because it then doesn't differentiate reporters from people who are giving opinion. >> right. if you try into it. anything else that reporters should be doing to try to move up on this index? what we need to do ourselves? i mean, i know what other people need to do but we have control about what we should be doing. >> part of it is simply making sure that the united states government doesn't move to suppress press freedom in any way. there is a a danger working out there in today's world, which we discussed at length here. we don't know what they would do if they could, but this presidentt always suggests that it would be a good idea if we didn't have so much quote fake news. most of which is not fake.

>> yes -- >> we believe the last couple of minutes of this press freedom form. you can watch at any time you would like a corset c-span.org. take your life to the floor of the senate. they are just about to gavel in. live coverage here on c-span2. our lawmakers to the joy and beauty of your providence. provide them with a greater appreciation of your favor, wisdom, and grace. remind them of your plans to keep them from stumbling, and present them before your glory with great joy. in their weakness, impart your strength. in their fatigue, give them renewal. empower them with the moral and

spiritual stamina to walk in the paths of integrity and courage. we pray -- and, lord, as houses of worship face the reality of criminal violence, sustain and keep all who labor to bring your peace on earth and goodwill to humanity. we pray in your sovereign name. amen. the president pro tempore: please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance to our flag. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mr. grassley: for the leader, is there a message at the desk in reference to joint senate resolution 7. the presiding officer: the senate. the clerk: the honorable michael r. pence, president of the united united states senator, washington, d.c., dear mr. president, on wednesday, april 17, 2019, the president of the united states, sent messenger, attached sealed envelope addressed to the senate dated 2019, said to campaign a

veto message on the bill, a joint resolution to direct the removal of the united states armed forces from who's tilts in the -- hostilities in the republic of yemen. the senate not being in session on the last day which the president had for the return of this bill under the provisions of the constitution of the united states in order to protect the interest of the senate so that it might have the opportunity to reconsider the bill, i accepted the message at 10:20 a.m., and i now present the president's veto message with the accompanying papers with disposition by the senate, respectfully, julie e. adams, secretary of the senate. mr. grassley: mr. president, for the leader, is the veto message with the papers attach at the desk? the presiding officer: is it. mr. grassley: for the leader, i ask unanimous consent that the veto message on senate joint resolution 7 be considered as having been read, that it be

printed in the record and spread in full upon the journal. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. grassley: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mr. grassley: for one minute i would speak to some history of the united states senate. i call to the senate's attention this fact. when the senate first convened in 1789 at federal hawpe in -- hall in new york city, one of the senate's first order of business was to appoint a committee to recommend a candidate for chaplain. on april 25, 1789, the senate elected the wright reverend samuel provhost, episcopal bishop of new york as its first

chaplain. that means 220 years this week the senate elected its first chaplain and since then the senate has had 62 people serve in the position of the chaplain of the united states senate. additionally, for one minute i'd like to speak to the issue of health care. some elected officials are proposing a radical changes to our health care system. these proposals include medicare for all, medicare buy-in, medicaid for all, and expansion of the affordable care act. all of these are versions of a completely government-run health care. americans don't support a government-run health care system when they are told about the tradeoffs. medicare for all would eliminate private health insurance companies.

medicare for all would require middle-class americans to pay much more in taxes. medicare for all threatens the benefits that current medicare beneficiaries receive and those people that have paid into the system for a lifetime should not have medicare which has been part of the social fabric of america put in jeopardy by loading more people into it. government-run health care is a slogan, not an answer. i yield the floor. i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

mr. grassley: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mr. grassley: i want to call my colleagues' attention -- the presiding officer: the senate's in a quorum call. mr. grassley: i ask that the call of the quorum be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. grassley: i'd like to call my colleagues' attention to an issue that has affected many families in iowa and throughout the country, and that issue is the cost of prescription drugs. the cost of prescription drugs is an issue that comes up at almost every q and a i hold with iowans at my annual 99 county

meetings. during the last easter break just completed i did 20 of those 99 counties. in the last two months i started a bipartisan investigation with my colleague, ranking member wyden of the finance committee, into the pricing of insulin. that investigation extends to insulin manufacturers and pharmacy benefit managers. we need to find out how manufacturers price their insulin products and we need to find out if pharmacy benefit managers are negotiating the lowest drug price possible for manufacturers on behalf of insurance plans. this isn't my first drug pricing investigation. in recent years i've investigated pricing of

hepatitis-c drugs. the names of the drugs are harvoni and investigated the epipen price increase. and, let me tell you, oversight by congress doing our constitutional job does accomplish things. i said it before, and i'll say it again, and you can't say it too often, congress has an constitutional responsibility to engage in robust and aggressive oversight of the federal government and its programs. my epipen investigation is a perfect example. several years ago i began to receive letters, phone calls, and e-mails from my constituents about the rapidly increasing and

high price of epipen. in 2007, a pack of two epipens costs $100. by 2016, it skyrocketed to over $600. and, of course, anybody paying it or anybody hearing that knows that to be a substantial price increase. so i wanted to find out what was happening and what could be done to fix this problem of dramatically increasing prices and maybe unwarranted prices. my investigative and policy focus soon turned to the medicaid drug rebate program administered by the senator for medicaid -- by the center for medicaid services.

it is a contributing factor that has played a part in how much money the government and the taxpayers pay for some drugs, and as you will find out, the waste of some taxpayers' money. now, as a condition for participating in the program, drug companies have to pay a rebate to the federal government and the states for the drugs they offer. now, generally speaking, the rebate dollar amount is contingent on whether the drug is considered a brand name drug or generic drug. a brand-name drug pays a rebate of the greater of the 23% of the price. the rebate program and -- and its amount -- dollar amount is

raised if the average manufacturer price increased faster than the rate of inflation. a generic drug rebate is 13% of the average manufacturer's price. now, very unfortunately, the rebate proposal has not worked as it was designed to work. drug companies have been able to game the system by paying smaller rebates than their supposed to and, of course, the taxpayer foots the bill. epipen is a perfect example of this gaming of the system. this is how the scheme works. miland company classified the epipen as a generic under the

medicaid drug rebate program rather than a brand-name drug. after i asked c.m.s. about that classification, they told me the epipen should not have been classified as a generic. of course, because of this incorrect classification, myelin only had to pay 13% rebate instead of the 23.1% rebate. that means less money was returned by the company to the federal taxpayers and the stat states' taxpayers. according to c.m.s., from 2011 to 2015, total medicaid spending on epipen was $960 million. after rebates, net medicaid

spending was still approximately $797 million. medicare spending as opposed to medicaid spending on epipen under those same years was $335 million. and taxpayers and the states' taxpayers were on the hook for these exorbitant overpayments for the better part of ten years. when i saw what was happening, i asked the health and human services inspector general to look into these practices. based on data already on file, the inspector general was able to calculate the potential loss rebate validating back to 2006. the inspector general found that the taxpayers may have overpaid

for the epipen by as much as $1.27 billion over a ten-year period of time because of the incorrect classification. eventually myelin settled a false claims act case with the obama administration justice department for $465 million. now that $465 million is a far cry from how much myelin got from the taxpayers while it was pulling off this charade. and $800 million less in other words. upon learning of the settlement, i expressed my extreme disappointment to the justice department. it just didn't seem the

taxpayers had been made whole. and obviously they were not. according to attorney general miller of my state of iowa, my home state received $1.5 million from the settlement. however, after repeated requests to justify how much that amount made iowa whole, i have not received an answer yet. so not only did myelin's steep price hike for one of the most widely needed drugs in this country hit families hard, it also hit the taxpayers' bottom line. we shouldn't have to depend on lawyers and depend upon lawsuits to get the taxpayers' moneys back. government agencies should be responsibly overseeing the program, any program that they're in charge of. during the course of my

