former georgia house minority leader stacy abrams. president donald trump and supreme court associate justice sonia sotomayor. our commencement coverage starts memorial day 8 p.m. eastern. watch anytime at c-span.org and listen on the free c-span radio app. >> the complete guide to congress is now available. it has lots of details about the house and senate for the current session of congress. contact and bio information about every senator and representative. plus, information about congressional committees. state governors, and the cabinet. the 2019 congressional directory is a handy, spiral-bound guide. order your copy from the c-span on-line store for 18.95. >> the u.s. senate is about to gavel in. they continue work today on several judicial nominations with confirmation votes later

this afternoon. also on the agenda this week, if undergo for disaster relief package for victims of floods, wildfires, tornados and hurricanes. lawmakers are trying to finish that before the memorial day break. now to live coverage of the senate here on c-span2. the presiding officer: the senate will come to order. the chaplain will lead the senate in prayer. the chaplain: let us pray. our father in heaven, supply the needs of our senators. meet them with new insights for the good of our nation and world. lord, provide them with fresh strength so they won't become weary in doing what is right.

give them the long view of their work. inspire them with the vibrant belief that it is better to fail in a cause that will ultimately succeed than to succeed in a cause that will ultimately fail. strengthen them this day with the positive assurance of your eternal presence. we pray in your loving name. amen. the presiding officer: 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 clerk will read a communication to the senate. the clerk: washington d.c, may 22 , 2019. to the senate: under the provisions of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable marsha blackburn, a senator from the state of tennessee, to perform the duties of the chair. signed: chuck grassley, president pro tempore.

mr. mcconnell: madam president. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: on monday i introduced legislation to raise the national minimum wage for purchasing tobacco products from 18 to 21. i walked through the long history of our nation's complicated relationship with this major cash crop. i laid outer the challenges -- i laid out the cheabltion facing tobacco products in kentucky and other states and new opportunities some of them are actually turning to, and i explained why, as we see signs of a new public health crisis of

nicotine addiction in the younger generation, now is the time to take decisive new action. together with senator tim kaine, who represents another state with a very long history of tobacco production, i was proud to introduce a bill that builds on the existing structure that is already in place and simply raises the minimum wage to 21. rather than reinvent the wheel here in washington, it would set one national standard for enforcing new age 21 restrictions. it's a bill designed with states in mind and it would allow states to take measures even more restrictive than federal law if they choose. senator kaine and i have been grateful to see already, even in just the past few days, substantial support and recognition from public health advocates that our approach is the right way to address this pressing issue. already our legislation has earned the support of leading voices like the american cancer

society, the american academy of pediatrics, and the american college of cardiology. the american heart association, the american lung association, and the american osteopathic association, the national association of secondary school principals, the foundation for a healthy kentucky, the kentucky hospital and medical associations, and many others. here are just a few things these supporters of our bill had to say. one advocate called it a, quote, critical step forward that will profoundly improve the health of our children and future generations. another stated our legislation, quote, will be instrumental in stemming the epidemic of vaping that is affecting children as young as middle school. yet another said our bill could potentially, quote, save hundreds of thousands of lives. so, madam president, this should be an area where we all lock arms to get results.

i'm proud this body will have a chance to take action and stem the tide of addiction among our nation's youth. i'm proud to be standing with senator kaine. i hope each of our colleagues will recognize the opportunity before us, avoid making this important issue any kind of partisan football, and join in supporting the tobacco-free youth act. since president trump took office in 2017, the senate has confirmed 41 well-qualified individuals to serve on our nation's circuit courts. number 41 was daniel p. collins of california and we confirmed yesterday to the ninth circuit court of appeals. as i've noted earlier, mr. collins came before the senate with every conceivable indicator of a brilliant legal mind and an impeccable professional record. i was proud that the full senate followed up the judiciary committee's favorable report with a majority vote here on the floor.

