine to 12 feet of sea level rise by then. new jersey, of course, has even more at risk with its bigger shoreline, with over $93 billion worth of property predicted to fall to rising seas. this problem does not wait until the year 2100. it hits earlier. it hits as soon as 30-year mortgages about and insurance get hard to come by because

banks and insurers foresee these risks, and that inhibits buyers, so prices fall; perhaps prices even crash, as freddie mac is predicting. last year, g.a.o. reported that coastal areas faced particularly high financial risks, and that annual coastal property losses from sea level rise and increased storms will run into the billions of dollars every year in the short run and over $50 billion every year by late century. g.a.o. pointed to an e.p.a. estimate of $5 trillion in economic costs to coastal property from climate change through 2100. our coastal states can't laugh that off because it makes the oil industry uncomfortable to talk about climate change. and it is investors, creditors,

appraisers, everybody who works coastal marketed is taking notice. last december credit rating agency moody's adopted indicators, quote, to assess the exposure and overall susceptability of u.s. states to the physical effects of climate change, end quote. this is moody's. moody's looks particularly at coasts and at the share of a state's economic activity generated by its coastal communities. it counts the homes built on floodplains, and it counts the risk of extreme weather damage as a share of the local economy. the managing director at moody's told "the chicago tribune" that moody's would be taking these risks into consideration when evaluating the credit ratings of coastal municipalities and states. property appraisers are starting to incorporate these into their

works. the value-added magazine reported brad heavenor's warning that homes that receive a 30-year mortgage today, quote, might be completely different types of property by the end of their mortgage than they are today. he points out, as senator menendez pointed out, that fema flood maps are defective, are backward-looking, often insufficient at accurately predicting risk for the communities and homeowners. my frustrations it with fema's flood risk maps are no secret. they are notoriously inaccurate, incomplete, and outdated. the agency's-month-olding is often -- the agency's modeling is often based on inaccurate data and on methodology from the 1970's. it has proven particularly incapable of accurately capturing the different wave and doom dynamic that determine risk during major storms.

so the small state agency has had to develop its own models to provide better risk information to coastal residents and communities than fema provides. the contrast between the state's work and fema's maps highlights just how costly and potentially life-threatening reliance on fema's maps can be. this map is fema's map, relative to mean sea level for a 100-year storm i hitting charlestown, rhe island. the worst flooding for the homes that surround ninigret pond looks to be around 14 feet, around this area here. this map shows crmc's

predictions for the same area for the same storm. it projects homes in this same area may see closer to 20 feet of floodwaters, which means fema's map is underestimating flood risk by six feet, and it's not just errors in rhode island. rice university and texas a&m found that fema map flops only captured about 25% of the damage that from the storms that hit hughes houston. 25%. according to the "houston chronicle," more than 25% of homes damaged by hurricane harvey were not listed in any flood risk areas. they were not required to have any flood insurance or meet any flood-mitigation build building.

and congress continues to support these maps. in families are forced to endure the repeated damage and destruction of their homes and taxpayers are made to pay the cost of over and over and over and over rebuilding the same buildings. in october of 2017, congress had to forgive $16 billion worth of debt to free up money to pay out claims for harvey and irma and maria. the program is currently at least $20 billion in debt. claims from the 2018 hurricane season are still being processed. congressional research service, as of september 2018, found the program had only $9.9 billion of

remaining borrowing authority. it is time to get serious about reforming this broken system and reform it for a changing climate and for a changing coast, the things we know are coming at us. the current system often leaves homeowners no option but to rebuild the same building in the same place on the flooded property. c.r.s. estimates that only about 2% of current nfip-related properties are considered repetitive loss or severe repetitive loss properties. but that 2% accounts for 16% of claims. $9 billion. and over the life of the nfip, those repetitive loss or severe repetitive loss properties have totaled around 30% of all claims. about $17 billion. insurance should allow homeowners to walk away from

flood-torn structures and go find new, safer homes. currently only states or municipalities can do that, can use fema to arrange buyouts of flood-prone properties. fema then provides up to 75% of funding for the local government to buy at fair-market value the property and then it becomes open space. but the buyout process is cumbersome. it is bureaucratic. it is not in the hands of the homeowners. and it doesn't get much use because how many mayors and city councils want to buy out and turn to public use valuable property that is a part of their tax base and encourage folks potentially to leave? this flood program should work with communities to plan for cost-effective resiliency to flooding, whether it's elevating properties, moving homes, or retreating from rising seas.

homeowners should have these options. it is willful blindness to ignore this problem as seas continue to rise and storms become more unpredictable and ferocious, and it's even worse when you compound it with false and erroneous mapping so that the warnings to these families are wrong. property owners and communities deserve proper warning about the flood risks they face, and they deserve alternatives to simply rebuilding the same building in the same place so it can be flooded again and again and again, which the program now forces them to do. with so much at risk, mr. president, for american families, it is time to wake up and put in a smart and reliable system once and for all. and with that, i yield the floor with my gratitude to the distinguished senior senator from new jersey in joining me here today.