investigation, it became clear that c.m.s. didn't believe that it had the legal authority to require drug companies to reclassify drugs and impose civil monetary penalties for incorrectly classifying drugs. except for a few e-mails sent from c.m.s. to myelin's representatives epipen classification, for years c.m.s. did nothing. in other words, c.m.s. wasn't doing its job and myelin was taking advantage of it. the inspector general has also stated that it lacked the legal authority to firmively -- affirmatively pursue penalties for the submission of inaccurate drug classification data. so as a result, myelin was able

to escape accountability for a long time costing taxpayers billions of dollars. that's just one case. other drug manufacturers are gaming the system as well. in a december 2017 report, the inspector general found that 885 drugs may have been potentially misclassified. specifically, the inspector general found that from 2012 to 2016, medicaid may have lost one in three-tenths billion dollars in rebates for ten, just ten potentially misclassified drugs with the highest total of reimbursement. it's clear that the law needed to change to provide much needed

clarity on who has what authorities and to hold the government as well as the private sector accountable. as a result of the findings in my epipen investigation, i along with my colleague senator wyden drafted and congress later later passed the right rebate act. and that all happened just a short period of time ago. the act which was passed was strong bipartisan fixes a problem that dent -- that i identified through my investigation. it closes the loophole that has allowed pharmaceutical manufacturers to misclassify their drugs and overcharge the taxpayers by billions of dollars. the bill also provides the h.h.s. secretary the authority to require drug manufacturers to

reclassify their drugs and impose civil monetary penalties when drugs are knowingly misclassified. it provides h.h.s. with additional authorities to monitor drug manufacturers who participate in the medicaid drug rebate program. and the legislation also provides the states the ability to recover incorrect rebate amounts. and finally, the bill imposes reporting and transparency requirements on h.h.s. examples of additional reporting requires the secretary to submit a report to congress on an annual basis that describes four things. one, the covered drugs that have been misclassified, the steps taken to reclassify the drugs,

the actions that the secretary has taken to ensure the payment of rebate amounts which were unpaid, and four, an accounting of how many funds have been used for oversight and enforcement of this new law. all of these fixes and updates are now in place because my constituents contacted me about the real world problems that they were paying for and all of that affecting their health as well as their wallets. i then instructed my staff to have investigate -- my staff to investigate the problem. they acquired the evidence,

uncovered the facts. as you uncover the fact, you obviously expose the holes in the existing law. then i instructed my policy staff to take those findings to plug the holes and solve the problem with new legislation which is now law. that's exactly the purpose of oversight. that's exactly how oversight is done. mr. president, pretty simply, this is no -- this isn't like reinventing the wheel every time. this is oversight 1 on 1. -- oversight 101. oversight means to bring transparency and transparency is meant to bring accountability.

oversight works, plain and simple. and the right rebate act that senator wyden and i got passed is proof of oversight working. i yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call: mr. cornyn: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mr. cornyn: are we in a quorum call? the. the presiding officer: we are. mr. cornyn: i'd ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cornyn: mr. president,

with the two-week hiatus we've had here in washington, d.c., so we could be back home visiting with our constituents, some things have not changed. they are just the way they were when we left, and that would include the heartbreaking stories that illustrate the situation along our southwest border. i've talked, as you might imagine, coming from texas, with a lot of border patrol personnel who found migrants crammed in parts of cars that you didn't even know existed. i visited the unmarked graves of those who've been abandoned by their human smugglers in essentially desert conditions and left to die. and i've seen the disgusting stash houses where dozens of migrants are held at a time to avoid being caught before they were transported up through the interstate highway system to distant locations. i can fill a book with all of the sights that i've seen and the stories i've heard over the

years, and i am sure those compiled by the border patrol agents and officers with their stories we could fill an entire library. the story, though, really is about how ruthless and inhumane and completely reckless and thoughtless of human life these criminal organizations truly are. one headline, though, during this recess period stopped me in my tracks. evening this i thought -- even this i thought, could not be the case. it read, a three-year-old was found alone in a field by border patrol agents. his name and phone numbers were written on his shoes. a toddler, not even old enough to talk to the agents who found him, abandoned. custom and border protections believe that the boy was part of a larger group trying to

interior the united states with their human smugglers. when the -- the boy was left all by himself. he was, as the border patrol does on -- in every instance, was taken into custody and treated well. he was teen to a hospital for -- he was taken to a hospital for medical evaluation and was miraculously was found to be in good condition. while the agents tried to track down the boy's family, one super-virusry patrol agent -- supervisory patrol agent purchased clothing for him out of his oath pocket. others detained the boy watching movers and playing games. these officers are now being forced, because of the crisis at the border, they are forced to act as caregivers for some of the most vulnerable individuals they come across. unfortunately, what that means is they're also diverted from their number-one job, which is

law enforcement and to protect the security and safety of the american people along our borders. they are now diverted from that mission as well as their counter-drug mission, essentially handing out diapers and juice boxes for little boys and little girls. i think this should be a reminder for some of our colleagues who seem to think that the status quo along the border is just hunky-dory. i think it should be a reminder for them that it is far from humane. many of our colleagues have said, well, we need to abolish i.c.e. because somehow that's inhumane, enforcing the laws passed by congress and signed into law by the president that somehow is beyond the pale. butten forcing the law -- but enforcing the law isn't inhumane. apprehending people who tried to illegally enter the united states or import their poison so

it can be used by americans who then overdose and lose their lives due to consuming those drugs, that is inhumane. what is inhumane and lacks a simple compassion by doing nothing, that is to stop this practice, that is inhumane, leaving security gaps which are exploited by smugglers, traffickers and criminal organizations who have zero regard for human life. these people, the drugs, the contraband are mere commodities to these criminal organizations. they don't care anything about them. giving people an opportunity to smuggle an innocent child across our border alone and leaving him to die in the desert is not humane. making criminal cartels rich by exploiting our porous border is inexcusable. the criminal organizations

perpetuating this cycle are the bad guys, not our law enforcement personnel who work to protect our border at substantial risk to themselves and who take care compassionately of those in their custody. i think that's one of the reasons this story garnered so much attention is because that's not what the average person imagines, as someone encounters at the border. but it is increasingly. the border patrol finds families and children along the border because the criminal organizations that smuggle them to the border are exploiting gaps and vulnerabilities in our asylum laws. many people believe that the typical migrant is an adult traveling alone but more likely than not that's not the case, and in fact it's becoming less and less common. in fact, according to the most recent statistics, there is no

new net migration from mexico. almost all of the migration into the united states, either by people who illegally enter or ally sum seekers, are prosecutor -- or asylum seekers, are from mexico, -- from central america. from october 2018 to march 2019, a six-month period, more than 360,000 people -- 360,000 people -- were apprehended along the southwest border. that's a remarkably high number for this point in the year based on historical statistics. only about a third of them were single adults. more than half were traveling as a family unit. and the rest were unaccompanied children. like this three-year-old little boy. he was found by agents in the

rio grande valley far away from -- far away the busiest border patrol sector in the country. these numbers are far from normal and surprisingly our border patrol and customs and border protection agents, our local communities, the nongovernmental organizations, the churches and histories who try to lend a helping hand to these migrants coming across the border, they are not equipped to handle this huge surge of humanity. customs agents are being pulled off of inspection duty to help process the apprehended migrants. security checkpoints are being shut down. the flow of legitimate trade and travel is being impacted. individuals are then being released because there's simply not enough space to hold them, even though they have violated our laws or have not proven

their right to immigration. i've been told that from juarez to el paso, right across the rio grande river, that because commerce was backed up, the truck traffic that was transporting car parts as part of a just-in-time inventory program to manufacturers on the american side, they literally had to hire an airplane to fly 11 minutes from juarez to el paso. car manufacturers that operate in texas and missouri and other parts of the country, they're -- they depend on this crossborder supply change for their products. and eventually if we don't do something about this flood of humanity and the blockages that's created a legitimate trade in commerce across our ports of entry, we are going to

see americans lose their jobs because this simply is uncontemplated by anybody this that business that they would have to suffer those kinds of delays. instead of one-hour delay coming across the ports of entry carrying goods that can be ahe ssembled in the united states or otherwise used in products made here, some are taping taking as much as -- some are take as long as 24 hours to get across the border. they can't get through the ports of entry in part because the customs and border agents are being diverted handing out juice boxes, handing out diapers, taking care of this huge flood of humanity coming across our border. don't just take my word for it. i remember when president obama made comments talking about a humanitarian crisis. he told it a humanitarian and security crisis back in june of

