[inaudible conversations] >> it will be a moment or two before we get the comments from senators as they had to the chamber, the senate is in session. life coverage here on c-span2. . vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: are there any senators in the chamber wishing to change their vote or wishing to vote? if not, the yeas are 57, the nays are 37. the nomination is agreed to. is confirmed. under the previous order, the motion to reconsider can considered made and laid upon the table and the president will be immediately notified of the senate's action. the senator from missouri. mr. blunt: i ask unanimous consent that the remaining votes in this series -- i ask unanimous consent that the remaining votes in this series be ten minutes in length. the presiding officer: without

objection. mr. blunt: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from missouri. mr. blunt: i have two requests for committees to meet during today's session of the senate. they have the approval of the majority and minority leaders. the presiding officer: duly noted. the clerk will report 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 stephen akard of indiana to be director of the office of foreign missions with the rank of ambassador, 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 the debate on the nomination of stephen akard of indiana to be director of office of foreign missions with the rank of ambassador shall be brought to a close. the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. the clerk will call the roll.

vote:

vote:

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the presiding officer: any senators in the chamber wishing to vote or change their vote? seeing none, the ayes are 91. the nays are 3. the motion is agreed to. the clerk will report the nomination. the clerk: nomination, department of state. stephen akard of indiana to be the director of the office of foreign missions. the presiding officer: the clerk will report 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 move to bring to a close debate on the nomination of dale cabaniss of virginia to the office of personnel management. the presiding officer: by unanimous consent the mandatory quorum call has been waived. the question is, is it the sense of the senate that the debate on the nomination of dale cabaniss of virginia to be director of the office of personnel management shall be brought to a close. the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. the clerk will call the roll. vote:

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vote: the presiding officer: are there any members in the chamber wishing to vote or change their vote? seeing none, the yeas are 53, the nays are 41. the motion is agreed to. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the nomination. a senator: mr. president. the clerk: nomination, office of personnel management, to be director.

mr. isakson: thank you, madam president. madam president, you have a second to certify our growth and v.a. by nominating james byrne and approving his appointment. we have all worked hard to see the v.a. is responsive. we get good news in the papers, not bad news. we're helping our veterans get back to work. the v.a. is working. we've got some problems. we have a lot less than we used to have. a lot of that is because of james byrne. he has been working already, we need to make him permanent. please help us confirm james byrne. i yield to the senator from montana, senator tester. mr. tester: i thank you for your good work. jim byrne is the right man for the job. we passed the mission act that needs to be implemented. mr. byrne has ruffled feathers among some here. in the end, he will do the right thing and we can hold him accountable. i think it is critically important we get these folks confirmed so we can hold them accountable and get them in

front of our committee. i would urge you to give an aye vote on jim byrne. the presiding officer: the clerk will report 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 in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate do hereby move to bring to a close debate of james byrne of virginia to be deputy secretary of affairs, 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 james byrne of virginia to be deputy secretary of veterans' affairs shall be brought to a close. the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. the clerk will call the roll. vote:

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the presiding officer: is there any member in the chamber wishing to vote or change their vote? seeing none, the yeas are 81. the nays are 13. the motion is agreed to. the clerk will report the nomination. the clerk: nomination, department of veterans affairs,

james byrne of virginia to be deputy secretary. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from new jersey. mr. booker: thank you very much, madam president. i rise today to speak today on s. 1689 which passed last night. yesterday this body unanimously voted to pass my legislation that could give states greater flexibility in how they use federal funding for water projects. this bill is a tool to help communities in new jersey and other states remove lead from their drinking water. we have a national crisis. it is a crisis we're seeing all over the country. i first wrote this legislation after a study was released last year that found lead leaching into the drinking water of my

home city newark, new jersey. since then i've been trying to get our state, the federal resources it needs to upgrade our aging water infrastructure. after it was included in last year's end of the year spending bill, i introduced it as a -- excuse me. after it wasn't included in last year's end of the year spending bill, i introduced it as a stand alone bill and pushed its passage through the senate environment and public works committee with bipartisan support earlier this summer. while the bill has been waiting to pass here in the senate, the residents of my city, my neighbors, my family, others have had to deal with additional concerns of exposure to lead in our drinking water. local, state, and federal officials have been working almost literally around the clock to bring residents answers

they deserve, answers they demand. i've repeatedly pushed the federal government and the a.p.a. in particular to provide more resources to newark in every way i can. i've been making calls and letters, hosting meetings. when i spoke with the administrator wheeler and then personally met with the e.p.a. in newark, i reminded them of our shared responsibility in bringing safe, clean drinking water to residents. this is not just a national emergency. this is an urgency. we are -- we are waiting for more sampling results right now to better understand how to address the situation in newark as quickly as possible. this legislation will allow newark, new jersey, and all of new jersey to have access upwards of $100 million in