but our work this week is just beginning. yesterday the senate also advanced four more nominees, these to serve on district courts across the country. today we'll vote to confirm all four. the first, howard nielson, has been nominated for the district of utah. as i mentioned yesterday, mr. neilson has clerked for both the fourth circuit and supreme court and assembled an impressive record at the department of justice and in the private sector. next will come the nomination of stephen clark for the eastern district of missouri. mr. clark is an accomplished litigator with nearly three decades of experience in practice. the third nominee is carl nichols, the president's choice to serve as district judge for the district of columbia. he you will start to detect a pattern because he too is a thoroughly impressive nominee. clerkships for the d.c. circuit, for the supreme court, for justice thomas, service at the department of

justice and excellence in private practice. finally kenneth bell nominated to serve in north carolina. mr. bell has under his belt nearly two decades of service in the office of the u.s. attorney, distinguished national honors for his accomplishments as a prosecutor, as well as extensive experience in the private sector. so, madam president, if i'm sounding like a broken record, it's because the white house continues to submit one extremely well-qualified and highly impressive nominee after another to sit on the federal bench. these are men and women who are bright, talented, well-regarded and committed to applying what the text of our laws and our constitution actually say. today we can take four more steps in that positive direction. these nominees deserve big bipartisan votes, so i hope each of my colleagues will join me in voting to confirm each of them. now one final matter, several of our senate colleagues and their counterparts in the house are continuing to zero in on

long overdue legislation to deliver additional help to americans all across the nation who are struggling to rebuild from natural disasters. this ought to have been a fairly straightforward process. we shouldn't need to explain why the need for this relief is urgent. but just for good measure, madam president, let's remember the americans who are counting on us. in california, last year's string of wildfires included the deadliest and most destructive fire on record. it killed 85 people and burned more than 150,000 acres. in the midwest earlier this year storm surges flooded whole swaths of states and racked up billions of dollars in damages. as one expert recently put it, we have points in iowa and illinois that have been in flood stage for over 30 days. 30 days, which hasn't occurred since we started keeping

records. some of them go back 150 years. across the southeast and gulf coast, recent hurricane seasons have left lasting scars. hurricane michael, which swept across florida into south georgia last october, has itself produced nearly 150,000 insurance claims in florida alone. in alabama, more tornadoes have already been recorded in 2019 than in all of last year. one that touched down in lee county on march 3 left 23 people dead. and nearly two years after hurricane maria tore across puerto rico, too many storefronts are still shuttered, too many homes lack roofs and power remains too unreliable. and the list goes on. so, madam president, this is hardly the first time facts like these have been laid out here on the floor. in fact, this legislation has already taken far too long, far

too long to deliver. but now that we're in the home stretch, it is past time to put partisan politics aside, move past any tangential questions, and secure a final agreement that can become law. that is something that can both pass the democratic house and earn the president's signature soon. that's how to make a law in this situation. the senate will vote on disaster relief this week. members of this body will not return home for memorial day without taking further action to help these struggling communities which, by the way, include a number of military installations that need assistance to recover and to rebuild. it is my sincere hope that we will be able to vote on a negotiated bipartisan, bicameral solution. that is how we can get an outcome. that is what affected americans

deserve. i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

the presiding officer: the democratic leader. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the quorum be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: well, thank you, madam president. now, it's been a frightening two weeks for tens of millions of americans who support a woman's freedom to make her own health care choices. actually, if you believe the polls, there are hundreds of millions of americans in that category. republican legislatures across the country have passed some of the most extreme restrictions on a woman's right to choose. with breathtaking speed, they are trying to take us backward, but they have already provoked a fierce reaction among the american people. just yesterday, i stood with hundreds before the supreme court to speak on behalf of americans everywhere who believe that women don't deserve to be treated this way by their government. meanwhile, here in the senate, the republican leader is once again stalling -- that seems to be his m.o. -- on a bill to improvise legal protections to improve, rather, legal

protections for women who are victims of domestic abuse, assault, and stalking. this is, quote, vawa, the violence against women act. vawa has been a landmark piece of legislation, and it has greatly reduced the abuse of women. well, there was an improved and expanded vawa that was passed by the house of representatives on a bipartisan basis that got significant republican votes. it brings much-needed updates to existing federal law. it finally expands protections to women who are victims of violence from domestic partners or former partners, not just current or former spouses. it also says that if you're known to stalk your partner or have a restraining order against you, you shouldn't be allowed to purchase a gun. and thanks to the work of some of my colleagues in both chambers, it also brings renewed attention to violence against native american women who are so often overlooked. i want to thank senators smith and klobuchar and cantwell for

bringing attention to this bill later today. unfortunately, leader mcconnell has indicated he won't bring the house-passed vawa bill to the floor, despite these many commonsense reforms. why not? i hope it's not because the gun lobby reflexively opposes any restrictions on gun purchases, even convicted stalkers. i hope that's not the impediment here, because as senator klobuchar has pointed out, if you're abused by your husband, then you're protected by vawa. if you're abused by a boyfriend, you're not. what's the difference? what is the difference? vawa is yet another example of how leader mcconnell has turned this chamber into a legislative graveyard. even the most commonsense bills with broad support from one end of america to the other that are passed by the house, here a bill protecting women from violence, meet the grim fate at the hands