2014. at that time the -- we saw as many as 135,000 during the month of may and june 2014 apprehended at the border. just to put that in context, in february and march of this year, 180,000 people were detained at the border. back when president obama called a humanitarian and security crisis -- 135,000. february and march of 2019, 180,000. simply put, this is a man-made disaster, and the only ones that can fix it are the united states congress. and it is going to get nothing but worse. all of the pull factors, the things that attract people to come across the border to take advantage of these gaps in our asylum laws, they're going to do nothing but attract more and more and more people.

certainly we all understand as a mast simple human -- as a matter of simple human compassion, why people would want to leave if they can't get a job, if they can't provide for that i remember families where they live -- provide for their families with he this. l. -- provide for their families where they live. but key can't continue to accept 180,000 new people coming into the country essentially jumping in line ahead of others trying to illegally immigrate to the united states. it is overwhelming our communities and border patrols and customs agents. we know that many of these migrants pay smugglers to lead them on this dangerous journey north or have others pay a tax to pass through territories along the way, including the so-called practice as does adjacent to the u.s.-mexico border. so while people are being left for dead in the desert and we're

struggling to manage a humanitarian crisis, these criminal organizations are getting richer and richer. this is part of how they do business. while it is hard to know exactly how much money these groups are make, a recent study by rand estimated that revenues to smugglers moving migrants from the northern triangle countries, that's in central america, range from about $200 million to about $2.3 billion in 2017 alone p. these are the same people again that are commodity agnostic, who care nothing about human life. they will move migrants for economic purposes. they'll move people who are being sex-trafficked. and they'll move drugs, some of which cricketed -- contributed to the 70,000 americans who died of drug overdoses last year, since mexico is responsible for 90% of heroin and fentanyl that

comes across our southwest border. all of this is tax-free trade agreement you better believe these networks will only continue to get richer and richer and more and more ruthless and more and more dangerous. if you think these trade problems are going to go away on their own, you are wrong. a umin of family units along our border is already climbing at an appalling pace and we need to take action to alleviate the strain on our personnel on the southern border and to eliminate the clogs and delays in commerce that are the lifeblood of our nation as well as our counterparts in mexico. unfortunately, instead of trying to put out the fire, many folks in washington would rather fan the -- the flames. the topic of border security has become a zero-sum game that people seem to want to talk

about rather than looks for solutions. we need to work together to try to come up with solutions to change our asylum laws in a way that is both compassionate and one that respects thuality of law and allows us to control this vast flood of humanity seeking to enter our country and take advantage of our asylum illegal aliens laws. i've been speaking with our colleagues as well as those in the house on both sides of the aisle about commonsense reforms and what they might look like and where we might find common ground. we can't wait to do comprehensive immigration reform in order to fix this particular problem where children and families turn themselves in at the border because of these flaws in our asylum laws. we need to address that and to do what we can, but then move on once we accomplish that to do other things we know we need to do in the best interest of our country and in the best interest

of the rule of law. it is amazing, i think, what you can accomplish when you talk to other members of congress instead of just to news cameras, but that seems to be solely where the conversation is occurring, for the benefit of news cameras. we've had some productive discussions about how we can provide our front-line officers and agents with the resources they need -- staffing, authorities, infrastructure, technology. i for one am here and ready to talk to anyone who's willing to work in good faith to provide relief for the humanitarian crisis occurring on our southern border. that's what president obama called it, and it's gotten nothing but worse. it doesn't help to be labeling this some sort of fake emergency, like some of our colleagues across the aisle have, on the other side of the capital. -- side of the capitol. to deny reality is a pretty big

impediment to try to solve the problem. so i hope our colleagues on both sides of the aisle can take stock of the situation, accept the facts and muster the courage to put politics aside and work together to create much-needed and long overdue reform of our immigration policies, because, mr. president, this problem is not going away. 76,000 people detained at the border in february. 103,000 detained at the border in march. there is no good reason why that 103,000 won't grow to 150,000, to 200,000, to 250,000. all of the same pieces are in place, all of the same flaws being exploited by these transnational criminal organizations to move people into the country where they can essentially circumvent our immigration enforcement and border security measures. it's going to do nothing but get worse when it comes to impediments that get in place of

lawful commerce and trade which are so important to our economy and so important to the economy of mexico and our common border. mr. president, with that, i would yield the floor and i'd note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

mr. durbin: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from illinois. mr. durbin: i ask unanimous consent the quorum call be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. durbin: mr. president, it's hard to imagine that the united states congress was once guarded by a lone watchman, but when the legislature branch of our government moved from philadelphia to washington, d.c. that was the case. his name was john golding. he was charged with protecting the united states congress. a generation later, after several incidents, president john quincy adams asked that a capitol police force be created. it was created. four officers working 15-hour shifts. today there are over 2,000 officers and civilians who work

for the capitol police. when you put it in perspective, three million to five million people from all over america and all over the world come to this building complex each year to personally witness the foundation, at least on the congressional side of our democracy. we want to make certain that they're safe, and we know that we live in a dangerous world. the threats facing congress today are far different than at the time of john golding. our exposure to risk is higher as we learn every day and every week with the horrible shooting incidents that occurred, and one of course did occur in the capitol not that many years ago. but we know we have the best protection possible in this increasingly dangerous world, thanks to the dedicated, talented and committed men and women of the capitol police force. there's an important reason why i've been able to do my job as the democratic whip for 14 years. it is because r.d. moore, a

member of the capitol police team, has led my security detail during that period of time. at the end of this month r.d. is retiring, after 39 years of service to his country, more than 30 years with the u.s. capitol police. reynaud moore joined the capitol police in 1988 after serving nine years in the united states army. he served with the dig tarry protection division. in 2005 when i joined the senate leadership r.d. became part of not just my senate family, but my family. as a team leader, he's been responsible for keeping the detail up to date on logistics of every event and for making critical decisions for the safety and security of our office team. simply put, r.d. has been an important part of my life every day that he's been willing to put his life on the line for me. and he's become an honorary illinoisan in the process due to countless trips that he's made

back to my home state. there's even reason to believe that we have made him a cubs fan, but i'm not going to say that with certainty. even with his commitment to duty, r.d. has always found time for his own family, putting thousands of miles on his car each year to travel across the country to kentucky and michigan and other places visiting his mother, his siblings and his cousins. whether it was michigan, kentucky, or north carolina, he found the time for family. no matter where he was, r.d. was always willing and able to respond to a phone call or e-mail from his extended family. i'm going to miss r.d. personally, and our office is going to miss him. he is a caring, larger-than-life presence, one of the best known members of the capitol hill police detail here on capitol hill. if someone had a rough day, r.d. was always there with a piece of wrapped candy and a smile. if any of us needed advice on new technology, r.d. always