federal funds for pressing drinking water projects. for the last month, thousands of residents haven't been able to drink the city's water. as i was handing out bottled water myself to my neighbors, i heard how significantly this was affecting the daily routines of my neighbors and friends and undermining the well-being of my community of my city. but again i say this is a national urgency, a national emergency because the residents of my city are not alone. this crisis is affecting communities all over the country. in fact, as reuters reported, there are over 3,000 jurisdictions where children in america have more than twice the blood lead levels of flint, michigan. these results across our country demonstrate yet again how we have failed to adequately invest in our nation's aging

infrastructure. in a nation as wealthy as ours, clean drinking water should be a basic human right, and we must act to make that our reality. the majority of those impacted are low-income, economically vulnerable people. they are like the neighbors in my community. they cannot face this health crisis alone. the federal government must act. i'm so grateful for the success we've had to help newark and the bill we passed together last night, but clearly our work is not done, and i will not stop until every american has access to clean drinking water, clean water and clean air must be an american right. i want to thank my partner on this legislation, senator bob menendez. i also want to thank my senate

colleagues, especially leader schumer, ranking member carper, and the chairman of e.p.w., chairman barrasso. and i want to thanks others who are advocating this critical legislation and urge the house to take it up immediately, to not only help new jersey but communities nationwide. i'm happy that finally the legislation i wrote is now past this body and i'm grateful that it was done so with 100 senators in accord. we still have work to do, but this for me was an affirmation that now people in the state of new jersey will have the federal resources, more of the federal resources they need to address the crisis. i'm encouraged that this bill was able to be passed and that there is more hope on the horizon for my city and others like it in new jersey. thank you very much. madam president, i yield the

floor. and i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

mr. cassidy: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from louisiana. mr. cassidy: wither in quorum call. i ask that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cassidy: and i ask unanimous consent that my new press assistant, cole avery, be

allowed to come on the floor. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cassidy: madam president, i rise today to recognize the east bank little league team from river ridge, louisiana, for winning the 2019 little league world series. now, everybody is glad when kid dozen well, but you're particularly glad when they're your kids, and these are louisiana kids. it is the first time in history a louisiana team has won the little league tournament, and we are still celebrating. eagan, reese, jeffrey, gavin, conner, ryder, alton, stan, and the coaches -- you have made us proud of the and the real story may not be the championship itself but how they won t after losing their first game to

hawaii, the defending world champions, the louisiana team went on to outscore opponents 44-8. they averaged almost as many runs per game as their opponents scored in total during the streak, and that is amazing. one of those wins included fending off a comeback in a rehatch against hawaii for the american championship. and, by the way, i commend the hawaii team for their impressive season, which is after an impressive season last year. but this year it was the louisiana team's moment. after the hawaii victory, they then went on to shut out the caribbean team 8-0 to bring the world championship home to louisiana and to the united states. louisianans are known for resiliency, that inborne, never-give-up attitude is why these kids are champions. these young folks from river ridge face adversity.

they concur it. they demonstrated sportsmanship throughout the ups and downs. their wins should make all americans proud. they certainly make all louisianans proud. i yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

mr. whitehouse: mr. president. the presiding officer: the

senator from rhode island. mr. whitehouse: mr. president, i ask that any pending quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. whitehouse: may i ask unanimous consent to speak for up to 25 minutes as if in morning business? the presiding officer: without objection. mr. whitehouse: thank you, mr. president. i, as the presiding officer knows, have often spoken about how climate change is affecting rhode island. rising sea levels will remake my state's map. warming seas are shifting or traditional fisheries away from rhode island. a hotter climate creates public health risks for rhode islanders. the list goes on. in the senate, i've also tried to learn how climate change is affecting our states, and the presiding officer was courteous about joining me in louisiana when i made a trip to his state. i have been doing a fair amount of traveling. last month i visited wyoming to hear about climate change in the cowboy state. this was the 17th state i

visited on these climate trips. a little background on wyoming, it's big. a lot bigger than rhode island. it's almost 400 miles wide, by almost 300 miles north to south. and though it has some lovely lakes, wyoming ain't coastal. its lowest point is more than 3,000 feet above sea level, three times higher than rhode island's highest point, jerem egget hill. it's height point is almost 14,000 peak. wyomingites have a reputation for being skeptics about climate change but polling data shows even in wyoming 60% of people think that climate change is happening. 43% think that humans are driving it. 69% say they support regulating carbon dioxide as a pollutant. and 68% think their schools