mrs. murray: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from washington. mrs. murray: thank you, mr. president. i come to the floor today to raise concerns about the unprecedented object tax obstrun of a -- obstruction of a highly iified the nomination is confirmed. it is illegal to discriminate against someone in the workplace because of the tax rates that make them who -- the tax rate the traits that make them who they are. and it is the equal employment opportunity commission's responsibility to enforce those laws and to give every person the opportunity to make a living for themselves without fear of discrimination or harassment. but right now a single republican senator is threatening to derail the confirmation of misfieldobama --

feldblum on the eeoc. she sasse strong support from republicans and democrats on the senate and has been confirmed by this senate twice. mr. president, when this comes to independent boards and commissions, including the eeoc, the senate has a long-standing practice of pairing nominees -- one from the majority party and one from the minority leader. this is so important because it allows the minority party the opportunity to have a voice and in this case allows my democratic colleagues and i to ensure employers are held accountable for workers' rights and safety on the job. this practice is also important to bipartisanship here in the senate. and part of that long-standing practice is that the majority cannot railroad the nomination of a well-respected and well-qualified individual chosen by the minority. if ms. feldblum's nomination --

the senate is not in order. the presiding officer: the senate will be in order. mrs. murray: if ms. feldblum's nomination is blocked by this congress, it would be an unprecedented power grab by the majority that would permanently shift the balance of power in the senate. i hope all of my colleagues take seriously what it would mean if yet another power of the minority in the senate was taken away. but most importantly, if one republican senator insists on blocking ms. feldblum's nomination, the work of the equal employment opportunity commission, an agency workers rely on to protect their work and safety on the job, is going to come to a grinding halt. mr. president, over the past two years we have seen a shift in this country towards acknowledging and taking action against sexual assault and harassment especially in the workplace. for far too long this epidemic of powerful men taking advantage

of their subordinates or employees or those without a voice was swept under the rug, and women and men were told to brush it off or have a sense of humor or just endure the harassment or abuse they were facing in the workplace. and many did because they knew they would be punished, retaliated against or even fired. but after the presidential election and the women's march, when so many women and men around the country made their voices heard and fought back against miss so this ni, sex -- miss so -- mysogony, we started to see women and men bravely come forward at a level we have never seen before to say no more and to speak out against their experiences of sexual assault and harassment in the workplace. and because of that courage, a lot of powerful men in hollywood, in the media, here in congress have finally been

held accountable for their actions, especially when it came to using their power to take advantage of younger or less powerful women and men. but for women and men in industries outside the spotlight, in hospitalty, technology and farm field, in so many other places around the country there has not been the same kind of reckoning and for so many of those workers the eeoc is one of the very few places they can turn to. the eeoc is a resource for workers who feed to file complaints of harassment -- who need to file complaints of harassment or discrimination. it holds employers and businesses accountable for widespread discrimination and harm. again, mr. president, because of the objection of a single republican senator, it is possible now that the eeoc will be unable to deduct some of its critical work. here's what that means for workers in our country. the eeoc would no longer be able

to bring some large cases when discrimination is part of employers general operating standards, and that often includes hiring practices or equal pay or sexual harassment. and it means workers will not be able to file complaints to stop what happened to them from happening to anyone else. the eeoc would not be able to rule in cases where the commission has not previously taken a position and a new policy must be created, and regional eeoc offices would not be able to hire expert witnesses in some cases, meaning that many cases would be stalled or even punted. this is not hypothetical. without a quorum, without a quorum the eeoc would not have been able to participate in the 2016 case against a tire company that refused to hire women for field positions. but after the eeoc intervened, that company settled with 46

women and implemented safeguards to prevent further discrimination. the eeoc also would not have been able to participate in a case against the outdoor store that discriminated against african americans and hispanic workers in its hiring practices and retaliated against workers who stood up against unlawful practices. workers around the country rely on the eeoc every day to intervene when they are being harassed, discriminated against or unfairly treated at work, whether they're being told they must work on their day of religious observeance or being told they cannot do a certain job because of their sex, the eeoc is there for them. and in this moment when sexual assault and harassment in the workplace is at the forefront of our national conversation, this is the wrong message to send to american workers and their employers. we need to prove to the millions of women and men that we are

taking -- we are taking the epidemic of harassment in the workplace seriously. mr. president, i've spoken to many of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle here to make the case for confirming ms. feldblum before the end of this congress, and there is strong support on both sides of the aisle to get this done, with the exception of one lone republican senator. so i urge my colleagues across the aisle to push aside this unprecedented obstructionism and i call on the senate to move forward with confirming the full slate of nominees to the eeoc before this congress ends so the commission can continue to fulfill its duty to workers by enforcing protections and ensuring people are able to go to work and make a living without the fear of discrimination, harassment, or abuse. and, mr. president, i hope as we are confirming the eeoc nominee, the senate will also confirm mark pearce to another term on the national labor

relations board. like the eeoc, the senate has a long history of confirming majority and minority members to the board in pairs. however, this year senate republicans jammed through the majority members without reconfirming mr. pearce and allowing the minority seat to sit empty. he is extremely qualified. he has a long track record of serving his country for eight years now as a member of the board. he have has a distinguished background representing unions and workers, and right now when the republican board members are rushing decisions through that chip away workers' rights, even violating ethics pledges to do so, it's clear the board could benefit from his knowledge and expertise and voice for workers. as i've told my colleagues across the aisle, i will not allow the senate to jam through any help committee nominees until mr. pearce and ms. feldblum are reconfirmed to their positions on the board and the eeoc. therefore, mr. president, i

ask unanimous consent that the help committee be discharged from further consideration of p.n. 1318 and the senate proceed to the en bloc consideration of the following nominations: pn 1318 executive calendar 379 and 381 and the senate vote on the nominations en bloc with no intervening action or debate. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from utah. mr. lee: mr. president, reserving the right to be 0. i first want to note it's been suggested that there is only one objection to chai feldblum's nomination for the eeoc. that is not true. i am among those objectors. i am not the lone objecter. my objection to this nominee relates to my belief in religious freedom. you see religious freedom is very important to me. i'm the descendent of people ordered exterminated by the governor of missouri in 1837. religious intolerance cannot be tolerated in this country, and

i see a growing wave of religious intolerance. i see a growing wave of sentiment of people suggesting that on the basis of people's religious beliefs that they can be subject to adverse government decision making. ms. feldblum has written that she sees a conflict between religious belief and lgbt liberty as, quote, a zero-sum game, where, quote, a gain for one side necessarily entails a corresponding loss for the other side. close quote. i see no reason why that should be the case and i think that's incompatible with our nation's tradition with pluralism and religious freedom. make no mistake, there is no miss fri about which side ms. feldblum thinks should win. in a separate speech she said, quote, there can be a conflict between religious liberty and sexual liberty. but in almost all cases the sexual liberty should win.