seemed to be on top of it whether it was the latest smart watch or smart phone or something else that i basically didn't understand. his great sense of humor was a calming influence in the most stressful times that we faced. he always took his job seriously but he never took himself seriously. as r.d. moore retires this week, i want to thank him personally and wish him well. i do it personally but on behalf of my wife loretta, my entire family and the entire durbin senate staff. he is a dedicated law enforcement professional who should be remembered in the comity along with all of his colleagues in the capitol police who each and every day come to work, put on their badges and risk their lives to keep this building and the people who come here safe. i want to congratulate special agent r.d. moore on a job well done. mr. president, i ask consent that the next statement be placed in a separate part of the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. durbin: mr. president, i want to take a moment to

celebrate the life of an exceptional american, a statesman, a gentleman, and a friend. senator richard lugar of indiana indiana passed away yesterday. he was a man of great intellect and accomplishment and very little ego. he possessed an overabundance of the best qualities of american character. he was a problem solver. he believed that america and can be a force for good in the world and he was a visionary who had thoughtful, effective solutions to complex problems before many people even knew they existed. when the soviet union collapsed in 1991, many people believed naively that the threat of nuclear armageddon that haunted the world for nearly 50 years was over, but learnt lugar knew better. -- senator lugar knew better. working with senator nunn, they

crafted the soviet nuclear reduction act of 1991 to reduce the arsenals from falling in the hands of terrorists and other murders. the bill created the cooperative threat reduction program within the department of defense, better known as nunn-lugar, and led to the deactivation of more than 7,600 nuclear warheads. before nunn-lugar, there were enough nuclear weapons and materials in the former soviet republic to destroy a good portion of the world. much of these armaments of nuclear armageddon were in degrading facilities, watched over by guards who hadn't been paid in months and sometimes drunk on deal. it was like a fire sale for terrorists and madmen. but under nunn-lugar, dick lugar urged america to pay off our old

adversary to secure these nuclear stockpiles and america and the world was safer as a result. sadly today, leaders in both the white house and the kremlin seem to be rushing to disguard the nuclear arms agreement, absolutely the last inning the world we should see happening. we can only hope that the inspiration and success of nunn-lugar will have them rethink this. i want to make a personal note. i am deeply, personally grateful to senator richard lugar for agreeing in 2010 to be one of the two republican cosponsors of dream act. it was a bill that i had introduced many years ago to give those undocumented young people brought here as infants and toddlers and children a path to legal status and citizenship. it's the kind of thing that when

you ask the american people whether it's the right thing to do, they p don't -- they don't hesitate, republicans, democrats, independents. they believe these young people should have a chance to go to school and make america a better place and not worry about their citizenship status. but it was always difficult to find republicans to join me in this effort, except for dick lugar. dick lugar, time and again, stepped up and said, i'm going to do this. america was recovering from the great recession and any immigrant sentiment was strong an growing, and it has been exploited today on a daily basis. standing up for these dreamers who were not legal in the united states, couldn't vote in the united states, was an act of political decency and courage, just what you might expect from senator dick lugar of indiana. two years later, after 36 years as a senator and statesman, senator lugar lost his seat in a

primary challenge to a tea party fire brand. analysts suggested that support by the dreamers was one of the reasons he was defeated. after that senator lugar supported his support for the dream act and said, quote, those were the right votes for our country. he added, i stand by them without regret. dick lugar was also a cosigner of a letter which i sent to then-president barak obama. when we couldn't pass the dream act, senator lugar joined me in sending a letter to the president asking if there was anything he could do by executive order that might give these young people a chance, just a chance to prove themselves and become part of america area future. dick lugar and i were the two cosigners of that letter that went to the president. it was that letter and the thought behind it which led to the creation of daca, a program that 790,000 of these young

people signed up for. they paid a filing fee, went through criminal background checks and checked all the boxes and were given under the daca program two years to go to school in the united states or work in the without united states -- in the united states without fear of deportation. it was dick lugar who joined me in that. i will never forget it and neither should anyone else. our friend, dick lugar, is gone, but he left a legacy of decency, civility, service and statemanship that we would all do well to emanate. dick lugar was the best of the united states senate on a bipartisan basis. this republican colleague of mine was someone i came to respect time and again because he always put country before politics. loretta and i got to know his

wife. they were married when they met in college and became fast friends and built pa family around that -- built a family around that friendship of their love. a wonderful couple, great to be with and to spend many hours together. i extend my condolences to shar, senator lugar's beloved wife of 60 years and to his sons and to senator lugar's many friends. when i think of an internationalist hailing from the midwest who could stand there in the middle of this country with all of that flat land and look in every direction and see how important the rest of the world was to us, i think of dick lugar and i think of the contribution he made to the state of indiana and to the senate every day of his life. he had a passion also for planting trees. it was one of the things we used

to talk about. he would buy farm land and plant trees. i think it is a suitable metaphor for life that planting a tree is like planting a good idea. maybe it won't come to full growth in your lifetime, but if it's good, solid stock, it will be a legacy for generations to come. senator dick lugar's contribution to indiana and to the united states senate planted many tree that's will benefit future generations to come. madam president, i yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

mr. mcconnell: madam president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are in a quorum call. mr. mcconnell: i ask consent that further proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i on saturday on the final day of passover, our nation once again came face to face with the valiant hatred of anti-semitism. barely six months since the murders at the tree of life in pittsburgh and again gunfire in a synagogue. again a place of reverend worship for our jewish brothers and sisters thrown into deadly chaos. this time at the chabad in poway synagogue. an 8 -year-old girl, the rabbi ndz and her uncle visiting from

israel were injured by gunfire. and lori kaye who attended the service with her husband and 22-year-old daughter to deliver a prayer of mourning for her own late mother was killed when she threw herself between the rabbi and the shooter. ms. kaye has been described as the example of kindness to the fullest extent and now in the words of the rabbi who oversees chabad of seen deg county, she's lost her life solely for living as a jew. according to some reports, that 8-year-old girl and her young life has already had to flee incoming rocket attacks in gaza and then leer in america seen her family home subjected to antisemitic graffiti and now she's been shot, shot at her synagogue. here's what she said yesterday.

i never thought that was going to happen to me. it's a safe place. you're supposed to feel safe. well, it may be fitting that our nation will now spend the week of young hoshoa, the holocaust remembrance day observed in israel and worldwide keenly focused on the disturbing rise in anti-semitism with our own borders -- within our own borders and around the globe. recent attack on muslims in new zealand and christians in sri lanka reminds us religious hatred exists in many forms. the jewish people have long been subjected to a unique degree of disgusting prejudice. and it's paired too often with indifference from others. just in the last few days "the new york times" published a

transparently antisemitic political cartoon in its international edition, not just online. it ran in print. at times compounded the error by -- to fairly accurately apologize of which the cartoon trafficked. fortunately the times have since finally published what appears to be genuine apology. this episode as one of "the new york times" own columnist explained was an astonishing act of ignorance of anti-semitism. a publication that's otherwise hyper alert to nearly every conceivable expression of prejudice. in other words, even important institutions that strive to meet the progressive sensibilities can often be blind to any jewish prejudice and attitudes in a way that would never be tolerated for a second where most other vulnerable groups are concerned.