should teach about global warming. my trip, again, in teton county, which i was repeatedly told is the liberal part of the state, teton county is home to jackson hole and grand teton national park as well as a large chunk of america's legend yeah yellowstone -- legendary yell yellowstone national park. from there i went to dubois and then around to lake of the woods, to the wind river indian reservation, pine dale and to jackson. in teton county i met with local elected officials from jackson from the teton county council and from the wyoming legislature. i learned that roughly two-thirds of wyoming's revenues

come from mineral extraction, mostly coal, oil and natural gas. with all this money pouring into its coffers, wyoming has no state income tax, sales tax of 4%, and one of the lowest effective property tax rates in the nation. indeed, i was told that wyomingites get around $9 in services for every $1 they pay in taxes. sweet deal, and fossil fuel picks up the rest of the tab. there are problems with this political economic power. first, it exposes wyoming heavily to boom-bust cycles. three coal companies have gone bankrupt just this year. and it exposes wyoming to the devastating bust coming, if as predicted, fossil fuel assets

crash. almost all of wyoming's eggs are in one fossil fuel basket. moreover, a political economic model based on fossil fuel harms wyoming's other economic driver, outdoor recreation, skiing, snowboarding, river rafting, backpacking, fly fishing. wyoming has abundant outdoor recreation. during my trip, i heard how lucky i was to enjoy clear and smokeless skies in august, that this august was like august of times gone by. the new normal across the west is hotter, drier summers driven by climate change, and that makes massive forest fires, filling skies with smoke for weeks and months on end. we enjoyed clear skies. in addition to the threat to

life and property, wildfires harm wyoming's tourism and outdoor recreation economies. obviously fewer people visit when iconic landscapes are obscured or when places they want to explore are at risk of fire. a representative from the fremont county lodging tax board told me that fires can shut down roads to the national parks and forests, cutting the hotels and motels off from the attractions that draw people there. at the jackson hole mountain resort, i sat down with over a dozen business leaders from the outdoor recreation industry who told me that outdoor recreation generates $5.6 billion in wyoming. and supports 50,000 jobs, actually more jobs than the fossil fuel industry. for this winter sports business, climate change is an existential threat, shortening ski seasons, worsening snow

cover, and affecting these beautiful landscapes. for this industry, this problem is deadly serious, and the industry is struggling to learn how to get the political attention that the fossil fuel industry enjoys. in lander, i met with leaders from the renowned national outdoor leadership school, noles. it draws people from around the world to learn about the outdoors, develop leadership skills, and study mountaineering and outdoor survival. it's the largest nongovernment employer in fremont county. the president of noles told me, i quote, without question, the number-one risk the school faces is climate change. for instance, the risk of wildfire is up dramatically, and along with it property insurance rates. climate change has disrupted noles' schedule at its outdoor

campuses around the world as wildfires and melting glaciers and permafrost and upended stream flows make it difficult, impossible, or dangerous to access these course sites. for people who love these places, this hurts the heart as much as it hurts the pocketbook. in jackson, i met winter sports athletes from the group protect our winters. these are amazing athletes who spoke about their passion for snow sports and magnificent mountain landscapes. they also spoke of climate change threatening the future of the sports that they love. i listened to lindsey dyer deliver a wonderful presentation to a packed house in jackson about how climate change is altering alpine environments. she is summoning the same inner strength that allows her to ski death-defying drops. and i tell you, look at the film of some of what she skis off of. it will stun you.

she's using that inner strength to build national support for climate action. in pinedale, i heard how climate change threatens cold water fisheries. the tributaries are some of the most storied trout streams in the world. i spent an afternoon with a fly fishing guide and a representative from wyoming trout unlimited. they told me ed how higher temperatures and lower water flows both caused by climate change harm wyoming's iconic trout, which need cold water with plenty of oxygen. i also visited local scientists who study climate change, dr. michael trseck and dr. andy ray gave me a tour of yellowstone national park to show me how climate changes is already change the park's

ecosystem. dr. terseck has worked in yellowstone for over two decades. dr. ray's specialty sam fibbians which may not be as iconic as the bison but are on the front lines of climate change. the scientists told me that just over the last 70 years the average annual temperature in the greater yellowstone area has risen by two degrees fahrenheit. in parts of the region, there are now 60 fewer days a year with below freezing temperatures than there were just 30 years ago. summers are drier, and in winter there is less snowpack, meaning less snow melt and less water in the spring and early summer. you can already see changes in the park. take cheatgrass. it is an invasive species whose roots don't hold the soil as