i'm having a hard time coming up with any case in which religious liberty should win. close quote. i find these remarks stunning especially because an entire amendment to the u.s. constitution, the very first one, by the way, is devoted to religious liberty. these are not the words of an open-minded jurist, mr. president. these are not the minds of an open-minded lawyer. these are the words of an activist intent on stamping out all opposition to her cause. in fact, she's even said as much. she said, quote, granting liberty to gay people cannot be adequately advanced if pockets of resistance are permitted to flourish. who is she to decide whether or not someone should be permitted to persist in their own religious beliefs simply because those beliefs happen to conflict with a particular political world view? as an eeo commissioner, ms. feldblum would be in a prime position to stamp out pockets of resistance. as she herself as noted, quote, the eeoc has jurisdiction over only employment but other

federal agencies that enforce sex discrimination provisions often look to our interpretations for guidance in interpreting the laws they enforce. close quote. the federal government should never be used as a tool is to tam out religious -- stamp out religious liberty. that principle is so central to our nation's founding that is human happiness itself. it's so important that we've got to stand behind it. ms. feldblum, however, wants to deny exactly that. and on this basis i object to her confirmation and i offer up a -- i offer up a counter offer i'm fine with the other two eeoc commissioners. if that's what we're worried about, the ability of eeoc to do its business, that's fine. i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the en bloc consideration of the following nominations: executive calendar number 379 and 381 and that the senate voas on the nominations -- vote on the nominations en bloc with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: is there objection? mrs. murray: i object. the presiding officer: objection is heard.

a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from new hampshire. ms. hassan: i rise to join my colleagues in urging the approval of chaia feldblum. the eeoc is a vital bipartisan agency that enforces workers' civil rights and helps protect them from harassment and discrimination while on the job. the eeoc has long operated with bipartisan support and requires a quorum of its five members to decide the cases before the agency, cases which include racial discrimination, gender discrimination, age discrimination, and the abuse of people who experience disabilities. and as my colleague from washington noted, it decides cases of sexual harassment as well. in short, the eeoc operates to protect hardworking people who

just want a fair shot in the workplace. blocking this nominee prevents the eeoc from carrying out the work that it is tasked to do. and it is bringing an unnecessary level of partisanship to a previously bipartisan process. mr. president, ms. feldblum is a highly qualified nominee. she has already been confirmed to the eeoc twice by the united states senate, receiving support from democrats and republicans alike. she's also the first and only openly lgbtq person to serve on the commission. mr. president, after being nominated by president trump for another term last year, it is time that we finally move forward with ms. feldblum's nomination. we need to stop these games and we need to allow the eeoc to fully carry out its duties. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor.

a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from arkansas. mr. boozman: i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of the calendar number 683, s. 3247. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 683, s. 3247, a bill to improve programs and activities relating to women's entrepreneur shp an economic empowerment carried out by the united states agency for economic and other purposes. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. boozman: i ask unanimous consent that the committee-reported amendment be agreed to, the bill as amended be considered read a third time. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. boozman: i know of no further debate on the bill as amended. the presiding officer: if there's no further debate, the question is on passage of the bill as amended.

all those in favor say aye. all opposed say no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the bill as amended is passed. mr. boozman: i ask unanimous consent that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. th mr. boozman: thank you, mr. president. i yield back. the presiding officer: the senator from colorado. mr. gardner: i ask that the chair lay before the senate a message. the presiding officer: the chair lays before the senate a message from the house. the clerk: resoistled -- resolved that the bill from the senate entitled an act to develop a long-term strategic vision and comprehensive multifaceted and principled united states policy for the indo-pacific region do pass with an amendment. mr. gardner: i move to concur on the house amendment and i ask unanimous consent that the motion be agreed to and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. gardner: mr. president, i

rise to celebrate this bill we just passed for our nation's foreign policy. shortly we will send this legislation now, the gardner-markey, the asia reassurance initiative act. i want to thank senator markey and his staff for their incredibly hard work on this bill, efforts to get this bill over the finish line. i believe we set a strong example of how major foreign policy can be accomplished in a thorough and bipartisan fashion, and i look forward to our next effort together. i also want to thank senators cardin and rubio for their early and consistent support on their effort and thanks to senator corker and bob menendez and their staffs for helping to shepherd this through the foreign relations committee where it passed unanimously on december 26. i want to thank kevin mccarthy

and getting this passed through the house of representatives with only minimal changes. leader mccarthy and his staff took an early interest in this effort. i'm grateful to leader steny hoyer and ed rios and eliot engel for their support. nearly two weeks in the making, this initiative will establish a generational and principled u.s. policy in the indo-pacific region vital for u.s. national security ant economic interests. it is important because the indo-pacific is home to half of the world population, half of the world's gross domestic product, the world's largest standing farmers. -- armies. this depends on having the right policies to ensure a free and open indo-pacific. thereof, the gardner-markey bill