of the senate's proclaimed -- self-proclaimed grim reaper. what a shame. the violence against women act is precisely the kind of legislation the american people expect the senate to consider. and during a few deduction -- during a difficult few weeks for women across america, the senate could have sent a strong, positive signal on moving forward on the violence against women act. instead, leader mcconnell carved out another tombstone for his legislative graveyard, another popular bipartisan bill buried with no action by the senate, tied by the leader in partisan gridlock. climate. earlier this month, the report from hawaii's monaloa observatory found carbon dioxide levels in our atmosphere have now reached the highest level in human history. in human history. it was a chilling reminder that the threat from climate change is real, immediate, and existential.

almost everyone accepts this science and the gravity it portends. the only group of folks that still seem skeptical of climate science are republicans and the trump administration. yesterday "the new york times" reported that the trump pathway to citizenship is planning to rewrite the established benchmarks for unsafe levels of air pollution. you heard that right. they are planning to use dubious math to obscure the real and long-known health risks of air pollution. these new formulations would result in fewer predicted deaths than what the experts have long agreed to. people will still die, the numbers will just be wrong about the effect. why, might you ask, would anyone want to obscure the full health risks of air pollution? because then the trump administration could use the fake math to justify further rollbacks in clean air rules at a time when global warming is increasing, when americans know the danger. this trump administration and our republican majority in the senate, are rolling the clock back. more carbon, more coal, more

oil, more gas, and we need less. we all know that. what kind of orwellian nonsense is this? the environmental protection agency making it easier to pollute the environment. it's a textbook definition of distopia. as my colleague, senator whitehouse, so often points out, dark money lurks behind so much of what the trump administration does. big oil, big gas, big polluters everywhere are the only possible boosters of this decision. it's their money fund to political organizations and politicians without a trace of disclosure that motivates folks in the trump administration to make it easier to release more pollution into the air. so we should be using the senate to debate climate policies in search of common ground, but leader mcconnell has decided to bring forward his version of the green new deal just so his party could vote against it. so we know what leader mcconnell and the republicans are against.

what are they for to deal with climate change? so far, nada, zero, nothing. they haven't put a single thing on the floor. the american people see the effects of climate changes in their lives. they know congress must act. only the republican majority stands in the way. i yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

mr. thune: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from south dakota. mr. thune: mr. president, is the

senate in a quorum call? the presiding officer: yes. mr. thune: i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. morning business is closed. under the previous order, the senate will proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the following nomination, which the clerk will report. the clerk: nomination, the judiciary, howard c. neil sen jr., of utah, to be united states district judge for the district of utah. mr. thune: mr. president, monday is memorial day. it's the day that our country pauses to honor those who laid down their lives for our country. we enjoy tremendous freedoms as americans. tremendous privileges. we do not enjoy these privileges

by chance. they are hard-fought gains secured for us again and again by each new generation of american soldiers who laid down their lives in the cause of the free. it's important that we do not take what they have secured for us lightly. that we remember that our freedoms have been paid for in blood. mr. president, near the end of the film "saving private ryan" the dying captain miller tells of the sacrifice made on his behalf. he says, -- he says in quotes, earn it. earn this. end quote. i'm not sure we can ever fully earn the gift ever given to us by those who laid down their lives in our defense, but we can attempt to live lives worthy of their sacrifice and to defend the cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion. mr. president, when we remember the fallen on memorial day there is one other group we should remember, and that's their families. our nation's gold star families may not have laid down their own

lives for our country, but they gave their loved ones, their fathers, brothers, daughters, and sisters, for the sake of our freedoms, they live with empty freedoms at their birthdays, thanksgiving, at weddings and dinners and little league practices. we owe them a debt that we can never repay. mr. president, i've been privileged to visit more than one veteran cemetery. our own black hills national cemetery in south dakota, we which recently expanded to ensure that our soldiers will have a resting place for generations to come, arlington national cemetery, the american cemetery at normandy. there is a special hallowedness to the ground of these places. valor and sacrifice still linger in the air and a deep peace abounds, the peace of the warrior who has fought the good

fight and found rest from his labors. mr. president, general george s. patton said, and i quote, it is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. rather we should thank god that such men lived. end quote. while i might disagree with general patton on the first part, it is right and proper that we should mourn our dead, but with general patton, i say let us thank god that such men and women lived. may the memory of our honored dead be eternal. mr. president, i yield the floor. i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call: .

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