well as the native sage brush. as temperatures warm, cheat grass spreads to higher and higher elevations, supplanting the sage brush. the result is this, these large gullies carved in hillsides as rain as snow melt wash away the soil. or consider dr. ray's amphibians. we visited several small ponds that d.o.t. the yellow stone landscape. as precipitation declines, water levels fall, reducing habitat for these amphibians and making them more vulnerable to predators. in this photo, you can see a line here along the edge of this pond. most of the rocks here are gray. they're gray because they're covered by lichen that turns them that color. but if you look just above these graces, you see rocks that are nearly pink in color.

these are rocks that were submerged until recently, in which the lick en hasn't been had to colonize. the water has fallen rapidly at this the pond. we climbed up into some dead forests to look at what bark beetles are doing to the rocky mountain's conifers. here's a photo i took of a branch from a tree killed by branch beetles. the beetles bore through the bark and then the larvae eat the thin cam bean layer between the bark and wood of the tree trunk. this ultimately girlfriends and -- this ultimately girdles and kills the tree bark. you can see the marks left. this "j" shipped mark you see here is particularly characteristic of bark beetles. this chart shows how beetle kill, spread through forests

once winter temperatures began warming. you see these temperature climbs here from 1980 forward and you see a matching climb in beetle-killed trees in colorado and wyoming. hotter, drier summers also stress the trees, making them more vulnerable infestation and once they're dead, they become wildfire tinder. bark beetles might seem like an esoteric little creature until you see the damage that they have done throughout the mountain west. everywhere there is red is kill by bark beetles. bark beetles have killed enough acres of western forest to cover the entire state of wyoming and

then some. so, as you can see, a lot of this kill is in wyoming. on the road from yellowstone to dubois, you pass between the ab some of the rca and wind river area. dead trees as far as the eye can see killed by beetle infestation. on the wind river indian reservation, i i met a man named jim poge. they call these dog hair forests. sheer a landscape dramatically altered by climate change. this forest died in less than a decade. before i met dr. terseck, i read an article in i with he was quoted as saying, by the time my daughter san old woman, the climate will be as different for her as the last ice age seems to

us. i didn't fully grasp what he meant until i met another scientist studying climate change in wyoming, the university of wyoming's brian schuman. he took me up to one of his research sites, the lack of the woods, high in the foothills of the wind river range. at this lake and others, dr. schuman extracts sediment cores and conducts radar scans of the lake bottom and then reconstructs the climate of the region 10,000 years back to the last ice age. during the last ice age, global average temperatures were 3.5 degrees colder than our preindustrial average. 30.5 degrees colder -- 3.5 degrees colder resulted in a radically different landscape in wyoming, massive glaciers spread

across the wind river range. on this matter, you can see just how much territory these vast glaciers covered. that's ten kilometers. that's essentially the whole wind river range. so 3.5 degrees change in temperature created a huge effect. i say that because the earth is predicted to warm at least 3.5 degrees by the end of the century if we don't cut carbon emissions. so think about it for a minute. in a little bit more nan 100 years -- than 100 years, the ten on earth will have changed as much as it did in the 10,000 years from the end of the last ice age. from 10,000 years ago to the end of the industrial age -- to the beginning of the industrial age, 3.5 degrees. in the following 100 years,

we're expecting another 3.5 degrees. it's like instead of climate change driving forward at one mile an hour, it started driving forward, thanks to fossil fuel emissions, at 100 miles an hour. this shows how dishonest that smug statement that the climate is always changing is. heh ... not like this it's not. when you know that 3.5 degrees celsius is the difference between being covered in ice and having the forest and sage brush step ecosystems there now, you can see that another 3.5 degrees of warming will cause massive changes. dr. terseck was not exaggerating. when his daughter is an old woman at the end of the century, the climate will have changed, as much as it changed since the

last ice age. and our climate then will seem as foreign to her as the ice age seems to us. there are still glaciers -- some -- in the wind river range. they are tiny compared to the ice age glaciers that once dominated western wyoming. but they are the largest glaciers in the american rocky mountains. for the last summers, a team from central wyoming college has studied these glaciers. their work is featured in an emmy-winning documentary produced by pbs wyoming called "glaciers of the winds." it's actually available on youtube, and i highly recommend it. "glaciers of the winds." i visited around their campfire the night before the central wyoming college team set off on a 20-plus-mile expedition up to