will have a long-term strategy to enhance security cooperation with our allies an establishes the asia-pacific security initiative. it promotes businesses, projects american values of democracy, human rights and the rule of law throughout the indo-pacific. it's a bill designed to provide u.s. leadership as other powers turn to economic colonialism. starting in june 2017, senator markey and i have had hearings. the hearings examined a range of national security, economic and rule of law challenges in the indo-pacific and culminated in a final hearing with department of defense officials to allow the administration to express its views on this legislation. we introduced this legislation on april 24 of this year with a bipartisan group including rubio, cardin, young. we received a letter by secretary pompeo and secretary mattis endorsing this legislation. it says that we value this

legislation for the security commitments. furthermore its focus on promoting stronger regional economic engagement and support for the rule of law and development of civil society is especially welcomed as part after diplomatically-led whole of government approach to the indo-pacific region. this passed the foreign relations committee unanimously on september 26. passed on the floor of the senate december 24, p the house passed this on december 12 by the house. this is a rare piece of bipartisan legislation that enjoys broad support in the congress, the house, but is strongly support by the -- supported by the business community. the "wall street journal" board endorsed it stating congress is helping with the bipartisan indo-pacific act. this includes australia and japan. it notably encourages regular

weapon sales to taipei. the u.s. chamber of commerce endorsed this legislation, stating it encourages this act and thanks senator guarder and markey for strengthening relationships across the indo-pacific region. we appreciate the bill's focus on closer trade ties, stronger protections for intellectual property and renewed focus on trade facilitation. the heritage foundation wrote on december 6, a sweeping bill with bipartisan support in congress and backing of the trump administration is one step closer to becoming reality. this act, introduced by senator cory gardner with markey and rubio passed the senate on wednesday. this was a welcomed display of leadership. in these partisan time it has gardnered support from experts aacross the political spectrum. as the singapore straits time

wrote, under the obama administration -- region but the u.s. just flat out did not readjust our resources in a way that actually backed that up said dr. lindsey ford, director of political security affairs for the asia society institute. this legislation, if passed, would be probably one of the most consequential pieces of funding legislation that has to do with asia the u.s. congress would have passed in years. dr. ford told straits times. we have the heritage foundation and former obama administration officials on the same page, you know we've done something right. so, again, i want to congratulate this body, truly the world's most deliberative chamber as this bill has proved for this bipartisan victory and i hope the president will sign this important law -- this bill into law shortly. again, i want to thank my colleague, senator markey, for his tremendous leadership on

this and i yield the floor to senator markey. mr. markey: i thank the senator from colorado and i rise to echo the sentiments of the senator from colorado. i first want to thank the senator for all of his great work on this bill, for all of the hearings which took place in the subcommittee, all of the various interest groups who had to be worked with in order to make sure this bill came to pass. so i just want to thank the senator from colorado, thank his staff for the great work. this bill is an historic bill. it's a very important bill. it could not have happened without you, and i thank you for all of your incredible leadership on this issue and i

want to thank my own staff for all of their great work on this issue as well. we had an incredible bipartisan partnership that was created between the senator from colorado and the senator from massachusetts with our staffs working very closely together. this bill, the gardner-markey asia reassurance initiative act is a very important bill, and i want to speak about this bill, but in doing so, i am actually speaking about something that is broader, something more important, something of more lasting consequence to enter national peace and stability and something more critical to the economic well-being, security, and fundamental rights of americans and millions of others around the globe. america has always had an important relationship with the

indo-pacific region, but the global landscape is changing, and today, more than ever, the indo-pacific is the most consequential region, not only for just the united states, but also for the rest of the world. and that's what this bill is all about. it is how we in the united states, congress, can reaffirm that we, number one, are and will remain committed to the indo-pacific. number two, recognize its shifting dynamics and the significance these changes represent, and, number three, stand ready to marshal the leadership and resources necessary to address the challenges that we face and capitalize on the opportunities before us. so with in mind, i, again, want to extend my gratitude to my partner in this endeavor,

senator gardner. he's been the best possible partner in this effort and i want to thank him for everything he has done. i also want to thank senators corker and menendez for advancing this bill through the senate foreign relations committee and a litany of saints that i think should all be mentioned. senator rubio, senator cardin, senator young, senator sullivan, senator perdue, senator graham, senator coons, senator kaine, senator peters, senator wicker, all cosponsors of this bill, perfectly bipartisan. and i also want to thank representatives mccarthy and hoyer and neil and rios and castro and soho for their help as well. it is not only indicative of the level of bipartisanship in congress but also on u.s.-asia policy. this bill would not have been possible without them and it would not have been possible

without, again, the wonderful staffs that we are blessed to have working on these issues who spent many long hours for advocating on many key american interests and values in this legislation. this bill represents a generational policy to enhance leadership in the indo-pacific and is a demonstrate of a free and open region as the rules-based international order. mark appleton worked to partner with you. i'm pleased that the gardner-markey legislation will pass today and i look forward to it being sent on it the president's desk. i thank you, mr. president, and, again, i thank senator gardner for all of his incredible work. with that, i yield back to the chair. the presiding officer: the senator from colorado. mr. gardner: i ask unanimous consent that sean mcclintock

be granted floor privileges for the remainder of the 115th congress. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection.