combined with all the troubling statistics i discussed on the floor in the past, it just could not be clearer that rising anti-semitism requires swift action. here's just one example. we know that anti-semitism often masquerades as political opposition to israel in an attempt to appear -- to appear more legitimate. but today as hate for the jewish people makes headlines with alarming frequency, this charade is being seen for what it is and the senate recently took action to condemn it flat out, including in s. 1 legislation the senate passed earlier this year was a provision that help state and local governments push back against the influence of the b.d.s. movement and enable communities to shut off the flow of taxpayer dollars to entities that support this anti-israel boycotters. unfortunately, democratic leaders in the house have not seen fit to take up this

straightforward measure, even as they struggle to swiftly and clearly condemn instances of anti-semitism within their own ranks they also let this important provision in s. 1 language. it's still sitting over in the house. the spread of anty semitism is serious. much more must be done the world over to ensure that it finds no home, no home in modern society. i just want to close with the inspiring comments from the rabbi in the san diego chabad. he said, quote, in the face of senseless hate, we commit to live proudly as jews in this glorious country. we strongly believe that love is exponentially more powerful than hate. now, madam president, on a totally different matter, when i last spoke here on the floor, the senate had taken important steps to restoring our sort of

comity and efficiency that once governed our consideration of uncontroversial nominations. in the face of across-the-board systemic opposition and delaying tactics for even the most politically uncontroversial of the president's nominees, the senate took action and brought this chapter of pure partisan calculation to an end. and subsequently we began doing business at a more normal, more reasonable pace. we confirmed a number of qualified public servants who still went on to receive bipartisan support for confirmation. and did so in a fraction of the time it had been taking. so today we'll continue yet another slate of well qualified candidates for service in the executive branch and on the federal courts. we'll consider three individuals to join the president's team beginning with william cooper of maryland to serve as general counsel to the department of energy. then we'll consider five nominees to fill federal

district court vacancies in texas, alabama, florida, puerto rico, and pennsylvania. there is still so much work to be done. two years of unprecedented obstruction can't be reversed overnight. but we've taken some important steps in the right direction and this week we'll take several more. on one final matter, i know many of our colleagues were as sad as i was to learn yesterday that our esteemed former colleague senator dick lugar had died at the age of 87. many members past and present knew dick lugar as a senior peer who always seemed to have the perfect advice or the exact perspective you needed to hear. more recently others got to know dick as a wise mentor. he felt a personal responsibility to help newcomers on both sides of the aisle learn the ropes and make an impact. as i was reflecting yesterday on dick's towering legacy, i found

myself admiring all the ways he was really the consummate u.s. senator. he was a total patriot who put principle first but also a highly talented politician and a savvy dealmaker. yet somehow his personal reputation and character managed to be even more impressive than those achievements. i literally don't think anybody on capitol hill had a bad word to say about senator dick lugar. his intellect, his commitment, his prudence, his kindness, and his deliberate focus on mentoring the next generations of leaders, this man was the complete package. a total gentleman, thoroughly impressive. so a lot of dick's legacy lies in all the people he mentored and encouraged. here i can testify firsthand.

dick was running the senatorial committee back in 1984 when i decided to try to run for the senate. as you can imagine, as a local official, i had not exactly built a national profile. and i didn't have a whole lot of people in my corner. but dick, thankfully, saw some potential. that was an unusual lapse in judgment i would add but he thought he saw potential and took a chance on a young kentuckian. but of course the rest of the world knows dick lugar best for his towering impact on u.s. foreign policy and world affairs. his interest in international affairs dated back to his and his brothers' success as driewming up mort export business to turn around the family factory and it blossomed into something remarkable. for years he represented one of our nation's most listened to, most respected voices when it came to our role in the world.

whether he happened to be chairman of the foreign relations committee or ranking member at a given time, the respect for his expertise was universal. his most famous accomplishments, for good reason, revolve around his work on arms control. the 1991 nunn-lugar cooperative threats reduction program stepped into the breach at a critical moment as the soviet union was dissolving. it took action to dismantle and decommission nuclear weapons before they could disappear or fall into the wrong hands. those efforts, which were expanded after september 11, into the global threat reduction initiative, have neutralized literally thousands of warheads, hundreds and hundreds of missiles, and other deadly chemical and biological weapons.

nations which once ranked in the largest top ten nuclear arsenals were certified as nuclear-free. the entire world is safer as a result. these early efforts helped set a new tone right from the start of the post cold war era. dick lugar understood it was time to turn the page on cold war. america would seek to work together with russia and former soviet states to build a safer world. consistent with dick's leadership and guidance, democrats and republicans alike took a magnanimous approach. for decades we sought to work with moscow instead of against it. to welcome russia back into the community of sovereign nations. as an aside, the general foreign policy consensus about dick's approach to the former soviet union is especially worth remembering today. it demonstrates that putin's

hostility towards the west and our interests is not the result of american hostility toward russia. the source of this hostility emanates from the kremlin. deliberately mag nan us will, that really is the lugar doctrine in a nutshell. from friendships to foreign policy. he also built a legacy on agriculture and food security as ranking member of the ag committee. everything from working on the farm bill to international questions of aid and development. the good news is that on these and other subjects, dick's legacy did not end with his senate retirement. and it won't even end now. the lugar center, which has thrived under not only his name but his active leadership since retiring from the senate, will continue to serve as a home to thoughtful research and important voice in national

policy conversations. and of course that center isn't even the finest part of the ongoing lugar legacy. that would be the family dick and his beloved wife built together. they've been an inseparable team as co-class presidents as denison university. and today that team includes their four sons, mark, bob, john, and david, 13 grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren. so we mourn dick's passing, but we celebrate this life that was lived so well and so fully. our friend left us at 87 years old with the affection and gratitude of his colleagues, with the respect of his country, and leaders around the world, with the love of his beautiful family and with a world has measurably safer for his work, a

remarkable legacy that suits a remarkable man. i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

mr. schumer: madam president? the presiding officer: the democratic leader. mr. schumer: are would in a -- are we in a quorum? the presiding officer: we are. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent that the quorum be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: before i begin my remarks, let me take a sip of settzer. -- seltzer. now, madam president, before i begin the bulk of my remarks, i want to take a moment to express my heartfelt condolences to the victims of the shooting on saturday in california when a gunman opened fire in a synagogue during services after yelling anti-semitic slurs. his heinous attack left a 60-year-old woman dead, the rabbi wounded, a man and an 8-year-old girl with shrapnel wounds. we have seen so many different

houses of wore ship attacked in recent weeks. just one week ago on easter sunday, hundreds of sley lang cans were killed in their work. and what happened in california is rooted in the same hatred that drove attacks against the tree of life synagogue in pittsburgh, mosques in new england zealand and mother emanuel church in charleston. so today we must recommit ourselves to fighting anti-semitism and all forms of bigotry in our country and around the world. i also want to share a word on the one hand the passing of our friend and former colleague, dick lugar of indiana p. dick personified the senate at its best -- honest, decent, and with an eye for consensus. he represented the kind of thoughtful, bipartisanship that is so missing in our politics today and his work on the foreign relations committee -- twice as its leaders -- made the

world acy and fairer place. whether it was combating the purchases of nuclear weapons, apartheid in south africa or world hunger, his legacy as a early, as a man, is something for all of us to aspire to. senator lugar will be greatly missed. now, madam president, while the congress was away during the state work period, attorney general barr released a redacted version of special counsel mueller's report to congress and the american people. the report documents yet again a concerted effort by president putin to interfere and influence our elections, to assist the current president. members of the trump campaign were aware of and at times amplified that foreign influence campaign, including president trump himself for the likely purpose of winning a presidential election. that alone constitutes attacks our democracy. and just as alarming was the

behavior. president and his team concerning special counsel mueller's investigation itself. special counsel mueller's report documents a persistent effort by the president to stonewall, this thwart and underline the legitimacy of the mueller investigation. the report includes no less than 1instances in which the president -- no less than 11 instances in which the president may have obstructed justice. special counsel mueller explicitly states in his report that if he could have exonerated the president on the charge of criminal injustice, then he would have. but actions prevent us from conclues civil determining that no criminal conduct occurred. also it appears that the justice department's policy against the indictment of sitting presidents played an important role in the special counsel's analysis. now the congress and the