the base of din wood did i glacier. the students are measuring the size of the glaciers to determine how quickly they're melting. they're analyze water quality, and they'll search for archaeological artifacts to better understand how native people's lived up in this alpine environment. the archeology team told me based on inearthed, they believe that early native peoples worshiped the glaciers. a spiritual reverence for glaciers began to make it a little more sense to me when i visited the wind river indian reservation. the land to the east of the reservation is deathly arid. agriculture depends on irrigation, and irrigation depends on glaciers. leaders of the eastern shoshone and arapaho tribal councils said that after the winter snowmelts

away, irrigation depends entirely on the glaciers which hold water back as ice and release it through the long summer as meltwater -- key after annual snows have melted away. they told me, once the glaciers are gone, our main resource for life will be gone. i won't pretend i met no climate skeptics in wyoming. an innkeeper at a motel told me it was a god damn hoax and sure wasn't happening in i would i would -- those are quote. many of the student scientists at central wyoming college recounted difficulty explaining their interest in climate change to family and friends. they called it having the conversation. i also met with an employee at the jim bridger coal-fired power

plant. she made a strong case that climate solutions must protect workers. i couldn't agree more. wyoming has lost three coal companies to bankruptcy just this year. one of the great lies of the rotten, crooked, climate denial operation is that reducing carbon emissions is bad for the economy and bad for jobs. when in fact the opposite is true. another great lie is that the industry cares much about its workers. carbon pricing would give an economic reason for carbon removal, which in turn could help some plants operate a little longer and ease the workers' transition. but, no, like we saw when coal companies looted miners' pensions, took control of the

c.e.o.'s and ducked into bankruptcy, the climate deny alpage path is a dead end for workers. in spite of some wyomingite concept six, my trip underscored how attitudes are changing, even in the reddest parts of the country. over and over again, wyomingites told me that they cherish the stunning landscapes around them. they live in wyoming to be able to hunt and fish and explore these amazing places. as climate change bears down on wyoming's wild places, even current skeptics will come to accept that we must fight climate change to protect things they love. the younger generation already gets it. i won't forget the fire-lit passionate faces of the central wyoming college students. nor the determination and drive of lindsey dire and the winter

sports athletes. nor a young instructor at nols who gave an impassioned argument for climate action. with powerful and knowledgeable voices like these speaking, with an economy so vulnerable and no plan "b" and with such risk to wyoming's natural wonders, i'm hopeful that voters in wyoming and across the country will start to send a clear message -- we must take action to reduce carbon emissions and soon. it's the smart, prudent, and economically best course. and to ask people who they elect , listen ... let's do this. if you won't lead, at least get out of the way. help us protect what we love

while there is still time. mr. president, i thank you, and i yield the floor. i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk should call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

quorum call: quorum call:

quorum call:

quorum call:

mr. sullivan: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from louisiana. mr. sullivan: -- mr. cassidy: i ask that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cassidy: i ask unanimous consent that notwithstanding rule 22, the postcloture time on the akard, can business, and byrne nominations expire on wednesday, september 11. if the nominations are confirmed, the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid on the table, and the president be immediately notified of the senate's action. i further ask that notwithstanding rule 22, following disposition of the byrne nomination, the senate resume consideration of the bowman nomination, and that at 2:45, the senate vote on the cloture motions for the bowman, and nordquist nominations. finally, i ask that following the cloture vote on the nordquist nomination, the senate vote on the haines, brown, seeger, mcelroy, and gallagher nominations, as under the previous order. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cassidy: i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to legislative session and be in a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes. the presiding officer: without

objection. mr. cassidy: i ask unanimous consent that the commerce committee be discharged from further consideration of s. 1881, and the senate proceed to its immediate consideration. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. 1881, a bill to provide precheck to certain severely injured or disabled veterans, and for other purposes. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection, the committee is discharged. and the senate will proceed. mr. cassidy: i ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cassidy: i ask unanimous consent the commerce committee be discharged from further consideration of s. 2035 and the senate proceed to its immediate consideration. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. 2035, a bill to require the transportation security administration to

develop a strategic plan to expand eligibility for the precheck program, and so forth. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection, the committee is discharged. and the senate will proceed to the measure. mr. cassidy: i further ask that the bill be read a third time and passed 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. cassidy: i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 9:30 a.m. wednesday, september 11. further, that following the prayer and pledge, the morning business be deemed expired and 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 that the senate proceed to executive session and resume consideration of the akard nomination under the previous order. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cassidy: if there is no further business to come before the senate, i ask that it stand

adjourned under the previous order. the presiding officer: the senate stands adjourned