a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from mississippi. mr. wicker: are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are not. mr. wicker: mr. president, i rise today for a long overdue floor speech to recognize a school in my home state of mississippi that continues to win national football

championships. five, in fact, over the past ten years. i can assure my friends from alabama i'm not trying to steal the thunder from the crimson tide. i'm here to recognize the undefeated east mississippi community college lions who have become their own football dynasty and are the reigning national junior college athletic association champs. what makes the east mississippi community college football program so special is the grit and determination that fuels its success. some of these players are truly playing for their lives. they are the comeback kids, rising above adversity to get back into the game. the stories of these players are so inspirational that they won over the hearts of americans in the netflix documentary series "last chance u." in the first two seasons of that program, viewers had a prime spot in the bleachers to watch east mississippi's 2015 and 2016 football seasons. i won't reveal any spoilers, but

the lions have undeniable star power. one of the compelling themes throughout the show is the belief in second chances. past misbehavior or poor grades do not define these players or their futures. they have legions of fans cheering for their success and for the next touchdown, and they have introduced to the nation if not the world the small mississippi town of scuba, population 700. according to the show's trailer, one of football's best recruiting grounds is a place you have never heard of, but now the secret is out. i'd like to congratulate the east mississippi lions as this year's juco champions and recognize the leadership of head coach buddy stevens who only this afternoon was named national coach of the year for junior college football. i also want to congratulate east mississippi's six all-americans this year, which is the most for

any school except iowa western which tied with them. these all-americans include first team all-american wide receiver donta rio drummond and dion mcintosh, offensive lineman laquinceton sharp and everett crowdfunding. honorable mentions quarterback mesiah weaver and return specialist d.j. clayton. there have been 32 all-americans during coach stevens' 11-season tenure with the lions. many east mississippi players go on to four-year universities and even pro football teams. lagarrett blunt, running back for the detroit lions and a three-time super bowl champion was a former east mississippi lion. so was defensive back c.j.rivas who plays for the jacksonville jaguars. other alumni currently playing in the nfl are defensive lineman jaron reid for the seattle

seahawks, jeda risk assessment. rius smith for the ravens, altre for the colts, and d.j. jones for the san francisco 49ers. although there is no question about east mississippi's skills on the field, the team also earned the title of being the football academic team of the year among junior colleges, showing that the work goes far past the end zone. our state and nation are proud of east mississippi community college's success. i am confident that their football dynasty will continue, and i look forward to cheering them on to other championships in future years. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor.

a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from delaware. mr. carper: i rise today with two of our colleagues, senator markey and senator jeff merkley,

to reflect on the 24th session of the united nations framework convention on climate change that concluded just this last week in the country of poland. this important conference which is better known as crop-24, which i believe refers to conference of parties 24, met there for the past -- i think they have been doing that for the past 24 years. they met there for two weeks as leaders from nearly 200 nations worked to reach their agreement on how the world, our world will actually implement the paris climate agreement. the states could not be -- stakes could not be higher, mr. president. i'm not one, as my colleagues know, i am not one given to hyperbole, but the future of our planet and the future of our children and our grandchildren may well hang in the balance. was it a positive step forward that the international community could come together and agree to meaningful action to combat climate change on a global scale

by finally beginning to implement the paris agreements? yes, it was. but having said that, this agreement is not perfect. they know it, we know it. no one is pretending that it is. it falls well short of the steps that the intergovernmental panel on climate change, the ipcc, determined just one month ago are needed to avoid the most catastrophic effects of climate change over the next decade. the entire world needs to do even more to address this problem. that includes setting much more aggressive emissions targets going forward to address the challenges of climate change in the years ahead. while we certainly can and should be doing more, though, this agreement is cause for hope that bolder future agreements are achievable. but reaching bolder future agreements, mr. president, is going to require real leadership from leaders and from nations across the world. after all, leadership is the

biggest key to success for almost any organization or any endeavor. that includes saving this planet. unfortunately, our president, along with many in his administration, continue to reject climate science and deny the reality and the magnitude of the challenges that we're facing. well, mr. president, here's three. according to the national oceanic and atmospheric administration, the u.s. experienced 16 extreme weather-related disasters in 2017 that exceeded $1 billion apiece. in the past year alone, americans paid $306 billion in damages due to storm surges, flooding, wildfires, crop freezes, and droughts, a new record. 13 of our nation's leading scientific federal agencies recently reported to us in the national climate assessment that

if we do nothing to address our carbon emissions, today's extreme weather-related events will pale in comparison, pale in comparison to what lies ahead. here's a sampling of what we can look forward to if we do nothing, if we don't do enough. in the future, we can continue to expect rainfall for precipitation as measured by the foot, not by the inch. we can continue to expect more wildfires in places out west, burning areas larger than my home state of delaware. and we can continue to expect extreme flooding to devastate communities like ellicott city, maryland, not too far from here, which has been hit by not one but two 1,000-year floods in the past two years alone. think about that. two in the past two years alone. somebody asked me the other day, what is a 1,000-year flood? that is something that is supposed to happen no more than

once every 1,000 years. they have seen two of them in ellicott city in the past two years. mr. president, one of the most memorable lyrics from my youth and maybe from some of the others in this chamber come from a guy named steven stealheusen, a singer/songwriter from buffalo springfield fame and crosby stills nash and young. he once wrote a lyric that goes, here it goes. something's happening here. just what it is ain't exactly clear. think about that. something's happening here. just what it is ain't exactly clear. well, make no mistake, something is happening here. and what is happening here is exactly clear. what's also clear is that there is still time to do something about it while actually fostering economic growth in the u.s. and beyond our borders. let me say that again. here's the good news. what's also clear is that there