american people must grapple with this damning portrait who is dishonest, and regular a bused the powers of his office. the house of representatives is going to pursue hearings. the senate will hear from attorney general barr this week, where he must answer for his mischaracterizations of the special counsel's findings, his outrageously partisan press conference, and in general his failure to behavior with the impartiality demanded of the office of attorney general. special counsel mueller must testify before the congress to further explain the findings in his report and provide clarity on areas where the attorney general twisted his words. and congress must be given access to an unredacted version of the report. knowing attorney general general burr's conduct, we cannot trust him to be a clean bear of hands

on all this. so while many want to move on from these issues, we simply cannot move on. congress -- democrats and republicans -- must grapple with the fact of the mueller report. he would must defend our democracy and, yes, hold the president accountable. these are not partisan issues. this is about our country, the sankive our elections, and the -- the sanctity of our elections and the the future of the president. in the wake of the mueller report, i have been asked a lot, what are democrats going to do with the mueller report? well, the republic question should be, what are my republican friends going to do with it? now, on another matter, madam president, disaster relief -- congress shamefully recessed for the state work period without passing relief for americans who are affected by natural disasters that occurred recently. this needs to be a top legislative priority over the next few weeks. we've already -- we're already a third of the way into 2019, and

millions of americans are still waiting for us to provide necessary funding so that they can recover and rebuild from disasters that happened months ago, in some cases longer than that. the democratic position is clear. we support an all-of-the-above approach that provides relief for every american affected by natural disasters -- americans in the midwest, americans in the south, americans on the west coast, and, yes, americans in puerto rico. up until now, senate republicans -- everyone knows why senate republicans have blocked our proposals, and that is because president trump has shown a bordershrine obsessive hostility towards the people of puerto rico. my republican colleagues have unfortunately followed president trump's lead, and it has caused us to fail in our responsibility to provide long overdue aid to americans struggling to piece

their lives back together after hurricanes, floods, fires, and droughts. well, my friends on the other side have had a few weeks to think about it. i sincerely hope we can press the reset button. we've got a legislative professional introduced by my friend congressman howy that takes care of all of these disaster victims and it is ready to go in the house. i urge my colleagues, let's put politics aside. let's do the right thing. let's tell president trump his obsessive nastiness to puerto rico, unfounded by fact, is not going to prevent millions of people in the middle west and the west and the south from getting the relief aid. let's provide disaster relief for every, every american who needs it. infrastructure -- finally, madam president, tomorrow morning at the democrats' request, the speaker

and i will meet with president trump at the white house to discuss the glaring need to invest in our nation's infrastructure. during the presidential campaign, candidate trump promised a trillion-dollar infrastructure bill. it was one of the few areas where most democrats, myself included, believed we could find common ground with the president after he was equity willed. unfortunately, it's been over two years. the president hasn't proposed anything close to a trillion-dollar investment and has shown little interest in pursuing an infrastructure bill in congress. senate democrats, however, have put together a trillion-dollar infrastructure investment, a real plan that invests federal dollars -- not just in roads, bridges, and highways, as important as they are, and they are -- but also in schools, housing, electric grids, rural broadband, and green energy. there are several different ways

to fay for such a bill. by reversing only the most egregious giveaways in president trump's tax bill -- those given to the wealthiest of the wealthy and raising the corporate tax rate a smith, we could finance the entirety -- the entirety -- of a trillion-dollar infrastructure bill. so while wd to an open discussion tomorrow, it's important to remember two things. first, our country has large infrastructure demands. we need to go big and we need to address roads and bridges, but also schools, housing, broadband, green energy, and more. and second, we need to remember that after republicans handed out a mammoth tax break to big corporations and the already wealthy, it would be extraordinarily unfair to ask the middle class to shoulder the cost of an infrastructure bill. the tax code should not be made any more regressive than it is now to pay for an infrastructure

bill. we look forward to our discussion tomorrow and hopefully the president will have an open mind. i yield the floor.

the presiding officer: the motion to invoke cloture. the clerk: cloture motion. we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions

of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nomination of william cooper of maryland to be general counsel of the department of energy, signed by 17 senators. the presiding officer: by unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum call has been waived. the question is, is it the sense of the senate that debate on the nomination of william cooper of maryland to be general counsel of the department of energy shall be brought to a close. the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. the clerk will call the roll. vote:

vote:

vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: does anyone wish to change their vote? has anyone not voted? on this vote, the yeas are 63. the nays are 32. the motion is agreed to. the clerk will report the nomination. the clerk: nomination department of energy, william cooper of maryland to be general counsel. mr. mcconnell: mr. president. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent that notwithstanding rule 22, the postcloture time on william cooper expire at 11:45 on tuesday, april 3. further, that if the nomination is confirmed, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table and the president be immediately notified of the senate's action. the presiding officer: without objection. the senator from tennessee.

mr. alexander: mr. president, 50 years ago, 51 years ago to be specific, the citizens for nixon-agnew descended upon the city of indianapolis, indiana, a city to which richard lugar had been elected mayor. that was my first opportunity to meet former senator richard lugar who died a few days ago. he became richard nixon's favorite mayor. he persuaded the suburban areas around indianapolis and the city itself to do something almost no city in america has been able to do. nashville did it, miami did it, but that was to have a unified government, get rid of 60 different municipal governments and form one. but no one was very surprised when richard lugar was able to

accomplish that because he had been marked from the beginning as a young man of extraordinary ability. at denison, where he went to college, he became a rhodes scholar. he studied at oxford, he became a navy intelligence officer. later on in the 1960's, i mentioned 1968 was the year that we met him for the first time. he was able as mayor to deal not only with the unification of indianapolis, but the difficult racial times that occurred all over america during the late 1960's. no one was surprised when he ran for the united states senate in 1974. he was defeated in the watergate sweep. that wiped out a large number of promising young candidates which i have a little personal experience with in tennessee.

and no one was surprised when he came back in 1976 and won. as soon as he was elected, he organized the other republican senators who were elected that year to vote for howard baker jr. for the republican leader of the senate in january 1977. senator baker won that race by one vote. so you can imagine that senator baker had a very high opinion of senator richard lugar and they became close friends. i first really worked with him in 1980 when i was governor of tennessee and senator baker wanted to run for president, so he summoned to nashville to meet in my office. senator lugar and his young aide mitch daniels, later the governor of indiana, and now the president of purdue university, and warren rudman, the senator from new hampshire, and his young aide tom rath. i admired dick lugar then and i

admired him throughout the rest of his career. it was a privilege to serve with him on the foreign relations committee while he was the chairman of it, when i was elected to the united states senate. i noticed that unlike all of us senators, when richard lugar had something to say, he had something to say, so people actually listened to him. we have a tradition in the republican caucus where we have thursday lunch hosted by various members of our caucus. i'll serve something from the tower that jack daniels made -- not the whiskey but the food. senator cindy hyde-smith served mississippi food last week before the recess. and we go around the room in the order in which we came in, and everyone will stand up and say something. well, we all say something, but what was different about richard lugar was at those

thursday lunches he had something to say. he was intelligent, thoughtful, studied, not flamboyant, not nool symbolic votes. he dominated indiana politics for 36 years and had the respect of virtually anyone whom he ever met. not many senators in our history have the opportunity to do what he did with former senator nunn, and that was with the nunn-lugar law to basically dismantle thousands of nuclear weapons and take out the explosive parts of them and render them useless as an instrument of war for the future. he continued to work for a safe world, playing a major role in the new start treaty in 2010. there will be many memorials and many speeches and many compliments paid to senator lugar. president obama awarded him the presidential medal of freedom,

the highest civilian honor in our country. but i'll remember him for his quiet, unassuming, highly intelligent, thoughtful style of leadership. the world is better and safer because of richard lugar's life in public service. he's always a gentleman, always principled. he was a model for what all of us should hope for in our public officials. he was a good friend for many years. my wife honey and i and our family send our sympathy and our respect for the life of richard lugar to his family. i yield the floor.