is still time to do something about it while actually fostering economic growth in the u.s. and beyond our borders. climate science isn't part of some grand hoax. this isn't some alarmist prediction. it doesn't come from some left-leaning organization. it doesn't come from talk radio. the truth of the matter is it comes directly from our nation's leading scientists and from leading scientists around the world. the national climate assessment is not developed at the direction or whim of any one person for any one administration. it was congress that passed the law mandating that the national climate assessment be presented every four years. we did it. congress did it. that law was called the global change research act of 1990. it passed this united states senate in 1990 unanimously it was signed into law by the late

president george herbert walker bush. our nation's leading scientists warned us yet again less than a month ago that if we failed to start reducing carbon emissions, by the end of the century we could witness the tale of horribles. here is an example. six feet, since 1993, three inches compared to what we experienced in the last 25 years, that is a heck of a lot. we would expect, if it does go to six feet in sea-level rise, some $3.6 trillion in damage to u.s. properties and infrastructure. most of our east coast, a lot of it will be under water, including maybe parts of the lowest-lying state in america, which is delaware. our next chart talks about

annual economic losses of up to $500 billion annual economic damages by 2090, not cumulative, but every year. we have another chart here that speaks to gross domestic product. you may recall when we had the great recession around ten years, the worse recession since the great depression, we saud g.d.p. -- we saw g.d.p. growth of just over 4%. it was horrible. it was terrible. banks stopped lending money, unemployment rate was 10% or more, people couldn't get loans for anything, and that's where we were. if these estimates from .so the best, -- from some of the best, smartest scientists in the world are correct, it won't be losses of 2.4%, it will be 10% by 2100.

no member of this senate will be around then, but these pages sitting down here, they will be. a lot of them will be and our grandsons and granddaughters, they may be around too. as the world works to develop meaningful solutions to mitigate the effects of climate change, the trump administration exacerbates the problem by doubling down on dirty energy policies. they are trying to discredit the recent science points by pushing talking points by well-known climate deniers. here's the good news. americans are not falling for these tricks anymore. americans are witnessing firsthand the effects of climate change in their communities every day. they want action and they may want us to be part of that action. so does the business community. while this administration sits on its hands, american

businesses are stepping up in a big way to combat the effects of climate change. many businesses stand ready to do even more. and they are looking to us here in our nation's capital to provide some leadership. to our international friends around the world who are wondering where this nation is on climate change, i just want to say to those folks, speaking on behalf of the majority, not just of delawareans, but americans, we're with you. we are with you. we support the paris climate agreement. we want to reduce carbon emissions because we're convinced doing so will enable us to save our planet and create jobs, a lot of them. this is not a democrat or republican issue. this is not a blue state or red state issue. it affects us all. if you think that climate change hasn't reached your state yet, the science is clear that eventually it will.

well, luckily for us young people are leading the call for action. climate change or environmental issues -- or environmental issues are often mistakenly forgotten when we discuss domestic issues. in today's new cycle, especially under this administration, it doesn't always make headlines. it's oftentimes be said that climate change is not an issue that drives americans to the polls. mr. president, i think that is changing. young people who led the way in changing our country before. i remember when i was your age, i say to our pages, in the 1950's, we led the decades-long civil rights movement, equal rights for every american under the law. it was young activists who made clear their opposition to the vietnam war. back in the 1970's when i was actually serving in the vietnam war as a naval flight officer, young people fought for higher environmental standards at the

cuyahoga river was on fire and we had shores of our country littered with garbage. well, our country is back in another one of those make or break moments in our history and we need americans of all ages, young or old, to make sure we don't blow it and we need to listen to them all, especially to our younger americans, this generation of young americans, and all we think about it, they should be energized by this. it's their planet and it's their future. when it comes to global challenges such as terrorism and cyberattacks, the u.s. doesn't sit back and wait for someone else to lead the way. we step up and we lead. we have many dogs in this fight. some big ones and some not so big ones. we've got a lot of dogs in this fight. we've got a lot at stake. fortunately, acting sooner

rather than later on climate change brings with it a number of positives many we can put our country on course to reduce emissions while growing our economy. i keep coming back to this theme. it's an important theme. we could put our country on a curse 0 to reduce emissions and grow our economy. the two are not mutually exclusive. i don't care what some people would say and that is believed. in fact, quite the opposite. they are not mutually exclusive. while we -- what we can and should do is use our energy resources to foster new economic opportunities for communities that may be dependent on the old world order. in 2017 nearly 3.2 million americans were working in wind and solar and other climate energy jobs. until a year or two ago one of them was one of our sons, our oldest sons who worked for six years or so helping develop

waste from are large buildings to conserve energy. there were a lot more -- 3.2 million more. more jobs will follow and it is important to make sure that new jobs will go to people whose jobs are going away. how would we feel if we're losing our job and at the same time three million people who had -- gained a job, how about me? you know, i was born in west virginia. my dad was a coal miner for a while earlier in his life, how about those people? when we make progress in reducing carbon emission that the folks who lose their job because of the reduction of the carbon emissions that we don't forget them and we reach back and help them too. well, let me just observe, we don't have the luxury of waiting around. we need to crank it up and we need to get going. and that's why, as the senior

democrat on -- and ranking member of the committee on environment and public works where i serve along with senator markey and merkley and others, i'm anxious to join them in helping to lead the fight for policies that take this country into a brighter climate future. if we're honest with our children and grandchildren, we don't have any other choice, mr. president. it was my hope that on the world stage this week america's representative cop-24 would make clear that our country is ready to lead by example. unfortunately, they apparently did not. but that's no reason to despair. we have the facts and i think we have the energy and the commitment on our side. i want to leave our colleagues today with this message. climate action should not be an issue that divides us. climate change -- climate action should not be an issue that

divides us. it should be an issue that unites us. it should not -- not just this country but the entire global community. and i will definitely use a little uniting -- our world could use a little uniting these days. so could our country. years from now when my sons -- or i should say our sons, my wife and i, our sons' children are dealing with the inevitable consequences with failure to address climate change, if we do fail, there will be a day when they might come to me, or frankly to any of us and say, well, you were a united states senator -- you were a united states senator, weren't you grandpa? what did you do when you had the chance to do something about this impending disaster when there was still time? what did you do? what did you do about it? and we should all want to say

the same thing. i worked tirelessly. i worked tirelessly, reminding, warning my colleagues, pushing my colleagues that we moved heaven and earth to make sure that future generations would inherit, could inherit a safe, a healthy planet, one where their dreams and aspirations could be realized and not destroyed. my colleagues and i, especially senator markey and senator merkley are on the floor to make clear that the overwhelming majority of americans stand with almost every other nation in the world on this issue. we need to act and we need to act now. time is not on our side. let's seize the day. ka pai de'em -- carpe diem. let's seize the day. this is like preaching to the choir. but nobody has done more in this body or the united states

congress in the last 15 years than this man right here, senator ed markey from massachusetts to try to make sure that we realize this is a problem, that we do something about it and we do something about it soon and in a way that create economic opportunity. so i thank you. it's a pleasure to stand in front of you and serve beside you. mr. markey: and i thank bishop carper -- i mean senator carper as i continue preaching to the choir because there's no one who does it better than you do and we have to continue to do this insistently, persistently, consistently to make sure that this message is heard. so we thank you for all of your great leadership, senator carper. senator merkley will be joining us out here on the floor. we have so many other members who are completely committed to this issue. it is absolutely essential that

we make progress in 2019 and 2020 on this issue. we're speaking on the floor today about the just-concluded international climate negotiations in poland, also called cop-24. that means conference of parties. that means every nation on earth, 24. 24 times that every nation on earth met to preserve the earth, to make sure that this great gift that god gave us is, in fact, passed on better than we found it and not potentially at great risk because we did not act. unfortunately, given the focus of the trump administration at the climate conference, you could say that we are here on the senate floor not for a colloquy but for a coal-o-que, a

discussion about the role of coal in our society. it is a shameful moment for our country in the history that the united states formed a gaslighting group to downplay the findings of climate change while at the talks in poland, despite the fact that the ipcc special report, the u.n. special report on 1.5 dreel celsius, the -- degree celsius that coal with carbon capture must be completely eliminated by the year 2050. the u.s., unfortunately, held an official event celebrating dirty fossil fuels with to this solution to the problem. that's the trump administration.

president trump, i think, got his degree in climate science from trump university with the diplomas handed out by the koch brothers. this is the problem. and it's not the coal miners. we have to make sure we take care of the coal miners. we have to make sure they get the health care they need, the pensions they need. but there is a revolution going on. it's a renewables revolution. an all-electric vehicle revolution. and this administration has been trying as hard as it can to stop it, to slow it down even as the planet gets dangerously warm. fortunately, for the planet, the international community sets the rules of the road for implementing the paris climate agreement despite the misinformation being pedaled by the trump administration. the global community was in agreement in its belief in the science of climate change, and

now we have a new rule book based on international consensus for making progress towards the goals outlined in the paris climate agreement. what happened in poland was an important milestone for the planet. when donald trump announced that the united states would withdraw from the paris agreement, he defied the wishes of the majority of americans and many of our biggest business leaders because they know that being a part of the paris agreement makes america more competitive. it will create new jobs, open up new markets, catalog economic growth and redues business risks. the trump administration decision to pull the united states from the paris accord continues to be a grave, unforced error with massive implications for our economy, for our security, for our public health, and for our future.

the new conference of parties, the new meaning of every country in the world rule book makes the paris agreement stronger than ever. but the united states wants the the -- the rules to simply allow us to sit out the game. and by united states, i mean the trump administration representing the federal government. but it doesn't represent the people, it doesn't represent the state, it doesn't represent the cities, it doesn't represent all the businesses in our country who are moving on renewables, moving on this dramatic change. recently released scientific studies make clear that as one of the world's greatest polluters, the united states cannot sit on the sidelines. you cannot preach temperance from a bar stool.

you can't tell the rest of the world do something while you yourself are allowing all of these emissions to go up into the atmosphere. of the 17 hardest years on record, 16 have occurred since the year 2000. at the rate we're warming, the world is on course to breach 1.e preindustrial levels by 2030. the national climate assessment warns that the northeast will warm faster than any other region in the united states, reaching two degrees of warming above preindustrial levels of 2035. in other words, the gulf of maine, massachusetts bay is the second fastest warming body of water on the planet after the arctic. that's dangerous. so what we have, what it means is that we could have a total

loss of coral reefs, the doubling of plant and animal species lost, a loss of up to .1 of u.s. g.d.p., more than double the losses of the great recession by 2100. senator carper already laid all of this out in graphic detail for the members to see it, for the american people to see. and when asked about the conclusions from his own administration's scientists on climate change, president trump said i don't believe my own scientists on climate action. the world no longer sees the american president as a commander in chief. it sees a climate deaner in chief -- climate denier in chief sitting in the oval office. thankfully, america's climate scientists are fighting for us. the world's scientists are fighting for us. we must fight for them. we must fight efforts to censor their research. we must fight the efforts to ax

their budgets. we must fight for them because the work they do is essential to our planet's future. one only has to look at the litany of sins perpetrated by the trump administration on climate science and climate action to see how big a fight we have. the list of this administration's efforts to weaken climate action, public health, and environmental rules is so long that senator whitehouse and i had to publish a report to capture all of the ways that donald trump has already come up to lead the most anticlimate administration in history. this is the report. it just goes on, page after page of actions which they have taken to undermine, undermine the progress which we should be making on climate. we just issued this report this

week. there are more than 114 climate actions that president trump and his big oil all-star team at the cabinet level in this administration have put in place. that is literally one attack per week over the past two years. during his tenure, president trump nominated andrew wheeler, a member of the coal industry's hall of fame to run the agency tasked with protecting our environment. he has moved to freeze fuel economy standards at 2020 levels rather than pushing for the economically and technologically achievable goal of 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025. while in the white house, the president just day by day tries his best to make sure that no progress is made. well, here's what i know.