the presiding officer: the senator is recognized. mr. brown: thank you. over the past few weeks we have learned more and more about the president's pick for the federal reserve, steven moore. we know he's made all kinds of offensive, disparaging comments about women, even about women playing sports. he's even questioned women in broadcasting booths, in the broadcast booths. we know he is against child labor laws. he thinks -- these are quotes. he thinks we should have 11-year olds working. he said i want people to start working at 11, at 12. he said i am a radical. think about this. the president is about to nominate for the federal reserve a gentleman who says he's an economist but really isn't. he didn't get his degree,

didn't get a ph.d. in economics as federal reserve people often do, but put that aside, he said i'm a radical in child labor. who thinks that way in the year 2019? other things we know, he was banned from the op-ed page of the kansas city star after publishing an editorial with all kinds of factual errors. the editor knew he was a conservative. the editor may have been a conservative. i don't know. that's not the point. the point is it was filled with factual errors. the editor said that kind of factual errors -- those kinds of factual errors are just not acceptable. we are finished with him. so she said not -- not that she doesn't agree with certain viewpoints, the editor, but just said we're not running him anymore because he doesn't tell the truth. we have him in videotape showing breathtaking contempt for people in the middle of the country, from places like arkansas and kentucky and tennessee and my state of ohio. here's what mr. moore said. if you want -- and this is on

tape. if you want to live in the midwest, where else do you want to live besides chicago? you don't want to live in cincinnati, the home of senator portman or cleveland, my home. he said you don't want to live in cincinnati or cleveland or these armpits of america. that's what he said. president trump is showing his disregard for cincinnati and cleveland and kentucky and arkansas and tennesseend the -- tennessee and the mill of the country by nominating someone who is so out of touch and has such contempt for the middle of this country. the armpits of america. that's what he called two of my state's great cities. make no mistake. he wasn't just insulting cleveland and cincinnati. he was insulting little rock, he was insulting nashville, he was insulting people that get up every day and work hard. he was dismissing millions of americans. he was undermining the dignity of work by dismissing them, people who have been ignored by washington and then preyed on by wall street.

across the industrial heartland, tens of millions of americans raise families, they serve in our military, they power our companies, they contribute to our country. mr. moore, how dare you demean them and diminish them with those kinds of comments? how dare you insult them in their hometowns? you can't fight for these americans when you don't know the first thing about the places they live. you can't -- you don't understand that all work has dignity. you don't understand the dignity of work. you don't understand honoring and respecting work. it's particularly ironic where mr. moore made these comments. he made these comments, he was speaking at events sponsored by a think tank called the heartland institute, located i believe in chicago. take a look at who is really behind this group, the heartland group. i mean, people can name themselves whatever they want. they call themselves the heartland institute, but they are funded by exxonmobil, biggest oil company, i believe,

in the world. they are funded by philip morris, one of the tobacco giants, big tobacco that poisons our children. 480,000 people die every year from tobacco in this country. 480,000 people. do you know what that means? it means philip morris has got to find -- make that 1,300 new customers every day just to make up for the people that tobacco has killed. so the heartland institute is funded by exxonmobil, funded by philip morris, funded by the koch brothers. or at least we used to know they were funded by these groups. today unfortunately, mr. president, they don't disclose who those individual donors are, which is pretty shocking. the heartland institute didn't want people in the actual heartland to realize they are nothing but a corporate front, a corporate special interest-funded front. and what have they done with those donations? well, you can expect them to do the bidding of exxonmobil, you can expect them to do the bidding of philip morris, you can expect them to do the bidding of the koch brothers,

and they certainly got their money's worth, those interest groups. the heartland institute has pushed junk science on behalf of tobacco companies to try to block and stop and neuter antismoking public health laws. as recently as the late 1990's, the president wrote an op-ed -- this isn't really funny at all. i don't know why i laugh, but it's so ridiculous. the president of that group wrote an op-ed claiming that moderate smoking, moderate smoking doesn't raise your risk of lung cancer. getting those 15-year-olds to start smoking only a little bit, i guess that's okay because that doesn't increase their chance of lung cancer. that's their notable achievement. so of course we shouldn't be surprised that the men in the room -- and it was almost all men, you could tell from the video and the audio -- that the men in the room when mr. moore talked about my city, cleveland, senator portman's city, cincinnati, talked about them being armpits of the nation, the men in the room how howled with

laughter. look who comes to the heartland institute. a bunch of oil company men, a bunch of tobacco men, gun lobby people, all these people that come to the heartland institute, of course they were laughing at those people in the industrial midwest, in cleveland, in mansfield, in toledo, in zanesville, in -- all over our country. that's what these phony right-wing tobacco-funded think tanks really think of the -- of america's heartland. president trump likes to pretend he cares about people in places like cincinnati and cleveland. he likes to make big promises to the people in the heartland, but look who he puts in charge. these conservative elites. and make no mistake, they are far-right conservatives, and they are elites. they all think they're better than the rest of the country. these conservative elites, whether they are on wall street, whether they are in trump tower, whether they are at the white house where the white house looks like a retreat for wall street executives, whether these conservative elites are going in and out of the office doors of the senate majority leader with

their requests for tax cuts in hand, these are people -- these are people that have contempt for the people they are supposed to serve. stephen moore says he doesn't want to be judged on all the extreme and offensive articles he has whip. he wants to be judged by his economic record. so let's do that. let's look at his economic record. it's just as bad. it's in line with views of all these right-wing elites. it stems directly from contempt for ordinary people. you see it in their policies. make it easier for wall street to pay these huge $1 million, $2 million, $5 million, $10 million bonuses that wall street elites get, so often at the expense of workers. i was at my high school reunion in mansfield, ohio, some time ago. i sat across the table from a woman who had worked at one of america's largest banks. when i grew up and i used to put my family farm paycheck into this bank, it was called farmers bank. in those days, it has been bought and sold and bought by

other bigger banks. the point is she had worked as a teller in this bank for 30 years. she was making $30,000 a year. yet wall street continues giving million-dollar bonuses. massive tax cuts for corporations for billionaires, pennies for working families. look at what happened in kansas where stephen moore was banned from writing in the newspaper because he lied so much. he helped design the tax cut boondoggle that bankrupted the state. it was the plan that eliminated taxes entirely for l.l.c.'s and pass-through corporations. who paid the price? people who paid the price were millions of ordinary kansans. there was no money for teachers, there was no money for health care, there was no money for higher ed. republicans in the state finally rebelled and repealed that stephen moore far-right tax plan, kansas had fallen behind the rest of the country. they were actually losing jobs in kansas, a once-prosperous state, while almost every other state was adding them. one advocate in kansas who saw his work up close said i

wouldn't let stephen moore within 100 yards of my enemy's piggy bank, let alone put him on the federal reserve. so why on earth, mr. president, why on earth would we want to hire that guy to help run our national economy? it's pretty clear that creating jobs for workers in the heartland doesn't really matter to stephen moore and his crowd. after all, they don't even want to set foot there. it comes down -- it comes back to the dignity of work. we need people in office who understand, who respect work, whether you punch a clock or swipe a badge, whether you -- whether you work on a salary, whether you work for tips, whether you are raising children, whether you are taking care of an aging parent. it comes down to honoring and respecting work, something apparently stephen moore and his far-right elitist crowd know nothing about. the last thing we need is another conservative elitist looking down his nose at american workers, at ohio workers, and workers in arkansas and workers all across this country.

mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the next -- that the preceding comments be at a different place in the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. brown: thank you, mr. president. last week, g.m. laid off thousands of workers in florencetown -- last month -- in lawrencetown, ohio. it is a community near youngstown, ohio, in northeast ohio. many of us warned the president that if he let this happen, the layoffs wouldn't stop with g.m. those job losses would work their way up and down the entire supply chain, the people who stamp the metal, the people who make the components, the people who make all kinds of products that only go -- ultimately go into the production of a car, the assembly of a car. but the president did nothing other than rub salt in workers' wounds by boasting about imaginary new factories coming to ohio that were supposedly going to open. now this weekend, we found out that the additional layoffs we feared are starting to happen. falcon transport was part of the

auto supply chain transporting parts for g.m. lordstown. this weekend, with no notice, they closed their doors, leaving 500 ohioans out of a job. mr. president, they didn't just close their door. workers found out about this with an e-mail i believe the night before or early monday morning in their inboxes or people saw a post on social media telling them not to show up for work the next day. some drivers were left stuck all around the country when they found out. workers in my state every where deserve better than an e-mail letting them know their livelihood has been taken away. the entire community of lordstown in trumbull county, mahoney county deserves better than a president who breaks his promises. president trump came to the valley many times in the campaign. he came there since he was president as president of the united states and said don't move, don't sell your house. we're going to fill up those factories, or we're going to rip them down and build new ones.

don't move, don't sell your house. we're going to build factories. we're going to fill up those factories or rip them down and build new ones. people trusted him. a lot of people voted for him. they put their faith in him. they believed what he said. and what did trawmp do? instead of working to save their jobs, he turned around and handed corporations a 50% off coupon to send their jobs overseas. here is how it worked, mr. president. if you're producing in dayton, ohio, you're paying a 21% corporate tax rate. if you move your production to mexico, you pay 10.5%. so the president of the united states in the tax bill a year and a half ago that passed this congress, the president of the united states essentially gave a 50% off coupon to american companies on their taxes. so you move overseas, we'll give you 50% off. it's part of -- it's part of the president's phony populism. and populism -- call yourself a populist, but if you're a populist, you are never racist, you are never anti-semitic, you

don't give tax cuts to rich people and stick it to the middle class. that's what's happened over and over again. a betrayal. i am culling on the president maybe you should keep your promises, maybe you should fight for auto workers, maybe you should stand up and support workers up and down the auto supply chain for a change. end the tax cut for corporations that, again, they shut down an american plant, they move overseas, they get a 50% off coupon on their taxes. if you love your country, you fight for the people who make it work. mr. president, one last time, i ask unanimous consent to move the following remarks to a different place in the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. brown: thank you, mr. president. a piece of good news. i wanted to talk about wall street stein from -- about walt stein from heartsville, ohio. his story is a reminder of the decency of our state. it's a reminder of veterans' camaraderie and veterans from ohio and all over this country.

two decades ago, mr. stein's friend found a purple heart at a flea market. he bought it, he gave it to walt stein hoping his friend, a world war ii veteran, would know how to return it to its rightful owner. mr. stein then set out on a quest. this was long before the internet, making it much harder, to return the purple heart to the stranger who had earned it who had received it decades earlier during the vietnam war. mr. stein said of the purple heart it means a lot to me. they don't pass them out in cracker jack boxes, you really have to earn it, and i know he earned his and i want to get it back to him. or if he is not around anymore, i want to get it back to his family. mr. stein and his wife sandy, mr. and mrs. stein, tried and tried. they wrote letters, made phone calls. they couldn't find the veteran. the veteran, he said, was named cox bartlemay. finally they realized there was a typo in the letter awarding the purple heart.

the print said cox. it was coy bartlemay. he was a vietnam veteran. he had lost half his leg during the war. he was awarded the purple heart that mr. stein's friend found buried in one of the booths at the flea market. tragically, mr. bartlemay was killed in a car crash after returning home from the war but his family still lives in illinois. because of mr. stein's dedication, that purple heart is now on its way back to the recipient's family, the family of the gentleman who fought for this country and earned that purple heart in vietnam. i want to thank rob powers with wews in cleveland for telling this story. it's the kind of work that local journalists do every day to -- to celebrate what people do in our communities. i want to thank mr. bartlemay's family for his service, and of course thank you to walt stein for your dedication to our country, for your service to our country, and to your fellow veterans.

mr. president, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. i'm sorry. we're good.

mr. mcconnell: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent that the injunction of secrecy be removed from the following treaty transmitted to the senate on april 29, 2019, by the president of the united states. protocol to the north atlantic treaty of 1949 on the accession of the republic of north macedonia. treaty document number 116-1. i further ask that the treaty be considered as having been read the first time that it be referred with accompanying papers to the committee on foreign relations, in order to be printed and that the president's message be printed in the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the consideration of calendar number 207, 208, 210 through 2 spanned all no -- 213, that the motions to reconsider be

considered made and laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate, that no further motions be in order, that any statements related to the nominations be printed in the the president be immediately notified of the senate's action and the senate then resume legislative session. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent that the senate be in a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i understand there are two bills at the desk due a second reading. the presiding officer: the clerk will read titles for the second time. the clerk: h.r. 1644, an act to restore the open order of the federal communications commission, h.r. 1957, an act to amend the internal revenue code of 1986 to modernize and improve the internal revenue service and for other purposes. mr. mcconnell:, in order to place the bills on the calendar under the provisions of rule 14, i would object to further proceedings en bloc. the presiding officer:

objection having been heard, the bills will be placed on the calendar. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the consideration of s. res. 172 submitted earlier today. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: senate resolution 172 it to authorize testimony in an administrative hearing for brian k. stanley before the mississippi division of medicaid. the presiding officer: there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection, the senate will proceed. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the consideration of s. res. 173 submitted earlier today. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: senate resolution 173, relative to the death of the honorable richard g. lugar, former united states senator for the state of indiana. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection, the senate will proceed.

mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: now, mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 10:00 a.m. tuesday, april 30. further, that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, morning business be closed, and the senate proceed to executive session and resume consideration of the william cooper nomination under the previous order. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: so if there is no further business to come before the senate, i ask that it stand journeyed under the previous order the provisions of s. res. 173 and do so as a further mark of respect for the late richard lugar, former senator for the state of indiana. the presiding officer: under the previous order, and pursuant to senate res. 173, the senate stands adjourned until

10:00 a.m. april 30 and does so as a further mark of respect to the late richard g. lugar, the late richard g. lugar, >> the senate gaveling out their working on the nomination of william cooper to be general counsel for the energy department. this week we expect they'll take up president trump's veto to end military involvement in yemen. follow live senate coverage on c-span 2. >> tonight on the communicators. a conversation on privacy and internet developments with california consumer privacy act co-author mary stone ross. and daniel whitesner from the mi t internet policy research initiative. >> the stakes are higher now because we're talking about it deploying automated decision- making capabilities. that is the ability for machines to either assist with decisions about people or in some cases

unilaterally make the decisions about people. >> i'm a lawyer i read so many different privacy policies and they're clearly not meant to in form a consumer about what information is collected and how that information is going to be used. we need to have meaningful consent so a consumer can make a decision about using a product or not. >> watch the communicators, tonight at 8:00 eastern on c-span 2. >> wednesday, at 10:00 a.m. eastern, attorney general william barr will testify before the senate judiciary committee on the mueller report. and on thursday, at 9:00 a.m. eastern he'll testify before the house judiciary committee. live on c-span 3. c-span.org, and listen on the free c-span radio app. >> now a discussion on the 2019 ukrainian presidential election results, they talk about the implications of ukraine's election on its