we went all the way from 1975 until 2007 with no new law passed on fuel economy standards. i was able in the house, partnering with members over here in the senate, to pass the increase in 2007 for fuel economy standards. that was the first increase in 32 years. president trump has proposed a clean power plant replacement that would kill 1,400 more americans every year and admit 12 -- and emit 12 times more carbon dioxide. this list goes on and on. the only thing longer than the list of anticlimate and environmental actions taken by the trump administration might be the number of investigations of the trump administration. unfortunately, in the absence of leadership from trump's federal agencies, people wonder what is happening? is there a reason for hope? the answer is yes.

our towns, our cities, our states haven't missed a step. 22 states, 550 cities, 900 companies with operations in the united states have climate commitments in place. these pledges could get us within striking distance of our original commitment in the paris climate agreement. after the waxman-markey bill passed on the floor of the united states house of representatives, when president obama went to copenhagen, the promise he made was the 17% reduction by 2020 which was in the waxman-markey bill. that's the pledge, that 17% in the waxman-markey bill. we're still capable of come very close to that, but we know that even the u.s. commitment in paris of up to 28% in the years after that would be insufficient

to limit the warming to 1.5 degrees by mid century. so we need to be thinking beyond that. we need to get to net zero emissions by 2050. to get there, we will need to take unprecedented action. we need to super charge our investments in a clean energy economy. and we need to do that at the federal level. we need to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half globally by 2030. we need to invest in energy efficiency solutions to reduce total energy demand by one-third. we need to transform our transportation system because as much as 65% of energy used in transportation will need to come from low-emission sources. and at the same time, in the power sector, we need at least 75% of our electricity to come from clean sources by 2050. getting there will not be easy, but we have the technologies necessary for this to be possible. we have the momentum in the markets to get renewable energy

to every corner of this country. we are ushering our power sector into a clean energy future that is good for our environment and good for our economy, as senator carper said. in the early 2020's, it could be cheaper to build new renewables from scratch than to continue operating old, dirty coal-fired power plants. that's not a conspiracy. that's called competition. adam smith is smiling in his grave, looking at this competition unfold. the cost of solar has fallen 50% to 60% over the last five to six years. in fact, wind and solar are generally cheaper than coal and nuclear energy right now. and that's not just happening here. half of all electricity installed around the world last year was renewable. let me say it again. half of all new electricity on the planet last year was renewable. renewable energy employment around the world has increased

by 8% a year for seven years in a row, and there is no likelihood that's going to change. globally, more than $330 billion was invested in clean energy just last year. this is a global clean energy race. it is a global job creation race. we cannot let nations like china and india and others win that race. we have to push ourselves harder. right now, we have more than 50,000 megawatts of solar installed in the united states. by the end of 2022, we could have over 250,000 megawatts of wind and solar installed if we just continue on the pace that we're at right now and we don't allow donald trump and his cronies to roll back those advances. we now have five times as many workers in the solar industry as we do in coal mining in the united states. in 2016, we added as many jobs in the solar industry as exists

in the coal mining industry. by 2020, we will have 500,000 americans working in wind and solar. who are these workers? they are electricians. they are roofers. they are carpenters. they are blue blue-collar workers all across this country. we have unleashed a blew -- blue-collar job revolution in this country. hundreds of thousands of people working in it with a direct assault from the white house going against those workers every single day. blue-collar workers, workers who right now are five times larger in number than the coal miners in our country. it will be american machinists who build advanced fuel-fiesht vehicles. it will be american electricians retrofitting energy-efficient buildings. it will be american roofers installing solar panels. clean energy is the greatest force for blue-collar high-wage job creation in a generation. while we have a responsibility

to protect the livelihood of the millions of americans who work in energy efficiency, clean energy, clean vehicles, and clean fuels, we need to make sure that those working in the fossil fuel industry are supported throughout this clean energy transition. so i thank senator merkley, i thank senator carper, i thank all the members who work on these issues moving towards a 100% renewable future. we need a green new deal for our country. now we just have to exert the political will to make it a reality. i thank everyone for all their work on this issue. we are going in 2019 to raid every one of these climate issues in the context of a massive job creation effort. we are going to save all of creation by engageing in massive blue-collar job creation in our country. with that, mr. president, i yield back. mr. mcconnell: mr. president. the presiding officer: the majority leader.

mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the committee on homeland security and government affairs be discharged from further consideration of h.r. 4174 and the senate proceed to its immediate consideration. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: h.r. 4174, an act to amend titles 5 and 44 united states code to require federal evaluation activities, and so forth and for other purposes. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the johnson-murray substitute amendment at the desk be considered and agreed to, the bill as amended be considered read a third time and passed, and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. mcconnell: now, mr. president, earlier today, i finished my year-end tributes to several of my fellow senators, but unfortunately there is still on